Mistaken or not, how easy to see that over 2000 years ago 3 royal scholars/astrologers/scientists would have been compelled to see what such a vision pointed to.

In a world of an imploding America, and Arab Spring that still cracks hearts and sidewalks, and a Europe at the edge of its biggest challenge since the second world war, how does one not seek a guiding star?

The great unifying visions of the human race have lead to so much suffering. Having found our star, or our interpretation of that star’s . . . → Read More: We Could Use an Orient Star]]> Share/Bookmark

Comet Lovejoy - Lester Barnes

Prima Facie

Mistaken or not, how easy to see that over 2000 years ago 3 royal scholars/astrologers/scientists would have been compelled to see what such a vision pointed to.

In a world of an imploding America, and Arab Spring that still cracks hearts and sidewalks, and a Europe at the edge of its biggest challenge since the second world war, how does one not seek a guiding star?

Verso

The great unifying visions of the human race have lead to so much suffering. Having found our star, or our interpretation of that star’s message, it seems our next instinct is to define those who experience the vision differently as ‘other’. And the enemy.

Hundreds of thousands of years of defining and protecting our species, our tribes, villages, clans, and families, have lead to first coagulate and calcify the story of the vision, and then violently defend that story against all others who saw it differently.

If there is a moral arrow, and I believe there is, then will the day come when we experience a vision like this, and then instinctively weave the creation of its story into something entirely new?

We will know that story is entirely new and entirely right when it clearly undergoes two transformations: it atomizes and becomes a singularly unique story for each and every soul that absorbs it, providing 360 degrees of orientation; those millions of perspectives all reconnect instead of splintering and dividing, providing a truly universal story of healing and new direction.

Utterly utopian, I know.

I’ll keep my eye on the evening sky.

Check out Google. Enter the search term “communication”, and click on the “Images” search tab. Count the number of ears that are featured as opposed to mouths, megaphones, speakers, etc. We say “I’m all ears…” but you wouldn’t know it from the walk we walk. It’s all talk! It . . . → Read More: The Ears Have It]]> Share/Bookmark

Lend me your ears

When Shakespeare penned the words “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…” in Julius Caesar he did his share to perpetuate the tradition that confuses great oratory with great communication. That tradition has done more to damage our understanding of good communication than almost anything else.

Check out Google. Enter the search term “communication”, and click on the “Images” search tab. Count the number of ears that are featured as opposed to mouths, megaphones, speakers, etc. We say “I’m all ears…” but you wouldn’t know it from the walk we walk. It’s all talk! It should be “I’m all mouths!”

Let’s turn that on its ear.

Meaning begins with listening

Great communication always starts with listening, not speaking.

Meaning is a value ascribed to incoming data by the listener. You can have the most polished speech, the cleverest PowerPoint slides, the latest technology broadcasting the newest numbers, but if your listeners don’t find value in what you are broadcasting, it’s just noise.

So how do you shape your message so that your audience hears it as information; as a communication they value? As you prepare your ad campaign, keynote speech, or blog content, how can you ensure you will be heard?

You start by listening. Begin by finding out what your audience values; what would make them tune in and turn on.

Here are 4 questions you can ask before you put your message together:

1. Who is your listener as a person? The most effective communication always has an emotional thread. By getting to know how your audience feels about your topic, and about their world in general, you will be more likely to strike the right emotional chords and have your message resonate more deeply. Even the largest audience consists of individual human beings. Get to know them.
2. What are their needs and desires? This is basic market research. Everyone in your audience wants something. If you can hitch your message to those desires you will have their full attention.
3. What keeps them up at night? As well as desires, we all have fears. While this aspect of understanding audiences has a very dark history (just think of the history of  how popular fears framed as anti-Semitism and racism have been fanned into holocausts in the last 150 years), it remains critical to know what problems and stresses your audience is dealing with. All successful business messages connect because they promise to solve someone’s problem.
4. Can you share the ride? Sometimes it makes sense to share a cab ride with someone if you are both headed in the same direction. In business communication, you can get a lot of mileage by finding out where your audience is headed (or would like to go) and connecting their journey with yours.

All communication is an act of translation. It’s like speaking in a foreign country: it doesn’t matter how articulate you are in your language, if you don’t understand your audience’s language, and translate your message accordingly, your audience will be hearing gibberish.

