Take Your Influencing Skills to the Next Level

April 11th, 2013

Looking for simple solutions to win over clients? There are thousands of business books that can help you design a new strategy. But if you really want to influence customers and inspire employees, take a trip to the Self-help section.

There are three books I highly recommend to help you open your mind and get to the next level of communication. The information in these books will help lay the groundwork for effective speaking skills; so you can get your message across in a way that is informative, entertaining and influential.

Tribal Instinct: Why We Have Meetings and Why We Won’t Stop Them

April 10th, 2013

When was the last time you attended a meeting where decisions were made, business was accomplished and it wrapped up early with everyone smiling? Chances are it’s been a while.

Most people seem to know that meetings can waste a lot of time and effort for everyone involved. Most of us would like to have fewer, shorter meetings — but nonetheless, meeting after meeting seems to just keep happening! Why is that? There is a good reason why we have meetings. It comes down to the way that we are wired. We are social creatures. We like to get together and have social events, and that’s what a meeting is. A meeting is a social function that (should) enable us to achieve a particular outcome.

The Social Proof Secrets That Can Grow Your Business

April 8th, 2013

In every training session I conduct, there is an interesting phenomenon that appears at morning tea. After a high energy, high interactive session, I announce the break for morning tea. People can get up, talk and get something to eat. But often they don’t…well not straight away. The participants look to each other to see who will make the first move. When one person moves, the rest take off. This is social proof. The first person to move has sent a signal to the others that it’s socially appropriate to move. The others then follow, feeling more comfortable that someone else took the initial risk.

This is a deep psychological process that marketers and leaders have been using for centuries.

How to Tap Into Your Personality to Find Your Leadership Style

March 18th, 2013

You don’t have to be well known to be an influential leader. Most people haven’t heard of Greg Wasson, the CEO of Walgreens in the USA but he runs the worlds largest retail chain and influences millions of people every day. via Walgreens

Every great leader develops his or her own unique style to inspire, guide and influence other people. I recently came across Forbes’ 100 Best Quotes on Leadership, which shows how many approaches there are to making a difference. Leadership by example is one of my core traits so I can identify with the first quote by Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu:

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim is fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

Of course, not every person works this way. Many of the most influential figures in history have been anything but passive or invisible in their methods of leadership.

5 Traits of the Best Leaders and Managers

March 11th, 2013

The best leaders understand relationships. via Victor

As an executive it’s your job to be the leader. And it’s your leadership that will mean the difference between a a good company and a great company.

Leadership vs. Management

The “Manager” is usually a defined role in a company. The manager is typically responsible for a task and for employees, but not so for the leader.

Leaders do not necessarily have defined roles. A leader can have defined roles like the CEO of a company or the leader of a task force. Most times, though, leaders play key roles in the company without a formal title.

Leadership and management might be defined differently, but the two roles are linked.

As a leader you need to act the correct way to ensure success at your company.

To understand better we’ll look at the traits of the best leaders and managers.

Warning: Matt Cutts is here to talk about Spam

March 4th, 2013

Matt Cutts is in charge of Web spam at Google.

@mattcutts is one of the few public faces of the search engine company.

Google is always working to provide the best search results – both paid and unpaid – for its users. Having your website rank high in these results can be quite profitable and when money flows so does the desire for advertisers to manipulate the rankings.

One of the tasks for Cutts is to help explain what Google is doing to fight Web spam. It’s an important job because there are millions and even billions of dollars riding on how companies manage their websites for search engine rankings.

Cutts is in a difficult position. He needs to effectively explain the moves at Google while dealing with judgment from the online community.

In this video he discusses a recent tool Google rolled out to help fight Web spam.

How to Get Billions of Dollars for Nothing

February 25th, 2013

Bill Gates – founder of Microsoft. The “on-again-off–again” the richest man in the world.

Today his mission is to make the world better. He’s no longer in charge of daily operations at Microsoft, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t busy.

Over the last few years Gates has been looking into humanity issues. He’s done research, sought donations and has given presentations around the world.

In this Ted Talk, Gates discusses state budgets and spending in the USA.

How Apple CEO Tim Cook Uses The Power of Community

February 18th, 2013

Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple.

He is following one of the most influential CEOs in recent times – Steve Jobs.

It is not easy to follow someone with such a large presence, but Cook has Apple doing extremely well during his first few years as the company leader.

Jobs was known for giving inspiring keynote presentations.

Today, that job falls on Cook.

This was Cook’s latest keynote.

5 Steps for Clearer, More Refined Presentations

February 4th, 2013

Presenters often have too much to talk about.

This is a big problem. Leaders have too much to share and they try to fit every detail into the presentations.

In films, writings, and speeches, brevity is king. The best have a way of cutting out the unnecessary and leaving only the main points that leave the audience entertained, educated or enlightened.

The following are 5 steps you can take to create clearer, more refined presentations.

How to Influence Like Billion Dollar CEO

January 28th, 2013

Zappos is the largest online footwear retailer in the United States. The company was founded during the tech boom in the US in the late 1990s and continued to grow even after the boom subsided.

Zappos made a change during its initial years to focus on getting the right people on board. The focus was built around ten core values. This focus became so intense that people are hired and fired based on the core values alone. It doesn’t matter if the person does an adequate job.

This might seem harsh to some, but it’s part of what makes Zappos successful.

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