Newsletter Archives
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Join me for these upcoming events!
I’m offering a free webinar Wed, Oct 17th, at 11:15 am MDT, which is 1:15 EDT. It’s called The 12 Administrative Assistant and Office Pro Roadblocks and Remedies. It’s a dual-purpose webinar – to give you quick tools to deal with your office challenges and to provide a preview into some of the areas we’ll tackle at : The Executive Administrative Professional Online Training Camp. Check it out and register here.
FYI, I plan to start a paid webinar series with limited registration. This may be my last free webinar for a while.
My Executive Assistant Training that used to be only available onsite is now also avaialble online. Develop your skills at home or in your office: Tuesdays, Nov. 13 – Dec. 4, 2012 1-4pm ET. Learn more and register here. (Click the Virtual Training tab at the top.)
I’m presenting at the Mid-Atlantic Lean Conference November 7th. We’ll be talking about Communication Kata and taking a Kata Quest to improve processes. Join us. More info here.
In the Legend of the Holy Grail, after years of languishing, the Fisher King is revived when the knight Parsifal asks:
• Whom does the grail serve?
The King can represent thinking, or our inner CEO. Asking the King whom the grail serves is similar to asking our inner CEO:
• Where’s your heart?
When people want help with phrasing I inquire (often indirectly) where their heart is at the deepest level. My method is more about perspective than advice. Find The Synergy Center between your heart and your mind, and you more easily find the words for clarity and the strength for action.
A gentle-spirited friend recently became a political activist when corporate interests conflicted with community values. She knows whom she serves. She knows where her heart is. She serves her family, community and the earth. That synergy of heart and mind gives her a strong clear voice and the will to use it. She is Speaking Strong.
What ails you? And where’s your heart? It’s a good thing to know. As with the Fisher King, even just asking the question can cure and enliven action.
It starts with passive or aggressive communication. Often the next stage is to swing to the opposite polarity – the passive communicator gets heavy-handed and the aggressive communicator goes soft. Eventually we develop balance – which is assertiveness – yet can look like passiveness or aggression at times.
Don was rightfully upset that his bank told another interested buyer that he had already inquired about a specific property. That prompted the other buyer to put in their offer immediately and helped the other buyer win the contract.
The damage is done. Don wondered if he should just let it go, or write a scathing and threatening letter to the bank president. His initial considerations had no middle ground.
Don isn’t mean-spirited, so when the choices are so extreme, he is likely to say nothing – and let it eat away at him.
The fact is, Don was wronged, and leadership at the bank needs to know about it. One option moving forward is to go to the president and say:
Someone at this bank was indiscreet and I was injured. I don’t see any way to make it right now. However, I do want to let you know what happened so you can make it right moving forward.
SYNERGY SABOTAGE: NOT WALKING THE TALK
I used to write about Poison Phrases . Who knows – I might start again. But I felt limited by that category because what is poison in one situation is helpful in others. So I’m working with the header Synergy Sabotage – trying it on for size.
Mark works for a company that manages by consensus. Everyone needs to agree before they can move forward with a decision – in theory, anyway.
In terms of The Synergy Center, requiring unanimous consensus for everything can be too extreme and cumbersome. It over-compensates for command-and-control leadership. While it assures every voice is heard, it can be unmanageable. But this post is about something else.
At a company meeting, Mark strongly disagreed with a decision that the IT director favored. The group overrode Mark because “only one person objects.”
Not walking the talk is synergy sabotage. If your principles say you decide by consensus and then you don’t, you’ve lost a lot more than the support of the person whom you overrode. You’ve lost your compass. You’ve lost trust. People get the message that principles don’t matter when they are inconvenient.
While I don’t recommend unanimity for all decisions, I’m even more passionate about the need to say what you do and do what you say. If you find that unmanageable, don’t just throw your principles under the bus. Live them or revise them and live that.
Now Mark is actively looking for other employment.
Another option would be to address the inconsistency. To say:
Thanks! I hope to see you at one of my events!
SpeakStrong. Say what you mean and mean what you say without being mean when you say it. We all have a part in the well being and evolution of our families, communities and world, and we all have our own unique contributions.
What are you not saying that people need to hear? None of us knows everything, but we all do know something. Your perspective contributes to the shaping of what happens.