I help businesses and organizations get the mix right. People and systems working together to produce remarkable results. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Too shy to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

What are you selling?

If nothing, then you are not in business. If only commodities, then you won’t be in business for long.

“But wait,” you say “I am a service provider. I don’t sell commodities. So I guess I’m safe.”

Sorry. A service alone is still a commodity. In the brave new world of social business, anything is a commodity to the extent to which it is a) a transaction that consists only of the exchange of a good or service for money, and b) reproducible in every important way.

So a service which is repeated over . . . → Read More: The Social Market: Relationships, Stories, and Desire]]> Share/Bookmark

What are you selling?

If nothing, then you are not in business. If only commodities, then you won’t be in business for long.

“But wait,” you say “I am a service provider. I don’t sell commodities. So I guess I’m safe.”

Sorry. A service alone is still a commodity. In the brave new world of social business, anything is a commodity to the extent to which it is a) a transaction that consists only of the exchange of a good or service for money, and b) reproducible in every important way.

So a service which is repeated over and over again, where the narrative arc ends completely when money changes hands, and which can be replicated by any competent professional the world over, is a commodity. And commodities have no place in the social marketplace.

The antonym of ‘commodity’ in this paradigm, is ‘experience’.

An experience in the context of social business, begins before the customer comes into direct contact with the business, and lasts long after the core transaction has taken place. And each experience is unique.

An experience is the product of a unique interaction between equal players. In the social market, the focus is on the unique relationship between the buyer, the seller, and the environment. That particular relationship cannot be reproduced and is becoming the new USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Social tools, especially those focusing on place (like FourSquare or Facebook Places) create the opportunity to customize interactions for both the buyer and the seller.

An experience is a story. The traditional models of acquisition and retention are losing their definition. Through digital social channels, we become aware of brands long before we click a link or walk through their doors. We are made aware of them through the conversations of those we trust, through targeted ads, and through the directed stream of data that flows around us. Sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and the shaped offerings and reviews from sites like Amazon provide a near-global conversation about brands, which those brands can participate in, but not control. At mid-transaction, the story continues as business and consumer exchange information, and successful businesses attempt to create a remarkable experience with each visit or purchase. Then after the sale, the digital threads connecting consumer and business remain sticky and elastic. Follow-up, follow-through, return-incentives, and CRM all lose their distinct post-purchase roles and flow backwards and forwards to sustain the relationship and the experience of the brand for as long as possible.

In the social market, desire becomes more nuanced. In 20th century marketing, brands would try to speak to our desires for acceptance, status, fulfillment. But the whole experience had a tawdry one-night-stand feel to it. As soon as you purchased that object of desire: the house, the nicer car, the bigger TV, something akin to post-coital depression set in until the credit-fueled dance of desire started again, focused on a new fetish. In the social market, the seductions still continue, but there is nuance and a deeper commitment. Apple probably understands this better than any other brand. The combination of beautiful objects and a tribal-cliquey sense of being part of a special community is masterfully handled by Apple. Our desires remain, and brands will still seek to fulfill them, but the pace must be slower. The nature of the fulfillment must be richer. As Apple knows, it can’t just be about stuff any more. And I think it is just the beginning. There are deeper and more subtle desires that brands can connect with and act as partners in fulfilling: the sense of belonging, the sense of making a real difference in our communities and globally, a spiritual dimension… In my memory, the Body Shop perhaps best understood and exploited (not necessarily in a bad sense) this. But they were before their time. Lululemon is close. But there will be many more: successful businesses will find ways to act as partners in shared stories that address our needs and desires, and weave together the social, the commercial, the emotional and spiritual into extended, and profitable, shared experiences.

The experience must be truthful. If there is one thing for which tolerance is evaporating rapidly, it is deception in the market. And sustainable relationships and real experiences cannot be built on lies. It will be interesting to watch as the marketing, PR, and branding universe adjusts to the truth that whatever else consumers will demand, it is… the truth. Punishment for deception will be swift and many times fatal, as the social networks (including many of the consumer rating sites like TripAdvisor or Yelp mentioned above) spread bad news at a speed with a reach we have not seen before.

