Speech Making Success Tip

Eye contact is a wonderful tool to convey sincerity. It is also useful to help you to stay aware of how the audience is reacting to you. Stay aware and adapt by changing your presentation style and content to keep their attention and interest.

Practise your public speaking communication skills at a club.

Publicity Strategy for your organisation

I have taken this strategy from a suggestion made by John Stanley, a conference speaker and retail consultant. He was writing to encourage publicity for libraries, but the idea would work just as well for many organisations. He writes, “An advertiser’s dream is to hit its target audience when they are not distracted by other advertisers and have time to absorb the promotion. In today’s hectic world those situations are rare, hence the high dollars to get product placement adverts on movies. … Café menu holders featuring a promotion are used in other retail sectors. The objective is to educate and promote whilst the person is having a cup of coffee. Coffee shops often have Perspex menu holders and you can use these to promote [your organisation], services and [programmes]. The great thing about these holders is that people read them while having a relaxing cup of coffee … Placing adverts in newspapers is not the way to grow [organisations], we need to be innovators and the opportunities are there.” John Stanley Associates website is http://www.jstanley.com.au
So how can we use this idea? Do you meet in a café? Then could you arrange to have your publicity displayed there? Do you know someone who owns a café who could display for your organisation? Otherwise, what do you have to offer your local café owners to persuade them to display your promotional materials? Think about it. Do you could offer training? What would it cost to advertise in your local café? How much of a year’s training does that amount to? Try offering that to the café owner. Maybe they have a friend or family member who would benefit from your training. Who from your organisation has the skills to offer this trade? If no one in the club will take it on, maybe you have a friend or relative who could negotiate for you … the options are yours.

Communication Success Tip - Listening

In conversation, listening is vital because:
- Constant talking does not contribute to the conversation
- It allows you time to consider what you are going to say next
- It allows you to polish what you are going to say for maximum impact and timing
- It allows you to watch and feel the emotions and tenor of that the others are saying
- Attentive, sincere silence offers sympathy of attention even when you do not agree and encourages confidence and the sense of appreciation that brings out the best in people

Develop your listening skills through evaluation at ITC. Visit a club

Nine Steps of Planning in your Organisation

Even though everyone in your organisation may be fairly aware of what is to be achieved, and what your organisational goals are, the goal-setting, planning process is useful to focus awareness on the aims and processes and to ensure that everyone knows exactly what their roles are.

These steps can also be used in any decision-making situation, or any problem solving session.

Planning, must, however, never stop. It is constantly adapting to new situations.

1. Assess the situation
2. Select objectives and strategies to realize objectives.
3. Develop action plans for entire long-range plan
4. Develop detailed action plans for current year
5. Establish a way to monitor activites and insure feedback (reporting).
6. Develop a budget and implement ways to meet funding requirements.
7. Measure performance; analyze feedback; compare progress with plan.
8. Act on findings: give green light to successful activities, take corrective action when needed.
9. Signoff on completed plans - abandon ones not achieving your objective or when the objective changes (as they do).

For workshops to help you grow your organistion, visit

Leadership Success Tip

This week's tip comes from Ron Sargent, CEO of the big office resources firm, Staples. He made a point of being involved in customer service. "Get your hands dirty," he said. "Before you can be a great leader, you need to understand the inner workings of the business and where and how the greatest impact can be made."

For more Leadership Success Tips, subscribe to our ezine:

PR The Power of a smile in selling your organisation

A smile adds value to all that you do. It makes you approachable (an opening to talk aboutyour organisation!), and adds value to your conversation (makes you more believable before you start talking about it), and it makes your message about your group far more powerful.

For more tips on Publicity and PR book a workshop. Visit

FINDING YOUR VOICE - LEADERSHIP SUCCESS

In November 2005, Stephen Covey finally released the follow-=up to his Seven habits series. The book is entitled The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, and instructs readers how to "find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." It took much longer than expected to write, and is 50 pages longer than the total number of pages in the previous seven put together.
"Simply, Habit 8 asserts that everyone has an inner longing to seize the day and live a life of contribution," USA Today's Del Jones writes in a recent article about Covey. "It requires heavy lifting, and Covey challenges readers to get there."
We will watch to see if Habit 8 sells as well as "The 7 Habits," which has sold 15 million copies in the 15 years since it was first published.

