Inspiration Corner

Motivational Speaker Says, ‘Setbacks. Are inevitable - And Often Helpful’

2007-06-14T12:06:00.000+01:00

Setbacks can happen through no fault of yours. And overcoming them can be mightily instructive. Check the memoirs of the great tycoons. You don’t read far before there’s a big crisis that puts their calibre to the test. “Been through the mill” is a tribute to someone’s character and judgment. (Some religions actually thank the Gods for sending them problems.)

Another Insight Into Self-Marketing Culture By Motivational Speaker And BBC Broadcaster Carole Spiers. Meet her in person at her Self-Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’ in central London, Thursday June 28th 2007.

And discover the fastest way to grow your new business, gain clients, boost profit – all on a zero budget! Click here www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk to book your earlybird space before all tickets are sold out.

Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers Says, ‘Your Health Really Does Come First’

2007-06-13T15:17:00.000+01:00

A rule often ignored, probably because it sounds uncool - too much like teacher’s pet. Yet anyone who’s pushed themselves too far will urge you passionately to ignore the common cries. “A little drink will set me up for the day.” Recipe for total dependence. “Lunch is for wimps.” Pseudo-macho nonsense. “No time for exercise.” Seriously reconsider your time management policy.

Another Insight Into Self-Marketing Culture By Motivational Speaker And BBC Broadcaster Carole Spiers. Meet her in person at her Self-Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’ in central London, Thursday June 28th 2007.

And discover the fastest way to grow your new business, gain clients, boost profit – all on a zero budget! Click here www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk to book your earlybird space before all tickets are sold out.

Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers Looks At The Anatomy Of A Typical Goal

2007-06-07T15:22:00.000+01:00

Writing down your main goal is an essential starting-point, to which many people are hesitant to commit. But a declared goal needs to face the test of repeated scrutiny before you press the launch-button. Pin it up on the wall. Ask your colleagues what they think. If it still looks good after a week, go for it. Any entrepreneur will tell you: temporary enthusiasms are the curse of business.

Another Insight Into Self-Marketing Culture By Motivational Speaker And BBC Broadcaster Carole Spiers. Meet her in person at her Self-Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’ in central London, Thursday June 28th 2007.

And discover the fastest way to grow your new business, gain clients, boost profit – all on a zero budget! Click here www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk to book your earlybird space before all tickets are sold out.

Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says ‘The First Few Seconds Are The Most Important’

2007-05-24T11:12:00.000+01:00

Framing that initial snapshot that registers so deeply on your audience.

A business meeting around a table is no different in principle from a large conference. In both cases, certain speakers have to gain the attention of an audience, hold that attention, and drive home an argument with force and conviction.

And the initial impact is everything.

Remember that less than ten percent of your audience’s attention will be fixed on the actual subject of your presentation. Ninety percent of it will be assessing your face, your voice, your hair, your clothes… and searching for a mass of other hidden clues about who you are and where you’re coming from. The managing of that initial impact is a formal study, cultivated by professional speakers.

When you get up to make that presentation or conference speech, you are entering the world of public speaking, which is a branch of show business - performing for money. Except that in your case, it’s performing for career-points, which is notionally the same thing.

So it makes sense to observe some of the standard wisdom of actors and presenters in developing and polishing-up their act.

Making your entrance: asserting command

Whatever you’ve heard about the importance of first impressions on an individual, they’re ten times more crucial when you’re addressing an audience.

As the young female newscasters always complain, clothes and makeover seem to attract more attention than wars and revolutions.

But clothes and makeover are a big part of the image you present to the world, whether consciously or not. And there are a mass of other signals that register on an audience before you’ve had a chance to utter a word.

These ‘non-verbal interventions’, as they are classified, should be aimed at exuding confidence and making each member of the audience feel that you are addressing them exclusively. So you start by looking around with a welcoming smile, and then repeat this gesture periodically, with equal attention to all zones of the room. This makes a regular suggestion that we’re all enjoying ourselves. Hands should be open and involving (never in the pockets), drawing the audience in.

And don’t let Powerpoint get you into bad habits like turning your back or too-obviously reading the bullet-points. They are simply your aide-memoire, not for reading out.

Fear of audiences - killing a speech stone dead

If you’re nervous about getting up and speaking in public, you’re not alone. It’s actually the commonest phobia of them all (stage fright), and good actors make a point of working round it.

First, you must realise that it’s an irrational reflex, like fear of having an injection - dreading something that doesn’t really hurt at all, imagining the worst. It is rooted in a web of insecurities about the impact of your face, voice and manner on an audience - almost certainly exaggerated, usually not confirmed when it comes to the event.

There is also the somewhat more logical fear that an executive audience may be full of people who know more than you do - so who are you to lecture them? The answer is that you are not lecturing them. You are offering them a little snapshot of their subject taken from a fresh angle, and delivered with originality and engaging wit. On another level, you are also offering them a few minutes of yourself as a character and a personality. It is not strictly a lecture at all.

It’s actually a sort of combat. That audience is a stallion that needs breaking, and you must go at it with a fierce conviction. If this is bordering on arrogance, it’s better than diffidence. Ruthlessly train yourself out of hesitancy - any of those ‘er-um-y’know’ intervals which suggest under-confidence or ultimately fear. If you show fear, you’re finished. So get into a fighting mode, and nobody in that audience will ever guess you were afraid of public speaking.

If they’ve heard you before…

If you find you’re regularly addressing much the same audience, exploit this repeated opportunity to build presence. It’s like being a popular character-actor with his catch-phrases or a fresh orchid in the buttonhole. They’ll love you for it, and will feel cheated if you don’t play up to it.

This is actually brand-building. It sets off associations which strengthen a little more each time, and can heighten your credibility and authority. Especially if you’re trying to sell one particular agenda.Let’s say you’re talking about post-traumatic stress and the need to make plans for psychological de-briefings and first-aid. They’ll probably file that away under ‘worthy but boring’, like checking the fire-extinguishers. But the second time round, they’ll start to take a bit more notice, as long as you are not repeating the identical message. Present fresh angles on the same theme. Spice it with new anecdotes. And before long, they’ll move the post-trauma issue a bit higher up their list of priorities: your brand-building programme will have helped to sell the product.

And next time you get up to speak, they’ll have all those associations front-of-mind.

Good Chairmanship

Instead of being a speaker, you may find yourself in the role of Chairman, either at a business meeting or at a conference.

This requires just as much stage presence, but not so as to eclipse the speakers themselves. It is meant to complement their speaking skills.

As the anchor between speaker and audience, you must build a good relationship with both. This takes a particular mix of firmness and friendliness. On one hand, you must be able to control the event, rationing interruptions from the floor, as well as tactfully pointing out if a speaker is over-running his allocated time. On the other, you should encourage a relaxed atmosphere, introducing each speaker with a short profile, well-researched in advance, preferably including an anecdote the audience won’t have heard before.

In this way, your stage presence has a profound influence on the success of the event.

Six points of presentation technique, as practised by Carole Spiers

1. Focus your thoughts
Rehearse that opening statement exactly; the rest will follow

2. Control your nerves
Breathe deeply and regularly, to avoid gasping or gulping

3. Free up your body-language
Let your movements and gestures flow gracefully and naturally

4. Develop your presentation style
Your idiosynchrasies will help to make you more memorable

5. Relevant Anecdotes
A necessary break from formal sequences of subject-matter

6. Make eye-contact
Try to meet everyone’s eye; establish more intimacy of dialogue

Another Insight Into Self-Marketing Culture By Motivational Speaker And BBC Broadcaster Carole Spiers. Meet her in person at her Self-Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’ in Central London, Thursday June 28th 2007.

And discover the fastest way to grow your new business, gain clients, boost profit – all on a zero budget! Click here www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk to book your earlybird space before all tickets are sold out.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, ‘It all starts with a strategy’

2007-05-23T10:08:00.000+01:00

Where do the success stories usually begin? Forget the colourful anecdotes about bright ideas scribbled down on the back of your hand. It usually comes down to a good, sound strategy worked out in detail and followed-through with determination and persistence. Securely rooted in this deep foundation, your dreams can soar.

Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Carole Spiers Motivational Speaker Says, ‘Business Networking Is A Two-Way Relationship’.

2007-05-20T08:14:00.000+01:00

Your networking agenda is like any other kind of relationship-building. It’s a two-way interaction. If your potential networking partners think you’re only looking for what you can get out of it, they’ll soon cool off you. Either return the goodwill directly, or convince them that the two of you together are bigger than the sum of your parts.

Congratulations – You’re About To Learn How To Market Yourself On A Zero Budget and Grow Rich!

If you’d like to discover proven marketing formulas and the fastest way to grow your business, get more clients and boost your sales, grab the opportunity at our Marketing Bootcamp, ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit! in Central London on 28th June - Click here www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk for full details.

Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’

Carole will reveal the insider secrets to marketing your business on a zero budget at her one-day MEGA Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’! Thursday 28th June in central London. Grab your opportunity to book your earlybird place and go to www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk NOW!

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, ‘You’re not the only one afraid of Public Speaking’

2007-05-19T17:38:00.000+01:00

It’s the commonest phobia of them all. So manage it - as good actors do.

When you step up on that platform, you’re stepping into show business.
You may only be in it for a few minutes, at an occasional wedding or conference. Or as a professional speaker, you may be in it for a career.

Either way, you’re always liable to experience the same kind of stage fright that secretly afflicts many fine actors, and which you need to get a handle on, if every forthcoming speech is not going to make a misery of you.

Frightened of nothing: the irrational reflex

It’s rather like fear of having an injection. You’re dreading something that doesn’t really hurt at all - imagining the worst.

This may be traced back to an actual memory of a stage disaster. But more likely it is rooted in a complex web of insecurities about the impact of your face, voice and manner on an audience - almost certainly exaggerated, usually not confirmed when it comes to the event.

There is also the somewhat more logical fear that an executive audience may be full of people who know more than you do - so who are you to lecture them? The answer is that you are not lecturing them. You are offering them a little snapshot of their subject taken from a fresh angle, and delivered with originality and engaging wit. On another level, you are also offering them a few minutes of yourself as a character and a personality. It is not strictly a lecture at all.

Preparation - your most effective safeguard

Most of your problem can be handled by the simple drills of thorough preparation.
First, you ought to memorise your speech, for the same reason that an actor does. Theatrical effects often depend on a well-rehearsed sequence building up to a climax. Your speech ought to suggest some kind of drama, with rhythm and tempo that may need a lot of practising. But like an actor, you should be able to make it sound entirely spontaneous.

Unlike an actor, however, you may not be reciting it quite verbatim. You may want to refer to something the previous speaker said. You may need to respond to an interruption. And of course, you must be ready to adapt it at short notice (or no notice) due to the last-minute change of schedule that’s suddenly going to chop it in half. For this, you need to decide in advance which sections you would leave out or merge together. In any case, you must always allow for the real thing to be about 20% longer than what you rehearsed in private, where you are liable to speak faster, and acoustics are not taken into account.

That fighting attitude: getting psyched-up

Yes, it’s a sort of combat. That audience is a stallion that needs breaking, and you must go at it with a fierce conviction. If this is bordering on arrogance, it’s better than diffidence.

Those awkward questions from the floor, for example. Don’t just trundle out some appeasing answer. Rehearse by getting one of your colleagues to throw some really nasty questions at you, and sharpen-up a withering reply to each of them. (The only notable thing about the young Margaret Thatcher was her extreme confidence at silencing hecklers.)

The commonest mistake is to talk humble about how honoured you are to be there. Make them feel honoured to be there. And ruthlessly root-out any signs of hesitancy, any of those ‘er-um-y’know’ intervals which suggest under-confidence or ultimately fear. If you show fear, you’re finished. So get into a fighting mode, and nobody in that audience will ever guess you were afraid of public speaking.

Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’

See Carole live at her one-day MEGA Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’ – discover how to market your business on a zero budget! On Thursday 28th June in central London. Grab your opportunity to book your earlybird place and go to www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers on: How To Remind Your Contacts That You’re Still Alive!

2007-05-14T07:35:00.001+01:00

A Motivational Speaker is just as vulnerable as any other SME to the curse of the silent phone.

You sit there scanning that new-business database you’ve built up with such care. Hundreds and hundreds of well-placed people who could become lucrative clients. But day after day, the phone still doesn’t ring. And the last few times you dialled-up a contact out of the blue, you were politely told where to go.

Well, I’ve been working for myself for over 20 years, and I figured out early on that if I couldn’t find ingenious ways to activate my market, nobody else was likely to do it for me!

So think round corners, like me. Try these few little tips - or a whole lot more too, in my new Marketing e-book ‘Turn Your Passion into Profit’: and discover how to multiply your income on a ZERO budget!

And also find out how to activate your database like me. Click here: http://tinyurl.com/28oyav

Maximise Your Lists

The longer your lists, the greater the chance of something coming up. So keep tabs. If you’re planning to be still around in a few years, try to log details of every single contact, however unpromising. Today’s junior will be tomorrow’s manager sooner than you think. People who can’t use you this year may move into jobs where they can. Some relationships take many years to mature. (That’s one reason why it helps if you get yourself clearly remembered - or branded - from the start.)

Persist, Don’t Pester

Where potential clients respond coolly to your overtures, note the date of your call, and don’t try again for about 9-12 months. If it’s ansafone, take the opportunity to leave a clear message reminding them who you are, preferably giving an incentive for them to ring back. If they’re people you’ve met and got on quite well with, you can try a Merry Christmas call as an excuse to ask them their news and check their movements, as well as discreetly asking about mutual contacts in the cheery Yuletide atmosphere.

The Blog As Subtle Reminder

This is really an amazing one. The internet provides a big opportunity to keep your name in front of your database contacts, via well-crafted mailings that promote yourself and your service during the intervals between your calls. Unfortunately mailings sent out cold may be rejected as spam, and you won’t know which. If relations with your contact are reasonably friendly, get them to subscribe to a regular Blog, accessed via an RSS feed, which automatically overrides spam-detectors.

(If you’d like to know more about how Blogs will earn you money, we’re making a special study of it at our Marketing Bootcamp, ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit: Marketing You And Your Business on a ZERO budget! In Central London on 28th June - Click here to catch your earlybird place - www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk .)

Exploit Business Gossips…

Identify a few of your more sociable colleagues who are natural gossips who enjoy boasting how well they’ve kept up with who’s-gone-where. Once a year, give them a really good lunch - they’ll be volunteering valuable data over the coffee and liqueurs.

…But Don’t Go The Bar-Room Route

People who talk big in bar-rooms usually talk small in boardrooms. Making plans over drinks is generally for losers. Especially mistrust new contacts who make urgent hurry-hurry business propositions in bars. (If they’ve got such a desperate panic on, what are they doing hanging around the pub in the first place?)

Friendly To Receptionists And PA’s

Receptionists, switchboarders and PA’s often have to put up with a lot of rudeness, and they can’t walk away. So they particularly appreciate good manners and common decency. Get them on your side, and they can give you access to a key manager when he’s free, advise you who else to approach and how, or tip you off about newly-appointed managers before your rivals hear about them.

And More MarketingTips Where These Came From…

If you think these little pointers might be useful for promoting yourself and your business, I can offer you the ultimate Marketing book.

As a Motivational Speaker, I always get a warm reaction to my empowerment talks, ad people often come to me afterwards, asking for the book of the speech. So now I’ve provided one, which is on sale at all the venues where I appear - or conveniently downloadable in the form of an e-book whenever you want.

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Remember failure? Forget it.

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Carole Spiers – inspirational Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Marketing and Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says 'Efficient v. Effective is the difference between doing the job right and doing the right job

2007-04-25T20:56:00.001+01:00

In my role as a Motivational Speaker at business conferences and seminars, I have often have to point out that ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’ may sound similar, but they are in fact quite different forms of time management.

For example, the supervisor of a dozen building sites in London’s western suburbs had worked out a logical routine for beating the rush-hour, in order to spend less time in his car and more time on-site.

