Cocktails and Coaching

Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to have a knack of being able to persuade you to do something? (like stay for just one more drink!!!)…   If you want to either learn how to influence and persuade people or maybe to just be more aware of people trying to influence you, then keep reading as there are 4 styles you need to be aware of. I've split this blog into 4 parts so that I can keep to my usual short and hopefully sweet style!  This is part one with the next three to follow.. In each part I'll share the style and then bring it to life for you… I've given the same example for each one to show that you really can use any of the 4 styles depending on who you're trying to influence… I've used an example that I'm faced with day in, day out in my job but you really can spin it for absolutely anything. Persuading This type of influencing is called persuading …  This is a good one to use when you are seen as the expert and you have

Are you the type of person who gets on a plane and keeps your head down? Or are you the type of person who strikes up a conversation with the person sat next to you? For those who know me, you'll know that I'm definitely the kind to strike up a conversation! And I'm glad to say I did this just a few weeks ago. Picture this - I'm sat there reading my 'TED talks' book (which I highly recommend by Chris Anderson) and the person sat next to me asks me if I'm doing a talk? 'Yes' I say, 'I'm talking to 60 people at a Women In Tech Sales event next week' to which her response was 'Amazing… I'm a professional speaker'! Now, there was no way I could pass up this opportunity so I asked her for all her top tips and was soon sat there scribbling them all down in my book. Imagine how happy I was when a week later I did my presentation, having weaved in ALL of her top tips, and received some fantastic feedback. So let m

If you want to know how to build a strong team then you could go on a course for a few days, you could read a 300 page book or… You could just take the advice from my eight-year-old daughter! The other morning I told her that I had a team meeting and I was thinking about what to do in it. ‘ What do you want to get from the meeting? ’ she said (just the question alone surprised me if I’m honest, bearing in mind she’s 8!) ‘ I want my team to figure out how they can work really well together ’ I said. Her instant response was ‘ Communicate more! ’ So I told her ‘ I also want everybody to say what a great job my team is doing ’ her response… ‘ Believe in yourselves ’ At that point I thought I’d pass her a pen and paper and ask her to write down her top tips… She thought 5 points would be good so here they are! 1. Communicate more 2. Believe in yourselves 3. Share your worries 4. Tell someone when you need help 5. Decide together I’m obviously bias but I think that’s prett