eTip #636 - The Strongest Leaders are the Best Communicators

The best leaders in the world have one thing in common: They are excellent communicators. I would even go so far as to say that one can’t be a top leader without strong communication skills.

Many bad communicators have poor listening skills. Instead of absorbing what you are saying, they just wait for their turn to speak again. You probably know someone like that. It can be maddening.

Strong communicators like Warren Buffet, Jack Welch, or Stephen Covey make sure to listen to the other party. They capture the other person’s thoughts and problems and turn the conversation to those concerns. They use the language of their audience to make strong, personal connections.

A smart communicator is not a fast-talker with a smooth voice. The traditional never-stop-talking, always-closing, push-push-push salesman is an outdated trope.

The best communicators find ways to add value to every conversation or presentation. Over time, great communicators develop a sense of situational awareness. They observe the room, evaluate expressions and take note of body language. They learn how to look over a room and gauge its mood and dynamic. They use this skill to adapt their messaging.

Even when they’re presenting their ideas, strong communicators speak to the needs and aspirations of their listeners. They understand that the only way a message will take hold is if the listener wants it.

You shouldn’t just learn communication skills in a classroom. No book will have all the answers. The only way to become a fantastic communicator is to do it often. (Therefore, we have our students present up to seven times in our High Impact Presentations workshop.) But when you get the chance to practice, here are some rules to follow.

1. Don’t be afraid to get personal. You should feel encouraged to build meaningful relationships with other people. Don’t feel like you have to keep everyone at arm’s length because you work in a professional environment. Engage them. People like it when you use their name, ask about their families, and let them into your social circles.
2. Communicate with clarity and brevity. There is no value in being wordy or long-winded. If you waste people’s time, they will tune you out. The best communicators can pack a lot of meaning into as few words as possible. Don’t be afraid to use specifics, but don’t let details confuse your meaning.
3. Earn trust, don’t demand it. Telling someone “you can trust me” is the surest way to make them never trust you. People will invest their time and take risks for you, but only if you earn their trust. That’s done through honesty, helpfulness, and integrity.
4. Drop your ego. Arrogance doesn’t communicate ideas, it just turns people off. Be authentic and transparent, even when it comes to your shortcomings.
5. Let others speak. Communication can only happen when you’ve listened to the other side. That’s the only place you’ll get the information you need to sway them to your side or transfer your ideas. But that can’t happen if you’re always talking. There’s more to be gained by yielding the floor and filibustering.
6. Only talk about what you know. Unless you’re asking questions, don’t speak about things you don’t understand. No one will want to listen to you if you speak but don’t add value to the conversation.
7. Leave value behind. Instead of using conversations or presentations as ways to get something for yourself, find a way to leave something valuable behind. If you become known as a problem solver, you’ll find other people perk up when you start speaking.

One last point to keep in mind: Communication is not about you. It’s about the relationship between you and the listener. Once you’ve built that relationship, your ideas will take purchase.

For more information, visit our website! 

eTip #635 - Succession Planning: Transitioning to the Next Generation

All good things must come to an end. You can’t run your business forever or you may not want to! At some point, you will sell it or step down. If you’re like most family-run small businesses (by small, I mean 50 or fewer employees), your plan is to take enough money out of the business to fund your retirement and pass the reins to a family member or close friend.

That’s a fantastic goal, but you may be making the same mistake most family businesses are making: You lack a plan to manage the succession.

Your first step is to determine who will own the business once you’re gone. You may be sure who will run it, but there are likely several people who expect to receive a part of it. There’s no easy way to make this decision. Our only advice is to be firm with your choice once you’ve made it.

Next, identify what you need to meet your retirement goals. If the business can’t be sold for enough to support your lifestyle, you may want or need to retain a percentage of the company and structure a buyout over time.

Crafting a succession plan

A succession plan is a formal document that outlines the procedure of transferring the business from the current owner to the successor. It explains who will be the new owners and how roles with change within the organization.

The plan also identifies any tasks or duties that must be managed due to the succession. For example, a big client might need to be personally reassured that the company will continue to deliver the same service. The succession plan might instruct an upper-level manager to visit the client’s office.

The succession plan should be written around a timeline. Transitions can be difficult, and often people will put off the details because they don’t feel right “doing dad’s job” or “stepping into Aunt Jane’s shoes.” Keep the transition moving by giving each milestone a hard deadline.

