Open Communication Unlocks the Best Out of Your Team

Communication is part of your Social Skills- a component of your Social Competence.

While Social Skills, in general, are related to your adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others -Communication relates to your ability to listen openly and sending convincing messages.

People who have this competence usually:

•    Are effective in giving and taking
•    Register emotional cues, by attuning their message and response.
•    Deal with difficult issues straightforwardly
•    Listen well and seek mutual understanding.
•    Welcome sharing of information in a full and clear manner.
•    Foster open communication and stay receptive to bad news as well as good ones.

On a business level, it is of utmost importance to have an open and honest channel of communication -  otherwise, you might always ask yourself: "are they telling me only what they want me to hear instead of what I need to know?"

In business, creating an atmosphere of open and honest communication, allows brilliant ideas to flourish - it unlocks the value and potential of employees and everyone involved within an organization. When you communicate openly, you open the possibility of getting the best out of people; their energy, their creativity.

Acknowledgement of accomplishments is also another important part of communication - communicating with positive emotion and rewarding success; on the other hand keeping cool and composed when results are not as expected.

For more information on our Custom Software Solutions and Consulting Services , please visit www.isucorp.ca

Why Some Startups Fail

There are a million ways to keep your company alive, but there are billions of ways to kill it. One of them is narrowing your market to dominate just that tiny part of it and calling it a great success. Of course, it is a success, but you're limiting yourself to the atom-sized portion of that market.

We all want to be successful. Those of us who have businesses and companies hope for victory in our ventures. And why wouldn’t we? Try to imagine someone thinking, “I think I’ll invent a new product and hope that it fails miserably”. That just seems ridiculous. However, in our excitement and hard work, we tend to do certain things that amplify the reality of our success, thus causing it to fail.

For example, have you ever found yourself with something you think is a really good idea? Let’s say you want to make really neat buttons. Bear with me here; it’s just an example. There are already tons of button manufacturing companies out there. This is made clear to you, but you think, “Oh, but my buttons won’t be like any other buttons. I’m going to make odd coloured ones with cool designs that no one will be able to find anywhere else”. Ok, great, but consider this: is there someone that would even want to buy these slightly unusual buttons? Maybe the reason why no one sees fancy buttons everywhere is because not a lot of people are interested in them. You’re trying to do something that’s already been done a thousand times over, but you think it’ll be successful because you change one thing about the idea.

You have to avoid blinding yourself to the reality of competition. Small minor differences in your ideas won’t take you far enough to make your business as successful as it could be. Differences have to be large and attractive. You have to have leverage on your competition by having something new and exciting to offer. Keep your eyes open to the possibilities, but be objective about your own ideas, too.

Impression Management, the Emotional Side of Leadership

Influence is part of your Social Skills- a component of your Social Competence.

While Social Skills, in general, is related to your adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others -Influence relates to your ability to wield effective tactics for persuasion.

People who have this competence usually:

•     Are skilled at winning people over.
•     Fine-tune presentations to win people over.
•     Anticipate their audience reaction to a message
•     Use complex strategies like indirect influence to build consensus and support
•     Manage events to effectively make a point.
•     Are strong at building rapport and solid relationships.

Influence is managed not only with logical arguments but also on an emotional level - known as impression management.  A top performer will usually have solid arguments and actions and will build behind-the-scenes support

Empathy is crucial for wielding influence, you can only have a positive impact on others if you sense how they feel and understand their position and their perspective.

For more information on our Custom Software Soltions and Consulting Services , please visit www.isucorp.ca