M Power is a Melbourne based public relations company that believes communication empowers. Karen Morath is the founder and Managing Director of M Power. M Power provides consulting, training and communication services to organisations largely in the locality of Melbourne

This is m-news, M Power's monthly e-newsletter. It's in its fifth year and goes out each month to hundreds of people who work in or run organisations and understand the power of effective communication.

m-news includes information about related themes - four snippets about business, organisational and individual effectiveness, communication and public relations.

M Power is a Melbourne based public relations company that believes communication empowers. Karen Morath is the founder and Managing Director of M Power. M Power provides consulting, training and communication services to organisations largely in the local government and private sectors.

The ‘fast four' for April are

1. A quote we like from a man we loved
2. Who decides what a brand is?
3. Communication checklist
4. With compliments

1. A quote we like from a man we loved

"What's important is looking back at the end of each week at what you've achieved and planning what you aim to achieve next week. You be the best
you can be and treat people well because putting other people down to get
ahead yourself is just not any sort of success."

This quote is an insight into the wisdom of our client of many years and
my dear friend Kurt Bruhn, who passed away aged only 44, on April 22, 2006.

His comments, which I am confident I have remembered close to verbatim if not so, are now precious memories from an 'end of the week heading home'
conversation I had with him on the afternoon before he died.

2. Who decides what a brand is?

Brands were once designed and controlled by ad people or marketing departments and spoon fed to those who needed to be in the know.

Now whether or not you want one, you have a brand - as a person or as an organisation. Think about some of the people you know and what they demonstrate about their core brand values. I know someone who stands for 'late', another who stands for 'sharp shirt and tie always' and another whose core value is clearly 'car always needs a wash'.

Brands are decided by the people observing the organisation or the person, based on their experiences with them, not usually on what the organisation or person says about themselves.

What does the behaviour, appearance and attitude of everyone in your organisation say about the core brand values where you work?

3. Communication checklist

Here is a quick three point checklist for whenever you need to communicate anything - written or verbal.

Communication should always be

1. Clear. Choose language carefully to avoid ambiguity. It should be obvious what you mean, otherwise you're not communicating what you mean to.

2. Accurate. Stick to the facts. If you are not sure what they are, say so. Too often people think that saying something is better than saying nothing. Say or write only what you can defend.

3. Purposeful. Consider what the point of communicating this information is. If you're not sure, you can only fail to communicate anything worthwhile. If there isn't an objective, spare the receiver the trouble and don't attempt communication for communication's sake.

4. With compliments

Here is something you can learn to do very easily and quickly that has feel good value for yourself and makes the people around you feel great too. It's free and you can learn to do it in the next minute. Interested?

Decide to receive compliments well. I recently complimented a man on the shirt he was wearing - it was unusual, looked distinguished and expensive and was ideal for the event he was wearing it at. When he replied enthusiastically "Well, thank you Karen, that is really nice of you to say so" I was quite taken aback.

A more typical - and predictable - response would have been "Oh, do you think? I've had it for ages. I wasn't sure about it today actually." The first response is taking a compliment well. He was smiling, I was smiling - wonderful. Everybody just squirms in the second scenario.

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