How to Write Funny Even if You're Not Funny

By Karen Susman

Written humor usually produces a grin rather than a fall-off-your-chair response. Read funny writers like Bruce Cameron, Kinky Friedman, or Erma Bombeck. Notice their quirky take on everyday events. Keep your eyes open for the absurdities that abound around you.

While I don't think being funny can be taught, you can use techniques that lighten up your text, increase readership and retention, and make writing enjoyable.

What strikes us funny is surprise. Surprise your readers and you wake them up. Here are eight ways to add mirth to your memo.

1. Rule of Three: For some reason, we are drawn to lists of three, not two, not four. For instance, "Adopt a pet: a dog, cat, or hamster." To make that threesome funnier, surprise us with the third on the list. "Adopt a pet: a dog, cat, or elephant." "...a dog, cat, or flea." "...a dog, cat, or cactus." The first surprise is with something big that isn't usually a pet. The second is something small you may find at PetsMart but not sold as a pet and the third isn't an animal, but you don't have to clean up after it. Use alliteration in your threes, too. We ate a burger, a bun, and a barrel of Pepto Bismol.
   
   
2. Exaggeration: You can describe your birthday cake as big, or as big as a breadbox (remember those?) or 16" by 12" by 18" high. You can also say your cake was as big as a Humvee, a 747, or Montana. Now, that's a big cake!
   
   
3. Overstatement: This is the first cousin of exaggeration. Johnny Carson said, "It was so cold today, or hot today, or rainy today that..." The audience would ask in chorus, "How cold was it?" Johnny didn't respond that it was 30°. Johnny would give a ridiculous overstatement. "It was so cold, M&Ms wouldn't melt in your mouth."
   
   
4. Understatement: "How happy were you when you won the lottery?" "I was so happy I gave everyone in my family a gumball." "I felt so wealthy, I ran right out and bought a Porsche calendar."
   
   
5. Anecdote: Use humorous stories to get your point across. For instance, if I were writing about how ubiquitous and powerful Starbucks is, I could just say Starbucks is ubiquitous and powerful. I could tell you the number of Starbucks that have opened in the last ten years. I could tell you that there is a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks in Vancouver. I could exaggerate and tell you there is now a Starbucks in a Starbucks. Or, I could tell you how Bailey The Wonder Dog insists on stopping at Starbucks every time he passes one. He also insists on stopping at every tree, but in Colorado there are now more Starbucks than trees.
   
   
6. Headlines & Puns: Puns are often used in headlines. A Time Magazine article announces "The Flurry over John Snow." A garden shop sign states, "We shall sell no vine before its time." A tire store boasts, "We skid you not."
   
   
7. Words Ending in “k” or a Hard “"c”: I once spoke about the size of my first microwave oven. Instead of exaggerating by saying it was as big as a Saab, I said it was as big as a Buick. "Buick" got the laugh. The alliteration of the "Bs" in "big" and "Buick" helped the chuckle factor, too. A deli menu invited the customer to think outside the lox. Notice the hard "K" ending, pun and play on words.
   
   
8. Upset the Expected: Take an old cliché and surprise your reader. "Look before you...bump into a wall." Moviemaker Samuel Goldwyn said about directors, "They bite the hand that lays the golden egg."
   

Practice using these techniques. You'll develop your funny tome.

Karen Susman is a Speaker, Trainer, Coach, and Author of 102 Top Dog Networking Secrets. Karen works with organizations that want to maximize performance. Programs include Humour at Work; Balance In Life; Networking Skills; Presentation Skills; and Building Community Involvement. Order new guidebooks on humour, networking, time management, and community involvement by calling 1-888-678-8818 or e-mail Karen@KarenSusman.com.. www.KarenSusman.com.

Published in Networking Today, April 2005.

Sweating the Small Stuff

By Janet Christensen

Do you sweat the small stuff? Perhaps the more relevant question is “what is the small stuff?”

Every day we are faced with situations, choices, and decisions. How do we know what the long term effects of any decision may be? What seems small now may end up having significant consequences down the road.

