The word ‘positioning’ is one that we hear a lot and that, when push-comes-to-shove, few people really are able to define.  I define positioning, in everyday language, as putting things in the right place for people.  In a place that’s useful for them and, at the same time, is useful and helpful for you.

If you think about positioning a picture at home, for example, you’re placing it where it’s accessible and can be seen, it looks good in the light and yet it fits with the décor of the room.  You think about the angles and you position it accordingly.  Positioning your skills, what they do and your value, it’s the same principle.

People need to understand what you’re going to be able to do for them, find a use for it in their world (not just in yours) and these 7 P words which will make positioning yourself, your skills and your value easy for you:

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That expression ‘talk is cheap’ is a powerful one.  The idea that words mean less than actions was the intention of this expression but in actual fact, talk can be expensive, it can be valuable, it can be discounted and it can also be cheap.  It depends on the words you use and the value you attach to yourself, your subject and the value you attach to what you do, as you talk about it.

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It’s often the last thing on your mind and the final thing you do (if you do it at all).  The holiday time can be a frenetic build up to the last day in the office and suddenly it’s handover time.   It’s really easy to either leave this important piece completely and ‘hope for the best’ or to do it in 30 seconds and think it’ll be good enough.

The ‘important piece’ I’m referring to is this.  How you decide (or if you decide) to manage your emails and inbox whilst you’re on holiday.

You’ll notice I said ‘how you decide’ because it is a decision you make and it’s one that affects the quality of your holiday and the ease of your ‘re-entry’ after your holiday.

If you’re travelling on business it’s different.  Keeping in touch via your phone/remote email is easy enough now and a gap in timezones is usually manageable.  There are still some steps you can take to make that easier and these are steps which buy you a huge amount of credit from those who are emailing you.

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We felt incredibly proud to see Kay White, featured on episode 14 of Maximise Potential, at the very Top of the Amazon best-seller lists, after the launch of her first book titled “The A – Z of being understood.”

Here is a brief synopsis of the book:

Are you an ambitious professional looking to make your next move? Do you want to build strong, profitable relationships with ease? Give me five minutes and I’ll tell you how to be an influential and savvy communicator.

Discover simple steps to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your communication so people are inspired to give you what you want. Find the ways and the words to engage and persuade people and make more lasting and profitable relationships, quickly and easily. Save time, money and energy as you go about your business.

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“Now, what you should do is…” “Well, it’s obvious, you should do this, then you should do that and then you should tell them you’ve done it”.

Should do. What you should do and what you want to and actually do are often very different things. Even if the advice we’ve been given is spot on, the fact that we’ve been told we ‘should’ do it is often the very reason we don’t. So if that’s the reaction we have, it’s the reaction that others will have when we ‘should’ all over them. Hmmm.

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It’s important to be able to be direct.  There are times when it’s crucial to be direct.  There you are, I’m being direct with you.  It’s got your attention, you know what I’m saying and it’s a key piece to being a clear, confident communicator.

We’ll start with the ‘Why’ of being direct first.  I’ll be direct with you.  I promise – and before we start, being direct is very different from being rude.  That’s the key.

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It’s often the difference between success and failure, or ‘yes please’ and ‘no thanks’ – naming a product, naming a project, naming a team, naming whatever. Giving something a name which is compelling, inviting, something that people either want, want to aim for or find interesting.

Advertisers and marketing specialists are constantly looking for, and listening for, words that compel, persuade, attract and interest us.  You only have to think about how ads draw us in, give us the ‘why’ and the ‘what’s in it for us’ as they persuade us to buy:

• Coca Cola – the real thing;
• Adidas – right here, right now;
• Levis – Freedom to move

Multi-billion pound industries thrive on finding exactly the words to motivate us into action.

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It’s such a small thing to say ‘thank you’.  It costs you absolutely nothing and yet it makes a huge difference to how you are understood and remembered by people.  It’s often the difference that makes the difference as to whether people do what you want, it certainly affects the way they do what you ask them to and, crucially, how they respond to you – and –  if they respond to you at all.

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We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Either listening to or reading about someone telling you all the things they want, need, think, do. ‘Well, I went here and I said that and then I did this and then I said that.

Well, I mean, who do they think I am? I said ‘well, I want to introduce this now’ and I was adamant. So, I finally got what I wanted.’

Now as you read that back and notice that, in reality, whilst a fairly strident bit of dialogue, it’s entirely possible to hear that every day. Eleven times the word ‘I’ appears – and not once the word ‘we’, ‘you’, ‘us’, ‘our’.

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Which email would you rather open first ‘More Bad News’ or ‘Quick Update on XYZ for You’?  What about ‘Tax Time Again’ or ‘Ways to Save You Money’?

Emailing.  It’s such a key piece in our day-to-day lives. We fire a quick email response off or “shoot from the fingertip” and it’s so easy to forget that we’re not top of the list for the person receiving it.  They, like us, have loads of things clamouring for their attention.  So how do we stay on their radar – how do we help them to help us by opening our messages and acting on them? (more…)