Tricks or Treats? Which
Do You Offer Your Colleagues and Coworkers?

As I finished my meal in a restaurant in Orlando, my waitress, Sherry, offered to get me a piece of pie for dessert.I declined but decided get a chocolate chip cookie “to go”. When the waitress returned with my chocolate chip cookie in a cute little bag, she carefully handed it to me with these words, “I have personally checked every inch of this cookie and you will have at least two chocolate chips in every bite.” I smiled with admiration at her customer care techniques and gave her a generous tip.

Sherry was efficient, friendly and kept my water glass filled. She smiled and made me feel as if I was her only customer as she ran the extra mile to make my dining experience exceptional.

Samuel Butler, an English writer who was born in 1835 and died in 1902 said, “Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music, or pictures, or architecture is always a portrait of himself.”

by Karla Brandau, CSP

Emerson said: "Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel." If you want your words to have the power to compel, however, you must first understand the person's mental and emotional state.

A sonar system on a submarine can "see" things in the ocean the sailors can't physically see themselves.
Your personal sonar of attentiveness can also "see" more than just the words in conversations.

The good Lord gave you two ears andone mouth for a good reason when managing your employees. When you are conducting performance reviews, soliciting feedback, or looking for creative ideas from employees, use your two ears. Let the employees do 80% of the talking and you will learn not only what needs improving and what they don’t know or understand but more importantly, you’ll get fresh ideas on ‘why’ and ‘how’.

by Karla Brandau, CSP

Influence!

Everybody wants more of it. People respect you when you have it.

Marvelous things occur when it is used properly. You get more of what you personally want or need. Teams and projects move forward and causes are advanced.

As with most wants and desires in life, the doors you open with influence depend on your people skills.

by Karla Brandau, CSP

So I wasn't the only one bothered by "others." At this time, I was working on a team assigned the redesign of departmental workflow. My teammates were irritating me and I decided to chat with my manager about our problems. 

After I explained the dynamics in the group, he looked over his glasses at me and said, "After employees have basic organizational training, have updated technical skills, and are supplied adequate equipment, money should be spent on people skills."

by Karla Brandau, CSP

A story is told of an aged Japanese philosopher who spent many days in the woods and hills near his village studying the laws of nature. Upon returning to his village in the evenings, he taught others what he had learned.

One morning as he prepared to leave the village, a friend asked him to bring him a hawthorne twig so that he might study the lesson the philosopher had given about that tree. Another friend asked the philosopher to bring him a rose so that he might study its beauty according to another lesson the philosopher had taught. A third friend asked the philosopher to bring him a lily so that he might study the lesson of purity that the learned man had given.

by Karla Brandau, CSP

If you want to raise your perceived value to your employer and become a person of influence in your organization, think solutions, not excuses.

Douglas Ivester, former CEO of Coca-Cola taught me this powerful lesson as he stood in front of a group of executives and said, “Bring me solutions, not excuses.”

Mr. Ivester, a formidable opponent who admittedly loves hand-to-hand combat, had stimulated the engineers at Coca-Cola to produce the first bottle that had curves melted in the shape. The problem came in the Birmingham plant when the very appealing, snazzy new bottle would not flow down the production line.

by Karla Brandau, CSP

"Charisma is the intangible that makes people want to follow you, to be around you, to be influenced by you."

Each person is born ethnocentric, or believing that other people and events revolve around them which is generally true for the first few years of a child's life. The focus of activity for a growing child is inward. Some people carry this inward, self-focus into adulthood. These people, so overly concerned with their own well being in a self-centered way, never learn the secrets of influence. Successful people, who want to have the power of persuasion, turn their circle of activity and interest outward.

by Karla Brandau, CSP

According to Dr. Robert Sternberg, professor of psychology at Yale University, "street smarts" is a far better predictor of managerial success than academic performance. His theory of intelligence goes beyond the traditional notion of I.Q. as he purports there are three facets to intelligence:

• Abstract intelligence-the ability to analyze, deduce, and think logically
• Experiential intelligence-the ability to creatively combine different experiences to solve a problem
• Contextual intelligence-the ability to use one's environment to play the game.