The flight of a plane provides a good example of how the seemingly small decisions have huge importance. A plane in flight is constantly faced with wind currents and other factors that cause it to go off course. If the pilot does not adjust the flight path accordingly, being off course by even one degree will mean the plane ends up at a different destination than intended. One degree may not seem like much, however, over time and distance it has a significant impact on where the plane will travel. In fact, a plane is off its direct flight path over ninety percent of the time as the pilot, or autopilot, responds to what is happening around the plane and adjusts to bring it back on course.

A friend recently shared with me how his willingness to overlook some small issues led to some serious outcomes for his business over a period of time. As he was preoccupied with getting his business off the ground, his employee was developing some undesirable work practices and habits that he chose to overlook. Things such as taking work time to promote personal interests, not keeping accurate records of inventory, and keeping “flexible” work hours seemed small and inconsequential at the time. Over time, however, the abuses became more frequent and had greater negative consequences for his business and his relationship with his employee. The willingness to not sweat the small stuff ultimately resulted in some big stuff happening that was costly for the business and for both people.

My friend told me that he realized that by being out of integrity with his values and ignoring the small things, he sent a signal to his employee that the undesirable behaviour was, in fact, acceptable. By choosing to overlook the issues, his employee perceived him to be condoning the practices. He found himself and his business heading in a direction that was far from where he wanted to head and that was out of alignment with his values and ethics.

Not sweating the small stuff means not making mountains out of molehills and not giving people and situations more significance than is appropriate or justified. It means keeping things in perspective. However, it does not mean being out of integrity with your values and ethics. Choosing to set your values and ethics aside in the misguided pretense of not sweating the small stuff sends mixed signals to yourself and to others. Having integrity with your values and ethics means dealing with issues as they arise in a consistent manner. It means making choices and decisions that are based on your values and ethics to keep you on your path. It means you end up where you want, being who you want to be in your life.

It's the everyday decisions that ultimately take us where we go, not the big ones. Pay attention to the small choices and decisions you make every day. Make them with awareness and in alignment with your values and ethics. Then the big decisions will take care of themselves.

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.”
Maureen Dowd

Janet Christensen passionately inspires potential as a professional speaker, Passion Map facilitator and writer. She can be reached through her company Unlimiting Potential at (519) 434-5397 or toll free 1-888-779-3061 fax (519) 434-8344 email info@janetchristensen.com Web site www.janetchristensen.com. Published in Networking Today, April 2005.

What's Your Service Mentality IQ?

By Nancy Friedman

Most of us in the customer service arena are very good. And the reason is simple...we always carry a certain amount of a service mentality with us to do the job well.

People often ask me: "Nancy, what is the KEY to good customer service?" My answer is simple. There is no one key. There are many keys...and they all need to be on your customer service key ring.

So, come along with us and learn the 7 service mentalities that will raise the bar for you and your company. See how many of these attributes you own.

Empathy: Some call it sympathy. Whichever you call it, it needs to be there. When someone has a problem, we need to empathize with them and show we understand the frustration they're going through. What we don't want to do, however, is tell a customer, "I know exactly how you feel." Because you aren't able to know exactly how anyone else feels. But you can empathize, and that's why empathy is KEY for a service mentality.

Here's a better way to explain it. I had my wallet stolen a while back, at Disneyland no less. Everything was in it...and the money was the least of my problems. Credit cards, check book, social security card, drivers license...all of it GONE.

Over the years, I have learned to be a "good" customer, so I called the first credit card company and told them of my plight. I said, "Hi, my name is Nancy Friedman and I'm at Disney and my wallet was stolen. Everything's gone." And I told her what was in the wallet. She said without skipping a beat, "NAME?" I said, "It's still Nancy Friedman." Where was her empathy, her sympathy? It wasn't there! All I needed to hear was a simple, "Gee, that's got to be so frustrating. Let me get the ball rolling to help you."

Enthusiasm: We need enthusiasm whenever we help a customer. They need to know you are truly excited to help. (Of course, we need to do this without going over the top and giggling our way through the conversation.) Enthusiastic customer service people get the job done faster, simpler, and with a touch of class. How much enthusiasm do you show in your job?

Responsibility: This is one of the most important keys to a great service mentality. Be responsible for your job, your position, and the company. Being responsible means it is your job.

If you have answered the call on behalf of your company, you have indeed accepted 100% responsibility for the call. "I wasn't here," "I don't know anything about that," "It's not my department," or all those other lines are not in the responsibility key of customer service.