I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Too shy to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

When was the last time you put off eating that ice cream because it was too much bother? How about finding all kinds of excuses not to cash in that cheque for 10K.

No?

How many of us pack the car in a flurry to hit the road and get to that fishing or camping spot before everyone else? Gardeners getting lost for hours in their gardens? Those of us who love to cook, unwinding in our kitchens, cooking 4-course meals?

Where are the procrastinators?

Every time I work . . . → Read More: There are No Procrastinators]]> Share/Bookmark

We all procrastinate. But most of us are not procrastinators.

When was the last time you put off eating that ice cream because it was too much bother? How about finding all kinds of excuses not to cash in that cheque for 10K.

No?

How many of us pack the car in a flurry to hit the road and get to that fishing or camping spot before everyone else? Gardeners getting lost for hours in their gardens? Those of us who love to cook, unwinding in our kitchens, cooking 4-course meals?

Where are the procrastinators?

Every time I work with a client to find out why they consistently avoid certain tasks, we dig through a layer of self-accusations about laziness and procrastination. But as I point out to them, that makes no sense. They are working 10 hour days, 6 days a week. They have built a business and put kids through college. Where does the lazy fit in?

No, it’s not about lazy. It’s about avoiding stuff you are not good at, and not meant to do.

One of the most important jobs you have as a business owner is to work your way out of your business one unpleasant task at a time. From bookkeeping to answering the phones, from sales to hand-holding employees. There are a myriad of things in a small business that must be done, but you may not like doing them. And when we don’t like what we are doing, we don’t do the job as well as someone who loves it.

If building a great team is the #1 critical success factor, then the list of things you hate to do can form a checklist of whom to hire first.

Growing a business is not just about increasing revenues and profits, or about bragging rights, or security (though all 3 of those things are fun or valuable), it is also about getting it to that place where you don’t have a single day of procrastination.

Many of us started our businesses because we loved doing one thing: painting, wrenching, baking, building, helping, healing… Then we realized that running a business doing those things involved doing so many other things we weren’t good at and didn’t like. So we need to grow to get back to that place. Not the same activity necessarily (I know lots of business owners who started a business for one reason, but fell in love with a different aspect of it later) but back to that place of loving what you do every day.

You are not a procrastinator, you are just ignoring reminders to keep growing back to that place where every morning, work can’t start soon enough.

 Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Don’t want to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

Xobni is add-on software for Microsoft Outlook (and other platforms). After installing Xobni, connecting it with your various social accounts, and letting it do its data-gathering thing, it sits to the side of your Outlook window.

Xobni can store all of your data in the cloud where you have syncing capability with almost every device and platform you use (Pro version). It puts any other form of contact data syncing to shame.

When you click on an email in your inbox, in a sidebar Xobni shows you:

IBM conducted face to face interviews with more than 1,700 chief marketing officers from 64 countries and 19 industries. This study, entitled From Stretched to Strengthened is part of an ongoing work called the C-Suite research program, interviewing 15,000 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CHROs and CSCOs.

Over the next few days I will be exploring different facets of the CMO study;  it has . . . → Read More: 2011 IBM Study: What Keeps Your CMO Awake At Night?]]> Share/Bookmark

This morning, (October 11, 2011) IBM (TSX: IBM:US)  released a valuable study into the pressures, stresses, and some successes of corporate Chief Marketing Officers trying to come to terms with the rapidly shifting ground-rules in their worlds.

IBM conducted face to face interviews with more than 1,700 chief marketing officers from 64 countries and 19 industries. This study, entitled From Stretched to Strengthened is part of an ongoing work called the C-Suite research program, interviewing 15,000 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CHROs and CSCOs.

Over the next few days I will be exploring different facets of the CMO study;  it has significant implications for corporate communication. At the heart of the study is the leitmotif that there is a “critical and permanent shift” in the way businesses communicate to and with their customers.

Customer Intimacy is Crucial

The keystone insight is that organizations must turn from addressing the crowd (market segments, demographics, populations) to addressing the individual.

As consumers, we no longer trust the one [corporate] voice that addresses the many. World War II and the  Cold War probably started the questioning that continued through Naomi Klein’s No Logo, and brought us to the social world today. We don’t trust it, and we no longer even hear it.  That one voice has been drowned out by the millions of myriad voices addressing each other through social networks. The challenge for the corporate world, which its very name defines  as not-individual, is to engage in conversation with each individual in its existing or potential customer base. The central challenge: how do you do that?

