Welcome to Edenchanges; we are a company specialising in corporate training and personal coaching in the areas of recruitment, sales, management, Linkedin, communication and NLP. Details of our services can be found above and free personal and professional articles are available below.

Flashpoint Five – Procrastination

Procrastination

Definition: the act of procrastinating; putting off, delaying or deferring an action to a later time*

Procrastination is like a cancer in the work place. It’s insidious, sneaky and takes hold before you are consciously aware of it.

I like to think I’m fairly proactive and get on with things but someone pointed out something the other day which made me realise just how sneaky procrastination can be even for slightly OCD people like myself.

Think about your desk right now, or have a look at it if you are sitting at it. And here’s my question;

How many papers or folders are on it?

And I ask this because what the person pointed out the other day was this

Ever item on your desk is something you’re choosing not to do; something you are procrastinating over

It sounded good but I was dubious…so I checked.

And sure enough every single item on my desk was either something to action (the majority of the items) or something to file. In both cases I simply hadn’t made the effort to do it.

And worst of all, (although I do believe the truth will set you free), I realised that I hadn’t taken action over the majority of the items because it would have required me making a firm decision about something.

As an exercise I went, systematically, top to bottom of the papers and folders on my desk (only one pile I would have you know I’m not too far gone just yet!), made solid decisions on each item and actioned those decisions. It took half a day and then my desk was clear.

Interestingly it has only stayed clear in the weeks since I did the exercise by being proactive enough to make decisions on all items and then action those decisions.

The key to beating procrastination would seem to be making firm decisions.

What I realised this morning was that the old procrastination habit had crept into my inbox management. So this afternoon I’m going to be going through that and rout out this business cancer before it takes a permanent hold!

I offer you the thought that doing the same with your desk or inbox might just make your business a little healthier.

Until next time; take action!

Stephen

Owner, Edenchanges

*Definition Source: wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

♦♦♦

Edenchanges

Corporate trainers and coaches

Recruitment Training ♦ Sales Training ♦ Management Training ♦ NLP and Communication Training ♦ Linkedin Training ♦ Personal Development Coaching

♦♦♦

Suite A10 Riccall Business Park, Riccall ,York, YO19 6QR

Based in York and working UK wide and internationally
(0)1757 249 380 ♦ enquiries@edenchanges.com ♦ www.edenchanges.com

♦♦♦

Taking a Good Linkedin Profile Picture

Taking a Good Linkedin Profile Picture

With the new format for Linkedin Groups your profile picture has become even more important than it ever was. So here’s a quick guide to help you shine like a movie star:

HAVE IT TAKEN ON PURPOSE AND PUT SOME THOUGHT INTO IT

You know those pictures of movie stars – Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise where they look really good? Well they posed. And had a team of photographers using multiple light sources, reflectors and probably a little photo editing afterwards.

Now I suspect you don’t have the time for that but at least get someone with a decent camera (even a good camera phone will be sufficient) to help and think about

• Location – specifically what’s behind you (because it’s going to show up in the photo)
• What you are wearing – does it portray the image you want it to?
• Close up – a head shot is perfectly fine – the picture on Linkedin is really small after all
• Take several shots – great photographers take lots of pictures of the same object and pick the best to display; you should follow their example
• Lighting – the best photographs are taken outside or under studio lighting (office lighting plays havoc with photos)
• Enough light – Ensure there is enough light for you to be seen clearly
• Artistic or not – there is something to be said for creative and artistic photos but always remember that Linkedin is for business professionals – pictures of people drinking, people in clearly social gatherings or doing social activities should probably be saved for Facebook ~ you can always play with a professional looking photo if you are looking to be creative ~ observe

Left to Right: Normal Colour : Greyscale : Increased Contrast : Just Plain Silly

Both Windows and Mac systems come with software to enable you to do things like the above.

