People who have great communication skills can communicate well despite being under pressure. Notice the great public relations officers out there. Despite being bombarded with controversial issues, they are still able to remain graceful under such pressure. If you want to be one of these communications experts then you might want to keep in mind the following tips.
1. Learn how to bluff. One of the great skills in Poker is the bluff. You are pretending to have something that you do not. If you have a two and a seven that are off suit, you can always pretend that you have two aces. No one knows.
If you are going to be a good communicator, you have to learn how to bluff. You have to learn how to bluff that you are not nervous. Even if you are nervous or under pressure, you have to look like you are not nervous and pressured. You have to look cool and calm. The moment you break under pressure spells the end of you.
2. Breathe deeply. If you want to relieve some pressure off of you then you have to take deep breaths. Deep breathing allows your body to calm down and it allows you to be one with the universe for a moment in time.
You are going to feel instant serenity when you take deep breaths in the middle of nowhere. If you are feeling very pressured then you might want to take some deep breaths from time to time. This will certainly alleviate the pressure that you are experiencing.
3. Speak clearly. No matter how pressured you are and no matter how many people are watching you, you have no right to slur and stutter in your speech. If you are feeling pressured then you have to take the time to say your words clearly and succinctly. If you rush things and speak in a hurry then you are only going to say things that are probably incomprehensible and gibberish.
You should take the time to say your words loud and clear. If you do not take your time to do this and you rush your sentences, you are only going to make a fool out of yourself and to make matters worse, you are going to get more and more pressured.
4. Avoid mannerisms. If you have a bad habit of scratching your nose or twirling your hair then you might want to keep your hands in check. If you are pressured and you continue to manifest these mannerisms then you are simply going to make yourself look more nervous and more foolish. If you want to look poised and proper when talking to someone then you have to appear calm. Do not allow these mannerisms to take over your social life.
5. Do not space out. There is a tendency for people to completely say nothing when they are pressured. If you have the habit of spacing out then you should certainly find a way to stop it. It is not amusing and you can completely make a fool out of yourself. If you are about to space out then it would be better if you excuse yourself instead.
Do not allow pressure to get to you. If you can work well under pressure then you must be able to speak well under pressure as well. You have to be able to speak clearly despite being in the hot seat. You must be able to communicate despite being in the middle of an argument or a debate.
Your ability to manage pressure will be the lifeblood of your ability to communicate well. Your communication skills are highly dependent on the way you manage pressure so make sure that you manage it well.
Green Six Sigma is addressing the real challenges for leadership and senior executives to drive business process excellence while reducing environmental impact—the role of Six Sigma both now and in the future for sustainability, energy reduction and to boost profits. Six Sigma is not a new methodology to solve new problems. Many view it as something on top of everything else they already have to do. It is not. Six Sigma is a tried-and-proven methodology to solve today’s problems efficiently and permanently. These excuses are not allowing companies to address today’s big picture and meet the challenge of climate change and sustainability. Six Sigma can be a key weapon in that battle.
Manufacturing Journalist, Thomas R. Cutler authored a feature article in a recent issue of The Standard Register, titled “A Lean Green Six Sigma Machine.” According to Cutler, “All over the world, new national and regional laws relating to carbon emissions and other environmental issues are seriously going to affect how companies operate in the future. The market for green initiatives is growing exponentially as businesses and consumers become environmentally aware. The carbon footprint associated with this demand has a value and offers growing economic incentives for companies to manage their carbon output more efficiently.”
About TR Cutler, Inc.:
TR Cutler, Inc. (www.trcutlerinc.com) was founded by Thomas R. Cutler a decade ago. Cutler maintains extraordinary relationships with clients, journalists, editors, trendsetters, and key business leaders worldwide and has become a key resource for those writing about the manufacturing sector. Cutler founded the Manufacturing Media Consortium™ in the 1999. This extraordinary group of more than 3500 journalists worldwide is writing about trends, data, case studies, profiles, and features in the manufacturing and industrial sector. Cutler has worked with thousands of media outlets to expand manufacturing media coverage. Cutler has authored more than 2,500 articles for a wide range of manufacturing periodicals, industrial publications, and business journals including most of the leading monthly trade publications. TR Cutler, Inc. recently launched a new professional coaching system for manufacturers worldwide named C.E.O.™ or Continuous Experiential Optimization.
TR Cutler, Inc.
www.trcutlerinc.com
Thomas Cutler
trcutler@trcutlerinc.com
888-902-0300
In recent years, blogs and social media monitoring have become a fundamental part of the press office operation and many PR agencies’ bread and butter services.
As social networking has matured, companies need to engage proactively to ensure their brands are effectively supported.
Traditional media such as magazines, newspapers and TV channels have increasing numbers of journalist-written blogs as part of their online presence, meaning a top tier of blogs are seen as being just as influential in the media landscape as their e-zines and print media counterparts. There has also been an increase in the number of business-led social networks, business users of blogs and micro-blogging tools such as Twitter and Google-owned Jaiku, and multimedia social sites like Flickr.
However, a huge portion of the blogosphere and social media landscape is not professionally produced and individually these sites do not have huge audiences. Collectively though, these smaller outlets comprise as much as 99 per cent of the social media landscape and together form a powerful force that the PR industry is looking to harness. As the majority of blogs and social media sites contain personal content written in the first person, viral issues and stories can spread quickly. The sites connect people and when issues spread virally across social networks, they become big news for organisations that they affect. This is why tracking blog buzz across the whole of the web is critical for reporting on brand image, online coverage, and building a picture of customer perceptions.
An example of how effective a viral campaign can be, was when an online grass-roots campaign was formed on the social network Facebook. Protesting against an overdraft charge that the bank HSBC was imposing on recent graduate accounts, thousands of students joined forces online through a viral Facebook group which generated massive media attention, and forced a u-turn at HSBC. Within just a few weeks of the group launching, the bank scrapped the overdraft charges.
Over the last year, the fact that blogs impact a company’s brand image online has become more established. Marketing, PR and communications departments are increasingly exposed to the impact blogs have on a brand’s reputation, whether that’s negative coverage of a product or an online petition or a campaign across social networks. As this issue has gathered momentum, companies have realised that blogs and social media need to be actively managed not just monitored.
Some progressive brands are already doing this successfully. US retail bank Wells Fargo for example has a team dedicated to responding online to bloggers’ issues and complaints in order to increase positive sentiment around the brand online and reduce the amount of negativity that might emerge.
What caused the need to move from monitoring to engagement? Early adopters have led the charge. And the masses have followed. We are seeing social media’s evolution in the business ecosystem move from early adopter to mass market status and web tactics are rapidly becoming better understood tactically and strategically as part of the PR mix. The challenge is to turn the opportunity into action.