Category Archives: Professional Communications

Professional office and other business communication strategies

Be Assertive without Being a Jerk! (Real Confidence)

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A part of being confident is not giving into aggression – yours or anyone’s. We want to stand up for ourselves, but we don’t want to be pushy, be a bully, unreasonable or be perceived as a jerk. Kevin Hogan’s newsletter offered this excellent advice on being assertive without being aggressive:

Do’s and Don’ts of Assertive Behavior

Do:
Use Intelligent Communication
Exude Calm
Use Good Eye Contact
Be Aware of Body Language
Use a Confident Voice

Don’t:
Make Unreasonable Demands
Be Hostile
Use a Haughty Voice or Manner
Belittle the Other Person
Put the Other Person on the Defensive
Build Your Confidence to Become more Assertive

In order to be assertive, you will need to develop confidence in yourself. It is easier if you try to take this one step at a time. Let’s start off by just doing one small step and work from there.

I signed up years ago to receive interesting articles every week, like this one, from a true expert on communication, influence and persuasion.  If interested please check it out below.

Get the latest in persuasion news! Weekly ezine from Kevin Hogan. Yours free when you click here.

Influence: Being Assertive Without Being a Jerk

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Every Monday morning I get Kevin Hogan’s excellent free newsletter delivered in my inbox. This expert on persuasion, communication, body language, wealth etc. has many books, ebooks, Cds, DVDs etc. I have a few of his books/programs and I enjoy reading his articles. His homepage currently has a great article “Influence: Being Assertive without Being a Jerk”. Here is a sample:

Assertion simply means, “Hey honey, let’s go see your movie tonight and mine tomorrow night” or vice versa… and it really makes little difference who gets to go “first” because you aren’t four-year-olds….you are 40 and have gray hair…or you will soon.

Aggression is, “Dammit, you never do what I want to do and we are going to my movie tonight missey/mister or I’m outta here.” See, assertiveness training while well-intended can easily become… war college …where you learn to hurt people you love.

Ugh….

All assertion is, is stating what results you’d like to have and the help to get them, while you give help to others on the results they want.

AND

Assert: to state with assurance, confidence, or force; state strongly or positively; affirm. Insist on having one’s opinions and rights recognized.

Aggressive: ready to attack or oppose; quarrelsome. (and that’s just the first part…it gets uglier…like attacking…and so forth.)

As you can see, there is a canyon sized difference. They are on two different planes of behavior.

…

Interesting right? Enjoy the articles from a real expert as I do. Click the link below to see what he has to offer on his free newsletter, and other products.
Get the latest in persuasion news! Weekly ezine from Kevin Hogan. Yours free when you click here.

Enjoy!

Be a Great Public Speaker – Top 10 Tips

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Public speaking should not scare you to death, but the truth is, it is the number one fear for many people. Personally, after watching the movie Jaws when I was a kid, I can’t think of anything worse than being chewed up by a shark! However, it is important to recognize than the anxiety caused when we have to speak in front of others can be overcome. Hiring a Communication Coach can help you deal with this properly, so you can enjoy your public speaking, whether for business or social functions. For now, here are a few golden tips that you should keep in mind.

1 – Expect nervousness every time, but don’t expect disaster. Expect success.

2 – Stick to what you know well, so you can ‘talk’ about it at length, with ease.

3 – Ask lots of questions of the event organizer ahead of time, to find out the size of the room, equipment, expected number of attendees, etc. Visit if possible.

4 – Talk to people in the audience before you speak. If you have a chance to meet some of them before the speaking date, or at least before your talk try to mingle a bit and find out what they expect. It is good to have a few allies in the audience, and it is great for you to know what they expect to hear.

5 – Reduce ‘separation anxiety’ by re-framing the speech as an ‘informative conversation’ within a group. Talk to them, not at them.

6 – Prepare point-form notes or cards and practice a lot with family, friends, etc. No sentences. The less you read the better. Add pictures to your notes.

7 – Remind yourself during to slowdown, pause, breathe, relax and smile. Actually write those words in the top right-hand corner of your notes on different pages.

