Dress for Success

Do you dress for success? Is your wardrobe complete with the clothing and accessory items that you need to look professional? Is it at least proper for your current position and adequate for the position that you are trying to attain? There are many coaching resources available for wardrobe, fashion, and overall appearance. I would suggest that you be very attentive to successful people and make note of how the look. Try to look appropriately professional all the time.

Don’t take the easy way out and default to what is comfortable or cool. Dress appropriately to the success level that you hope to achieve. Dress to command the kind of respect that you want. If you are striving for increased professionalism, your wardrobe will help.

You can certainly develop your own style as long as it is designed for your own growth and advancement. The best advice that I have learned is from self-help expert, Shawna Schuh. She tells us that the way we look is a gift to others, not ourselves. She advises us to use color and dress appropriately in every case.

People recognize how you look and you want them to remember you for your outstanding appearance. Again, don’t just default to what others are wearing or what feels comfortable for you. Remember that your clothing is a huge part of your appearance. People will judge you on your appearance whether that is appropriate and correct or not. This something that you can control. So do so.

Dressing up can be difficult at times because the default can often be to wear what is convenient. How often do we see people in public with sweats or non-matching clothes, or hair or makeup that is out of order? What can one gain from that? Nothing. On the other hand, a little effort to improve your appearance at all times at least has the potential at all times to help you. Fix yourself up the best that you can in order to make a good impression on others and to extend that gift of your best self to others.

Continuous Education

You need as much formal education as you can stand plus a regular personal program of learning and growing. Read in your fields of interest every day. Read at least one-half hour per day in your job field. You will be far ahead of your peers after a short time with all that you will gain from your reading. You will be absorbing ideas and concepts that will lead to further personal success.

Be very selective in your reading choices because your investment of reading time must be used wisely. Find some regular authors whose advice makes the most sense. Ask other successful people what they read. Again, some of my favorite authors are Brian Tracy, Marcus Buckingham, Don Blanchard, and Jim Collins. They all have a unique perspective on personal business success. They are all very inspirational. Give them a try.

Still More on Communication

The act of speaking to a client, prospect, or any other business contact on the phone is an opportunity. It is an opportunity to portray your best self. You have the chance to connect to your caller or call receiver by being polite, clear, and professional.

It is always a good idea to make a good impression. This is true not only for individuals who can buy from you but also for every person you contact.
Through making the best impression possible, you will gain respect for yourself and for your message. Speak clearly and allow the other person a chance to speak and react to your words.

Keep in mind how you would like to have people relate to you. Keep in mind also the kind of reactions that make you feel good and try to copy that toward others. Even if the content of the conversation makes you mad or upset, work through it to keep the level of communication elevated.

Make the phone work for you.

More on Communication

What about your phone and voice mail skills? These are very important components of your communication functionality and you need to be good at them. Again, turn to the advice of Shauna Schuh, speaker and trainer on communication skills, to get some training on how to make the very best use of the telephone and voice mail system.

Use these tools to portray the best self image that you can by being polite, enthusiastic, and professional. The message that you record on your voice mail is a direct reflection of you. If greeting customers and prospects warmly on the phone is your standard, make it so on voice mail too.

If receiving phone calls in your business is something very positive, then treat these voice mail messages as opportunities. If someone has taken the time to call you to inquire about doing business, make them feel comfortable with your message.

Shawna Shue suggests that you make the caller feel welcome and interested in talking to you when you get the chance to call them back. You might also consider streamlining your message to exclude some of the common commands like leave your name and number. It is important to convey to your caller that you are grateful for their call and you want to insure them that you will be calling back.

Make voice mail work for you.

Communication

How good and how developed are your communication skills? Do you feel comfortable talking to anyone at any time? Your ability to connect with others will be critical to your success. Miscommunication is a great obstacle to achievement. Non-communication is just about a complete roadblock.

Are you annoyed by service counter workers who make little attempt to communicate with you other than to take your order and money? Are you annoyed by service agents who take no interest in you? Is that how you communicate with others? If it is, you have a lot of work to do.

So much is missed in life because of a lack of an effort to communicate. Both language and body language are critical to your happiness. A bit of effort with everyone you make contact with will only help you.