For more leadership success tips subscribe to our ezine. Visit

Speech Making Success Tip for the Week

If you want to get a message across, people need to be able to hear it, to be able to hear each word. That means articulating every word very clearly. So pay particular attention to beginnings and especially endings. Then there can be no confusion between similar words such as taken and taking, or pass and past.

To practise your public speaking skills in a supportive environment with constructive feedback, visit a club:

Negotiating confidence

Negotiating can be a challenge. Sometimes we watch successful negotiators at work and wonder if it is an ability they were born with. But with a little time, information and preparation you can head for the negotiating table with confidence.

Ten Steps to Win-Win Negotiating.

1. Be prepared. Define your objectives and use lateral thinking to brainstorm possible ways they can be achieved.

2. Research the other party’s objectives and brainstorm the methods they may use. “Find the edge” – any pressure points or hidden agendas. “Information is power.”

3. Prepare yourself and the way you use the venue. Choose your seating for power, your clothes and your attitude.

4. Establish a cordial relationship on opening the meeting. Specify the aims of the meeting.

5. Raise less contentious issues first.

6. Promote harmony, minimise the negatives and articulate areas of commonality.

7. “Win-win” means compromises on both sides, so be prepared to bargain. Start with two lists – your must-haves and your might-haves, and start with a higher level than you expect to obtain. Highlight the contribution of your concession to the other person’s objectives.

8. Be prepared to release information at times beneficial to your cause. Use silence.

9. Listen for surprises.

10. Articulate the agreed outcomes and any timelines, or they may collapse.

Use detailed preparation and the win-win method and you have the tools to approach negotiation with confidence.

For more Communication success Tips, subscribe to our newlsetter. Visit

Be heard, be understood

Speech Making Success Tip:

If you want to get a message across, people need to be able to hear it, to be able to hear each word. That means articulating every word very clearly. So pay particular attention to beginnings and especially endings. Then there can be no confusion between similar words such as taken and taking, or pass and past.

Read more Public Speaking Tips at our other blog:

A New Publicity Pitch

Taking advantage of local or timely events is a great way to get cheap publicity for your organisation.

Joan Stewart writes:

When it comes to celebrity status, the TV weather people are at the bottom
of the totem pole. While the news anchor is invited to host a glitzy
charity ball, the weather guy is asked to cut the ribbon at the opening of
the local ice rink.

So imagine how surprised forecasters are when they receive cookie bouquets
on February 5, "TV Weatherperson's Day," courtesy of Cookies by Design.
The bouquets are even personalized with each TV station's logo.

"Some stations announced it on every newscast from morning to midnight,"
said Michael Burns, president of Michael A. Burns & Associates, the Dallas
PR firm that came up with the idea several years ago and suggested it to
all franchise owners. The promotion was so successful that it has become a
tradition. One year, Cookies by Design was mentioned on more than 80 TV
stations nationwide. As a result, orders for cookie bouquets skyrocketed
during the first week of February when sales are typically flat.

What can you deliver to your local TV weather person on the morning of
February 5? For national exposure, you can even try schmoozing Al Roker,
or your favorite forecaster over at The Weather Channel.

> Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," a free ezine
> featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe
> at http://www.PublicityHound.com and receive free by email the handy list
> "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

For more useful cheap publicity ideas and tips, book a workshop for your workplace or conference. Visit

Email marketing for your organisation

Do you use email marketing to publicise your organisation? It has so many benefits. And with so many people using the internet and email to source their leisure and learning needs, it is a shame to waste this powerful avenue of publicity for your organisation. For some excellent information on using email to its best potential

Download two Email Best Practices Guides courtesy of EmailLabs (gratis)
www.emaillabs.com/resources_bestpractices.html

Visit the page above for download links to two PDF guides: one a Quick Tips and the other an Articles Collection.

