Give the man a hug!

Last week I was at the inspirational Enterprising Women conference. As well as meeting a number of wonderful business women I was able to catch up with old acquaintances. One of the key discussions was "Our Men" - or more accurately complaining about "Our Men".

One lady was horrified when her husband brought home a labrador puppy for the children - without consulting her. Another could only communicate with her husband by TEXT message - even when he was at home.

Today I heard that my son's friend's Dad died suddenly in the afternoon. His lovely wife Annabel won't be able to grumble about him. His children won't be able to play football with him, or have a piggy back. They won't have their Dad being Father Christmas or driving them to parties when they are in their teens. He won't watch them receiving their degrees.

I'm so lucky; I can hug my husband tonight, and even if he annoys me sometimes (occasionally), he's still here in our lives. So - hug a man or woman tonight - and count yourself lucky!

My very best wishes and thoughts go to Annabel, Javier and Pia.

The curse of the answerphone message!

Recently, I have been contacting a variety of organisations and companies. On a number of occasions I have been confronted by the dreaded answerphone! Now I understand that individual people aren't at their desks 100% of the time, but an answerphone can be the first contact a potential customer has with a company or service.

Answerphone messages varied from totally inaudible speaking, to messages that were so fast, one wondered whether the person was running out of the room as they recorded it! Other telephone numbers were largely inaudible and I did not receive much confidence in the companies' services.

There was even an accountancy company: with 20+ employees, that had an answerphone system that invited you to select 'speaking to an operator' as an option - only to be put through to - ANOTHER ANSWER PHONE!! In this case, the argument for a diversion service to a key person in the organisation, whilst the operator was busy, was quite a strong one. I certainly wouldn't bother about rephoning and I wouldn't bother to buy into their services.

There are a number of issues surrounding answerphone messages. Yes, companies need to have a number that people can contact them outside office hours. Individuals are not going to be at their desk for 100% of the time. However, any message a customer receives when they contact an individual or company should reflect positively on that company - otherwise the customer will be lost.

Key ways of ensuring your answerphone message is effective:

1. Speak clearly and slowly, pronouncing key words carefully.

2. Any other contact telephone numbers should re recited clearly and repeated to give the caller time to take the number down.

3. Take your time to compose yourself before leaving the message on the answerphone: a stressful person records a stressful message!

4. If you are leaving a message from your mobile phone, make sure you speak very clearly; if reception is not very good, this will be reflected in the recording.

5. Consider redirecting your personal number to a VA or a colleague to ensure the client receives a human/personal contact.

I think there is more blogging potential from this topic - including getting organisations and departments to take responsibility for answering calls effectively and also leaving answerphone messages more clearly! There will be more soon!

BBC Three Counties Radio Broadcast

I was invited into the BBC Three Counties Radio studio again today. This was to discuss current affairs with the wonderful Ernie Almond. I was accompanied by 2 of my musicians from NSN Productions Limited: one of whom performed at the end of the 2 hour broadcast.The session - which was long, was not scripted, but we were prompted by a few newspaper articles to discuss these topics. There was also an opportunity to discuss our music business.

Being the BBC, we were not allowed to advertise either our services or our website. However, if you are canny, you can quote your website quickly, before they can stop you! Obviously there is nothing worse than repeating the website or your telephone number, but the first rule of the media is that they are not going to prompt you for this information - so you need to be proactive!

If you would like to have coaching on appearing on TV or the radio - do give me a call. 0844 576 3015.

BBC Three Counties Radio Interview

I now have a recording of the interview I had with the wonderful Lorna Milton on Three Counties Radio. I have posted it onto the home page of the website: www.executivevoice.co.uk I have been invited back to follow the progress of Kelly Betts; I am currently coaching her and over a period of time we will be able to measure her progress. Kelly is a great client; she works hard and is picking up new skills all the time. She is an absolute pleasure to train!
I will keep you posted as to when I appear again.

Reading other people

We had a tremendous time at the Fielder Centre, Hatfield for the 'Make an Impact with Your Voice' workshop. The delegates discovered new aspects of their vocal and communication styles and how they could be more effective in a variety of business situations.

There were a number of very interesting discussions, but I am going to share one with you. A highly successful academic shared her frustration in communicating with an external member of her staff. The woman concerned closed her eyes, moved her head around and generally didn't connect with the academic. The workshop participants all interpreted this behaviour in different ways - was she nervous, disinterested, self absorbed,arrogant, vain, shy??

The academic - who interpreted the external staff member in the same way as me, was, understandably finding it difficult to have an engaging conversation with her. Obviously when you are speaking with someone that has profound mannerisms, you are going to react to these - and not necessarily in a positive way. We remember previous instances and people that have these mannerisms and if we are not careful, we can fall into the pattern of reacting to these memories.

Our aim is to be as an effective communicator as possible. Occasionally that is a real challenge, but in these situations, it is worthwhile taking a mental step backwards, neutralise the memories to say it is a new situation, and start again! We are as responsible for communication not working as much as the person we speak to, and if we can be open and friendly, the chances are that the conversation will be more successful.

Of course, there are going to be people we don't get on with, or who are impossible to communicate with - but let's try to give them the benefit of the doubt until you have tried a number of styles!

Three Counties Radio Broadcast

In case you missed Executive Voice's appearance on Three Counties Radio with the wonderful Lorna Milton, here is the link. It will only be up until Sunday 19th October.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/three.shtml

The experience was very positive and I will discuss working in a studio environment in a future blog. The constraints were not being able to move very far (6") from the microphone. I normally demonstrate by standing beside a client, but this wasn't possible. Lorna and Kelly were absolutely charming, and I hope to be invited in again (they did invite me!)

Hear Executive Voice on Three Counties Radio

I am appearing on Three Counties Radio on Monday 13th October - from 2pm until 2.20pm. The format will be that Lorna Milton, the presenter will interview me about my experience as a vocal and communications coach. There will then be an opportunity for listeners to call with specific queries regarding public speaking, speaking on the telephone, interviews etc.

I am really looking forward to the opportunity to explain what I do. If you have any questions - do let me know!

I will try to get a sound sample of the interview to put on here!