Monday, May 12, 2008
Small Talk for Business - How to Play Conversation Tennis to Connect Through Small Talk
A conversation is like a tennis game. You start the conversation and then send the ball into the other court. The other person continues the conversation and then sends it back to you. Without this give and take, you end up with a monologue.
Here are some ways to keep sending the ball over the net.
Add something. When you respond to a question, flesh out your answer with details. Dont respond with a monosyllable, such as Yes or No.
Avoid killer phrases. Instead of remarks such as: We already tried that. It didnt work, respond with: How would that work?
Dont try to top every story with a better one. Even if you have a similar story to tell, its okay to let the other person have the spotlight.
Dont interrupt people. Surveys show that this is the number one irritant. Just because someone pauses doesnt mean they have finished. If people frequently say, Please let me finish, you may be guilty of interrupting without even being aware of it.
Be a humor carrier. Be careful about telling jokes, because what seems funny to you may easily offend someone of a different age, culture or gender. However, you dont have to tell jokes or wear a lampshade on your head to be funny. Show your warmth and wit by appreciating the humor of others.
Laugh together. Laughter is a kind of social glue that binds people together. Laugh at yourself and observe situations from a different perspective. When people laugh together they reduce tension and connect.
Remember your goal in a conversation. If its to convince someone of your point of view, you may win the argument but lose the relationship. Head-on challenges strengthen peoples resolve to hold on to their views. After all, who wants to publicly admit they were wrong?
Keep the conversation light and enjoyable if you want to build relationships. This doesnt mean you can never bring up sensitive topics, but monitor peoples reactions. If you hit a nerve, you may be doing damage by continuing the conversation.
Do you find it difficult to make small talk with strangers? Making small talk is vital to building connections that increase your business. A simple guide called From Bashful to Brilliant takes the worry out of business events with step by step tips that give you immediate results. Click here to find out more:http://www.goldmansmythe.com/howto.html
Lynda Goldman is the author of 30 books including How to Make a Million Dollar First Impression, and a business etiquette consultant for corporations. Subscribe to her ezine Communication Capsules and get a free report: Breakthrough Communication Skills packed with powerful tips for success, at http://www.ImpressforSuccess.com
Computer Maintenance Checklist
In order to keep your computer running at optimal performance, there are some things you should do on a regular basis from the time you pull it out of the box. You computer is a very fragile machine with a variety of components that work together to produce a users desired output. Computers allow people to do anything from writing school papers to downloading music to assisting in developing experimental aircraft in the United States Air Force. So as you can see computers hold a very special place in today's society so it is very important to take good care of them.
There are a few important actions that MUST be completed even by the most casual computer user...
- Disk Cleanup
- Disk Defragment
- Virus Scan
- These are probably the 3 most important actions to perform on your computer on a regular basis to keep it running a peak performance.
Disk Cleanup clears your cookies, temporary internet files, empties recycle bin, compresses old files, and more. There are also other great programs out there (such as Cleanup Assistant, Zappit System Cleaner, and WinDirStat which are all free) to use for this that goes a little further and cleans your registry, shreds files to make them untraceable, and gives you more of a visual layout of your hard drive(s).
Disk Defragmenting involves moving files around on your hard disk in a more organized manor which helps the read/write heads on your disk(s) to save and retrieve files faster and more efficiently. Disk Defragmenting is an important thing to do because it keeps your hard disk(s) (which is where virtually ALL of your information is held) healthy and pro-longs the life of the drive(s). Alternatives to the Windows Disk Defragmenter are available at Download.com such as Auslogics Disk Defragmenter, and Perfect Disk8 which are free downloads.
In order to complete the Virus Scan you must have an Anti-Virus program installed on your computer. Avast Anti-Virus and AVG Anti-Virus are two great free Anti-Virus programs but the free versions do not come equipped with firewalls. But don't panic, because if you have Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher, you have a great firewall already, just make sure it is up and running. (See Firewall Tutorial at website below.
My name is Sergio Woods and I've been studying computers for over 7 years now. I have a great deal of knowledge in aspects ranging from Internet Administration to software programming to hardware and component installation. In my studies I have come to realize that there are very general things even the most casual computer user should know how to do in order to keep their computer running at its peak performance.
I feel the need to share my knowledge with any and everybody who has the desire I do to learn everything there is to know about the most revolutionary entity in our society. Also I've realized that there are a lot of people charging people an arm and a leg to give very common computer advise which is not worth that much at all. Sometimes people just need a little push in the right direction, and Computer Maintain.com is here to give you that push. Remember your comments and recommendations are greatly appreciated.
