Author Archive

What Should I Tell High School Students?

 To prepare to speak to a group of high school students, I asked my professional colleagues the question,  "What one message should I communicate to high school students?"

The responses I received…from:

• (Roger) A message about freedom and responsibility.
• (Gayle) Accountability.
• (Janice) "Be" rather than "seem".
• (Bob) Love and sex do not mean the same thing.
• (Liz) How and when to say "yes", and how to care for yourselves.
• (Ed) There is no "free lunch" in life.
• (Esther) Not to give up. Follow your dreams. Work hardest.
• (Don) The importance of history, geography, and politics / government.
• (Michael) If failure is the path to success, then we need to teach people to fail faster.

Present A Professional Image…On Video (Introduction/Overview)

This is a preview of a program I developed for how to present a professional image on video (for video profiles). The video was shot and digitally edited by a professional videographer (Tim Fahey). The content was developed by me (Sylvia Henderson). I invite constructive comments as to whether you would invest in such a program for yourself or for your organization, as well as ancillary educational materials to help you put the concepts into practice.

The video gives you some content, right here, while you try it out! Accompanying the video (which is just an introduction and overview of the program content) will be a workbook, slides, workshop facilitation (90 minutes-to-3 hours depending on the client), and a possible webinar.

Program Description

Video profiles are emerging as necessary tools to complement resumes and pre-screen for interviews in job searches. They are also effective business preview tools for potential client and partnering considerations, and can present the initial face to your business or nonprofit for potential investors and donors. Amateur antics and editing typical of personal video posts are poor reflections of the quality of your experiences and capabilities.

Just as with your written business proposals and marketing materials, you must convey a level of professionalism about you and your organization in your video profiles. In this session you will receive and share tools and processes for presenting the best business image you can when you post your videos online.

To project your professional work ethic and capabilities into your video profiles, the actionable information you will take from this session includes:

• Considerations for preparing your video profile
• Research suggestions
• How to look and sound professional on camera

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 and your business can do, and who you say you are, in print, on screen, and in person.

Video Introduction / Overview of Program Content

Slides (TBD)

Handout (TBD)

Thanks for helping me develop a program so that it will be useful and beneficial to clients!

Right Writeful Style Guide (Tongue-In-Cheek)

A friend sent this to me. If this makes you laugh, then you "get" it and already understand rules for writing well. If the following does not make you smile, then grab a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style or an online facsimile and start studying. I suggest you keep a dictionary, thesaurus, style guide, and instant word guide readily available anyway. I use all of these – hard copy and online – constantly. Enjoy!

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How to Write Good
(A Tongue-In-Cheek Style Guide for Writing Good)

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
3. The adverb always follows the verb.
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. Remember to never split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren't necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. Be more or less specific.
15. Understatement is always best.
16. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
17. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
18. The passive voice is to be avoided.
19. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
20. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

To be continued…

Mini-Lessons With Great Content, From Great Experts

  If you've got a short attention span, or want "just the facts" about a particular topic in about five minutes, I found – and subscribe to – a resource called Athena Online.

According to their own description, "Athena's SmartBytes™ provide a quick overview of subjects through online video, animation, and supporting material. Advice is presented by such leading-edge thinkers as Drs. Homa Bahrami, Judith Bardwick, Marshall Goldsmith, Mitchell Marks, Larraine Segil, Al Vicere, and many others. Topics range from coaching and feedback skills to merger and acquisition issues."

This is a great resource for sampling content for some "big names" and learning whether you want to explore more deeply either a particular expert or a particular subject.

Public Speaking: Articles and Resources (“Sharing Ideas” Magazine)

This resource is for people serious about public speaking and making money doing so. I have a couple of articles in past issues. The magazine used to be a hard copy publication that arrived in my mailbox six times/year. Since its founder, Dottie Walters, died, the publication is now online-only.

Find excellent resources about and for the speaking profession.

Sharing Ideas Magazine.

Success Language “In Plain English”

     A huge part of the concept of "success language" is communicating clearly, whether through words (spoken & written), text (written hard copy or electronically), or visuals (still or motion). One very effective technique for communicating clearly is to simplify complex concepts through cartoons.