The ROI of a Conversation

Not only is the corporate world struggling to come to terms with these simultaneous individual conversations, the CMO’s in this study are also challenged to provide ROI numbers their CEO’s and shareholders are demanding. The irony of this is that while social networks atomize the marketplace, they simultaneously provide more public data than we have ever had. Blog comments, web traffic analytics, customer review sites, and in so many other ways consumers are voluntarily (an often unknowingly as well) providing feedback and other purchase and experience data. Never has the conversation about your business been more public and more open to analysis. When you combine this with POS (point of sale) and order tracking data many businesses now have available to them, the potential to connect the dots is huge. The serious challenge underlying this is to find common systems that can speak to each other, without compromising privacy where it matters.

A personal side-bar:

For the last two months I have been posting on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook about my hunt to find my next smartphone. I have been using Blackberries for years, and am not sure of RIM’s future. In my tweets and posts I have asked lots of questions and mentioned both Blackberry, RIM, and Android by name many times. Now. You would think that any corporate marketing team would be monitoring the public portions of my social stream (and there are many) for mentions of their products or issues of interest to them. Not that I can see. I have never had a response or query after any posts. Well, I did have one, because I am a huge fan of Xobni, I did mention them. They responded in hours.

In response to IBM’s study I upped the ante on my experiment and posted this on Twitter:

“#smartphone decision down to this: #samsung #android or #rim #torch #bb? From #telus.”

There are enough hashtags in there to pretty much smack anyone who’s paying attention in the face. Let’s see what happens. [Update: after 4 days, not a word]

Big Blue Gets It

I have to say that as I read the 61 pages that constitute the main part of the study, I was impressed, not with the data, but with the questions and the synthesis.

The questions around ROI and delivering value to empowered customers are important. What struck me most however, was the attempt to grapple with an issue on the corporate level, that we can’t even get small to medium sized enterprises to accept: developing a one-to-one relationship with your customers through the full buying cycle is probably the number one marketing challenge of the next several years. I would expect smaller businesses, that have a more obvious need for the loyalty of a smaller customer base, to jump all over this. Not so. In walk Big Blue and the corporate subjects of this study, and flat out own the question. Whatever happened to ‘small, nimble, and responsive’?

My message to clients these days is simple: “You don’t see the value of engaging social networks? That’s fine, because your customers and your competitors do. And they are managing the conversation just fine without you.”

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

My Thanksgiving list this year is long, but I’ll focus on four things I am grateful for:

We’ve all heard the stories so many times we’ve kind of come to expect them: the stories of celebrities who seem to have everything until the mask slips. Then they seem to have nothing.

Alcoholism, addictions, emptiness, abuse, loneliness, issues with debt, self-esteem, shattered families.

Yet even though we know all that, we still too often find ourselves in a new environment, surrounded by seemingly successful people, feeling a serious case of ‘imposter syndrome’ coming on. Why do we do that? Why do we understand the pains and struggles of our own journeys, and the repeated . . . → Read More: It’s Not What it Seems – Finding Your Confidence]]> Share/Bookmark

It’s never what it seems…

We’ve all heard the stories so many times we’ve kind of come to expect them: the stories of celebrities who seem to have everything until the mask slips. Then they seem to have nothing.

Alcoholism, addictions, emptiness, abuse, loneliness, issues with debt, self-esteem, shattered families.

Yet even though we know all that, we still too often find ourselves in a new environment, surrounded by seemingly successful people, feeling a serious case of ‘imposter syndrome’ coming on. Why do we do that? Why do we understand the pains and struggles of our own journeys, and the repeated paparazzi-fueled defrocking of one celebrity emperor after another, and still continue to assume the charismatic, confident looking person in front of us at the networking lunch must really have it all?

We don’t. The celebrities don’t. Why do we assume the person standing in front of us does?

Finding your confidence…

I don’t know why those beliefs in the success of others are so persistent, or why we feel our worth threatened in that way. But I do have 5 things to think about that will help you find that confidence:

1. Show up as yourself. There isn’t anyone else like you. You know what you know. You have seen what you have seen. And unless you have been sleepwalking through the last few decades you have stories and perspectives to share that will always add value to a real conversation. Even your ignorance, when kept in an honest perspective, adds value: you are willing to learn, and others are always willing to teach.
2. Assume nothing. Including the success or confidence of others. Before you walk into the room, or open your mouth, empty your mind of whatever assumptions you have about everyone else and start with a deliberate blank slate. You will be stunned to discover that almost no one is who they appear to be, and as Jeff Hadden wrote in the article that inspired this one: “The playing field is always more level than it seems.”
3. Questions, then silence. We are afraid that if we don’t contribute something we will be seen as uninteresting or of little value in the conversation. The opposite is true. People love being asked intelligent questions, and a good listener is worth 10 great speakers. As I teach in my Improv classes: “Always make the other person look good.” And if that doesn’t work, silence does. Truly confident people don’t feel the need to go on and on. They know what they know and the know who they are. There’s no need to prove anything.
4. Know what you know. This one is a bit of work, but powerful. Lots of us walk around with attitudes, experiences, opinions, and passionate beliefs floating around half-formed or partially articulated in our heads. Having those clearly articulated within ourselves is one of the foundations of confidence. The best way to build that foundation is by writing. Whether it is papers, articles, blogs, or journals and diaries, taking the time to revisit themes that matter to us over and over again frames them and deepens them. Then in conversation, don’t be afraid to weave those ideas and beliefs in wherever appropriate. You don’t have to go on about it (see #3) but you do have to speak those words many times to help them acquire that ring of confidence.
5. The trump card: gratitude. Negativity, sarcasm, and irony are the armour of the insecure. Like listening, gratitude is the sign of someone who has the quiet confidence to pay attention to their surroundings and to make others feel good. You’ve seen it: they may not have said the most at dinner, but they always seemed to have someone speaking to them, and then they were the first with a few warm words of genuine gratitude for their hosts.That warmth and gratitude are always the most attractive thing in the room.

What are the traits you have observed in those you think of as confident? Where are the places you find your own confidence?

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

What engagement does means:

The decades-long work by Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup organization have provided irrefutable evidence that the absence . . . → Read More: Tell Me I Matter & We Both Win]]> Share/Bookmark

Engagement has become one of those nod your head buzzwords. We all suspect it’s a good thing, but most of us have no concrete understanding of what it means.

What engagement does means:

1. The feeling that we matter at work; that the unique skills and experience we bring to the team are valued, and would be missed if we weren’t there
2. The deliberate act of engaging with employees to share their input and feedback to improve the organization. Done right, this leads back to #1!

The decades-long work by Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup organization have provided irrefutable evidence that the absence of engagement is corrosive and a top contributor to turn-over, slumping productivity, and out-of-control labour costs.

Did you know that for years Gallup has had a gold standard for employee engagement? A ratio of 10:1 (engaged to disengaged employees) describes a world-class organization. How do you think your organization does?

The Need To Feel Valued At Work Is As Important As The Need For Food

In an article that will make my Best of 2011 list, Tony Schwartz provides a very compelling perspective on employee engagement:

To feel valued (and valuable) is almost as compelling a need as food. The more our value feels at risk, the more preoccupied we become with defending and restoring it, and the less value we’re capable of creating in the world.

In the article, The Need To Feel Valued At Work Is As Important As The Need For Food, Schwartz tells the story of Campbell Soup CEO Doug Conant, and his relentless drive to take his organization from what was once the worst engagement level among all S&P 500 clients (2:1) to the current 17:1(!). Now Conant is leaving Campbell Soup. It will be interesting to see if his successor is able to maintain that truly remarkable level of employee engagement.

