Learn How to be an Effective and Influential Communicator

October 23, 2008 at 10:23 pm | In Book Reviews, Career Development, Interview, People, Personal Branding, Success Strategies | 2 Comments

Today, I speak to Bert Decker about effective communication, including the significance and some useful tips for successfully communicating your message to others, in and out of the workplace.  This is clearly a very important topic to go over, especially because people have short attention spans, make quick first impressions and enjoy good presentations.

Why is effective communication important, not just in the workplace, but in life in general? What makes it such a significant quality for developing a personal branding?

Bruce Barton, founder of BBD&O and a great businessman and author said, “Talkers have always ruled, they will continue to rule. The smart thing is to join them.”

If you look at every walk of life where there is human interaction – teaching, business, government, etc. you will fine the most effective and successful people are those who can communicate well. Not so much in intellectual pursuit – that is more cognitive and less behavioral. In my new book “You’ve Got To Be Believed To Be Heard” I talk about the New Communicators who are successful (Steve Jobs, Harold Schultz, Oprah among others) and the Old Communicators who are not (Lee Raymond-Exxon CEO, Michael Chertoff, Jeannine Pirro) and the difference is totally in their communications. Spoken communications.

There are a lot of people out there that are scared to public speak. What are your tips for conquering stage fright and rising to the occasion?

“Fear is an inside job, and everyone has some.”

There are four stages with emotion, behavior and position relating to each. (eg: Emotion one moves from Terror to Fear to Tension to Stimulation. You have to ‘just do it,’ but with feedback and support. The best feedback is video feedback, and everyone should go through a video feedback program at least once every two years – particularly if they are fearful. It’s a great confidence builder (after you get over seeing yourself for the first time.)

Can you explain the importance of eye contact and body language when communicating with others?

I can write a book on it (and have with “You’ve Got To Be Believed To Be Heard.”) Simply put, the eye is the most powerful of all our five sensory organs, and is essential for three connections: intimacy, intimidation and involvement. When we are talking about business communications you want to be involved, engaged, with your listener. Eye communication is the most important of the six behavioral skills, and you should get in the habit of looking at people for at least five seconds – whether in an audience or in an interview. Then we glance away, and look again. When you don’t have eye communication, you flat out don’t have communication.

The other five behavioral skills are important to communicating, and involve energy through gestures and voice. Communication rides energy.

How does one go from communicating a message to building trust?

You can’t communicate a message without building trust. You can write it out I suppose, and communicate information, but we are talking about personal communication here, about influencing people, and that’s totally different.

What are the eight steps to transforming your personal impact?

  • Go to a communications program.
  • Stay in a coaching relationship to get feedback.
  • See yourself on videotape, regularly. (And record your voice on a digital audio recorder – think of the phone.)
  • Have a focused, listener based message.
  • Have a forward lean in creating opportunities to speak publicly.
  • Read books on communicating.
  • Help others communicate more effectively – teachers learn.
  • Ask more of yourself.

When it comes to the internet, people communicate without ever saying anything. How does one shape impressions, when they aren’t really allowed to talk (maybe in a podcast)?

Now this is really the subject of an entire separate interview – communicating effectively in the Blackberry/Internet/iPhone/Twitter/Blog age. There are ways to not abuse the great technology available.

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Bert Decker is founder of Decker Communications, Inc. For more than a quarter of a century, his company has been transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of business professionals. He has been featured in the NY Times, Business Week, 20/20, as well as being the communications commentator for the NBC TODAY Show for the presidential debates.

He is a professional speaker and best selling author of “You’ve Got to Be Believed To Be Heard” and “Speaking With Bold Assurance.” He’s the founder of four companies, Chairman of Bold Assurance Ministries, NBC TODAY Communications Expert commentator, and Advisory Board Salvation Army. In his spare time, he blogs.

7 Personal Branding Tips for College Graduates

October 23, 2008 at 11:22 am | In Career Development, Networking, People, Personal Branding, Success Strategies, gen-y, guest post, social media | 8 Comments

Guest post by David G. Heiser, college senior and intern.

It’s strange to think about it because it’s only October, but for seniors like me, entry into the real world is quickly approaching. We may not want to accept that our final summer break just ended, but we have to start ramping up our preparations for life after graduation.

Note from Dan Schawbel: Employers plan to hire just 1.3% more graduates in 2009 than they hired this year, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That’s the weakest outlook in six years and reflects a sharp recent downturn.

After changing majors a few times, I settled on public relations at the start of my junior year. Once I made that choice, I realized that I needed to establish an area of expertise, something that would set my personal brand apart from the thousands of other freshly minted public relations grads. For me, this was pretty easy; I wanted to focus on food and restaurants. The focus of your personal brand must be something you are going to enthusiastically look forward to learning and talking about every day.

Since I set my target, I’ve begun taking steps to make my goal a reality. I still have a long way to go, but the following are some of the things that have at least improved my chances:

Offline branding

I drastically increased my consumption of media related to my brand.

E-mail companies that you’re interested in working for after you graduate and ask them what qualities they look for in a junior hire. A common theme in the responses I received was being very familiar with the major industry publications. I immediately subscribed to three magazines, made sure I’m reading everything about restaurants in my local newspapers, and started a crusade to expand my culinary vocabulary by reading books by popular food writers.

I researched and aggressively pursued the most relevant internships in my area.

Look for the companies in your town that are most similar to those at which you’d eventually like to work. I ended up securing internships with my city’s food and wine festival and a local PR agency that has several restaurants as clients.

I sought out opportunities to get advice from successful PR professionals through my school.

It’s easy. Arrange lunch with a professor who worked in your chosen industry. Ask and respond to questions when guest speakers come to your campus. Get involved with any campus program that may afford you networking opportunities.

I got my byline in a printed publication.

Whether it’s a campus newspaper, community magazine, or company newsletter, employers love to see that someone else thought your work was worth publishing. My reviews in our campus newspaper reach 3,000 readers weekly. As a bonus, the general manager of one of the restaurants I reviewed enjoyed my writing style so much he recruited me to help write its newsletter.

Online branding

I claimed my brand and started networking

Claiming your brand on social networking sites insures that you have control over your reputation, but also provides motivation to, you know, actually network, which may lead to otherwise unavailable opportunities. I have profiles on a variety of social networks and have used them to make contacts which I will call on during my job search.

I started producing relevant content.

Showcase your unique voice with consistently updated content that will help position you as an thought/opinion leader in your field. My reviews frequently appear in the first few Google results for popular Charleston restaurants. I also recently purchased www.DavidGHeiser.com and am making efforts to move up in the results for my name.

I take advantage of every opportunity to increase the visibility of my personal brand.

Jump on any chance to get your name in front of an audience that it normally wouldn’t be exposed to. In addition to writing this post, I also worked to get my restaurant reviews syndicated on a local community news website.

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David G. Heiser is an intern at Leapfrog PR, a public relations agency specializing in restaurant and other “lifestyle” clients. He’s also a senior at the College of Charleston and a double major in sociology and communication studies. He is the resident food and film critic for the College of Charleston’s student newspaper, the George Street Observer, which has a circulation of 3,000 weekly. After he graduates, he plans on pursuing a career in public relations with a focus on the culinary industry.

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