     Most of us can relate to cartoons and comics regardless of how artistic or amateurish said cartoons are drawn. Stick figures suffice if they are used to express concepts effectively.

     The Internet and the World Wide Web – and all that is associated with it – remains a mystery to so many people. Yet its use is more and more a "need to use" tool in the fabric of our daily lives, both professionally and personally. Especially professionally. I found a series of video clips that explain several complex topics we users of Subscribe2Succeed should know and understand. They revolve around social networking (which our community of members participate in just by being members) and some of the common applications on the Internet. They are called "Plain English" video clips and are nice and short (5 minutes or under) for our short attention spans. While some of you may think, "Crude" or "Oversimplified", others of you will think, "Oh! THAT's what that means!"

     Knowing full well that satisfying everyone is an ongoing pursuit, here are some of the "Plain English" clips I've found very helpful.

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"Social Networking, in Plain English"
(An overview of the concept and practice of social networking)

"Google Docs, in Plain English"
(Describes how Google Docs works and how to use it)

"Cloud Computing, in Plain English"
(Don't let 'cloud computing' concepts go over your head!)

"Wikis, in Plain English"
(What's a 'Wiki' and why do you care?)

"Twitter, in Plain English"
(Twitter 160-character communications)

"RSS Feeds, in Plain English"
(What RSS is all about, and how to set it up)

"Blogs, in Plain English"
(Web Logs – Blogs – explanation and how-to)

"Podcasting, in Plain English"
(Podcasts, which is what you have with Subscribe2Succeed audio MP3s)

"Social Media, in Plain English"
(Explanation of a variety of social media tools)

"Social Bookmarking, in Plain English"
(What on Earth is 'Social Bookmarking'?)

"Computer Hardware, in Plain English"
("I need a WHAT?" Basic computer components – that really haven't changed that much in their purpose over all these years.)

"Phishing Scams, in Plain English"
(Learn how to avoid catching a big one!)

"Online Photo Sharing, in Plain English"
(I'll share mine with you if you share yours.)

Let me know if you find other "Plain English" vidclips like these, especially if they help YOU learn something.

NOTE: These "Plain English" videos are produced by Common Craft. They do serious business videos for fee.

Sylvia

Foot-In-Mouth Syndrome…Innoculate Yourself Now

There's buzz about "hoof-and-mouth" disease. (Anyone remember the television program "Boston Legal" with William Shatner's character suffering from what he called "mad cow disease"?)

What about "put-foot-in-mouth" syndrome? Most of us periodically have bouts of this syndrome. The cause is typically that we open our mouths and speak before our brains catch up to us to tell us that what comes out of our mouths might best be re-phrased (or not leave our lips at all).

An article came across my (virtual) desk that brought a chuckle to the start of my day about gaffs people have been heard to make during sales meetings. (READ THE ARTICLE HERE.)

Now, how do we minimize our "put-foot-in-mouth" syndrome? Here are three tips to implement right away to keep this communications gaff at bay.

1. THINK before you speak. I know. This is an overused admonition. Yet, we keep ignoring it! I know I do when I am nervous or stressed-out. When that thought comes into your head and your mouth is about to open with your tongue ready to move into action, send a signal to your brain that says, "Wait! Just one more second or two. What are you about to say that just might not be appropriate in this situation?" That extra second or two can buy you the time you need to avoid uttering an embarrassing statement.
2. Ask yourself, "To whom am I about to say the next sentence, and how might my words impact this person?" In a second? Thinking this takes longer than saying what you're going to say!! Agreed, yet when communications count the most (like relationships, sales, service, health, safety, ????) it is best to ask yourself the question. The words that spew from your mouth make a crucial difference in the reactions – and actions – that follow.
3. Stick to your "script". If your job or business is such that you have an outline or script for the things you say to people (think customer service, sales, professional presentations, emergency response scripts, and others), stick to the scripts and avoid embellishments…especially when you are rushed or in a stressed state of mind. Outlines, scripts, and practicing responses serve a purpose. They condition your mind to say the "right things" at the times they are supposed to be said. Nerves and adrenaline and stress garble up the mental synapses. (Now, THAT's a scientific description!) Keep to the "script" when you need it the most. Embellishments just get you in verbal trouble.

