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This week’s featured posts.

Building Brands by Building Trust

What’s a brand?  In essence, it’s a promise that’s been consistently fulfilled. The promise has been kept in the past and we’ve come to trust that it will be fulfilled in the future. Coca Cola, for instance, has always tasted the same — no matter where or when the product is purchased. We’re confident that the same taste will be delivered in the future. In other words, we trust Coca Cola will keep its promise and we feel safe in buying the product. The brand has reduced risk and uncertainty in our lives.

What’s the essence of brand building? Consistently fulfilling the same promise. If the company behind the brand has many employees who deliver customer services, then they all must understand the brand promise and fulfill it in their daily activities. If they do, trust will be enhanced and the brand will grow. If they don’t, the lack of consistency undermines trust and customers lose confidence in the business. Customers will start to wonder whether they can trust that the brand will fulfill its promises in the future.

Learn more in the video.

 

Are older people wiser?

Many cultures around the world consider old people to be wiser than young people.  Why would that be?  It may be very simple — old people have forgotten a lot.  They forget the details and the minutiae. They remember the important stuff.  That’s also very good advice for creating powerful, persuasive presentations.

Get more tips for improving your verbal communication skills in the video.

Your metaphor or mine?

The world is just too complex.  It’s difficult to understand all the different things that are going on around us.  Some people retreat to conspiracy theories to try to make sense of the world.  Most of us do something simpler: we create metaphors.  A metaphor is simply a way of saying, “the world is like this…”  It simplifies the many complexities and makes the world — and our arguments — easier to understand.

But what happens if my metaphor for how the world works is different from your metaphor?  If I say that life is like baseball, then I’ll probably tolerate a little deceit in life.  After all, the hidden ball trick is acceptable, no?  If you say that life is like a court of law, you’ll probably have a much different view of what’s acceptable.  We could wind up talking right past each other.  Worse, we could get very angry at each other without really understanding why.  It’s not an effective communication tool for business or for romance.  Learn more in the video.

Defending Yourself – Is It Really About You?

Has anyone ever unloaded on you verbally? What did you do to defend yourself? Did you lash back? Did you raise your voice? Did you assume that it was about you?

People may lash out at you verbally for many different reasons. They’re having a bad day. Their boss unloaded on them. They didn’t get that promotion. They had a fender bender on the way to work. It’s not always about you. Reacting as if it were about you can make a bad situation worse.

It’s a good time to use your listening skills – ask questions. A few simple questions can clarify the situation, allowing you to choose an appropriate response. If it’s really not about you, then a sympathetic response may be much more appropriate than an angry response. Even if your questions don’t clarify the situation, asking them will give you a little time to think and react with wisdom rather than impulse.

What questions should you ask? Watch the video.

Evaluating Logic Logically

Where you stand depends on where you sit.  If you sit in the Republican caucus, you’ll judge the logic of a Democratic speaker very stringently.  If you sit in the Democratic caucus, you’ll judge the same logic much more leniently.  A neutral observer might judge the same logic in a more balanced manner — but is there really such a thing as a “neutral observer”?  The truth is that we don’t evaluate logic logically.  We trust the logic of those we trust.  We don’t trust the logic of those we don’t trust. Trust is central to the art of persuasion.  Your logic will be accepted much more readily if your audience trusts you.

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