He visited each site in sequence, in a particular orbit that would allow him to ‘reverse commute’, heading out of town in the morning and back into town in the evening.

This was efficient. But it was not effective - because it ignored the priority-status of the sites with the problems needing most urgent attention.

In other words, he had done the job right, but not the right job.

Distinguishing between Efficient and Effective is an important branch of Time Management - one of the major specialities on which motivational speaker Carole Spiers regularly addresses blue-chip corporate clients. It is a difference that bulks-up big in all workplace contexts.

For example, it marks the difference between the old-style secretary and the new-style PA. The secretary had to be efficient - arriving punctually, typing neatly, passing on messages correctly. But she did not have to be effective - making decisions, forecasting outcomes, thinking round corners in a semi-executive role, as today’s PA increasingly must.

Efficient v. Effective is also the test of how we handle our two kinds of working time - Control Time, where you control the duration of the job, and Response Time, where you react to interruptions which control you.

Two managers are working separately on a major report, which requires deep concentration and cannot be written in periods of less than half-an-hour. Meanwhile both are also having to allow time for dialogue with the rest of the department.

Manager A puts in half-an-hour on the report, then his concentration starts to slip, so he decides to take a break by ‘doing the rounds’ in a part-social, part-business atmosphere. One colleague needs a problem sorted, and this takes half-an-hour - longer than expected. It is at least an hour before the manager is back at his desk. Ten minutes later, the boss rings to fix a meeting for sometime that day. “How about now?” says the manager, and goes off to meet him.

Manager B faces an identical situation, but handles it differently. She starts by ringing up one of her department, to say she’ll be doing the rounds in half-an-hour - knowing that she’ll need a break by then. At the appointed time, she conducts her tour, and sure enough one team-member has a problem that needs fixing. “Come and see me in half-an-hour, when I’ll be ready for another break” she says. The colleague arrives by appointment, and they duly fix the problem, which also takes half-an-hour. Ten minutes later, the boss rings her too, to fix a meeting for today. “How about half-an-hour’s time?”, she says, and returns to another focused session on her report.

The difference between these two scenarios is that Manager A has only spent the first half-hour in Control Time, while Manager B has managed to arrange three half-hour sessions in Control Time. So limiting your availability is a key factor in achieving effectiveness.

How to stop your time managing you…

Time Management has a lot to do with showing Time who’s boss.

In fact, your time will automatically try to manage you - unless you prevent it.

The Interruption factor
The average manager gets interrupted every 8 minutes. It’s something you can’t schedule - but there are practical ways to cut the chat.

How Meetings squander time
Everything from latecomers to attention-seekers or just an unclear agenda. Make sure it’s necessary, then keep it brisk and businesslike.

Logging the time-waster elements
List everything that tends to hold you up - desk clutter, drop-in visitors, long-winded talk, confusion of roles, false alarms - and tackle them.

You can find out about these and many other aspects of Time Management in a major training toolkit: ‘Hurry Hurry! – Every Second Counts’. The true and false dynamics of urgency at work’, available right here on my website - www.carolespiers.com

Suitable for all levels of management and employees, this toolkit comes with Powerpoint sildes for easy presentation, as well as a workbook that can be copied in any number. It has proved equally popular in many different kinds of organisation, at seminars and training sessions, and also with my general audiences as a motivational speaker.

Click here to see full details and buy… See a useful improvement in your time management soon. http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=24

Motivational speaker Carole Spiers occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Keynote Speaker Carole Spiers says “Don’t count your Valentines. They don’t count that much.”

2007-02-11T07:51:00.000+00:00

In the world of empowerment and self-development, the Valentine Card should have no place - a dubious ritual that just leaves a lot of girls feeling lonely and left out.

So what do we do? Ban it from the office - as we’ve banned the girlie-calendar and the wolf-whistle?

No. That would make us (empowerment advocates) look humourless, about a topic that should largely be treated with humour.

Valentines are basically a bit of fun

It is doubtful if they alter anyone’s lives. After all, if that card is unsigned, you’re meant to know who it’s from, and nearly always it’s from your steady boyfriend anyway. Like a little good-morning kiss - an impulse gesture, not a profound piece of communication.

Of course, a girl does feel a flutter of interest when she’s just received a mystery card, provided it’s not from some sinister stalker. It injects a little twist of magic into that one particular day, when she briefly lets herself dream about who the sender might be, before returning to the real world again. But it’s still only a game.

It is when people take it all too seriously that the trouble starts

Like when a married couple feel they ought to keep up a formal exchange of cards, like a ‘marital duty’ - that joyless phrase.

Then there’s that sense of competition you sometimes notice, especially with multiple cards. “I got more Valentines than you!” Or the temptress who wants to boast that she’s broken the office record this year. Or the girl who needs the reassurance that she’s received more cards than she’s sent out.

These are seldom the ones with the most satisfying love-lives. Yet that is just the kind of thing that sets up jealousy and envy in the less-confident girl, adding to all her insecurities, most of which turn out to be groundless in due course.

Valentines? More or less harmless. And they keep a few printers in work. But remember, there
are 364 other days in the year when loving impulses can be expressed too. Perhaps with more sincerity.

It Doesn’t Need A Valentine Card To Put You On Top Of The World…

You can get yourself a first-class ticket through life - by attending to your own personal empowerment and self-development agenda. Click here http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=34
for details of my book ‘Turn your passion into profit’ - new this week, latest from Carolespiers.com, the website to watch – www.carolespiers.com

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says: ' Important v. Urgent!

2007-02-09T08:16:00.000+00:00

Two conflicting scales of priority that can seriously pull you apart!

You may see no great difference between ‘urgent’ and ‘important’. But as a motivational speaker on Time Management, I have taught many blue-chip managements an important difference between the two. See it this way:

With much effort, you’ve managed to clear aside a whole day for tackling a major problem that must be solved by the end of the week.

Just as you’re getting dug down deep into it, someone knocks on the door with one of those so-called panics, wanted for today, instantly snapping your concentration and putting you back in a shallow and superficial mode, from which no great insights are likely to flow.

The nuisance-value of this kind of interruption may be compared to an express train being derailed by a brick on the line - a little thing getting in the way of a big thing.
Yet it is very hard to walk away from that so-called emergency, however trivial. We are programmed to ‘drop everything’ and respond at once to anything that anyone chooses to call urgent.

Prioritising our tasks according to logic, not panic, is an increasingly vital part of Time Management. And the obvious first step is to define ‘Urgent’ and ‘Important’, relative to each other.

‘Important’ indicates a task that will impact heavily on the corporate agenda, with serious consequences if not performed in a reasonable interval.

‘Urgent’ indicates an emergency factor, with some degree of penalty if not performed at once.
This sets up four distinct categories of priority, and you should practise automatically classifying each task into one or other of these:

1. Important and urgent
2. Urgent but not important
3. Important but not urgent
4. Not urgent or important

Clearly, a No.1 task should not be interrupted on any account. And a No.4 task can safely be left till a quiet afternoon, or even dropped altogether.

It is the battle for attention between Nos. 2 and 3 that causes most arguments, and you need to have your policy worked out.

With a No.2 task - often quite a minor one - the temptation is to slip it in quickly ahead of the more important No.3., especially as postponing it would set up even more of an emergency. This looks logical enough. But you then have to find some way to stop people identifying you as ‘good scout’ and simply declaring urgency as a lazy way of getting quick service.

A No.3 task needs serious planning, in order to guarantee enough sustained concentration to deliver satisfactorily on time. When you’re dug deep into a No.3 and someone threatens you with a quick ‘panic’, you should question whether it’s really a No.4, and if not, whether this fairly minor task could be entrusted to someone else.

And other ways we can manage our time better…

· Dare to delegate
Yes, it can be hard to let go. But you’ll find that you do need to limit your availability. The power to delegate is identified as a key quality in top management.

· The Paper Tide
Ration paperwork ruthlessly. Bin what you can. Cut corners by phone. Even colour-coded folders and see-thru files can save crucial time.

