Shh: walls have ears Triesman

What struck me with the whole Triesman scandal at the weekend was not that Britain's attempts at hosting the World Cup in 2018 have been scuppered, or even that a man in a position of authority was trying to impress a woman young enough to be his granddaughter. It was that in a position of responsibility and as a figure head of an organisation, he made unguarded comments to someone he didn't know well. He presented himself as untrustworthy; unprofessional and not suitable for the role he was paid to do.

Recently I have had unconnected conversations with two successful female entrepreneurs. One said she is very careful where she has work related conversations, as she never knows how might overhear a comment about one of the multi-national companies she works with. She respects the confidentiality of the work she does, and wishes to avoid competitors hearing about projects she is working on. She even avoids mentioning company names now, unless she is in her office with trusted people. It possibly sounds far fetched but this businesswoman is aware that her reputation is that of being utterly professional and trustworthy.

The other entrepreneur supports business people to fulfil particular projects. Even for an initial meeting, she is aware of her clients being candid about themselves. Unless she picks a suitable location where others can't eavesdrop, she is conscious of a private conversation, not being private! Again, this lady wishes to be utterly professional; respectful of the client's confidentiality and to find somewhere where her clients feel comfortable.

My message today is that the term "Walls have ears", is a warning to all professionals and entrepreneurs. Be careful who you share information with, and where you share it!

Executive Voice are delivering a 1/2 day masterclass "Speak, Connect, Engage" on 7th July in Central London. More Details.

Successful leaders and how they communicate

Recently I heard a 'horror story' from Planet Opera. The director: the current flavour of the month in the theatre world, had refused to speak to the leading lady after two days rehearsal, because she was 'undirectable'. The singer concerned was performing a notoriously challenging role; would not be able to physically sing it if she cavorted around the stage as he no doubt wanted; she also spoke English as a second language and was having difficulty understanding him. The director only thought of his ego; not 'How can I change my communication style to develop a rapport with this team member.' He could have taken the time; allocated a translator; tried to get to know her; valued her talents etc. But no. The singer sang magnificently; the production was a disaster with the director and his production team being booed off the stage.

I too was the recipient of boorish communication from a self appointed 'leader' for an event. On meeting me, he considered me to be the lowest of the low and talked over me; trying to under mind my expertise and position. I pulled him up on this because the event was missing out on using my experience and expertise due to his egotistical stance. What I was bringing to the event appeared to be disregarded by his insecurities and unless I had intervened the event would have missed out on my knowledge.

Teams bring together people with a range of skills, expertise and experience. As a leader, it is your responsibility and role to find out what the individuals' strengths are and how they can be used positively for a project. It is also your role to assess if any outside expertise will be required to run a project. Finally, as a leader you have to change your communication style to ensure you are developing a rapport with each individual in the team; ignoring a team member or talking over them is not leadership: it is egotistical, childish behaviour and you will achieve the very poorest results.

smiling boosts your confidence official!

I picked up this article in the dreaded Daily Mail a couple of weeks ago. Here it is:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1213604/A-simple-smile-takes-boost-womans-confidence.html

So it's official: if you smile, you feel better. This is based on research on women: interestingly enough, why not on men.... For the sake of argument, let's
focus on men AND women. Smiling is a powerful communication tool. It takes less effort to smile than it does to frown! A true smile, where you are using your eyes as well as the mouth, creates a positive response from other people. I occasionally challenge myself to smile to everyone I interact with, and the world is a calmer, happier place!
Finally, the voice is more uplifting; happy and confident when you smile. On the telephone, remember to smile because your voice is more engaging.
Smiling costs nothing, but is an extremely powerful communication tool - verbally and non-verbally. Try it and see the difference.
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How to cope with office politics

Over the weekend, the Sunday Times published the following article. IT was in the Women's section of the paper which is interesting.
How to cope with office politics - Times Online

There was also a questionnaire.
Take the office-politician test - Times Online

The interesting point about this article was that it was 'encouraging' people to forget their morals whilst fighting for their job. Now, I know more than most about daggers in the back having been an opera singer. One story that's true, is that I was up for 2 roles over a year with a small professional company: not one that has ACE funding! Dates were discussed and the feedback I had after the audition and subsequent phone calls with admin and the director was very positive. Then everything went quiet.... A very inferior (in my opinion) singer was cast for both roles although they weren't suitable for her. A few years later, I was on a tour and a member of the company's board was singing. I'd forgotten the disappointment but he revealed the real story of the casting: the other singer threatened everything from cutting up the director's clothes, to leaving threatening messages on answerphones. What clinched it for her was when she threatened to take her life - she even staged a mock suicide (over the phone) to get her way. Of course no one has any respect for her (and didn't then) but she got her way. This article would encourage immoral shenanigans like this in order to keep your job.

So: getting back to the article; many people, particularly women were encouraged to 'keep your head down' and work hard. This is particularly a trait of women (at school they should be good) and people of my parents' generation who had a job for life. Yet the questionnaire would consider you to be 'naive' and up for losing your job in the next cull. The opposite "The loser" who basically throws their toys out of the pram every time something goes wrong also gets the red card.

Interestingly our opera 'friend' would be a Machiavellian: a trait that can keep your job, whilst 'star player' also wins on the job keeping stake. The premise of this article is that you have to forget your upbringing and morals to keep your job. You need to point the finger at others when things go wrong and blow your own trumpet when things go right.

We can all cite examples of people taking credit for work you or others have done; we also see examples of people putting the boot in on The Apprentice. The trouble is that if one isn't careful, they could reach the top - think Mandelson...

