You have to exert influence in many ways on different people many times a day, whether it’s your boss, customers, staff, stakeholders, suppliers, colleagues or others.

When you think about it, persuading is just another form of selling. If you need to influence another person, it means that currently they either don’t have the knowledge you do, or are reluctant to change to your view.

So how can you sell your ideas better and influence others, while still remaining effective and ethically sound?

Here are some tips:

1) Define your objective and be clear about the facts. What do you want to achieve with your persuasion and why? Think of the facts rather than the emotions involved. If you can deal with irrefutable facts, you can influence the logical thinking processes of the other person.

2) See the picture from the other person’s perspective. Establish what needs and wants they have and identify how they look at things. Are they analytical? Do they need details? Or are they big-picture thinkers, where a little information goes a long way?

3) Talk about the benefits. Any change will at first be resisted because of the fear of letting go of a certain position. So the first port of call is to highlight the benefits to the other party, hence reducing any objections or fears

4) Predict their response to the changes. Anticipate how they will react and include them in your presentation of facts and ideas, so any objections are dealt with prior to them coming up.

5) Create the other person’s next move for them. If you convince the other that your ideas are worthy of putting into practice, you produce reasons for them to take action.

6) Make any proposition simple and attractive to put into place. Any challenges should be broken down and dealt with in manageable pieces. Make any changes straightforward and measurable.

7) Make sure the other person finds the ideas useful, attractive and actionable. This means they are more likely to see the reasons for accepting your proposition and allowing you to persuade them to take the necessary action, whether it’s funding for a new project or deciding on a different route for the business.

The effectiveness of any influencing or persuasion session will be built on its foundation of preparation. If you prepare well, you have every reason to be confident that you can influence the thinking of another person. And that, along with your ethical reasons for doing so, should play a big part in your listeners accepting your proposals.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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I saw that very funny sketch on TV the other day, where commedians Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett acted out a communication mismatch scene that epitomises so effectively how so much business is conducted today. Put your speakers or headphones on, press the play button and enjoy again…

It shows all too readily how interpretation of a message can lead to poor understanding and a distortion of meaning. The shopkeeper automatically assumed he knew what the customer meant. It was only after four or five attempts at guessing what the customer meant that he actually undertook a very fundemantal form of communication clarification…that of asking specific, well-formed questions.

How many times have you been misunderstood by another person? Or should I ask, how many times A DAY have you been misunderstood? It’s easy to assume the other person has understood what you meant, until you find they have not done it as you asked. And they will always say, “But you said….” and then justify their actions according to their understanding of the meaning of the conversation.

What lessons can we learn from the sketch? That no matter what we think the meaning of the conversation is, there’s always a chance it will be misinterpreted or distorted.

As the saying goes, “I know you think you believe you understand what you thought I said, but I’m not sure that what you heard is not exactly what I meant”. We need to make sure the understanding is at the same level as the transmission. Easy? No. But worth the effort.

Did the customer know what he wanted to buy? Yes.

Did he communicate it in a way that was clear to HIM? Yes.

Could the shopkeeper have asked clarifying questions to confirm HIS understanding of what the customer meant? Yes.

Could the whole conversation have been carried out in half the time? Yes.

But it wouldn’t have been so funny, would it?

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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Francis Bacon wrote, “Reading makes a full man” and Emerson wrote, “It’s a good reader that makes a good book”.

Reading is one of the core skills of any good communicator. Our trainers will often ask delegates how many books have they got in their personal library, and they are often surprised by how few books on the subject of management or leadership the delegates have got.

Reading is listening in action, giving you time to give thoughtful attention to what the author is suggesting and helps you remain open to everything that is being offered. It helps your creative juices, because it opens up opportunities you hadn’t considered before.

To decide what your reading requirements are, go to the core of your job; what are you actually paid to do? Then ask yourself:

What must I read to keep up-to-date with current initiatives and ideas within my industry?
What should I read?
What might I read?

An IT consultant, for example, must read certain journals, magazines and books to keep abreast of new developments. They should read certain articles about related fields, like new software developments. They might read items about wider-ranging possibilities, such as the future role of IT in business.

