Author: admin

In 1876 on a wet Monday Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, on Tuesday he realised he had just given himself a problem so on Wednesday he had his business cards reprinted to proudly read:

Alexander G Bell
Inventor
Telephone: 00000 000001

Good old Sandy, he revolutionised the business card and now we can take a fresh look at ours and see how hard it is working for us, because people do read cards and keep them. They are miniature sales brochures and information packs rolled into one.

Broadly speaking there are two types of card; informative and descriptive. Informative ones simply aim to tell people what our job is and how to get in touch with us. Descriptive ones add product and service information and attempt to define our unique selling point (USP) to differentiate our business from competitors.

Given that cards cost money to print we need to make sure they are working hard for us, so that we get a good return on our investment. Here are a few check questions to make sure your card is earning its keep:

1. Does it contain all your contact details, such as Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Google+ and LinkedIn?
2. Is there a useful tag-line that describes your business, or what makes you worth hiring?
3. Have both sides been used…the reverse is a great place for listing products and services?
4. Does the design reflect your business brand, perhaps modern and refined, or more old fashioned and reliable?
5. Have you used good quality card, instead of cheaper thin paper?
6. Has the card been professionally typeset or is it an amateur effort?
7. Are there helpful logos on the card, to highlight awards won or professional bodies you’re part of?
8. Does the card encourage someone to spark a useful business conversation with you?

This week take a fresh look at your business card and have fun finding one way you could improve it. Our cards are the first piece of work a potential client gets from us, so it pays to do a great job!

Next week: Three interesting books to consider

How well do you listen to people? I mean really pay attention to what they are saying? Or, do you half listen whilst idly wondering whether to have fish fingers for tea, or whilst flicking through the paper to see what’s on TV that night?

Listening is a useful skill and one that is often talked about and rarely practised to its full extent, so here is a coaching tool, called three level listening. When someone begins to tell you something important, think about the content of their words from three different directions:

Level 1 – Our inner dialogue.
What are we saying to ourselves whilst the other person is talking? Think about whether we are challenging their words in our head, or seeking to understand them, or if we are really listening to them at all? We can check our understanding by asking…so, what I’m wondering is…?

Level 2 – The story.
What are the little details scattered amongst their words? Are there facts and figures, characters and the thread of a story line? We need to catch the details and hang on to them. We can help ourselves by asking…so, what you’re saying is…?

Level 2 – Holistic details.
This is everything else apart from the story and its hard facts. We need to listen for feelings and assumptions, patterns, hesitations, implications and unsaid things. We need to trust our intuition and catch hold of those fleeting personal details that give colour and shade to the other person’s story. We can bring these elements into awareness by asking…so, what I’m hearing is that you…?

If we are working as a coach and/or mentor and want to support someone to make a shift in their behaviour we can know that 20% of the information we need is contained at Level 2 and 80% is lurking at Level 3. Our job is to listen, to notice and to reflect back to people, so that they can hear their own words and appreciate the reality of their situation.

If you want to practice this in a safe way then switch on the TV and watch a soap opera. Listen carefully to the protagonist as they harangue a friend or neighbour and jot down a few notes under each of the above headings. It’s amazing what we can hear when we are really listening!

Next week: How hard is your business card working?