For further training and tips on publicising your organisation, book a workshop, visit

Leadership Success Tip

"Remember the difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says 'Go!'- a leader says 'Let's go!'"
.....E.M. Kelly

For articles on Leadership, visit

Meeting success: Simple steps to presenting a motion

Using motions in a meeting keeps the meeting on target and ensures the will of the meeting is recorded. These simple steps ensure that motions are dealt with efficiently and effectively.
1. Rise and attempt to get the Chairman's attention. Wait to be recognised.
2. Chairman recognises speaker by name.
These two steps are called "Obtaining the floor."
3. Having obtained the floor, state the motion "I move that ..." Explain the motion.
4. Another member seconds the motion showing that more than one member wants the matter considered.
5. The chair states the motion.
6. The chair asks for discussion if the motion is debateable.
7. The Chair puts the question. (asks for a vote)
8. The Chair announces the result of the vote.

Learn more skills for make your meetings efficient and effective. Visit

Extending your Publicity Range

If your community is like mine, it is full of small and large groups – non-profit groups, self-improvement groups, business support groups, school associations and service clubs, and many, many more. Many could have members who are interested in what you offer and may welcome guest speakers. This is a great chance to publicize your club or organisation. (It is also a chance to gain extra training as a speaker, if that is one of your goals! - for a different audience.) Start by making a list of five organizations that could be approached. Then make a list of speakers who could take on this assignment. This list will then be available when you are approached to provide guest speakers in the future. Make sure they are equipped with brochures, business cards and other printed publicity to take to their presentations.
It is also possible that the organizations might want to send a guest speaker to your club. This is another chance to impress, with the wonderful product or service that you offer.

For more publicity tips and tricks, book a workshop for your next conference or meeting. Visit

ePublicity

Using the internet for publicity and e-marketing has been around for some time. You are reading this because of ITC's decision to enter this field. But it is only recently that many businesses have seen the potential for the success of this tactic. One is the business of car sales. Growth in eMarketing for car dealers has developed rapidly, since about the time this article was written for Marketing Vox. The potential is there for you to explore ideas to estable recognition for your organisation.

Study: Email Beats Pants Off of Other Media in Auto Category
Internet Retailer: What car dealers lose by ignoring e-mail marketing
While a self-serving survey, a study did find that email marketing boosts auto dealer marketing return on investment in several interesting ways. The 365 Marketing study showed that email marketing to local car customers garners about five times the response rates of traditional DM efforts. The study found that few are taking advantage of the opportunity, though. 365 Marketing founder Deanie Gregory said it was largely due to "technology and cultural barriers."

Here is the link to cut and past into your browser:
http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=13189

If you would like to learn low-cost marketing tips for your organisation, or how to establish an e-marketing package, visit

Speech Making Success Tip

If you speak in a monotone, you will lose the audience. They will be bored. Add excitement by varying your pitch. You can also use change in pitch, volume and speed to emphasize new or important ideas.

For skill development in public speaking, and communication, with supportive evaluation, visit

Dos and Taboos of Report Writing

Hello

Welcome to the final part in this series on Writing and presenting Effective Reports.

Part One covered Preparation of Reports

In Part Two we looked at Construction and Style of Reports

and in Part Three we looked at Presentation of Reports

Now in Part Four we conclude with the Dos and Taboos of Reports

Dos of Effective Reports

1. Present only unvarnished facts
2. Be explicit, clear and concise
3. Use the third person if representing a committee, neutral voice for others

Taboos of Effective Reports

1. Personal opinions
2. Unconfirmed facts or inaccurate figures
3. Assumptions about results, actions or motives
4. Straying from the subject
5. Story form

Remember - the sequence of producing an effective report: Collect, collate, check accuracy, sequence, present.

If you do not report effectively, then your work may have been for nothing. Effective reporting not only increases productivity, but can also contribute to your image in the organisation. It really is worth the time taken to do it well!

Mentoring for Leadership

All good leaders must mentor others to become leaders themselves.

To develop your organisation's leaders ask about our workshops. Visit

Cheap powerful publicity

In this world where people are bombarded with advertising, promotions and publicity from every angle, and through all their senses, it is very difficult to gain attention for your organisation. Imagine, then, that you could approach them at a time when they are relaxed and open to suggestion – without paying a fortune. Turn your imagination, then, to a coffee shop. Have you explored this avenue of publicity? While people are relaxing over a cup of tea or coffee, you can have them read your message – strategically placed in the menu holder or the salt and pepper shaker tray. Try your local coffee shop. You may have to go to a national franchise, but the local coffee shop owner is probably amenable. Try it!

For further tips on cheap and effective marketing for your organisation, book a workshop. Visit this link: