Icebreaker activities for Meetings and Training Seminars

1. Famous people/cities –

As each participant arrives, tape a 3 x 5 index card on their back with the name of a famous person or city. They must circulate in the room and ask questions that can ONLY be answered with a YES or NO to identify clues that will help them find out the name of the person or city on their index card. EXAMPLES: Paris, Madonna, Santa Claus, John Wayne, Casablanca

2. Dream Vacation –

Ask participants to introduce themselves and describe details of the ideal, perfect dream vacation.

3. Favorite animal –

As the guests arrive, and before you write their names on a name card, ask them to tell you their favorite animal and three adjectives to describe the animal. As they tell you, write the three adjectives on a name tag BEFORE their name (omit the name of the animal). Ask them to mingle with the crowd, sharing why these adjectives best describe their own personality. EXAMPLES: Loyal, cuddly, playful Dan

Team Building Exercises

BUSINESS NETWORKING SKILLS

By Doug Staneart, CEO of The Leader’s Institute

Increase your Sphere of Influence: How to Network:

Help build a larger sphere of influence around the office or in the community.

Word-of-mouth advertising is one of the cheapest and most effective types of advertising your company can invest in, but how do we generate this elusive type of advertising? Most experts in the area will say, “Get out and ‘network’.” So we go to a Chamber of Commerce business card exchange, a small business networking event, or any other peer to peer meet and greet with dozens or even hundreds of other people trying to promote their company or service, and we attempt to promote our company or service as well. Very few people come to these business card exchanges to buy things. The odds seem to be stacked against from the beginning, so is it any wonder why most of us come back from these networking functions thinking that we just wasted an hour or two?

It doesn’t have to be that way. By making just a few simple changes to our approach, we can become a center of influence in any room and in effect, generate significant word of mouth advertising. One of the first things that we have to realize, though, is what ‘networking’ actually is and what it is not. Networking IS NOT selling. (If you are in a MLM system, pay close attention here!) If we know 99% of the people at a networking function are there to promote their own product or service (not buy from us,) and we try to sell our product or service to them, we are likely to frustrate (and bore) ourselves and the people we are talking with. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that once we get even a hint of interest from the person we are talking to, the sales person FANGS (MLM fangs) come out. We practically beat our new acquaintance over the head with what we do, and how great we are, and why they should buy from us. All we are doing in a situation like this is pushing our prospect away.

Networking IS increasing our sphere of influence in order to promote our product or service to this sphere of influence at a future time. People do business with and refer people to people they, know, like, and trust (peer to peer networking.) So our goal during a networking function is not to sell, but to get more people to know us, like us, and trust us. That way, they are more likely to buy from us in the future or refer people to us. One way to get people to know us, like us, and trust us more is to help them get what they want.

People like other people who are interested in them. The most important topic to anyone you are speaking to is himself or herself. And since they are at the meeting to promote their product or service, then if we help them do that better, they are going to like and trust us more. The following questions are things that you can ask someone at a networking function that will get them to open up to you and tell you about themselves:

* What is you name? Obviously a first question.
* What do you do? Still nothing out of the ordinary.
* Do you travel much? What territory do you work in? Any question about location.
* What do you like most about what you do? Keeps the conversation positive and gives you more insight about the person and his/her company.
* What makes you or your company unique or different from your competition? Let them brag.
* What are some of your accomplishments or things you are proud of? Let them brag more.
* How would I know if someone I was talking to would be a good prospect for you? This one question can make you more money than any other you can ask.

These questions will help you really get to know the person and what he or she can do. With this type of information at your fingertips (and it is a good idea to write the information down-possible on the back of a business card,) as you network, eventually you will come across someone who would be a good prospect for that person. The moment you introduce those two people, you become a center of influence in that room. Do this just a couple of times, and the word will spread very quickly about how YOU are the person that everyone needs to know.

What makes this process so successful is the third party endorsement. The person who you are helping to promote his or her product or service is no longer struggling to find a warm prospect, now they are receiving a third party endorsement from you. That gives that person tremendous credibility to the prospect. You are helping both parties. These people tend to remember this type of help, and they return the favor ten-fold.

Eventually, you’ll walk into a room, and people you have never even met before will begin bringing prospects to you. The key to making this process work is consistency and the ability to catalogue information about the people you meet. If you create a system that works for you, you will dramatically increase the word-of-mouth advertising about your company.

Personal Goal Setting

Find Direction. Live Your Life Your Way.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn this vision of the future into reality.

The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You’ll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you from your course.

More than this, properly-set goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, you’ll find that your self-confidence builds fast.

Achieving More With Focus

Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

Goals are set on a number of different levels: First you create your “big picture” of what you want to do with your life, and decide what large-scale goals you want to achieve. Second, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working to achieve it.

We start this process with your Lifetime Goals, and work down to the things you can do today to start moving towards them.

Your Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or by a time at least, say, 10 years in the future) as setting Lifetime Goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of these categories (or in categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Artistic:
  Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?
• Attitude:
  Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.
• Career:
  What level do you want to reach in your career?
• Education:
  Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?
• Family:
  Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent?
• Financial:
  How much do you want to earn by what stage?
• Physical:
  Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure:
  How do you want to enjoy yourself? – You should ensure that some of your life is for you!
• Public Service:
  Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

Spend some time brainstorming (explore brainstorming here) these, and then select one goal in each category that best reflects what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals on which you can focus.

As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want (if you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants, however make sure you also remain true to yourself!)

Starting to Achieve Your Lifetime Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a 25 year plan of smaller goals that you should complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Then set a 5 year plan, 1 year plan, 6 month plan, and 1 month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Then create a daily to-do list (investigate to-do lists here) of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. At an early stage these goals may be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you have decided your first set of plans, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your to-do list on a daily basis. Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience.

Goal Setting Tips

The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective goals:

• State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively – ‘Execute this technique well’ is a much better goal than ‘Don’t make this stupid mistake.’

• Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.

• Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.

• Write goals down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force.

• Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Derive today’s goals from larger ones.

• Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. In business, these could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy. In sport, for example, these reasons could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.

• Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (employers, parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Alternatively you may set goals that are too high, because you may not appreciate either the obstacles in the way or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance.

Development of Personal Values

What Are Values and The Origin of Your Personal Code of Values

Values are deeply held beliefs that guide our behaviors and decisions. They reside deeply within the subconscious and are tightly integrated into the fabric of everyday living. We make decisions and choose behaviors, friends, employment, and entertainment based, in large part, on our values.

Family Values

We assimilate a beginning value-set during childhood from parents, teachers, coaches, and influential others. In later years, as a result of critical thinking and life experiences, we may discard some values and add others. But many values that subconsciously operate as a basis for choices, decisions, and behaviors are the core values assimilated during our early years.

Why Are Values Important to Personal Development?

We tend to live our lives in accordance with our values. When we face a decision and choose A instead of B, it’s often because A feels right to us. We might use words such as, “it’s the right thing to do,” or “that’s the right way.”

We tend to think of our values as absolute and universal, what feels right to us must be right for everyone, but is it? Intellectually, we know the answer is no. We easily use the phrase “different strokes for different folks” as we observe a behavior that amuses, but doesn’t threaten us.

Still, there are times when we bristle at someone’s behavior, becoming outraged and angry, especially when a value we hold is challenged or violated. Recall a heated argument between friends or family members. A value conflict was surely the cause. In fact, any spontaneous and strong reaction to a situation can more than likely be traced to a values conflict.