Author: Nadia Bilchik

Lighting the F.I.R.E for Successful Communication

F- Feeling good about yourself

Honore De Balzac said: “There is no greater impediment to getting on well with other people, than being ill at ease with yourself.” We live in a world of enormous stress and challenge and all too often, we forget the power of exuding positive energy as a way of attracting business. And sometimes it is easier to act your way to feeling better than to feel your way to acting better.

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First Impressions

Have you ever watched 2 young children meet each other for the first time? They are usually introduced, look each other warily up and down for a few seconds and then one says something like “Do you want to go and play on the trampoline?” Sometimes prompted or not it is off they go. Give them exactly 3 minutes and they are chatting and playing away, and within the hour they have become firm friends.

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The Verbal and Non-Verbal Elements of Speaking for Success

I am writing this while sitting at the O’Hare Chicago airport.

I have just completed a double session with a group of extraordinary, motivated AD Sales professionals.

The focus of the day was Maximizing Presentation Impact and Networking for Success or as I like to say Building Relationships for Career Success.

We started the day focusing on the qualities that make great speakers.
If you really analyze it,

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Could you just listen?

Could you just listen?

When I ask you to listen to you and me start giving me advice,

You have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me

Why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem,

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The Four Agreements

The Four Agreements

by Don Miguel Ruiz

Be Impeccable with your word
Speak with integrity.
Say only what you mean.
Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.

Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality.

Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.

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Some thought on factual meetings; across the desk or one-to-one presentations.

  • Decide on your objective before the session. As the passage from Alice in Wonderland goes:

“If you don’t know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter where you are right now, or what route you take!”

If, however, you have pre-thought and planned, chances are you’ll get to at least the neighborhood of your strategic objective.”

  • Never stand up, walk in or “listen” with your name in neutral.

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