Behaviour Matters September 2015

Your No1 Magazine For Developing Higher Performance 

BEHAVIOUR 

MATTERS 

Issue 26 September 2015 £3.50 where sold 

Image courtesy of www.whatsontv.co.uk 

It’s no 

Surprise, 

Surprise 

Inside This 

ISSUE 

Cilla Black – A Lorra Lorra 

Lessons for Business 

The clever cat eats cheese 

and breathes down rat holes 

with baited breath. 

W. C. Fields 

Organisations That Are The Cat’s 

Whiskers 

Serious Concerns About 

Mindfulness In The Neuron Lounge 

Focus On Culture 

A Sparkling Alternative to the 

Retirement Carriage Clock 

www.thebehaviourexpert.com 

www.highperformanceprogramme.com 

Behaviour Matters September 2015.indd 1 01/09/2015 09:36

A Thought From Jez 

Like millions of others around the world, I was shocked to read of the 

passing of Cilla Black on 2nd August. A true all-round entertainer, Cilla 

Black was well-known for her generosity, talent, humour and kind-heartedness. 

To many in the entertainment industry, she was one of “the greats”, 

who offered a shining example of professionalism. 

2 

I’m often asked by clients for examples of 

what others clients are doing, when working 

on similar projects. For example, I might be 

asked for an example of who has implemented 

a culture change successfully (Google), or who 

has succeeded in promoting healthy living 

and personal development (Philips). However, 

rarely am I asked for examples of individuals 

who would be appropriate to emulate, or whose 

characteristics would be useful to adopt. 

An organisation is it’s people, so consider the 

people you have met that especially impressed 

you with their character, skills or knowledge. 

Can you emulate those in any way, to benefit 

your organisation? Are there elements that you 

can train? Consider, for example, a boss that 

you’ve had who made an impact on you for all 

the right reasons; perhaps they were selfless, 

knowledgeable and patient, for example. All of 

these characteristics are remembered fondly, 

can be taught and are worth the effort to 

encourage. 

The focus should be on individuals doing 

great things, not on sweeping claims of great 

cultures, for it is people that make, or break, 

culture. 

Cilla leaves a mixed legacy: on the one hand 

“our Cilla”, an utmost professional entertainer 

taken to the nation’s heart, however, on the 

other hand a demanding, steely, calculated and 

arrogant woman, if the many “inside stories” 

are to be believed. One example I heard was 

that on a long-haul flight in First Class, Cilla had 

refused to talk to any of the cabin crew and 

passed all instructions and responses through 

her PA who was traveling with her. For one 

steward it eventually wore thin and, losing his 

cool, he leaned across to address Cilla directly 

with: “I knew you couldn’t sing, but I didn’t know 

C lient of the Quarter 

you couldn’t talk.” There was an expletive in the 

sentence that I’ve omitted to save your dear 

eyes. I don’t think it reduces Cilla in any way; 

far from it: it simply shows that she was a real 

person and had flaws, as we all do. However, 

the inside stories like this demonstrate so 

clearly how, with some effort, we can change 

our perceived persona: when tired, irritated or 

annoyed, we can take a deep breath and smile, 

consciously showing the persona we want to 

reveal, just as great entertainers like Cilla Black 

did, to ensure her public saw only the very best 

side of her. 

Ta ra chuck, 

The Golden Pineapple Award 

Mitch Lloyd, Petra Jewellery 

This issue’s Golden Pineapple 

Award badge goes to Mitch 

Lloyd of Petra Jewellery! 

Mitch has taken over the running of a 

family-run jewellery shop in Basingstoke, 

England and embraced the opportunity 

to compete with the likes of Tiffany and 

Pandora by working tirelessly to provide not 

just extraordinary customer service but a 

complete customer experience that is nothing 

short of extraordinary. 

I’ve experienced first hand how Mitch and her 

team have dedicated themselves to looking at 

every possible aspect of the customer journey 

and attempting to improve it to ensure it is 

memorable for all the good reasons; from the 

subtle to the obvious. What makes Mitch most 

deserving of this month’s award is that Petra 

Jewellery is a small team (just one of the many 

charming assets of this business, which allow 

it to keep their focus tightly on the customer), 

yet the amount of work and effort that has 

gone into her business in order to achieve her 

customer excellence goals is rivaled by some 

of the largest organisations I work with. 

Congratulations, Mitch! Keep an eye on the 

post for your badge! 




Q&A 

Pearls of Wisdom 

from Mitch Lloyd 

Q: Tell me about Petra Jewellery and how you differ from, say, a high 

street jeweller. 

A: We’re an independent jewellers with a contemporary showroom 

and Creative Suite in a newly refurbished premises called ‘The 

Cottage’ in Basingstoke. We like to welcome customers as if they 

are coming into our home, with warmth and empathy, ready to share 

and guide them on their journey towards creating or purchasing 

something special; a piece of jewellery that marks a memory. 

That’s how we’re different, most jewellers are very focused on 

retailing, they ‘sell’ their products whereas we recognise the 

sentiment that motivates the purchase and thoroughly enjoy being 

part of the solution. 

Q: The good old, tried and tested carriage clock has been a firm 

favourite for retirement gifts and employment milestones for 

probably centuries now. And sculpted glass trophies abound at 

awards ceremonies. Why should companies consider something 

alternative? 

A: The collection pots for leaving presents can often be quite healthy 

and it’s a shame to waste it on something that isn’t really going to be 

appreciated or valued. Anything that simply gathers dust is a big ‘nono’ 

for most modern day households. 

Considering something bespoke could be an absolute winner for 

companies; the gift then becomes the reward it is supposed to be, 

something very individual and special to the person who’s efforts and 

contribution you’re recognising. 

Q: What sorts of alternatives exist and what budgets are realistic for 

someone considering a token of appreciation or recognition? 

