If you struggle with listening, the problem isn't that you don't know how to listen. "We know how to listen; we've exhibited the skills at some points in our lives. We just don't do it nearly often enough," consultant Kevin Eikenberry notes in his Unleash Your Potential ezine.

To improve, focus on three factors:

• Intention: When you begin communicating with someone, your intention -- conscious or subconscious -- will directly impact how you listen. You may want to persuade the other person. You may want your point of view heard. You may want to get through this conversation as quickly as possible. You may want the other person to like you more.

  In each case, the focus is on yourself. Instead, set your intention on the other person. Intend to understand their message.

• Attention: In every communication encounter we make a choice -- either consciously or subconsciously -- of whether or not we will pay attention. This is separate from intention, since even if our intention isn't ideal we can still choose to pay attention.

  In doing so, pay attention to both the other person (which will be assisted if your intention is on that person) and as well to the topic.

• Effort: Listening is not a passive activity when done well. It requires effort -- energy, engagement and thought. Great listening is an active, participatory process. "To do it well, we must work at it," he sums up.

Laptops are commonplace these days for many people, and the basic considerations in purchasing them have remained the same: processor, system memory, battery life, and monitor life. But technology writer Marc Saltzman says on Inc.com that five new features are worth giving top consideration to:

• Multicore processors: Many laptops today include a dual-core processor, which speeds up your applications and makes multitasking smoother, while high-end laptops have quad-core processors for video editing and similar heavy-duty tasks.
• Solid state drives: Solid state drives use flash memory -- similar to what holds your digital camera's photos -- to store data. Such laptops are smaller, lighter, more energy efficient, faster, and less susceptible to damage as there are no moving parts.
• Integrated cell connections: This allows your laptop to log online anywhere you can get cell phone reception -- even on a moving train -- rather than having to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot.
• Side view screens: These laptops have a 2.5-inch colour liquid crystal display on the opposite side of your main screen -- similar to the small screen on the flip side of your cell phone -- allowing you to look at your calendar or check e-mail quickly.
• Security improvements: Integrated fingerprint readers ensure only you can access data on the drive. A steel-cable lock allows you to latch the laptop to a larger or heavy object, such as an airport lounge desk.

Many entrepreneurs -- be they in business or non-profits -- find themselves having to sell, and aren't quite sure they fit the mould of the typical salesperson. In The Marketing Minute newsletter, sales trainer Dave Kahle sets out the four characteristics of successful salespeople:

• They truly want to be successful, and are willing to invest time and effort to be successful.
• They have the ability and propensity to learn. They expose themselves to new ideas, and change their behaviour in a positive way as a result.
• They can deal successfully with adversity. They see failures and adversity as temporary stumbling blocks, and bounce back from every defeat.
• They have the ability to focus. They don't squander the day on the superfluous, but know what's vital.

For most brainstorming sessions we are asked to participate in, we leave any thinking about the topic until the actual event. But on RainToday.com, consultant Mark Levy suggests you bring more of your brain to the brainstorming. If, for example, you have a strategy session planned for mid-summer, launch your private thinking campaign now.

Take a few minutes each day to ponder the facts and figures that might be helpful at the meeting itself. Also, try some playful, preliminary brainstorming, "turning that factual fodder inside out" as he puts it.

That may lead to some intriguing ideas, but to his mind it's not the critical factor. "The main point is in laying groundwork," he says. "By immersing ourselves in the situation and playing around with possibilities, we'll come to the meeting with minds warm and stretched."

• We assume the recession will end at some point this year or next year, and everything will return to normal. But Harvard Business School Professor John Quelch warns us to not assume a return to normal. The longer and deeper a recession, the more likely consumers will adjust their attitudes and behaviours permanently. Their coping mechanisms may become ingrained, and define a new normal. (Source: Harvard Business School Working Knowledge)
• Ask someone to watch you work for an hour. Don't talk to them, and just work as you normally do. At the end, ask them to tell you what they saw, including your focus -- or lack of focus. (Source: Jason Womack's newsletter)
• Most of us instinctively turn to Google for searches, but if you want to try something new, Microsoft offers Bing (www.bing.com), which allows you to move your cursor alongside the right hand side of the suggested links to find out more without clicking. And Wolfram Alpha (www.wolframalpha.com) is a computational search engine that mathematically inclined people might enjoy using. (Source: Wall Street Journal/Techbite newsletter)
• In surveys, consider breaking away from traditional age categories like 21 - 30 or 31 - 50 and instead align your age groupings with cohort groups, such as the Millennials (23 years of age and younger), Generation X (32 - 42), Trailing Edge Boomers (43 - 53), Leading Edge Boomers (54 -62) and Postwar Cohort (63 - 80). (Source: Marketing Genius From Maple blog)
• Most PowerPoint slide text is in bullet point form, but too often people write whole sentences which defeats the purpose of using the bullet: Getting across the main point in a few words. (Source: Dave Paradi's Seven Day PowerPoint Course)