Don’t wait until you have it perfect. That won’t happen. Give it your best effort and learn from responses. Sometimes communication just shakes the trees to see what comes out. It’s not necessarily a final word. It can be a step closer to deeper understanding and expressing your essence with authenticity. Sometimes your step forward can look like a step back. Keep learning and walking and putting yourself—your deepest self—out there.
I’m honored to be a part of your communication journey.
What can I help you say today?
Tuesday, September 18 at 11:00 AM MDT
See Time in Your Time Zone When You Register
Diane Windingland with Meryl Runion Rose
(Diane Windingland is the Coauthor of Perfect Phrases for IceBreakers)
Improving your people skills doesn’t have to be boring. This interactive presentation will help you learn to become better connected by first showing you what to avoid. Using reverse psychology, Diane Windingland will reveal some of the worst networking techniques before wrapping up with practical ways you can effectively engage people and build business relationships.
Diane and I are collaborative buddies because she walks her talk. She reached out to me, and became an essential part of my network. I discovered her PowerPoint for this presentation and was intrigued, so I invited her to offer it as a conversational webinar with me. Join our discussion about how to network effectively. More info and registration here.
Diane said something that really struck me in a conversation yesterday. She said,
When Stephen Covey popularized the idea of synergy, I was delighted. I also wondered why the concept didn’t take off more than it did. To me, it seems so basic to success. Synergy is the emergence of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. When people connect dynamically, they create things, have conversations and succeed in ways none of them could have done on their own.
Yesterday someone told me the word synergy is dated in business circles. To me, that’s like suggesting that exercise is out of fashion so we shouldn’t talk about it or do it anymore.
Well, I figure anyone who dismissed the idea of synergy hasn’t experienced its magic. What do you think?
Today, an editor of a magazine I write for told me she loves an article I wrote about synergy. She noted that the article empowers people who often feel “less than” and it cements the fact that we all have a part of creating, and each part is needed. So maybe there’s hope for synergy after all! There is if I have anything to do with it!
Comment here.
What can a GPS for sensitive people teach us about feedback? Quite a bit, actually. We got some great input from my request for phrases for a GPS designed to avoid stepping on people’s self-esteem issues and help them move forward. And while actually creating a GPS like that might be pandering, the phrases offered give insight into qualities of effective feedback that can help us give awesome feedback ourselves.
Have a chuckle and vote for your favorites at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H6XQZSP
Use any criteria you like. If you will, share what you liked in particular about the phrases you chose. The winner gets $100 in SpeakStrong products. So vote early and often. You also can still contribute ideas on my blog at: http://www.speakstrong.com/speakstrong-news/689-gps . You have until Monday evening, August 15th to submit your phrases.
Late entries can still win, but the sooner you get yours in, the sooner I’ll add them to the list and the greater your chances. I’ll announce the winning phrase at my How to Give Awesome, Effective Feedback Webinar Wednesday.
11:00 am MDT – check your time zone. That’s mountain daylight. This is a slide preview. Or you can go straight to the registration page.
http://www.speakstrong.com/services/webinars/704-feedback
Find out how to give feedback people can hear. Plus, how you can flip feedback into feed-forward to use the power of pull communication over the pressure of push. We’ll expand on lessons from a GPS for sensitive people into a very practical and useful set of tips and techniques to be able to give feedback people can hear.
and much more.
Register now. http://www.speakstrong.com/services/webinars/704-feedback
Click below to view the slides and/or the replay. Here’s one comment: “It was a great use of my time” Webinar participant
GPS Phrases for Super-Sensitive People
Here’s a fun one for you. Imagine you were tasked with creating GPS phrases for sensitive people. What kinds of things would your GPS guide say when the driver ignored your advice, took a wrong turn…that kind of thing?
I posted this yesterday and already have several really creative and entertaining contributions. When I have enough and I’m ready—I’m thinking by next Wednesday—I’ll post them in a survey for you to vote. There’s even a prize.
Here’s one I like. When someone turns left when the GPS says to go right:
Visit my blog to read the current offerings and get a great laugh. Wanna play? Just post. (My site ws hyjacked a few montha ago, and a lot of things went awry, even after it was fixed. I disicovered last week my blog post option didn’t work – but now it does!)
While you’re there, follow my blog. I post more often than I email. Thanks!
