Successful Blog

How to Leap from Taking Directions to Professionally Presenting Ideas

by

cooltext443809602_strategy

In order to move up the professional ladder, a person must not only prove to be an excellent worker, he or she must also be a leader. After years of doing what others tell you to do, the only way to get to the next level professionally is to assume the role of a leader – an idea man or woman.

In order to assert yourself and make a bigger impact within your company or with clients, you will need to take that leap from following directions to suggesting a whole new set of directions to follow. Furthermore, it is not good enough to have a great idea – you need to be able to present it successfully as well.

Here are some tips to get your ideas not only heard, but also to gain respect as you learn what appeals most to the audience you want to influence and persuade.

Know Your Audience

If you are going to impress your audience, know who you’re addressing. In many cases, you are not pitching these ideas directly to the “boss.” Make sure you’re bringing your idea to the people who have the power to put it into motion or take it to the next step.

Once you have chosen the right audience, get to know what makes those people tick. Find out what appeals to them and what benefits you need to stress in order to capture their interest in your idea. Once you know who is in the audience, you will be able to perfect the presentation of your idea for them.

Perfect Your Presentation

Sharing ideas is not something that should be taken casually. If you really want to show that you are serious about an idea, it’s best to plan it out and present it immaculately. A simple mention of your idea beside the water cooler just won’t do in most cases. Prepare your presentation and if the venue allows, enrich it with visual or multimedia aids. It’s much easier to keep interest when your presentation is multifaceted and includes more than you speaking while your audiences imagines what you’re proposing.

Don’t shy away from rehearsing your presentation either. Just like you wouldn’t sing a song at a talent show without practicing, you shouldn’t be presenting a serious idea without practicing your talk. The better prepared you are, the more confident you will be, and that can make all the difference in the world.

Be Ready to Answer Questions

Whenever you are presenting an idea in a business setting, you may be met with questions about the downside of your idea. People will want to know how to fund it, what resources it requires and any and all weaknesses that might get in the way of success.

Think ahead about the parts of your presentation that could be unclear to your audience, and address them beforehand. Consider questions that good business people ask and objections that are common in your business and from your audience. Have a proper justification and reason for everything you suggest. Be prepared to explain the reasoning behind every aspect of your idea and plan.

Bring Variations

It helps to be flexible going in. Know which facets of your idea that can be changed or altered without sacrificing the core of the plan. Bring some suggested alternatives with you in your initial presentation.

Use Rejections Constructively

If and when your idea is turned down, see it as an opportunity to learn more about the goals of your audience. If you always quit on your idea after one rejection, you’ll never gain the respect of the people you’re trying to convince. Think through the feedback as you listen to it. Is the problem the idea or the execution of it that you suggested? If you’re not sure, find out. Sometimes the people you’re addressing have information that you didn’t have.

Be Ready to Go Back to Work

Find out whether the idea is dead or can be revised. Some ideas are too expensive, too labor intensive, or make more work than they’re worth. That doesn’t mean that parts of those ideas aren’t worth exploring further. If you hear that there’s still a chance, go back to the drawing board and apply what you’ve learned. Implement changes in your idea to address the objections that were voiced during your presentation. When you’re confident in your new plan, ask for a meeting to share the revised plan.

Remember, the goal of setting out an idea in business is to enlist support for a project you believe will help the business grow. People will be looking for how well you listen as much as how well you present. If you’re truly interested in the goals of the audience and what works for them, you’ll get noticed as someone who is not only interested in his or her own success, but in the success of the business as well.

What advice do you have for enlisting people in your ideas?
.

__________
Author’s Bio:
David Lazar is a blogger at CometDocs.com. With a background in journalism, he enjoys writing about and following a variety of topics, including careers, technology and new media.

Thank you, David!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Customers and the Internet Can Be Deadly Combo for Businesses

by

With all the good the Internet has brought to both businesses and customers, it also has opened a can of worms that is not too easy to close.

Take the following example:

A customer comes to your restaurant with their significant other for a special evening of fine dining and relaxation. Their waiter/waitress is running behind and is late getting them their orders. When the food does arrive, it is not what they ordered and/or is cold. The restaurant is real noisy and the couple, the ones that were planning on a peaceful dining experience, ends up feeling like they just spent an hour or two at a food court in a busy airport. When all is said and done, they leave your restaurant and haven’t even left a decent tip. Think you will never hear from them again?