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

A little knowledge can go a long way when it comes to digital photographs and online profile pictures. Here are a few tips to help:

• Edit then upload - Linkedin doesn’t provide any editing tools other than a resize option so make sure your picture looks like you want it to before you upload it
• Square or square – Linkedin only displays square profile images so bear that in mind
• Size matters – Linkedin displays your profile picture at a size of 80×80 pixels; quite handily when you try to upload a picture that is larger Linkedin displays your picture along with what the result will be ~ as you can see below ~ you then have the option to move and resize the yellow square to get what you want; and if you can’t then click CANCEL and upload a different picture

PS The above is an okay but not great example of a profile picture. I shouldn’t be wearing sunglasses for a profile picture and I was also squinting due to the bright sun. It’s details like that which are worth considering.

CONCLUSION

Most people feel like complete idiots posing for pictures but consider that this is a picture that will represent you to a very large business community. It pays to take time to get a good shot.

Put your self-awareness to one side, treat it like a business challenge and get posing!

And of course if you want to have it done really well then convince your company to hire a photographer to come in and take corporate profile pictures of everyone.

It’s for the company’s benefit as well after all!

Until next time; be successful.

Stephen Hart

Owner, Edenchanges

Again Jaymie is the face of Linkedin for the purposes of this blog (she’s the lady in the first pictures) and thanks as always to the very talented team at Tigg-stock for use of their photographs. Their stock gallery is viewable here

♦♦♦

Edenchanges

Corporate trainers and coaches

Recruitment Training ♦ Sales Training ♦ Management Training ♦ NLP and Communication Training ♦ Linkedin Training ♦ Personal Development Coaching

♦♦♦

Suite A10 Riccall Business Park, Riccall ,York, YO19 6QR

Based in York and working UK wide and internationally
(0)1757 249 380 ♦ enquiries@edenchanges.com ♦ www.edenchanges.com

♦♦♦

Dedication’s what you need

Dedication’s what you need

Imagine a man tap dancing, playing a trumpet and singing the lyrics

If you want to be the best

If you want to beat the rest

Dedication’s what you need

For my British readers over a certain age they will not have to imagine only remember – one Roy Castle a true gentleman of the silver screen and inspiration to many.

He hosted, for twenty years, a show called Record Breakers which highlighted world record-breaking events and attempts. At the end of each show Roy would perform the closing theme tune live in the studio.

Maybe it’s the hot weather that is reminding me of my youth (’76 in England was a sauna and it’s feeling the same this year) or perhaps it’s my children growing up but I’ve found myself thinking about when I was growing up in the seventies recently.

Back then we had two and a half channels (BBC2 only broadcast from midday onwards) and there were no video’s, DVD’s or other recording devices. It made a good television show precious. An event not to be missed.

Roy Castle’s Record Breakers was one of those. Presented in a wonderfully fun way with amazing feats that boggled the mind. It also had the McWhirter brothers who would challenge the audience to ask them questions from the Guinness Book of Records. In all the years I watched I only saw them fail to answer one question correctly.

And at the end of the episode Roy would sing the theme tune “Dedication’s all you need”

It’s stuck with me. Rattling around in the back of my head through all these years.

I became a full-time corporate trainer and coach over six years ago and in that time I’ve spoken with many successful business and sports people and asked them what had made them successful. At some point in every conversation, with every successful person ‘dedication’ has been mentioned.

It makes me very happy that Roy was right. It’s a nod to the younger me who used to watch and think

Wow so anything is possible if you have dedication

Now that we know that is true I guess the question becomes not ‘what is possible’ but rather

what do you want to make possible?

I think answering that question is a really important one and quite hard; is it your current job, your personal skills, your family, a combination of those or something else?

Once you know the answer, once you know for yourself what it is you want to achieve then, thanks to Roy Castle, you know how to achieve it; dedication

Until next time; be successful

Stephen

Owner, Edenchanges

FOOTNOTE

Roy Castle died of lung cancer (despite being a non smoker) in 1994. To learn more about his charity that is in its 20th year of combating lung cancer please visit:

http://www.roycastle.org/

♦♦♦

Edenchanges

Corporate trainers and coaches

Recruitment Training ♦ Sales Training ♦ Management Training ♦ NLP and Communication Training ♦ Linkedin Training ♦ Personal Development Coaching

♦♦♦

Suite A10 Riccall Business Park, Riccall ,York, YO19 6QR

Based in York and working UK wide and internationally
(0)1757 249 380 ♦ enquiries@edenchanges.com ♦ www.edenchanges.com

♦♦♦

Linkedin Groups – New Look

the picture of the beautiful woman will be explained later

Yesterday I was with sixteen business professionals training them on Using Linkedin Commercially. During the session I mentioned that Linkedin was continually being improved and changing.