6. Q&A with 8020Info: Expanding Your Business        Top

Question: I am thinking of expanding my business, but worry that I may be going out beyond my expertise. Any suggestions?

8020Info Associate Harvey Schachter replies:

To stretch our business, we often must stretch what we do. But the danger is going beyond our core capabilities, as the academics call it.

We all have a core business, and it's tempting to edge out a bit (or even a lot) from that core. One of the most common steps is to try to sell new products to traditional customers, as my favourite general store did recently by adding a pizza franchise.

You also could edge into a new geographical area, sell through a new channel, or modify a proven offering to enter a new customer segment as Staples did when it moved from retail into the delivery of office products to small business.

Chris Zook, of Bain & Company, tackled this issue brilliantly a few years ago in his book Beyond The Core. He found that of the 25 most costly business disasters from 1997 to 2002 (excluding those caused by the dot-com business bubble) 75 per cent involved a failed growth strategy whose unrealized goal was to move profitably into new adjacent areas surrounding the core business.

So be wary.

A key issue is how far you should range beyond your core capabilities. He cites five dimensions to check. For each, you want to evaluate whether your core and the new dimension are essentially the same or different. Do they share or not share the same:

• customers,
• competitors,
• cost structure,
• channels of distribution, and
• "singular capacity" -- what Mr. Zook calls the brand, asset or technology that gives the core business its uniqueness.

Assessing the risk:

He asks you to count one point or step each time there is a difference between the core and new area on each of those five dimensions. "We found that the odds of success declined precipitously as an adjacency moved two or more steps away from the core business's greatest strengths," he wrote.

He suggests you move slowly and carefully. He points to Nike as an example, because it edges forward with what he calls "relentless repeatability." Each time it enters a new sport, it does so step by step by step, starting with a major endorser.

It moved to basketball with Michael Jordan's 1985 endorsement, into tennis in 1986 with John McEnroe as spokesperson, and then in 1990s into baseball, football, cycling, volleyball, hiking, soccer, and then, with Tiger Woods, into golf. And even as it attacks a new sport, it does so step by step: in golf, for example, first clothing, then in succession, apparel, accessories, golf balls, irons, and woods.

Zook notes that in each step, Nike accumulated deeper insights into customer behaviour. In essence, it followed an age-old principle for expansion -- follow your customers and address additional needs they have.

Stretching can be wonderful. But before stretching, think about your core and options for stretching, and how to stretch slowly and carefully so you don't pull more than a muscle.

This past week we were asked to gather independent feedback from several dozen staff after they attended a management "look-and-feel" presentation on new technology their organization is planning to adopt. The reviews about the presentation itself were extremely positive, and comments clearly reaffirmed some well-tested rules of thumb for connecting effectively with an audience:

• First, orient your audience to the framework of your presentation ("tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em").
• Highlight the relevance and benefits of the material.
• Relate your material to your audience's past experiences.
• Provide concrete examples of particular interest and importance to them.
• Go at the right pace for your audience, not too fast and not too slow.
• A little modest humour, used in the right way, goes a long way.
• Remember that audiences don't expect you to have every last answer.
• After a question-and-answer period winds down (often leaving energy in the room at a low), always present some powerful final points or a strong recap to leave your audience on a high.

8020Info helps teams develop, communicate and implement more effective marketing communications strategies. We would be pleased to discuss your needs and welcome enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.

"Anyone who has obeyed nature by transmitting a piece of gossip experiences the explosive relief that accompanies the satisfying of a primal need."

   -- Primo Levi