· The art of prioritising
Amazingly, you can save up to 10 hours a week by keeping a Time Log, charting the progress of key agendas and rating your daily performance.

You can find out about these and many more aspects of Time Management in a major training toolkit: ‘Hurry Hurry! – Every Second Counts’. The true and false dynamics of urgency at work’, available right here on my website - www.carolespiers.com

Suitable for all levels of management and employees, this toolkit comes with Powerpoint sildes for easy presentation, as well as a workbook that can be copied in any number. It has proved equally popular in many different kinds of organisation, at seminars and training sessions, and also with my general audiences as a motivational speaker.

Click here to see full details and buy… See a useful improvement in your time management soon. http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=24

Motivational speaker Carole Spiers occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output.

Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says '‘Can YOU make a difference to someone’s life?’

2007-01-21T13:27:00.000+00:00

You’ll doubtless already have read some of the numerous New Year’s blogs and emails exhorting you to get fit, reflect on the past year’s failed resolutions, turn over a new leaf, write your action plans and set your goals.

But realistically, a year from now, many of us will almost certainly be in the same position again. We start out with sincere, good intentions – the beginning of a new year is going to make a difference! But will it? Unfortunately it probably will not!

For most of us, another January is just another date in the calendar - albeit one when we have to find the money to pay the bills for all the Christmas presents we couldn’t really afford!

I want this year to be different, so I am going to ask you to consider some questions that are a little deeper than ‘How you are going to improve your life or double your income?’!

This year, how about making a moral resolution?

The real questions are:

1. Did you make a difference to someone else’s life last year – anybody’s life, any difference?
2. What action did you take last year that will be remembered by someone else? Anything?
3. What words did you say to someone which touched their hearts and have remained in their mind until today? Anything?

Like most of us, I too lead a frenetic life. But having just returned from Cape Town, with my partner, amongst the palm trees and flowers, having spent three weeks of training and coaching disadvantaged men and women in the townships of the Southern Cape to become self-sufficient in micro business skills, I can truly say I feel humbled by the gratitude expressed by so many of those to whom we gave of our time.

Many, with tears in their eyes, thanked us for our efforts, and told us how just those few hours had given them a renewed confidence and a much-needed boost to their skill-set and self-esteem.

Helping the disadvantaged to take that crucial first step up

We gave many of them contacts with other aspiring business people who, like themselves, are just starting out with the same problems and similar worries – people with whom they can now network and share solutions. We took video film of them making their very first presentations, and some cried when they saw themselves on screen, for the very first time.

But many were so impressive - speaking in perfect English of their goals - that we too had tears as we watched people, so appreciative, so grateful and so determined. There is no doubt who were the most privileged – we will not forget - just as they will not.

My partner and I have been working in the townships for three years now, and each year we have come out during our holiday periods. I have always wished it could be for longer, but as ever my own business gets in the way. So I have to content myself with the time that I am able to give.

Touching people; making a difference to someone’s family; empowering them to feel good about themselves; giving confidence to someone when they feel down (and out); teaching entrepreneurship skills where they are needed; offering love and open-ended support. This is what has made a difference to me for the forthcoming year. This is what will stay with me, in the coming months, when I am rushing from the streets of London to Internet City in Dubai.

Of course, my business has returned to its hectic pace. But for now I am truly taking stock of what we have been able to achieve by spending just a few weeks in the townships of South Africa.

Reality has to take over and tell me that if I have been able to make a difference to just a few families during this festive season, then that has been well worth while.

Those families have gone away with their action plans for the New Year, and the knowledge that it is up to them to put these into practice. They know that they cannot rely on anyone but themselves; however they also know that I am at the end of a telephone line or email – and will return to see them again during the year.

Join me in this important mission - ethical and enjoyable

I am sure there are many others who also earn well and would like to give something back. And to give back in a tangible way. If you would like to give your support and make a difference to the families of disadvantaged people in the townships of South Africa, then contact me – cs@carolespiers.com or call me on + 44 (0) 20 8954 1593.

Or, if like me, you are a motivational Speaker and would like to learn more about how you can raise money for an African charity of your choice, then log onto http://www.speakers4africa.org/. Either way, this is the time… this is the moment… this could be your opportunity to make a genuine and lasting difference to someone else’s life…

Carpe diem (seize the moment) and make that your New Year’s resolution. TRULY MEANINGFUL!

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, 'that Open-door Policy can encourage lazy interaction'

2007-01-07T07:22:00.001+00:00

As a motivational speaker, I’ve addressed many blue-chip clients about the management policy that says “Any problems, my door is always open…” And I’ve found that it depends very much on what you call a problem…

The air-conditioning has broken down or the boilers are overheating. You can hardly say “Apply to my secretary for an appointment.”

Or a staff-member is wanting to come out with some private anxiety affecting their work - maybe marriage trouble or some worsening addiction. Naturally that is to be encouraged, before they have second thoughts and go back to hiding it.

The trouble is that almost any office-task can be described as a problem. Indeed, this is encouraged throughout business. ‘Problem: solution’ is the standard executive drill.

Managers delegate problems precisely so that they don’t have to worry about them till the other person delivers the solution. And this is where an Open Door policy brings out the lazy side in the appointee.

Take a junior in their first few weeks with the firm, having to familiarise themselves with a product or service that is entirely new to them. It may be quite a struggle, digging down into a new subject, while also acclimatising to working life itself, and this is meant to be a major test of intellect, judgment and character. So they should not expect to have their hand held at this time.

But if the manager’s door is always open, they’ll be tempted to keep cutting corners and going in to ask things they ought to be deducing for themselves.

That is a particularly obvious example of the negative effect of open doors. But many other kinds of personnel may also be tempted into lazy habits, sliding into casual conversation, in lieu of the formal memo that was asked-for, or just those time-wasters who’ll grab any excuse for a chat instead of working - in this case, exploiting the manager’s wish to appear democratic and unstuffy.

The Alternative Open Door - ‘Walking the Talk ’

Aware of the limitations of the Open Door policy, some managers have tried to re-invent it in reverse, going round the departments informally to pick up atmosphere - or ‘Walking the Talk’. This offers certain advantages that go with neutral territory. For example, it encourages people to mention matters that they might hesitate to raise at a formal meeting - yet if it can be seen as a time-wasting issue, the manager is free to move on tactfully without actual confrontation.

The drawback is that it sets up the curious prospect of the manager inadvertently wasting the time of a busy achiever, in the interests of looking like a good team-player and ‘one of the lads’.
Whichever form your Open Door policy may take, it can be shown-up as inefficient by reference to the two kinds of working time: Controlled Time and Response Time.

In Controlled Time, you are working on a job whose duration you can control. In Response Time, you are reacting to an interruption - which may take up any amount of time. As a manager gets interrupted on average every eight minutes, this greatly limits his Controlled Time, so the conclusion is that interruptions should be discouraged as far as possible.

And More Time Management tips Where These Came From…

As you can see, the Open Door policy is just one aspect of Time Management that needs active questioning.

Others range from prioritising your tasks and rationing paperwork to identifying false emergencies and how to keep meetings brisk and brief.

You can find out about these and many more in a major training toolkit: ‘Hurry Hurry! – Every Second Counts’. The true and false dynamics of urgency at work’, available right here on my website www.carolespiers.com

Suitable for all levels of management and employees, this toolkit comes with Powerpoint slides for easy presentation, as well as a workbook that can be copied in any number. It has proved equally popular in many different kinds of organisation, at seminars and training sessions, and also with my general audiences as a motivational speaker.

Click here to see full details and buy… See a useful improvement in your time management immediately. http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=24

Motivational speaker Carole Spiers occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally.

To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Motivational speaker Carole Spiers says 'use Internet Marketing to make you money!'

2007-01-05T07:03:00.000+00:00

As a motivational speaker, I was delighted to be invited to Dubai in November 2006 in order to speak on the topic of post trauma support at a health and safety conference staged by IIR.

In order to raise the profile of this trip, we did all the usual pre-trip promotions, spoke to contacts, my team emailed our database, blogged eCademy and so forth.

Internet Marketing

These efforts did receive some good interest but our Internet Marketer, Chris Clark, made the suggestion – why not send out an On-line Press Release – not the usual ones, but a new type of ‘Social Media Press Release’. Well, as ever I was intrigued as to how this was going to leverage our profile in the UAE.

He explained that this differed from standard Press Releases in that we could now add photos, video and audio clips, pdfs etc. We could also add links to other client sites, add testimonials, and use the vital keyphrases to target the release into niche markets.

This sounded all pretty good, especially as he said – ‘just leave it up to me, (don’t you just love it when that is said to you) - and just watch your rankings shoot up on Google!’. So this is what I did. I gave him the copy. He did whatever Internet Marketers do and know best (and I don’t need to know either!) – he made it all happen!

The UAE Tour

So the UAE tour went live on 18th November and the conference started on 26th. In addition, Chris suggested that I do two blogs about the conference in the intervening period.

Well, would you believe it….. things happened very quickly after that. I took a call from a Dubai company in Dubai Internet City who had found us through the press coverage, and we signed a training deal before I left.

We received incredible coverage with the Release picked up by Yahoo News and others. (Naturally uploaded to our website). Our blogs were picked up and reposted, and the article that we ran was viewed over 500 times and is still being read!

We also saw a huge uplift in our Google presence for our website www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk.

So by the time I arrived at the Dubai conference, there certainly was a good deal of buzz, I had made a new international client and received considerable feedback from the coverage.

Will I be doing this again? You bet!

In my opinion, keep to what you know and do what you do best!.

Outsource what you can't do and give it to the experts. I am a motivational speaker - I speak for a living and that is what I do best….Chris Clark is an Internet Marketer – that is what he does for a living and that is what he does best! Catch Chris at www.clarkmarketing.co.uk or chris.clark@clarkmarketing.co.uk.

Call in the experts! Remember …you can’t be all things to all people…

PS Have a look at our train the trainer post trauma powerpoint slide and workbook product that we specially created for the Dubai conference and is now on sale worldwide. Click here http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=32

Carole Spiers – motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Keynote Professional Speaker Carole Spiers says ' we have to measure the practical value of leanring and make sure we follow through!

2006-12-10T15:22:00.000+00:00

In order to achieve success we have to measure the practical value of learning and make sure we follow through!

When we meet someone, how often do we lose an opportunity and not follow up. We go to all the trouble of getting out bed early and getting dressed up for that networking event but how often do the business cards just get filed away and no contact is made. Often that person is looking for some learning from you that may help their business.

So have you ever measured the practical value of learning?

The hint you picked up in a newsletter on Monday, a comment from a mentor or peer on Tuesday, a question from someone who gave you their business card, that when combined in a new idea you put into action, won you an engagement, or an order on Friday.

People often speak of learning as a lofty ideal empowering, energising and doing more. But often it's the practical applications of the little and practical things that make the fastest and biggest impact to your business.

For example, did you know that simply by using the rules file feature in Outlook to route all the emails to your website's 'enquiry@...' address to a special Outlook folder marked 'Enquiries' pretty much guarantees you will never miss a new lead in amongst all the daily email traffic.

Or as my colleague Chris Clark says, did you know one strategically placed Capital Letter in a Google adword could double its pulling power and reduce it's cost per click.

Measure the practical value of learning this week.

Listen out for a hint in an email or newsletter on a Monday, or a piece of mentors advice on Tuesday or look behind the question of your enquirer. See if applying an idea from the combined learning could reward your business, and that of someone who gave you their business card this week in some way by Friday.

Happens every week for me!.

Carole Spiers – keynote professional speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Chris Clark is an internet marketer who helps clients phones ring more frequently, increases email enquiries for their services, and makes their on line cash tills ring more often. Catch Chris at chris.clark@clarkmarketing.co.uk, web www.clarkmarketing.co.uk

'Trauma strikes when it likes', says Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers

2006-11-21T20:43:00.000+00:00

So be rehearsed for the worst, Carole Spiers tells Dubai audience.

The high-powered business community of Dubai will be listening in keenly as Post Trauma consultant and Motivational Speaker, Carole Spiers speaks on ‘Evaluating Rapid Response and Post-trauma Support’ at the Middle East Safety Management Congress staring on November 28th 2006.

Carole speaks from twenty years’ experience of advising blue-chip clients all over the world on handling the aftermath of traumatic events in the workplace, whether caused by man-made or natural disaster. She explains how you can train yourself and your colleagues to get over the shock quickly and into certain constructive drills that will impact on your sustained performance.

Trauma Strikes When it Likes!....so be ready for its effects!
With this 2-part Management Training Toolkit system.
Click here to to order this NEW product - Powerpoint presentation and delegate workbook + FREE best selling e-manual downloadable in any number - http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=32.
On promotional offer until 30th November 2006 only!

Management interventions divide naturally into two stages - immediate action for getting your human and material resources back in operation (Continuity Planning), and long-term monitoring and diagnosis of trauma-related effects (Psychological debriefing). The three key inputs come down to counselling, training and consultancy, in all of which Carole has extensive first-hand knowledge.

For her many prestige clients across government, industry and the profesisons, Carole utilises a Post-trauma Support Model, used as a standard reference-point all over the world in this important yet still largely unfamiliar area of management responsibility.

The Safety Management Conference starts on Tuesday 28th November 2006 at Dubai’s Metropolitan Palace Hotel, a major venue that is attracting record numbers of business leaders and politicians, who will acquire new expertise about this subject, which is both topical and enduringly relevant.

PS Dont forget - Trauma Strikes When It Likes! - check out our NEW Training Toolkit system
http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=32 - on promotional offer until 30th November 2006 only!

Trauma Strikes When It Likes - Contents of delegate workbook -
Introduction
Defining a traumatic incident
At risk groups
Those effected directly and indirectly
Post-trauma stress: Definition
Immediate reactions to trauma
General symptoms of post-trauma stress
Typical effects of post-trauma stress
Organisational responsibility
Risk Assessment
Post-trauma support strategy
The role of line management
Basic listening (or counselling skills)
Dealing with anger
Business management issues
Contingency planning
PTSD diagnostic criteria
Methodologies in the management of trauma victims
Trauma support model
Practical application of the trauma support model
Initial stage: Defusing
Middle stage: Trauma support session
Final stage: Monitoring people over a period of time
Post-trauma counselling
The role of external agencies
Key learning points
Appendix A
Coping strategies during and after traumatic events
Appendix B
An example of a leaflet for use with clients and their families
Appendix C
Brief screening questionnaire for PTSD
Book list

PPS Call us on 020 8954 1593 and we will be happy to answer any of your questions.
PPPS Be prepared for the unexpected!

www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk
info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Keynote professional speaker Carole Spiers on the value of empathy

2006-11-11T21:24:00.000+00:00

- to optimise business dialogue as well as improving relationships.

Someone said that good dialogue is the difference between hearing what you say and seeing what you mean.

And the difference is made by achieving empathy - a quality that can be taught, as demonstrated in one of my keynote presentations.

See me live at Ecademy in London
mms://www.qmsstreaming.com/e2006/epnnov2006carole.wmv

You have only to listen to people trying to conduct business on their mobiles to see just how much dialogue is wasted - a mass of words missing their mark, failing to convey the intended meaning or sentiment, and often leading to misunderstanding and conflict.

Empathy comes from that area where professionalism and good manners touch hands.

Take a small example: remembering people’s names correctly.

It is remarkable how much this can impact on a relationship, out of all proportion to the simple act itself. A forgotten or mis-remembered name immediately brings the other person down to office-boy level, even if quite unintentionally. Yet remembering someone’s name correctly after a long interval can put out a highly favourable signal, taken as a deep compliment. It actually goes to the roots of recognition and respect, earning particular gratitude from people newly arrived in a strange country, where their name may be hard to pronounce, and their self-image may be very humble.

