Open Communication During Tough Times

Each day we read about bailouts for the banking and automotive industry. However, there are other industries that need help. The speaking industry is down and it's affecting thousands of professionals.

We've asked some of the top speakers in the U.S. to share their thoughts.

For years as a professional speaker and consultant, I have shown leaders how to use positive, professional communication. During this down economy, I haven't changed my message. In fact, it's become even more relevant. The key to surviving negative times is to focus on the positive. Not in a Pollyanna, rose-colored-glasses way. But, in practical application.

Leaders are more effective when they learn to communicate appropriately. Their companies are more profitable when they develop a competitive advantage. This advantage occurs when leaders distinguish the company from the competition by empowering their staff to provide customers with positive service. Using positive, professional communication not only leads to a healthier bottom line, it leads to healthier (and happier) leaders."--Kelly Watkins,international speaker at www.KeepCustomers.com, has experienced leadership lessons all over the planet-on all 7 continents.

Kelly Watkins

President, Expressive Concepts

Top 3 tips on how organizations can improve their businesses.

1. Talk to your employees. In the absence of information, we connect the dots in the most pathological way possible.

2. There's a huge benefit when people gather to share ideas, brainstorm new procedures, learn more about team members, have questions answered, or explore ways to streamline work loads.

3. Diverse perspectives are critical for innovation and these are best gleaned through conversation.

Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE

Janelle M. Barlow adds," I've worked and spoken to some of the best and some of the worst companies around. I keep coming back to three things to drive your business:

1) Get real about customer service. Get committed to customer service. Get passionate about customer service.

2) Your culture is perhaps your most valuable asset. Work on it every single day. Bring out and enhance the best parts of your culture.

3) Have some fun, and let everyone inside the organization have fun. Happiness brings out the best in both customers and employees. Even if you're doing serious things.

How Organizations Can Improve Their Business

Turn FEAR into COURAGE by learning specific tools for SELF CONTROL.

1. BELLY BREATHE to CONTROL YOURSELF.

When frightened (for any reason; i.e., sales rejection, negotiation confrontation etc.) you must learn to BELLY BREATHE to gain control of the proper circulation of your oxygen supply. Belly breaths disguise fear/nervousness so you do not "telegraph" weakness. BELLY BREATHING keeps oxygen in the brain so you can remember key points and pertinent facts. Business professionals need to be "at ease" with their visual and verbal performance. Shallow breathing when nervous/frightened is their NUMBER ONE problem.

2. GRIP your hands to CONTROL YOURSELF.

When frightened/nervous, you must literally "Get a Grip! At the exact moment you feel your heart racing or pounding at accelerated speeds, your brain has lost it's usual blood supply. Literally, your "library/brain" is closed when blood (and oxygen)is not circulating properly. Later...you'll remember what you SHOULD have said because later...your brain has proper circulation of blood and oxygen. Answer? GRIP your hand(s)open and closed when nervous or disguise fear by GRIPPING a highlighter pen, cell phone, "handle" or cup of coffee/water. Squeeze "GRIPPER" as you BELLY BREATHE...for self control.

3. STAY POSITIVE mentally to CONTROL YOURSELF.

Show me a negative thinker and I will show you likely defeat. In sports, a million dollar athlete is said to be in a "slump" when he cannot perform. Not a knowledge problem, not a training problem,... a mental problem. Passionate BELIEFS in the goodness of the task at hand is critical for results. The ultimate payoff for positive beliefs ... then positive thoughts turned into positive ACTION is the result of benefit to one's family, regardless of how one defines their own family (kids, partner, pets, friends, parents.) LOVE is the greatest motivator on earth.

Whether the business "WIN" is financial or emotional, WINS improve the person who walks through the front door at home. Peace at home is the foundation for Peace at work and quite frankly ... Peace on earth. All of us provide a critical in the chain of humanity. Our contribution is negative or positive...based on our SELF CONTROL, especially is challenging times likes we all are experiencing today.

Debbie Gardner

SURVIVE INSTITUTE

Clutter is postponed decisions!(r) The good news is that there are only three decisions you can make about any information regardless of whether the formal is paper or electric: File, Act, or Toss!

Continually practice The Art of Wastebasketry(r). Eighty percent of what we keep we never use. To determine whether you want to keep something, ask yourself the question, "What's the worst possible outcome if I didn't have this?" If you can live with your answer, toss, recycle or shred it -- and work happily ever after!

Whenever you say to yourself, "I have to do this," follow it up by aswering two questions: 1) "What is NEXT action I need to take to accomplish this outcome?" and 2) "When?"