This morning I see that indeed, whilst I was speaking yesterday, Linkedin was busy doing just that – changing!

A new look for groups is being rolled out over the next few weeks so here is an overview of the change to help avoid confusion and to point out some of the consequences of the new features.

IT’S BEING PHASED IN

Change: The most important thing to realise is that the change is being phased in. I’m a member of nearly fifty groups and I run one, (Code of Success Group) and only three of them have converted over as at the time of writing.

Consequence: It’s going to be a bit confusing until it’s all been done as one group will literally look different to another. In case you haven’t seen it then the new look for groups is shown below:

Click on the picture for a larger view.

DISCUSSIONS AND NEWS ARE NOW MERGED

Change: It used to be that news items were posted under a separate tab but now they are all placed under the discussion heading

Consequence: Two fold I suspect. One is that you will have to wade through all the posted news links to find the actual discussions. Personally I feel that’s going to be a little bit of a pain although it will probably generate more traffic for the links. Secondly most groups police their discussions quite firmly with regards to what can and can’t be posted. The news links tended to be less policed. I suspect that more restrictions will be applied to news links from now on.

PASS JUDGEMENT

Change: This is new. You can now like or not like discussions. The idea being that group members will self regulate and promote discussions that they like. The danger of course is that like any popularity poll it could be influenced by someone with a large number of friends or colleagues.

Consequence: People might get a little upset if their posts get voted down or up. The key is to keep some perspective and think for yourself whether or not what you posted was quality. So don’t let this hold you back from entering discussions.

LATEST DISCUSSIONS ARE PRESENTED

Change: The latest discussions added to a group are now presented in a slideshow format that can be clicked through or a list clicked on in chronological order.

Consequence: Quite nice in that you can see the fresh discussions without having to scroll past the featured or highly liked ones. It will create more visibility for new discussions particularly in busy groups.

CONTRIBUTORS ARE VISIBLE

Change: This is new. The last three contributors to a discussion appear in thumbnail format under the discussion. By moving your mouse over them their comments pop up.

Consequence: You can get a quick flavour of the types of comments being added without having to actually open the whole discussion. Not an earth shattering feature but possible time-saving. The other consequence, which is a little more exciting particularly for publicity hounds, is that the more you comment the more your picture is visible. I can already feel some people’s ego’s expanding!

MANAGERS CHOICE

Change: Managers can pick up to ten discussions that they feel are of particular benefit to the group.

Consequence: Managers were always able to select some discussions as featured so this doesn’t hugely add or change anything. Although naturally there will be a feel good factor if your articles are selected and they are bound to get higher readership as a consequence.

YOUR HEADLINE IS LESS VISIBLE

The above shows how the new (top) and old (bottom) discussion styles compare visually. Shown actual size.

Change: It used to be that your headline (the line directly under your name in your profile) used to appear next to your photograph. It was a great way for people to easily see who and what you are. You of course could do that when you were viewing their discussions and postings.

Consequence: It means if you want to know what the people who are posting are you will have to go to the effort of clicking on their picture for more information. By clicking on their picture you can call up a small summary of their recent activity in the group which includes their headline. For me this is a big mistake and one that I hope gets reversed.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPH IS NOW PRICELESS

Change: Having a good quality photograph on Linkedin was always important but now as the ONLY thing (other than your name) appearing next to a discussion or comment that you post it makes your photo priceless!

Consequence: People will become known through their pictures and it is the single most repeated feature of your profile on Linkedin (if you consider it appears on it’s own now every time you post something.) Which is why this blog is headed up by the beautiful model Jaymie from Twigg Stock. To make the point that pictures are eye catching.