Implement these three tips for keeping verbal gaffs and foot-in-mouth syndrome at bay, right away. And consider reinforcing your interpersonal communications competencies by getting my free 9-day set of interpersonal skills reminders at http://www.springboardtraining.com.

Interpersonal Skills Pre-Screened for Industrial Hiring

"But I don't NEED to communicate well in person. I want to work with machines [or electronics or robots or on an assembly line]."

If this is what you think as you launch – or continue – your job search, think again. Jobs that used to involve heavy supervisor-intervention are becoming more self-directed through work teams, eliminating or changing the supervisor role. As former industrial jobs grow increasingly computerized, a higher level of interaction and communication between workers becomes the norm. Case in point: take your car in for service to the dealer. The service area looks different from the past. Now it is clean, organized, and computerized. Technicians, instead of mechanics, work on your increasingly computerized car and need to communicate more clearly with each other – and with their own support network – in order to determine what ails your auto and fix it.

The hiring process for a changing (or changed!) industrial workplace is also transforming. More people look for these jobs; more jobs require greater interpersonal skills, initiative, and better decision-making; more weeding-out of job candidates at the initial stages of the interview process is happening.

Testing for the skills needed to succeed in self-directed work team environments includes a multi-stage, multiple-people process on both the hiring end as well as the job-searcher end. I found this article that is a good description of such testing and evaluating at the front-end of the job interview process.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Regardless of your education level or prior job experiences, your ability to communicate, interact, cooperate, and collaborate with your peers – in person – may determine how successful you are in securing your next "worker-level" job. Keep this in mind while you text, tweet, friend, and link. Develop your in-person "people skills", also.

“Social” of Social Media = Interpersonal

A Nielsen Wire study notes statistics on the rise of social media use in recent years.

READ STUDY RESULTS. (Nice graphs, too, for us visual information processors.)

The "social media phenomenon" can no longer be considered a "new thing". Google, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other sites have been around long enough for an entire generation of people to know nothing except these tools! And that generation is a growing part of the workplace.

Workplace changes include considering and implementing better use of social networking rather than "should we use these tools?" One of the primary advantages of social network tools is the expanded "social" aspect.

Social is different for someone born in 1990 than for someone born in 1950, yet it is the same. Too many articles and blogs note the negatives of social media and social networks. Let's look at the positives of "social" in social networks.

1. Increased "social". We connect with people more readily and more easily through these tools. For those with self-esteem challenges and those who consider themselves "social wallflowers" or "introverts", connecting with people on social networks helps them break out of their shells through a keyboard or keypad. There are more connections rather than fewer.

2. More "self" revealed. Some will say this is a negative development when you consider sexting and personal data online. On the positive side, though, we tend to reveal more of our honest feelings to others online than in person. When we release the "stuff" inside us that keeps us tense and uptight, we experience better health. We establish tighter relationships. Realize that a delicate balance must exist between too much information (or too personal for public eyes online), honesty, personal safety, and organizational security. A lot of dis-honesty exists in the world.

3. Greater language skills required. Person-to-person communications involves multiple components of messaging: the words we use, our vocal variety, our body language, movements, and positioning, our facial expressions, listening skills, and more. With social media we have the words we use, emoticons, and only with a web cam do we have visual cues (as of this writing, anyway) or a microphone, the audio cues. The other components of effective interpersonal communications are missing – including immediate feedback and response in many cases. Therefore, our skill with how we choose and use our words must improve in order to make up for the other cues we miss. We must have better command of our language skills.

"Interpersonal" includes being more social, revealing more of ourselves honestly and safely, and using language more effectively. Social networks, when used and managed effectively, allow us to practice our interpersonal communication skills in a laser-focused way. Our challenge is to not hide behind social networks but to use them to initiate more in-person interaction…positively and safely.

Peak Performance in Tough Times

This is a mini-lesson by one of my National Speakers Association-DC Area colleagues, Dr. Wolfe Rinke, CSP. It's about how to inspire peak performance even though "times are tough".

Sylvia's note: Aren't times ALWAYS tough for someone? Don't let tough times keep you from being excellent.

WATCH THE VIDEO / MINI-LESSON