In all likelihood, while you may never see them in person again, there is a very good chance you will hear from them, as will countless others.

Internet Has Changed the Ways We Do Business

You see, the ‘old days’ likely meant that you may get a letter in the mail regarding the service, but not much more than that. Okay, while it is never good business to lose a customer or two, losing a few here and there is to be expected.

But wait, what if you now lose hundreds of potential customers because of this one bad experience the couple had? Don’t think it can happen? Well, think again.

After that couple left your eatery the other night, one or both of them took to the Internet and told anyone who would listen about what a bad experience they had at your restaurant. Now, instead of maybe just their family and friends knowing about it, potentially hundreds and even thousands will hear their complaints.

Negative publicity regarding your business is certainly not a positive thing, but do you automatically have to react or does doing so actually open you up to more trouble?

First and foremost determine why the negative publicity originated:

  • Was the customer’s bad experience something that could have been prevented or were you not even aware of it until the fallout?
  • Is it a constructive comment or something that seems personal from a customer you’ve had issues with in the past?
  • Has this customer’s bad experience been something new to your business or is this becoming an unwanted trend (other customers too) as of late?
  • If you have dealt with a similar issue before, what was the outcome?

When it comes to dealing with bad publicity, the advent of the Internet years back has meant business owners now can be dealt a major blow with just a few sentences being banged out on a keyboard.

What once used to be bad publicity spread through word of mouth from one upset customer to maybe a handful of people can now be passed around like a viral wildfire by one click of a mouse. In just minutes, thousands of people can read a bad review of your business and form negative views of it in the process.

If your business believes that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all, then by all means stand back and take your chances. Chances are, however, that many companies don’t feel that way and will take a stand to deal with the matter.

If negative publicity links regarding your business seem to be spreading like wildfire, the best way to eliminate them is by using the correct SEO techniques.

Do You Know and Understand Your Online Reputation?

A positive step is hiring an expert who handles online reputation rebuilding so they can start the cleansing process of removing bad publicity links.

The individual/company you hire to rebuild your company’s reputation can simply demote bad post ranking sites from search engines such as Google, promoting positive posts for the rankings instead. The information is likely still to be on the Internet, but those researching will have a major dig on their hands.

In the event comments are left on your site via a forum or on your company’s Facebook page, it is important that you have already have in place a reader comments policy so customers know the rules up front. Not only does this protect you legally, but it also keeps your reputation in tact that you can take the heat and address the issues at heart. For those customers who leave constructive comments (not involving vulgarity, etc.), by all means leave them up, as censoring them is going to draw the ire of not only the original poster, but likely others.

Business owners can ignore the remarks and let them hopefully die or take them on and deal with those consequences.

The bottom line is trying to determine the potential impact from the comment or comments and how they can impact your wallet.

So, has your business been saddled with negative online comments in the past? If so, what did you do about them?

Photo credit: neighborhoods.redeyechicago.com

Dave Thomas writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

25 Secrets to Live and Work Intelligently from the Heart

by

Dynamic Tension Is the Art

On Valentine’s Day, 2008, I wrote How to Write Intelligently from the Heart. It explored how to create the dynamic tension between structure and expression that makes our writing live on.

We can think and write. We can craft our sentences to be clever. We can make sure that each part is factually, structurally, grammatically correct. But clever and accurate only go so far in satisfying readers. If we want our writing to resonate long after, our words need to come from the heart.

As I read that post today, it leads me to think about the dynamic tension between head and heart that are part of any successful business and any successful life.

In the same way, our work needs to come from the heart.

How to Live and Work Intelligently from the Heart

We can think and plan life. We can think and plan a business. We can build brilliant business strategy and savvy life design. We can make sure we’re on budget, we manage our time, and delivering high ROI that sees to the needs of work, friends, and family. But savvy and brilliant only go so far. If we want build a lasting business inside a meaningful life we need our head hardwired to our heart.

Here are 25 secrets I’ve learned about living and working intelligently from the heart.