Barbara Hemphill, CPO(r)

1. Train your leaders in leadership. Too often companies promote the best worker to a leadership position but do not provide the necessary training for the new role. Leadership requires a different set of skills.

2. Communication is always a problem. Teach leaders and employees the skill of being good listeners. This skill should be applied to the internal workplace and to customers.

3. Give every employee a basic course in presentation skills, This is something that is often overlooked as a need yet we are always speaking to coworkers, customers and suppliers. People are afraid of giving formal presentations but if done well these people can make the company look good and provide them an opportunity to be noticed by top management, and people outside the company as well.

Jim Morrison

James N Morrison & Associates

Organizations can improve their business by:

1. Stop benchmarking the competition. Clearly define who the typical market is for your product and service. Then go where the competition isn't and create new markets to serve. For example: Nintendo realized that young antisocial males were the market for electronic games and where Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo were all competing. They then went to everyone else (other males, girls, families and senior citizens) to create a product for the masses. That product is the Nintendo Wii.

2. The best thinking and problem solving comes from an emotionally detached mind. Detach the ego from the creative thought process and the right solution will become more obvious.

3. Increase the support given to your programs by creating a transparent system that allows everyone to see everyone else's results. There is no bigger motivator than being exposed.

4. The best solutions come to a quiet mind. When you are struggling with a tough problem, go where you can sit quietly and just breath slowly. The mental noise and clutter will calm down and the mind can then do its best work.

Dr. Sarah Layton, CMC

Sylvia Henderson, Chief Everything Officer (CEO)—Springboard Training shares how video can help.

1. Prepare ahead of time what you will say on camera, yet avoid memorizing a script.The camera—regardless of whether it is a personal videocam or a professional studio camera "picks up" your every facial expression and nervous tick. When you memorize and try recalling what you´ve memorized, your face reveals your attempts at recollection and betrays your calm on camera.

2. Research your audience and prepare your presentation according to their norms and needs. You write your resumes and prepare for your in-person interviews by tailoring your presentations to the specific job or industry to which you seek opportunities. Do the same for your video profile. The words you use, the approach you take, and your personal presence will most likely differ for a creative environment from a "downtown formal corporate" environment.

3. Look and sound professional. Even creative or "laid back" casual work environments need people who communicate well, exhibit sociallyacceptable behaviors, get along with their colleagues, respect those who earn respect, and produce for the good of the organization as well as themselves. You must convey you are the person who—or your organization is the organization that— can do all of this. You have to convey these messages in the first few seconds of your video profile. Groom and dress appropriately. Speak clearly. Use words well and avoid jargon and slang. Look at the camera as if you are looking at a person in front of you. Let your personality come through while maintaining a level of respect for whomever watches your video. Your video profile may be viewed by people worldwide. You never know when it is being viewed and by whom. Make yourself look and sound your best on every video so that you are congruent with what you say you can do and who you say you are in print and in person.

1. Focusing on "Customer/Guest Astonishment!" Customer satisfaction is no longer good enough. We need to leave the Customer so impressed that they will want to come back and tell others about your product or service.

2. Ask how they feel about you. Instead of offering the chance to win something if they fill answer 10 questions, ask them one question. "Based on your last experience with us, would you recommend us to someone else?" If the answer is yes, they are done, if no, get contact information and contact them within 24 hours.

3. Be sure you take good care of your greatest natural resource, your Team Members. They will always treat the Customer as well as they are treated, and never any better.

Dave Gorden

Here's a powerful way to help people accept change without creating a culture of whining and complaining. Provide a space for the whining and complaining. Encourage the steam to be released in an organized setting. Help people identify the loss so they can move through it instead of suppress it.

One of the best experiences I had working with organizational change was in my first job at a psychiatric hospital. Whenever a change was decreed, the managers brought their departments together for a formal "bitch session." Everyone was allowed, even encouraged, to talk about their anger and their fear. Their concerns were noted. Managers had a chance to explain the decisions more fully, and they were able to acknowledge any oversights that might have been made when the decisions were made. Sometimes these concerns did affect the ultimate actions. Often, the changes continued as planned. But the employees felt heard and acknowledged regardless, allowing them to more quickly adjust and move into the change.

Complaining is a sign that a person is feeling a loss. It is better to help them recognize the loss, and then coach them to accept it or regain it in another way, than to try to shut them down. Help them to see what they really want to ask for or to create for themselves in their life to deal with what they feel they are losing. The complaining will decrease. Compassion is the quickest route to action.

Marcia Reynolds

www.OutsmartYourBrain.com