Rehearsing success
1. Make yourself comfortable, in a quiet room, and close
your eyes. Remove all distractions. (With a bit of
practice, you’ll find yourself being able to do this
exercise just about anywhere. Be kind to yourself to start
with.)
2. Imagine a television set. Set it down across the room and
switch it on.
3. On the television screen, run a video of yourself
performing well at a networking meeting. Watch the
video carefully and notice what ‘you’ are doing. You can
decide what you are watching; modify your imagined
performance until you feel good (eager, excited or
inspired).
4. Now adjust the video to make it really compelling. Bring
up the sound; increase the screen size. Many people find
that making it life-size, full colour, 3D, with surround-
sound, works best.
( c) 2011 Kogan Page L imited, All Rights Reserved.
180 Improve your Communication Skills
Identifying goals
Now that you have prepared yourself, you need to set yourself
clear goals for the networking event. Why are you attending,
specifically? To make new friends? To look for new ideas? To
create new relationships that might become new customers?
Working out your own goals
It’s useful to think of your goals in terms of what you want,
and what you want to give. Answer these questions carefully;
write down your answers.
What do I want to gain? What do I want to give?
Make your answers positive. The answers should motivate
you towards, not away from something.
How will I know when I have gained it? How will I know when I
have given it?
Write down specifically the evidence telling you that you
have achieved your goal. What information will you have? What
promises will you have made, or secured?
Is my goal truly mine?
Have you chosen this goal? Is it something that you have
5. Now, step into the movie so you are seeing the action
through your own eyes, as if you were already there.
Become aware of what you are
doing
, how you
look
, how
you
sound
and how you
feel
.
6. Now step out again and shift your viewpoint a little way
into the future beyond the event. Now you are looking
back on it, taking notes and thinking about what you did
well. Notice how you feel about it now.
7. Come back to now. Freeze-frame the video at a point
where you can easily remember the image. That image
will be your access point into the video, so that you can
re-run it whenever you want.
( c) 2011 Kogan Page L imited, All Rights Reserved.
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