Would you like your clients and prospects to believe that you will be a true business partner for them?  You can help make this happen by sharpening your active listening skills.  Active listening helps you project a spirit of good will and project your most positive, professional image.

Very often, it’s wise to listen as your conversation partners express themselves fully, before you present your own thoughts, opinions, and perceptions. People are more likely to agree when they feel that they themselves have been heard!

Here are three steps that will help you listen actively:

Step 1:  Blend
Blending is any behavior that helps reduce the differences between you and your conversation partners. The goal is to increase rapport.  As we speak, listeners are often subconsciously wondering “Are you with me, or against me?” — so building rapport is very important.  Blending will help you do it.  This means that you will mirror – and not mimic – your conversation partner’s tone, pacing, volume, facial expressions and posture.  Give receptive signals: “Oh, yes, I see, I understand”, and use a lot of head nodding.

Step 2: Backtrack
The goal of backtracking is to show that you are listening and want to understand. When you backtrack, you repeat verbatim your conversation partner’s words.  It is important not to paraphrase; use the exact words. This is particularly useful during business conversations on the phone.

Step 3: Clarify
Ask clarifying questions.  Your goal is to gather as much information as possible and delay giving your own responses. Clarifying questions begin with the words “why”, “how”, and “tell me about…” There are three main benefits to backtracking: it shows that you are patient and supportive, it helps an unreasonable conversation partner behave more reasonably, and it helps reveal any hidden agendas that your conversation partners may have.

These three steps for active listening will help you project a spirit of good will and caring.  Next time, I will share the final two steps to help you listen actively and make it easier for your clients and prospects to believe that you’ll be a true business partner for them!

When you’re in the middle of a challenging business conversation, and you’re certain that your tone of voice has been “above reproach”, what else can you do to increase harmony?

I recently talked with you about the importance of monitoring your tone of voice to increase harmony in challenging conversations.  Here are three more strategies to help guarantee your success: 

#1: Give positive reinforcement.

We often need to continue having business conversations with people whom we have already experienced to be difficult.  Be on the lookout for their positive behavior, and acknowledge it verbally.  Whenever you witness behavior that you would like to see repeated, you can say something like, “That’s one of the things I admire about you:  your ability to ___”.    Identify the positive behavior; praise it. 

#2:  Interrupt people tactfully when they are shouting, dominating a conversation or meeting, or complaining with increasing negativity. 

Calmly repeat the person’s name over and over again.  When the person stops speaking, state or restate your own intention in the conversation. 

#3:  Respond to criticism strategically.

Thank people when they criticize you.  When we defend ourselves, it often  appears to be an admission of guilt.  Instead, you can say something like,  “Thank you for telling me how you feel”, or “Thank you for being honest”, or just “Thank you.”   “Thank you” is a complete sentence! 

When you monitor your communication in these three ways, you’ll help bring out the best in people, increase harmony, and set the stage for greater success in challenging business conversations.

Would you like your business listeners to trust you more?  Would your business improve if you could convince prospects that you will be a true business partner for them?  Would you like to generate more new business and keep more the business you already have? 

If you’re answer is YES, you won’t want to miss my exciting program called “Enhance Your Leadership Presence with Acting Improvisation.”  You’ll learn how to enhance your leadership presence by using acting improvisation, storytelling techniques, and the “yes and” mindset to transform your communication skills. You’ll learn how to generate business by deepening interpersonal connections, speaking with authenticity, building trust, and engaging your listeners. And you’ll learn how to address the changing needs of your existing clients by expanding your creativity and spontaneity. 

I describe this work as “serious fun”. You’ll be engaged in playful, interactive activities:  acting improvisation, theater and imagination games, and mind, body, and voice techniques that will help you project a spirit of collaboration and convince your prospects that you can (and will) help them solve their business problems. 

Let me tell you how acting improvisation will enhance your leadership presence: 

#1:  Whenever you speak for business, your listeners have one over-riding concern: they want to know what’s in it for them.  Acting improvisation addresses this concern.  Early in their training, actors learn that the audience is always asking the question, “Why are you telling me this?”  Acting improvisation teaches that you must answer this question, and answer it in a way that is compelling for your listeners.  This is a skill that every business leader needs!  If you’re not answering this question in a way that is compelling for your listeners, you’re losing business. 