On the wider scale, empathy is defined as the ability to identify and understand another’s situation, feelings and motives. (Boardrooms are all about making rapport between people with little in common, and you must be especially able to put yourself in the other person’s mind while choosing your words.)

Some people, of course, have a natural gift in this direction. But most people need to develop it consciously, and it should be treated as an important area of business instruction, no different from marketing or software engineering.

Other tips, which I can tell you much more about, include:

Don’t interrupt - allow the other person their say, even if they’re not articulate. Perhaps nobody else has ever heard them out, so you may earn much loyalty for minimal input.

Be there for them - don’t be half-concentrating on your watch or your screen; re-assure them that they have your undivided attention.

Listen and interpret - pick up on their unconscious signals, like vocal inflexions or body language. You may be able to see what they’re trying to express, while others can’t.

Cheer them up - except in cases of severe reprimand, maintain an optimistic atmosphere, give praise when it’s due, make them feel generally welcome on the team.

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

That Business Card - How To Get It Kept And Read!

2006-11-09T22:37:00.000+00:00

Your Prime Opportunity To Design A Pocket Poster That Works For Years..

A female motivational keynote speaker is not a unique commodity - far from it. So when I hand someone my card, I have to make sure it’s not just destined for the nearest bin. My card is in every way my advertisement, and it must mark me out from the competition, favourably and memorably.
Whatever business you’re in, you’ll face the same situation. So, keep front-of-mind that your card is your advertisement. And apply the rules of good advertising. Of which the first and best is… the safe way is the wrong way!

For example, that plain white card with your name and title in copper-plate lettering to indicate reassurance and gravitas… What are you, for goodness sake? A funeral director in 1950?
Short of actual silly gimmicks aiming to shock and without a real message, you’ll be amazed at how well people respond to a less-usual business card.

Let me give you an example from my own career - not as a motivational speaker this time, but as a stress consultant. Now it is a fact that stress will restrict blood-flow, making your hands colder than normal. So I often give my clients a tiny peel-off sticker that shows a different colour for each temperature-range when they place their finger on it.

One day I experimented with the idea of applying this tiny sticker to my business card, and explaining the significance of it to new contacts. As many of these people were senior blue-chip management, I reckoned that some of them might possibly reject it as a bit gimmicky, but that more of them would find it interesting and memorable. As it turned out, the response was 100% favourable. Not a single person reacted negatively. One director actually kept it on his desk for five years, showing it to all his visitors, while another stored it in his wallet as reference for when he wanted a good keynote speaker. (We’re still doing training courses for his employees - years on).

Truly the safe way is the wrong way!

Let me offer you a few other ideas for making your card stand out from others, while adding that an advertising art-director will be able to give you professional advice that could easily pay for itself in weeks.

· Double-sided card - twice the impact
That blank reverse-side is simply a waste of good advertising space. It’s like publishing a magazine with its outside back cover left blank, when that slot actually goes at a hefty premium. At the very least, you could duplicate the same image on both sides, for almost no extra cost, so that your message is seen whichever way up the card is left lying. But you may also take the opportunity of displaying a different message on the back, so that you make two impacts, not one.

· 4-pager - the perfect mini-brochure
If you have an interesting story to tell, consider a 4-page version of your card, whose inside spread will make an interesting ‘reader’ element, absent from most cards. (For this, it is worth investing in a high-quality illustration.) I heard of one client who printed his cards in a 4-page version, using some of the artwork from his 6-page DL brochure. He found the card worked so well, he almost didn’t need the brochure!

· My own preferred format
Front for persuasion. Back for information. Let the front be your poster, expressing one message with great clarity. If you’re going for a witty and memorable strapline (which often invites a good accompanying photo), make sure it doesn’t obscure the basic fact of what you do for a living. On the back, display your contact details in a straightforward but tasteful way, with phone and e-mail in bold, and summary of your services, perhaps in two listings, e.g. products one side, locations the other.

Finally…

Don’t wait… till you’ve used up your existing cards before you re-design. That’s a false economy and a short-sighted policy.

Don’t wait… more than a week or so to follow-up a contact to whom you’ve given your card. That can cost you vital momentum.

A creative card could be the first step towards a full-scale programme of successful promotion for yourself and your business, all conducted in the same bold spirit. In fact, your card may well signal this attitude to an important new-business contact - a big part of that formative first impression.

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Insider Secrets On How To Read Body-Language

2006-10-30T23:52:00.001+00:00

Interpreting vital meanings signalled by posture, gesture and expression

You expect a professional keynote speaker to know a bit about body-language. But when her main subject is self-empowerment, you can be sure you’re getting an extra special brand of insight into the mysteries of non-verbal communication.

“It’s more spontaneous than speech, and often more revealing” says popular motivational speaker Carole Spiers, who regularly addresses management audiences all over the world on a theme that she has made her own: sustainable success.

To be able to interpret that huge hidden vocabulary of body, hand and face is clearly a major asset in business (as well as social life), and should be part of any manager’s toolkit of soft skills. By improving your reading of people, it will improve your reading of whole situations. It can give you the advantage in tough interviews or sales pitches, by providing you with tactical intelligence that you can react-to on the spot. Altogether, it simply turns you into a higher grade of communicator.

As a motivational keynote speaker, Carole has both interpreted and utilised body-language to a high degree, and few people are better equipped to enlighten you about it.

The following tips are just a sample of the many fascinating insights into body-language that Carole has acquired from in-depth study and first-hand observation across twenty years:

When standing…

(i) Head posture
The position of the head reveals much about your attitude towards the other person. The erect posture indicates a neutral position, suitable for inviting a newcomer to state his business. A sideways tilt expresses active interest and encouragement. The lowered ‘charging bull’ angle means hostility and suspicion.

(ii) The hands
Arms crossed or held across the stomach indicate a defensive stance, discouraging an approach. Hands behind the back assert formality, perhaps calling us to order. Hands in pockets clearly show disrespect, and hand-wringing means uncertainty. Best keep the hands loosely held at the sides, casual but alert.

When sitting…

(i) Facial expression
This should normally be kept neutral to avoid distractions and encourage steady dialogue, except when occasionally smiling agreement or registering mild surprise. Fully-raised eyebrows indicate disbelief, half-lowered brows show puzzlement and fully-lowered brows signal anger.

(ii) Gestures
Open palms invite confidence. Gripping the chair suggests inhibition. Thumb gestures indicate control, but may be found disrespectful. Steepled fingers inspire confidence, but can look patronising. A single nod can improve the atmosphere remarkably, as well as relieving an awkward stare.

Communication skills are only one area of Empowerment and Personal Development in which keynote professional speaker Carole Spiers has acquired her enviable niche on the speaking circuit in the UK and abroad.

See Carole live at London Ecademy – lst November 2006
http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=meeting&mid=12163

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Insider Secrets On How To Read Body-Language

2006-10-30T23:52:00.000+00:00

Interpreting vital meanings signalled by posture, gesture and expression

You expect a professional keynote speaker to know a bit about body-language. But when her main subject is self-empowerment, you can be sure you’re getting an extra special brand of insight into the mysteries of non-verbal communication.

“It’s more spontaneous than speech, and often more revealing” says popular motivational speaker Carole Spiers, who regularly addresses management audiences all over the world on a theme that she has made her own: sustainable success.

To be able to interpret that huge hidden vocabulary of body, hand and face is clearly a major asset in business (as well as social life), and should be part of any manager’s toolkit of soft skills. By improving your reading of people, it will improve your reading of whole situations. It can give you the advantage in tough interviews or sales pitches, by providing you with tactical intelligence that you can react-to on the spot. Altogether, it simply turns you into a higher grade of communicator.

As a motivational keynote speaker, Carole has both interpreted and utilised body-language to a high degree, and few people are better equipped to enlighten you about it.

The following tips are just a sample of the many fascinating insights into body-language that Carole has acquired from in-depth study and first-hand observation across twenty years:

When standing…

(i) Head posture
The position of the head reveals much about your attitude towards the other person. The erect posture indicates a neutral position, suitable for inviting a newcomer to state his business. A sideways tilt expresses active interest and encouragement. The lowered ‘charging bull’ angle means hostility and suspicion.

