Recommended Resource – The Leader Phrase Book

The Leader Phrase Book: 3000+ Powerful Phrases That Put You In Command

by Patrick Alain

About the Reference

The Leader Phrase Book by Patrick Alain provides professionals with the ‘right thing to say’ across a multitude of situations and spectrum of approaches. These phrases can help anyone prepare for interactions of all kinds with seniors, peers, and subordinates. A small sample of the situations covered include:

  • General Conversation – How to Agree, How to Disagree
  • At Work – How to Ask for a Raise, How to Ask for Time Off
  • Conflicts and Anger – How to Diffuse a Tense Situation, How to Stop a Conflict Between Other People
  • Diplomacy – How to Open Up a Topic for Debate, How to Wrap Up a Debate
  • Negotiation – How to Ask a Question, How to Stall
  • Problem Solving – How to Address/Acknowledge a Problem, How to Ask Someone for Help
  • Courtesy – How to Offer Your Help, When Someone Asks You for Help
  • Machiavellian Techniques – How to Destabilize Someone, How to Threaten Someone

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like The Leader Phrase Book because of its broad situational applicability and immediately implementable recommendations. This book helps new and experienced professionals build out their communications toolkit with approaches that will help them gracefully navigate difficult situations. Whether one desires to be formal or casual, courteous or rude, The Leader Phrase Book can be used to prepare for difficult conversations and, with practice, its phrases will become second nature; enabling the professional to adapt ‘on-the-fly’ when challenging circumstances arise. For its quality and actionable insights, The Leader Phrase Book is a StrategyDriven recommended read.

The Big Picture of Business: Corporate Communications – Correctly Positioning Your Company

Evolution of Corporate Communications Activity

In many professions, the idea of full-scope, sophisticated positioning has been foreign up until now. Business development has occurred primarily by accident or through market demand.

Because of economic realities and the increased numbers of firms providing comparable services, the notion of business development is now a necessity, rather than a luxury.

Competition for customers-clients is sharpening. The professions are no longer held on a pedestal… a condition which mandates them to portray or enhance public images.

As companies adjust comfort levels and acquire confidence in the arena of business development, there is a direct relationship to billings, client mix diversity, market share, competitive advantage, stock price and levels of business which enable other planned growth.

Public perceptions are called credence goods by economists. Every organization must educate outside publics about what they do… and how they do it.

This holds for corporate operating units and departments. You must always educate corporate opinion makers on how you function… and the skill with which you operate.

Gaining confidence is crucial… as business relationships with professionals are established to be long-term in duration.

Each organization or should determine and craft its own character and personality… seeking to differentiate from others. That appeals to professionals within your own staff, those professionals whom your firm would like to attract and clients.

Top management must endorse corporate imaging and other forms of practice development, if your company is to grow and prosper. Few companies can even sustain present levels of sales without some degree of business development.

Some people in your organization will devote much time to promotions, public relations, marketing and advertising. This quality should be recognized and rewarded… since professionals with a sense of business direction play an important part in company growth.

Be it a ‘necessary evil’ or not, corporate imaging activity can be accomplished with skill and success…provided that organizations follow the advice of professional communicators.

Companies must maintain a delicate balance between seeking new business, replacing lost clients and nurturing client relationships. Operating units and departments must schedule and follow a program to market their worth to their companies.

No matter what time allocation basis is selected by the organization, it is vital that some basis exists in writing and in execution.

Guidelines and Customs to be Observed in Corporate Communications

The professional organization that evokes a caring image – and backs it up with service – will prosper in today’s marketplace.

In image building, the following ideas should be considered:

  • Your company and profession fill essential needs of society.
  • Each key staff member represents a learned profession.
  • Qualities that denote your company include skill, expertise, objectivity and independence.
  • Work and abilities of your employees are diverse and creative.
  • Your key management team is dynamic, in terms of business issues.
  • The marketplace is rapidly expanding and is an excellent career choice for young people.
  • Your team encompasses multi-dimensional professionals…concerned with much more than the immediate responsibilities of the work at hand.
  • Recognize the role of professional communicators. Seek qualified counsel.

Corporate Communications Program – Essential Ingredients

Strategic Plan

  • Mission statement.
  • Visioning document.
  • Goals and objectives.
  • Tactics.
  • Timeline for implementation.
  • Benchmarks for measurement.

