Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

Everyone has heard that the majority of our communication is nonverbal. Whether it's 60%, 70%, or 90% -- it really does not matter.  Just know that more of your communication is nonverbal than verbal- even if you are one of the most talkative people on the planet.  Unless you are very self-aware of how you are perceived in meetings or presentations, it's hard to recognize the type of vibe that you are communicating. And I would probably say that the majority of us are probably too self-involved to even recognize other people's nonverbal cues when we are in a business setting. After all, we are all worried about what other people think of us.  This means that we're focusing on direct eye contact,  our posture, our voice inflection, and whatever other presentation advice we've been given by outside help -- if we've been bold enough to get outside help. If you have not received outside help or are embarrassed to, yet you want to be an effective...

I am terrible at remembering jokes.  The only ones I can remotely remember are "knock knock" jokes.  There is also a joke that one of my co-workers told me about a lion marching through the jungle and running into an elephant. But other than that, I'm terrible at remembering jokes. What I've tried to get better at is an ability to tell stories-- which requires remembering experiences. I can tell you that remembering experiences is a little easier for me than remembering jokes - but not much. For those of you that read my blog posts (thank you), blogging has really helped me go back in time for some memories. As a result, I think that my ability to communicate in any business setting has improved.  The reason is that I can now relate my experiences to an issue, discussion, or problem that a client may have.  Stories are how we naturally communicate and remember important things. It's no wonder that status reports, scorecards, and dissertation emails ...

A book that I listened to recently was How to Pitch Anything , by Oren Klaff. As you move up through the ranks of any business, what you'll realize is that leadership and management effectiveness becomes less about what you know and more about how you deal with people. Consider this common scenario: You have a boss that's been around for many, many, years that's grown up through the system and still operates in a world of 20 years ago. He is unopen to new ideas and invokes behaviors and an attitude that is all about maintaining the status quo. Because you bring a new and fresh perspective, you get more and more frustrated as he continues to dismiss your point of view. An epiphany that you'll have along the way of your career is that people are irrational. Data, logic, logical structuring, fact-based messaging -- that's all bullsh*t unless you can get through the croc brain of your target audience or executive.  The croc brain is that part of the...