There are twelve blocks to listening. You will find that some are old favorites that you use over and over. Others are held in reserve for certain types of people or situations. Everyone uses listening blocks, so you should not worry if a lot of blocks are familiar. This is an opportunity to become more aware of your blocks at the time you actually

As with any other new product or service, people are skeptical about trying them. They want to wait until more people they actually know personally have tried a particular device and can give them some information. The same is true of businesses, especially small businesses that do not have the funds to take huge risks. As a result, it has

We have come to know a lot about employee motivation. We know that the ultimate responsibility for motivating employees lies within the individual employee. We know that both the meaningfulness of the work and the work environment itself can have a sizable impact on employee motivation. We know that intrinsic rewards and motivators tend to have a

There is no argument that today's executive is effective to the degree that he or she is able to communicate with other people. The executive has to be able to speak to other people--one-on-one or one-on-many--in terms other people appreciate, in ways that move and motivate them, and in words and tones that are credible and non-menacing. The "e

When you are trying to grow your business during those first few years, the ability to turn prospects into customers and to keep customers satisfied with your products and services is MISSION CRITICAL. However, some entreprenurs and small business owners may have a common misconception thinking their inside sales professionals and the customer s

Have you ever noticed that children are constantly asking one question: "Why?" They want a reason for everything. And here's a little secret: we never grow out of the need to know why. Studies have shown that you can double the likelihood that a person will buy from you if you give them a reason why. Interestingly, these studies also show tha

Online training today encompasses every aspect that is related to business and is proving to be the perfect aid in developing individual’s skill set. This has resulted in a lot of organizations going for online training software. Seeing its surging demand by the organizations

For uninhibited growth and to keep pace with the highly dynamic corporate world, companies and organizations need highly skilled and motivated work force. One of the major tools in meeting this goal is online training. Online training software not only enable employees to deliver more efficient and effective range of services, but also develop thei

All too often organizations cry out for what I call the quick fix. You know the scenario: two employees not getting along, probably personality differences, not real receptive to previous internal interventions, etc., so the organization decides to bring in outside help to fix the problem. Sound familiar? I call it the quick fix because the conf

Training has always had the same problems facing it, the main one being time constraints. Organisations have recognised that personal development is needed to get the best out of employees to make them more efficient, however taking people out of work proves costly. This puts many people off developing their staff, which if left can lead to irrever

Advances in technology and cultural responses to it mean that more people want to work from home and more companies want to outsource. Here are just a few examples of opportunities for companies in taking advantage of virtual workers: reduced overhead costs, higher quality workers not available locally, often higher productivity per hour. O

Recently I helped a small business owner totally re-write his marketing and business plans. The owner was grateful for the new copy, but expressed a concern that he may have issues writing copy for marketing materials or responding to bid proposals later in the year. He said,"It is so hard to start from scratch writing a marketing document when

One of the chief benefits of booking on-site (in-house) training, as opposed to sending your people off to a training centre to attend a pubic course, is that the training can be customised to suit the specific needs of your organisation. When booking on-site training courses, be sure to make this clear to the training company and brief them fully

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has traditionally recommended a minimum of 40 hours of training a year for every employee. Training is not only important for the growth of companies and organizations but also for their employees, customers and students. Employee training leads to growth and development in the careers and up

In business, like the rest of life we will often encounter people who are just that little more difficult to get along with. Some use the term ‘personality conflict’ to describe the situation, yet this suggests that there is some sort of unbreakable barrier and that the problem is somewhat unfixable, since it is highly unlikely somebody is going to