Policies and Procedures

Investor Relations Program

Public Relations Program

  • Complete generic press kits.
  • Guidelines on working with the media.
  • Pointers on training staff and volunteers as media spokespersons.
  • Company collateral literature system.
  • Guidelines on arranging speeches, seminars and town hall meetings.
  • Ways to improve local community and government relations.
  • Opinion pieces and bylined articles on key topics, suitable for placing in newspapers under local bylines.
  • Formula press releases and features, which can be locally customized.
  • Other components of a program which can and should be customized.

Marketing Program

  • Internet.
  • Sales support.
  • Business development.
  • Direct marketing.
  • Indirect marketing.
  • Advertising.
  • Business-to-business promotions.
  • Industry and professional marketing.
  • Point-of-purchase materials.
  • Collateral materials.

Job Descriptions (Position Results Oriented Descriptions)

Staff Training Program

Corporate Communications Manual

  • Overall Philosophy and Writing Style.
  • Statements to Make Publicly.
  • Letters.
  • Forms.
  • Statements.
  • Customer Comment Cards.
  • Customer Service Correspondence.
  • Sales Manual.
  • Graphics Standards.

Crisis Plan

  • Risk management team.
  • Preparedness.
  • Contact numbers.
  • Plan for emergencies.
  • Case studies.
  • Company profiles.
  • Preventive programs to keep crises from occurring.
  • Training and testing.
  • Timeline for implementation.
  • Benchmarks for measurement.

Compensation, Benefits and Other Financial Plans

Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable Plans

Continuous Quality Improvement Program

Ethics Statement

Literature and Audio Visual Programs Which Portray Company Image

Special Financial Publics Program

Internal Auditing and Assessment Program

Government Relations Program

Community Relations Program

Staff Development and Professional Enhancement Program

Conflict Resolution and Arbitration Plans

Corporate Philanthropy Program

Contingency Program for Specified and Unplanned Emergencies


About the Author

Hank Moore has advised 5,000+ client organizations worldwide (including 100 of the Fortune 500, public sector agencies, small businesses and non-profit organizations). He has advised two U.S. Presidents and spoke at five Economic Summits. He guides companies through growth strategies, visioning, strategic planning, executive leadership development, Futurism and Big Picture issues which profoundly affect the business climate. He conducts company evaluations, creates the big ideas and anchors the enterprise to its next tier. The Business Tree™ is his trademarked approach to growing, strengthening and evolving business, while mastering change. To read Hank’s complete biography, click here.

For a Powerful Presentation, Begin with a Bang, Finish with a Flourish

Planning a presentation? Once you’ve analyzed your audience and determined what you want to say, give lots of attention to the presentation’s two most critical parts: the opening and the close. They’re the parts the audience will remember best – and each of them serves a vital purpose.

Begin with a Bang

Begin the presentation by seizing everyone’s attention with what we at Communispond call ‘the grabber’. Wake them up. Shake them up. Involve them. Create an opening that makes the audience members put away their hand-held gizmos and focus on what you’re saying.

Among the most compelling of grabbers is a dramatic story. That’s because everyone loves a story. We’ve loved them from early childhood, since mankind’s early beginnings and they’re loved across all cultures. Telling a story does much more than command the audience’s attention, though. It helps you make an emotional connection with everyone.


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About the Author

Bill Rosenthal is the Chief Executive Officer of Communispond Inc., an organization that has taught business communications skills to more than 600,000 persons. Bill is responsible all aspects of the business including sales, marketing, content development, and the delivery of Communispond courses by certified faculty. Prior to joining Communispond, Bill was CEO of Digi-Block Inc., a K-12 education publisher focusing on mathematics. He also served as President of Kaplan College, a division of Kaplan Inc., the well-known test preparation company, where he developed and launched the online college that offers Associates and Bachelors degrees and certificates in Business, Information Technology, Nursing, and Law. In a previous role as President of Ziff-Davis Education (now called Element K), Bill oversaw the leading supplier of computer training products worldwide and supervised the operations of ZD University, the leading web-based computer skills site.

Share Your Financial Results and Improve Performance

Should you share your firm’s financial results with this staff? This is one of the questions that business owners face every day, and all too often the answer is no.

But no is probably the wrong answer. An organization can very often improve performance and get its employees bought into it’s mission and purpose simply by sharing financial results with the employees.


