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Articles from Joan Curtis | Selfgrowth.com
- Tips to Create a LinkedIn Profile that Generates Leads - by Submitted on Sep 07, 2010 from Joan CurtisHave you wondered about what LinkedIn can do for you as a powerful lead generator? One of the most important things you need to do is create a profile that will entice people to your services or products. A boring, resume-looking profile will not do the trick. Furthermore, your profile must ...
Views: 1370 - Social Savvy Means Time Management - by Submitted on Sep 07, 2010 from Joan CurtisHow can you budget for social media time? People keep asking me how they can add social media to their already packed daily schedule. They fear that employees will be using their work time to Tweet about personal things or to talk to their friends on Facebook. One of the biggest complaints I ...
Views: 1782 - What's Our Universal Language? - by Submitted on May 09, 2010 from Joan CurtisWhat is our universal language? By universal I mean, the language we all understand. By we, I mean not just the human species but also the animal species. Let's imagine for a moment what goes through our dog's head when we speak in a commanding voice. The command in our voice communicates a ...
Views: 2384 - How to Deal with Our Changing World - by Submitted on May 18, 2010 from Joan CurtisWhy are we so resistant to change? As I loaded up my dogs this morning to take them to the vet for their annual physicals, I wondered why they were panting their heads off and their bodies were shaking from head to foot. Dogs, like people, are accustomed to routine. When I loaded them in the ...
Views: 1881 - How to Go Public and Stay Private - by Submitted on May 18, 2010 from Joan CurtisHow can you use the social media and still maintain your privacy? This is a question we hear over and over from our clients. They tell us they do not want others to know what they like to do in their off time. They do not want others to know about their personal lives. At the same time, ...
Views: 1385 - How to Use the Social Media and Save Time - by Submitted on May 18, 2010 from Joan CurtisOne of the most common complaints we hear from our clients about the social media is that it eats up time. They fear that once their employees get on the sites, they will no longer have time to do their jobs. I remember hearing this same complaint about allowing employee access to the ...
Views: 1215 - How to Sell and Never Leave Your Desk - by Submitted on May 18, 2010 from Joan CurtisDon’t you wish you could do your job and not have to travel all over the country or world? Don’t you wish you could let people know about your products and services without going to endless networking meetings? Believe it or not with the right use of the social media you can do just that. ...
Views: 1200 - When Anger Gets The Best of Us - by Submitted on Mar 08, 2010 from Joan CurtisHow do you express your anger? I once had a woman in one of my workshops who said, “I never get angry.” Can you imagine that? How can we go through life and never feel anger. Anger is a part of the passion of living. There is nothing wrong with anger. What is wrong is when we pass our ...
Views: 1863(3 votes) - Facebook vs. LinkedIn in Business - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2010 from Joan CurtisWhat is the value of LinkedIn over Facebook in business? Is there a difference? When do you use one or the other or both? In writing our book, The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media, Barb Giamanco and I discovered that some businesses prefer LinkedIn; some prefer Facebook and some use ...
Views: 1911 - How to Tell People Things They Don't Want to Hear - by Submitted on Jan 24, 2010 from Joan CurtisWhenever we face a communication dilemma, whether we must tell our aging parents that they can no longer live independently or tell our best friend that her clothes do not suit her, we agonize over what to do. How do we tell people things they do not wish to hear? These kind of communication ...
Views: 14532 - Facebook vs. Twitter in Business - by Submitted on Dec 31, 2009 from Joan CurtisWhat is the value of Facebook over Twitter? Is there a difference? When do you use one or the other or both? In writing our book, The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media, Barb Giamanco and I discovered that some businesses prefer Facebook; some prefer Twitter and some use neither. We ...
Views: 1683(2 votes) - Management and Leadership: A Continuum of Teach and Release - by Submitted on Dec 31, 2009 from Joan CurtisFor years I’ve studied management and leadership theories. Everyone says basically the same thing. Managers manage and leaders lead. Everyone wants to do the same thing— lead and not manage. In thinking about this conundrum while talking with an executive client, it occurred to me ...
Views: 1912(1 vote) - Etiquette Tips for the Business Interview - by Submitted on Dec 03, 2009 from Joan CurtisHow are we supposed to behave during an interview? Most of us know not to eat with food in our mouths or to give an interviewer a résumé with typos. But, what are some other etiquette tips that might guide us through the interview process? If we assume that you know the givens: Report to ...
Views: 1092(1 vote) - Conversations: When to Hold 'Em and When to Fold 'Em - by Submitted on Dec 03, 2009 from Joan CurtisHow many of us have walked into a room full of people and wanted to turn around and leave? When I think about networking events, my heart freezes. Didn’t our mothers teach us not to speak to strangers? Yet, in this article we're going to examine how to talk to strangers. First thing you need ...
Views: 1545(2 votes) - Business Etiquette: What in the World Should I Do? - by Submitted on Dec 03, 2009 from Joan CurtisLast week I taught a class on Business Etiquette. My class consisted of people ranging in ages from the mid 20’s to the early 50’s. I noticed a definite gap in how people identified “correct” behavior. The younger people seemed more relaxed with the rules. Webster’s defines etiquette as ...
Views: 1428(1 vote) - Becoming the Best Listener You Can Be - by Submitted on Dec 03, 2009 from Joan CurtisDid you know there are Six Messages in any conversation? • What you Mean to say • What you Actually say • What the other person Hears • What the other person Thinks he/she hears • What the other person Says • What you Think the other person says No wonder we have communication ...
