Business Training Tips 2000

The skills that make you successful in your business are the same as those used in establishing a successful training format for your employees!

Skill 1: Don’t Get Emotional

No matter how humane your motives, the only real reason you are in business is because you want to profit from your financial investment and your personal efforts. Make your decisions and enforce them in an evenhanded manner.

• When you are emotional, you lose your capacity to deal with issues effectively.

• Don’t take things personally—your feelings don’t matter in business.

• If you allow your feelings to matter, you will find it a costly experience.

In your business, you work with other people because you need their help to reach your goals – not because of their friendship. To be successful, you learn to walk the fine line between being friendly and being friends. You should be friendly with your customers, your prospects, and your employees, but they are not (and should not be) your friends. They should be considered as “business associates”.

Limiting emotional involvement in business and training situations is one of the essential keys to maximum effectiveness.

Business associates (customers, prospects, or employees) have their own interests at stake, not yours. Accepting this fact without taking it personally is the key to becoming an effective and successful businessperson and trainer.

Skill 2: Be Yourself

Your effectiveness in business comes from your effectiveness as a person. The two are inseparable. To have a business goal worth pursuing implies that you have a life goal worthy of your best efforts.

That attitude will shine through in both your business and your training activities. If you don’t really believe that your business goals are meaningful, that is exactly what will shine through, regardless of all the motivational words you use.

• Learn to step back and remove your feelings from a situation.

• You can see situations much more clearly when feelings are removed.

Skill 3: Look For the Truth

Truth gives you direction and shapes your business and training techniques.

• Don’t accept superficial statements as facts.

• Test them and gather both facts and discrepancies.

• Example of a “superficial statement” not supported by facts: Carpets constructed of Olefin fibers are easy to clean and maintain.

• Always lead from curiosity, not suspicion.

Allow truth to guide you—courage (your most powerful weapon) comes from truth.

• Allow your opinions to come from your own clear thinking process and the facts gathered, not your “version” of the truth.

• Don’t use the truth to offend, punish or embarrass.

• Present only enough truthful information to support your position and then—no more.

• Speak in generous terms when giving opinions of others and their positions.

• Don’t agree insincerely when your opinions differ, but rather consider the option of remaining silent.
  
  

  Skill 4: Simplicity

  Your business and training power lies with “Simplicity.”
  • Always explain things in simple terms.

  • No matter how knowledgeable you are, speak simply enough that anyone can understand you well enough to retain the information provided.

  • If you can’t simplify the information you are sharing, then you don’t know enough about the subject yourself, or you don’t understand it well enough to discuss it with others.

  These four tips look really easy, maybe too easy, but I challenge you to use them and find out for yourself the power they give to your business decisions and your training efforts!