Practical tips. Prompts to get you thinking. The odd rant.

  In his best-selling book, ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’, Professor Robert Cialdini sets out six ways to influence others: Liking Reciprocity Social proof Commitment and consistency Scarcity Authority Based on participants’ questions in my workshops on topics such as presentations, communication or – surprise – influencing and persuading*, the last of the six can… Read more

  I’ve encountered many people who cringe at the very thought of having to sell as part of their job. Once upon a time that included me too. Work on long-term clients? Fine. But actually sell as part of the interaction, or have sales conversations with prospective clients? Rather run a mile or even ten…. Read more

  Right at the start of Zoomly’s ‘How to influence and persuade’ workshop, we discuss the importance of influencing for mutual benefit. If that’s your goal, chances are you won’t sink to using manipulation, which is a concern people naturally have about this topic. The simple way to decide if someone’s influencing or manipulating is… Read more

Something that I cover in ‘How to influence and persuade’ is taking the time and effort to understand how people take in information and then decide. Most of us have a preference for either the big picture or the detail. So, there are some of us who just ‘want the headline’ or the top 3… Read more

Often when I’m facilitating a workshop, particularly on topics that cover leadership, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and our mental wellbeing, the subject of emotions comes up. Yet when I ask people to shout out some words for emotions, after ‘Happy’, ‘Angry’ and ‘Sad’ they can soon run out of ideas (often, but not always, the Brits… Read more

  This question frequently comes up in workshops about influencing, persuading and negotiating: “Surely a compromise IS a win:win – right?” Erm, not really – although at first glance, it may appear to be. However, the difference is important, whether you’re negotiating B2B with multiple stakeholders, agreeing terms on your new job contract or deciding… Read more

People often ask me questions after training workshops (whether F2F or virtual). They didn’t feel comfortable voicing them in front of the group for a whole host of reasons (their boss was there, they didn’t want to show themselves up, they wanted to get some specific advice from someone outside their organisation, to name just… Read more

Some of us find we’re much more productive working from home, using tech tools to communicate virtually. The rest of us find it harder to deflect or deal with distractions and stay focussed to get the job done. Some people find that, despite the use of email, video calls and chat channels, communication suffers. This… Read more

Participants in Zoomly’s workshops often hang back to ask me questions at the end, and I feel privileged to be asked.  The ‘How to manage upwards’ session is typical. I’ll always do what I can to help. Yet I’m acutely aware that I don’t work there and I’m not their manager. But I try to… Read more

Here’s a post from the vault that I hope will help you if you’re new to remote working. More and more of us are working remotely; some of us some of the time, some of us all of the time. There are pros and cons… What’s great about working remotely? Many of us can now… Read more