Think Learn Succeed

Find Time to Write Your Blog

Publishing your own blog is a proven way to boost your professional profile, but it will only work if you regularly produce a high quality product. Professional bloggers publish predictably, consistently and regularly.

So if you’re serious about writing a blog, you need to make the time to be consistent. Here are five tips you can use to beat procrastination and get your blog out on time, every time.

Map out six months’ of post titles

Effective bloggers are efficient bloggers. They write to a plan, rather than writing haphazardly. To create your plan:

Decide on your theme
Brainstorm six post titles
Sequence the titles so they make logical sense

Now you’re ready to start planning the points you’re going to make in each post.

16/02/2017 By Eleanor Shakiba Credibility tips assertive women • assertiveness • business coach • coaching for business women • coaching for women • confident communication • courses for business women • courses for women • Eleanor Shakiba • gender and business • gender and influence • gender and power • gender bias • gender norms • image management • personal brand • personal branding • personal coach • personal success • positive psychology coaching • positive psychology courses • positive psychology training • success coach • training for women • visibility • women and communication • women and success • women in business 0 Comments

VIDEO: Fire up your blog writing

Are you struggling to keep up the momentum of writing blog post after blog post? It’s time to get organised and learn the secrets of successful blog post writing. Learn to beat writer’s block and write a 500-word post in just one hour. Get tips and advice from author and coach, Eleanor Shakiba. Read more

07/02/2017 By Eleanor Shakiba Credibility tips assertive women • assertiveness • business coach • coaching for business women • coaching for women • confident communication • courses for business women • courses for women • Eleanor Shakiba • gender and business • gender and influence • gender and power • gender bias • gender norms • image management • personal brand • personal branding • personal coach • personal success • positive psychology coaching • positive psychology courses • positive psychology training • success coach • training for women • visibility • women and communication • women and success • women in business 0 Comments

The downside of being helpful

Being a team player. Supporting other people. Helping your colleagues. Many women see these behaviours as their strengths. Recently however, I heard a thought-provoking comment about strengths.

A colleague confidently proclaimed ‘Well, when you over-use a strength it becomes a limiting force.’ I wonder if you agree with this statement? It certainly had an impact on me. Read more

24/01/2017 By Eleanor Shakiba Credibility tips assertive women • assertiveness • business coach • coaching for business women • coaching for women • confident communication • courses for business women • courses for women • Eleanor Shakiba • gender and business • gender and influence • gender and power • gender bias • gender norms • image management • personal brand • personal branding • personal coach • personal success • positive psychology coaching • positive psychology courses • positive psychology training • success coach • training for women • visibility • women and communication • women and success • women in business 0 Comments

Build a Standout Personal Brand

If you’re serious about success, you need to actively work on your personal brand. This is the persona you present to the world. It defines how other people perceive you.

There are five key steps for managing your personal brand. Here are some tips you can use to make-over your personal brand easily and successfully.

Be crystal clear about what you stand for

Because your brand is an expression of who you are, you need to be sure you know who you are. Consider questions such as “What makes you different to everyone else?” and “What do you want to communicate to the world?”

After you’ve answered these questions summarise your responses in three sentences. Distil these into a single sentence of seven words or less. Then move on to the next step.

17/01/2017 By Eleanor Shakiba Credibility tips assertive women • assertiveness • business coach • coaching for business women • coaching for women • confident communication • courses for business women • courses for women • Eleanor Shakiba • gender and business • gender and influence • gender and power • gender bias • gender norms • image management • personal brand • personal branding • personal coach • personal success • positive psychology coaching • positive psychology courses • positive psychology training • success coach • training for women • visibility • women and communication • women and success • women in business 0 Comments

2017: Your Year to Smash Through Glass Ceilings

Welcome to 2017. This year, I’ll be focussing my newsletter on tips for helping savvy, professional women – like you or your female colleagues – thrive in today’s demanding world.

This new women and success theme reflects a crystalisation of my professional focus. From now on, my goal is to help high potential women burst through glass ceilings. That’s why I’ve changed my tagline to ‘the glass ceiling smasher’.

You might be wondering what inspired this change of focus? Well, I’ve been a presenter and coach for 22 years now. In that time, 90 percent of the people I’ve helped have been high potential women. Women who’ve hit frustrating road blocks on their paths to success. From under-resourced women in Bali, to stressed out Australian females in leadership roles, the women I meet consistently report experiencing three main barriers to success.

Being seen and taken seriously
Feeling confident and maintaining momentum
Having an impact and being heard

13/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION assertive communication • assertiveness • assertiveness trainers • assertiveness training • broken record technique • communication • communication skills • confident communication • speaking up for yourself 0 Comments

Get your point across

When people won’t listen, you need to focus their attention. Use the Broken Record technique to do this.

This technique involves repeating your message until it is heard. The name ‘Broken Record’ refers to what happens when old fashioned vinyl records are scratched – the needle of a record player loops over the same section of the recording indefinitely. There are six steps involved in using Broken Record.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION abusive customer • assertiveness • communication skills • confident communication • customer complaints assertive communication • customer service • customer service trainers • customer service training • handling upset customers 0 Comments

What to do about abusive callers

Are your customers much nastier on the phone than face to face? Here’s how to put a stop to their behaviour.

Be clear about your company’s policy

Your employer has a duty of care. You should be protected from being bullied or harassed. This means having a policy on how abusive customers are handled. A good policy should outline how you can respond to abuse, when you should transfer a caller to someone more senior and how to end a call if abuse is unreasonable. Make sure you’re familiar with your company’s policy. If they don’t have one, draft one and propose it to management.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION assertive communication • assertiveness • communication skills • confident communication • customer service • customer service trainers • customer service training • handling upset customers 0 Comments

Handling irate customers

Nobody likes dealing with angry customers. But if you work in customer service, it’s part of your job.

Here are four tips that make talking to angry customers easier.

Remember that customers aren’t always right

No. The old saying isn’t true – customers aren’t always right. But they are always customers. Without them, you wouldn’t be in business. So treat all customers respectfully, even when they’re wrong. Never say “you’re wrong,” “that’s wrong” or “you’ve made a mistake.” Words like this trigger a shame reaction – which many customers deal with by becoming angry. Instead say “I’m sorry you got that impression,” “I’ll talk you through what happened” or “I’d like to clarify something.” Quickly move on to solving the problem, rather than dwelling on what caused it.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION assertive communication • assertiveness • assertiveness trainers • assertiveness training • communication skills • communication skills trainers • communication skills training • confident communication • dealing with difficult people • giving feedback • passive-aggression • passive-aggressive people • presentation skills • public speaking 0 Comments

How to ‘call’ bad behaviour

Psychologists recommend ‘calling out’ passive aggressive people on their tactics. How can you do this without creating conflict?

There are four steps involved in calling out poor behaviour assertively and calmly.

Tag: confident communication