Winter Storm Remus: Checklist of preparations (and why it matters)

For those in the South and the Southeast, today (or tonight ) is a time when we should be prepared for a potential power outage, according to the weather reports that emphasize the potential for heavy snow, downed tree limbs and more. With heavy snow, it may take a few days for stores to be accessible and resupplied with goods. Good leaders, whether of a business, a department, or a family, think ahead and do a risk assessment.  Are you prepared adequately for this severe storm? Do you have flashlights, and extra batteries of the right size? Have you checked the flashlights recently to make sure they still work? Do you have sufficient water on hand? Electricity is needed to power the water pumps. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends 1 gallon per person per day. Many people recommend filling up buckets with water in advance of the storm to flush toilets. Is your laundry done ahead of time? Are your faucets dripping, so they don't freeze and burst? Are the under-sink cabinets also open (and any harmful chemicals that are normally stored there  put up high if there are children or pets)? Opening the cabinets warms the pipes. Do you have a way to stay warm if the power goes out? Do you have food prepared, extra canned goods and foods that do not need refrigeration (such as peanut butter, bread, fruit, cereal, and milk in aseptic containers), and a mechanical can opener available? Do you have a safe way to heat food inside, or if necessary, outside, if there is a power failure? Do you have a carbon monoxide alarm and does it work, in case you are attempting to use a dangerous way to stay warm inside a dwelling, and are not aware it is dangerous? Are your electronics, such as your computer, tablet and cell phone, charged up before the storm? Do you have a way to charge them if the power goes out? If you use electrical medical equipment such as a CPAP machine or other device, how do you plan to keep it working during a power outage? If you take medication, do you have sufficient on hand for the length of the storm and a few days' afterwards? If it needs to be kept cold, such as insulin, how will you do that? How will you get communications about the storm during the storm and afterwards? Do you have a battery-operated or crank-powered NOAA (weather) radio, and extra batteries if it is a battery-operated radio? If it is solar-powered, is it charged fully before the storm starts? If you have babies, do you have sufficient diapers and formula on hand for the length of the storm plus several more days? If you have pets, do you have enough pet food and pet supplies such as cat litter or pee pads on hand for the length of the storm and several more  days? If you have a car, is the gas tank full? Is there a car emergency kit in the trunk, with such items as extra water, emergency foods, blankets, extra hats, gloves and dry socks (as extremities freeze first)? Do you have a snow shovel and rock salt, if you may be responsible for clearing a path outside your home? Many Southerners do not normally have snow shovels, but they may make a big difference with the expected amount of snow. If you have renter's insurance, homeowner's insurance and/or car insurance, do you have your policy numbers and contact information written down on paper (in case electronics don't work), in case you need to contact these insurance companies because of damage?  Details on more preparations for an emergency kit can be found at www.ready.gov/kit  . Why do all this planning? Think what the implications could be for you or your family if you are not prepared! Great leaders  not only plan ahead, they also learn to communicate well. Business Speech Improvement offers Executive Communication Techniques, a concise e-book of 18 vital communication skills today's leaders need. Think like a leader; get this book now to know how to communicate better tomorrow. (Yes, you can read it with a flashlight if necessary!)

Make your meetings more effective!

When you lead a meeting, there are several ways to judge its value. Are new ideas generated and discussed? Is important information shared with everyone in attendance? Are people networking?

However, does everyone who attends need to be present? (Are there "chair-warmers" there, whose bodies are in the chair but whose minds are on vacation?)  Could the meeting information  be shared in some other format that might be less costly? The cost includes the other work that is not being done so attendees can be at the meeting. It also can be calculated by multiplying the average hourly pay times the number of attendees times the length of the meeting. There are indeed apps for iPhone (http://rockapproll.com/app/Meeting-Cost-Clock)  and for Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id...meetingcostcalculator...) that can calculate this for you. Of course, transportation, catering and meeting room costs are also additional expenses to holding a meeting. You may be shocked when you find out how expensive meetings are!

