Difficult Decisions

Sometimes we get stuck with a difficult decision and wrestle with it in our mind. However, if you stop think about it, when you are confronted with a hard choice it is probably because the alternatives are almost equally as good. The more difficult the decision, the less it matters what you choose.

The Nail Down Technique

In sales or whenever you are in the process of persuasion, the use of the nail-down technique is very powerful. You first explain the benefit to the other party and secondly ask a question about that benefit. "The benefit of what I am suggesting is that ... (insert benefit) and I think this is of great importance to you. Wouldn't you agree?" Once they agree on the benefit it is difficult to say no to the solution you are proposing.

Pen, Paper, Question

When you have an issue you can't get your head around, use a pen, a paper and a question. Some people refer to this as the PPQ-technique. Pose yourself a question about the topic, write the question down on a piece of paper and come up with as many answers you can possibly come to think about. Serious questions make you do some serious thinking.

Guard Your Self Image

It recently occurred to me that much of how we express ourselves emancipate from our self image. If we feel secure we will act securely, if we feel optimistic we will act optimistically and so on. From this observation follows that one of the corner stones to your success is to develop and guard your self image and your self esteem. Guard your heart, for out of it flows the issues of life.

Bounce Back Factor

You never lose until you decide to quit. Successful people recover quickly. They have what we might call a bounce back factor. They know that a setback is a setup for a comeback. You can too once you decide to view setbacks as temporary rather than permanent roadblocks on your way to success. Armed with this perspective you will bounce back faster.

Tone Of Voice In Communication

When understanding communication we often talk about body language playing a major part (55%), inflection - how we say things (38%) and language - what we say, account for only 7% of the content. On the telephone, when we exclude visual cues from body language, this shifts to 90% inflection or tone of voice and 10% language. If you spend a lot of time on the phone (as most of us do) it pays to pay attention to your inflection.

Quality Questions

Our answers stand in exact proportion to the questions we ask of ourselves and others. To come up with great answers we need to learn to ask great questions. Use open questions with the words "when, where, how, who, what, why" more often. The quality of your questions determine the quality of the answers. To grow your understanding to a higher level you have to start asking higher level questions.