IN CONCLUSION

Some good, middling and negative things.

I quite like the ability to like or dislike a post (oh I can feel the power rush!), the ability to see the most recent postings and contributors is okay, the biggest error as I see it is the reduction in visibility of the headline

This a real negative as it means you have to click through every time you want to know what someone is.

I suspect that now it’s gone people will realise just how often they read a posting and thought ‘Who is that person?’ before flicking their eyes over to the headline next to their photo. Now they can flick their eyes over and will have to think, ‘Do I recognise the picture and name?’ If not the only option is to click on it to see what they are.

Remember nothing is set in stone and the official Linkedin blog about the changes can be found here where you can comment and post your experiences.

Ultimately it is still the great business tool that it has been for years and we simply need to adjust to the new look and new options. By getting involved and posting good quality discussions then everyone can benefit.

Until next time; be successful.

Stephen Hart

Owner, Edenchanges

With thanks, again, to the very talented team at Tigg-stock for use of their photograph. Their stock gallery is viewable here

♦♦♦

Edenchanges

Corporate trainers and coaches

Recruitment Training ♦ Sales Training ♦ Management Training ♦ NLP and Communication Training ♦ Linkedin Training ♦ Personal Development Coaching

♦♦♦

Suite A10 Riccall Business Park, Riccall ,York, YO19 6QR

Based in York and working UK wide and internationally
(0)1757 249 380 ♦ enquiries@edenchanges.com ♦ www.edenchanges.com

♦♦♦

Sales Time

For people in sales on a daily basis the question is often; “How do I get better at sales? How to I become like the top biller in the company?”

For people outside of sales but who still sell – every small business owner, directors of larger companies, partners in legal or creative firms etc often the question is more “How do sales people do it? What is the process of selling?”

Well there are lots of aspects and nuances to selling, and some are quite complex and only apply to specific situations. Additionally however there are some fundamental, foundation points and principles that if done will lead towards sales success and if they are omitted will take the person away from that success – regardless of how talented or skilled they are in the art of sales.

The one I want to present in this article is that of sales time.

Sales time is a period of time when a person should be actively, and solely, working on selling.

Consistent, pure sales time is the simplest, and possibly the most important, sales activity.

If you have all the talent in the world but you are not either on the phone selling to people or actively meeting them and pitching then your talent is worthless and you will make no money.

Equally if you have little talent but are on the phone consistently then you will achieve something.

Sales activity tends to start with a spike of activity. Masses of calls and visits are made then as work starts to come in the attention is diverted onto filling orders. And those orders do need to be filled. But critically the sales time must be maintained.

Regular, consistent sales time will help prevent the bust and boom roller coaster that typifies most sales professionals revenue generation.

This is hard if you work for yourself as at the beginning you can devote all your time to sales generation but when the work starts coming in how do you find the time to continue to sell? Well initially you might have to fulfill your orders outside of the mainstream office hours so you can keep them free for calls.

Traditionally sales time (for business to business sales) is considered to be 9-12 and 2-5pm. This is when your potential clients are likely to be there.

You can of course call outside of those hours and there are some advantages to doing so however if you are making a bulk of calls then those are the best hours.

As you get busy, and particularly where you are self employed or in a small organisation then some of this time is going to have to be given up. Start by reducing the afternoon’s session. Keep hold of those morning sales hours for as long as practically possible.

Going further down the road there will probably come a point where even that has to be reduced.

If you want to be successful then keep at least an hour a day to making calls regardless of your other tasks.

Cumulatively that one hour will pay you massive rewards over time.

And when you really don’t have the time; then it’s time to hire someone to do it for you!

So look at your diary, move somethings around and set up some pure sales time and watch your business grow!