To make a meeting more effective, beyond having an agenda and minutes, figure out strategies to reduce multi-tasking by attendees who are using their tablets and other devices to work on other assignments. They may be paying minimal attention to the speaker or meeting leader. Instead, ask that only attendees come who can give full attention to the matter being discussed; there should be a mechanism for those who are meeting immediate deadlines to miss a certain number of sessions per year, with a requirement that they read the minutes of what transpired.

It helps to state the length of time the meeting will last, and to start and stop on time. This builds trust in the leader or facilitator.

Get people up and moving, or discussing ideas, every 20 - 30 minutes. If there will be a change in procedures or a merger, have people come up with implications for all parties involved or develop a time-line so they can accept change more easily. Offer refreshments on a table to the side of the room, so people have to walk at least a little bit.

One technique for getting people more involved in a meeting is to give each person some index cards. Present a topic for discussion, such as a proposed merger or new category of customer. Each person writes one implication, question or related idea per index card, and shares them with a coworker sitting next to him. That person attempts to answer the questions or comment on the ideas. The two then discuss both peoples' cards. This can take 10 minutes and is an efficient way to get people involved. Later, any new ideas can be shared with the entire group, or with the leader if more appropriate.

Get more ideas on meetings and 17 other crucial communication skills for leaders in Executive Communication Techniques (http://www.businessspeechimprovement.com/exec-techniques) an e-book that you'll wish your supervisor had read! Individual coaching is also available by Business Speech Improvement.

3 Easy Tips for Giving a Polished Presentation

You're giving a business presentation, a speech to your colleagues in your field, or maybe a speech to a civic organization. What can you do to make it better?

As a speech coach, I see many people make similar errors. Here are three tips to make your next presentation better.

First, practice the key words of your presentation much more than you think is necessary. Key words are the main points, "linked" to each other in your mind. If you link them powerfully, when you think of the first word, you will be then able to think of all the other linked concepts. Do not memorize the entire speech word-for-word; if you forget a single word, you may forget the entire speech!

Second, you have only 30 seconds to get the audience to decide to pay attention to you. Make sure every word in those first 30 seconds is important! Let the audience know why it is worthwhile for them to listen to you. 

Third, if a member of the audience asks you a question, repeat it into the microphone before answering it. This allows your entire audience to hear the question and gives you time to think about the question. 

You only have one chance to make a great first impression on your audience!

Business Speech Improvement can help you with speech coaching,  in-person or, in many cases, online. An e-book, Public Speaking: You Can Do It, is also available.

Be prepared for your next presentation; get speech coaching today!

Multi-tasking and the Non-verbal Message

The supervisor typed busily away on his computer, while his employee, who had an appointment with him,waited uneasily for him to look up. "Go ahead, I'm multi-tasking," encouraged the supervisor. The employee thought, "I even made an appointment with him, but he doesn't care  enough to give me his full attention."

Have you ever been in a situation like this? How did you feel when someone did not look at you and give you his full attention?

Many research studies have shown that multi-tasking is an ineffective way to accomplish your work. One study at Stanford by Clifford Nass shows that you may be 40% less effective when you multi-task. That does not even count the impact on others when you multi-task instead of giving them your full attention.

One leadership project had corporate leaders deliberately give others their full attention during meetings. They reported people were impressed enough to mention this to their peers.

Great speech makes business sense. Learn  18 crucial communication skills leaders need to be effective in their organizations, from the e-book, Executive Communication Strategies!

This is the e-book you'll wish your boss had read. Get it today!

Winter Storm Coming and Your Risk Assessment

Winter Storms Neptune and Octavia are on their way! Are you prepared?

1. Now is the time to plan ahead for future business-oriented weather-related potential risks.  Depending on your business and location(s), who will make the crucial decision to close (if that is an option for your work-site)? If you close, what processes will be affected? Is there a way to transfer those responsibilities to someone else to handle remotely - and do they have the right equipment to do so, at an appropriate level of security? 

Who will respond to phone calls and e-mails, handle expected deliveries or products to be shipped out? Whose job will it be to notify patients, clients, students, customers, vendors or others that you are closing?

If your plan is to shelter in place, who will make that decision and how much advance notice will employees have?

Will those employees who have children in schools, elders in daycare or other responsibilities such as pets have an option to take the day off?

2. Be prepared at home for a winter storm. Information at www.ready.gov can help prevent frozen water pipes and much more.  If power lines come down, do you have alternate sources of light, such as extra D-batteries and flashlights that use them (as they last longer than smaller batteries and generate more light)? Do you have a way to cook and a manual can opener? How do you plan to stay warm if you have a home with electric heat? Do you have extra bottled water?  Do you have extra diapers, medicine and other supplies if you can't get to a store due to icy roads? If you use a C-pap machine or other electrical equipment for medical purposes, do you have a home generator or a battery-powered option for the machine? If you have medicine that needs to be refrigerated at a constant temperature, how will you manage that if your electricity goes out?

Do you have renter's or homeowner's insurance? If so, have you read the policy and know what it covers? For example, if a tree falls, does it cover some or all of the cost of having it removed? What about if it damages your home or vehicle? Are the contents of your refrigerator and freezer covered if there is no electricity and the food spoils?  If you have to stay in a hotel because of home damage, is that covered in your policy?  Do you have the telephone number and policy number to call the insurance company if you need to file a claim for renters', homeowners' or auto insurance? If you have this information, is it written down on paper in case your electronics do not work? (If you don't have renter's insurance and you rent,  do consider getting this insurance as soon as possible, definitely before the next storm. It can be inexpensive to get, and can be a lifeline if you have a disaster in your apartment or rented home.)

3. Lastly, how well is your vehicle equipped for being on the road in bad weather, even if your commute is usually a short one? Do you have an emergency kit consisting of blankets, extra hats, gloves and warm socks (because cold affects extremities first),  a flashlight with extra batteries,  an orange emergency triangle, emergency foods, water,  jumper cables and more? (There are lists of what to include at http://www.dmv.org/how-to-guides/emergency-kit.php.) If you have babies or young children, do you have necessary supplies such as extra diapers and toys in the car for them?  Do you fill up your gas tank when the weather starts looking ominous, and make sure your cell phone is fully charged?  You can't control the weather, so think ahead about what you could need and put it in a vehicle emergency kit today!Be prepared for the these severe storms; plan now!

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive training in communication for business. Our e-book, Executive Communication Strategies, offers valuable tips in 18 communication skills for leadership. Get the e-book today!

Decision-making: A vs B - What if There's a C?

                         

A favorite technique of people who want you to make a decision is to offer you two choices, A or B.

Professionals in many fields use this method. Do you want to meet on Monday or Wednesday at 2 PM?

Do you want to try treatment X or Y? Do you want to study your spelling or your history first?

Think beyond the box, though. Consider if there is a third option that for some reason the person is not mentioning.  For example, in the case of a medical treatment, is there a third process such as physical therapy that might be an equally effective option for a given problem?  Is there some reason the person is only offering you two choices and has not mentioned a third one, such as a business person having a financial interest in the two options discussed?

This critical listening question is similar to the 10 that are discussed on page 16 of the tip-filled Executive Communication  Strategies, the e-book you'll wish your boss had read! Learn techniques ranging from appreciation to critical thinking and persuasion, 18 different subjects in all. Find out more here!

What is the job of a leader?

                         What is the job of a leader?  

New Year's is a traditional time to reflect. As I begin another year of leadership, I am trying to define what the job of a leader is, and how I can do it even more effectively.
According to Max DePree, "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. " Theodore Roosevelt put it another way, "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

Leadership to me is developing a plan for the future, selecting motivated people, coordinating and cheering on the team of workers, providing resources if needed, and staying out of the way while the workers figure out how to do their jobs.

What do you think are the 5 most important jobs of a leader?

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive, customized training in verbal communication skills. This includes executive communication skills.