(ii) The hands
Arms crossed or held across the stomach indicate a defensive stance, discouraging an approach. Hands behind the back assert formality, perhaps calling us to order. Hands in pockets clearly show disrespect, and hand-wringing means uncertainty. Best keep the hands loosely held at the sides, casual but alert.

When sitting…

(i) Facial expression
This should normally be kept neutral to avoid distractions and encourage steady dialogue, except when occasionally smiling agreement or registering mild surprise. Fully-raised eyebrows indicate disbelief, half-lowered brows show puzzlement and fully-lowered brows signal anger.

(ii) Gestures
Open palms invite confidence. Gripping the chair suggests inhibition. Thumb gestures indicate control, but may be found disrespectful. Steepled fingers inspire confidence, but can look patronising. A single nod can improve the atmosphere remarkably, as well as relieving an awkward stare.

Communication skills are only one area of Empowerment and Personal Development in which keynote professional speaker Carole Spiers has acquired her enviable niche on the speaking circuit in the UK and abroad.

See Carole live at London Ecademy – lst November 2006http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=meeting&mid=12163

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

Hot Tips For First-time Public Speakers!

2006-10-28T21:17:00.002+01:00

Yes, they came to hear you in person - so be confidently yourself!

Take it from a professional keynote speaker: nothing succeeds like confidence, and nothing turns-off an audience more than modesty and self-effacement.

Motivational speaker Carole Spiers gives presentations to all levels of corporate managers on the secrets of career success, and one favourite subject is the challenge of first-time public speaking, where the subject is most likely to be you and your career.

The personalisation dilemma

As a first-time speaker, your main inhibition is a familiar one called ‘Little Me?’ You cannot believe they actually want to hear the life-story of someone as unimportant as you feel you are.

Well, that’s why they came along in the first place. So for the duration of your speech, you are not unimportant at all. They’re looking forward to a confident performance, full of interesting revelations about your speciality - strongly personalised to yourself. If they wanted a purely factual digest, they could go to a library or the web. At a live show, they’re expecting to learn new things, and be entertained along the way by a speaker who can strike up rapport, and make each of them feel that you’re addressing them personally.

That leads to the second inhibition - individual or collective appeal?

On one level, you are addressing them individually, as on TV, where first-time speakers have to be reminded that they are not addressing a crowd of five million but just chatting to that couple on the sofa. So for example, you learn not to say “I expect some of you have been to Mexico…”. You personalise direct to the listener: “You may have been to Mexico…”

But on another level, you cannot act as though you’re just greeting one individual stranger, starting with small talk about the weather and nice to see you. Up on a platform, the warm-up chat is a sign of fear, almost appeasement, an apology for what is to come. Up there, you’re the showman in charge of an audience, and you have to master them with extreme confidence, possibly even verging on arrogance - the right mix of cheek and charm. And you have to start at once.

Four basic drills to remember

1. Come out punching
Your opening statement should be the opposite of small-talk, which is everything people expect to hear. It should be everything they don’t expect to hear (short of a pure gimmick based on no substance.) It should astonish, challenge or intrigue - definitely leaving them wondering what’s coming next.

2. The so-what factor
It’s worth taping your speech and screening it for any statement that fails to say something new or interesting. It is all too easy for a single so-what remark to lose the whole attention of an audience. You should even avoid “Nice to be here in Nottingham”. Analyse that, and you’ll find it’s a complete so-what.

3. Humour - that two-edged sword
Strictly, your speech ought to be strong enough to work without humour. Also there are many speakers whose personality simply doesn’t suit humour, so the comedy then sounds forced. Yet audiences find it unnatural not to laugh now and again, so the odd (new) joke could help flavour the mix.

4. Dramatising your career as the subject
If they want to hear about your career, tell it like a proper story with a beginning, a middle and an end, tracing the course of your progress. Remind them how humbly you began. Tell them about the people who influenced you. Describe the turning-points in a dramatic way. And reassure them how they could excel too.

Public speaking skills are only one area of Empowerment and Personal Development in which keynote professional speaker Carole Spiers has acquired during her enviable niche on the professional circuit in the UK and abroad.

See Carole live at London Ecademy – lst November 2006
http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=meeting&mid=12163

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

The Truth Behind Your Good and Bad Listening Habits!

2006-10-25T23:37:00.000+01:00

How your reactions to dialogue can steer whole interviews your way!

“Half the conversational skill is listening - and it is the neglected half” says keynote professional speaker Carole Spiers, who regularly addresses blue-chip corporate business on self-development and the formula for sustainable success.

It’s true. All the famous tips on dialogue management seem to be about speaking. The supposedly passive listening role is seldom touched-on.

Yet listening is far from passive. It can be performed in many different ways and has a rich vocabulary of its own. By actively steering conversations (including key interviews for example), good listening is a major engine of persuasion and change, and should occupy an important place in any management skills portfolio.

As a motivational speaker, Carole Spiers has introduced many management groups to the subject of good and bad listening for the first time, drawing attention to three main factors:

Unfocused listening - through divided attentionYou need to identify certain common obstacles that inhibit good listening, and try to manage them. One is the clash of rhythms. We listen four times faster than we speak, so we may irritate the other person by trying to finish their sentences for them. Or if we’re bored, we may slip into the cocktail-party “Mmm…”, while thinking of something else. Or if the subject is going over our head, we may ‘parrot’ some of the statements, to give a false impression of understanding. Naturally any outside hubbub will also compete for our attention (and theirs), affecting comprehension and upsetting the atmosphere.

Active listening - guiding with minimal interventions
Professional counsellors often have to draw out reluctant interviewees - perhaps trauma victims or people who won’t accept that they need help. At these times, it is necessary to adopt a special ‘active listening’ mode that stimulates a continuing momentum of dialogue from the other person, through minimal interruption. Discreet hand-signals and invitations like “And then…?” can get over awkward silences. Periodically give brief reassurances that prove you have not only heard but interpreted the dialogue, however obliquely coded, sometimes via their body-language.

The Empathy factor - essential catalyst of rapport
Nothing gives more impetus to an interview than a feeling that the other person warmly empathises with you. By being genuinely yourself, you encourage them to respond in kind, and the dialogue will be far more revealing and productive. Obviously, exploit everything you have in common. But if your differences are greater than your similarities, you must try hard to visualise the other person’s emotional landscape, as though you were writing a novel about them. By sharing their experiences rather than judging them, you gain important access to the world they live in.

The difference between good and bad listening is one of many original insights into the field of Empowerment and Personal Development by professional keynote speaker Carole Spiers.

See Carole live at London Ecademy – lst November 2006http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=meeting&mid=12163

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations

http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

The Inner Secrets to Asking Questions

2006-10-24T23:00:00.000+01:00

The art of the interviewer - commanding and controlling dialogue

“The adroit handling of conversation is a major instrument of empowerment” - says keynote professional speaker Carole Spiers, who regularly addresses blue-chip corporate business on self-development and the formula for sustainable success.

Among that toolbox of key stategies, a well-honed conversational skill could greatly amplify your powers of persuasion, control of events and building of relationships.

And nothing drives a conversation more effectively than carefully-chosen questions that stimulate without appearing to interrogate.

Professional interviewers, journalists, barristers, detectives, psychiatrists… all have found it invaluable to study questioning techniques in-depth, as part of their professional armour and ammunition.

But whatever your job or other circumstances, it will pay you to do the same - starting with this simple breakdown of the four most basic types of question, and what each of them is intended to achieve.

· Closed questions - inviting one-word answers

Precise, quiz-type questions, suitable for eliciting hard information. Often used as the ‘opening shot’ in a longer debate, establishing the subject via a short, brisk exchange, before exploring it in a more sensitive manner. Also appropriate for speeding-up dialogue or for getting a drifting conversation back on course, with a suggestion of “Now let’s get down to brass tacks”, as well as for ending an interview on a businesslike note. Closed questions should be used sparingly, as too many of them could sound like an interrogation, and set up a negative atmosphere.

