To say that the way we communicate in business today is undergoing major changes would be a wildly profound understatement. Many businesses simply feel overwhelmed by the advances of Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, not to mention the near total penetration of mobile devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry. The simple email and conference call, once the de facto standards, are now just two of the numerous tools in a crowded communications toolbox. Are these new tools bad, making effective business communication and Execution Rhythm impossible? No, like any multi-faceted business process, they must be applied as proper leverage points toward one thing, the achievement of the highly focused future picture of your business.
The Breakdown in Effective Business Communication
For the past two years, according to the renowned Conference Board’s Annual Survey of Worldwide CEOs, execution-related challenges rank as the top two concerns that keep business leaders awake at night. That seems counter-intuitive when the communications and information revolution has brought people “together” via a vast array of electronic tools. Could it be the more we text and chat, the more execution-related problems our operations develop? Well, maybe, but I think the problem is not how we are communicating, it’s more the lack of effective business communication stemming from our expectations and demands on technology.
In this economy, most businesses have experienced deep reductions in travel budgets. In many cases, travel has been almost eliminated all together. Quite frankly, it’s some of the advances in technological business communication that are making the difference between red and black ink on a great number of balance sheets. But like any tool, if you try to use a dental pick to dig a tunnel, it’s not the dental pick’s fault.
Using Communication Tools Found in Execution Rhythm to Close Gaps
Breakdowns in effective business communication usually manifest themselves as Execution Gaps. An Execution Gap is defined as the delta between the target your team planned to hit and where the dart actually landed. How do we use effective business communication to close this gap? The answer is “Execution Rhythm,” a concept adapted from military operations called “Battle Rhythm.” After an action plan has been determined with clear who does what by when, it is vital that an Execution Rhythm is established. This rhythm is created by holding a cascading series of meetings to determine one thing: Are we on track or not? If not, what can the entire team do to close the current gap? In each of the cascading meetings approaching the deadline, the gaps are tightened and the lessons learned in each of the preceding meetings are used to help shrink the gap. Now, can the new technology found in these effective business communication tools be employed to close these gaps? Certainly! The delay of a key component delivered by a supporting team, for example, may be communicated quickly via text before entering that week’s Execution Gap meeting. That information can then be shared and addressed instantly within that meeting to negate the potential negative effects on the project’s timeline. This is information that can’t wait for an email, memo or next week’s multi-department meeting.
Effective Business Communication Is Not the “How;” It Is the “Why” and the “When”
The tempo of Execution Rhythm may be daily, weekly, monthly or a combination of the three. Execution Rhythm should develop its structure around a regular cycle of planning, briefing, executing and debriefing, again with one goal, to close that execution gap and push the team toward the future picture. This may happen on a phone bridge, video conference or in the good old conference room. The non-negotiable aspects of Execution Rhythm are that the team be focused on using lessons learned from previous meetings and new data to equip each member of the team with the resources they need to hit the mark. An email detailing the meeting’s action steps may be distributed to the whole team after the meeting. A Twitter post may keep key members of the team updated on a daily goal or special initiative. These effective business communication tools can all be very helpful, but the team must be using them to create a successful Execution Rhythm around your initiatives. As Gen X and Gen Y are not only a part of all business environments, but are absolutely pivotal in most enterprises, always ask yourself what new forms of effective business communication may help those team members close their Execution Gaps.
About the Author:
James D. Murphy, the founder and CEO of Afterburner, Inc., has a unique, powerful mix of leadership skills in both the military and business worlds. After graduating from the University of Kentucky, Murphy joined the U.S. Air Force where he learned to fly the F-15. He has logged over 1,200 hours as an instructor pilot in the F-15 and has accumulated over 3,200 hours of flight time in other high-performance jet aircraft. Murphy, Afterburner’s leadership keynote speaker, has helped top business leaders transform strategy into action, demonstrating how the concepts of the Flawless Execution(SM) model could be applied to business process improvement and engaging the proven model – “Plan. Brief. Execute. Debrief.” Through his leadership, Afterburner has landed on Inc. Magazine’s “Inc. 500 List” twice. Murphy has been featured in a variety of prestigious publications and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg News to name a few. For more information on Afterburner, Inc., please visit www.afterburner.com.
Nasdaq Canada is a subsidiary of the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. Putting into simple words, this is the Nasdaq Stock Exchange extended within Canada. Through the Nasdaq Canada Canadian investors have immediate trading access to all Nasdaq listed stocks which allow to raise capital more efficiently. Initially Nasdaq Canada has been regulated jointly by the NASDR and the Quebec Securities Commission (CVMQ) and was opened on 21 November 2000 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. At the same time as Nasdaq initiated its trading platform in Canada the Nasdaq Canada Index was created. The ticker symbol of this index is ^CND. Already by the end of 2000 year 142 companies were listed on the Nasdaq Canada.
At the beginning only ten Canadian brokerage firms participated in the Nasdaq Canada trading platform: Scotia Capital Markets, CIBC WorldMarkets Corp., TD Securities, BMO Nesbitt Burns, Canaccord Capital, Capital Casgrain & Company, Mouvement Desjardins, NBC International, Inc. (USA), Pictet Overseas, Yorkton Capital (USA). All these brokerage houses were able to trade more than 5,000 public companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange at that time.