Until next time; be successful

Stephen Hart

Owner, Edenchanges

With thanks, again, to the very talented team at Tigg-stock for use of their photograph. Their stock gallery is viewable here

♦♦♦

Edenchanges

Corporate trainers and coaches

Recruitment Training ♦ Sales Training ♦ Management Training ♦ NLP and Communication Training ♦ Linkedin Training ♦ Personal Development Coaching

♦♦♦

Suite A10 Riccall Business Park, Riccall ,York, YO19 6QR

Based in York working UK wide and internationally
(0)1757 249 380 ♦ enquiries@edenchanges.com ♦ www.edenchanges.com

♦♦♦

The Real Management Choice

The Real Management Choice

Chosing to be a manager is easy; chosing every day the right way to manage, now that’s hard.

Now I know that not everyone choses to be a manager. Some are put in the position by circumstance or higher authorities. I refer here to Directors and CEO’s not mystical Gods. (Even if some of them think they are). And for those people put into management it can be even harder to make the right management choices.

The burning question is often

What’s the right way to manage – hard or soft?

People tend to quite passionately fight for one side or the other and usually they use historical bosses as examples. Which is okay up to a point. The point being that often the most memorable bosses are the hard assed types who ruled through fear and domination.

People will often say

It didn’t do me any harm. It got the job done.

Typically years after they have forgotten their nightly traumas caused by an over bearing superior. Working for a tough character who gives orders all the time takes a toll on people. That’s a fact and it has to be accepted.

But hang on Stephen you might be thinking. Isn’t there a case for tough, clear direction? Absolutely there is and quite honestly it can get the job done. One of the key benefits of throwing out orders and instructions is that it is fast. A rapid management style that can work well when there is little time for debate.

Over used of course it carries the downside of crippling initiative, demoralising the staff and demanding high levels of time and energy from the manager themselves.

After all unless you know what’s going on (which takes time and energy) you can’t give those orders. Unless of course you are the type of manager that acts on half or incomplete information in which case you can give out orders but it will be luck more than judgement if it all works out. (That would also make you a really bad manager which is a topic for a future blog I think.)

So how about the softer types. The ones who ask

What do you think? What would you do?

And related questions of their workers. Well those managers have a place to. If you want to learn a new way of doing something, whether it’s flipping a burger or stategic planning then it pays to ask someone else what they would do. Especially if they do it daily.

The wonderful thing about business is that there isn’t one simple path through it all. After all sometimes other people have better answers.

At this point a whole legion of hard assed managers are cringing and shouting at the screen questions like

But what about authority and direction? By giving over decision choices to other people don’t you dilute your management position?

And those are fair questions at this point.  I don’t want to discuss delegation right now (another  topic for a future blog) but I can say that yes you can strip away your own authority if you delegate too much.

If you always ask for a vote before making a decision then you are at the mercy of the group. It’s also slow. But to balance that you will also get new ideas, new ways of doing things and motivation and engagement will be high.

So now that we have very briefly visited both sides of the management choice ~ hard on one side and soft on the other ~ do you see the real management choice?

Which style is right for this situation?

Like many really important truths it is as simple as it sounds once you hear it. Neither hard assed nor soft and caring fits all situations. Sometimes the need for speed takes precedence over people’s feelings; sometimes better to bolster morale through a discussed and united decision than to be quick. So as a manager you need to chose the right style for the situation.

And naturally there are nuances and details to all of this. When I run management courses we discuss four management states and even clever things like giving orders whilst maintaining the other parties self-respect or in other words; how to get a willing yes to a direct order.

All of that is further down the management path. What I hoped to illustrate in this article was that you don’t have to agonise over which style to pick. Be fluid and flexible given the situation and make the best choices for the situation you have to hand.

It could make you a whole new breed of manager.

Until next time; be successful

Stephen

With thanks to the very talented team at Tigg-stock for use of their photograph. Their stock gallery is viewable here

♦♦♦

Edenchanges

Corporate trainers and coaches

Recruitment Training ♦ Sales Training ♦ Management Training ♦ NLP and Communication Training ♦ Linkedin Training ♦ Personal Development Coaching

♦♦♦

Suite A10 Riccall Business Park, Riccall ,York, YO19 6QR

Based in York working UK wide and internationally
(0)1757 249 380 ♦ enquiries@edenchanges.com ♦ www.edenchanges.com

♦♦♦

Flashpoint Four – Time and Space

Time and Space

TIME

It takes time to think. That’s a biological fact.

