Work911 Ezine - Communication, Politics, Small Business, and More Free Resources

[Robert Bacal]

Feb 27, 2008 - Contents - Communication - Elections - More Free Stuff
To Learn From

In This Issue:

1) More Free Offers and Learning Resources
2) New Site For Small Business
3) Top 8 Communication Skills for 2008
4) Your Communication Course Begins Now, on TV.
5) Our Sites

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More Free Trade Publications and White Papers (http://
workhelp.tradepub.com)

Last issue we pointed you to a great source for free white papers and
free subscriptions to trade magazines, and a number of you took us up
on the offers. We thought we'd feature some of the more interesting
material. Just as a reminder publishers make these offers available to
you free of charge to increase their targeted circulation, attract
advertisers, and improve their branding.

Here's just a few highlights and direct links.

Publications for Executives and Managers offer a nice variety,
including BusinessWeek, Consulting Magazine, Chief Learning Officer,
CFO, Workforce Management and more excellent magazines and white
papers. Go direct to: http://workhelp.tradepub.com/?pt=cat&page=Exec

In Human Resources? There's a treasure trove of useful information
here, both in magazine subscription offers, and downloadable white
papers on issues related to recruiting, benefits and other HR
subjects. You can navigate directly to the HR page at:
http://workhelp.tradepub.com/?pt=cat&page=Hr

There are sections for nearly every profession and trade, and many of
the publications available here are trade publications that you can't
get at your local magazine store, since most trade publications aren't
distributed in retail channels. There are other sections on
government, education, retail, transportation, IT (there's tons of
stuff on IT), agriculture, food and beverage, small business, and our
favorite, the archery business. You can browse all of these topics at:
http://workhelp.tradepub.com .

We'll continue to feature specifics in the months to come, and let you
know as offers are made available. You should know that if you see
something you would like, apply for it NOW, since these offers tend to
come and go. What's available today may not be available tomorrow.

New Site For Small Business

We're a bit embarrassed by the state of our new site on Small Business
but we figured we'd let you know about it in case you'd like to help
build it. It's in really basic form right now, but it will contain
articles for small business, a library, a resources section set up by
geographic area, and a blog where you'll find musings about small
business, and the opportunity to comment. We are considering opening
up the submission process so others can add their resources for small
business, but the spam problems are huge. Anyway the location is
http://smallbusiness411.org/ . Feel free to register and comment in
the blog section.

If you have any small business oriented articles you would like to
share, let me know in email at c...@work911.com. We prefer material
that hasn't been on the Internet before, but if something is good,
we'll showcase it for you, and of course you can have a short
biography and links as part of the article. Remember -- small business
related ONLY.

Featured Articles - Communication / Elections / Learning

This time out, we're looking at communication and influence and how to
do that effectively. Election times are a great opportunity to observe
effective influential communication an communication that is less
powerful. We begin with a guest article:

Top 8 Communication Skills for 2008 By Connie Dieken

Your current communication skills have reached their expiration date.
Like sour milk or fuzzy cheese past its prime, it's time to refresh
for best results. Here are the Top 8 skills of 2008 to reach your
highest performance.

1. Nail the big idea, pronto. Capture and summarize the critical
essence of your message quickly. Ensure your big idea is crystal clear
before diving into the nitty gritty details. Even better, marry your
idea to your audience's needs and values. Tie them together promptly
and you'll be showered with the gift of undivided
attention. Superstar: Steve Jobs, Chairman & CEO of Apple Inc.

2. Aim for the heart, not the head. Spewing endless factoids leaves
people cold. Instead of trying to share everything you know in a
single bound, light a fire under people by concentrating on their
feelings first. Your new mantra: the heart trumps the head. Get real
with the power of emotional appeal and you'll motivate people to
commit to action. Superstar: David Novak, Chairman & CEO of YUM!
Brands.

3. Capitalize on peer power. Why go it alone? You'll gain clout by
bringing well-connected people into your
corner. Let other smart, respected pros transfer their clout to you.
They'll help you build influence and make
things happen much faster than you could flying solo. Superstar:
Barack Obama, U.S. Senator and Democratic Presidential Contender.


4. There's no off-switch in the age of speed. Your words and actions
now spread at the speed of light.
Every communication has the potential to elevate or sink you. Make
peace with the idea that you
must watch what you say and do in all communication arenas: in person,
on the phone and on-line. Superstar: Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator and
Democratic Presidential Contender.

5. Positive wins, so radiate confident energy. Strive to inspire hope
and instill pride. Radiate likability and
enthusiasm, even on difficult days when you're worn down. Fight energy
suckers that leave you appearing
disinterested or bored, devastating others who've worked hard to
please you. Listen actively and convey positive interest and optimism
whenever possible. Superstar: Anne Mulcahy, Chairman & CEO, Xerox.

6. Forget perfect. Strive to be relatable. Stop worrying about being
flawless and an amazing transformation will happen. People will start
relating to you, which triggers them to root for you and bring you the
results that you want. Gone are the days when people bought into the
illusion of perfection. They see right through it today and value
genuine, relatable human beings, warts and all. Superstar: Joel
Osteen, Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church and Best-Selling Author.