Take responsibility for the call. You answered it. It's yours! This is important in face-to-face situations as well. It's the old "don't point...go show."

Resiliency: This key is a little trickier to use. To be resilient, we need to have a mentality to bounce back from unfortunate events, setbacks, or other negative incidents. It's really an attitude adjustment. One situation with a customer may be more difficult than the other...and when you get to the next customer...your resiliency needs to kick in and bounce you right back to where it was before that negative event. Be resilient!

Ownership: A cousin of responsibility. So many times we hear and see people in the customer service arena who don't want to take ownership of the problem. When you own the problem, you'll handle it far better than if you don't want anything to do with it. And don't forget...never take those barbs from the customer personally. They're not attacking YOU. They're attacking the problem. You're just the lightening rod, not the target. So own the customer you're working with – on the phone or in person! Take ownership! Be proud!

Balance: This is the fine line between “he customer is always right” and knowing what to do about the problem. At Telephone Doctor, we don't believe the customer necessarily is always right. We do, however, know customers always think they're right. And that is the perception we need to deal with at the time.

Many times the customer is in error...had the wrong date, the wrong receipt, the wrong information, or whatever. And yet, they're hell bent on proving that they are right. So you see, they think they're right. We often times know they are not. And that's the secret key...not letting on that we know they're wrong.

It's the balance in the key ring of success. Balance is the art of creating a “win-win” situation. Once you have the key of balance, you'll be able to handle situations to make everyone happy.

Adaptability: Most of us learn at a very early age that everything doesn't happen the way we want it to all the time. So often we need to adapt to a certain situation. Learning how to adapt to all these situations can make you a top customer service individual. It's related to your attitude. Why do some folks adapt very easily and some are not able to adapt at all? It's mainly because of attitude. It shapes how they handle a situation and react to it.

How'd you do? If you have some of these “secret” ingredients of customer service, you're well on your way to success. And even if you're missing one or two, here's your opportunity to learn more about them.

Good luck to you! And may your service mentality be with you today and always.

Nancy Friedman is president of Telephone Doctor®, an international customer service training company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, specializing in customer service and telephone skills. She is a KEYNOTE speaker at association conferences and corporate gatherings and is the author of four best selling books. Call 314-291-1012 for more information or visit the website at www.telephonedoctor.com.

Published in Networking Today, April 2005.

Increase Your Luck for Better Business Success

By Barbara Bartlein

Certain people, like lawyer John Woods, can be identified as lucky. He left his office in one of the Twin Towers seconds before it was hit by a hijacked plane on September 11, 2001. This wasn’t the only time he had been lucky, he also was on the 39th floor of the World Trade Center in 1993 when it was bombed by terrorists and escaped without injury. And five years before that incident, he was scheduled on the Pam Am flight that exploded above Lockerbie, Scotland – but cancelled at the last minute.

There is no question that some people seem to attract good fortune, while others are a magnet for bad luck. New research into this phenomenon has revealed that luck is not always purely a matter of chance, however.

At the University of Hertsfordshire in England, Richard Wiseman, Ph.D., has studied hundreds of men and women ranging from housewives to factory workers to sales people, doctors and nurses. He has conducted lengthy interviews, completed detailed psychological questionnaires, and had volunteers participate in experiments. What Dr. Wiseman found was that there are different ways in which lucky and unlucky people think and behave. He eventually identified four major psychological differences that seem to be the foundation of luck.

• Lucky people constantly encounter chance opportunities. Lucky people tend to be more extroverted than their unlucky counterparts, according to Wiseman. They enjoy visiting friends, going to parties, and tend to meet and maintain contact with large numbers of people. Lucky people have body language and facial expressions that draw others to them. They engage in more eye contact, are twice as likely to smile and make “open” gestures to others such as uncrossing their arms or turning to the people who are talking. These encounters increase the likelihood that they may find a new opportunity for future business or success.
  
  
• Lucky people make good decisions without knowing why. When it comes to business and financial decisions, lucky people trust their gut. They often have a keen sense of when a business decision is prudent or a person should not be trusted. According to surveys completed, lucky people take active steps to boost their intuition through the use of meditation and daily rituals. These types of activities tend to clear the mind so that one can “listen” to what intuition is saying. Many lucky people say they trust their intuition more the older they become.
  