  1. Decide who you want to be and what you’re building. It’s not a process. It’s a decision. We don’t have enough future. See it and be it now.
  2. See it as a quest and a mission. Just having a goal keeps that vision and mission in our head. A quest is noble requires us to invest our heart. /li>
  3. If we don’t believe we’ll get there, We’ll give up as soon as it gets hard. No one else will believe in us either.
  4. When we align our mission with our values, we attract people who share them and want to help. Work and life get faster, simpler, and more meaningful.
  5. When we speak the hard intelligent truth gently from our hearts, we never regret it. When we don’t, we always wish we had.
  6. We can’t love and punish someone, anyone, in the same moment. See with intelligent love and you might be surprised with the response.
  7. Know what’s at the heart of the quest before building the campaign to move it forward. An idea still being formed by a heart won’t survive the plan being built by an intelligent brain. A brain can forget how that plan impacts the people we care about and who care about us.
  8. Make a heartfelt commitment to yourself. That’s how integrity starts. Integrity makes us safe, predictable, and easy to trust. Being trustworthy is intelligent.
  9. Except when a life is threatened, wanting to run fast is a signal to slow down. Knee jerk responses rarely deliver as we expect.
  10. The less time we have for the people we care about, the more that making time to be with them would do us good.
  11. When we want want to hold things tightest is when to let go … Holding something tightly is a sign of fear.
  12. When we most want the light to shine on us is the best time to let someone else go first.
  13. When we want anything we don’t need, it feels better to give something away.
  14. Whenever we feel righteous, we’re wrong. Righteous means angelic, godlike, and saintly. Taking that view is bad from the start.
  15. The universe does not need us to keep it going. The stars do all right without us.
  16. People are made of the same carbon stuff as stars. Even the humblest star shines. We should too.
  17. Everybody cries, but not everybody cares. The best people do both.
  18. We win ourselves when we choose our opinion of ourselves over what we want other people to think.
  19. Gratitude is a giving, gracious attitude given from strength. We never have enough gratitude, but we can be too needy.
  20. Every act of generosity goes both ways.
  21. Everyone wants to look forward to something and needs a safe place to stand. Remembering that can deliver it to us.
  22. Everybody gets lost sometimes, but most of us find our way home. Helping someone who wants to find their way is easy. Helping someone who doesn’t want to move is difficult.
  23. Life is about what things are worth, not what they cost.
  24. To know who we are all that we have to do is look at our friends.
  25. We can’t separate work from life. We’re spending the time of our life when we work. Trying to balance work and life is like trying to balance your head with your body can’t pull them apart.

People who live and work intelligently from the heart share the humanity of who they are. It’s the in the humanity that we connect to them with our minds and with our hearts. They have boundaries to structure their work and their lives but their hearts touch other people. And it shows in the way that their lives and their work are art. You see the intelligence from the heart in the thoughtful unexpected gesture at the moment it’s needed most, in the compassion and forgiveness offered by a human with strong sense of self, in the way they seem to breathe an intelligent heartfelt belief that people are meant to be all they are. Head and heart together make meaning in a way that intelligence alone cannot.

It’s the style, the color, and the light — the playful feeling that took skill and thought to express — that makes this photo more than a heart in a frame.

How do you recognize someone who lives and works intelligently from the heart?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

How to Reset Your Brain When You’re Burnt Out

by

Everything in Moderation

cooltext443809602_strategy

Whenever my grandmother used to visit, she always brought the same advice. “Everything in moderation,” she’d say, and it would apply to basically anything I was doing at the time. Whether it was stuffing my gourd with mom’s superb cooking, or it was playing games with my friends, or it was rocking out on my guitar, she’d always advise me to take it easy. That advice works on two levels, though I didn’t realize that until later in life.

When I was younger I took her advice to mean that I shouldn’t overindulge in anything. Grandma reinforced this notion once I got to college and she continued dispensing this advice. Clearly she knew I was drinking, but continued her mantra of moderation. I can’t, in good conscience, say that I always followed her advice. There were times, albeit brief, when excess became the rule. But Grandma’s voice always reeled me back to moderation.

It wasn’t until she passed away, six years ago, that I started to think more deeply about her advice. I had just graduated college and was starting my first real job, so many of my past excesses were out of the question. Binge drinking ended with graduation; time to wail on my guitar became scarce; even eating heavily was less of an option, since I actually had to pay for my own food. Yet there was a new type of excess creeping into my life. Every morning I’d sit outside the office door, waiting for someone with a key to let me in. At night one boss or another would make me go home, so he, too, could lock up and go home.