8 – Research as much as you can ahead of time, so you can be THE up to date expert on the subject of what you are talking about. Anticipate questions and have good answers.

9 – Always relate directly to your audience. It is not about you, but them. Making your speech relevant to your audience and their world is key to their enjoyment and interest.

10 – What is the overall focus? Is it to inform, to entertain, to motivate, to shock your audience? Your whole speech needs to be centred around this vision.

BONUS # 11 – To become a good public speaker and presenter, you simply must do a lot of speeches or presentations, long or short, in your personal or professional life. Tips and techniques help, but there is no real shortcut.  Get out there and get heard!

Coach Ric

Hire an Immigrant

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Here is an excellent resource for immigrants who are job-hunting and also for companies, large or small, who want to take advantage of overseas training but are not quite familiar how to do it professionally. This website has excellent free training videos, with actors going over scenarios on the resume, interview and hiring process. The Canadian employees review and discuss the immigrant’s CV and communication skills. They show you two videos – the wrong way and the right way!

Anyway I thought that these videos were well done and the website has a lot more information on how human resources can successfully screen and hire immigrants. Enjoy!

http://www.hireimmigrants.ca/

Here is a ‘blurb’ from their own website that I have copied here, introducing their free online videos:

Cultural Competence Videos

These cultural competence videos are intended to increase your company’s capacity for recruiting, selecting and integrating skilled immigrants. There are currently videos on screening and interviewing, with more to come in the future. Each video contains several sub-topic chapters to highlight specific issues. The chapter shows a questionable episode, then preferred, followed by a few suggested discussion questions.

The videos have been posted online to support anyone with human resources responsibilities who would like to build on their own level of cultural competence and create an inclusive work environment. Organizations can also use the videos for internal training purposes.

For more go here: http://www.hireimmigrants.ca/tools/4

Coach Ric

Develop HR, Management and Entrepreneur Skills

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As a member of HRPA (Human Resources Professionals Association – http://www.hrpa.ca/hrpa )
I receive regular emails and mailings with information about new services, service providers and detailed Human Resource articles.

Here is something that looks interesting and apparently is free.

http://www.essentialskillsthatwork.com

I am not affiliated with them – I just thought I would pass on their website as it looks good.
Here is a little bit I have copied from their ‘About Us’ page:

The Essential Skills for the Changing Workplace Project

In January, 2008, the Centre for Education and Training received funding from HRSDC for a project called Essential Skills for the Changing Workplace. The project is designed to assist employers in small and mid-size organizations with the integration of Essential Skills into their workplace and human resources practices.

Free Seminars

To increase awareness and understanding of Essential Skills, the Centre is offering free 2-hour seminars for human resources managers, training managers, line managers, operations managers, supervisors, team leaders, coordinators with people management responsibilities and small business owners. During this interactive seminar, managers will gain a thorough understanding of the Essential Skills framework and a variety of Essential Skills tools to assist in:

conducting Essential Skills needs assessments
writing job descriptions that show how workers use Essential Skills on-the-job
integrating Essential Skills into hiring and selection processes
aligning performance goals with the employee’s use of Essential Skills
developing succession plans to ensure employees are ready for new roles as the need for new skills arises
promoting health and safety in the workplace
Free Consulting Services

Besides attending an informative seminar, participants will have access to an Essential Skills Workplace Consultant, free of charge, to guide them in determining their skill needs, identifying resources and local services that provide assessment and training and identifying Essential Skills tools to best suit their requirements.

If this looks interesting to you, please check them out, or pass it on to someone who might want to take advantage of free HR training. I might sign up for a free seminar myself!

Coach Ric

So, what are the qualities of a good speaker?

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Here are a list of the qualities and characteristics of a good public speaker/presenter.

Make sure you include these points when you have to speak in public.

