Issue 50 - September 2006

The M Powerer comes to you each month from M Power - and happy fifty issues to us.

Its 'fast four' format makes The M Powerer a purposefully quick read with a mix of quotes, tips, reviews, news and views on areas we work in, including

communication
public relations
empowerment
individual effectiveness
organisational productivity
life balance
customer service.

Karen Morath
Managing Director
M Power
karen@mpowercct.com

The ‘fast four’ for September are

1. In the beginning...
2. A quote we like
3. Less is more
4. This month’s book review

1. In the beginning...

The English word 'communication' comes from the Latin word 'communis', which means 'common'.

Literally then the process of communication is about endeavouring to establish a 'commonness' with someone.

Remembering that is a good starting point for personal and organisational communication efforts.

2. A quote we like

"You must manage yourself before you can lead someone else."

Source - Zig Ziglar

3. Less is more

Superfluous words reduce the power of the spoken word. People in business who litter their language with expressions such as 'at the end of the day', 'moving forward' and 'each and every' are not communicating as powerfully as they might.

Jerry Seinfeld says he often invests an hour turning an eight-word sentence into five words, purely for impact.

Another common way presenters lose impact is by wasting the power of the last word they say.

Consider the impact of "You're going to learn advanced sales strategies today." Compared with "You're going to learn about advanced sales strategies."

Source - US-based speech coach Patricia Fripp. www.fripp.com

4. This month’s book review

A website this month - www.odwyerpr.com

This is one for the PR nerds among you but probably equally of interest to anyone with an idle interest in public relations.

The Madison Avenue-based O'Dwyer's has been publishing a magazine on PR for years and the companion website is a useful 'go to' site for commentary on public relations initiatives around the world and certainly plenty of 'industry' news.

If you are interested to know that the biggest independent PR consultancy in the world employs more than 1200 people, then O'Dwyer's is the place to go to find out.