Modeling: How to Increase Positive Behaviors in Business (and Life)

To see today's blog posting, go to our new site, www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com/more/blog.

Modeling: How to Increase Positive Behaviors in Business (and in Life)
What behaviors would you like to see more of in your organization? For example, when was the last time your boss sent you a written compliment or thank you note? Never? How do you think it would have made you feel if he had? When was the last time he gave you a sincere, specific compliment about your work? You can't remember that either? Ouch! It's time to change that - even if you are at the bottom of the career ladder.
Picture yourself in a large parking lot, trying to make a right turn into the flow of traffic. Finally someone nice lets you into the line. If you (very carefully) look back a minute later, you are likely to see the car behind your nice "savior" is also letting someone into the line, and the pattern will repeat a few times.
In another example, you're at the checkout line in a crowded supermarket. You enthusiastically (and slightly loudly)  thank the cashier and bagger for doing such a careful job with your groceries. The next person in line is also likely to thank them. Imagine how great they will feel after this! Think also about the impact on their work behavior, and on their desire to stay in that job.
That's the power of modeling, of one person taking the time to demonstrate the positive behavior for others. All it takes is you complimenting someone else, for example.
If you are at the bottom of the career ladder, give a specific verbal compliment. (For example,
When you clean a floor here, it really shines! Thanks for your hard work!)
 If you are a manager, take a few minutes each day to write some brief and specific thank you notes. (For example, That report you wrote on the X Project was excellent! You clearly put a lot of time and effort into it, and made some excellent points I had not considered. Thank you for being such a valued member of our team!)
People work for more than money; they want recognition of their efforts as well.
In 2014, make a resolution to give at least one enthusiastic compliment a day. It's easy, it's free - and it has tremendous benefits.
Business Speech Improvement provides intensive training in executive communication skills. We also offer a valuable e-book, Executive Communication Strategies, on 18 vital verbal skills for leaders. It's the e-book you'll wish your boss had read!

9 Easy Ways to Improve Employee Retention of Your New Hires

What are you doing as an organization to actively encourage retention of your new hires for their first year? Communication here, in various forms, is crucial!

New hires are the people who have the least loyalty to your organization. They have not built up a retirement account or pension with you; they usually have no great long-term friendships among the other employees or appreciation for how the organization helped them when things were tough for them a few years ago.

New hires know how to find jobs, and have fresh contacts among recruiters and other influential people. They will have no difficulty leaving for a better job elsewhere, if they are unhappy with your company.

New hires need a lot of training, from technical skills to corporate culture. It is very expensive to train them and difficult to watch them leave if they are unhappy. New hires'  first impression of your company should be an impressive one, where  a supervisor, colleagues and trainers communicate enthusiasm about their new hire and have a coordinated plan to work with the person. If a group of people (including people currently in that job less than 2 years themselves) thinks ahead of time about what a newcomer needs to know, there will be fewer episodes of "you should know by now to _____" or "someone should have told you when you started to __________" when in fact orientation did not include that information (or maybe a formal orientation did not even happen).

Provide new hires with a dictionary of acronyms and jargon used at your company and in your industry. One new hire walked into a staff meeting her first day, and was handed an agenda filled with acronyms. In addition, the person leading the meeting used many more acronyms. The meeting leader was aware of all her new staff members sitting there confused, but did not explain what the terms meant. She was in effect providing a negative first impression of her organization and wasting the time of the new hires. If a dictionary of acronyms had been provided, or the acronyms had been explained, at least they would have understood the subjects being discussed, and felt that somebody had prepared for their arrival.

Avoid hitting new employees with a tsunami of new information the first days. Teach them the essentials then, and then bring them back for more on a frequent basis. How much can new employees be expected to understand in a day?  Clearly, all the information they are given is not equally important for their job. In many organizations, each department representative is asked to present the most important information new hires need to know about that department. This includes many forms and procedures.