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About the Author

Bill Hettinger, Ph.D. is an internationally known consultant, educator, and thought leader who has trained numerous students, business owners, and managers in finance, entrepreneurship and small-business creation.

His latest book is Finance Without Fear: A Guide to Creating and Managing a Profitable Business. Finance Without Fear is an easy to understand guide to finance that not only explains the key concepts of finance, but also explains what the numbers mean and how finance can be used to create a business with a competitive advantage. He can be contacted at [email protected]. To read Bill’s complete biography, click here.

The Big Picture of Business – The Book of Acronyms

Organizations are accustomed to looking at concepts and practices one way at a time. Clinging to obsolete definitions and viewpoints have a way of perpetuating companies into downward spirals.

By viewing from others’ viewpoints on life, we find real nuggets of gold with which to redefine organizations.

Companies that adopt new viewpoints and defy their conventional definitions will create new opportunities, organizational effectiveness, marketplaces and relationships.

As a Big Picture business strategist, I encourage clients toward adopting new ways of thinking about old processes, including those which brought past and enduring successes. Symbolic are these phrase definitions which I have created for familiar business words. I have created new acronyms for well-known business terms, in order to help us visualize opportunities differently.

My acronym for BUSINESS:
Big-picture
Understanding
Symbiosis
In
Nomenclature,
Economics,
Systems, and
Services

WORK:
Windows of
Opportunity,
Requiring
Know-how

My acronym for GOALS:
Getting
Organized
Allowing
Lifeblood
Systems

Growth
Opportunities
And
Legacy
Support

THINK:
To
Have
Ideas,
New
Keys

FAILURE:
Finding
Answers
In
Life,
Utilizing
Retrospective
Enlightenment

SETBACK:
See
Experiences
in Terms of
Business
Accomplishments,
Commending
Knowledge

SUCCESS:
Sophisticated
Utilizing of
Conditions,
Contributions,
Energies,
Strengths and
Synergies

My acronyms for FEAR:
Find
Excellence
After
Reflection

Formulating
Energies
Actions and
Responsibilities

TECHNOLOGY
Teaching
Excellence
Can
Have
Numerous
Outcomes on the
Life
Of the
Global
You

WEB:
Worthwhile
Economical
Business

EMAIL:
Enlightening
Marketplaces
And
Initiating
Links

PAST:
Perspectives
And
Systematic
Thoughts

FUTURISM
Fully
Utilized
Thinking
Underscoring
Retrospective
Insights
Synergizing
Methodologies

QUALITY:
Quintessential
Understanding of
Actions,
Linkages, and
Information
Taught to
You

AWARD:
Amazing
Wins
Are
Really
Deserved

PLANNING:
Process to
Learn
Alternatives,
Narratives,
Notations, and
Insights
Necessary for
Growth

TEAM:
Training and
Education…
Always
Meaningful

My acronyms for VISION:
Valuable
Intelligence
Search
In
Organizational
Networks

Viewing
Ideas,
Systems,
Insights and
Occasional
Newness

STAR:
Super
Talent,
Acting
Responsibly

DECISION
Duty for
Executives to
Communicate
Issues,
Symbolisms, and
Important
Organizational
Necessities

SPEECH:
Sophisticated
Presentation
Equates
Enlightenment,
Communication and
Harmony

ETHICS
Enlightened
Thinking…
Holding
Ideologies,
Commitments,
Sensitivities

The purpose of any business is not just to make money. It is to be just:

  • Committed to customers.
  • Respectful of employees.
  • Successful enough to grow, pay its dues and continue growing.
  • Upholding standards of quality and commitment.
  • Focused through everything else we back to our customers.

Too often, one hears about what goes wrong in business relationships. From our viewpoint, if business is conducted honorably and professionally, then profitability and success flow from doing the right things… not from pursuing false goals.

The best successes are earned and learned. We should not take good fortune for granted. Business track records are garnered by going the distance, reading the trends and continually changing. As the years go by, one continues paying dues. Learning, experiencing and evaluating is the best process to achieve lasting success. The best dues yield nuggets of wisdom that couldn’t have been earned any other way.

The smartest person is the one who knows what he-she does not know. With maturity comes the quest to learn more, understand the factors and apply newly acquired insights to higher purposes. The person who commits to a path of professional development never stops achieving… and profitably impacts his-her business relationships.