The first president of the Nasdaq Canada was Helen Kearns. Helen M Karens was responsible for leading the overall operation, growth, and development of the company. A native of Montreal, Ms. Kearns had over 20 years experience in the Canadian capital markets as a specialist in underwriting and financial advisory services for high growth, new economy companies. However, on July 2004, as the Nasdaq announced the closing of Nasdaq Canada’s office in Montreal and moving all its operations to New York City. Adams Nunes has become a new leader of the Nasdaq Canada.
At the current moment NASDAQ is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. More than 3,000 Canadian and U.S. companies are listed on this exchange. You may find companies from the different market sectors including but not limited by technology sector, retail sector, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology
“Research in Motion Limited” (RIMM), “Open Text Corporation” (OTEX), “Pan America Silver Corporation” (PAAX), “SXC Health Solution Corporation” (SXCI), “Silver Standard Resources, Incorporated” (SSCI) are some of the biggest Canadian companies traded on the Nasdaq Canada stock market.
Beside Nasdaq Canada Canadian public companies are listed and traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) – one of the biggest Canadian stock markets. TSX Group also owns the TSX Venture Exchange (previously called Canadian Venture Exchange) which is located in Calgary, Alberta and has offices in Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto.
About the Author:
Access various technical studies, stock charts and quotes for S&P 500, DJI, Nasdaq 100 and other U.S. and Canadian indexes at for ETFs and options trading.
The stock market should present you with a wide variety of NEW hot stocks in 2009. Many of them are going to be new technology stocks that come from the nanotech, biotech, financial, energy, healthcare & communications sectors.
Most of them might seem promising, but the truth is that a good number of these trading & investing opportunities could be extremely risky, while others are simply not as good as they look. That’s why it’s very important to know how to choose among the best especially if you want to day trade them.
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Experienced day traders recognize that trading hot stocks on momentum can be the fastest way to make money in the stock market, especially on uncertain times like these.
You don’t necessarily have to trade momentum hot stocks all the time. But you can learn how to take advantage of them when you encounter the best opportunities for going long or for shorting them to make money when they are poised to fall down.
If You decide to day trade stocks just keep always in mind that for a trader to survive and be consistently profitable, its necessary to keep things as simple as possible. To much confusion and technical indicators will most of the time make you slow in your decisions and froze you up when a good opportunity is right in front of your screen.
In the end, stock market day trading is all about picking the best daily stock opportunities and following your buy and sell signals with ease and simplicity. Once you learn to master your trading decisions, you can aspire to produce consistent profitable results.
About the Author:
Momentum Stock Trading helps stock traders and investors take advantage of practical stock trading opportunities every day at http://www.MomentumStockTrading.com
Future Consumers, Lifestyles and Online Communities – impact of new technology, communications, wireless networking on business and personal life. Patrick Dixon – Futurist / Futurologist conference keynote speaker
If you’ve ever been in a conversation with a prospect, then you have had to deal with objections. It’s simply a fact of business that prospects will have objections. In order to move the prospect forward on a decision to do business with you, you will need to overcome the prospect’s objection. Unfortunately, for most marketers handling and overcoming an objection from the prospect is difficult.
I believe one of the biggest reasons most marketers in the Direct Selling Industry struggle with having to handle and overcome objections is due to underdeveloped skills in overcoming objections. You see, if you knew how to handle the objection in a way that came naturally for both you and your prospect, you would be more effective not only in overcoming the objections, but you would also close more sales.
Objections can hold up and stall any sale. Objections are unavoidable and the objection your prospect gives can be direct or indirect. It can also be completely absurd and irrational or make sense and very logical. To an inexperienced marketer, especially one who has underdeveloped skills in overcoming objections, to have to deal with an objection can become a major
obstacle that will stand in the way of getting more prospects saying yes and doing business with them.
A little know secret technique to effectively overcoming objections is to view overcoming of objections is really just answering questions. Knowing how to overcome objections requires knowing how to effectively answer your prospect’s questions. However, for most people, objections are viewed as something negative and creates often an overtone of the marketer’s response to come across as a defensive response.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when handling objections is they believe and perceive the prospect is being negative. This is especially common for the inexperience marketer or those who have never fully developed their objection handling skills.
The fact is we are in a relationship business. To build and nurture relationships requires effective communication. Handling and overcoming objections is part of the communication. And effective communication often does not happen because most of us just try to wing it or read from some list of frequently asked questions. The sad part about this is approaching
objections in this way only creates frustration, which can shut down communication.
While most marketers come into the Direct Selling Industry without the proper developed skill set required for getting their job done, a very natural approach to overcoming objections can be learned quickly. It will take time and effort to master this natural approach, but once learned, if applied consistently in all conversations you have with prospects, you will be perceived as empathetic, professional, non-pushy, and one who answered their question right away with confidence, credibility, and honesty. The result from such an approach will be win/win, meaning you win and your prospect wins.
About the Author:
Jeff Zalewski is a Certified Training Consultant & CEO of Direct Selling Academy, Inc., your training & performance improvement resource, where he intertwines his knowledge & in-the-field experience. Get a free performance improvement CD from Jeff at http://www.directsellingacademy.com/freecd.htm