Speaker - November 2011

Listen

Seek Mentors

NSA members are known for their generosity. They give their time, advice and concern. You can save yourself money and heartache by learning from others who have traveled the road you are starting.

Several considerations when select-
ing a mentor include:
First, seek references. Talk to people
he/she has mentored. Identify the end
results of the relationship.

Second, do a gut check. Ask yourself, “What does my intuition tell me about this person?” Sometimes people who are in mentoring roles, such as supervisors or teachers, are threatened by your excellence and may sabotage your success. If you sense this, move away, fast. These people can do serious damage to your self-esteem and to your achieving your vision.

Third, create a support group or a mastermind group to encourage you in your new direction. A mastermind group can be helpful especially if you have not found a mentor. Members can share their new ideas and they can give you feedback on your plans.

Fourth, become your own cheering
squad, if you can’t create a mastermind.
By using positive self-talk, you can help
counteract those yakking little “devils.”
Finally, mentor others. As you
acquire knowledge and skills about
being successful, share them.

If you have a skilled and caring mentor, listen to this person. We often say that as speakers we tend to speak more and better than we listen. This can be said of most people. Have you witnessed conversations in which people answer questions that weren’t asked, ignore data and feelings that were given, and cut off each other mid-sentence?

Especially listen to clients. They will tell you how you can please them, how they will give you tons of money and lots of speaking engagements. They will tell you how to expand your topics and your business.

You must be able to do two things to
develop excellent listening skills. First,
listen to the actual words spoken, and
second, listen for the implied meaning
including the context in which they are
used. All of this must be done without
thinking about your response before
the speaker has completed speaking.

Embrace Change

Many outstanding corporations at the
height of their success realize that to
stay on top, they had to change what
made them successful. Former Toyota
president Iwao Isomura stated its
motto: “Our current success is the best
reason to change things.”
The business strategies and marketing
that made you successful in the 1990s
may not work today. It’s time to change.

The message in the movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, is powerful. As an arrogant television weatherman, Murray experiences an alternate universe in which every morning he awakens to the same day he experienced the previous day. Quickly, he realizes that as much as he kicks, screams, complains and moans about change, the only thing worse than change would be no change.