Later, some of the many department heads and others who presented information to dazed and overwhelmed new employees  made comments  to the new employees similar to these:
When I talked to your group at your orientation, I told you you must never do X; don't you remember? (Clearly the department representatives had no idea of how many facts, procedures and forms the new employees heard that day from many representatives, or how many such facts a person can recall.)

When you teach new employees how to use software, be prepared to give them their user names and passwords immediately.  This is especially true when the company uses several types of software and the employee may get confused between them. As one frustrated trainer scolded a new employee, "You were taught on your first day how to use that software; even though you didn't get your password for 4 months, you should have remembered what you were taught!"Adult learning doesn't work that way; how much would you recall from a detailed-filled course that was given that long ago and not referred to since then?

Focus on your new hires! Meet with them at least quarterly, and preferably monthly, to review their progress.  Ask them simply, "How are you doing? How can I help you?" Then...simply listen to them. If they don't answer, maintain a 30 second pause until they hopefully say something.  At first they may be reticent, as you are their supervisor. Keep asking, that day and on future days, until they trust you enough to ask for your help. Frequently praise specific details of their performance, and let them know how they can climb the career ladder or otherwise achieve their career goals. If you can give them a small raise sometime during the year, it will make a big impact.

Find out as soon as employees are hired what matters most to them: career growth, continuing learning opportunities, job security, team work, travel if related to work, or something else. Use that knowledge as you work with them.

On the first day the employees are at your company, ask one of their colleagues to take them to lunch (on the company nickel) and get to know them as people. Have those colleagues mentor them for the first month or so, checking in with the person frequently to see how he is doing and if he has questions.  Help the new employees make more connections, possibly through being involved in cross-departmental  teams or working on projects with various employees. Friendships help an employee decide to stay at a company.

Make a photo gallery of all the employees in a given department or in a small organization. Underneath their photos, write their names and job titles. Post this where the new employees can see it; it will help them learn their colleagues names' faster, especially if the organization is large,  operates on 2 or 3 shifts, or has employees (such as sales or training staff) who are frequently in other locales. It will also help the other employees' learn the new ones' names.

The Gallup 12 questions, as they are known, are powerful ones. Use them when an employee is hired, and then regularly to assess progress and increase engagement.
 
It takes a lot of work for a new employee to fit into a corporate culture and learn all that is expected.
Work to retain the new employees, or you will be training their replacements soon! Show them that you value their prior experience and ideas they bring to your organization. Take time to ask them to tell you some things that other organizations do differently, and which may help your company. Their fresh observations may help you understand what potential employees (and maybe customers) may see when they look at your company. If you ask for this information on an anonymous basis (maybe through a checklist) soon after they are hired,  it is possible that they will be more willing to tell you helpful negatives as well as positives.

For many more tips on powerful communication and leadership, get the e-book Executive Communication Strategies, by Katie Schwartz of Business Speech Improvement.    

Business Speech Improvement offers seminars on communication strategies for leadership development. Check out the details (including the agenda) now!

Relationship-building and trust

Building a business or a personal relationship takes consistency and trust. Consider these situations: A recruiter promises a sought-after candidate that people at fast-growing Company X have frequent opportunities for advancement Before signing anything, the candidate finds a current employee online and discovers that few insiders get considered for these new openings. The candidate no longer trusts anything else the recruiter tells him. A new customer of a car dealership buys a vehicle with an extended warranty. The dealership makes an error in servicing the vehicle, and the vehicle now needs expensive repairs. The dealership does it for free, as promised, and works hard to regain the customer's trust. Someone on a dating site misrepresents himself in his personal description, and a potential date discovers this. She now distrusts him, and refuses further communication with him. Consistency builds trust, and in the beginning of a business or personal relationship, trust is crucial. If trust is broken, the relationship is very hard to repair. Sometimes the person who erred can apologize and explain the situation, but often it takes considerable work over an extended period of time. In a new relationship, it often is not worth the effort by at least one of the parties. Promise only what you are sure you can deliver. Consistency is a key to trust. Business Speech Improvement provides intensive training in verbal skills, including communication skills for leadership development.