Leadership Development | Brenda Eckstein International

Ten Tips To Help You Become The ‘Person Of Choice’

Leadership Development Tagged with: Business networking, Careers, Competitive advantage, Ethics, Personal development, Personal networking

May 072011

BEI successfully provides training in helping people ‘move up the ladder’. Apply the ‘Ten tips’ illustrated below in your work and personal lives and you will increase your chances of being ‘the person of choice.’

(These were developed through the consolidation of input from various groups of participants in Brenda Eckstein International workshops.)

Develop your competitive advantage
Firstly identify your unique talents. What are you able to offer that few others can? Then develop these talents so that you cement a competitive advantage. See how you can match your competitive advantage with the needs of the other person or the organisation.
Build positive ongoing relationships
We all prefer to deal with people we know and trust. Use your conversation skills to help build positive relationships, and then actively sustain those relationships. Treat networking as a process and not as a transaction. Promote yourself, maximise your influence.
Communicate effectively
Get your point across effectively by first being sure what you wish to communicate. Then convey it clearly in the most appropriate, effective and efficient manner. Check that your message has been perceived and understood correctly.
Become an expert listener
Become valued as an ‘expert’ listener so that others know they can depend on you to understand and follow through on instructions correctly. Active listening will help you to process and remember facts and also enable you to be more empathetic.
Be reliable
Build up a history of following through on expectations and on your promises by completing all assignments efficiently and effectively. Consistently meet or exceed people’s expectations of you. People need to know that they can depend on you. Make sure your performance is always exemplary.
Exercise professionalism
Be professional in all your behaviour. This includes being punctual, respecting other people, their privacy and their time. Present a professional image in all your actions and in your appearance.
Recognise and optimise opportunities
Actively look for ways in which you can be of assistance to others. Find areas where you can help solve problems. Also look for opportunities to pursue activities that you really enjoy or are good at. Maximise those opportunities.
Be approachable, friendly and yet polite
Make sure that people find it easy to approach you to ask for help, or to share ideas. Be friendly and easy work with. Be respectful and polite.
Practise honest and ethical behaviour
Show that you are a person of integrity and that you can at all times be relied on to actively promote and practise honesty. Be ethical in all that you do. Do not tolerate complacency in this area. Do the right thing.
Be properly informed
Have the correct facts ‘at your fingertips’. Consciously make an effort to learn all you can about your job and the functions of all with whom you interact. Research and learn as much as possible about your product and services, your company, its competitors and the industry.

Organise Your Thoughts & Your Information

Communication Skills Training, Leadership Development Tagged with: Business, Information management, Knowledge management, Time management

May 072011

Often we procrastinate before providing a written or verbal message. A possible reason is that we don’t have a quick, effective way of organising our information. There is just too much information, or we don’t know how to knock it into an appropriate, usable pattern.

There is a solution: practise organising your information effectively and you’ll be more motivated to communicate timeously and effectively.

Let’s look at the background: in preparing a message remember ‘GAPS’. We need to Gather information either from searches, through speaking to people in our network or from our own experience base. We must be able to Access that information when we need it. It’s pointless having the information if we can’t find it or access it. We then need to Process the information in order to Share it.

Our emphasis in this article is on Processing the information and this involves developing a clear message which is logically presented and which your audience or readers can follow. In order to do this, you need a systematic sequence which will enable the listener or reader not only to follow, but to remember what you have said. (Sharing)

The following are some of the many patterns for organising your ideas and materials for the body of your message. In reality, most of us use a combination of these methods. However, we often get stuck in the ways we use automatically and we can possibly improve on those. So, try experimenting with new ways of organising your information.

Chronological (time) order
Yesterday, today, tomorrow (past, present, future) or
Historical sequence – 1st period, 2nd period, 3rd period or
Recurring sequences – summer, autumn, spring, winter
Criteria order (ascending or descending)
complexity (simple to most complex) or
importance (least important to most important) or
urgency (least urgent to most urgent) or
other criteria (an example could be – necessary to know, should know, nice to know)
1st 2nd 3rd – articulate each
A B C (could be used similarly to 1st, 2nd, 3rd)
Letters spelling a word
e.g. PMB, CARD, ACE, aeiou, your initials
For example, PMB could stand for ‘people’, ‘marketing the city’ and ‘business developments’.
Journalistic – Who? How? When? Where? What? Why? Which?
Response or feedback
The same order as the document to which you are responding or
Any of the methods mentioned in number 8 below
Problem solving, how to improve or clarifying issues
Strengths, weaknesses, how to improve or
Define the problem, explain, offer a solution or
Problem, possible solutions, best solution or
Symptoms, prevention, cure or
Cause and effect or
Resemblances, differences or
Stop, start, continue or
Theory, practice, demonstrate or
ADO – advantages, disadvantages, other
Random categories
Thinking, feeling, doing or
Auditory, visual, kinesthetic or
Stop, look, listen or
Different categories (or aspects) or
Different perceptions of an issue

Organise your information effectively. It will help you to clarify what you wish to convey and make it easier for your audience to follow and remember your message.