It also takes time to process new information, evaluate options, construct a response and chose how best to deliver it.

Communication is made stronger by consciously recognising that and giving the people you are communicating with the time to construct those thoughtful responses.

In other words

Give them them time to think about  it.

I do a lot of sales training and I still come across sales professionals who have been taught to badger and pressure their customers without pause. What I have found is that the sales professionals who act like that have a high number of ratios and drop out than sales professionals that allow their customers to breath.

Personally I’d much rather see a sales professional receive a thoughtful objection than a hurried yes. Because that hurried yes can be, and usually will be, re-evaluated later (without the sales professional being there to discuss it) and then by the time the decision reaches the sales person it has so often turned into a firm no.

Thoughtful objections on the other hand give you something to discuss at the time.

SPACE

When people get excited they tend to move closer to the people they are speaking to. This adds intensity to what they say but it also puts pressure on the other person.

Make sure you give them personal space to feel comfortable in.

The more comfortable they are the more they can process what you are saying to them.

Unless of course you want to put the pressure on.

TIME AND SPACE

And sometimes that personal space is more about time than physical time.

It can be very helpful to give people time to consider their response to your communication before you demand or expect an answer.

In the sales world

• written proposals
• demonstrations
• trail runs

are all good methods to give a prospective client space and time.

At the very least expect your clients to sometimes want to consider what you have to say.

Aim to gain commitment at the time but be open to that possibility that they will want to have time and space to consider their answer.

Until next time; be successful.

Stephen Hart

Owner, Edenchanges

♦♦♦

Edenchanges

Corporate trainers and coaches

Recruitment Training ♦ Sales Training ♦ Management Training ♦ NLP and Communication Training ♦ Linkedin Training ♦ Personal Development Coaching

♦♦♦

Suite A10 Riccall Business Park, Riccall ,York, YO19 6QR

Based in York working UK wide and internationally
(0)1757 249 380 ♦ enquiries@edenchanges.com ♦ www.edenchanges.com

♦♦♦

ABIIE Your Networking Friend

A.B.I.I.E.

Your Networking Friend

Picture the scene: Two towering intellects sitting around a crowded table poring over ancient texts (books not SMS) contemplating just how to improve the knowledge of their fellow kind. In particular the challenge of networking events that hovers like a blight over many a professional person’s life.

An epiphany occurs for one of these young men, eyes ablaze with fervour and excitement he takes his gold-plated Mont Blonc and writes five letters on a virgin page. Puzzlement shows in the face of his companion, who leans forward eager to share in his companions genius.

The knowledge is shared in a moment heavy with the weight of ages…and ABIIE was born!

Okay I admit, that was just a weak attempt to make thing more exciting…what actually happened was a little more ordinary…

Charlie Coade and I were in the kitchen after a training session. I was making the tea and he was chatting about aspects of training and he said he had a great acronym for me. I pointed out that, unusually for a trainer, I’m not a big fan of them partly because they can be twee and partly because I find it quite hard to remember what the blasted things stand for.

Unperturbed Charlie shared his new creation which is a really spot on piece of advice when you are networking and it’s easy to remember:

A.B.I.I.E.

Always Be Interested In Everyone

The biggest flaw that people make when the network is that they focus on themselves and their products or offerings. Frankly no one wants to know. Not really. Certainly not at the start of the conversation. What they want you to do is ask about them. About their business, their products and their services.

Yes I know you are keen (possibly desparate) to sell your services and bring in business but what ABIIE is trying to help you do is lower the barrier of resistance so you can genuinely get a conversation going. Once a conversation is going you can bring up your services and indeed often you won’t have to do that because the other person will ask you for information!

How does it work, well consider the woman in the picture above for a second. And let ABIIE help you consider some questions:

What’s that woman’s story?

Who is she?

What does she do for a living?

How did she get to where she is in business?

Where would she like to go next?

What career challenges does she face?

