Laura Benjamin's Newsletter on Interpersonal Communication

LAURA'S NEWSLETTER ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
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Vol. 8, Number 5 - April 27, 2007
Editor: Laura Benjamin
http://www.LauraBenjamin.com
Published continually since 2000
Copyright©Pinehurst Press Ltd., 2007

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IN THIS ISSUE: LOTS AND LOTS
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1. Teamwork Quotes & Funny Quotes
2. Complimentary Archived Audio Classes
3. Knowledge Blockage vs. Knowledge Transfer
4. Dealing with Difficult People Resources
5. Discussion Point: The Warm Welcome
6. How to "Fire" a Customer
7. How to Support an American Soldier
8. Small Business Marketing Tips
9. More Great Resources Laura Recommends
10.The Grand Finale

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1. TEAMWORK QUOTES & FUNNY QUOTES
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"Progress was not created by contented people"
(Frank Tyger)

"Nothing happens until something moves" (Albert Einstein)
It's also the title of Robert Ringer's latest book; he's
the author of "Looking Out for #1".

"A hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft
head." (C. S. Lewis)

"An optimist will tell you the glass is half full; the
pessimist, half empty; and the engineer will tell you
the glass is twice the size it needs to be."(Anonymous)

More quotes at www.LauraBenjamin.com/teamworkquotes.htm
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2. COMPLIMENTARY ARCHIVED AUDIO PROGRAMS
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Got some time to kill and want to learn something new?
Listen to the complimentary classes now posted on my
website at http://www.LauraBenjamin.com/shows.htm

Classes include:
-How to Handle Your Small Project
-The 4 Types of Company Culture
-How to Start a "BizBookBuzz" Business Book Club
-Collaborative Book Authorship

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3. KNOWLEDGE BLOCKAGE VS. KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
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If it's not already happening in your neighborhood, you'll
see it start, slowly at first, then rapidly gaining speed
until it seems like everyone you know is putting in their
retirement papers. Baby Boomers are headin' out the door in
search of greener pastures. Whether they're leaving your
company to start their own business, asking to work part
time or just taking that first month off to regroup and
figure out what they want to do with the rest of their life,
they're definitely leaving you.

I know it'll be tough at first, but you did prepare for this,
right? After all, the forecasts have predicted it for years
so it should be no surprise (Spring is a good time to leave
by the way - after the bonus and profit sharing checks came out
in March). You can't stop it now, but there is something very
important you must do before they go....

Start the knowledge transfer process now. Don't wait for the
replacement to arrive and hope most of the incumbent's knowledge
finds it's way into the newbie's head. It should be everyone's
job to pick their brains before they leave, so you don't find a
huge knowledge black hole in your organization after they've
gone.

How do you do it? (You knew I'd have an answer, right?) You
capture the stories. You ask them to talk about all the times
when things went very, very wrong or exceptionally well. What
did people do that made the difference, before, during and after?
And you coach them through the story-telling process using my
C.A.R.L.A. Concept(TM) Model. Here's how it will go:

"Joe, can you think of three key challenges, changes or crisis
you faced during the years you worked here?" (Joe ponders for
a moment, but eventually comes up with three good ones)

"Let's take one at a time. What 'actions' did you take to cope
with the first situation or the people involved?"

"Next, what 'results' did you achieve? If possible, please
try to quantify the results."

"Now that time has passed and you have some perspective on
the issue, what 'lessons' did you learn from the experience?"

"Finally, now that you know what you know, what 'alternative
approaches' would you take (or suggest we take) in the future?"

While this approach may not extract all the info you'll need to
carry on after their departure, wouldn't it be a darned shame
to have all that knowledge and experience walk out the door
without asking the questions? Sure might help the new folks
climb the learning curve faster if you captured some of those
"lessons learned" before those mature masters hightail it
towards the next steps of their new life!

Want to learn how to use The C.A.R.L.A. Concept(TM) Model to:
- Help people (teams or teens) open up and talk
- Raise an issue without being labeled "not a team player"
- Coach someone without them getting defensive
- Beat out the competition in a behavioral interview
- Shorten the line outside your office door
- Ask for funding or donations
- Interview home healthcare providers for ailing family members
- Teach students self-determination skills and self-confidence
- Prepare for a discussion with a very difficult person

If so, read this article on The C.A.R.L.A. Concept(TM)

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4. DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE RESOURCES
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In the wake of the VA Tech tragedy, I'll recommend again
two books by author Dan Korem: "Rage of the Random Actor"
and "The Art of Profiling". Dan specializes in studying the
personality styles and behavioral clues that tip us off
(if we're paying attention) to people who are about to pop.

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5. DISCUSSION POINT: THE WARM WELCOME
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A short discussion point to encourage meaningful dialogue
and development between frontline leaders and employees

DISCUSSION POINT #5: A friend started a new job and the first
week was spent training at the home office on the east coast.
On the first day of week two, he showed up early in the parking
lot of his new office in the midwest. He decided to collect
his thoughts in the car before going in. The company Security
Guard approached him and asked if he could help him. My friend
responded, "No thank you. It's my first day on the new job and
I thought I'd just sit here a bit and mentally prepare." The
Security Guard said, "It's not your first day; you started
last week, Dave."