  
• Lucky people’s dreams, ambitions, and goals tend to come true and be met. The research found that lucky people’s expectations were far higher than the unlucky ones. They believe in themselves and their futures. Unlucky people are the exact opposite; they often see their dreams as unreachable fantasies. Lucky people believe that there is an 84% chance of achieving one of their lifetime ambitions; while the group identified as unlucky identified only a 60% chance. It appears that we create our own life fulfilling prophecies.
  
  
• Lucky people have an ability to turn bad experiences into good fortune. They tend to “find the silver lining” to what happens to them and use situations as learning experiences. They tend to ponder how lucky they are as things can always be worse, often comparing themselves to others with bad fortune. Unlucky people see their bad breaks in almost a superstitious manner or view their destiny to be in the hands of “fate.” This thinking leads them to rely on ineffective ways to alter the poor fortune of what is happening to them. They often have difficulty analyzing mistakes and so are more likely to repeat them.
  

Enhance your luck quotient by building your own foundations of luck. And remember, hard work makes good luck.

Sign up for Barbara's FREE email newsletter at www.barbbartlein.com.

Barbara Bartlein is the PeoplePro™. She helps businesses sell more goods and services by developing people. She can be reached at 888-747-9953, by email at: barb@barbbartlein.com or visit her Web site at www.ThePeoplePro.com.

Published in Networking Today, April 2005.

Six Powerful Prospecting Tips

By John Boe

Selling is a contact sport and prospecting for new business is the name of the game! You'll never meet a salesperson that failed because he had too many prospects to talk to. For the majority of salespeople, finding new customers is without a doubt the most difficult and stressful aspect of the profession.

Here are six practical tips to help you become more effective at generating new business and following up with prospects.

1. Prospecting for new business is similar to working out. You know it's good for you and it will produce positive results if you do it routinely. Professional salespeople prospect daily. It's important to block off specific time on your calendar for prospecting activities such as phone calling and emailing. Treat your prospecting time with the same respect as you would any other important appointment, otherwise, there is a tendency that it will slip through the cracks. This is not the time to check your emails, play solitaire on the computer, make a personal phone call, or chat with your associates. Stay focused and take your prospecting seriously. Set the tone by closing your office door and have your incoming calls held unless it is a call from a client or a prospect.
   
   
2. Be prepared, get organized, and take good notes. It's critical to have a computerized contact system to record remarks.
   
   
3. Use a script – don't shoot from the hip. There's only one thing worse than listening to a salesperson read a script over the phone and that is to listen to a salesperson without a script. Obviously, it's important to not only have a script but to practice it until it sounds smooth and natural. Set aside time to role-play with an associate over the phone. By taking turns presenting and critiquing you'll gain confidence, polish your script, and be more effective. When prospecting, avoid the temptation to sell over the phone. Your objective is to gather information and make the appointment.
   
   
4. Strike while the iron is hot! When working with a new prospect, it's important to make contact quickly. Prospects are perishable. No matter how interested a prospect may appear, don't wait for him or her to call you. You are only one of many competing interests for your prospect's time and money.
   
   
5. Keep the high ground and avoid the temptation to badmouth your competition. While it is fair to make head-to-head comparisons, you should avoid personal attacks. Attacking your competition makes you look unprofessional and petty. Emphasize the benefits of your product or service by guiding your prospect through a comparison of quality and price. Play to your strengths and not the weakness of your competition. Let your prospect draw his or her own conclusions from your comparison.
   
   
6. Rejection is a natural aspect of the sales process, so don't take it personally. Learn from rejection, use it as a feedback mechanism, and look for ways to improve your presentation. Salespeople who take rejection personally lack perseverance and seldom make the sale. Sales is a number’s game pure and simple. As a professional baseball player, if you can average four hits out of ten times at bat you are heading for the Hall of Fame. Research indicates that in sales you can expect your prospect to say NO five times before he or she buys. With this in mind, realize that with every sales rejection you receive, you are one step closer to making the sale.
   

Prospecting for new business should be viewed more as a mindset rather than merely as an activity. It's something you need to be constantly aware of because you never know where your next prospect will be coming from. It really doesn't matter how competent you are or how well you know your product line, if you don't have a qualified prospect in front of you, you don't have a sale.