Finally, the plan should outline any goals the outgoing leadership wishes the company to follow. The new leadership can obviously override these goals, but at least the company will have some direction in the interim. They also assure the employees that the company is still pushing forward.

Preparing for the succession

The outgoing business owner needs to take some special precautions to protect themselves. He or she must absolutely consult with a corporate attorney (someone who represents the outgoing owner, not the attorney who also represents the business) and an accountant with estate planning experience.

In most cases, companies aren’t transferred freely. They are sold to the younger generation. Discussing sale prices with family can be difficult, so it’s best to manage the process through attorneys and representatives like a typical sale.

If the outgoing owners and incoming owners plan to have a social relationship outside of the business, it’s critical that neither try to take advantage of the other. Everyone should be prepared to accept a fair market deal. Unless the business is sitting on a pile of cash, it’s best to arrange a financing structure, so the incoming owners aren’t burdened with cash flow problems, but the outgoing owners are still compensated.

There are ways a careful estate planner can help structure the sale to avoid taxes and make the transfer process smooth. For example, if the owner were to die without a plan in place, the company’s transfer may be administered by the probate court, which is a long, arduous process that no one wants to go through.

Time to beat the odds.

We don’t mean to seem grim, but many family businesses fail to survive the first succession. The rates for second successions are even lower. However, those failures usually stem from a lack of planning. Knowledge is power so acknowledging the statistics are important! The key is to create a solid plan AND have a strong support system for both the outgoing and the incoming leadership all while ensuring your team and clients feel confident that your company will not only survive the transition but thrive!

For more information, visit our website! 

eTip #634 - Five Ways to Make Your Resume Work for You

If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to land a new job this year, avoid making the mistake of ‘dusting off’ a previous version of your resume and add merely adding your most recent work history.  Set yourself up for success by following these five steps to make your resume shine. 

Cut-out clichés.  When tasked with reviewing resumes in previous roles, the number of clichés used was shocking.  ‘Team player,’ ‘hardworking,’ and ‘self-starter,’ are just a few vague terms often used.  Dale Carnegie said, “Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.”  Instead of stating, “results-driven,” for example, use actual examples that are evidence of how you drove and accomplished specific, stellar results.  Recruiters and hiring managers are more interested in specific success stories than non-descriptive, canned language.

Tell your story in two pages.  While this is easier for prospective job candidates who are new(er) to the workforce because they have less work experience, it is just as important for seasoned, senior professionals with decades of experience.  Dale Carnegie’s 14^thHuman Relations principle, ‘Get the other person saying, “yes, yes” immediately,’ is more easily accomplished when resumes are refined.  Moreover, recruiters are extremely busy, so make it easy for them to see how special you are in a succinct manner—no more than two pages total. 

Close the gaps.  Unexplained gaps are a red flag for recruiters.  During time periods where there may have been a lag in your career, briefly list activities you may have participated in such as special projects, volunteering, sabbatical, travel, etc.  Dale Carnegie said, “No matter what happens, always be yourself.”  Being completely honest about any gaps provides proof that you are honest, which appeals to recruiters and hiring managers.  If the activity was unique, it will make you stand out among competing candidates.

Write it right.  Colloquialism is usually appropriate for verbal communication at work and home, however a resume should be grammatically correct without any typos.  Such mistakes send an immediate message to the recruiter or hiring manager that you are sloppy; careless or worse yet, don’t know how to speak proper English!  Instead of trusting Spellcheck, ask a wise and articulate friend to review your resume for any faux-pas. 

Make it easy to read.  ‘Arouse in the other person an eager want,’ Mr. Carnegie’s 3^rd principle, underscores the importance of a resume’s format and flow.  A recruiter looks at resumes frequently, sometimes for hours on end.  Longs blocks of chunky text look more like term papers than professional resumes.  You can make your resume visually inviting by using bullets, brief paragraphs, simple fonts and some bolding to break-up sections.  The critical success factor at play is scan-ability; e.g., if you are deemed a possible job candidate by a recruiter, she may share your resume with other department-specific parties before scheduling an interview.  The easier it is for those eyes to scan your resume, the faster they can hopefully concur that you are in fact a strong candidate.

For more information, visit our website!