I'm not a work psychologist, but the message I have here is - keep sending positive messages - verbally/by email/actions etc of your work. If you can't stand someone and have to work with them, openly discuss it so that you can come to a working agreement and be more focused on the project. Be visible - working - bringing in good news stories - being there - available. Keep your head up; shoulders down. Even if you're worried about your job, don't give the impression you are.
Lastly: have at least 2 'good news' stories that you can discuss with anyone you bump into at work each week. You can always spin a neutral story. Focus on yourself: your team and the work you are involved in.

Good luck. More information from http://www.executivevoice.co.uk

Contacting your clients and potential customers - how frequently should you do this?

Today I was at an excellent online marketing course led by Derrick Cameron. One of the points we discussed as a group was how frequently we should contact clients and potential customers by email; direct mail etc.
Recently I have signed up for a couple of emails and newsletters. Some of these ezines are fantastic and I am really pleased to be receiving them. BUT there are a couple of nameless organisations that are bombarding me with emails; tweets; messages via Facebook, Ecademy etc twice even three times daily. I'm afraid I've had to unsubscribe because I'm SO fed up of being contacted.
One person that was cited today was a "Marketing Guru" who was contacting people daily by email, letter, phone calls etc to sell his marketing training day. It became TOO MUCH! and I had to ask his organisation to stop contacting me. Had I not been pestered so often, I might well have gone. I thought this was ironic given that the chap in question was a marketing expert - yet he'd got the style of communication SO wrong!

So how frequently should you contact clients. Now remember I am English - as my Canadian and South African colleagues frequently remind me: so I err on the side of caution with 'pestering people'. I tend to be more conservative than most, and could increase my communication.
I try to blog twice a week - and refer to these blogs on Twitter.
I try to audioboo at least twice a week and these are referred to on Twitter with a link to Ecademy.
I normally send out ezines once every 2 - 3 weeks. The exception to this is when I am marketing a new course; product or service.
If I am leading a teleseminar, I will email everyone twice and then a reminder the day before. In addition I will contact people that have registered on the course with reminders the day before and just before the call - and an email afterwards summarising the call and links to the recording.

Am I getting it right or am I being 'Too English' and not pestering enough. Do let me know!

Children are being taught to 'speak better'

In the news yesterday was an article about school children learning to speak properly. As usual there were plenty of postings on the Telegraph - and particularly the Daily Mail websites, criticising parents, the Government and teachers. One post actually said that 'Most teachers were illiterate' (could I see the figures to prove this statement...)
There is a need to address the problem of children's lack of positive communication skills - and also that of society as a whole. One could argue that this ought to be the parents' responsibility, but since this is such a problem, they are clearly not doing this, so there needs to be a strategy for improving these skills.
By poor speech, I DO NOT mean regional accents - or indeed certain Public School accents that are incomprehensible, but speaking where grammatically the language is WRONG, and also the use of slang and phrases like "Oh - My - God" - which personally I find offensive and sloppy. There is a way to speak and communicate with your friends and peers: another when you are at work.

To me there are a couple of crucial points about current communication styles. One is that there are many more people who are 'voices' in the media, who have poor communication skills: in particular grammar and pronunciation. Celebrities, footballers etc. This gives the appearance of 'being the norm', when in fact they are dreadful. These people are role models for a lot of children and of course they mimic and believe this is totally acceptable. Not only are their speaking styles sloppy, but they use poor English.
Also, it is important for young people - everyone infact, to be able to recognise what type of speech is appropriate for different situations. I delivered some training to a company where the lovely employees were 'over friendly' and 'familiar' with their use of speech with clients. Clients were being put off by this. When the employees realised that there is an appropriate language style for clients and a different one for friends, the communication effectiveness in the office increased.
Rather like we wear work and 'home' clothes, we should adopt 'work' and 'home' speech.
Here is the article>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/5227625/Children-to-be-taught-how-to-speak-properly.html

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Is speech a class issue

Last week I read the article pasted below.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/jemima-lewis/5067157/A-childs-speech-is-still-a-class-issue.html

To summarise, the writer concerned had an 'RP' accent and this was regularly commented on by taxi drivers. "You're well educated Madam" etc. Her argument was that she wasn't well educated but because of her accent, other people felt she was more intelligent, and for children it could be a huge advantage in the workplace/interviews if you had an RP accent.

Yesterday I was at an FSB meeting, and I had a conversation with the chairman, Robin about this very same topic - but also to include more general communication like TEXT messages, phone calls, emails and letters. Robin has run a successful business for over 20 years and his opinion, in my opinion, is a valid one. He goes out of his way to ensure all of his Text messages have complete words with correct spellings and punctuation: ditto emails. He expects this from his staff when they communciate with clients and that they take particular care with their speech to ensure it is clear, with a lack of slang and 'lazy' speech.

What is Robin like? Robin is a hard working MD, who speaks with a Southern accent NOT an 'RP' accent. He is articulate and also listens to people when you are conversing. He values good manners: clear speech: clear communication and writing because it matters.

For some Telegraph readers, and might I say some products and parents of children at private schools, it can be an easy trap to fall into: that of thinking that a 'Public School' accent can open doors. Undoubtedly a clear accent is a positive, and if you have something intelligent to say - even better! But there are some 'Public School' accents as incomprehensible as the Brummie accent!

It is also worthwhile considering that an RP or Public School accent is ridiculed in some areas of UK (notably The North) and softening the accent is a good move!

My advice would be as follows:
Speak clearly, ensuring you are not lazy with ends of words.
Make sure you are grammatically correct. The wonderful Hertfordshire "I brang" wins no prizes for creating a good impression.
Be aware of when TEXT speak is appropriate, and when not. As a general rule, TEXT speak is fine for your friends but not colleagues, bosses and clients.
Although emails are shorter, don't be fooled into thinking that standards in English are lower: still be grammatically correct and only use 'slang' words when the other person has used them first. Of course this is for work related emails - for your friends it is different.

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