Welcome to the guest blog.
As part of the expansion to help more people tap into their unique talents to communicate, connect and come alive, I've decided to include other voices on the website. I hope the ideas here will help you in your business and in your life. Enjoy!
All my best,
Victoria
Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Smallbiztechnology.com
Traditional wisdom has always relegated stage presence to two categories: the born-with-it category and the life experience category. In drama class in college I was taught that some people have natural presence. For those of us who don’t, hard work and many years of experience on the stage can help us build presence. I think this is a defeatist attitude. Presence is a consequence of confidence. Confidence is a consequence of many things. Experience is definitely one of them but psychological conditioning can help build confidence much more quickly. I’m a big proponent of the “as-if” strategy: if you act as if you have confidence, your audience won’t know the difference.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Escopetarra.org
I was watching a police procedural on television last night—you know, one of those detective shows where each episode follows a team of eagle-eyed coppers as they solve a mysterious crime. They track down the criminal, all the while struggling to follow the strict rules of law enforcement. I’m also a fan of the legal procedural—smartly dressed lawyers butting heads over the minutae of legalese. While it must be difficult working within the confines of the law, it must also be freeing to have such well-defined rules. It occurred to me last night how rule-less business can be. It’s laughable to compare a corporate office to a police barracks or a courtroom. Corporate rules are developed in-house. They vary widely from company to company and they’re often rather bendable. Earlier this week I wrote about having integrity at work, and I think it’s a topic worth revisiting. In an environment without solid overarching rules, inner integrity is our only defense against all types of personal and professional corruption.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Amicaecuriae.com
My little sister just finished a semester of college. In the fall, she’ll be a junior, part of the upper school. By now her professors expect her to be an efficient worker: to manage her time well, avoid excessive distractions, and always hand in her work on time. Unfortunately, she doesn’t always manage to do these things. I’m nearly ten years older than her and it’s hard for me to know what to say. She expects so much of herself. She has very high standards and always feels like she has something to prove. And yet, she continues to fall behind. We had a powwow about it over the long weekend and she had some interesting insights into her behavior, insights I think translate remarkably well to the business world.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Articles.businessinsider.com
When I was in my early twenties, I didn’t have any perspective. I didn’t see how little things—being late, getting caught in a minor lie, arriving slightly unprepared—mattered in the big picture. I was naïve, like most people are in their early twenties. It took me several years of lukewarm colleagues, missing out on the best projects, and a lack of regular raises to identify the problem: I was lacking integrity.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Evolvingidentity.wordpress.com
Over the past few weeks I’ve been writing a lot about emotional intelligence: intuition, empathy, and compassion. It’s that quality some people have that allows them to detect problems before they happen, to diffuse conflicts before they bloom into arguments. Like IQ, some people are just born with a high EQ. They instinctively recognize when someone is upset, unhappy, or frustrated. They can read subtle cues—from the way a person stands to the flicker of consternation on an otherwise placid face—and they react based on those cues. For obvious reasons, a high EQ is a huge advantage in business.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: CC-Chapman.com
Respect is a driving force behind all of our relationships, even if we don’t realize it. When I don’t respect a person, I’m much less likely to consider her feelings. I don’t worry nearly as much about the impression I’m making or about her opinion of me. My disrespect is obvious and it makes me look bad… very bad. Whether or not you actively respect the people around you (and you should, on principle) you have to at least act like you respect them. If you don’t, you undermine your authority, lose their trust, and come across as uncaring and arrogant. None of these things will help you succeed in business.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Gigaom.com
Yesterday I wrote about the importance of identifying and responding to a problem. Today, I’d like to discuss the benefits of collaboration for solving problems as a team. From the outside, a well-oiled team makes office management look easy. Problems are addressed quickly and with few ripples. Employees know where to go with questions or concerns and they’re satisfied with resolutions. But building this kind of team takes an enormous effort. It requires personnel who communicate skillfully and bosses who respect the decisions the team makes. It also requires a masterful arbitrator—someone who can oversee the team’s progress, suggest improvements, manage hiring, and step in when the team’s efforts break down.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Uscreates.com
What is a problem? According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is: A difficult matter requiring a solution; something hard to understand, accomplish, or deal with. In business, problems are an every day affair. They arise for an infinite variety of reasons and have an infinite variety of potential solutions. Solving problems is one of the most important skills in a manager’s arsenal. Unfortunately, it isn’t an easy skill to learn. Because problems can come from any direction, the best problem-solvers are creative thinkers.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: En.wikipedia.org
One of the most difficult challenges of being a supervisor is working as the liaison between your underlings and your boss. Any successful politician or business person has to master this skill. In this type of position, you are responsible for the work of the people beneath you, but you are also responsible for their welfare. You are a facilitator, a middleman, and a negotiator. You take the heat when a job doesn’t get done, but if the people you supervise are unhappy or they’re being treated poorly, they’re not going to be inspired to greatness. It is in your best interest to make sure they are treated well. You benefit from their good work and good will and your boss benefits too. Still, often this communication breaks down and the middle manager gets caught…well… in the middle.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Bigthink.com
If you’ve seen Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, you’ve seen a presentation at its best. Yes, in the aftermath of its big splash there was some debate about Gore’s facts, and while the scientific consensus is that global warming is dangerous and real, he undermined his message with exaggerations (slight but real). But barring that obvious gaffe (and we can learn from that too) he managed to present a mountain of information in a digestible, moving, package—a call-to-action that motivated hoards of people, and that still manages to invoke passion and outrage. That is the hallmark of a powerful speech, something we should all try to emulate in our own work.
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