Events
If you’re interested in attending any of the events call us for more details on 0161 236 0724 or email us.
Wed 17 and Thurs 18 Sept, London. "Persuasive Presentations Programme"
Wed 24 Sept, 12.30-2.00 PM, Manchester. "How Your Clients May View You" – a Pro-Manchester event
Thurs 25 Sept, 9.00-10.30 AM, London. "How to Create Outstanding Relationships"
Wed, 15 Oct, 8.00-9.00 AM, Manchester. "Business Development Ability - Something you were born with?" – an RBS event
In the Press
This month, North West Business Insider interviewed Jim on the importance of networking and how to overcome the panic of entering a room full of people for the first time. To see his ideas, just pick up a copy of the July issue, which is on sale now.
Focus - Negotiations
Are you feeling under pressure to give away margin? Suky Skinner, our expert in this field, runs Negotiations courses designed to benefit anyone involved in negotiating important and complex contracts. Suky gained her apprenticeship at the sharp end of the IT industry, negotiating multi-million pound outsourcing contracts, before her change of career to trainer and coach in the subject.
Typically the courses are run over three days for groups of between 8 and 16; at the end of which you’ll understand your own negotiating style, learn ways to create advantage and be able to negotiate more profitable and sustainable business.
If you’ve got a question about anything you’ve read in this month’s issue of Sphere or more generally about communications, client handling, difficult people etc – please get in touch.
Associated Reading
“Good to Great”, Jim Collins
“The Luck Factor”, Dr Richard Wiseman
and that old classic “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey
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Welcome to the first issue of our free monthly e-newsletter, Sphere. This month’s article has some ideas on how to get through what may be tough times – including minding your language. We hope you find it useful and would love to hear your feedback. Please feel free to forward it on to interested colleagues or friends.
All the best
Jim Wigg
Coach, Trainer, Director
Did your mum ever tell you to mind your language?
The other day whilst I was at home having a cheese and salad butty my wife, Sandra, was a guest at a women’s business lunch at Harvey Nicks in Manchester. She came back enthused (and not just the wine talking!) as this is what a fellow diner had said:
“This may sound strange but I’m looking forward to working through tougher times. Some people in the company have only known growth and now they’ll need to go back to basics and see if they have the core strengths to get through it”
Well, what an interesting change from the doom and gloom language many people are using.
In achieving almost anything, most of us would recognise the important part that having the right mental attitude has to play. And the language we use is a key influence on this. This is not just about positive thinking or blind faith as, just like burying your head in the sand this could be risky. In his study of the world’s consistent top performing organisations, Jim Collins - a leading business research analyst - uncovered the need to “face the brutal facts” and see the reality of the situation. He also stated the need to “have the right people on the bus” who have the attitude of “we may not have all the answers yet but we’ll work through this”.
So, in an environment of sensationalist headlines like “an avalanche of disastrous news”, “mortgage misery” and “biggest fall since records began” how do you strike a balance between facing the brutal facts whilst having a mental attitude that will help carry you through? Inspired by Coldplay’s words, how do you make sure you are “part of the cure, not part of the disease”? Here are some ideas we’ve found really useful at Epicurean.
Tip 1: Express the facts in the right language
In the last two months, we’ve seen two pieces of work scheduled in our pipeline drop out. This is a fact and notice how I’ve expressed it... Productively. By using the past tense, I’m not projecting anything into the future and the full stop at the end of the sentence ensures that we don’t make it mean anything more.
If we were to use language like "we've got opportunities dropping out" this could be dangerous as it implies a continuation and that others will follow suit. It could put us into panic mode, make us look desperate and maybe even take desperate actions rather than do what’s really important.
Tip 2: Listen to the facts and do something productive with them
Now start asking yourself some productive questions. In general terms these might be:
- How significant is this in relation to our objectives?
- What could we have done to predict and do something about it earlier?
- What could we do to get back on track?
And more specifically for us:
- Do we have enough opportunities in the pipeline?
- Do we know how likely these really are to happen?
- Is the value we bring to clients clear and easily accessible?
- Has this changed to reflect the current needs of our clients?
- What regular and new activity are we undertaking to generate new opportunities?
By asking these questions you go back to basics and check which elements of being consistently successful you have in place as well as those you may need to work on. Arguably, you should do this regularly, whether the economic climate is uncertain or easy, and for us it was very motivating to be clear that we’re not perfect but we are doing so many of the right things.
Whoever said knowledge is power was nearly right. Knowledge, expressed productively and used productively is powerful. Have fun using it.
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