Ezine Arcive
The Award-Winning Monthly Resource for Professionals ################################################# OUTCOME FOCUS™ REPORT Circulation 35,000 Vol 66 -- May, 2007 Publisher: Anne Warfield Ezine@imp.us.com 888-imp-9421 or 952-921-9421 www.ImpressionManagement.com © Impression Management Professionals 2007 ################################################# YOUR RESOURCE FOR CREATING CREDIBLE CANDID COMMUNICATION By subscription only! Go ahead and pass this to friends. If you receive this from a friend and you want to receive your own copies, just email ezine@imp.us.com and put "Add me" in the subject line. To remove yourself from this list, please see bottom portion of this email. =================================================== IN THIS ISSUE =================================================== 1) What's In The News? 2) Outcome Focus™ Situation/Solution - How To Handle Difficult Discussions Using Outcome Thinking ProGOtiation™ Skills 3) Anne's Aha- Find out how good your presentation skills really are! Quick Test below 4) Resources To Learn More =================================================== 1. What's In The News? =================================================== LEARN HOW TO HANDLE DIFFICULT DISCUSSIONS! If you hate having difficult discussions, managing conflicts or negotiating, you owe it to yourself to learn how to apply ProGOtiation™ to forever change how you prepare and handle those discussions. Having a difficult discussion with a person or negotiating does not have to be a sweaty business. Learn how to THINK so you set up the interaction to reduce 70% of all problems! This program will greatly reduce your stress, and help you be better at critical thinking. Sick of feeling like you gave away too much, gave in to early or that you damaged the relationship when you negotiate? Learn how to stop negotiating and bring candor to the table with ProGOtiation™ "Anne, I used these skills to successfully save our company $100,000 in one call!" PR, Target "Anne, I'm seeing my entire team operate at a higher level of thinking. Difficult discussions and negotiations are no longer postponed, instead they are handled upfront. As a manager it is saving me a lot of time as I no longer referee." Lisa M. REGISTER TODAY for the upcoming Outcome Focus ProGOtiation™ Skills Experience. https://www.impressionmanagement.com/cgi-bin/store/checkout.pl?product=PUBLIC Date: May 21 - 22, 2007 (limited seating, contact immediately) How will ProGOtiation™ help me with conflicts & difficult discussions? http://www.theimpnetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=91 WANT TO BE A TRANSFORMATIONAL WITH YOUR PRESENTATIONS and COMMUNICATION? Want to be more transformational when you communicate and move people to action? Learn how to be a powerful presenter in all your communication- this includes meetings, one-on-one situations, large group presentations and Q &A. In order to be seen as a credible candid communicator you must master 4 steps to success! This is about all of your communication not just formal PowerPoint presentations! A must for management and sales! Then register for one of the upcoming Outcome Focus™ Presentation Skills Experience Seminars. Act now to reserve your seat before all the sessions are sold out. I did a speech for our January Leadership group of about 150 people. I had a tough topic because I had to share scores from a recent survey and our group had scored the lowest. I sat down and used the Outcome Focus™ Approach to look at how we can take our existing scores and use it as a springboard for improvement. The speech went great - and the content and approach was "spot-on"! It was one of the best days in my career. I had people come up to me afterward and tell me it was the best speech they had heard in the company in the last 5 years! One person said, --You have dramatically improved your presentations in the last two years! The Outcome Focus™ Approach has totally changed my credibility and influence as people see me as being about more than just my job. It helps you speak from a broader perspective so that is how people end up seeing you. So by utilizing this approach I was able to take a negative topic and talk about it proactively and positively. And the best part was that it was easy to do! Thanks! Megan REGISTER TODAY for an upcoming Outcome Focus Presentation Skills Seminar https://www.impressionmanagement.com/cgi-bin/store/checkout.pl?product=PRES - May 7 - 8, 2007 (Sold Out) - June 21 - 22, 2007 (4 spots available) - September 13 - 14, 2007 (just opened for registration) What is so unique about IMP's Presentation Skills Experience? http://www.theimpnetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=91 ==================================================== 2. Here's This Months Outcome Focus™ Situation/Solution: Handling Difficult Discussions ==================================================== Use as a training tool: Present the situation below to the group and have them brainstorm how they would best handle