Active Listening equals Effective Listening

Recent studies conducted by the International Listening Association illustrated we retain half of what we hear and forget about half of that within 48 hours. We listen at 125-250 words per minute, but think at 1000-3000 words per minute. Truly, what kind of impact does effective listening have on your customers, employees and business associates?

As people become more busy and strive to multitask, active listening becomes secondary.
If you’re a culprit of non-active listening, you probably do three or more of the following when listening to customers, employees and business associates:

- Finish others thoughts
- Tolerate or create distractions (i.e. text messaging, check email, doodle, etc.)
- Fake paying attention to what is being said
- Create early assumptions without keeping an open mind
- Call the subject uninteresting
- Criticize the speaker or the topic being discussed

Here are a few tips to help you develop your active listening skills:

Avoid distractions. Give the speaker your full attention. As people strive to multitask, we tend to answer email through “crackberry” and do things to take us away from listening to the message.

Keep an open mind. Listen without being quick to judge the speaker delivering the message. Take the time to hear the message being communicated in its entirety.

Paraphrase. Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is saying. Take notes to capture the main points of what is being said. There is no need to write down word for word. Paraphrasing demonstrates that you comprehend what was said and the speaker delivering the message knows you identify with their message.

Original message:

“We received our quarterly invoice which seemed to be 20% more than the previous quarter. We have not made any changes in the amount ordered and were suppose to receive a discounted rate based on a promotion presented by your sales team”

Paraphrased:

“I understand that there may be an error in the quarterly billing you received.”

Be patient and quiet your mind. Don’t interrupt and don’t impose your thoughts as this will disturb the speaker. This may seem like a challenge, but try not to finish their statements. Be at ease with silence during conversation. If the speaker pauses, silence allows them to think about what they want to say without the disturbance of voice.

Listen between the lines. Pay attention to what is and especially isn’t said – emotions, facial expressions, gestures, posture and other non-verbal cues. Also, exhibit some non-verbal cues when you’re listening:

- Face the speaker and maintain eye contact
- Nod to show you understand
- Have engaging posture

Just like paraphrasing, it lets the speaker know you are there with them.
In business, listening is an active not passive activity. Practice these tips the next time (every time) you’re listening to a speaker. Now, you have some improved tips to effective listening let me ask you my original question again “What kind of impact does effective listening have on your REVENUES?”

Active listening … Let’s make it happen!

xxx

RWJ Consulting Group, LLC, provides consulting, coaching and training services to individuals, entrepreneurs, not-for-profits and corporations.

For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit www.rwjconsultinggroup.com.

Failure is a good thing!

Christine Comaford-Lynch, CEO of Mighty Ventures said “If you haven’t been rejected, or haven’t failed before, you simply are not taking enough risks. You aren’t stretching yourself”.

I thought that this was a great statement about not stretching our limits and taking on risks. We all hate rejection no matter the situation (i.e. loss of a big contract, not getting a raise, being passed up for a promotion, not getting into the undergraduate or graduate school of our choice, etc.). Why should I be rejected when I can save myself the embarrassment? Why not take a risk and do something you’ve never done before!!! You may be surprised of the outcome especially if you don’t fail. If you do fail, you can always learn from your mistakes, but the thing is that you learned something new.

Next time, go ahead fail and take a risk. What will you learn from the outcome?


xxx


RWJ Consulting Group, LLC, provides consulting, coaching and training services to individuals, entrepreneurs, not-for-profits and corporations.For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit www.rwjconsultinggroup.com.

The Etiquette of Exchanging Business Cards

I came across this great video on "The Etiquette of Exchanging Business Cards". The video is a little stiff, but gives some valuable points on exchanging business cards.

Etiquette coach Syndi Seid goes over the do's and don'ts of presenting and receiving a business card. Seid makes a great point about "never hand out business cards like it's a poker game." I see this happening at various events and it as an ineffective way of networking.

Enjoy!

xxx

RWJ Consulting Group, LLC, provides consulting, coaching and training services to individuals, entrepreneurs, not-for-profits and corporations.For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit www.rwjconsultinggroup.com.

Siemens Toastmasters is proud to acknowledge Reggie Waller

Toastmasters International first issued the Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) award in 1970. The DTM is the highest award for members displaying outstanding enthusiasm, participation, and leadership. Siemens Toastmasters is proud to acknowledge Reggie Waller, pictured at left, our first member to achieve the DTM in 2008. Congratulations, Reggie!

PowerPoint Presentations: Tips on making your business presentation a success!

Business professionals spend a reasonable amount of time giving presentations communicating new and existing ideas, proposals for investors, clients, etc. PowerPoint presentations has become a ubiquitous tool for these varying types of business presentations. At times though, I find that the technical aspect of the tool gets overused, misused, and the audience tends to walk away with an unclear message of the presentation. Here are some solutions to assist with getting your message to land with your audience when using PowerPoint:

Just like a speech, you must have an opening, body and conclusion. First, determine how much time you have for your presentation. Next, create the outline of your discussion. After you create your outline, you create the content within your presentation. This is a sample of how a 30-minute presentation would be structured:

Slide 1: Title (1 minute)
Slide 2: Agenda (2 minutes)
Slide 3 – 9: Body (Keep it focused on your audience) (14 minutes)
Slide 10: Summary (Recap Presentation) (3 minutes)
Q&A (black screen): 10 minutes

**20 minutes for you presentation which gives you on average 2-minutes per slide and 10 minutes for Q&A.

Here are some key takeaways when using PowerPoint for your business presentation:

Do:

- Rehearse your content
- Use it to support your topic/ discussion
- Summarize the slide or the main point
- Take time to introduce the material
- Keep your bullet points to 5 per slide
- Keep eye contact with your audience
- Use graphics and illustrations that support your topic
- Avoid jargon
- Allow enough time to set up and check your equipment. (make handouts as a back-up if equipment does not work)

Don’t:

- Use animation (it takes away from your talk and tends to distract your audience)
- Read from the slides
- Forget what’s in it for the audience (WIIFM)
- Place your back to the audience.
- Cruise through slides. If information is not relevant, then don’t display it. (unless giving handouts)
- Panic if the equipment fails

Black or White

Another way to add value to your presentation is the “B” or “W” key. When you need to elaborate on a point during your presentation and would like to take the focus off of the screen and back to you, the “B” key makes your screen black and the “W” that’s right it makes the screen white. Not shift or control key needs to be used in combination with the “B” or “W” key.

After the summary slide, this is great time for Q&A. Use the “B” or “W” key to make your screen blank, so that people know you have completed your presentation and to focus their attention on you.

Speaker Notes

There are a few ways to make notes on what you would like to say on each of your slides. The easy way is to print your entire presentation and write notes on each page. You can also click the View menu, click Notes Page. The notes section will appear under your slide. You can type notes in this section. To view your printed notes, click on the File menu, click Print. Under Print what, select notes pages and click okay. You now have a clean presentation with notes to do your practice run.

Note: When you display your presentation, the audience will not see you notes section.

Keep It Simple

While all the bells and whistles may look nice, keep in mind the message you’re looking to convey to your audience. Outline the message you want the audience to walk away with at the end of your presentation. The bells and whistles will not sell an idea that has not been thoroughly researched and thought out. Keep the presentation simple and focused directly to your topic.

xxx

RWJ Consulting Group, LLC, provides consulting, coaching and training services to individuals, entrepreneurs, not-for-profits and corporations.

For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit www.rwjconsultinggroup.com.