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Inspiration |
I received an inspiring note recently from one of our readers that I wanted to pass along to you.
"As a child, I had a pretty bad stutter. For the early part of my elementary school years, I didn't speak often to people, except close friends."
"My parents sent me to a speech therapist in the fourth grade. That, the passage of time and maturity, helped me to be a productive person."
"While in the Navy, I am a retired Chief Petty Officer with 22 years of service, I was selected for Recruiting Duty and to be in charge of a large metropolitan station."
"During the training, we learned interview techniques and spent many hours a day speaking and role playing in front of the class. The final exam was a videotaped interview which was closely scrutinized. I passed and was told by the Chief Instructor that I was one of the few to pass the school with a stutter. It had improved during the six weeks of school as I gained confidence."
"To this day, 16 years later, I may still have a slight stutter that reoccurs infrequently, but I learned not to obsess over it and speak confidently to one or several hundred people."
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About Us |
Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems changes lives by helping lifelong learners hone their natural communication tools.
We work primarily with people at Fortune 1000 companies in the areas of public speaking, presentations skills, personal improvement and leadership development.
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Hello. Poor corporate communications, how to introduce someone by phone and some inspiration from one of our readers: all of that is in this issue of Zipline.
Got a friend who would benefit from Zipline? Please use the forward button at the bottom of the newsletter to send it along. Thanks in advance for spreading the word.
Now, let's get going.
Ty Boyd
ty@tyboyd.com
Bad Day At Radio Shack
You’ve probably heard by now about what has to be the most dehumanizing human resources practice I’ve ever witnessed: Radio Shack’s firing of 400 workers via email. The digital de-hiring note said, "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated."
Succinct and to the point, the company note didn’t even say "thanks and have a nice day."
According to Radio Shack official Kay Jackson, employees had been told the layoff notices would come by email so they could be done more quickly and employees would have more privacy. Somehow telling them ahead of time to expect to be fired by email seems even more insulting. I guess it could have been worse. They could have sent text messages to employee cell phones.
This behavior is wrong on so many levels. I know that things are changing: we find jobs online, apply by email, and use intranets to fill out forms for benefits. Firing someone electronically may someday become the norm, but it will never be right.
Corporate callousness is not new when it comes to layoffs, but it doesn’t have to be this way, nor should it.
If anyone is in a cyclical business it is Big Oil, and the biggest have figured out how to handle layoffs because they know that someday those employees will be needed again. Shell Oil tells people face-to-face on Monday - not Friday - that they are being laid off. On Tuesday they begin a series of meetings to help each laid off employee get job-ready.
The company has a procedure and systems set up that are designed to get the employee into a new position elsewhere as soon as possible. This is good business and good relationship management.
Email has its place in corporate America, and corporations need to figure out how to use it for its best and highest purposes. Firing loyal – or even disloyal – employees – is not one of those. We are human and humans deserve to be told face-to-face if their jobs are being eliminated. To do otherwise is cowardly and callous.
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Phone It In
Regular reader Rob dropped us a note recently to ask about the best way to introduce new team members during a global telephone conference. Anne Boyd takes up the challenge.
Rob: I'd like an innovative way to welcome the new members, even if it is long distance, in order to make a good impression for both the new members and the existing team. I think this first impression is too important to just go through the motions. Can you help?
Anne Boyd: You are right it is extrememly important to help the new team members look good. Introducing someone in person is challenging enough, but introducing someone via telephone is even tougher.
Telephone lines eat up, or deaden, a good deal of our vocal color as we speak into that tiny, typically poor quality microphone in the handset. You have to muster great energy and exaggerate your vocal color to break through that technological obstacle. Otherwise you will sound lifeless and your introduction will fall flat.
Once you have mastered the technology, it is time to turn to the introduction itself. Just as you do when introducing a speaker, cite the new team member’s credentials and what brought them to the team. That shows what qualifies them for joining the team.
Now, turn to the personal to humanize the new team member a bit. Do they have a hobby you can mention, or is there some interesting tidbit of information you can relay that helps listeners form a picture of the person? Anything you can do to help the team identify with the new members will ease their transition onto the team.
Do you have a communication question? Drop us a note and we’ll take a crack at answering it.
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