Language is food for the mind. Browse a dictionary, and you create new ideas. Words are fun and connect your business to tomorrow. Technology cannot take the place of human communication… only may add to it. Every opportunity should be taken to enhance literacy skills of employees and entire organization. The language of success is initially found in a dictionary.

My acronyms for EDUCATION:
Standpoint of students:
Earning
Distinction
Usually
Capitalizes
After
Training and
Instruction
Optimize
Net-rewards

Standpoint of teachers:
Each
Day
Unleash
Creativity
After
Teaching and
Inspiration
Occur
Noticeably

MUSIC:
Masterfully
Utilizing
Symbiosis,
Imagination and
Congruence

HEALTH:
Honoring
Excellence
Allows
Leadership
Toward
Humanity

FINANCE
Formulating
Information,
Notations
And
Newly
Changing
Efficiencies

RESEARCH:
Reasoned
Enlightenment,
Seeking
Education
And
Responsibly
Connecting
Hypotheses

TRUTH:
Teach
Realities
Uniformly
Through
Harmony

COMMUNITY
Citizens
Offering
Missions,
Methodologies,
Unification,
Needs and
Interconnections
To
You

MEETING:
Minds
Excercising
Effectiveness
Through
Ideas,
Negotiating
Goals

MONEY:
Mounting
Organizational
Necessities
Equal
Yields

BROKER:
Business
Resource for
Opportunities and
Keywords for
Economic
Rewards

SELL:
Skillfully
Explaining
Linking
Language

Seeking
Enlightenment…
Listening and
Learning

CHANGE:
Continually
Having dedicated
A
Natural
Guidepost
Effect

DIVERSITY:
Different
Ideas,
Visions,
Energies,
Realities,
Symbolisms and
Insights
Throughout
Yourself

LEARNING:
Legacy
Encompasses
All
Resource
Narratives
Introducing
Noticeable
Galvanization

KNOWLEDGE
Kaleidescopic
Nucleus
Of
Weighed
Learning
Embracing
Development,
Growth and
Effervescence

WISDOM
We
Influence
Society
Due to
Our
Mastery

REWARDS
Reap
Expectations
With
A
Resilient,
Durable
System

RESPECT
Responsibilities
Epitomize
Sophisticated
Perspectives,
Earning
Commensurate
Truths

TRAINING
Teaching
Radiant
And
Innovative
Nourishment
Inspires
Natural
Growth

LISTEN
Language
In
Studying
The
Evident
Networks

PROBLEM
Polarizing
Routine
Obstacles
By
Letting
Elegance
Materialize

SERVICE
Securing
Excellence
Requires
Visualizing
Innovating
Customer
Effectiveness

PROGRESS
Pursuing
Royal
Objective
Gauges…
Rewarding
Empowered
Super
Service

FORTUNE
Future
Operations
Require
Teams
Understanding
Needs and
Expectations

INNOVATE
Imagining
Niches and
Norms,
Optimizing
Valuable
Alliances,
Training and
Experiences

Every business, company or organization goes through cycles in its evolution. At any point, each program or business unit is in a different phase from others. The astute organization assesses the status of each branch on its Business Tree™ and orients its management and team members to meet constant changes and fluctuations. Going ‘outside the box’ to shift perceptions enables any company to think, plan and operate in productive new ways.

Characteristics of Creative Business Definitions… thus, Company Philosophy…

  • Focus upon the customer.
  • Honor the employees.
  • Show business life as a continuous quality process (not a quick fix or rapid gain).
  • Portray their company as a contributor (not a savior).
  • Clearly define their niche (not trying to be all things).
  • Say things that inspire you to think.
  • Compatible with other company activities and behaviors.
  • Remain consistent with their products, services and track record.

About the Author

Hank Moore has advised 5,000+ client organizations worldwide (including 100 of the Fortune 500, public sector agencies, small businesses and non-profit organizations). He has advised two U.S. Presidents and spoke at five Economic Summits. He guides companies through growth strategies, visioning, strategic planning, executive leadership development, Futurism and Big Picture issues which profoundly affect the business climate. He conducts company evaluations, creates the big ideas and anchors the enterprise to its next tier. The Business Tree™ is his trademarked approach to growing, strengthening and evolving business, while mastering change. To read Hank’s complete biography, click here.