There is a golden rule of communications that reads something like communicate with others in a clear and polite manner as you would like to be communicated with. If you feel good when people communicate with you with interest and respect, won’t they feel the same way when you do too?

There are many hurt feelings and misunderstandings in life that happen just because of miscommunications. Perhaps you said something the wrong way or were misunderstood. Always be aware of how well you are understood

Connecting

Actually, everything you are exposed to every day has educational value. Every conversation that you have with peers, coworkers, friends, colleagues, customers, and even strangers offers you an opportunity for you to learn and to compare what you learn to what you know. As for strangers, every encounter you have with a stranger has potential unless the stranger is just not approachable or just undesirable.

How can you connect with new people? I have found two excellent coaches on that subject. Shawna Shue gives seminars, writes books, and offers audio and video programs that can help you to connect with people in a very positive way. Get one of her books or attend one of her seminars and study what she suggests. Her advice will help anyone to connect better with others. This is an ongoing educational process and Shawna can help you.

The author of How to Connect With Anyone in 90 Seconds, Nicholas Boothman, offers great advise and insight into making the best impression with others to help you improve your life. Study what he offers because it will work for you. This too is an ongoing educational process that requires you to work at it.

Networking

Contacting people who can help you often happens in unexpected ways. This is probably one of the best arguments in favor of networking.

These opportunities take many forms including cocktail parties, seminars, soccer games, and many others. Being your best self at all times will certainly allow you to take advantage of all networking opportunities.

New doors can open through networking both in business and in your personal life. If you remain open to those opportunities, you can take advantage of them. Always be ready for that unexpected contact.

It probably makes sense to carry your business cards at all times just in case you have an unexpected business opportunity. Likewise, you always have new personal opportunities when attending a business function.

Being good at networking takes some practice. Your appearance, your communication skills, and your attitude all enhance your chances for meaninful contacts.

Making the proper eye contact, a firm handshake, and being a good listener all affect your networking abilities. Being genuinely interested in the person you are conversing with and asking good questions really help. There are some great tips available in books and on audio programs on the subject.

The important thing to remember is to always be your best self.

A Daily Commitment

Working on yourself seems like a lot of work and planning, because it is. It does not have to be drudgery though. It can also be both challenging and fun. It is a daily commitment though.

This is a daily commitment because the easy path is to concede that I am good enough. You can say, I know enough and I don’t feel like working to learn more and do better. It is that will to overcome such feelings that will make you the best that you can be.

It is the will to work on all areas of your life that will make you successful. Be careful about the hard work. It must be balanced hard work and you must make a sincere effort to be a great employee, great boss, loving spouse, devoted parent, committed friend and on and on.

Actually, proper rest and relaxation takes planning and commitment too. Rather than just channel surfing to kill time, why not plan to watch the programs that are of interest in a relaxing way? Why not incorporate downtime into your daily plan so that you do not default to time wasting?

Going Deeper

Going deeper, work on skills that make you a better you. How do you speak? How broad is your vocabulary? Do you have adequate computer skills that enable you to fully participate in the cyber explosion that is taking place today?

There is no good excuse for most people not to have the basic skills they need to use communication tools like e-mail very effectively. Furthermore, a command of the internet and all that it offers is essential for most professions today. It is easy to get the training you need to pave the way for career improvements as it relates to that thing known as your computer.

If you think that computer skills are important today, they are, and they will be even more important tomorrow. Even if the standard personal computer is not the exact device that you will be using in the future, something like it will be. The skills you learn today and tomorrow will lead to the skills that you need the day after.

If you are not proficient on the skills and understanding that is needed to effectively use your computer today, you will only be left further behind as digital communication and digital work continue to develop. Go deeper, continue your personal training.

And the skills carry over

The skills that you develop when you work on your professional self will serve you well as your private and personal self. Training yourself to deal with others, connect with others, and be professional in every way, will benefit you both professionally and socially.

The speaking and writing skills that you use to communicate with colleagues, customers, and coworkers, will enable and enhance your interaction with friends and family. Networking skills learned for professional advancement will advance your social life and family life too.

Why not use the self-improvement advancements from your career in your personal life as well. Treat clerks and cashiers as customers. Treat waiters and waitresses as if you are serving them. Be kind and attentive to everyone you come into contact with. Work on your people skills constantly. You will see great results.