What is she really, really good at in the workplace?

What types of clients does she like to work with?

What business needs or wants does she have?

And honestly the list could go on and on. And then there are similar questions for her company and it’s place in business and it’s plans etc.

So let me ask you this, if you were asked some of those questions, in an appropriate way, and the person asking really listened and responded how would you feel?

Would you consider that this person really was interested in you and genuinely wanted to get to know you and your business?

Isn’t that exactly the kind of person you’d want to do business with. And if that is the case for you then could it possible be the case for your prospective clients.

So the next time you’re at a networking event take ABIIE with you and see what doors she can help you open.

Until next time; be successful.

Stephen Hart

Owner, Edenchanges

With thanks to the very talented team at Tigg-stock for use of their photograph. Their stock gallery is viewable here

And of course to Charlie for sharing his idea – view his Linkedin profile here

♦♦♦

Open Course 30 June 2010, Leeds,  “Using Linkedin Commercially”

Details of the course available here

♦♦♦

We would be delighted to discuss your sales or other corporate training needs so call us, or email us, today to discuss:

Telephone: +44 (0)1757 249 380

Email: enquiries@edenchanges.com

Flashpoint Three – Separated by a Common Language

Separated by a Common Language

England and America are two nations separated by a common language.

George Bernard Shaw

Tomorrow evening America and England will take the pitch in South Africa in the World Cup.

National pride will be at stake, years of misunderstandings and miscommuncations will be remembered, questions like who actually won the war will be raised…and frankly that’s just in my living room.

My lovely wife is an American and whilst my Scottish blood means I’ll never call myself English, tomorrow I’ll take the sassenach’s side.

And tomorrow is a good lesson in language and communication. To start with consider for a second that there are two highly trained teams of sportsmen on the pitch who don’t even use the same name for the game!

If they were to insult each other mid match the language might turn the air blue but the shades would be very different. Hand gestures might not help either as whilst thanks to Hollywood us Brits tend to know their version ours often stumps them.

To help American readers out we use two fingers, with the hand reversed (not two fingers with the hand forward like Churchill).

Anyway the point is not how to swear and insult people in another country but rather that the differences between English and American English illustrate very nicely that to have proper and clear communication you need to have clarification and respect.

A proper respect of the fact that what what a word means to you is not going to be universally understood. That you might need to explain words – everyone in Scotland knows what a sassenach is, most in England but abroad? (Without googling it first).

And the above was a flawed paragraph (deliberately) as not ‘everyone’ in Scotland knows what a sassenach is.

So when someone uses a word in the ‘wrong’ way try to think that perhaps it’s just a ‘different’ way or when the use a word you don’t know simply ask for clarification and find common ground without judging them.

And as to how will win tomorrow, that’s easy – the team that plays the best on the day!

Until next time; enjoy the football.

Stephen

Owner, Edenchanges

Spelling Linkedin

Edenchanges has been training and coaching individuals and companies on using Linkedin for quite some time now so we thought it would be useful if we started to blog about it to.

So welcome to the first Linkedin blog from Edenchanges and onwards to ~

Love it or loath it Linkedin is here to stay. Go back five or ten years and people would query if you needed to have a website. Nowadays no one would question that. I believe that is exactly where we are with Linkedin. In five or ten years it will be universally accepted as a business tool. It isn’t the fact that 65 million business profiles now exist on the site but rather that as a business tool it works.

It is entirely possible to make money and win new clients through the right activities on Linkedin. 35% of the new business won last year by Edenchanges was as a consequence of activities or research conducted on Linkedin. As a minimum business professionals who sell to businesses should have a strong profile on Linkedin so they can be found on the site.

Intuitive interface. One of the reasons that Linkedin has soared ahead of rival business networking sites is that the interface and layout is intuitive. Certainly all the commonly used features are where you would expect to find them. What to change your profile? Go to Profile and Edit Profile. Want to see the messages you have sent Go to Inbox and Sent Items – all very logical and orderly.

And every change you make you can simply undo by re-editing so you have the luxury of playing around until you are satisfied.