7. Create visual shortcuts. Who has time for long-winded messages
anymore? Or too much text? To
meet today's demanding, short attention span society, substitute
pictures for text. Use graphics. Video
clips. Shorter, punchier sentences. Provide shortcuts and you'll be
rewarded with quicker decisions and actions. Superstar: Jeff Bezos,
Chairman & CEO of Amazon.com.

8. Think the new PC: performance candor. Stop sugarcoating and holding
back for fear that people won't like you or that you'll be damaged by
delivering unwelcome news. Contribute. Get important issues on the
table tactfully and admit the truth if it will help improve business
performance. Hiding bad news is terribly damaging to both your
business and your well-being. Superstar: Jack Welch, former Chairman &
CEO
of General Electric and Best-Selling Author.

Connie Dieken is the nation's leading expert on high performance
communication in a short attention span world. The president of
onPoint Communication, an Emmy-award winning broadcaster and the
author of the forthcoming book, Communicate 3.0 to Get the Results You
Want, she's a Fortune 500 communication coach, advisor and keynote
speaker. Connie guides leaders in executive influence, presentation
skills and media savvy.

Connie has been named one of the Top 10 Women Business Owners by
NAWBO, was inducted into the Radio & Television Broadcasters Hall of
Fame following 20 years as a television news anchor and reporter, and
has earned the highest honor in the professional speaking business,
the National Speakers Association's CSP. You can reach Connie Dieken
at 800.505.9480 or via the web at http://www.onpointcomm.com or
http://www.conniedieken.com

Feature 2: Your Communication Course Begins Now, on TV by Robert Bacal

Particularly when elections approach (in any country) opportunities
open up to use the speeches of candidates, and associated media
commentary, as ways of learning about communication and influence. Of
course, you won't learn automatically just by watching. You need to
observe the speakers and communicators specifically to learn from what
they do well, and perhaps more importantly, what they do poorly. This
may involve putting aside a few of your political biases, but it also
involves some self-observation to answer the questions:

How am I reacting to what s/he just said?

WHY am I reacting positively, negatively or neutrally, to what s/he
just said?

You can use your own reactions, and those of people around you who
also watch and are watching, to learn about influence, persuasion and
communication and what you learn can apply to everything you do in
business and family.

Starting:

There's an infinite number of things you can look for and think about
as you watch a political debate, speech or interview, so let's start
with two principles.

1) When people feel the speaker is deliberately trying to manipulate,
the speaker is seen as less credible, and even sleazy. Sometimes
people get angry.

2) The more rehearsed, crafted and stilted the communication, the less
likely the audience will embrace the person as "one of them", and the
less likely there will be a positive "heart" reaction.

There we go. Two very simple principles that are often disregarded by
politicians and their handlers.

When a speaker (a politician, or you in a business meeting) refuses to
directly answer questions, shifts discussion to the shortcomings of
others, refuses responsibility, and will not accept or even admit to
errors in the past, the impression is that the speaker has something
to hide, and is manipulating the audience.

Think about this the next time you watch a politician. Are you getting
the sense that s/he is forthcoming? Does s/he dodge tough questions?
And how does all this make you feel? (Depressingly, you may find that
ALL the candidates come across as manipulative in some degree, leaving
you with the awkward decision as to which manipulator you will vote
for) What other things can you notice that give you the impressions of
attempted manipluation? What things do you see the person doing that
seem straightforward and transparent?

Now the second principle. You probably know that most politicians
never speak "off the cuff" and that for the most part, politicians
running for office are "handled" by supposed experts. With today's
technology, people on television can use teleprompters which we do not
see on the television, which take the place of notes. Hence, we do not
see the speaker looking downward at recipe cards!

We've grown used to this, but here's a question: How many politicos
talk like you and I? Do they sound like they are having conversations
with you? Like regular people? Almost never. They talk like they are
reading a speech. Some are really good at it, and sound close to a
regular person. Others are clearly not good at it and come off as
warmed over robots. So when watching the candidates, observe whether
they come across as if the communication is one-to-one with you, or
person-to-person.

You will find that the more the person seems natural, unhandled, and
left "unspun", the easier it will be for you to embrace that person,
have faith and confidence in him or her, and like him or her. Sadly
this is often disregarded by current political communication practice.

Ok. Well, that's it for now. Your next task is to take what you see
and hear, and come up with some recommendations about how YOU need to
communicate to be more effective.

Clearly there's huge complexity to all this, but you can watch and
learn about your own ways of communicating, both as a speaker and a
receiver of information.

Just a reminder that we have more information on interpersonal
communication at our communication improvement center at:
http://www.work911.com/communication/ .

Our Sites:

Just a quick summary of our sites that have information on the
following topics:

Leadership Resource Center: http://work911.com/leadership-development/index.html

Communication Resource Center: http://www.work911.com/communication/index.htm

Conflict (both workplace and family) http://conflict911.com

Business, Strategic and Personal Planning: http://www.work911.com/planningmaster/index.html

Performance Management & Appraisal: http://performance-appraisals.org

Customer Service: http://customerservicezone.com

Our Main Site: http://www.work911.com

Multi-Purpose Articles Database: http://www.articles911.com

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