I
don’t want any more cold
weather! Phew, that felt good
to say that. However, my travel
schedule takes me to the airport
tomorrow in NH during a sleet
storm. Not good.
I
lost all of my new tender leaves
on my butterfly bush, my
variegated hostas and all the
blossoms curled up on the pink
dogwoods in TN. Enough
already!
The Peach industry in my
southern neighborhood has been
devastated by the freeze and yet
I read a report from an orchard
owner that said “this unexpected
freeze will let the peach trees
rest this year and they will
have a bumper crop of peaches in
2008”. Now that is an
optimistic attitude after
receiving such an economic blow.
Talk about taking really
difficult information and
turning it into a place of hope.
We can all learn…
Delivering and receiving
difficult information
successfully is not an art, it
is a practice. As successful
leaders and managers, we
practice this skill daily,
sometimes hourly depending on
the day and the issue.
There are ten (10) top
techniques for managing how we
communicate information
successfully. We will cover the
first five this week and the
second five in next week’s
newsletter. The first five (5)
techniques for managing how we
communicate information are:
-
Focus
– What do you want the value
or outcome of your
communication to be in a
given situation or process?
-
Engage
– What is your contribution
to the success of the
communication?
-
Get curious
– How did a situation get to
this point and how can you
make it better?
-
Create rapport
– Make sure how you deliver
information or communicate
is done in a way that people
are in rapport with you.
-
Increase performance
– What would be most
important to you about
improving your performance;
the performance of others;
the performance of the
situation?
So, lets put this altogether so
you can take this information
and easily begin to use it in
your daily communication. This
is truly the point of our
newsletter – to be a resource to
you and provide you with
information that helps you be
effective so you can produce
sustainable and measurable
results.
The best preparation you can do
in order to communicate –
whether the information is
difficult or not – is to FOCUS
on what you want from the
communication. Once you are
clear with your intentions and
outcomes, you will automatically
become clear with your
communication. A natural side
affect of creating focus and
clarity is that you feel more
confident about the information
and the process.
Now that you are FOCUSED on your
outcome, you ENGAGE with the
person or the group in a
confident way. You deal with
confident leaders all the time,
they inspire, are respected and
trusted. You become one of
those leaders who is trusted and
respected when you confidently
ENGAGE in communication with a
FOCUS on the outcomes.
So
what happens if your prep does
not work? Get CURIOUS. If you
receive negative feedback or
pushback from your communication
and/or delivery of information,
it tends to make us feel
negative…we react. However, if
you get CURIOUS about why people
think or feel the way they do,
it is very difficult to be mad.
You become a better listener
and a better communicator when
we look to find out why people
are pushing back or negative.
Here are some good questions:
“I
can see that you are really
invested in your opinion, what
is it that would help make this
more clear for you?” or…
“I
can hear that this is creating a
difficult situation for you, is
there something that I’ve said
or presented that created
that?”
With your attitude of
communicating in a CURIOUS way,
you can see that the emotion is
eliminated; you get to hear what
is important from the other
person/people and you are
perceived as someone who is cool
under fire.
Creating RAPPORT is something we
do naturally and easily with our
best relationships. It is an
ease, a way of listening and
responding that lets the other
people we are communicating with
feel at ease. What we naturally
do without even thinking about
it is what we need to do when
the communication is not working
as well or easily. Change your
body to indicate you are
listening. Put your work away
and make eye contact. Use your
body and voice as acting
interested. That is rapport.
You can create rapport with
everyone easily. Just become
aware of how you are when you
are reacting or communicating
and you will be able to change
to fit the situation.
Last,
but not least, is INCREASING
PERFORMANCE. I guarantee that
if you FOCUS on the outcome of
your communication, ENGAGE in a
way that is positive for the
people and the project, get
CURIOUS when things don’t seem
to be going as well as you would
like and CREATE RAPPORT so
others feel listened to and
respected, you will
automatically create an
atmosphere of trust and respect.
The number one characteristic
that is present in the best
relationships and high
performing organizations and
teams is trust. In the
thousands of people we have
trained, I can tell you that
trust in groups, organizations
and with individuals increases
the performance every time.
FOCUS, ENGAGE, GET CURIOUS,
BUILD RAPPORT and INCREASE
PERFORMANCE.
Enjoy your communication tools
and enjoy honing those
leadership and management skills
by being able to deliver any and
all information in a profoundly
effective way.
Next week we will review the
final five (5) techniques for
managing how we communicate
information successfully to
add to your tool box so you can
build your leadership Roadmap
easily and with great skill.
Keep your fingers crossed that
we really begin spring here on
the East Coast of the US.
Also, welcome all our new
subscribers from all over the
world. I am delighted you find
the Leadership and Communication
Roadmap information helpful to
building your leadership and
management skills.
My best,
Natalie
P.S. I am totally in awe.
Just the mention of running
the
The
Roadmap to a Woman’s Extraordinary
Life(sm)
and half the program is
full. I knew it was going
to be popular, but I did not
even get to put together a
brochure to tell all the
benefits of it. I guess
spending time with really
extraordinary women for six
months of concentrated
caring about what is most
important to us was enough.
Anyway, the group is half
full. If you are interested
at all, let me know through
a personal email
CoachNatalie@NatalieManor.com
or you can go to the website
http://www.NatalieManor.com
and fill out the “questions”
section and ask your
questions. We will start in
May. Here
are details about
The
Roadmap to a Woman’s Extraordinary
Life(sm):
Three group calls a month;
weekly email journals about
our goals and outcomes;
definition of what is
important in a highly
confidential format; a
simple assessment of who and
how we are to help create
our goals and outcomes to
build our Roadmaps and at
the end of six months we get
together for two days of spa
and meeting each other with
a final project of
“presenting our lives” to
the group. I know we are
going to get to have a
tremendous opportunity to
clearly define what is most
important to us. And don’t
women do that well
together? Let me know.
's
Upcoming Events:
We decided to add an "Upcoming
Events" section to our weekly
newsletter in response to
several requests we have had to
provide information about my
upcoming speaking schedule.
Hope to see some of you at these
events.
April 18, 2007
- "Delivering Difficult
Information Successfully"
sponsored by the Bristol Chamber
of Commerce's Business and
Industry Council. This
interactive workshop will be
held April 18, 2007 from 7:45 AM
to 12:00 Noon at the Chamber
offices at 20 Volunteer Parkway,
Bristol, TN. Click here
for registration information:
http://www.NatalieManor.com/calendar.html
April 25, 2007 -
"Teambuilding: The 6 Steps to
Successfully Creating,
Communicating and Collaborating"
at the Healthcare
Symposium at the Radisson-Center
of NH- 700 Elm Street,
Manchester, NH 03103, on
Wednesday,
April 25, 2007.
will present and speak at the Healthcare Symposium.
Come by the exhibit hall and
visit us at booth #48.
Click here for registration
information:
http://www.NatalieManor.com/calendar.html
May 8, 2007 - The
"Communication Essentials of
Coaching" is sponsored
by the Johnson City Chamber of
Commerce. This impactful
workshop will be held on May 8,
2007 from 7:30 - 11:30 AM at the
Doubletree Hotel, 211
Mockingbird Lane, Johnson City,
TN. Click here for registration
information:
http://www.NatalieManor.com/calendar.html