Beyond Busy communication – Free Webinar
“When people get too busy, it changes how they communicate.” Jill Konrath.
Ever since I heard Jill say that, I’ve been noticing how true it is. I’ve also been collecting ideas about how to SpeakStrong in a beyond-busy world. I’ve observed how people talk with one foot out the door, answer emails without having read them (if they answer at all), and listen while texting their friends. I’ve noticed people ask questions I answered already, answer questions I didn’t ask, and make assumptions that don’t apply.
But mostly, I’ve noticed how much time is wasted correcting errors that would not have happened if people knew how to communicate in a beyond-busy world.
It takes a lot more time to correct errors due to hasty communication than it does to say it right the first time.
Busy-ness changes the rules and requirements of successful business communication.
In this free webinar you will discover:
Lots of practical tips in this one, so register now.
SpeakStrong Summer School Intensive Starts Thursday August 2nd
My SpeakStrong Summer School Web Intensive will launch next week. Registration is limited to 8 participants, so let me know right away if you’re interested. Cost is $225 and that includes assessments, unlimited email support, optional between session private coaching calls and five 1 to 1 1/2 hour small group conference/web sessions.
Learn how to really say what you mean and mean what you say without being mean when you say it. Email questions.
www.speakstrong.com/webinars (scroll down.)
Opportunitynowhere webinar slides and handouts
If you missed the webinar Friday, you didn’t miss much. No, I’m not being modest. I had technical difficulties and had to abort the mission. The good news is I recorded an audio and sent the link out to people who registered. I got some great feedback about it, so clearly all was not lost. More good news is the fact that I’m much more excited about my new webianr alternative.
But I didn’t stop there. I wanted to keep improving the presentation, so I reworked it and reworked it. It’s on my site and on SlideShare (where you can download it). Mike, one of my mentors, and I will be discussing it later today, so I expect the presentation will keep evolving.
Scroll on through the OpportunityNOW here SlideShare where you can see the PowerPoint notes, or on my site, where you can also download the audio and handout.
www.speakstrong.com/webinars (Scroll down).
.
Hi from Cascade, Colorado, where the forests behind our enclave are burned, but the community is fine. It seems like yesterday that we watched the fate of our homes change in the form of a red fire line that Type I fire incident commander Rich Harvey pointed to on a map on television. That line was yards away from our enclave and home. We were preparing ourselves to lose everything. In the end we lost nothing. Instead, our friends on the other side of the ridge are now homeless. It was a dramatic experience for the entire community. I share my experience of it in my Cascade Chronicles at: www.speakstrong.com/fire.
I’ve never known this as much as I know it now – words are important, but have their limit. The pictures help me convey what it was like for us.
Scroll on through. www.speakstrong.com/fire. Then I invite your comments on one of my blog posts: www.speakstrong.com/blog
Ann and I got out for a hike in our charred trails this week. That’s our last trip on those trails – the signs to stay out are very forbidding now, and we happened to run into our state senator, mayor, fire chief, and others who reminded us that the forests are closed. Okay, we get it. Thanks for being so gracious about it.
Anyway, Ann has her dream job. Her new team is delightful but disorganized, and Ann is all about organization. (Her tea cabinet in her home is a thing of beauty.) They’ll decide what to do with the information, but as with all great reports, Ann told a story, made the story credible with data, and painted a picture so clear that the action plan almost is creating itself.
In a previous job, Ann’s clarity threatened her team. In this one, they love it. So how did she get where she is? By trial and error and studying what didn’t work out as a guide to finding a career opportunity that is. Yes, she plans, but she also follows an organic path to excellence. Others might not have even recognized the breadcrumbs that marked the path that led to her success.
Okay, a wedding, a honeymoon, four trainings and a fire evacuation later, I’m ready to rock and roll. I’m creating a webinar series. Two of the webinars are free. Five of the webinars will be for a small group of 5-8 people who are interested in what I would call both remedial and advanced communication development.
I say remedial because we’ll go over communication basics that we should have learned, but most of us haven’t. Many are communication skills that I still practice deliberately after all
these years. I also say advanced because we’ll be exploring communication subtleties that require a high level of communication consciousness. I still catch myself “going unconscious” at times.
