Hand-written notes need to be written immediately after the experience or event about which you are writing – within hours, or the next day or as soon as you hear or become aware.
Write a thank you note to the person who interviewed you for the position you just applied for.
Thank the business that provided excellent customer service to you; especially mention any staff member in person who was very helpful.
Thank the journalist who wrote a story about you.
Follow up with the new contact you made at the networking event, saying how valuable, or important or relevant or stimulating the discussion you had was.
Send them something that was relevant to the discussion – something further about your business, or an article or report, a book, CD or DVD.
Offer to make an introduction for them to a contact that may be able to help them.
Invite them to accompany you to an event which could be valuable for them to attend.
Congratulate a colleague who won an award, got a promotion or a new job, is elected to a key position in a community organisation or achieved any other success at something.
Congratulate an organisation that won a big contract.
Always thank the people who do business with you for giving you that opportunity.
It is because so few people write hand-written notes today that they have such impact. In fact, very few people send anything today in hard copy – letter, note or card. Many people don’t even have a postal address on their business card anymore. Can you even remember when you last received a hand-written note?
If you do, however, collect mail from your letterbox, what letter do you open first? Do you open the one with the window, or the obvious advertising mail, or the formally typed addressed one, or the one with the hand-writing on the envelope? Yes, you open the one with the hand-written address. Why? Because you just assume it will be a personal message to you. It will be from someone who cares about you enough to sit down and personally write to you rather than send an impersonal digital message by email or a text message. It will probably say something to you that will add some value and meaning to your day.
That’s why had-written messages make a difference. They have impact value. As the writer of the note, you will be remembered.
It takes time to find some note paper or a card, sit down and write and then go and post it. It costs more to write and send a hand-written note. This is what makes it so important to the person to whom you write – that you took time out of your busy day and placed this much importance on them.
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We are living in turbulent times, characterised by uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, paradox and unpredictability. These are the norms. We all need a way to move with it and through it. That way is called “Resilience”.
It is needed by all of us who live and work in this world where disruption is a frequent interloper. But, how do we become the resilient professional able to develop that inner psychological strength that will see us able to ride any wave and bounce back from any adversity.
Highly motivated professionals know they need to keep themselves physically fit if they are to stay on top of their game and work at the cutting edge. Many go to the gym to do this. Developing resilience is mind or brain gym, keeping ourselves mentally fit by exercising, strengthening and stretching it until it can withstand almost anything.
Resilience does not begin with Strategies. It begins with YOU. To be resilient you need to make changes in yourself.
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I’ve just watched – again – a video of the arrival back in Australia of Peter Greste, Australian journalist and foreign correspondent, imprisoned in Egypt for 400 days on trumped up charges finally released on February 5. 2015.
The strongest impression I had was of how well he looked physically and how good he sounded psychologically. How did he emerge from that experience so together?
Peter Greste said that he made a decision to keep himself fit physically, mentally and spiritually. That was how he came through the experience.
That is called RESILIENCE.
It is one of the most important Soft Skills we need to develop in these unpredictable times.
In 2010, Accenture surveyed more than 500 senior executives of mid to large companies in 20 countries across Europe, Asia, Nth America and Latin America. 71% cited resilience as “very to extremely important” when determining who to retain in their organisations.
Resilience is an inner psychological strength that you can grow and develop. Peter Greste had that.
It is this same inner psychological strength that leaders and managers need to meet the challenges, uncertainties and unpredictabilities they face as they guide our organisations in these changing times.
My 4 year old grand-daughter’s sea horse, Gill, died this week. Her mum, Anna, was explaining to Eden about death and dying. She listened carefully, asked some questions and then said: “Now I know everything”. She thought for a moment and then she said to her mum: “Mum, sometimes I know everything and sometimes I don’t know anything.”
I am a whole lot older than Eden, but I thought to myself: “That’s just what I feel. Sometimes I know everything and sometimes I feel I don’t know anything.” In spite of a rich life-time of study, all the university courses I have done, all the information I have in my head, in my library, in my filing cabinet and at my disposal on the internet, I have come to realise that the more I know, the more I become aware how much I don’t know.
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One of the strong motivators for starting a business is that we want to be our own boss because we believe we can be more financially successful that way. What happens, in fact, is that most small business owners do little more than generate a wage for themselves.
While being very good at doing the work of the business, they lack the skills, knowledge and expertise to build the business, to make it financially successful. They do not know how to work ON the business, only how to work IN it.
They want to build a secure future for themselves and their families with their business, but instead what happens is that they place that future at great risk because they do not understand how to protect their business from the many challenges to its success. They do not know how to bullet-proof it.
This is the very reason why every small business owner needs this book by Daryl La’Brooy. How I wish I had had this book in my hands when I started my business more than 25 years ago. Wealthy small business owners have the resources to pay for this kind of advice but those who have not yet reached that level are not aware of the steps they need to take to protect this important asset.
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Does it look a long road ahead?Very straight and even boring? You can’t even see where it will take you, but you have been told this is the road you need to be on if you want to gain the professional edge!
You are highly motivated. You really want to make a difference in people’s lives. You want to give what you have learned to your clients, to change and improve their lives. After all the hard work you’ve put in to get yourself the qualifications you now have and the last 2 years working under someone else’s guidance, you now want to break out a bit, plot your own course. You don’t know where to start. Everyone around you seems to be doing what everyone else is doing. There has to be more, you think.
There is and here are 5 steps you can take that will help you stand out from the crowd and gain that professional edge.
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If you’ve ever worked out with a personal trainer, you’ll know what it’s like to stretch yourself to the limit. A business or leadership development coach can help you do that for your career, stretch you to where you discover untapped potential that you never knew you had. They believe in you more than you believe in yourself. Every time I have pushed my VIP coaching clients to the edge of the precipice, in spite of their protests and fear, they have always flown! No one yet has crashed into the valley below, because I, their coach, believed in them, believed they could fly. You can also stretch yourself beyond where you are now and achieve more than you ever thought possible.
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Empowerment is about lighting your fuse. I really believe that we all have something special and unique inside us. The reason why some are able to develop it and show it to the world is because they light the fuse. That’s what it means to empower ourselves. No one else can empower us. We have to do it ourselves. Others can encourage, support, motivate and inspire us, but only we can take that final step and light the fuse. When we do that, we take off. All those talents and all that potential we have inside us is activated and released.
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This is for all you empowered, pro-active and glass-half-full people as you move into 2015. You are the people who have a mindset that automatically gears you up to EXPECT MORE FROM 2015. After all, why would you want to stay where you were in 2014 and be a photocopy of your 2014 self?
I have an e-book here to help you on your way, called Expect More From 2015.
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