Tag Archives: Forbes

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics, team roles, work plans

The Importance of Trust and How To Build it

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Often in our workplace we think of our success as being dependent upon our skills and ability to perform in a timely manner. I thought the same until I stumbled upon this article and it really changed my frame of mind. Honestly, now that I think about it, before my performance and skills even come into play, it is someone endowing trust upon me to even utilize my skills.

In undergrad I was taught that business is a system of integrated relationships of skilled people that are working to achieve personal and organizational goals. As this article points out, trust is at the center of every relationship.

I, like many of you, am constantly working on a project teams and in some cases, managing a project team. The author of the article Roger Dean Duncan states that “With high trust, teamwork is more of a reality than a hollow buzzword. Innovation is vibrant. Productivity tends to be strong and is typically more sustainable.”

This article begins by discussing what it really means to have trust. Later in the article Duncan begins to have a conversational interview with Barbara Brooks Kimmel, the executive director of Trust Across America. In the conversation Kimmel mentions a model that can be used to facilitate the earning of trust. She calls it the VIP Trust Model™.

Below are the attributes of the model to gain trust:

Vision and Values

Integrity

Promises

See article below for the full conversation on trust and how to use the VIP Trust Model.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rodgerdeanduncan/2014/07/14/how-do-you-build-trust-in-a-trust-deficient-world/

07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation

The Silent Story: Striking a Power Pose

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Stories, sales pitches, and every other form of communication rely heavily on word selection, but there is another key ingredient in the recipe: body language.  Our subconscious relies on more than just a string of words to interpret the meaning and depth of a story.  We also use body language to determine the credibility of the speaker.  The interesting thing about body language is that it has a similar effect on both the speaker and the audience.  An article published by the Wall Street Journal says that striking a powerful pose actually changes a person’s hormones and behavior, giving the perception of real power.  The power pose can be practiced before a meeting to start elevating the hormones conducive to a better performance and more confidence.

Professor Amy Cuddy of Harvard University presented a TED talk  titled “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are” in which she elaborated on her research regarding the impact of the power pose.   In one experiment that she conducted, individuals were asked to assume either a low power pose or a high power pose for 2 minutes.  The results showed that after just 2 minutes, there was a change in the hormones testosterone and cortisol, giving the high power posing individuals a higher tolerance for risk and the low power posing individuals a lower tolerance for risk.

So what exactly is a power pose?  According to Forbes magazine, a power pose can be as simple as standing with arms out, hands on hips, and legs spread open.  The victory arm-pumping in the air is another example.  Although very informal, sitting back in a chair with legs propped on a desk and arms folded behind the shoulders is a classic power pose.  Basically, the act of expanding the body can create a power pose that triggers the brain to think bigger too.

There is a proper time to strike a power pose, whether privately in a bathroom or publicly in front of an audience.  The mindset that is achieved through behavior is one of the most powerful tools that can be utilized in communication.  Your business pitch might just depend on that extra little bump in hormones.

07c-Telling stories

Elements of a Story

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Stories are the fiber of what holds everything together. Stories can be personal or they can be professional. The elements that make a story great remain consistent, but the emphasis on different elements of a story may shift. When you go home at Thanksgiving, your grandfather wants to hear all of the details of your new job, but when you face an executive review board at work, you need to keep your words to their most effective minimum. This is the difference of when emphasis shifts. Knowing the give and take of a good story is where the art exists. And that is where practice makes perfect.

1.     The Audience: Knowing your audience is one of the biggest keys to a good story. By knowing the expectations and world view of your audience, everyone is on the same team. When your story resonates with the audience’s belief system, this is when stories are spread. (Remember, you are resonating with an existing world view, not trying to bully pulpit the audience to think the way that you do.)

2.     Clarity: Details are important, but not at the expense of your main point. Make sure that the main point of what you are saying is not lost in all of your attention to the telling of the story. The reason you are telling the story is to evoke a response—inspire, motivate, create urgency, give warning. Make that happen by always returning to the main point.

3.     Credibility: This goes back to the audience element. If you cannot evoke trust, you aren’t just telling a story, you are telling a lie (which ironically some people call a story). Be authentic and maintain the trust of the audience. Don’t contradict the belief system that your story appears to espouse. Be authentic and win friends.

4.    Brevity: A simple story is more successful than a complicated one. Understatement carries a big impact. Maintain a cadence and progression in the story.

5.     Add Context: Appeal to the senses, not to logic: descriptive language makes you feel like you are there and relates to the audience. A Forbes article published in 2013 states that 80% of what we hear is gone within 24 hours, and a story makes information sharing more memorable.

6.     Create tension: Any time that you want to connect with an audience, you have to create some form of interaction. Ask a probing question to make them think (bonus: require that someone in the audience responds). Tension makes the audience wrestle. Make the audience feel invested.

7.     It never hurts to add humor: As Mark Twain says, “The humorous story is strictly a work of art—high and delicate art—and only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling a humorous story—understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print—was created in America, and has remained at home.”

The final element of a good story is practice. As much as we would like to think that storytelling off the cuff will come easy, the best story tellers will attest that practice makes perfect. Given the value of a story, mastering this art is worth it.