What can you do to increase the level of engagement in your organization? Here are 5 ideas:

1. Keep the right perspective. The title of this article notwithstanding, you can’t actually ‘make’ someone matter any more than you can empower them (contrary to a lot of popular writing). Only we can generate the feeling of mattering internally. This means that even if you do everything right as a leader, there will still be team members who will not engage. Keep in mind that even after Conant’s remarkable efforts, the results are not 100% engagement.
2. Focus on strengths. Like a laser beam. Get to know your direct reports personally. When you have figured out what each team member brings to the table as their primary strength, you can begin the work of connecting those strengths with roles and positions in the organization where they will add the most horsepower. As with so many good things, it all starts with listening.
3. Get personal. While no one else can ‘make’ us matter, having direct and personal feedback that we are making a difference tells us that you think we matter. And that is the difference-maker. Rare souls like the Dali Lama may have the ability to draw that sense of value and worth entirely from within, the rest of us require feedback from our environment that what we are doing matters. Take a page from Conant’s book: he spends at least an hour a day writing hand-written notes to people throughout the organization, welcoming them, thanking them, and providing specific positive feedback.
4. Act. While not every suggestion is feasible, and even the good ones can take time to implement, at some point you must act on the feedback you receive. Saying “Thank you for your input,” and then doing nothing, only goes so far. And as Gallup’s research shows, it also just stupid and has consequences for the bottom line. Many of the suggestions that front-line employees (those who are engaged in the primary activity of the business) have significant productivity and cost savings implications.
5. Reward. The most important part of creating true engagement is simply communicating (through your words and the actions you take) that an employee is valued and valuable. But tangible rewards help! A first class local example is British Columbia’s Great Little Box Company. This company has been written up in business journals and business schools for its best-in-class practices as an employer. Not only does The Great Little Box Company provide a generous profit sharing program for everyone, they also provide specific cash rewards for any suggestion that measurably improves production or reduces costs.

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

The world is shrinking. Meanwhile, companies are growing and expanding. However, no matter the size of your business, you’ll likely cross paths with a customer from another culture. To be competitive and one step ahead of the competition, true business professionals need to be culturally savvy.

Not only is it important to be culturally aware when competing for new business and attracting new customers, but it’s also critical within internal business culture at companies – especially when the business is growing into new markets.

A perfect example is India, where people . . . → Read More: Kisses & Bows: Cross-Cultural Consulting]]> Share/Bookmark

A guest post by Claudia Waitman of Junction International

The world is shrinking. Meanwhile, companies are growing and expanding. However, no matter the size of your business, you’ll likely cross paths with a customer from another culture. To be competitive and one step ahead of the competition, true business professionals need to be culturally savvy.

Not only is it important to be culturally aware when competing for new business and attracting new customers, but it’s also critical within internal business culture at companies – especially when the business is growing into new markets.

A perfect example is India, where people will shake their head side-to-side to indicate that they agree with what you’re saying. This is the opposite of the United States, where people will shake their head side-to-side when disagreeing or to indicate no.

Following are a few more examples of how not only language varies by country and culture, but body language does too:

• Argentina: Even if people do not know each other the usual way to greet is with a kiss on the cheek. However, when people do know each other … they kiss on the cheek and hug. In formal or business occasions, among people that don’t know each other, a hand shake is more common.
• Brazil: In woman-woman and woman-man interactions, the most common way to greet is kissing one another on the cheeks. The number of kisses varies between one and three, depending on the place, but you always start from the right cheek. Hugs are also very common. In more formal contexts, people usually shake hands. All this is often complemented by a smile and “Oi!” or “Olá!” followed by questions to check how the other person is doing.
• France: When people do not know each other, as for a first meeting or for business matters, they shake hands. When people know each other, as between friends, or acquaintances or even colleagues in some cases (equal level, never boss/subordinate), they kiss.
• Japan: When meeting, people bow from the waist with their palms on their thighs and heels together
• Malaysia: Both hands touch the other person’s hands when meeting and are then brought back to the breast. This is referred to as a salame gesture. In Malaysia people also greet each other by saying “Where are you going?” The polite response is “Just for a walk.”
• Philippines: Most commonly, a limp handshake is all that is necessary.

Claudia Waitman, President & CEO of Junction International, has nearly 15 years of industry know-how. Claudia co-founded the company in 2008 and has had first-hand experience in the implementation of translation solutions and multilingual communications strategies for many corporations, large and small, in a variety of industries including marketing, pharmaceutical, healthcare, publishing, software, business, and legal. She has helped businesses and organizations expand their market opportunities and diversify their reach – both in the U.S. and abroad. Originally from Argentina, Claudia graduated as a Certified Public Translator in Spanish.

For more tips and advice on how to go global on a budget, visit www.junctioninternational.com. Follow Junction International via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Junction-International/64653052776 or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/JCTINT.