Category Archives: Leadership

#235 Acceptance test

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It is an interdependent world and you have to ask others to perform tasks; because you cannot possibly do everything yourself. Thus, you have to work vendors, these can be individuals or companies.

After they have finished the task, they will hand it over to you for inspection and acceptance. At which point, you will take the outputs for a test drive, kick its tires etc.

A more bottom line focused approach is to ask, “Would you risk your career and reputation by having me accept and use your outputs?”

By tying the vendor’s reputation to their output, you will create leverage that is far more powerful than the threat of financial or legal penalties.

Caveat: this will only work in cultures where a strong legal system exists. If your vendor is staffed with immature people or you are dealing with cultures under developed for commerce, where existence is from hand to mouth, people still have a king-size ego, but when it comes to business, they may be willing to set aside their reputation to make a fast buck.

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#233 Being hesitant (not)

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An earlier blog post pleaded with you to be not hesitant. The whole point is to communicate with impact. If you don’t want to make an impact, why bother to speak up? If you need to speak, don’t be hesitant.

The reality is that you may be unsure from time to time. That’s okay, state that you are unclear, describe what you are unclear about, but don’t be hesitant.

To remove hesitation when you communicate, try these tips:

  • Prepare for the communication. The more you prepare, the more you’ll be ready. You can “over prepare” so don’t overdo it.
  • Develop your confidence, act like you belong, and remove the reasons for your low confidence. You don’t need to fake it till you mean it (but that works too sometimes), genuinely improve your confidence from the inside out.
  • Learn how to communicate. Speaking is a skill, there are definite techniques to follow. Don’t learn it the hard way, take training or read books to shorten your learning cycle.

If you sound hesitant, your audience will wonder why they should be listening to you.

 

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