the situation. Then share the Outcome Focus™ answer and see how it relates or differs from solutions the group found. Your Situation: How do I handle difficult discussions? We promote a 1:1 approach for conflict resolution and have a specific "how to" flow chart for approaching one another. When it works it's great & then there are those circumstances where: Scenario A: Employee A asks employee B to help out with job duties. Employee B refuses and walks away. A short time later Employee A asks Employee B if she could talk with her. Employee B says, "if you want to talk with me about not helping, forget it. You always ask people to do your work because you are too lazy to do it yourself". Employee B then walks away. Employee A did not follow through and didn't re-approach. OR Scenario B: What about when someone says something jokingly to someone but it is not really nice? We have an employee here who likes to joke and for the most part is ok, but occasionally, when I hear something that is not really nice and the other person laughs it off, I get to thinking that it really is not appropriate behavior. I can't remember the specific phrase that was said, but I do remember feeling like that really wasn't nice at all. Do you have any suggestions for how to advise or coach team members in these cases? How best to frame a discussion with the other person or how to help one or the other frame a discussion (which is my role in the process). Any suggestions would be really appreciated. Other person s perspective: Why should I make any change? I want everyone to work as hard as me. It is rude to say something directly to someone so being indirect (Scenario B) is more kind. I want us all to get along. I want to work in an environment that I am appreciated. Best Handled: In both of these situations the real message is that your corporate culture is one that is allowing people to live in double standards. Now it doesn't mean that you are purposefully creating that culture, it just means that it does exist. So what do you do about it? There are two parts to this solution. PART 1: First, as a manager you want to look at what you may be doing that is allowing employees to feel either of these responses is okay. Here are some examples of things you may be doing and the underlying message being sent; 1. If you "bend" rules for certain individuals you are telling employees that there are double standards and you are okay with them. Therefore, that would mean I don't have to do what another employee asks of me if I just find the "magic escape clause". You need to have set standards and principles that ALL people operate under- no exceptions. Coach Wooden had a rule that all players be on the bus by 6 PM . Two of his star players didn't show up. All the players held their breath to see what he would do - for surely they would lose the game without those two players. Coach Wooden told the bus driver to leave PROMPTLY at 6 PM . No players were late after that date. At some time you have to take a firm stand that lets all people know you are fair BUT firm. 2. Ask how fast you are at DIRECTLY addressing problems and issues. Your employees will move at about half your speed. So if they see you delaying they can too. 3. Do you joke about problems at the corporation and hope employees get the message behind or are you direct? They will mimic what they see you do. Okay, so now you are saying, but wait a minute I wrote about my employees and all you have done is talk about me! The first place you always want to start when you see employees is to think, "what may I be doing that is allowing this to happen?" That is the only way to stop the reoccurrence of the problems. You will be surprised by how many times as a leader you do things subconsciously that produce the opposite result of what you want. PART 2: Second, you need to address these immediately with the parties involved. In the Scenario A, since you were not there, you have to assume that all of it is hearsay. So your option is to help coach the Person A on how to respond. And then say that you would like to have all parties come in and talk about it so it doesn't get repeated. Talk candidly but non-judgmentally with both parties. This means saying to Person A, "share with me what you could have done with Person B said that you were too lazy and they weren't going to help?" Look for answers that focus on addressing the problem and are not blaming. Answers I would look for should come along the lines of, "I should have said, "Person B, I understand you have a lot on your plate and that we both want to get the work done. I am not asking you to do this work because I am too lazy to do it. So let's talk about what needs to happen in order to get this project done." If Person B is still difficult I would say, "Look we have to cooperate and work together. What I am hearing you say is you won't work with me on this and you see it as my problem only. If we can't solve this here we will need to get _________involved. What do you suggest