One of the games I sometimes play in trainings is to pick some of the largest companies with well-known brand names and as a group answer questions such as:

If Brand x was a person:

(a) What would they wear?
(b) How would they spend their spare time?
(c) What would be their favourite food?
(d) What would they do on holiday?
(e) Where would they shop?

Interestingly, despite doing this with very different types of groups the answers for each brand are often the same. When we discuss how the group came to decide upon the answers that they gave they often say that they considered things such as:

Personal experience of the brand’s product or service
The companies marketing and advertising
Stories in the press
Knowledge of the people in charge,
Printed material – letters, catalogues etc

When we look at how these successful brands describe themselves and their identity it becomes obvious that they successfully communicate this by demonstrating it in their behaviours.

For example, people often say that a well known airline would go hot air ballooning or do some fun extreme sport in their spare time. Visiting the companies own website to shows that they describe themselves as fun and list some examples of how they communicate this.

This link between communicating using behaviour and action is not something that can be confined to successfully branded companies. Individuals will find it easier to communicate more authentically if their behaviours and actions match with what they are saying (or wanting to say).

I invite you to play with the following. It’s designed to give you a way to communicate authentically your skills and qualities. This exercise was originally written to be used when applying for a new job as a way of communicating the value you can add. It can also be used if there is someone in your life who you feel misses your value, you may also want to use it as your own confidence-building tool.

1. Pick a situation or scenario where it would be useful for you to effectively communicate your skills and qualities.

2. It’s always easier to know how to demonstrate behaviour when you have identified what that is. So, make a list of the qualities and skills that you would like to communicate to this person or in this situation.

3. Read through your list and for each point consider how you could demonstrate this.

For example: Want to show that you are interested in the other person? You could demonstrate that by listening to what that person is actually saying (not what you think they said) the next time you talk to them. [Listening is a really under rated skill, many people think that if they are not talking then they are demonstrating listening]

Tips for if you get stuck on any point:

· Remember that I invite you to play with this as a game – an experiment if you like. I’m only asking what you could do, you don’t have to go and do it, so you can be as imaginative as you want with this

· You are allowed to keep this simple – there is no need to overcomplicate your answer.

For example, if you would like to demonstrate that you are a good timekeeper – turn up on time for an appointment!

4. Once you have thought of some method of demonstrating that skill or quality for each point, go through the list again and put a Capital B next to the ones that you can do easily

5. Now, read through your list and put a star next to all the ones that you want to do.

6. Finally read through your list again and pick at least one that you will do and using either your diary, calendar, a post it on the fridge door or whatever method you use to keep track of appointments, schedule in a time when you will demonstrate the thing that you picked.

I’d love to hear your experience of playing with this, feel free to let me know how it was for you 🙂

Have a fantastic and valued 7 days

love

Jen

This was orginally posted on the site Your Changing Direction.

This piece I wrote back in 2008 and was initially published on the blog Your Changing Direction.

For a couple of reasons this week I have been thinking about time, or to be more precise, how time can effect our perception of a situation we’re in.

The bits of history that have always fascinated me concern how people lived. Over the past year or so I have been following the correspondence of a British World War I soldier, William Henry Bonser Lamin otherwise known as Harry. (http://tinyurl.com/29oys3 )

I suspect it hasn’t escaped your notice that there has been a bit of an election happening in the United States of America. One of the things about President-Elect Barack Obama’s Victory Speech that set me thinking was what he said about the things that 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper had seen in her life so far.

Regardless of whether you agree politically or not with Obama, the changes in society that Ann Nixon Cooper has witnessed in 106 years is fairly dramatic, and although I don’t yet know the fate of Harry the WWI soldier I’m fairly certain that he too would report massive changes in attitudes and what is considered important. I also suspect that they would both report that throughout the course of their lives what they choose to prioritise and spend their time on would be different at various stages in their lives.

With that in mind, I invite you to play with the following:

1. Imagine you’re 106 years old, sat reflecting back on your life so far:
What are the things that you are proudest of?
What brings the big grin to your face as you remember it?
Notice what’s important to you.

2. Think of something that the you in 2008 would like a new perspective off. With the benefit of hindsight, as you imagine being 106 sat reflecting back, what do you notice now about that thing? Take all the time that you need to play with this.

3. When you’re ready, come back fully to the present, bringing with you anything that is important for you to bring, you may want to stretch or wriggle your fingers and toes as you become more aware of your current surroundings.

Every person’s experience of playing with this is different, some say that they gain new insight on possibilities; others say that it confirms that there are potential consequences that they hadn’t considered. Often people realise that what they have been choosing to prioritise is not that important to them in the grand scheme of things.

Whatever your experience I’d love to hear about it.