Ask yourself what you need to, or must, read to do your job adequately and to improve in your role. Does your reading list match this? And if you say you don’t have the time, think how much time you spend commuting on the train or in the car. If you travel by train, put the paper down and read an article about your field. If driving to work, hire or buy CDs that relate to your field and listen to them.

What have you read in the last six months that has led to you improving your existing job?

Think of your current job as a short-term contract. As well as fulfilling today’s role, you ought to be thinking about preparing for tomorrow’s job, developing your future capability as well as your current competence. And reading stores of information and ideas is an important element in that process of self-development and self-education.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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How do you feel when you are to present information, even to people you are familiar with? If you’re like most people, you will suffer from nervous anxiety or, at best, have ‘butterflies’ in the stomach.

Why do we suffer from ‘nerves’ and how can we calm them in a situation where we feel fearful of the actual act or the consequences of it?

Firstly, realise that being nervous is normal, so don’t think that there’s something wrong with you or that you shouldn’t be feeling this way. Some degree of nervous tension is actually a good thing. It gets the adrenalin flowing and prepares your body and mind for action. You can manage an over-nervous reaction by practicing deep breathing. It may not get rid of the nerves but it will help you to manage them, as you introduce more oxygen into the body.

Why do we get nervous? Well, your body cannot distinguish very well between different types of danger. Your mind prompts the body to interpret the presentation as a dangerous situation, which builds anxiety and, possibly, fear.

Why would it do this? It’s because you are preparing for either fight or flight, which is our reptillian brain’s normal reaction to danger. If you get wounded in a fight, for example, it’s probably better not to have food in the stomach. So the natural reaction is to get rid of it. That’s why you naturally feel sick when you perceive dangerous situatioins.

You can see that your perception of a situation plays a big part in keeping these physical reactions under control. So the most important step is to manage your perception of the occasion, making sure you see the audience as being people who need your information, guidance, knowledge, expertise, experience and leadership.

How can you build confidence when you are feeling nervous? Here are some tips:

1) Take long, deep breaths. This allows your diaphragm to let out air as you are saying each word and stops your vocal chords from tightening up, causing your voice to sound squeaky and taught.

2) Control your hands. Try to relax them and let them act naturally for you. If in doubt, let them hang loosely in front of you.

3) Give good eye contact. People will recognise how you feel from your body language. Good eye-contact makes you look confident and in control. If you find this difficult, look at people’s foreheads…from a distance it will look as if you are looking them straight in the eye.

4) Talk normally and don’t rush it. People will not be able to take in the meaning if you rush, and will cease to listen actively to you. They will switch off, because it will take too much effort to understand you.

5) Remember the fear is only there because you want to impress. If you put the emphasis on what your audience needs to know, you take the emphasis off yourself. Keep them in mind and you will gradually forget your own nerves.

Nerves are a natural reminder that we can always improve in our presentation of information. Learn to control them and you should see improvements quickly in the way your presentations are perceived.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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Debbie Harrington-Mackin came up with some myths about team assessments, and it would be good for you to analyse whether any of them apply to your team. Here are five of them:

1) People are the cause of all team problems, and there is nothing you can do about people.

2) More training will solve the team’s problems

3) No system is perfect and, as a team is a system, there is no point in trying to make it better as it will never achieve the level you want it to.

4) If teams aren’t working, we must be doing something wrong, as teams work in other companies.

5) We just have to bear with team problems, as teams are the only way we can structure people in today’s organisation.

The author highlighted these myths as there are many mangers who still think there are elements of truth in them. But the facts show otherwise.

If you are going to assess how your team is faring, it is wise to approach it from three different perspectives; the team results, the team manager and the team members.

Firstly, the team results. What you need to consider are the actual results versus the plan, the performance versus the objectives, how satisfied the team members are with the team and how satisfied customers are with the team.

Second, the team manager. What are the perceptions of the team members? What are the customers’ perceptions of the way the team is managed? And what is the manager’s own self-assessment of performance?

Finally, What do the team members think? What are their peers’ perceptions? What about self-assessments? And what do the customers think?

If you achieve results against all of these measurements, then the myths of team assessments can be ignored, and you can rely on the truth.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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