Your people skills will pay great dividends. You never know when a personal contact or casual encounter may turn into your next big career break. Always be your best.

Skills and Talent

The good news is that you have both!

You may not have the athletic skill or talent of a professionals athlete or singer. You may not have the natural talent for working with numbers like a mathematician. But, you do have skills and talent.

In the excellent audio programs by Marcus Buckingham titled, First Break All the Rules, and Then Discover Your Talents, I learned that we all have strengths that can be used to our advantage. We just need to understand where our strengths lie, how we can continue to grow them, and how we can put them to use.

Your talent may be something simple like very strong patience. Well, there are many ways that you can put that talent to work. Your talent may be persuasion. You are a salesperson in the making.

When you work on things that will make you better, skills are developed. When strengths are discovered that come naturally, you discover your talents.

I strongly recommend the audio programs to everyone. The good news that you will gain from the programs is that you have skills and talents.

Keep On Improving

Even though the economy is in a slowdown, you must keep working on your game. You must keep improving your skills. Keep looking for ways to capitalize on your skills strengths, and opportunities.

When things turn around for the positive, and they will, those individuals who have continued to work on their game will emerge stronger.

There will continue to be many business opportunites in 2009 and we all need to look closer at how we can each improve indivudually so that we can improve our companies.

In the words of many great motivational speakers, NEVER GIVE UP. Things will turn around for sure and if you continue to improve yourself during any downturn, you will emerge so much stronger when the recovery happens. And it will!

Goals

One way to measure your personal and professional progress is through goal setting. People who write out their goals and revisit and rewrite them often, will have a very clear understanding of where they are headed so that they can plan on how to get there.

Writing out 10 goals for your career today and then reviewing and redoing these on a monthly or weekly basis, will keep you focused on what you are trying to do with your career. You goals will function like a roadmap for your life.

Under each goal, write 3 strategies for achieving that goal. Then get to work on it. When you write out your goals, you are putting your own thoughts into words and conditioning yourself to follow your own wishes and plans. Give it a try, it works.

Work on yourself

It has been said by self-improvement experts “If you want to have a good job and good career, work on your skills. If you want to make a fortune, work on yourself.” Be careful how you define fortune. If you have adequate funds to live on; savings and investments; adequate provisions for life like food, home, clothing, and automobile; and an abundance recreation, hobbies, and other interests, you will achieve your fortune.

Working on yourself really begins when you know enough to spend your time working toward your own goals. It could happen in your youth when you realize that you need what your teachers at elementary, middle school, and high school are offering you every day at school. When you take responsibility to learn the things being taught because you know they will help you later in life, then you are on your way. This will lead to an interest in further education whether it be college or vocational school. At this point, the burden of responsibility to learn and grow increases as does the payback from a solid effort at learning and a job well done.

We all need advice

We all need good advice. If you learn something helpful from someone, share it. If you want to improve yourself, follow seek and follow helful advice. If you want to be successful, you can.

Your University on Wheels

I have gathered and put into use a lot of good advice from author, trainer, and overall business expert, Brian Tracy. One of the foundations of Brian's instruction for business success is that you should read in your field every day for at least 30 minutes.

If you want to be the best in your field, you need to continue to work on yourself and one of the best ways to do that is through reading. If you read in your field for 30 minuets per day, you will read hundreds of books in a few years and that has to give you a competitive advantage in your field.

Whether you want to be a great salesperson, teacher, manager, or excel in any other occupation, you need to constantly improve and get advice from experts. The best way to do this is through reading.

When you drive in your car, use audio learning programs which are the equivalent to reading. If you will build your own professional library and refer to it whenever you drive, you will make your car a University on Wheels. There is no time like now to get going.

Advice From an Average Guy

Welcome to my new blog. I will attempt to convey to you ideas that I have picked up from my many years in business, from my formal education, and from hours of listening to audio programs and reading books from experts.

Anyone can improve their game, whether it is selling, managing, leading, accounting, teaching, or any of the many great professions available to people today. I hope to lead you to actively working on yourself so that you can be your best self.

Please make comments so that I can formulate new ideas from your questions and comments. Thanks for reading.