A: Budgets are irrelevant; it’s the meaning and sentiment linked 

to the item that is important. So a simple Italian leather bracelet; 

popular with men and women of all ages retails at about £25. It is 

nice quality and can be engraved with a completely personalised 

message (even choose a font style to suit) for about £45. 

Collectable pieces work well too as it can be added to when someone 

reaches certain milestones. This can be charms, pendants with 

different inserts or even adding diamonds to a piece each year. 

Watches can be engraved with a message; something that will evoke 

memories, even just a date makes it mean something. 

Q: What is the most exciting or interesting piece of jewellery that 

you’ve been commissioned to make? 

A: There have been hundreds of amazing commissions: people are 

fascinating, we continue to be surprised on a daily basis with what 

they ask us to do. 

We’re made a gold insignia for the Mayor which was a pretty high 

profile commission, designed a vile to contain a beloved dog’s ashes 

to be worn on a charm bracelet, set someone’s late husband into a 

ring (he’d been converted into a big, yellow diamond), make a child’s 

tooth into a pendant. 

Some of the most exciting jobs are the big secrets and we get really 

involved with the planning and working out the perfect design. It can 

be quite a challenge not actually meeting the person we’re designing 

for especially when you ask the person commissioning the piece 

some pretty basic questions that they struggle to answer. I once 

asked a man what colour his wife’s eyes were and he couldn’t help. 

Q: What is the most expensive piece that you’ve been commissioned 

to make?! 

A: An engagement ring worth £13,000, it was second time around 

and he said it had to be better than the first time! We set a stunning 

emerald cut diamond into a bespoke, hand made platinum ring. 

Q: Why do you think jewellery is an important consideration for 

organisations looking to create a lasting impression? 

A: Jewellery is something people should wear and enjoy. Anything 

that is gifted as part of a reward or recognition scheme would be 

worn with pride, a bit like a medal, a badge of honour, a talking point 

with sentiment attached, not to mention the intrinsic value of the 

piece too. 

Q: What advice would you give to an organisation considering 

commissioning a piece of jewellery for their staff or clients? 

A: Think about what they will value. You can consider something 

as simple as buying a few grams of gold (9ct yellow gold is currently 

around £30 per gram). We have a local company that does this for 

their ‘Gold Sales Star’ scheme. It’s a great idea; gold is considered 

as an investment so it’s something their sales team relate to and 

appreicate. The last time they did it they bought £200 of gold and a 

gift voucher for £200 to put towards having it made into something. 

3 

Q: I know the emotional connection that jewellery has and continues 

to have, is something that Petra Jewellery takes very seriously; do 

you think this is important when considering award and recognition 

tokens? 

A: Definitely, otherwise it isn’t really the ‘reward’ it’s meant to be is it? 

View the Jewellery at 

www.petrajewellery.com 


The Neuron 

Being Mindful of Mindfulness 

4 

Mindfulness is quickly becoming the new 

buzzword and the must-say phrase that 

demonstrates how in touch and current you are 

as a business, with organisations such as Google, 

Goldman Sachs and Barclays investing heavily into it. 

Proponents of mindfulness say that mindful meditation focuses the mind 

and boosts concentration, therefore, boosting productivity. However, it’s 

been criticized for abandoning the spiritual premise behind it, for secular 

gain. 

Does it exist just to give the kaftan and dream-catcher earing brigades 

something to do whilst listening to whale music? Or is there a bit more to 

mindfulness? It’s come under attack, yet “mindfulness practitioners” are 

popping up left, right and centre, in much the same way that NLP (Neuro 

Linguistic Programming) practitioners saw a bandwagon to jump onto 

the back of in the early 90’s. 

Defenders of mindfulness will quote all the big businesses and celebrity 

endorsers, such as Oprah Winfrey, Sadie Frost and Gwyneth Paltrow, to 

help cement the legitimacy of the area. However, knowing that most 

celebrities would go to the opening of an envelope if it kept them in the 

press, I tend to discount their endorsement or activity in almost anything. 

Does Oprah Winfrey practicing mindfulness make it any more relevant 

than Tom Cruise practicing Scientology? I doubt it. 

So what’s it all about? Well, I don’t think anyone would disagree with the 

notion that technological advances have created a period now where 

we are living a faster pace than ever before. Some leading scientists, 

researchers and philosophers have even suggested that we are in danger 

of having over-stretched our brains and that technology has overtaken 

the capacity of our brains’ development to keep up, resulting in the 

increase in stress and associated mental health problems. The ability 

to work when on public transport, when walking and if one wanted, for 

twenty four hours a day, has created deeply ingrained habit patterns. 

Habits that mean that more people are working well into the late hours, 

with little regard for rest, down-time or their own brain health. There’s 

Mindfulness is about focusing the mind, which 

in turn boosts concentration. 

a phrase you’ve probably never heard before: brain health. It’s the most 

significant problem with our brain: you can’t see it and so it’s subjected to 

the classic “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. As an increasingly overworked, 

under-rested species, this is where mindfulness steps in to save 

the day. 

It should be noted that it’s not new. Buddhists, for example, have been 

practicing “mindfulness” for centuries, just without the commercial hype. 

The ancient Zen proverb puts into perspective just how long the notion of 

looking after our brains has been around: “You should sit in meditation for 

twenty minutes every day – unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for 




an hour.” Mindfulness is, to over simplify it, about being present and in the 

moment. It’s about understanding that checking your emails hundreds 

of times a day, reacting to your email notification tone, or allowing your 

environment and circumstances to push you further and further until 

you experience a burn out, is a ticking time bomb for mental health, 

productivity, well-being and efficiency. Mindfulness is about focusing 

the mind, which in turn boosts concentration and that notion has been 

scientifically supported for a long time, as has the advice to “switch off” 

– quite literally. 

