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Newsletter | Spring 2009 • Volume 17 • Issue 1

No road is long with good company.
- Turkish Proverb

Dear Readers,

We are extremely excited as we enter our 20th year in business to include you as a valued friend of the company.

Not only are we entering our 20th year but, as you know, we have changed our name to The Insight Communication Group. We feel this name more closely represents the value we bring to our clients while enabling us to continue to help you meet the challenges of this uncertain economic market.

Our theme for providing value: help our clients develop Awareness of how they come across to others, enabling them to take Action to tailor their communication. Tailoring their communication allows them to be more effective in their interactions and gain an Advantage.

Awareness. Action. Advantage.

This issue of our newsletter is full of tips on how to take Action by establishing relationships. We’ve compiled hints from a variety of clients who have proven themselves to be outstanding in the building relationships department. We hope you will find some that will work for you.

Finally, no introduction to our 20th year would be complete without a heartfelt Thank You to Dennis Hamilton who has served as our newsletter editor for the past five years. Dennis has brought new ideas and much enthusiasm to the job. I know you have appreciated his efforts.

We look forward to hearing from you and working with you as we move forward.

Sincerely,

Pat Smith-Pierce
CEO and Founder

NETWORKING THOUGHTS

Dennis Hamilton
Consultant
The Insight Communications Group

It's no secret – the economy is swirling around the drain right now. Companies are going out of business and layoffs continue to occur at uncomfortable rates. While most of us not only want to remain employed, we also would probably like to remain employed at our current company. We're like sailors on a good ship – we want to stay onboard, but it's really foolish not to learn how to swim.

Part of being able to "swim" in an uncertain situation is having lots of good contacts in case we get swept overboard, and that means networking. Regardless of the Internet job sites and postings, practically every major outplacement firm and career consultant says that networking is still the best way to find a job.

Depending on what study you read, approximately 75% of jobs obtained are through your contacts. And according to one major outplacement firm, about 80% of that 75% are contacts you did not have when you started your job search. That means you have to talk to a lot of people and get referrals.

Easy to say – hard to do. The main difficulty is just getting started. It's hard to pick up that phone and ask a friend for help. It's harder still to make a cold call to a referral from your friend. Do it anyway. I've found that once you get the process started, it takes on a life of its own, like a snowball rolling the down the hill.

Ideally, your networking contacts should be in place before you need them. Networking is more than collecting business cards or being registered with LinkedIn. Network contacts are about relationships, and it takes time to build relationships. You need to connect with people with similar values and outlooks so that you can find a position that not only suits you financially, but also does not conflict with your fundamental beliefs.

I know people who brag that they have over 100 contacts on LinkedIn or similar sites. That's nice. What do you do with them? How do you use them to your advantage? How do you help them? How do you maintain contact? Having 100+ "electronic business cards" on LinkedIn and not cultivating them is the same as having hundreds of business cards gathering dust in your desk. It doesn't pass the "So what?" test.

So, look at people at work and outside of work as possible networking contacts. Get to know them, what they're made of, what their outlooks are and what their areas of expertise are. Do it in the normal course of business in the office, or over coffee or lunch.

Allow the relationship to develop naturally and see what happens. The worst-case scenario is that they may not be able to help you professionally, but you may find a new friend. What's wrong with that?

The more quality contacts you have, the better advantage you will have if you get swept overboard.

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

Patricia Smith-Pierce
CEO and Founder
The Insight Communication Group

In the present economy, every business and every employee needs to work extra hard to build relationships. This includes maintaining relationships with current clients to keep them as well as building new relationships with potential clients to expand business.

The first step in building any relationship is breaking down barriers that might exist between you and the other person.

Knowing what interests another person and communicating with them about those interests is one of the best ways to break down barriers and begin building relationships. Joyce Watts, formerly with Clark Poynton, always recommended looking around a person’s office to see what kind of pictures he or she had as well as other hints as to the person’s interests.

As a dog lover, if I see pictures of a person’s dog, I inevitably begin the conversation talking about dogs. Not only will the other person open up about their dog(s) but that gives me the opportunity to “share back” by talking about mine. The next time I see the person, I have an automatic opener.

One of my other clients loves restoring automobiles. He has an office filled with pictures of cars he has restored as well as models of some and awards he has won. What a great way to let a person know you care about them simply by talking about their hobby!

If you don’t have the opportunity to meet in a person’s office, asking questions allows you to have the same effect. Something as simple as “How did you get to be (fill in the title)” gives the other person the opportunity to brag while telling you about him or herself. Everyone likes to talk about themselves, especially when they can make themselves look good.

These simple techniques offer a good way to break down barriers between you and a client/potential client so you can begin to establish a long-term relationship. In this economy, that can make a big difference!

SEEING WITH DIFFERENT EYES

Dennis Hamilton
Consultant
The Insight Communication Group

What influences what we say and what we do when trying to communicate?

Communication is generally thought of as a combination of the words we use (verbal) and the way we sound or appear (nonverbal characteristics), with the majority of the impressions we make being based on the nonverbal actions.

However, often our perception or understanding of a person or situation can have a strong effect on how we react. What if our perception or understanding is incomplete? Or wrong? Then we speak or act incorrectly and any connection we hoped to make is severely sabotaged.

So how do we fix that? Look at the world with different eyes. How do you look with different eyes? Let's try an analogy first. Take National Geographic photographers as an example. Everyone can agree that the photographs in that magazine are superb from a technical aspect and often are creative.

Being a casual photographer I have often wondered how they do that. I see the same things they do. Why aren't my photos like theirs? It dawned on me one time that often what they do is take a common scene and look at it from a different angle. It might be near instead of far. It might be looking up instead of down. It might be sideways instead on straight on.

Maybe to understand another person's situation, it would be good to "become" that person. Imagine yourself suddenly leaving home for some reason, moving halfway around the world and being dropped into another country where you don't speak the language, are unfamiliar with customs, and the climate is completely different.

You can't get a professional job like the one you left because you don't speak the language, and so you have to do manual labor for a fraction of your salary. You're working 16-hour days so there is no time to go to class to learn the language. Not an easy situation, is it?

Let's try another scenario. Everyone puts the burden on a supervisor to be the one to create a team. That person absolutely has a tremendous responsibility to do that in addition to everything else he or she must do. But team members are usually not aware of the pressures and challenges that a supervisor faces and may not even agree with.

Perhaps they should look at their world through the eyes of the boss once in a while. While the bosses should remember where they came from and that they weren't born into the position, team members also have responsibilities to the team and shouldn't just sit back and wait for the boss to do the heavy lifting.

The lesson here is to look at the scene, situation or problem from a different angle like the National Geographic photographers. You will gain a new perspective, understanding or insight into a common situation and that will influence your choice of words and actions.

Past Issues

December 2008 Announcement

If you'd like to request a previous newsletter, please contact us.

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