1. Friday July 20th: 11 AM Mountain Time
Opportunitynowhere (now here) SpeakStrong and an Organic Path to
Career and Personal Excellence
Expanded description below
Register now: www.speakstrong.com/webinars
2. Friday July 27th: 11 AM Mountain Time
Communication Skills in a Beyond-busy World
Highly interactive. Limit 8 participants This will include assessments, individual guidance, exercises, copies of my SpeakStrong book and much more. This will give a great boost to your practice of saying what you mean and meaning what you say without being mean when you say it.
Session 1. Thursday August 2nd: 11 AM Mountain Time
SpeakStrong Summer School Launch,
Your SpeakStrong Communication Reality and Possibility:
Assessments and Vision
Session 2. Monday August 6th: 11 AM Mountain Time
Say What You Mean: How to Find and Empower Your Individual Voice
Session 3. Thursday August 9th: 11 AM Mountain Time
Mean What You Say: Protect the Power of Your Voice Through Verbal
Precision, Intention and Commitment
Session 4. Monday August 13th: 11 AM Mountain Time
Don’t Be Mean When You Say It: Influence Through Grace, Not
Persuasion, Manipulation or Power
Session 5. Thursday August 16th: 11 AM Mountain Time
Success From Finesse: How to Polish Your Life and Career by Polishing Your
Communication
Registration will open soon.
The first free webinar is available for registration. You can read more about it and register here. www.speakstrong.com/webinars
I’ll be posting the slides and some worksheets on that page and the landing page before Friday.
The second webinar will open for registration later this week.
The SpeakStrong Summer School will only cost $225 and is limited to eight participants, so you might want to let me know if you want me to hold a spot for you before registration opens. It comes with all kinds of extras, including the SpeakStrong book and personal assessments. Also, the times are preliminary, so if you’re interested, but the specific dates don’t work for you, email me.
How did Ann end up in her dream job on her dream team? How did Nancy become Medical Staff Coordinator? How did I go from never having written anything to writing a book that sold over 300,000 copies? How did Betty change her work from something that was “killing her” into what she now considers a ministry that she is grateful for?
They (and I) followed an Organic Path to Career Excellence.
Speaking Strong is about saying what you mean and meaning what you say without being mean when you say it. That practice and the philosophy behind it leads to a different, more essential way of living. That includes career planning and goal setting. This webinar will help you find success principles you can live by.
This presentation evolved out of an Executive Admin training I gave last April in Dallas. The group wanted more emphasis on career planning. That led me to some deep thinking about what I know about career planning, advancement and success. That led me to write an article about it in my Office Pro Magazine column. That evolved into this webinar.
Office Pro Magazine Article:
http://officepro.iaap-hq.org/DigitalAnywhere/viewer.aspx?id=11&pageId=40
In other words, this webinar came about organically. I’m excited about it, because there are things in it I don’t hear other places.
I have lots of blog posts, so if you’re not subscribed to it, I invite you to. You can register here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/feedburner/efvWy
Here’s one of my favorites. I overheard a young girl talk about the fire.
http://www.speakstrong.com/character-based-communication/682-conflation
Thanks! I hope to see you Friday!
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Want to use any of the articles on your site? You are welcome to with this bio: Meryl Runion is the creator of the SpeakStrong Method. You can find her at www.speakstrong.com |
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Contents: Humble Leadership: Tim Tebow is a game changer – and i’m not talking football NIA and SpeakStrong make great gifts Lean PowerPhrase: What is preventing the operator from running this way? LuAnn and Creating Your Own Job Opportunities
Check out my other blog articles!
Books to help you find the perfect words to collaborate without compromise: SS Method Handbook ServicesSpeaking |
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Want to use any of the articles on your site? You are welcome to with this bio: Meryl Runion is the creator of the SpeakStrong Method. You can find her at www.speakstrong.com |
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Contents:
Join us at: The Ultimate Admin Training Camp Books to help you find the perfect words to collaborate without compromise: SS Method Handbook ServicesSpeaking |
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Want to use any of the articles on your site? You are welcome to with this tag: Meryl Runion is the creator of the SpeakStrong Method. You can find her at www.speakstrong.com |
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SpeakSTRONG NEWSLETTER
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© 2011 · Meryl Runion and SpeakStrong, Inc · All Rights Reserved Speak STRONG, Inc 4265 Outpost Rd Cascade CO 80809 (719) 684-2633 |