John Boe presents a variety of training and motivational programs for meetings and conventions. John brings over twenty years of experience as an award-winning sales trainer to the platform. His programs are unique, consistently well received, and get results. Visit www.johnboe.com for more information.

Published in Networking Today, April 2005.

Growing Relationships …From the Client's Perspective

By Andrew Sobel

"We really don't need a lot of new client relationships," the chairman of a large professional services firm recently told me, adding, "We have a great client base already. There's huge potential to grow and develop our existing clients." Many companies feel the same way: That there is a large opportunity to deepen and broaden – to grow – their current clients. But what is the process by which this occurs?

Over the last six months I have interviewed a number of C-level executives in a variety of Fortune 500 companies, and one of the questions I asked was, "What has characterized the relationships – with outside professional firms, financial institutions, or other suppliers – that have grown steadily over time?" Here are the key points – reinforced by other feedback I've gotten in many other client interviews, which these clients have made to me.

1. "They've gotten to know me as a person."

When it comes to their business lives, executives care more about their careers than anything else, and as an independent advisor you can provide invaluable perspective in this area. To really serve your client well you have to understand him or her as a person. You have to become familiar with his or her goals, aspirations, fears, and values. In this vein, the head of worldwide business development for a major corporation told me, somewhat humorously, "If you had to call your client up on a Saturday, and his spouse answered, would you say, 'Can I please speak to my client' or would you know her name and be able to exchange pleasantries with her? The personal side of relationships is important."

2. "They've built strong relationships throughout our organization."

I call this developing "many-to-many" relationships. It's not enough to have one very strong relationship with someone you perceive to be the key decision maker – in larger organizations, you have to build a network of relationships, for a variety of reasons:

• Particularly in high-ticket sales situations, there are invariably many buying influences. You need to build relationships with the economic buyer (or buyers), user buyers, technical buyers, and other key influencers.
  
  
• When follow-on or additional work is being decided upon, the economic buyer will often be testing to see how widespread the support is for a particular provider. By building many-to-many relationships, you solidify that support.
  
  
• To get your recommendations accepted, it's often necessary to build consensus in the client's organization. You need a network of relationships to accomplish this.
  
  
• Sometimes, lower-level managers have large budgets or more decision-making authority than you think. The head of Europe for a major investment bank told me this story: "We have strong relationships with the CEO, CFO, and Treasurer at a long-standing client. A competitor of ours had a mid-level banker (an executive director) literally camp out next to the assistant treasurer for weeks on end. It turns out the assistant treasurer was the key decision-maker for a major convertible bond issue, which was awarded to our competitor. We missed this key relationship, and therefore lost a major piece of revenue."
  

3. "They've consistently done great work."

As the chairman of one large corporation said to me, "There is, after all, something to be said for just doing a great job! Isn't that the best recommendation?" There is a lot of talk about "cross-selling" (a term which I believe is antiquated and somewhat discredited by a lack of success), but it all has to start with a single professional or a small team that has established a trusted advisor relationship with the client and done a terrific job on the initial assignment.

4. "They have delivered on their promise of being a global organization."

One client executive told me, "Many firms say they are 'global.' Most of them don't act like they are, however. They are introducing themselves to each other in the hallway outside my office right before the meeting! That's what I like about our current advisors – they have worked together for many years, and built up strong, internal relationships. They are able to deliver the global capability and not just talk about it." This goes back to the idea of building many-to-many relationships using a truly team approach with professionals who know each other, trust each other, and enjoy spending time together.

5. "We feel very special, like we're one of their biggest, most important clients."

Everyone wants to feel like they are special and important, and no one wants to feel like they are just one among hundreds or even thousands. One client said to me, "I know we're not that large, but we feel special, like the entire organization would be available to us if it were needed." How do you instill this feeling in your clients? I think it comes from doing many different things – being totally focused on that client when you are with her, staying in touch frequently, occasionally introducing other expert resources from within your own firm, getting to know them as people (point 1, above), adding both core and surprise value, and so on.

6. "They stay in touch regularly."

In my experience, many professionals are weak at staying in touch, especially if there isn't a lot going on with a client at that moment. A client of mine, himself a superb relationship builder, likes to say that "if you talk to a client once a day you have lots to talk about – the conversation can go on forever; if you talk every few months, you have nothing to talk about." In addition to staying in touch regularly and sending your client relevant articles, ideas, introductions, and so on, think about taking the occasional "deep dive" – do some research and serious thinking around a topic of special interest to your client, and structure a substantive meeting around it. Many clients have told me that a well thought-out "deep dive" into an important subject can often be the catalyst for additional work.

