How will you and your organisation be seen by others during 2020 and beyond?
And how would you LIKE yourself and your colleagues to be viewed?
The answer on whether you achieve your desired ideal image will – to a large extent – be determined by how you and your team members communicate.
Will your image in the 2020s be attractive, intriguing and mystical like the beautifully ringed planet, Saturn?
Or will your image be cold, shadowy and remote like the far-flung Pluto?
The image you individually and collectively convey will partially result from all those one-to-one conversations over the phone, face-to-face and in internet hook-ups.
It will also be influenced by those times when you say something to a whole bunch of people at once.
And your image will be affected – for better or for worse – on how you come across if you end up answering questions from the news media.
The good news is that if you decide what image you’d like to convey in advance, then you can use every professional communication encounter during the 2020s to seek to project that specific image.
Later in this column there’s an opportunity for you to skyrocket the way you come across – and work towards ensuring that you and your colleagues project the right image when you communicate.
But first, let’s take a moment to contemplate what is the ideal image for you.
WHAT ARE YOUR 3 IMAGE WORDS???
One quick and easy way to start enhancing your image is to come up with three words that you’d like others to use when describing how you’re perceived in the professional world.
The words need to be in line with reality, but you can make them apply to the very best version of yourself – providing you’re prepared to strive to reflect the reality of the ideal image you’re seeking to convey.
Whether your image words are “amazing”, “insightful”, “dazzling” or whatever, choosing the right words can help put you on the pathway to achieving the image you want to project.
In communications-boosting sessions, I ask clients at the outset to select the right ideal image words for themselves and their organisation so we enhance their skills to equip them to achieve their specific desired aims.
Choosing the right words helps you focus on achieving the image you’re after – whether through more effective everyday professional conversations, enhanced presentations, outstanding media interviews or in great answers to the tough questions that are thrown you while at work.
INSPIRATION FROM THE STREETS OF PARIS
The city of Paris has a strong vibrant image, and I’ve been privileged to be working there with dynamic, successful companies on three recent missions.
So here’s a video from Paris to help inspire you to contemplate the right three image words for you.
It’s been recorded in one of those sophisticated French cafes where you can sip your caffeine – or something stronger – inside or out on the pavement.
But alas – as you’ll discover if you can follow Australian-accented French – this particular cafe wasn’t quite sophisticated enough to offer Australian red wine.
“Zut alors, mon cobber!” as one mutters on the streets of Paris.
But even more important than the café’s seriously limited drinks menu, is your future image!
So after you’ve checked out the video, feel free to email your 3 ideal image words for 2020 and beyond to: michael@michaeldoddcommunications.com
I’m happy to make a hopefully helpful comment about your choices!
SKYROCKETING YOUR COMMUNICATION PERFORMANCES
So here’s the new opportunity to take your communication skills to a new high in 2020.
In line with what a number of clients increasingly asked for in 2019, I’m now offering a new 2020 package of communication-boosting sessions.
These sessions help individuals and teams take your skills to higher levels across a range of interlinked communications skillsets.
In the past I’ve often, but not always, worked on boosting these skillsets separately.
Now your communications skills and confidence can be skyrocketed together through this new offering called “Skyrocketing Your Communication P’s and Q’s”.
“Skyrocketing Your Communication P’s & Q’s” helps boost your:
* Pitches and informal short business introductions by grabbing attention and attracting the right prospects
* Presenting with Confidence, Impact and Pizzazz – with and/or without slides
* Performances in a range of one-to-one or one-to-a-few professional conversations
* Profile-raising abilities to help you capitalise on your enhanced communications skillsets
* Question-responses to issues arising from your new-look pitches, presentations and performances
* Question-responses for clients, prospects, officials and members of your own team
* Question-responses in media interviews.
Through pre-session conversations and pre-session forms we establish what you most want and need to focus on in the package over 2 or 3 days – either in groups or one-to-one.
By working over several days we can help you take things to a new high – and enable you to schedule practise time between sessions to polish and rehearse your enhanced skills and scripts.
During this time, telephone and email support is available to help you polish your plans and performances along the way ahead of your final session.
There’s more about “Skyrocketing Your Communication P’s & Q’s” on this new Michael Dodd Communications web page at:
http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/home/raise-your-communication-skills-and-your-success-to-new-heights-by/
To discuss a potential programme for you and your team, and to provide you with the investment cost options, call 44 (0) 7944 952835 or email: michael@michaeldoddcommunications.com
In this way we can plan a tailor-made package for you in a way that best helps you achieve those all-important image words defining how you’d like to be seen.
MINDING YOUR P’s & Q’s IN THE 2020s
Meanwhile here’s a little background about the term “P’s and Q’s” that may help explain this odd but widely used term.
References are generally in the form of an instruction to “Mind your P’s and Q’s”.
This means “Be careful with the language you use” or “Be on your best behaviour”.
There’s a range of conflicting claims regarding the origin of the “P’s and Q’s” expression.
The one I prefer goes back to the English pubs and taverns of the 1600s.
Bartenders were inclined to keep a watch on the alcohol consumption of patrons – and if they appeared on the threshold of overdoing things, instruct them to “Mind your P’s and Q’s”.
This seems to relate to the “Pints” and larger “Quarts” in which alcohol was traditionally served.
So in honour of this, when you’ve succeeded in elevating the P’s and Q’s of your communications, you may be entitled to celebrate with a Pint or a Quart.
But not too many – or the modern day bartenders might have to start warning you about overconsumption of your P’s and Q’s!
Here’s to achieving your ideal image in 2020 and beyond – whatever three words you use to define it.