#2:  To generate new business and keep the business you already have, you need to engage your listeners.  Acting improvisation teaches what a message is made of, what needs to happen; it teaches you how to discern when the beginning should be over, when your listeners have had enough of the middle, when it’s time to move on to the ending, and how long that should last, etc. Leaders who use this knowledge and the timing that it develops become truly engaging:  become masters of engagement.  And they have a measurable competitive edge! 

You, too, can become a master of engagement. Acting improvisation will teach you how!  Don’t miss the opportunity to experience this innovative program: you’ll take away powerful techniques to transform your leadership presence.  

Discover how play will enhance the way you work. And get ready for some serious fun!  I look forward to working with you.

In my last blog, I provided two strategies for successful business speaking that are rooted in theater techniques that I used while I was rehearsing and performing the role of Amanda in The Glass Menagerie this past summer.

Here is another technique you can use in business to enhance your confidence when you are about to make a presentation:  know your venue and become adaptable to the space, so that you can speak comfortably in a range of situations.

Our set for The Glass Menagerie depicted a tenement apartment in St. Louis during the late 1930’s.  Right before one performance, the stagehands had placed a heavy chair in the wrong spot on stage.  I had been directed to sit on the arm of the chair all the way stage right, at an angle facing away from my scene partner.  With the chair in its incorrect spot, my sitting on the chair that way would block half the audience from any view of the action.  I had previously thought of various other options for my stage movement, so I was able to improvise a solution during that performance.  Under the new circumstances, I stood in the stage area far right of the chair, to open up the view for whole audience.

Business speakers, too, should be ready to improvise physically when necessary.

• Whether your business presentation or conversation takes place in an office, conference room, boardroom, or convention hall, visit the space in advance whenever possible.
• Notice what is in the space and how it might help or hinder your ability to communicate.  Request what you do want and do not want to be “in your space”.  Then, assume that the space may not be just as you wish, and look for ways to improvise, if necessary.  Determine Choice B and Choice C for where you will be and where you will move, so that you can be ready to adapt.
• During your advance visit, do a brief “walk-through” or “sit-through” of your talk.  Experiment with a variety of other spots for you to stand, sit, or move.  This will help you improvise gracefully (and give your audience a full experience) whenever you face challenges with the physical setup of the room.

Preparing for uncertainty in this way will give you a wonderful sense of security and the confidence that your message will have impact for your audience, even when your venue is not ideal!

https://youtu.be/IDM9d7wxBmM

You can increase the impact that you have on your business listeners by revealing who YOU are when you speak!

Consider the impact that actors have on their audiences. Many years ago, Marlon Brando said, “Acting is the ancient, instinctive art of representing ourselves to others in a way that reflects how we truly are.”

Successful business speaking also reflects how we truly are. It shows your business listeners what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and how they might do it better. It also shows them how you, the speaker, truly are. And that means WHO you are.

Convincing actors and persuasive business speakers make their greatest impact through self-revelation.

To play a character convincingly and make the audience believe, actors reveal truths that lie in the deepest places of their own hearts: truths that lie inside every heart. The ability to reveal what is both personal and at the same time universal creates for the audience a transformative experience: when audiences recognize themselves in a character – when they can identify — they can understand more about our human condition, our limitations, and, most importantly, our potential.

This ability to reveal what is personal and at the same time universal is important in business speaking, too. Whether you are giving a power point presentation or talking with a prospect on a sales call, revealing who YOU are is a key ingredient in making a deep connection with your listeners and building their trust.

When you prepare to speak for business, decide what you will reveal about yourself in the following areas:
1. Your personal perspective about your business message
2. Your appreciation of your listeners and your enjoyment in speaking with them
3. True stories from your own life that will help illustrate your message

Be sure that your communication is supported by your vocal delivery, your body language, and every aspect of your demeanor.

Reveal who YOU are when you speak, to build trust and make your greatest impact!