Corrections or additions?
These articles were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on November 11,
1998. All rights reserved.
Be Assertive: Marge Smith
How many times have you nodded in agreement to something
you never truly agreed with? Or said “yes” when it should
have been “no?” How many times have you wished you had been
more assertive? It happens too often, says Marge Smith, who
speak about “Assertiveness Skills for Business Success” at
the YWCA Business/Professional Women’s Breakfast Series on Wednesday,
November 18, at 7:45 a.m. at the Nassau Club, 6 Mercer Street. Cost:
$20. Call 609-252-2006 to register.
A consultant to business and nonprofits, Smith teaches at the Mercer
County College and has a home-based business, Princeton Association
for Training and Development, which offers workshops on communication
skills, decision making, and problem solving for corporations.
Not being assertive enough to say “no” to the lesser
priorities
could get you into awkward situations, says Smith. “But when you
say `no’ you should be clear that you are not rejecting the person,
but just the request,” she adds.
Assertiveness is very different from being aggressive, says Smith.
“Assertiveness improves relationships, while aggressiveness
destroys
them. Being assertive does not necessarily mean getting what you want.
You respect others and you respect your own needs. You treat people
as equal. Aggressiveness, on the other hand, is an I-win-you-lose
attitude. You may win, but the results may be short term. The other
person may get even when he gets the chance. Being non-assertive is
the opposite of being aggressive. It is an I-lose-you-win attitude
and a non-assertive person is always angry or pitying himself.”
Assertive behavior can be developed, says Smith. Some behaviors
associated
with assertiveness are:
The ability to initiate and maintain a conversation.The ability to state one’s opinion.The ability to handle conflicts so as to improve thechancesof resolving them.The ability to express negative thoughts as well aspositivethoughts. Praise should be given when appropriate and many peoplefind that difficult to do, says Smith.The ability to receive compliments. Smith says that youshould know how to say “thank-you” to compliments and notsimply brush them off.Smith majored in English at Smith College and earned a master’sin education at Columbia University. She was executive director ofthe Princeton YWCA for seven years. Under her leadership the YWCAgrew from 8,000 to 14,000 members, the eighth largest in the nation.Some people tend to be assertive in certain areas but not in others.”You might be assertive at work but not with family andfriends,”says Smith, who feels that women especially have trouble with beingassertive and sometimes go to extremes to please people and makeeverybodyhappy.”Whether at work or at home being assertive will make a realdifferencein our lives,” Smith says.– Teena ChandyTop Of PageSales Culture at BanksA group of people are learning about cross sellingopportunities,how to overcome objections and when to go for the close. It soundslike a Zig Ziglar sales rally, but it’s actually bank employeeslearningabout sales culture. Financial institutions are becoming moreassertivein helping you find investment vehicles for your money and aretrainingtheir employees to make the right moves.Learn what it takes to create a sales culture within a bank fromJosephR. Kaminski, vice president of business development at HLR FederalCredit Union in Nutley, who speaks at the Financial InstitutionsMarketingAssociation (FIMA) Wednesday, November 18, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30a.m. at the JFK Conference Center in Edison. Admission is free. Call973-785-9200, ext. 326.Establishing a sales culture within the bank means that everyone inthe bank from the CEO on down is personally committed to creatingnew revenue opportunities. No one is immune, “even the accountingand IT personnel are expected to make referrals,” says Kaminski.”Banking is a different process because of the changes over thepast 15 years. Competition has become very acute and financialinstitutionsfor the first time are finding themselves competing against otherfinancial institutions that are very sales oriented.”For smaller financial institutions with a smaller universe, it’s vitalthat they increase revenue from existing customers and retain thesecustomers. “The way a sales culture benefits the institution isthat in order to maintain a customer base, you’ve got to get thecustomerto have as many products as you possibly can — the greater thenumber of products, the more likely they are to stay with you,”says Kaminski.Employee attitude is the starting point. “You have to sit downand take a look at the culture in the institution and determine whatit is specifically. Is it operations oriented, service oriented?You’vegot to canvas your people to get a feel for how they feel about salesas a whole,” says Kaminski. After that you need to 1.) put intoplace a sales tracking system, 2.) institute basic sales trainingand 3.) establish a sales incentive program that allows employeesto earn up to an additional 25 percent of their salary.Success is measured in terms of a cross-sell ratio, the number ofbank products and services sold to a customer per sales contact. AtHLR, the loan portfolio went from a cross-sell ratio of about 1.3to about 2.As can be expected, some employees may not leap at the chance to jointhe new sales culture. “If you have an institution that has neveremphasized sales before and has been basically operations or serviceoriented, it can be very difficult to do. The employees will say `wellgee, you didn’t hire me to sell’,” says Kaminski. “Primarilybecause they have to change the total culture within the institution,and that’s a very difficult thing to do, it’s not something that youcan do overnight or in one or two years. It’s a continuing processand can take up to six years to accomplish. Most institutions tryto work with existing personnel, but sometimes very hard decisionsabout people have to be made.”Kaminski started in banking while he was still attending college,working nights in the transit department (check processing) at FirstPennsylvania Bank. After graduation from St. Joseph’s University inPhiladelphia in 1964 with a BA in psychology and economics, Kaminskientered a management training program at Germantown Savings Bank.Kaminski’s background includes tours as financial sales manager ofthe northeast region of Travelers Express Company.Kaminski admits that sometimes smaller institutions are reluctantto change “because they have a smaller number of employees andthey are concerned about upsetting the apple cart because they areniche institutions dealing with a specific group.”Kaminski contends that there is confusion about what is sales andwhat is marketing. “Marketing is the creation of awareness amongyour customers about your products and services. Sales converts thatawareness into the purchase of a product or service.”– Jeff LippincottTop Of PageFeng Shui: The Way Out?If your business is going downhill, your family lifeis in shambles, or your career prospects look bleak, it could bebecauseyour house is facing the wrong way or you have placed the wrong thingsin the wrong places. Knocking down a few walls or moving yourfurniturearound could make a big difference. Or at least that is what a fengshui practitioner will tell you.Feng shui (pronounced fung shuway) literally means wind and waterand dates back more than 7,000 years. This ancient philosophy revolvesaround arranging one’s life with the forces of the universe. TheChinesealso refer to it as the art of placement. Feng shui attempts toharnessand manipulate life energy called “ch’i,” which existseverywherein the universe, to find harmony and balance in one’s personalenvironment.Cathy L. Nissley, who has been involved with advanced feng shuicourses and is preparing to be a feng shui practitioner, will shareher experiences at the Central Jersey Women’s Network meeting onTuesday,November 17, at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn. Cost: $30. Call908-281-3119.A high concentration of ch’i allows the environment to function andproduces good feng shui. A beneficial concentration of ch’i alsoaffectsemotions and attitudes, says Nissley. The eight areas of influencewhere feng shui can be applied are knowledge and education; health,wealth and prosperity; recognition and fame; nurturing and creativity;relationships; helpful people and networking; and career prospects.The feng shui practitioner asks what area needs improvement andattemptsto enhance the flow of energy to that point.This can be done by spatial arrangements, use of interior design,and the use of color and sounds. It also involves common sense andintuition, adds Nissley. “It may not be possible to eliminateeverything that may be considered bad feng shui, like the slope ofthe roof or the angle of the room. In such cases you do things tocounter balance the effects of bad feng shui.” The Black Hat Sectschool of feng shui, the most widely practiced in the United Statessince the 1970s, uses the “bagua,” a tool which analyzes theroom based on the room’s main entrance.Nissley grew up in the Philadelphia area and graduated from DrexelUniversity, Class of ’75, with a BS in design and merchandising. Shehas her own marketing communications and consulting firm, CIC CreativeInc. based in Newtown, Pennsylvania. A life-long interest in thephilosophy,harmony and serenity of the Far East led her to the study and practiceof martial arts, feng shui, T’ai Chi, and Oriental art andarchitecture.Feng shui essentially means tugging at one fringe of the universeso everything else falls into place, says Nissley. “It is anattemptto send out messages to the universe. The universe is very logicaland literal and the messages sent out should be clear.” Symbolsare a very important part of feng shui. A live plant, an aquarium,three Chinese coins on a red string, are some energy drawing symbols,says Nissley. So bring that goldfish into your office. It just mightbe what you needed to do to land that big business account.– Teena ChandyNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