Views: 2700(1 vote) - Sticky Situations in the Classroom - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2009 from Joan CurtisFall is in the air and the school doors are about to open. For many this year offers some unique challenges. Many schools are facing budget cuts and some personnel cuts. These reductions place greater pressure on the people who remain. As demands increase but resources shrink, we face a ...
Views: 1500(1 vote) - The Fear of Saying It Just Right - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2009 from Joan CurtisWhat are we afraid of? In the workshops I teach on managing sticky situations at work, people describe the troubling situations they face every day. During those sessions we share information about how to diplomatically approach each situation. Too often people let matters go too long. By ...
Views: 1243(1 vote) - How Personality Affects How You Handle Sticky Situations - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2009 from Joan CurtisTo better understand the Say It Just Right (SIJR) Model, you must know more about the people you are “saying it” to before you apply it to sticky situations. If we faced cardboard people everyday, who always acted the same way, we could apply the SIJR Model right away. Unfortunately (some may ...
Views: 6086(1 vote) - Sticky Situations and Nonverbal Cues - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2009 from Joan CurtisYears ago I uncovered a definition of communication that I doubt would appear in Wikipedia. I like it because of its simplicity as well as its inherent complexity. Communication is behavior that transmits meaning from one person to another person This definition tells us that we cannot ...
Views: 2293(1 vote) - Sticky Situations with Clients - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2009 from Joan CurtisA customer breaks his word, chews out someone on your staff or keeps calling you in the middle of the night. What do you do? Do you shrug it off, remembering the customer is always right? When looking at sticky situations with clients, we sometimes decide to put our heads in the sand. Maybe ...
Views: 1881(4 votes) - Six Tips to Manage Sticky Situations at Work - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2009 from Joan CurtisWhen your boss asks you to do something that you feel is unethical, what do you do? If you spot two co-workers having an intimate lunch, what do you do? How do you handle telling a long-time employee that his job has been eliminated? One of the biggest headaches any manager faces is ...
Views: 2193(1 vote) - The Um's Have It - by Submitted on Jun 01, 2009 from Joan CurtisI recently noted an entire book on the misuse of fillers in public speaking. Can you imagine that? Someone actually filled up 320 pages talking about um’s and ah’s and other verbal stumbles. The book title: Ums: Slips, Stumbles and Verbal Blunders and What They Mean by Michael Erard. Yes, ...
Views: 1193 - Social Media and Relationships - by Submitted on May 31, 2009 from Joan CurtisWhy Relationships Matter Whenever you read anything pertaining to the social media, you’ll read about relationships. On Facebook you can only invite your “friends.” LinkedIn will not allow you to connect with people you do not know. Twitter gives you more freedom. You can follow anyone you ...
Views: 1073 - What Is It You Do? - by Submitted on May 31, 2009 from Joan CurtisHow many times are we asked that question? How many times do we stumble over the response? Let’s see. . . I provide financial services to seniors. . . or I’m a research analyst at the university. As a coach the main problem I encounter with my clients is coming to grips with what they do and ...
Views: 951 - What do You Know About the Social Media? - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2009 from Joan CurtisWhat do you know about social media? Before you answer that question, let me tell you that you know more than you may think. Social media are simply other ways for us to communicate and connect with one another. If you are a smart communicator and understand the power of connections, you ...
Views: 1018 - Hire the Best to Start With - by Submitted on Mar 25, 2009 from Joan CurtisHow can we hire the best with today’s job market? We all know that unemployment is at its highest. What does that mean to the employers? When I wrote the book on Strategic Interviewing (which, by the way, you can buy for a huge bargain used right now) nine years ago, there were more people ...
Views: 987(1 vote) - What Does it Take to Really Listen? - by Submitted on Mar 21, 2009 from Joan CurtisWhat does it take to really hear someone? In a previous article I discussed 4 types of listeners-Compassionate, Too Busy to Listen, Trees for Forrest, It's Me. Each of us has a bit of all four of these types and yet we all aspire to the Compassionate Listener. Some of us think we are ...
Views: 2528(2 votes) - You Are What You Wear - by Submitted on Mar 17, 2009 from Joan CurtisHow do you tell someone what not to wear? When it comes to looking professional, many factors come into play. We all recognize the need to be clean and pressed (right?), but what about our hair or our nails or the scuffs on our shoes? I remember years ago interviewing candidates for a CEO ...
Views: 1700 - Please, Just Listen! - by Submitted on Mar 13, 2009 from Joan CurtisLarry thought he was a great listener. That morning while drinking his coffee his wife was complaining about the kids. “They never pay attention to anything I say.” She went on to list all the mundane mishaps of each child. Larry tuned her out. He heard little after the first sentence. ...
Views: 1550(2 votes) - What is Your Listening Style? - by Submitted on Mar 10, 2009 from Joan CurtisWe’ve heard of leadership styles and communication styles. Have you ever wondered about your listening style? Most self-assessments do not measure how we listen. Yet, we all recognize how important listening is to communication. Many people say that listening ranks much higher than actual ...
Views: 12097(1 vote) - Listening with Your Heart, Not Your Head - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2009 from Joan CurtisWhat is the biggest communications challenge my clients face? The simple answer is listening. My clients struggle with listening because their heads get in the way. They grapple with ways to communicate their messages and often ask me about how to go about saying what they want to say the ...
Views: 3595(2 votes) - End Conflict Now - by Submitted on Feb 26, 2009 from Joan CurtisHow many times do we find ourselves in awkward, uncomfortable situations? How many times have you wished you could talk your way out of those little messes or better still, disappear? Ever wonder how confident communicators do it? Want to learn ways to manage conflict and still keep your ...
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