“An inspiring and practical guide to really effective people-communication in a modern business climate crying out for it”
Mike Harris – Founding CEO of first direct and Egg Banking plc, founding Executive Chairman at Garlick and ex CEO of Mercury Communications
“This book puts the heart and soul back into business. Miti Ampoma combines her deep experience with fresh insight and inspirational thinking in a communications masterclass that focuses us all on our most valuable asset, at the heart of everything we do - our people.”
Mike Symes – Chief Executive, Financial Marketing Limited
“Miti Ampoma, with pincer-sharp clarity, explains brilliantly the relationship between becoming an innovative communicator and having a successful business. She whets our appetite to go do!”
Anne Newton – Chief Executive, Richmond Chamber of Commerce
“Articulate and incisively written with compelling stories and practical ways for us to achieve better communication skills so our businesses excel.”
Daniel Priestley – Author, Become A Key Person Of Influence
Every business needs an Innovative Communicator
• Are you craving relief from pin numbers, passwords and soulless voice-activated messages?
• Is communication with people in your workplace an uphill struggle in spite of all you have tried?
• Do you fear that the heart and soul of your business is evaporating?
• Is all this impacting staff morale and bottom line profits?
Good human communication is more important than ever in a business world where technology and process have come to dominate at the expense of bringing out the best in people. Work colleagues respect and respond well to clear, honest communication they can trust. At the heart of that communication there needs to be a genuine focus on integrity and humanity.
You may think good communication is best left to the experts, but nothing could be further from the truth.
This book introduces the Innovative Communicator, who puts the soul and heart back into business communication to deliver happy staff, happy customers and more profits. The Innovative Communicator is able to build deep relationships, get their team on board, plan powerful communication strategies, whilst courageously pushing their own boundaries, having the capacity for great empathy and the skills to get tough with heart when necessary.
Start becoming an Innovative Communicator today.
See and feel the difference!
THE INNOVATIVE COMMUNICATOR
Putting the soul back into business communicationBy Miti AmpomaBalboa Press
Copyright © 2012 Miti Ampoma
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4525-5684-0Contents
Introduction.....................................................ixChapter 1 Meet the Innovative Communicator......................1Chapter 2 Build deep relationships..............................16Chapter 3 Get your team on board................................46Chapter 4 Build your strategy...................................67Chapter 5 Push your own boundaries..............................100Chapter 6 Step forward with courage.............................111Chapter 7 Get tough with heart..................................125Chapter 8 Have a life to bring to the table.....................153Chapter 9 Keep sparkling........................................162
Chapter One
Meet the Innovative Communicator
"There has never been a better time for people in business to reconnect through meaningful communication, to what matters most to them and to each other, for the greater good." Miti Ampoma
Miranda – Flower-stall business owner
Miranda is a real person – I buy my flowers from her – and this is her story. She is a business owner, a business manager and a team leader, as she employs staff. She may not be a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in a FTSE 100 company, but the way she runs her business beautifully illustrates what I see as the Innovative Communicator and here's why:
Miranda runs a flower stall in the middle of a busy local high street. Her stall is surrounded by three large national supermarkets that also sell flowers, some the same as Miranda's, at a cheaper price.
Since the economic down-turn, the other three independent flower-stall business owners in this high street have gone bust.
In fact, Miranda is the only independent flower-stall owner left in the high street. With four years of the toughest economic conditions known in recent times, Miranda's flower stall has not only survived, but thrives amid the business chaos and intense competition around her. Why?
For almost four years, I've watched with curiosity and fascination at the way Miranda operates her business. I have talked to her customers to find out and understand what they like about Miranda and their feedback has been consistent.
Firstly, Miranda is extremely personable. People warm to her. She makes every customer feel important and gives them her full attention, no matter how busy she is. She has trained her assistants to do the same.
Customers genuinely feel Miranda cares about them and wants to ensure that they leave her and her flower stall with the best flowers for them.
Secondly, Miranda knows her flowers inside out. She is an expert at her trade. She gets up at the crack of dawn and goes to the flower market herself. She is instrumental in making choices about which flowers end up on her stalls for sale to her customers. When she or her team are asked for advice on what flowers are best for an occasion, or to suggest a winning combination for a loved one, Miranda and her team's advice is professional, caring, personal, bespoke and spot on, delighting her customers. This is the huge emotional benefit for the buyer of Miranda's flowers.
Thirdly, Miranda's flowers are beautiful and fresh and according to her customers, last a lot longer than the cheaper supermarket flowers. Above all, Miranda makes her customers feel they are part of a local community.
Miranda has built deep long-lasting relationships with her customers. In return she has banked their unreserved trust and loyalty.
Miranda's customers adore her for who she is, for the emotional benefits and experience she gives them through her business, for her supreme customer service and for her superb style, range and quality of flowers. For these reasons, customers in this high street are very happy to spend that extra money on Miranda's flowers. A typical Miranda customer will first do their shopping, often in the supermarket next door, buy everything they need except for flowers, and then go and buy the same flowers (they could have bought more cheaply in the supermarket, but chose not to) at Miranda's. On any typical busy Saturday morning in the high street Miranda's flowers will be sold out by early afternoon. Due to popularity, customers will often pop round and say "Save those tulips for me will you? I'll pop by and get them after shopping." Miranda will put those flowers aside and the customer will turn up and that is when they pay for it. The trust between Miranda and her customers to do the right thing for each other is notable.
The single common feature in all the attributes consistently described to me about Miranda, by both her customers as well her team, is the way in which she treats them through her daily interaction and communication. She is smart, highly gifted, admired and gracious in her strengths. She is also genuine, open-hearted and radiates integrity. People want to be around her and to actively support her business to flourish. Her flower business continues to go from strength to strength, regardless of the turbulent business environment.
David – CEO of a multi-million pound company
David is also an Innovative Communicator, and here is his story:
David is the CEO of a multi-million pound business, which includes a brokerage firm and a hugely successful IT division. He has hundreds of employees. He is an extremely busy man. He is known and respected in his industry as a tough, astute businessman. At a time, when the economic climate is producing continuous headlines of plunging profits, business closures of once iconic institutions and the bankruptcy of competitors, David's large business, amid the gloomy pandemonium, is reporting rising profits. He is employing more staff, and his existing employees stay put not out of dissatisfaction, but out of a fierce loyalty and genuine affection for him.
Many of David's staff have worked under his leadership for several years. David's business is bucking the economic trend. I was given permission to talk to David's employees, because like Miranda's flower business, I was curious and fascinated to understand why David's business is doing well in a dire economic climate, while many of his competitors are not. In my research when talking to the company's employees, there was one particular story which stood out and summed up the source of the organisation's sustainable success.
An employee called Mike was, unbeknown to David, having financial problems. In fact all told, it was a difficult time for Mike who had been with the company for barely a year. He felt very fortunate to have his job and enjoyed it.
However like many people, with rising costs, a wife, a four-year-old son and another child on the way, money was tight and Mike was struggling to make ends meet. His financial woes came to a head when, with less than a month before the birth of his second child, it became clear that the family could not all share the one room they called home since moving back to Britain, having lived abroad for some years. They had found a small suitable flat to rent but soon discovered that they needed references and a £1400 deposit. Mike confided his situation to a work colleague who immediately mentioned that the company, under David's leadership, had set up a special benevolent fund under a charitable trust, which was there to deal with existing and past employees in the industry who had fallen on hard...