I have a real concern and it’s the reason so many are left with either a 

bad taste when exploring mindfulness, and why so many academics 

are picking holes in it. Many of those criticising mindfulness focus on 

the abandonment by many of its spiritual roots, describing it as mere 

“psychobabble”. Add to the mix self-appointed “mindfulness practitioners” 

who simply see pound signs in large employers and my concern for it to 

the only way that people will learn the benefits and embrace it is if the 

roots are ignored, if only initially. So here are my top tips to introduce 

mindfulness: 

1. Encourage scheduled time out. If your diary has the start and 

end time of a meeting, then it can also include the start and end time 

of a scheduled period that sees you going for a walk (to get lunch, for 

example), without your phone or email. Perhaps there’s a quiet area to sit 

in, or a book to read. These are all good starts, however, the optimum goal 

is to close your eyes, or simply stare and let your mind relax, wonder and 

drift. To be present and let that poor brain of yours take a moment to stop. 

2. Pause before you send an email. Just take a moment to reflect on 

the content, how it will be received and if there’s a different way that you 

could word what you’ve written. It’s about increasing that gap between 

thought and action. 

Lounge 

5 

be dismissed as merely another fad that has no place in the workplace 

becomes ever more real. There’s another side to this, too – and that’s the 

lack of understanding by practitioners of mindfulness that it has a time 

and a place. Yes, it’s relevant for all of us and yes, it surely needs to be 

embraced more but can you really see a city trader trailing their tongue 

over a single raisin in their mouths, whilst contemplating the texture (just 

one example of a possible mindfulness exercise). This is a real concern 

for me because of this dismissal of something, which ultimately could 

be – and needs to be – a useful tool in coping with modern working 

environments. I’ve written and recorded videos on my YouTube channel 

about the need to schedule down time and the associated benefits of it 

and in fact just this last week read some great research about the power 

of having a short nap during the day! That’s gone to the top of my to-do 

list! 

3. Use that concept of pausing, much more frequently: while on 

public transport, before you eat your lunch, when you pick your children 

up from school: take a moment to consider how you feel, what’s on your 

mind and to be present in the moment so that you’re reminded to stop. 

It’s important to educate those in your team of the benefits of not working 

late, getting good, quality sleep and encouraging them to manage their 

time and workload well, to enable them to break for lunch, take time 

to reflect and support better brain health. With some clients I have 

helped them to install “Brain Stations” around water coolers, with chairs, 

notebooks, bean bags and a ban on mobile devices: an opportunity to 

sit, hydrate and relax for a bit, with simple exercises that make them feel 

energised and ready to keep going. 

All that aside, mindfulness should be a serious contender for your time 

and if you come across part of it that makes you feel uncomfortable, or 

doesn’t suit your personality, adapt it or continue looking to find a method, 

or practice style that does. Try not to dismiss it outright simply because 

you’re not a fan of the spiritual roots. I actually believe that in many cases, 

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a 

whole lot easier ‘n puttin’ it back in. 

Will Rogers 


6 

Life does not always go smoothly and can 

sometimes be stressful. Work, family, health, 

study and relationships can be factors in this. 

Mindfulness can help by increasing focus and 

concentration and allowing better wellbeing and 

further joy by existing in the present moment. 

So what exactly is mindfulness? 

Mindfulness in its simplest form is basically ‘present moment 

awareness’ or paying attention to what is happening right now 

without judgement but with kindness, compassion and acceptance. 

It helps you to check in with yourself and become more aware of 

what’s going on in the present moment instead of living on autopilot 

24 hours a day. Once you become more aware of your present 

moment experience, mindfulness can have the following effects: 

You react less automatically: Whereas perhaps you may be used 

to having reacted to certain situations with automatic anger, stress 

or hypersensitivity, now mindfulness helps you choose how you 

react. Say for example, someone lets you down in the workplace 

or in a relationship and your usual reaction is to get extremely 

stressed, upset or angry. Mindfulness shows you how to notice the 

feelings in your body and choose your words and actions carefully, 

which can avoid landing you in a negative or aggressive situation. 

Mindfulness improves your focus and concentration: Doing 

mindfulness meditations helps to train your mind when it wanders. 

It allows you to focus on one thing at a time, such as your breath 

and so helps you to identify when your mind wanders and to guide 

it gently back to the point of focus. You can transfer this skill to 

other things in life as well as meditation, such as driving, having 

a conversation or event planning. Therefore, you boost your focus 

and concentration on any task you have to do. 

The ability increases for you to be in a state of flow: Following 

on from your focus and concentration improving, mindfulness also 

moves you towards a state of flow. Flow means being fully engaged 

in the task at hand, whether that’s a leisure activity or a work task. 

Research shows that people who’re in a state of flow a lot of the 

time are at their happiest. It also allows them to have greater 

creativity and success in their work and personal lives. 

How do you practice mindfulness? 

Mindfulness can be practised formally and informally. Formal 

mindfulness meditations are the longer sitting or lying down 

meditations which you can practice for 20-30 minutes. Informal 

mindfulness is activities you do every day which you can bring 

mindfulness to. Here is an explanation of how to do a mini formal 

mindfulness meditation, which is mindful breathing. 

Expert Voice 

Making the most of mindfulness 

1. Find a comfortable position and sit on a floor or chair. Sit with 

your back upright and slightly away from the back of the chair, 

which sends a message to your brain that you are alert and ready. 

2. Close your eyes and tell yourself that you are going to focus on 

your breathing. Make a commitment that you’ll try to focus on your 

breathing as best you can and be as kind to yourself as you can if 

your mind wanders off (which is perfectly normal and will probably 

happen!) Let go of the idea that you are trying to achieve a certain 

goal or outcome. Mindfulness is about present moment experience 

as it happens, there are no goals here. Try and accept whatever 

arises as best you can. 

3. Focus on your breathing. Focus wherever it is easiest for you. You 

can focus on feeling the breath in the back of the throat, the nose, 

the chest or the tummy. Beginners often find it helps with their 

focus to place a hand on their stomach and feel it going in and out 

from the breath. 

4. Your mind may wander off into thoughts, dreams, work tasks, to 

do lists and planning. Just gently guide it back to the focus of the 

breath when you notice your mind has wandered off. Try not to get 

frustrated if your mind keeps wandering off. Try gently smiling to 

yourself if this keeps happening. 

5. After ten minutes, open your eyes. Have a gently stretch if you 

need to and carry on with your day. 

Informal mindfulness can be brought to any daily activity such as 

eating, showering, cooking or cleaning. Just start with focusing on 

your breath and then engaging in your present moment experience 

when you participate in a daily activity. For example, when you eat, 

take the time to fully focus on the experience of eating alone. Put 

down the newspaper and turn off the TV. Feel the sensations in your 

arm as you lift the food to your mouth and study the food. Make 

observations about weight, texture, smell, any sound it may make 

and the taste and how it feels in your mouth. Really connect with 

the experience. If your mind wanders away from the experience, 

just gently guide it back to whatever you were focusing on. 

About Joelle 

Joelle Jane Marshall is the author of Managing Anxiety with 

Mindfulness for Dummies and co-author of the Mindfulness 

Workbook For Dummies. 

She writes mindfulness articles and books and offers corporate and 

private coaching, either online or face to face. 

Learn more at 

www.joellemarshall.com 




Unlocking Success 

In 6 

Seconds 

There’s something in this minty-fresh research 

that excites my brain and it’s quickly become 

my latest obsession to work out ways to apply 

this in other areas. It consumes a lot of my time, 

so if you see me deep in thought, you can bet 

your minty breath that I’m pondering this. See 

if you can work out how to use this fascinating 

insight into human behaviour for your own 

organization… 

A social psychology study tested how we respond to waiters and 

waitresses in a restaurant and whether their behaviour would affect 

the chances of receiving a tip. The study revealed something really 

quite significant: if the waiter simply placed the bill onto the table, 

along with some of the complimentary mints, and walked away, the 

tip ratio increased by 3%. So, simply by including something (in this 

case mints), with the bill, they were 3% more likely to get a tip. That’s 

a fairly obvious use of the principle of reciprocity and with very little 

effort, they’re getting an uplift in their tip. However, if they put the 

bill down, with the mints, and mentioned the mints (“Here’s your bill 

and some mints for you all, too”, for example), the likelihood of a tip 

shot up to 14%. So, verbalising the gift, or the unexpected offering, 

Brain Excite-mint 

further increased the chances of a tip, as if it was presented more 

formally, rather than left for you to work out on your own. 

However, the really staggering part is this. With just a little more 

effort (and I believe this is key here), by placing the bill down with 

the mints, mentioning them – but then returning with more mints 

– they increased the chances of a tip by 23%. This makes my brain 

buzz, like a buzz saw with a serious electrical problem. The effort 

involved in the waiter returning to the table with extra mints is 

negligible; he could do that on the way to another table or while 

passing to go to the kitchen, for example. It actually isn’t any extra 

effort at all. Yet this behavioural study shows that if it’s perceived as 

so, we are much more likely to acknowledge that, in this case with 

a tip. Replace the tip with a sale, or the acceptance of a upsell, for 

example, and that you’ve just read an incredibly powerful insight 

into your customers behaviour. And if you’re super switched on, 

you’ll have noticed that there are parallels to enhance employee 

productivity and efficiency, too. 

So the moral of the story is this: don’t discard any behaviour, or 

additional effort because you think it’s too small, or not noticeable. 

It’s the small, unexpected things that make the biggest impact and 

this research suggests that is even more so when we’re seen to put 

in that extra effort. 

7 

There are things which must 

cause you to lose your reason or 

you have none to lose. 

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 

Have 

You?... 

downloaded the FREE Expert Video Series 

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Head on over to www.whois.thebehaviourexpert.com/service 

and click on FREE RESOURCES to find out more! 


8 

The 

Power Nap 

My Grandma used to have “forty winks” and 

my Mum has the occasional “Nanny nap” 

and one of my colleagues sleeps daily from 4pm 

until 6pm, without which he is a nightmare to be 

around. The power of the nap is well documented, 

but how long should you nap for? 

10 to 20 minutes – experts say it’s ideal for a boost in alertness and 

energy because it limits you to the lighter stages of non rapid eye moments 

(REM) sleep, making it easier to hit the ground running after waking up. 

30 minutes – some studies show sleeping this long may cause sleep 

inertia, which is like a sleep hangover: imagine feeling groggy for up to 30 

minute after waking up. However, after that time, the restorative benefits 

of the nap are felt, so best avoid anything social in the first 30 minutes… 

60 minutes – is best for improving the remembering of facts, faces and 

names. It includes slow-wave sleep, which is the deepest type. Again, there 

is a downside in that you’ll feel groggy when you wake up. 

90 minutes – this is the King of Sleeps: the full cycle of sleep, which 

includes the lighter and deeper stages (including REM) sleep, typically 

likened to the dreaming state. This all leads to improved emotional and 

procedural memory (for example riding a bike, or playing the piano) and 

creativity. A 90 minute nap typically avoids sleep inertia, which makes it 

easier to wake up. 

Finally, permission to sleep in… 

READING 

Into It 

Jez drinks tea – a lot. And he reads 

– a lot. His work library has more 

than 3,000 books in it so each month we bring 

you more recommended reading material. Grab a 

cup of tea and get your brain into the book that’s 

tickling his neurons this month… 

Man’s Search for Meaning 

by Viktor E Frankl ISBN: 9781844132393 

The description “must-read” is fantastically over used. However, never 

has it been so relevant and justified as with this book. Hands down, 

it simply the best book I have ever read. At just 154 pages it’s a short 

read but one of the most powerful books and a true best-seller with 

over 9 million copies sold worldwide. Frankl was a psychologist, doctor, 

neurologist – and Auschwitz survivor - and reads as one of the most 

inspirational men to have ever walked on this planet. 

Hailed as “one of the outstanding classics to emerge from the 

Holocaust”, Main’s Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl’s story of his 

struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. 

Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding 

greater meaning and purpose in our own lives. It’s not a typical book of 

the period, detailing the horrors on the Nazi regime; Frankl states early 

on that his story, which naturally does include details of the conditions 

and struggles of being held in the Second World War concentration 

camps, is shared to help us put into perspective the struggles we face 

and to understand how his principles of Logotherapy can be used by us 

all to develop our characters and strengthen our sense of purpose. It has 

applications at home and at work and I defy you to read it and not find it 

one of the most powerful books you’ve ever read. 

I mentioned that I was reading it on my facebook page recently (www. 

facebook.com/thebehaviourexpert) and the post was met with an 

unexpected number of comments and approving likes from others who 

had read and loved the book. It really is a must-read – go grab it from 

your favourite book depository today. 

Star Rating: 

On Time Management 

Bite Sized Jez 

If you schedule both a start time and an end time for all of your daily activities, you create protected 

time and a dead line to work towards, which helps ensure the completion of the activities. Just remember to be 

realistic with the time you allot. Make your last task of each day to schedule the following day’s activities from 

your current to-do list. 




Jez’s 

Top 12 Tips for 

Professional Presentations 

1 

Practice, rehearse and practice some more! Confidence comes with 

familiarity; there’s no shortcut. 

2 

Write out exactly what you need to say, then condense it into short paragraphs, 

then into single lines that will prompt you. You can put these on prompt cards. 

3 

No one but you knows what you were going to say! If you miss something out, 

no one else knows! Keep calm and carry on. 

4 

Before you begin, take a few nice, slow, deep breaths to help calm yourself and 

oxygenate your vocal chords. 

5 

6 

Give your hands something to do: hold a prop, gesture, a glass of water or simply 

clasp them gently at your waist. 

Slide decks are there to support you - use single words, short phrases and lots 

of images. 

9 

7 

8 

Avoid bullet points, long pieces of text and reading from the slides: if your slide 

deck has more information than you do, one of you doesn’t need to be there... 

Avoid complicated graphs and diagrams; instead use statistics or images. 

9 

Capture everyone’s attention by regularly scanning the whole room from 

left to right. 

10 

If you pace and wander when presenting, it can be distracting. Instead, with 

your feet flat on the floor, push your toes into the ground to help root you. 

11 

First impressions count: be the best dressed person in the room. 

12 

Humans are visual creatures: use props, images and unusual items to capture 

and maintain attention. 

www.speakermasterclass.com 


Expert Voice 

10 

To App 

Felix Stroud-Allen is the Director of 

Crowd Comms, the company that nearly 

everyone goes to who wants an app with 

attitude! They really are the best in the 

business. 

It seems like only yesterday that I was being asked, “Why 

should I use an event app?” Now it is “I have an event, I need 

an app, what can yours do?” The market is certainly changing 

at an electrifying pace and event planners now recognise that 

mobile event apps can add a rich interactive experience for 

their delegates. 

In fact the tables have turned, I am now challenging clients 

with the question, “Why do you want to use an event app?” 

Simply ticking the mobile event app box without allocating 

proper thought to the process can potentially have a negative 

effect on your event. 

Part of the meeting design process is to first reflect upon 

your audience; why are they attending, what are they looking 

to get out of attending your event, do you know what drives 

them to get out of bed on the morning and be genuinely 

engaged in their work, what can they take away from your 

event that will enrich their lives in 

some way? 

Lots of questions that you may not immediately have all of 

the answers to but you can use mobile event apps to start 

gathering data and building that picture. 

Does your message ring true with your audience? 

You have a number of key messages/ points that you want 

your audience to digest and take away with them but is 

your message aligned with the needs and desires of your 

audience? An easy way to find out is run a couple of quick 

pre-event survey questions with your audiences to check if 

Or Not 

To App? 

this is the case, there maybe other issues that concern them. 

The polling results will enable you to tweak content ahead the 

event to ensure your message is in synch with your audience. 

Networking: the sharing of ideas 

Delegates who attend a particular event have a shared 

interest but they also have skills/ expertise/ interests that 

are not common across the event audience. You might have 

people with rare skills/ experience who work in isolation 

nationally or internationally. Give them an integrated mobile 

networking tool that allows them to find like minded people 

quickly and easily connect via the app. 

I’m speaking; what are they thinking? 

One way monotone powerpoint presentations have a 

powerful soporific effect upon an audience, especially after 

lunch so get your audience engaged and find out what they 

are thinking. Using a live multiple choice polling during 

sessions enables speakers to instantly gauge the sentiment 

of the room in a controlled manner. 

The speaker needs to put some though into the answers and 

be prepared to discuss the results no matter which way the 

audience vote. 

Questions, questions, questions! 

I am a delegate, I have a burning question but I’m not sure if 

it’s a good one and I’m not that confident about getting up 

in front of all my peers and using the mic! The majority of 

delegates will feel this way so give them a voice; a moderated 

Q&A feature on your app. They can ask anonymous questions 

at any point which can go through to a moderator for approval 

which will then in turn reveal the question to the speaker/ 

chair/ panel. The simple feature of letting delegates vote up 

a question that has been submitted by someone else lets the 

speaker know the burning questions from the audience as a 

whole. 

Get in touch with Felix 

www.crowdcomms.com 




Jewel in the Crowne 

Jez joins forces to create great first impressions 

Want to create a great first impression 

in business? You can’t be serious. New 

research from Crowne Plaza® hotel & resorts 

reveals how humour makes the business world 

go round 

Jez has been working with Crowne Plaza® on their new campaign. 

Here’s a behind the scenes look at some of their fascinating 

research. 

More than two-thirds of people think that showing a sense of 

humour is crucial to making a successful first impression in a 

business meeting, according to new research commissioned by 

Crowne Plaza® Hotel & Resorts – InterContinental Hotels Group 

(IHG)’s business travel brand. 

As many as 66% of UK adults rated humour ahead of appearance 

(50%), intelligence (39%), confidence (29%) and a ‘solid handshake’ 

(22%) in the poll published today. 

Surprisingly, it revealed that over a third (35%) of Brits do not do 

anything at all to prepare for important business meetings, which 

can ultimately affect their ability to create a positive first impression. 

Discussing the research findings, award-winning behaviourist, 

motivational speaker and author, Jez Rose says: “The Crowne Plaza 

brand has commissioned a piece of research into what makes a 

positive first impression in business and what’s interesting is that 

you wouldn’t usually expect ‘humour’ to factor more favourably in 

the findings than appearance… or intelligence even!” 

Rose continues: “What this tells us is that it’s not about trying to be 

funny or cracking jokes during your meeting; it’s about conveying 

a good sense of humour to create a connection. This can be done 

simply by having a cheery disposition and smiling. Sometimes these 

small things are overlooked in business meetings and yet make all 

the difference.” 

When it comes to conducting business in the most successful way, 

three quarters of people agreed that face-to-face trumps all. With 

this in mind Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts has partnered with Jez 

Rose to provide business guests with his top insights and tips to 

make a positive first impression in a short, specially created film. 

This will be made available for free to guests via the Crowne Plaza 

website. 

Tom Rowntree, IHG’s Vice President for the Crowne Plaza brand, 

Europe says: “We put our guests first and pride ourselves on 

ensuring that business travel works. 

Because first impressions are so important in business, we’ve 

partnered with one of the UK’s leading professional development 

and behaviour experts to share some insights and simple 

behavioural tools for creating a positive first impression and 

facilitating business interactions.” 

11 

With social media playing a greater role than ever before, more 

than 1 in 3 agreed that having the right profile picture is ‘very 

important’. At the other end of the spectrum, talking over people 

in meetings and not making eye contact with peers both work to 

create a negative first impression to colleagues and clients. 

When making initial communication with a new contact, email has 

now overtaken phone calls with 76% of people using this method 

versus the more traditional means of communicating. Interestingly, 

text messaging is very much part of the business mix with almost 

half (45%) saying they use it to communicate with colleagues or 

clients. “This is a stark contrast to 10 years ago when only 1 in 5 

working business men and women would think to personally text 

message their new colleagues or clients,” adds Rose. 

Listen out for Jez on the radio & keep an 

eye out for his First Impressions tips video! 


Jez 

Now, obviously I’m a little biased, having been 

invited to deliver a TEDx talk, however, I am 

yet to find anyone who doesn’t enjoy TED talks. If 

you’re new to TED be warned: they are addictive! 

Here are some of the finest TED talks around! 

1 Ken Robinson 

Do schools kill creativity? 

2 

http://bit.do/tedtalk1 

Simon Sinek 

How great leaders inspire action 


12 

3 Pamela Meyer 

How to spot a liar 

4 


Steve Jobs 

How to live before you die 


5 David Gallo 

Underwater astonishments 

6 


Susan Cain 

The power of introverts 





Inside Jez’s 

Brain 

Culture Vulture 

This article probably isn’t what you think 

it is. It is about culture and it is about 

culture in your organisation, however, it’s not a 

predictable article on culture change. I hope it’s 

not a rant, either, however, I am gong to focus 

on one of my top gripes and that’s employee 

engagement surveys (EOS), or internal feedback 

questionnaires. Those annual or bi-annual 

“temperature checks” that many organisations 

use to gauge levels of morale, training gaps, the 

voice of their employees and garner ideas or 

feedback on recent changes, product launches 

or issues. 

So far, so good. But here’s the clanger: they are largely pointless. 

Not because of the content, or the way in which they are produced 

(although if they run more than three pages, don’t expect the 

responses to be especially accurate – think about how uninspiring 

and monotonous it is when you have to find time to fill in the national 

census survey and how little of your true concentration that receives). 

No, they are largely pointless because of the frequency. 

If you don’t keep a regular eye on your most 

important asset; the people who make your 

organisation - that’s okay. It really is. You’re 

just heading for a situation where you’ll spend 

significantly more time and financial resources on 

trying to restore some consistency and repair the 

damage that you missed as it began to unfold. 

Sampling behaviours, or mindsets and opinions that directly affect 

behaviours, is only effective when taking into consideration just how 

quickly our moods, motivation and mindset change. If you’re not 

sampling your staff at least quarterly, you’re really missing a trick 

to keep your finger very much on the pulse, enabling you to jump 

on issues and challenges as they arise and before they become 

such huge issues that then require committees and large budgets 

to effectively alter them. I remember the first time I was asked to 

be involved with a client’s bi-annual EOS, some nine years ago for a 

client in the financial services sector. The results on their own weren’t 

especially concerning, although there were some issues, naturally, 

that needed consideration. However, when compared with the 

results of the survey two years prior, it was evident that the staff had 

been on a virtual roller coaster: here were mostly the same people 

completing this survey, however, you’d be forgiven for thinking that 

the results belonged to an entirely different company. I was asked 

to meet with the CEO and board of directors, along with the heads 

of HR, training and customer services to help them understand 

the implications of the results and fundamentally it boils down to 

this: how you answer a question today will be based on a myriad of 

influencing factors: your personal mood and emotional state; the 

environment you are in; the current conditions of your job role; the 

current relationship with your colleagues and how your personal and 

home life is impacting your work life, for example. If I ask you the 

same questions in four weeks time, for most people, the answers are 

unlikely to be wildly different, providing that those influencing factors 

remain consistent. And that’s the crux of the matter right there: most 

of our lives at home and at work are a delicate balance, although few 

of us consciously consider it like that: it takes one thing, like the death 

of a family pet, or an illness, or an argument at work, or a dent in our 

confidence and everything around is impacted. Our lives, opinions 

and the impact of, say, our environment, on our emotional state can – 

and often does – differ in three months. Twelve weeks is a long time 

to maintain a stable balance for many businesses, when the economy 

isn’t as secure or stable as it was before; when customers generally 

find spending their money as easy as fitting a space hopper into a 

gum boot and when targets and pressure are increased internally in 

order to compensate for the lack of free-flowing sales. 

If you don’t keep a regular eye on your most important asset; the 

people who make your organisation - that’s okay. It really is. You’re 

just heading for a situation where you’ll spend significantly more 

time and financial resources on trying to restore some consistency 

and repair the damage that you missed as it began to unfold. The 

financial services client I mentioned had a strange parallel in that they 

checked their processes and systems every month for glitches and 

issues, yet they neglected their staff for two years. If you’re reading 

this and thinking: “Crikey, imagine the extra workload in sampling 

our staff more regularly!”, that’s based on you not doing it regularly 

enough and having lots of issues to consider and fix. Perhaps it’s time 

to nip it in the bud, as my Grandma would say. 

Don’t Forget... 

Join me on twitter @JezRose 

for succinct advice, fun and 

SPECIAL OFFERS! 

13 


It’s a dog’s life 

I 

’ve been working with Steve for a couple of 

years now, presenting training events and developing 

training programs for clients. That’s 

Steve’s dog, Maizi, in the photo, in case you were 

wondering if he had an exaggerated facial hair 

problem. She writes a secret blog on Steve’s 

travels - here’s one of her latest... 

My human Steve is just back from Thailand; he said he’d been 

running a week-long workshop on: Setting up the process, coaching 

the team on customer service and how to be a stand out team. 

The workshop was for a young and enthusiastic team from sales, 

parts and service, all new to the brand. Part of his coaching and 

mentoring was to help them understand what class-leading 

customer service was all about, and most importantly to see what it 

looks like and feels like. 

A ‘Ruff’ guide to customer service 

or hotel, so were very apprehensive. But, the people they met didn’t 

judge them or make them feel less important. 

They learnt that it’s essential at this luxury level to, make eye 

contact, smile, listen and reconfirm, pay attention and be confident 

when you present your proposal. Steve goes through all these 

elements in his coaching sessions. 

When you feel it’s expensive you put your thoughts into the pitch 

and all the staff our young team spoke to, had sold the value over 

cost. 

Everyone said it was a very effortless and enjoyable experience. 

The rest of Steve’s session encouraged the team to list how they 

could create the same experience in their new retail environment. 

But after their presentations and feedback Andy Long, the retailer 

principal of Richco Harley-Davidson, threw all the participants a 

curveball… 

14 

Steve split them into groups of two and they were tasked to go to a 

5-star restaurant or hotel and make enquiries about taking a party 

of people for a 5-star dinner. 

They had been briefed to look, hear, listen, get prices (but not 

book) and report back their experiences: 

• Describe how they were greeted, did the restaurant staff make 

eye contact, smile etc 

• Check that all the information provided for their phantom 

booking was captured without it feeling like they’d been taken 

through a process 

• Describe how they would create the same feeling in their own 

customers. 

• Essentially all the areas that Steve had been coaching the 

new team on, which would prepare them for class-leading 

customer service as soon as the new store opened. 

(It’s strange because I make eye contact and smile all the time but 

no-one ever offers me 5-star service. My food and drink is served 

on the floor and I’m only allowed on the sofa at Christmas and other 

special occasions.) 

Everyone said it was the first time they’d been to a 5-star restaurant 

He said:‎ ”Good job. Great lessons learnt. For all your hard work this 

week, choose the best 5-star restaurant or hotel and book a table 

for all of you and partners, on me!” 

From Andy’s point of view this isn’t a cost. He wants to demonstrate 

to his team that, if you’ve experienced it, you can better understand 

it and deliver it. 

Steve told me that this was a great example of leadership and 

recognising the team because it really motivated everyone – he 

has a very good feeling that they’ll open the new store looking to 

emulate a class leading customer service. 

(I was wondering… If I wag my tail more, and give Steve more eye 

contact will he upgrade my office bed for one of those mattress 

things with pictures of bones on? I’m sure that would help my bluesky 

thinking..) 

So 5 Big Tail Wags to Andy Long and Richo Harley-Davidson for 

thinking outside the box and giving their team a genuine 5 star 

customer experience. 

Me? I prefer to think outside in the garden or on that sofa, if Steve 

will let me. Until next time, have fun and don’t forget to Be More 

Maizi! 




Getting them 

to do it 

It’s one thing having the tools for 

achieving excellence yourself, but how do 

you get other people to deliver? 

One of the most common questions I’m asked 

is: “How do I get my team to…?”. If I’ve 

been asked this question a hundred times this 

year already it wouldn’t surprise me because 

motivating other people to do what we want 

them to do can be really difficult – unless you 

know how. 

The secret to getting people to do what you want them to do is 

actually a pretty simple formula. First you need to explain why you 

want them to do it. People perform much better and much more 

readily if they understand why they’re doing something. Secondly, 

we need them to share your passion; your aims and your energy for 

achieving what it is that you want them to achieve. 

Now, the first bit is easy because you can explain to them why you 

want to achieve what you want but where a lot of people fall down is 

that they don’t secure the understanding of the other person: explain 

what you want them to do once and ask if they understand. If they 

don’t understand, explain it again but in a slightly different way. When 

they understand what you want them to do, explain why you want 

The secret to getting people to 

do what you want them to do is 

actually a pretty simple formula 

them to do it and again ensure that they understand. Allow time for 

them to ask questions and clarify anything they’re unsure of. For 

example, saying: “we need to do this because it will help with brand 

awareness” is a perfectly acceptable answer, if the other person 

understands the importance of and relevance of the task to brand 

awareness. You might, for example, need to further explain how the 

task will help brand awareness. 

So, sharing information is relatively straight forward, however, 

sharing passion is a little more tricky. If at any point you are seen to 

be less than enthusiastic and committed about your vision, others will 

sense that it isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Remember that people 

generally adopt the most common emotion that surrounds them: so 

one of positivity, drive, passion and perhaps even fun, is a powerful set 

of emotions to enthuse in others. Demonstrate this in as many outlets 

as possible: team meetings; emails; blogs; screen savers; staff areas; 

internal newsletters – anywhere that you can show encouragement 

and a consistent message. There’s a fine line between shoving things 

in people’s faces and consistency and it’s the later you’re looking for. 

Too much of a good thing and you’ll put people off and too infrequent 

and it won’t have the impact you need it to: a steadily consistent 

message is one that becomes the norm. 

Encourage, recognise and don’t be afraid to reward and reinforce 

any and all changes in behaviour or thinking that lean towards your 

vision. Ask if there are any concerns or if people don’t understand: it 

gives them an opportunity to air their opinions, which may well help 

you to tailor your approach and at the same time helps them to feel a 

part of the decision making process. Here’s the big but though: if you 

can’t or don’t accept someone’s concerns or can’t do anything about 

it; acknowledge the issues they raise and then explain why those 

things can ‘t be changed. There’s nothing worse than being given 

a platform to air your opinion and then effectively being shot down. 

That’s a sure way to prevent anyone from being forthcoming and 

you’ll ruin all hope of compliance. Change is the big scary monster 

for many people and anything that is slightly different may cause an 

innate resistance. Don’t fight the resistance; just stay committed and 

passionate to what you need them to do and you’ll win them round. 

The bottom line is: lead by example; instill the passion in others; 

acknowledge and where possible, do something about the concerns 

of others; reinforce behaviours that are even a tiny part of what your 

end goal is and encourage people to take ownership of your vision, 

too. Ultimately, there’s got to be something in it for them, otherwise 

there’s little motivation, so if you can get other people on board, 

aligned to the vision, then you can keep fuelling their passion through 

that consistent approach as your vision also becomes theirs. 

Everyone is a genius. But if you 

judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it 

will live its whole life believing it is stupid. 

Al bert Einstein 

15 


News in Brief 

SP EAK UP! 

After almost 4 years of being asked, I’ve finally 

launched a training programme to teach 

how to speak and present confidently and 

professionally. Take a look at the video here 

and for a special launch offer: 

www.speakermasterclass.com 

W ORLDW IDE P UBLISHING 

AGREEMENT 

I’m delighted to announce that XXXXXXX 

and I have just signed an agreement for the 

worldwide distribution of my book, Have a 

Crap Day and the commission of an updated 

and revised version of Be a Purple Banana, 

which will be released with a new title for 

worldwide distribution in 2016. 

P ORK IES! 

A quarter of British jobseekers make false 

claims on their CV about holding a director’s 

position. Source: Hireright 

THAT’S ME ON THE 

T ELE-BO X 

I’ve just filmed a series of adverts for 

international distribution with Crowne Plaza 

hotels, featuring me offering my top tips to 

make a good first impression. Keep an eye 

out in the papers, on the TV and online for 

the videos and one ear on the radio for a 

series of interviews. 

EXTRAORDINARY P ODCAST… 

…is coming soon! A brand new series 

of 24 interviews with some of the most 

extraordinary people I’ve been privileged 

enough to interview for your listening 

pleasure, including Sir Ranulph Fiennes (“the 

world’s greatest living explorer”), Roger Cook 

(of The Cook Report) and Holocaust survivor 

and Bond girl, Bettine Le Beau. 

16 

Some more mental entertainment for your neurons... 

Are you like me where you forget the 

milk, lose your car keys or can’t find your 

wallet? Here’s my top 10 tips for memory 

improvement: 

1: Think in Pictures: convert the words you 

need to remember, into an image. Images 

are much more easily remembered than 

words. 

2: Link Objects Together: cutting out all 

non-essential information, link the images 

of things you need to remember into chains 

or unusual images combining each of them 

objects. 

3: Make Your Images Concrete: use familiar 

objects and the more personal or familiar 

the better because it’s easier to imagine 

your own front gate, or car than it is an 

imaginary one. 

4: See Objects in Action: a dynamic image is 

easier to remember than a static one, so add 

plenty of colour and movement; for example 

a leaking pen or a moving bicycle. 

5: Make Your Images Striking: the more 

startling, shocking and ridiculous, the 

better! Think in cartoon styles and of quirky 

scenarios involving the images you need to 

remember. 

6: Change The Size: make the objects you 

need to remember much bugger or smaller 

than normal to help them stand out. This sort 

of Alice in Wonderland imagery helps things 

to stick in your mind, creating a distorted 

memory that is much easier to recall. 

7: Exaggerate! Hundreds of thousands of 

bricks are much easier to remember than 

one brick; so if you’re looking to remember 

that you left your wallet on the side table, 

imagine a really tall stack of different 

coloured wallets balanced on a wobbly table 

that is rocking and causing the tall stack 

of wallets to wobble about, with money 

fluttering around all over the place. 

8: Include People: by animating the image 

using people you know, or celebrities, it 

helps to make it more memorable. 

9: Test The Memory: regularly revise the 

image and recall it, adding to the obscurity, 

or movement, or colour, for example. The 

more often you recall it, the better you’ll be 

able to instantly remember it. 

10: Strengthen the Image: using colour, 

sounds, smells, imagine the image zooming 

in or panning out, seeing it from every angle. 

Do you know someone who’d love a copy of Behaviour Matters? 

Maybe a friend, colleague or least favourite child? Email their name and address to orders@thebehaviourexpert.com and 

we’ll post them a copy each month absolutely FREE! Ask us nicely in the email and we’ll also send you a little something in 

the post to thank you for helping us to widen distribution of Behaviour Matters. 

Contact The Behaviour Expert 

Midlothian Innovation Centre, The Bush, Roslin, EH25 9RE 


Join in the fun here! 

@JezRose 

www.facebook.com/thebehaviourexpert

Behaviour Matters September 2015

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