Posts tagged Business

Personal Space

How far away do you stand from people you are attempting to influence? The distance can shape their perceptions of your effectiveness as a leader. If you are in actual physical contact with another person or up yo 18 inches away, your message might be interpreted as a confidence or your might appear brash. However, you might also be perceived as intimidating or harassing.

 

Standing from one and a half to four feet from the person you’re addressing is best for projecting face-to-face leadership. If you move four to eight feet away from the person you’re addressing, you might appear to be shying away from others.

How do you Sound?

People often attach more significance to the way you say something than to what you say. A forceful voice, which include a consistent tone without vocalized pauses, suggest power, control, and confidence. A whispery, wimpy voice detracts from a confident and take-charge image. A voice coach surveyed 1,000 men and women and asked, “Which irritating or unpleasant voice annoys you the most?” the answer was a whining, complaining, or nagging tone. To improve your voice quality. Try these techniques:

You must listen to your recorded voice. Keep repeating the same message until you are satisfied that you sound like a confident person.

Several times per week, visualize yourself speaking to group members. Practice using voice quality you think conveys confident leadership.

Grab On to Hot Problems

In majority of business firms, the people who occupy the most powerful positions are those who are identified as having the solutions to pressing organizational problems. Similarly, people associated with breakthrough developments in the company tend to become the most powerful executives. The breakthrough development does not necessarily need the glamour of a flat-screen television receiver or a sports car. For example, if top management in your company projects that most of its profits will soon come from overseas operations, see if you get assigned to the international group.

 

Closely related to grabbing on to hot problems is that a unit within the organization acquires power because of its centrality. A unit has high centrality when it is an important and integral part of the work done by another unit. The second unit is, therefore, dependent on the first unit. A sales department has high centrality, whereas an employee credit unit has low centrality. In short, if you want to increase your power as a leader, you are better off moving to the hub of activities.

So What Do You Want Me To Do?

A simple, yet powerful, approach to resolving conflict involving a compliant is to ask the complainer, “So what do you want me to do?” The technique has a disarming effect: You adversary is stopped in his or her tracks and must now clearly articulate the problem. This technique is particularly effective for minor complaints, such as a customer who is dissatisfied with a service or someone who dislikes a report you prepared.

After the complainer articulates what the real issue seems to be, the demand often diminishes. A customer might be ranting and raving about a 10 – day delay in shipment of valuable merchandise. When you ask the customer what he really what you to do, the customer say simply. Well, how about a small discount on my invoice?”

A larger conflict, such as a labor union demanding a greater share of a company’s profits from investing pension money, might not be as easy to resolve with the magic question. The union leader might reply, “We want 20 percent of those profits distributed to our retired workers.” Your generosity just reduced company profits by about $10 million for this year alone.