My friend was amazed the Security Guard...
1. actually knew the date he had been hired
2. knew his name and called him by his name
3. took time to personally greet him in the first place!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. As a new employee, what kind of perception would you have
about the company after an experience like this?
2. How important is it for people to be called by their name,
or greeted by co-workers or managers?
3. Discuss the little things that made a big impression on you
during the first few weeks on a new job.
4. What small changes can you make within your organization to
make new employees feel welcome?
5. What complaints or arguments will naysayers voice about any
ideas you generate in question #4; how would you address them?

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6. HOW TO FIRE A CUSTOMER
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Have you ever been called to the phone or the front counter
to handle an unruly or difficult customer? Your staff person
or customer service rep has done their best trying to resolve
the person's issue, but to no avail. You try your best, but
also to no avail.

This isn't something new. You've dealt with this person before
and their language, behaviors and attitude are unacceptable.
It's probably time to "fire" this customer. Even though good
customer service is the foundation of any business and overall,
we do love most of our customers, there are a few who need to go!

Maybe you have a customer who nickel and dimes you to death, who
won't return your phone calls or changes their minds regularly
about the direction they want you to take causing you countless
hours of frustration.

Whatever the reason, if you're at the end of your rope, there
is hope! You can fire that customer and concentrate on those who
contribute to your business success.

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7. HOW TO SUPPORT AN AMERICAN SOLDIER
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The Home Front Cares is a Colorado based organization that
provides support for military families of all services who have
been impacted by deployment in harm's way. To see how you can
help, visit www.thehomefrontcares.org

For those outside Colorado, please visit www.ImAlreadyHome.com
and get Elaine Dumler's books to give to military families you
know. It's a guide to fun and inexpensive ways to keep service
men and women connected to their families while on assignment
or deployment. Make sure to read all about the "Flat Daddy(TM)".

Then, here's a site with 288 great images and inspiring photos
of our troops at work, www.defenselink.mil/multimedia/

One last thing everyone can do that doesn't cost a dime: Thank
the soldiers we see in the airports and around our neighborhood
for their service. Also, thank the Veterans for their service.
Honor Memorial Day in a different way this year and buy an
American Flag to fly each day, but especially on Flag Day,
which is June 14th.

Remember that young people learn a lot from watching what we
do maybe more than what we say, and just as much from what we
don't do. Give them positive role models!

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8. SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING TIPS
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-Still using a shoebox to collect all your new prospect and
customer contact info? It's time to get yourself a contact
management software system. How in the world do you keep track
of all those sticky notes, anyway?

-Registered for a conference or a trade show lately? You know
all those postcards and letters you get before the show that
invite you to "stop by our booth"? How many of you curl up
next to the fire with a glass of fine wine and pour over them
in painstaking detail? Who then tucks that pile of cards into
your briefcase to take on the trip so you make sure you seek
out each and every one of those senders? You don't? How come?
It must generate leads or they wouldn't continue to do it.
How about all those "Thank you for visiting our booth" letters
we get after the show? Or better yet, bulk emails that list
each and every attendee's email address in the "To" block?
I'm thinking there must be a better way.

-Next time you visit a website, look at the words in the blue
bar across the top of the page. Does it just say "Home" or
"Bill Smith's website"? Do you know your web person can
insert keyword phrases in the file name and page name that
may attract more people to your website? Did you know that
content (articles, tips) related to your business will also
pull in more traffic? If your web person hasn't yet found
out about www.wordtracker.com, suggest they check it out.
Then have them insert the researched long keyword phrases
into your meta tags rather than just single words.

-If you're only relying on email to get your info out there,
your list maybe shrinking without even knowing it. Fully 80%
of email transmissions are now "you-know-what", so more and
more of us are fighting back with two and sometimes three
layer filter systems. Some of us block all HTML email (the
kind that comes with pretty pictures and fancy fonts) in
favor of text only messages. Also, people change their email
addresses more often than their physical or business address.
So, even if they're asking for you to send them your info,
they may not actually get your messages if you only send via
email. Build your list with complete contact info so it has
staying power.

-Do you send thank you notes to your customers? Maybe you
send an email to a prospect after your first meeting, but
rarely do I find business owners ever send thank you notes
to customers as a routine way of saying "we appreciate you
and your business". I recommend this practice to every
client I work with and it's amazing what an impact it has
on their customers. Why? Because so few people take the
time to do it!

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9. MORE GREAT RESOURCES LAURA RECOMMENDS
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If you're an avid reader like me, you may enjoy the following
books as we enter the summer season:

-"Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything"
-"Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space
and Make the Competition Irrelevant"(not just a marketing book)
-"Time Travelers Wife" (fiction - have tissues handy at the end)
-"Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip
Heath and Dan Heath (Fast Company May issue, pg. 70 has a great
article by these gentlemen on how "Success Can Make You Stupid")

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10. THE GRAND FINALE
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Laura Benjamin International Inc. | Colorado Springs CO USA
Phone: 719-266-8088 | Fax: 719-785-5768
http://www.laurabenjamin.com
Copyright(C)Pinehurst Press Ltd. 2007

The information on this web site is copyright © 2001-2008 by Laura Benjamin and Pinehurst Press Ltd. All rights reserved. If you copy material from this site for use in any print or electronic media, please ask permission first by email.