This type of excess led to burnout.

Working more seemed great. I was making good impressions with my bosses, and I was sure to advance faster than my peers. It was what I had planned all along: the fast-track to a high-ranking, and high-paying, position. Yet I had not accounted for the burnout that would come with such strenuous work. Soon enough Sunday nights became a burden, because all I could think about was the terror of going to work Monday morning. Getting out of bed became more difficult with each passing day, and it took longer and longer to fall asleep. Excess had begun to rule my life.

Thankfully, I still had Grandma’s advice to fall back on. Something needed to change, or else I’d realize full burnout. That probably meant quitting my job and might have meant seeking psychiatric help. After deciding that I wanted neither of these things, I decided to take action. Using a single vacation day, on a Friday, I got away for a weekend. It wasn’t a tropical beach, or ski slopes, or any typical kind of weekend getaway. It was to a simple bed and breakfast a few hours away. In this time I developed a plan to help avoid burnout. It has been my blueprint ever since.

Here is a full course menu on how to avoid burnout in your own life.

1. Sleep in. Getting to the office at 7 a.m. and not leaving until 6:30 or 7 p.m. definitely took a toll on me. Thanks to stress, I wasn’t even getting to sleep at a decent hour. The first change I made, then, was to pick one day a week and sleep in. This was usually on Wednesdays, which allowed me to recover a bit from Monday and Tuesday, and left me a bit more refreshed for Thursday and Friday. Getting to the office at 9 a.m. just one day a week wasn’t going to negatively affect my work. In fact, it only stood to improve it.

2. Leave early. Again, this is a term relative to my previous habits. Staying late every day might have made a favorable impression upon my bosses, but it was killing me personally. Everyone needs to unwind for a bit after work, and that just wasn’t happening. Getting home at 7:30, getting dinner, and then sitting around for a bit meant I wasn’t going to bed until around 11 — and not falling asleep for a while after that. Leaving early one day a week would provide some relaxation. This usually came on Tuesday or Thursday, which went well with sleeping in on Wednesday.

3. Get away, Part 1. Changing our environments can help change our mindsets. After going on a business trip, I found that spending time in a place other than my apartment provided a therapeutic effect. A new environment also brought new stimuli, which helped keep me fresh. Most surprisingly, I found that the plane ride, especially on the way home, was a great time for redefining my focus. Signing up for more business trips proved immensely helpful in avoiding burnout.

4. Get away, Part 2. It was still early in my career, and I felt as though taking a week’s vacation, even though it was available, wasn’t a great idea. Still, as the business trips proved, getting away could help a lot. Getting away while not working sounded even better. The solution: repeat my weekend trip to the country. It required just one day off every couple of months, and it provided a real motivation boost. With so many cheap hotels(http://www.orbitz.com/) available on travel sites such as Orbitz, I was always able to find a reasonable rate commensurate with my entry level salary.

5. Keep a journal. Maybe it’s because I’ve been writing since high school, but I’ve always found that keeping a written record of something helps ease my mind. Every day before I left work, I’d create a journal entry documenting the day’s work. It actually helped me pick up inefficiencies, which, once corrected, led to a less stressful workday.

Overindulging in anything, whether it be alcohol, a creative pursuit, or more traditional work, can leave us overstressed and burnt out. That’s not to say that these aren’t worthy pursuits — well, alcohol really isn’t — but the over-pursuit of them can have negative effects. It’s just as Grandma said so many times: everything in moderation. It took a while for me to realize that by everything, she meant everything. But once I did, I learned to manage work and stress. It has led to a clearer mind, and a continually budding career.

—-
Author’s Bio:
Joe Pawlikowski writes about prepaid wireless services at Prepaid Reviews. He has also started his own resource for telecommuting workers at JoePawl.com

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Be a Good Newbie!

by

A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

cooltext443809558_authenticity

Last week, I wrote about how to be an upstanding citizen of the Twitter and LinkedIn worlds. But what if you’re venturing farther into untested waters? What if you’re pointing your canoe toward some of the newer and less-traveled areas of the web?