1. They talk to us as though we are having a conversation
2. They speak our language
3. They look as though they are enjoying themselves.
4. They inspire us to find out more about the subject
5. They tell stories/use the human-interest angle
6. Someone who conjures up pictures in our mind
7. They don’t talk for hours
8. They let us know where we are going
9. They look at us – not their notes
10. They stress important points and pause to allow ideas to sink in
11. The talk appears well prepared but has an air of spontaneity

By Sean McPheat – included in his ‘ConfidenceWorld’ program.

Comparing Communication and English Conversations Skills

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What are the English Language Conversation Skills?

English Language Conversation Skills include language abilities, conversation skills, social skills, culture knowledge and non-verbal communication skills.

Non-verbal communication skills are classified as posture, body movements, gestures, facial expressions, proximity and eye contact.

In English speaking countries the non-verbal messages can represent from 50-93% of the meaning.

Social skills and culture knowledge can be generalized as “what to say, when to say it, where and why to say it, and most important how to say it”.

When learning English Language Conversation Skills ESL students must learn: language abilities, conversation skills, social skills, culture knowledge and non-verbal communication skills. ESL Students need everything if they actually want to converse with native English speakers.

ESL Students can not just learn English vocabulary or English pronunciation as it represents less than 50% of most conversations.

What are some of the Professional Communication Skills?

The ability to add charisma to your speaking and interpersonal communications.

The ability to create initial rapport even on first phone calls or meetings.

The ability to build rapport easily in meetings, networking functions, or conversations.

The ability to use specialized industry or business English using industry-specific vocabulary for accuracy.

The ability to emote the appropriate emotion at the correct level.

The ability to create and deliver persuasive and dynamic presentations and speeches.

The ability to display confident leadership and competent management or knowledge.

Other specialized skills include customer service, handling complaints, conflict management.

There are many similarities between conversation and communication skills. Both are very important. One could generalize that communication skills add extra dimensions to conversation skills. One example: Conversations can transmit information where communication skills can transmit trust.
(original post by Ross McBride – ESL in Canada. Reprinted with permission)

I really didn’t need to know that, sir

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Hello,

This is the Globe and Mail article from today, Monday February 23 2009, in which I was interviewed, along with other experts, on the issue of over-sharing personal information at work. If this topic is relevant to you and your office cohorts, please follow the link by clicking here:

http://sympatico.globeandmail.com/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate?tf=tgamv3/realtime/fullstory_print.html&cf=tgamv3/realtime/config-neutral&articleDate=20090223&slug=wlinfo23&date=20090223&archive=RTGAM&site=Front&configLabel=front&hub=Front

Thanks,

Are You Over-Sharing Personal Info at Work?

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Today I was asked to give an interview for Sarah Boesveld, a newspaper reporter with The Globe and Mail’s Life section. She wanted to write an article about over-sharing in the workplace – that is, people offering a little bit too much personal information and how that can affect working performance and working relationships. Great topic!

That article comes out most likely this Monday the 23rd and I’ll post a link to the online article then.

UPDATE FYI – I am a contributor of articles on the Entrepreneur-focused site Evan Carmichael.  Here is the link to that article on the same topic – 7 negative results of oversharing personal info at work:

http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/2493/7-Negative-Results-of-OverSharing-Personal-Info-at-Work.html

Ric on TV Tonight (videos)

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Hello –  just two quick announcements:

ONE – If you have not yet seen it, my January 1st 2009 CBC News TV interview is up right now, where I discuss the G.R.O.W. coaching method. Just go to my Youtube channel video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_CW3Zu0DLk

TWO – For those interested, and who can get the channel (I am not sure how far this broadcast will reach) I will be on a T.V. episode tonight of the W-Network TV show “Save Us From Our House!”, which is on at 9:30pm. For those in Toronto the channel is 27. I have not seen this episode yet, so we will be watching it together for the first time. It is only a half-hour show, and I am not the main host, so my time may be only a minute or so, but that is fine with me. I enjoyed helping the family shop in a peaceful manner and avoid all the conflict that they are so used to having in their daily communications.
Thank you for your support!

UPDATE:  Here is the video or the direct Youtube link to the 2-minute segment I’m on from that TV show:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYsXFywfFbQ