Getting Job Security

We continue to see headlines like these daily (the following are from major news outlets over the past several months):

US: Dell, Motorola, IBM announce new job cuts

Office Depot, Yahoo, Electronic Arts add to job cuts

Big U.S. Companies announce massive job cuts

Security. Some people marry for it. Banks want it before granting loans and business professionals are looking for it.

Everyone wants security, but where can it be found?

Most business leaders would agree that there's only one place where job security can be found and it's inside of you. This is the only real source of security in business. And once this inner security is attained it must be maintained by improving ourselves everyday. We must improve each day if we expect to stay on top because when things stop growing they start dying.

Think about it. Everyone expects his company to grow, but have you considered that you can grow as fast, if not faster, than your organization? Are you keeping up or ahead of your company's rate of growth? The reality is that your company must investment in business research and development each year. These investments are aimed at creating competitive advantage in the marketplace and financial security. Should you emulate your company by investing in the personal research and development of yourself each year?

If you'd like for Daniel to address your audience on performance, accountability . . . on winning more and losing less in business . . . just give ES a call or drop us an email.

Do pauses in speech mean the person is lying?

Quite a few of our clients and friends have asked what we thought about the new TV show Lie to Me. I must confess I hadn't watched it till this week. I love the fact that Fox thinks this is a worthy subject, but I find the implementation of the concepts to be a bit cheesy. But you didn't come here to hear my television show reviews.

One thing I do want to address, however, that Lie to Me reminded me of, is the notion that pauses in speech suggest someone is lying. The show's leap from pause to deception is a dangerous one. It's simply not that simple.

In our book Face Values, we discuss the speech style, pitch, tone and energy of the Thinker or Analytical personality type, which is often filled with starts and stops and silent pauses in between.

What's happening in this case is the Thinker is doing what he or she does best.....thinking, and although there is a lot going on in their heads, it hasn't yet made it's way into their speech. Do these pauses mean that all Thinkers are lying or busy making things up? Of course not.

Research by Benus and colleagues at Columbia University (in conjunction with SRI) documented here http://www.cs.columbia.edu/nlp/papers/2006/benus_al_06.pdf tells us that pauses-both filled and silent, occur more frequently in truthful statements than they do in deceptive speech.

The paper also provides a good summary of existing research on pauses and provides an interesting tidbit that can help us distinguish between pauses as part of a regular speech style and pauses as clues to deception.

There is evidence for increase in pitch as an indicator of deception. "Higher pitch is assumed to indicate increased tension on the part of deceivers. Hence, we hypothesize that filled pauses with higher pitch and intensity may occur in deceptive speech."

When reading people, especially if trying to identify deception, requires that you form a base line for this person. How do they normally sound? Let's say my normal delivery is slow and laborious. The energy level is low, tone is monotone and there are lots of silent pauses. That's my base line. Now, what can you learn if all the sudden the pace reves up and the pauses disappear. You might surmise that I am more comfortable with what I'm saying-I don't have to think about it. I might also be excited about what I'm saying. You've hit on something I'm passionate about. Now, how might you distinguish that kind of response from a lie? The short answer is tension.

Tension can be "read" in a variety of ways-in the mouth, in the eyes, in the voice. This subject qualifies for mpre discussion, so I'll address this topic in subsequent posts.

To learn more about Michael and Pam check out their speaker pages on the ES website, or call us to check their availability for a program or workshop for your organziation.