Blog

One of the biggest issues I see with clients on their way to becoming Engaging Executives is an extreme focus on the words they’re saying, but not on how they’re saying them. While your words are obviously important, you have to look beyond your verbal communication in order to communicate effectively as a whole. Your tone of voice, your body language, it’s all equally important.

If you’re just beginning your Engaging Executive journey, you’ve likely come across a question that plagues many of my clients. So many ask me, “Duncan, how can I come across as more confident?”
Here’s one little quick tip that can be extremely useful, particularly if you’re on the more introverted side, as so many of my clients are.

Want a real-life example of how the pull style actually works in real life? Take this story shared by one of our Engaging Executives in training, Michael.

Your team is doing well, but you’re noticing one key weakness, particularly in meetings, particularly in meetings with clients. You have a great team of client-facing individuals, who are influential in their own way, but stick them in front of certain clients or throw a spanner into their normal influential routine and they lose all … Continue reading Is Your Stellar Team Actually Subpar When It Comes to Range of Influence? →

The emergence of an Engaging Executive is a magical thing. As your employees find their inner voice and start to blossom into well-rounded leaders in your company, you’ll find that everyone has their surprising moments, not least of all when these Engaging Executives‘in training’ get to the stage of the process wherein they learn how to assert themselves and influence others. It’s here that they’re learning about their own voice and how to tap into their own power to make things happen, whether that’s getting their coworkers onto their own agenda, or drawing on their teammates’ own hopes and dreams to advance everyone’s goals.

It’s not an uncommon challenge that L&D directors face — you have a team member who just won’t open up, who’s terrible at building relationships with clients and who you really can’t send out into the world, to an event to represent the company. These individuals are weak links on your team, but they don’t have to be. With the right coaching, these colleagues can learn to overcome their aversion to networking, both to the benefit of their own careers and the company.

As a CEO or other manager in your business, you know the power of networking. Half of getting to where you are today was pure skill, but the other half (maybe even more than half) was the ability to network with people and create the crucial relationships needed to advance your career and do your job with as much effectiveness as possible.

Every day, my clients are learning to ENGAGE with their colleagues on a deeper and more meaningful level. They frequently cite their biggest success within the Engaging Executive Programme has been cultivating the ability to build rapport with others, learning how to connect with them on a different level than they would have been able to otherwise.

Just like you want to give your own performance a personal review at the end of the year, you also probably want to give your actual career and job a type of evaluation, to ensure you’re on the right path.

Do you know someone who sets the same New Year’s resolution every single year….and every single year, they fail? Could it be that they never really stop to examine how they’re going after their goals, and why they’re failing in the first place (beyond just giving up)? These are the people who need a personal year-end review. Are you one of them? As an aspiring Engaging Executive and businessperson, it’s important to reflect on your successes, failures and progress. After all, that’s the only way to move forward rather than backward.