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Corporations and conventions
I’ve been getting emails lately asking if I speak in corporations and conventions. Yes, I do, and the fact that people ask me tells me I haven’t been spreading the word very well.
Please note the "hire Meryl" button in the navigation bar of this email and my website www.speakstrong.com.
So here’s the deal. I can tell you how to establish a totally integrated performance system. I can give your managers the perfect words for just about everything they do. I can present a killer keynote about what boats need to be rocked and how to go about rocking them. I can help you add Pizzazz to your technical presentations. Plus, I can tell you how to make your CASE.
So, yes, I do speak in corporations and at conventions. And I would love to speak at yours. I'm game if you are.
Didgeridoo and relationships too
Friday night I attended a didgeridoo workshop. I almost didn’t go. When I got home, I checked the flyer to see if there was any way I could have figured out how fun it would be from the description. There wasn’t. If they had added the single sentence, “Bring your own didgeridoo or we will provide one for you to play,” I would have had some clue this would be one of the highlights of my week.
Marketing is a skill and a service. If people want or need what you offer, but they don’t know they want it, you do them a disservice.
Last week’s teleseminar on The UltiMate™ Relationship Seminar gave a great indication of what that event is all about. I’m not the only one who thought the call provided a service. The best kind of promotion gives the flavor or the event. This teleseminar did just that. Read the review and listen to the audio.
By the way, the didgeridoo event was at church, and the leader anointed me “Sister Meryl.” It seemed to catch on with the pastor and others, so I might have a new moniker.
If you don’t know what didgeridoo is, I confess I didn't either before I went.
This Week in the World comment
“Those accustomed to spin don’t recognize truth when they hear it.” Meryl Runion
PowerPhrase of the Week
I can tell you now it won't work for us
My husband and I need more space, so we’re looking at remodeling. Our first bid was daunting, so we spoke with another builder about a scaled down project. We were stunned when the bid came in. It was 40% of the house for 80% of the price.
Money is one to those touchy topics of discussion, and it was tempting to avoid the truth and say “we’ll think about it.” But we didn’t need to think.
As an independent contractor, I’ve had plenty of occasions where people indicated they were undecided when I suspected they just didn’t want to tell me no. I would much rather hear the truth and move on. That’s why I told the builder,
- This is higher than we anticipated, and I can tell you now it won't work for us.
It’s better to tell the truth and than waste everyone's time.
Poison Phrase of the Week
Most of these claims have been verified by Snopes.com
A friend sent me an email forward with some alarming claims and predictions. The email noted that “most of these claims have been verified by Snopes,” (the main urban myth verification site.)
So I checked Snopes and discovered that most of the claims were, in fact, verified by Snopes. And some were discredited. The alarming predictions of impending terrorist attacks in American cities were four years old and expired.
Why forward an email that you know contains alarming errors? Why not correct it before you send it? What would you think if your doctor sent you an email saying, "most of this information is true," and didn't tell you what wasn't?
That’s what I call sloppy, irresponsible communication. The responsible communicators will challenge these emails rather than pass them on.
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Ask Meryl
Unaccountable employees
Meryl,
Meryl, I am a manager at a college that employs students. As the season progresses, I have to repeat myself a lot and deal with many sick calls. As this is on going I find myself getting annoyed and I tend to take it out on everyone. Blowing up is part of every week. I’m trying to stay calm but sometimes I need to address the problem immediately and this is where the problem lies. I don’t have enough time to calm down. Can you make a suggestion as to how best to handle these situations calmly?
Meryl responds,
Clarify your expectations and hold employees to job standards. The fact that they’re students doesn’t excuse irresponsibility. I imagine you explode because you feel powerless to affect change.
In Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors, I describe how to establish job standards and how to get people to agree to them. Once that’s complete, your conversations can refer to the standards they agreed to. When you address transgressions, adopt a troubleshooting, “how can I help you do your job right” attitude. If that doesn’t work, you need to warn them and if that doesn’t work, replace them. One of my seminar attendees values the phrase,
- I need someone to do this job, and I'm hoping it will be you.
It may be these students haven’t learned responsibility, or it may be they have but think the job is beneath them. Or they could be overloaded. Whatever the reason, be clear, direct and supportive – and make it known that they will be held to the standards of the job.
Check out my Performance Flow Chart. It guides you though the entire process.
Do you have a communication question? You can Ask Meryl.
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There's lots of information about how to communicate |
Teleseminar
Thanks for hosting the discussions with Jeffrey Armstrong about The UltiMate™ Relationship Seminar . The flyer is useless, but I get it now. My next question is, how do I interest my husband? I'm working on it. Thanks.
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317 July 22, 2008 |
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SpeakStrong Definition
To express yourself both powerfully &
effectively;
to say what you mean,
mean what you say,
without being mean
when you say it.