MINI PROJECT 2: "BOOK CLUB FOR THE 21ST CENTURY"

BOOK CLUB FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: “HOW TO WOW” BY FRANCES COLE JONES


“How to Wow” by Frances Cole Jones elaborates on many proven strategies for presenting your ideas, persuading your audience and perfecting your image. In the fast-paced world that we live in, every encounter that we have can be a chance to optimistically influence our peers, neighbors, and employers. Throughout the book, Frances Cole Jones intends to share strategies for personal transformation and proper communication. The book is separated into 9 chapters and each chapter has a great deal of strategies for professions to implement.

Don’t leave Home without them: The Nonnegotiable General Principles.

This chapter starts off by introducing the 7%-38%-55% rule. This rule consists of 3 elements that are involved in any person-to-person communication. These elements are the words we use, the tone of our voice, and our body language. 7% of our influence comes from the words we say, 38% comes from our tone of voice, while 55% comes from our body language. From this, managing every aspect of our presentation style will definitely help us with any communication gaps that we may have.

In order to capture a listeners attention follow these steps:

Choose language that is precise, colorful and concise
Your tone has to match your message; depending on your objective, be authoritative, commanding, persuasive or entertaining.
Focus on how you can best express what you are saying through your facial expression, posture and gestures.

Making it more than just lunch: The art of one-on-one encounter.

Everyone experiences one-on-one encounters not only in the business world, but in their day-to-day activities. Since most of our conversations are one on one, it is important for us to choose the proper phrasing, tonality in order for the person to fully comprehend and be able to respond to our questions.

According to studies in Ayurvedic medicine, the right side of your body represents fire and is about commanding, deciding and defending. The left side is governed by water and represents receiving, accepting and surrendering. Jones tells us to go to a mirror and look into our left eye, then switch to our right and see if there is a difference. It’s possible that our left eye is warmer and more pleasing, while our right eye tends to be more challenging. It is generally said, especially in business meetings, that when you are trying to let a person know that your intention and your message is genuine and sincere, you should make a point of looking into their left eye while you talk to them. If you’re intentions were to challenge to other individual, then you would look into their right eye to maximize its effectiveness.


Conspire to Inspire: Maximizing Meetings:

An ideal meeting is one where everyone leaves the boardroom with a clear idea of the overall objectives and the individual’s contributions that need to be completed. Whether you are the CEO of the company or an entry level worker, it is important to understand that you have a distinctive contribution to make. This chapter focuses on how to make meetings productive, efficient and fun. These strategies will help you to think creatively, communicate clearly and negotiate smoothly.

Jones introduces the idea of S.M.E.A.C, which stands for: Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration & Logistics, and Communication.

Here is the example that the book gives us:

Situation: We’ve got to prepare a sales proposal for a new prospect at short notice.
Mission: To ensure that the plan that we prepare wins us the sale. (Making sure that every one
Knows the overall mission, then there is a scope for individual judgment and initiative if the situation changes.)
Execution: Tom will gather data about the prospect’s formal requirements; Frances will gather
information about who will be judging the proposal; John will be responsible for doing the graphical aspects of the presentation; we will then gather and so a first draft three days before the presentation is due.
Administration & Logistics: What we will need to get the job done- Laptop, dry erase board and
markers, coffee etc…
Communication: This is how we are going to stay in touch while executing the mission. E.g.,
email, skype, telephone etc…

This idea is helpful because it will provide you with a simple structure for talking to your team about accomplishing a set objective. In an office situation when your boss tells you to come up with a report and present it, it is important to understand the steps needed to accomplish it and this model will help you do so.

Interview to a kill: Stress-free Job Interview:

Knowing simple information on the company you are about to apply for will ease the question process because you will be able to get an idea of what kind of questions they will ask you and it will be easy for you to come up with some questions of your own. The strategies in this chapter will give you the confidence you need to handle anything that comes at you.

Jones states the biggest misconception about interviews is that we think we will primarily talk about us. In an interview, we are rarely being evaluated on our stand alone value. In fact, we are being evaluated on what we can add to the company as it currently exists. Here are some important questions you should ask yourself to prepare for the interview:


1. What is the company’s mission statement?
2. What have the company’s earnings looked like over the past five years?
3. What’s their best-selling/signature product? Why?
4. What’s their newest product/acquisition/success? Why was it so successful?
5. Who is their biggest competitor? What is their their best selling product? How does it compare?
6. Do you see any gaps in their current strategy? If you do, what solutions can you offer to
fill those gaps?
7. Who makes up the top management team? What’s their business background? What’s their personal background?
8. What does the corporate culture look like? Formal? Low key? Down and dirty? How does it mesh with your personality?
9. Do you fulfill all the stated requirements for employability? If you do, what qualities-unique to you-will enhance the job you will do for them? If you don’t, what qualities unique to you are going to make up for that shortfall?

Prepping yourself before the interview and taking the time to do a background check of the company will definitely impress the interviewer.

Throughout this book, Jones also gives strategies to giving speeches, making effective powerpoint presentations, and how to make the most out of social interactions. I think that this is exactly what graduates and professionals of the 21st century need to be successful in their careers. By following certain strategies, individuals will be able to better communicate with their peers and it will help them transform for the better.

A fact that was mentioned in the book that I thought was really interesting and useful for presentation purposes is that your audiences’ cooperation rate increases 60 to 94 percent when you include why something has happened. When you are presenting an idea or a fact, and you explain it by using “because”, it will raise your credibility. Another concept that I though was interesting was the S.M.E.A.C model. It is useful in the business world because it provides you with a simple structure that will help you accomplish your goals on time. This model can even be used for students, especially who are taking marketing and have many group projects to complete throughout the semester. If I would have read this book before I took marketing, my group would have probably been more prepared for the report and the presentations because we would have been able to plan it effectively. Another concept that I thought was fascinating was the 7%-38%-55% rule. Body language plays the most important role in communication and is especially useful for presentations or even in one-on-one interactions. Practicing on getting the message out with appropriate facial expressions, posture and gesture will allow you to carry out better communication skills.