A personal note from Annemarie...

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 Friday, 31st August 2007

Hi,

Welcome to another edition of Career Communiqué x-Press. I hope you have had a productive and successful fortnight.

I recently ran an Influential Communications workshop which provided participants some key verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that would allow them to become influential communicators even when meeting people for the very first time.

One of the examples I shared with the participants was of a person (let’s call her ‘Julie’) who went to a social function and through a conversation with one of the other guests was able to uncover information about a perfect job opportunity that she had been seeking for quite some time. By using some powerful rapport building and communication skills, Julie was able to build and strengthen this newly-formed connection so that it was a relationship that had trust and mutual understanding. So much so that Julie was given the direct contact details of a key decision maker with whom she could get in contact regarding this position. A great success story!

Take a moment to think about how many times a day you interact and communicate with people either through face-to-face, phone or email, whether it be with colleagues, potential clients, existing customers, suppliers etc. And of these connections how many have delivered positive outcomes? Are you making the right impact on people you are interacting with, whether it is on a professional or social basis?

If you believe you may be jeopardising yourself through poor communication skills, this fortnight’s article provides some quick and easy steps on how you can begin to project a professional persona.

Remember, we always welcome contact and feedback from our subscribers and visitors, so pop across to our Ask Annemarie site and submit your topic of interest, question or comment. Or pop across to our Career Communiqué blog. We'd love to hear from you!

Upcoming programs and workshops

Projecting a professional persona.

Are you struggling to make the right impression with people you interact with but are uncertain as to why? Perhaps the way you are portraying yourself may be diminishing your professionalism? Today’s article provides some insights into how you can begin to project a professional image!

In this issue...

Coach's Corner:   Projecting a professional persona.

Ace that Interview:  How to handle many short-term jobs.

Resources & Tools to Catapult Your Career

 

 Coach's Corner

Projecting a professional persona.

Whether you are representing the company you work for or are operating your own business it is vital to maintain a professional and successful image when interacting with existing or prospective clients and when networking with other business owners and professionals. You may not even realise that the messages you are conveying to others may be viewed as negative or weak, and by projecting anything less than your absolute best you could potentially harm your reputation as people may not take you, the company you represent, or your business seriously.

To avoid becoming a casualty of communication catastrophe and undermining yourself and your abilities try some of the tips provided below:

• Avoid using weak and ineffective communication when promoting your ideas such as “You probably won’t like this idea but how about…” or “I’m probably way off track but …” Instead use strong communication when presenting your ideas; if you don’t believe in what you are saying or what you stand for, how can you expect others to?

• Emulate the physical ‘presence’ and mannerisms of self-assured and confident people. Stand tall with your head held high. Use a firm (although not hand crushing) handshake, smile, and remember to speak clearly and maintain eye contact with the person to whom you are communicating

• Don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake, but rather view it as an opportunity for continued learning and personal development. Everyone makes mistakes, but it is in the way you learn from these and pick yourself up that makes all the difference. One of my favourite NLP presuppositions is ‘There is no failure, only feedback.’ So, if a situation did not deliver the outcome as planned, review it and understand how you can improve on it, so that next time you are in a similar situation you can achieve the right result.

• Learn to accept congratulatory praise and compliments and don’t lessen the impact of your achievements by saying “Oh it was nothing really.” Be proud of what you have accomplished!

• Avoid using negative comments about yourself or your skills as this not only projects a poor self-image, but does little to enhance your self-esteem. Stop feeding your negative self-image by diminishing your skills and abilities, but rather be proud of who you are and what you have to offer.

• Don’t portray or describe yourself as a victim when faced with a problem but rather take on a proactive demeanour by demonstrating your ability to face challenges head on, even if that means asking for support from those around you.

Remember, how we interact and communicate with people around us and with ourselves (through internal communication/thoughts) can impact how we are perceived. Ensure you are perceived in a positive and professional way by adopting some of the above tips!

Believe you may be jeopardising your persona through the way you are communicating to yourself and people around you? Feel free to email me. I’d be more than happy to direct you to the right resource: annemarie@annemariecross.com  All the best!

Have a great fortnight everyone!

 Ace that Interview!

How to handle many short-term jobs.

A candidate who has held many jobs for short periods of time can ring potential alarm bells for any recruiter or potential employer. Be prepared to explain the reasons why you have changed jobs so often.

Suitable reasons could include changes within the organisation that involved restructuring and downsizing.

As an example your response could be:

“My frequent job changes over the last several years are mainly due to the high level changes in the [IT] industry. In some instances I had completed the projects I was hired to oversee, and with the last two companies, both were downsizing.”

If you want to learn more about how to reduce your fear and anxiety grab your copy of 10 key steps to Ace that Interview! today Send me Ace that Interview today! 

Need to get your hands on 10 key steps to Ace that Interview! immediately for an unexpected interview? Get a copy of our new e-Book version delivered to your inbox today! Send me Ace that Interview today! 

Note: Want to learn more about how our laser-focused interview telecoaching sessions can drastically improve your interview performance? Click here to find out how.

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