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influencing

Values and the Art of Influencing

It’s rare that a (training) day goes by when I don’t mention my old friend Aristotle and his words of wisdom on Influencing & Persuading – see my earlier post on decision making for more details.

Recently I’ve been giving more thought to the ethical bit of the triangle and how our values come into play when we’re influencing others, particularly those that are different to us.

And the assumptions we make about the values of those who manifest the same behaviours and decisions as us – does it necessarily mean they share our values?
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Building Business Relationships

I was listening to the radio this morning and happened to hit on a discussion about unsolicited phone calls – you know the ones: “Mrs Forbes I hear someone in your household has had an accident”. To which the reply is “No they haven’t and we’re registered with the TPS”. Which sometimes gets rid of them and sometimes doesn’t.

That got me to thinking about the value of cold-calling as a means of building business relationships. It’s something I hate on both ends of the phone line.

But is it a necessary evil?

Or is there a better way?
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Decisions, Decisions! The Art of Decisive Thinking

Making a decision can be fraught with tension.

What if it’s a bad decision? What if it’s a good decision but there was a better one?

The trouble is that fear of making a less than perfect decision often means that no decision is made at all and that can be even worse. Organisations can become dinosaur-like simply because decision making at the top is so painfully slow.

Or, maybe you know the decision you should make but there is something holding you back.

So how can we make decision making less painful?

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