7. "They keep the ideas coming."

The CFO of a major telecommunications company told me, "All these things are important – building a personal relationship, creating many points of contact, and so on, but in the end, they have to deliver, they have to keep up a steady supply of ideas and perspectives in order to sustain the loyalty and keep the relationship fresh." This comment supports a practice I often preach to my own clients, that is, treating old clients like new clients.

The ingredients required to grow client and customer relationships are really not all that baffling or obscure: Do great work, get to know your clients as people, be creative about staying in touch regularly, build many-to-many relationships, make each client feel special, invest in building face time and trust – internally – so your organization can truly mobilize around each client, and keep up a steady flow of valuable ideas and perspectives. The real knack, of course, is having the dogged discipline to do these things week-in, week-out!


Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com

Published in Networking Today, April 2005.

China in Motion

By Carol McKenzie

Have you ever wondered why so few trade missions to China end in contracts?

Through more than one thousand hours of interviews, Mia Doucet, from China in Motion, discovered answers.

• Because North Americans are unaware of Chinese business culture they move too fast to get the initial contract.
• They make mistakes in their communication.
• They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and then hit a wall for lack of cross-cultural competence.
  

Even companies that already have a presence in China lose profits and productivity because the people who interact with their Asian customers and suppliers are unaware of the cultural issues.

Small Things Make Big Differences

“North Americans need to learn to slow down the pace,” says Doucet, “and alter the Western behaviours that elicit passive resistance. We can make small changes that have a major impact on productivity.” Here are some of Doucet’s tips.

1. Decision-Making
   
   The Western system rewards good, independent decision-making. We value the philosophy of individual accountability. We are taught to ask to speak directly to the decision maker. When customer issues arise, we demand that someone take responsibility.
   
   In China, while the senior person makes major decisions, lesser decisions are reached by consensus. In the latter case, no one person is responsible. When you pressure your Asian colleagues for a decision, you are asking them to defy their instincts, their culture, and their training. They will not act, because they cannot act alone. So the decision you want will stall.
   
   To speed the decision process, slow down. Make sure that all parties receive the same detailed information. Keep everyone in the loop.
   
   
2. Problem-Solving
   
   The freewheeling Western brainstorming practice goes against strict hierarchical codes of conduct. Successful brainstorming requires that everyone's ideas be treated equally, without hierarchy, and without regard for authority. All ideas are potentially laughable. But in a status-conscious culture, where acknowledging rank is critical to maintaining face, and where they are taught to take business seriously and not make mistakes, this presents an impossible situation.
   
   It is best to avoid it. Problem-solve logically. Allow one person to speak at a time. Defer to the one in authority. Start from the beginning and work through to a solution in a logical, step-by-step fashion.
   
   
3. Information Management
   
   Westerners have the tendency to come to the conversation only partially prepared. They feel confident in their ability to wing it. If they don't have all the necessary information, they will provide it later.
   
   The flip side of this tendency is to expect Asians to be fine with giving and receiving partial answers; however, Chinese are offended by partial answers. Lack of preparedness can cause loss of face and loss of trust. Since an Asian won't get back to you until all the facts are known, break your requests for information into smaller segments.
   
   "It helps to understand that most of your Asian colleagues are not fluent in spoken English," says Doucet. This causes shame. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to think that they really understand what you say. This false assumption can prove costly. Most Asians understand far less than we think they do. They smile and nod and we interpret that to mean the communication is understood.
   

Fortunately, small changes in behavior can have a major impact on results. As an example, the way to communicate clearly is to talk in short sentences. Listen more than you speak. Pause between sentences. Find four or five easy ways to say the same thing. Never ask a question that can be answered with a simple yes. Avoid all slang. And skip the humour altogether.

Carol A. McKenzie is an independent training consultant and partner in China in Motion. Carol offers a full range of client services to organizations looking to increase the potential of people and to achieve business goals. She can be contacted at (519) 679-0223 or email carolmckenzie@rogers.com. Visit her Web site at www.carolamckenzie.com.

Published in Networking Today, April 2005.