we do to get this solved with you and me? In the Scenario B, you need to address the comment right on the spot. You can do it by talking about what respect means in the work force with your entire team and let them know what are some inappropriate comments. Tell them you commit to not using them and you would like them all to eliminate saying any of them. Explain how we all sometimes say this jokingly because we aren't sure how to address them and what you want to do is have people address them directly. You could also address the person who said it by coming up to them and saying something like, "I just heard you say __________to Joy. If I was Joy the message I would have heard behind that is ________________. I know you are a very respectful person and would not want Joy thinking that you really meant________ because that would be hurtful. So what can be done to avoid statements like that in the future even in a joking manner? Let me give you an example: My daughter had a friend over the other day and when I asked them a question she gave me a snippy answer in a voice and said "what ever" on the end of it. Right there I said in an even voice, "Hey I never speak to you that way and I expect the same respect in return. Okay?" and then I asked my question again. Her voice immediately changed and she and her friend talked appropriately from then on. If I had laughed about it or made a big deal about it, it would have continued. Make sure you stick to your guidelines and have no tolerance for people falling off the wagon when respecting each other. SPECIAL NOTE: Email Anne (Ezine@imp.us.com) your situation to be included in an upcoming E-zine. If your situation is used we will send you a $15.00 Starbucks Card so please include your contact information. =================================================== 3. Anne's "Aha" =================================================== Enjoy IMP's New Assessments: Have you ever wondered how you really stack up as a presenter? Do people really capture what you are saying? Are you transformational or transactional? Well, now is your time to find out! Just follow the link below. NEW QUIZ: Test out and see how you rank with your presentation skills: Presentation Skills Quiz http://www.impinstitute.com/index.php/content/view/116/188/ ******************** Quotable Quotes: ******************** "The talk you hear about adapting to change is not only stupid, it's dangerous. The only way you can manage change is to create it." Peter Drucker =================================================== 4. I Want More Resources So I Can Perfect My Skills ==================================================== Order Your Success Tools Online: http://www.impressionmanagement.com/products.shtml =================================================== FREE ARTICLES AND BACK ISSUES =================================================== We have many articles available for your publication, company newsletter, etc. Articles can be viewed at http://www.impressionmanagement.com/articles/index.shtml All you have to do is print the article in its entirety along with the byline at the top and the credits, and complete contact information at the end of each article. I would appreciate a tear sheet or electronic copy too. Back Issues of the Outcome Focus E-zine can be viewed at http://www.impressionmanagement.com/ezine/index.shtml =================================================== About Anne and IMP =================================================== Anne Warfield, CSP* CEO Impression Management Professionals 15768 Venture Lane Minneapolis, MN 55344 952-921-9421 888-imp-9421 952-921-9420 Fax Email: mailto:ezine@imp.us.com Visit us at: http://www.impressionmanagement.com "A true leader is not one you look up to because they are the best. A true leader is one that draws the best out in you." Anne Warfield *CSP- Certified Speaking Professional; a designation held by only 7% of all speakers nationwide Member of the National Speakers Association <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> Copyright 2007, IMP. Feel free to share information you learn. All we ask is that you credit us as the source as everything we are putting in here is copyright protected by our office. Copyright note: Submission of an e-mail message or artwork affirms that you are able to and have given Anne Warfield non-exclusive permission to reprint the content of your message in all forms, electronic or otherwise, in all languages throughout the world. Privacy Statement: We will not distribute your address to anyone. Period. If you received this from a friend and you want to receive your own copies, just email mailto:ezine@imp.us.com and put "Add me" in the subject line. To remove yourself from this mailing list, simply follow the instructions at the end of this email. or, Forward a copy of this message to mailto:ezine@imp.us.com with the word "Remove" in the subject line. <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>> <<<>>>
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