· Open questions - encouraging detailed response

These are aimed at generating answers that convey meanings and attitudes in depth. They tend to start with the trigger-words ‘How? Where? When?’ etc (though you should ration your use of the more confrontational ‘Why?’.) If you can make interviewees feel flattered that you want their opinion, they are more likely to release ‘free information’, or revelations they might otherwise keep to themselves. It is possible for a question to be too open, as when a wife may ask her husband “What sort of day?”, and he finds it too broad a picture to focus on, and just mumbles an unsatisfactory “Not bad.”

· Leading questions - subtle moving of goalposts

An ingenious way of nudging the other person towards your way of thinking (and also speeding-up dialogue in the style of the Closed Question.) It discreetly suggests that your opposite number has already moved halfway towards agreeing with you, and is weighing-up a somewhat different decision from the one originally proposed. It exploits most people’s tendency to say “Yes” when asked “Do you agree?” or “Don’t you think?” - simply because it’s easier. A salesman will always ask which you prefer of two items, rather than asking whether you’re interested in either of them in the first place.

· Rhetorical questions - engaging empathy

These are questions that do not expect an answer, but are simply statements, dramatised in the form of questions. Their effect is to make the other person feel as though the question is being addressed by both of you to some imaginary third party - and that you are sitting beside each other, not opposite. So it represents the supreme anti-confrontational stance. A good salesman might use a string of these questions for greater impact: “Who could possibly resist that new deep-sprung sofa? Doesn’t it blend with cream wallpaper? Don’t you love the feel of the leather?” etc. etc.

These aspects of Self-empowerment are among many original insights into the field of Personal Development by motivational speaker Carole Spiers who will be speaking at London Ecademy on lst November 2006 –http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=meeting&mid=12163

Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

'Don’t take everything so personally' - International keynote professional speaker Carole Spiers says count ten and stay out of that defensive mode...

2006-10-21T17:31:00.000+01:00

As a motivational speaker who has counselled and trained vastly differing kinds of people in business, I have noticed how widespread is the tendency to interpret ordinary straightforward statements and questions as personal criticism.

This misunderstanding clearly causes much enmity and bad blood, as well as hampering important meetings and generally slowing down the pace of business dialogue.

Being a woman, of course, I know I’m in the danger zone myself (“You women always have to personalise”), as I was reminded not long ago when I was Event Host at a large conference, where my hosts were particularly quick to point out my supposed errors of stance, posture, movement and dress, every time I came off the platform. My first instinct was to reject this tactless intervention out of hand. Instead I counted to ten, calmly considering what had been said, and then thanked them for their input. While I did not agree with much of it, I could regard it as professional feedback from paying clients who were entitled to their point of view. (And I would accept that feedback has its value to a platform artist - we do actually need to be updated on how others see us.)

That little pause for thought…

So you see, a few seconds was enough to shift the emphasis from personal to professional.

I wish another recent interviewee of mine had taken similar thought, when I needed to tap him for some detailed information on his speciality, in which I was a total novice. It is true that I had to ask some quite penetrating questions, which I tried my best to put to him in a non-inquisitorial manner. Unfortunately he interpreted this as some kind of oral exam, with his expertise under review, and he felt it necessary to keep explaining how well-qualified he was. It is easy to recognise this as a deeply defensive response, and as such, highly impulsive. It did not occur to him that he had meanwhile failed to supply the answers I was needing.

If he’d counted to ten, he probably would have done.

“You” doesn’t always mean you personally

One typical high-risk zone for over-personalising is the customer-service department, where you are always being told that ‘you’ have failed to do this, that and the other. Especially as the complaint is liable to be made in angry and insulting terms.
At those times, you must remember that the complaints refer not to you personally, but to the organisation as a whole. Of course, you may feel defensive on behalf of the organisation too. But in framing your response, remember that the situation has everything to do with the caller’s situation, possibly a sudden crisis, in which you may have found yourself at some time. And that should make you feel a lot less defensive on your own part - and more professional at the same time.

Again, ten should do it!

Carole Spiers – inspirational keynote professional speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.

Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com

See Carole live at London Ecademy - lst November 2006
http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=meeting&mid=12163

‘Workplace Bullying - Employers in the Frame’ - says Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers

2006-09-07T20:08:00.000+01:00

‘Vicarious’ liability confirmed in court, as City woman wins £800,000

Two recent court cases have confirmed the ‘vicarious liability’ of employers in cases of workplace bullying, and highlighted the need for corporations to institute and operate a formal anti-bullying strategy.

In one case, an audit co-ordinator at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s NHS Trust managed to get his line manager suspended after she imposed unrealistic performance targets on him, as well as abusing him in public and treating him differently from other staff. She later chose to resign.

In another case, which really hit the headlines, a woman bank worker won more than £800,000 in damages after a bizarre campaign of bullying by four women colleagues, which witnesses described as ‘slow, systematic mental abuse’ and ‘extreme bitchiness and mob culture’. (Those who feel this was excessive might note that she suffered several nervous breakdowns and has had to abandon her City career altogether.)

Her case was helped by a recent House of Lords decision that employers were ‘vicariously liable’ for bullying by employees in the course of their work, even if management was unaware of it.

This means that anti-harassment procedures are only a start. Employers must now be seen to take active steps to impose good practice on their staff in order to eradicate bullying from the workplace altogether.

So What Does Bullying Behaviour Look Like?

Bullies will typically:

· Make life at work constantly difficult for their targets
· Make unreasonable demands: constantly criticising
· Insist that their way of carrying out tasks is the only way
· Shout at victims, publicly, in order to get things done
· Give instructions and then change them for no apparent reason
· Allocate tasks which they know the person is incapable of achieving
· Refuse to delegate when appropriate
· Humiliate their targets in front of others
· Block promotion, refuse to give fair appraisals or refuse to endorse pay increases or bonus
awards
· Exclude the victim from meetings or other legitimate business activities
· Constantly make attacks on the professionalism or personal qualities of their targets

If this type of behaviour is being exhibited by any of your staff, it’s important to stop it in its tracks, because research shows that once bullying behaviours become established, they are far more difficult to break.

Your First Move – Our Specialist Trainer Toolkit

Whether you’re an HR specialist or a general manager, you’ll benefit immediately from this one-stop training pack with PowerPoint slides and downloadable manual.

'Back Off!': Combating Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace, is produced by international stress guru Carole Spiers - trainer, broadcaster and keynote motivational speaker to blue-chip corporations.

It sets out a clear overview of the causes, symptoms and techniques through which to defuse unacceptable behaviour - including case studies, quotes from victims, procedures for monitoring bullying situations, and special do’s and don’ts for particularly sensitive areas such as sexual harassment.

Get A Clear Overview Of The Management Interventions You Should Be Implementing

Policies and procedures
· The value of a clear written policy produced in co-operation with the unions.
· Handling complaints and appeals.
· How to encourage whistle-blowing.

Monitoring and mediation
· How to use exit interviews for information gathering.
· Choosing and using an impartial investigator when informal resolutions fail.

Standing up for your employees
· Evaluating a bullying charge against a highly-rated staff member.
· Assessing the odds of a malicious false accusation.

Even if you've never analysed bullying and harassment before, you'll soon acquire a workable knowledge of this important subject, with the help of easy-to-understand charts, diagrams and listings written with the authority of a leading international consultant on bullying and harassment.

To download your trainer toolkit, go to http://tinyurl.com/ldurw.

PS Book Carole as a motivational speaker on the subject of workplace bullying at your conference or symposium.

Carole Spiers is a motivational speaker and founder of Carole Spiers Group, one of the UKs leading stress management consultancies, whose psychological insights have improved productivity for clients such as Sainsbury’s, Unilever, the Bank of England and many others. www.carolespiersgroup.com gives authoritative advice on both the human and the legal aspects of workplace stress, including workplace bullying, violence, post-trauma, redundancy, absenteeism and stalled negotiations.

Their publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for their FREE stress management updates and stress tips – click http://tinyurl.com/zxbgo or for more information email info@carolespiersgroup.com or telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593