The soon to be forgotten Jeremy Clarkson has built his career out of this single skill. No, not bullying, whingeing and feeling sorry for himself after behaving appallingly to producers, fellow journalists, wives, foreigners, and anyone who didn’t attend a public school (Chavs, I think, is the word he uses to describe most of the…
To cut to the chase, when undertake any kind of networking activity, it’s our intentions that often shine through our best efforts to hide them. The best networkers understand this and are careful to check their intentions before the enter the room. Why? Because if our intentions are venal, they’ll show, in the end. It…
Here’s a much used clip of Steve Jobs launching the Mac-book Air way back in 2008. I think that Steve Jobs was a competent presenter, no more, but with 2 advantages over the rest of us- He represented the best marketing company in the world He walked into the room as Steve Jobs. Which gives…
It’s a scene that happens so often. You’re chatting and having a lovely time at a work event. The someone asks you what you do. What do you do? There are, broadly, 3 options available- Start talking about you and notice that after 45 seconds your questioner has glazed over and moved into ‘I’ll keep…
In a previous post here I talked about the importance of making great first impressions when you’re the ‘newbie’ at work. It’s a hard time for every new starter, and a bit of skill here will stand you in good stead. It’s something most of us have had to develop in our lives at work. Here’s…
Here’s a lovely, practical ‘how to’ list of things to do to network effectively at those sometime tricky social & professional occasions, from Karen James. Tips like- People like to talk about themselves and their business. Good questions would be; ‘How did you get started in business?’ or ‘You have been very successful, what’s your secret?’…
‘Stroking’ is an important skill to master, for people who want to be more likeable and socially confident. To keep things simple, a ‘stroke’ in human interaction, is simply a physical or verbal sign that we like, care or understand another human being. The simplest examples abound- [one_third]Physical strokes as follows- Listening attentively A touch of the hand…
I had a great chat with a colleague today. She’s an ex-investment banker. One of the UK’s ’40 people in investment banking under 40 to watch out for in 2011′. She’s smart, funny and worth listening to. As we chatted about clients and business development, networking and lots of other things, she told me a great…
I do a lot of work to help professional people, in very large firms, to become more comfortable with ‘networking’. They talk to me about the difficulties they find in cultivating new ‘prospects’. Times are tough, and they have tough targets to achieve for new business, and business development. And what they used to do,…