So experiment and have fun!

Networking is the raison d’être for Linkedin’s existence. It enables you to locate and connect with other business professionals. It’s original emphasis, and still stated purpose, is to connect you to people you already know. The idea being that Linkedin will act as a permanent link with the other party even if they move company. Of course what people actually do is connect with potential clients and future business partners thus enabling them to be one step closer.

People often ask what the best way to start building their network is and I would recommend through connecting to the people you work with now and have worked with in the past – staying clear perhaps of those who are direct competitors of yourself! There are also tools available on Linkedin where it can send a mass number of invitations to all your email contacts.

Knowledge is in the heads of your peers. Think for a minute about what you do for a living. Whether marketing professional, human resources, sales or technician there are other people like you out there.

On Linkedin there are specialist groups for all industries. Join some of those that specialise in your area of work and learn from your peers. Ask questions (see D below) and get answer some yourself. No matter how long you have been doing what you have been doing someone else will have a new idea or way of looking at things that you haven’t considered.

For our part at Edenchanges we have learnt things by sharing information and knowledge and when in turn we have asked questions the answers are always interesting and mostly useful!

Email addresses are often closely guarded by receptionists and secretaries. Linkedin helps because once you are in the same group as another individual you are able to send them a message directly.  (About 2% of the time this won’t work because of the other persons contact settings).

Now the default setting on Linkedin is for an email to be sent to the individuals registered email address copying them in with details of any messages received into their Linkedin inbox. So effectively you have two chances of that person seeing your message and you don’t even need their email address to do it!

Discussions are at the heart of Linkedin. They can also be the bane of Linkedin. They occur in groups and can be on any topic that is permitted by the individual group. They tend to be business focused and some can be very enlightening.

One thing to be careful off is that the default setting on Linkedin is that for any discussion in which you post a comment you will get follow on emails notifying you of any additional comments placed by other people.

This is a blessing and a curse. If you comment on ten discussions a week and each of those receives five new comments you are looking at 50 emails coming through to your inbox. So only follow those that you are particularly interested in.

When you are replying to the discussion the follow option is turned off via a tick box right at the bottom of the screen on which the discussion is taking place. Note you can read discussions without receiving emails. You only have to consider the follow on comments once you get directly involved.

Involvement brings rewards. Linkedin takes time to do properly because to get the most rewards from it you need to spend regular time during a week to mine it for contacts, leads and information.

The question is of course one of return on investment. And like any form of marketing (which ultimately Linkedin is) the question of measuring the returns can be tough. I like to keep things simple and measure the money generated.

The other benefits; learning more about my specialities, conversations with senior, experienced people and invitations to events and to guest blog elsewhere are all more intangile. So yes keep an eye on the money generated whilst remembering it is about more than simply the chink of coins.

Networking; so important I’ll mention it twice! There are few activities that frighten most business people quite as much as a networking event. It would seem that some of that fear has carried over onto Linkedin. So take a deep breath and relax.

It’s a business networking site so do what you should do in those meetings and go round and start conversations, enter discussions and generally mingle.

Need some help? Well there are hundreds of articles online and a help section on Linkedin itself. Edenchanges would of course be delighted to have you attend one of our Linkedin training courses or talk to you about our one on one coaching which can be done on the phone as well as in person. Our fees start at less than you’d expect!

And if you’d like to connect with me, (Stephen Hart, Owner of Edenchanges) then you can find my profile at http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stephenlhart and if you need an email address for the invitation then stephen.hart@edenchanges.com will do just fine. Good luck with Linkedin and let me know if you’d like some help with it.

Until next time; be successful.

Stephen Hart

Owner, Edenchanges

With thanks to the very talented team at Tigg-stock for use of their light letters. Their stock gallery is viewable here

♦♦♦

Open Course 30 June 2010, Leeds,  “Using Linkedin Commercially”

Details of the course available here

♦♦♦

We would be delighted to discuss your sales or other corporate training needs so call us, or email us, today to discuss:

Telephone: +44 (0)1757 249 380

Email: enquiries@edenchanges.com