When a new social tool arrives on your map, it is even more important to mind your manners, especially if there are natives who have been there for a while already. Pinterest, Google+, Quora, Tumblr, EmpireAvenue and others were populated with early adopters and beta testers long before the rest of the Internet discovered them.

If you’re considering planting your flag on new territory, here are some tips that will ensure you are welcomed with a feast, and not eaten for dinner.

Listen & Lurk

My golden rule for approaching a new network is to listen for at least a week (more, if you have time). Read lots of content, and get a feel for the tone of the network.

Be Honest

Don’t try to pretend you’ve been there since the beginning if you haven’t. If there’ an “introduce yourself” area, take advantage of it to break the ice.

Take it Slow

Until you get the lay of the land, treat lightly. Don’t try to “speed date” your new connections. Share little tidbits at a time, and don’t flood the network with a million updates all at once.

Find a Buddy

One trick I’ve used to get acclimated quickly is to find a network “mentor.” Find someone whose behavior you admire, and follow them. Rather than “friending” 100 people at the outset, try to establish one or two stronger connections and build from there.

Look for Clues

Many networks have guidelines, either formal or informal, stating the rules of the road. And if there aren’t any on the website, try doing a quick Google search for “insert social network name + etiquette.” You’ll find tons of resource blog posts that detail behavioral norms for you. Here are a few official resources:

Pinterest Etiquette: http://pinterest.com/about/etiquette/
Quora Etiquette: http://www.quora.com/Quora-Etiquette
Google+ Etiquette: http://insidegplus.com/2011/07/google-etiquette/

If you’re looking for a buddy on any of those networks, I’d be happy to help! You can find me obsessively “pinning” at http://pinterest.com/rhogroupee/, enjoying the Q&A on Quora at http://www.quora.com/Rosemary-ONeill, and building my empire at https://www.empireavenue.com/rosemary. Come introduce yourself 🙂

_____

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
_____

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Can You Find Success Following a Firing?

by

One of the most challenging situations a person can find themselves in is trying to secure a new job after they’ve been terminated from a previous position.

While there is hope of locating employment following a termination, the odds are definitely lessened for such individuals, who must fight through the stigma of being removed from a company.

The bottom line is resiliency and the ability to best explain away why you were let go.

For those individuals who have to deal with such a situation, keep several things in mind:

  • Deal with reality – It is never easy when the pink slip arrives and you’ve been fired from a job, especially from a financial stand point. That being said, the bottom line is you have to locate a new position and the sooner the better. Don’t let the anger you more than likely have from your firing carry over to the job interviews you go on. By putting the most recent experience in the rear view mirror, you will stand a better chance of doing well on job interviews and securing a new position;
  • Understand why it happened – Employees get fired from jobs daily, so you’re not the first and you certainly will not be the last. One of the worst things you can do is not grasp why you were let go. You may not know all the details, but it is important to have a general understanding of why it happened so that you don’t repeat it in your next job;
  • Sit back and reflect – In some instances, a firing may be the best thing that can happen to you, permitting you the time to decide on whether or not you seek a career change, etc. While you will likely have to tighten spending while you look for a new job, the time away can be positive for reflection;
  • Keep your head up – Looking for a new employer is a full-time job in many instances. You will have employers who will not respond to your resumes, employers who will interview you and then lose interest when someone better comes along, and employers who would like to offer you job, but that stigma of being fired leaves them a little unsure of you. The bottom line is that you can’t afford to throw yourself a pity party at this time. You need the work, so plow forward until you find what you’re looking for;
  • Don’t hide the truth – Getting fired is never fun, but don’t compound the problem by lying to a potential employer. While you may do your best to hide the fact you got fired and not laid off, you would be amazed how word can quickly travel. If you lie to a potential employer or even someone who ends up hiring you, it could come back to bite you, given the employer will question if they can trust other things you say;
  • Avoid issues with your new job – Once you finally do find that next job, take what you learned from the previous experience so you hopefully do not repeat it this time around. The goal is always to learn from your mistakes, so make sure you understand to the best of your ability why you were fired and don’t put yourself in that position again.

If you were recently fired, how are you dealing with it and have you started back on the job hunt trail?

Photo credit: ehow.com

Dave Thomas, who covers among other subjects’ phone systems, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.