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Why Alliances Fail

When do you know an alliance is falling apart?

An alliance will surely fail without good communication on both sides. It will also fail if the alliance partner is not capable of completing the tasks set out in the service level agreement. Service level agreements are usually put in place so that milestones in the process can be monitored. The agreement also helps to alleviate the number of complaints by the alliance partner (and also the complaints about the service being provided to the partner’s customers). The basic premise here is that the products and services being offered are of excellent quality. If the quality is missing in the formula, your alliances will most definitely fail.

Finger pointing is one of the worst things that can happen in a relationship. The business relationship must be preserved at all costs. The saying goes “never burn a bridge as you never know when you need to cross it again”. I had a partner that did not believe in that philosophy and, six years down the road, he found that he needed to deal with me again. Instead of repairing the damage, the information he needed was obtained by a mutual acquaintance. Since I did not burn bridges, I readily gave out the information. I still have not seen him again.

Alliances also fail because the return on the investment was not as promised. Relationships can be very fickle when it comes to money transactions. You need to build the relationship first and keep it intact, and then deal with the ROI. If the product or service does not live up to expectation, then a mutually agreeable term in the service level agreement should give an out to one or both parties. This will allow for an amicable departure and keep the relationship intact.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”. Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com

If you really aware and alert, your audience’s behavior faces, bodies, and their hands, will literally transmit scores of “messages.” It is possible to judge how well you’re being received, how much attention your audience is paying to you, and often how close your objective is to accomplishment. For example, shuffling feet, yawns, general restlessness, glances at watches — or rapt attentiveness — all are things which should be consciously noted by the trainer. Some trainers ramble on despite every audience indicator telling them that the audience considers the presentation over. It is far better to call an unscheduled break and regroup forces than it is to continue without audience feedback.

Never pretend that things aren’t happening. Since audience attention is directly affected by such factors as ventilation, temperature, lighting, acoustics, external disturbances, interruptions, visual aid equipment failure, late arrivals and early departures, the obvious answer to coping with most of these factors is to check in advance. Thorough preparation in handling the unexpected will sidestep distractions which impede the ability to analyze audience feedback. Your confidence, ingenuity, alertness, and showmanship will enable you to make a strong presentation.

Handle environmental distractions matter-of-factly, as a part of a real-life environment, without letting it interfere with the business at hand. If a microphone goes dead, raise your own volume or move closer to your audience. There are few rooms in which a person cannot be heard if they try. It is unlikely that well maintained visual-aid equipment will break down if checked and previewed just before a presentation, but if it does, it doesn’t have to be a catastrophe. A good trainer knows what his or her own visuals contain and should be able to improvise if necessary. Podium samples that reiterate usually will save you if you have provided for them in advance.

When facing unexpected problems due to the setting of your presentation, take the event and use it — build it into the presentation on the spot, if it contributes to your objective or a point you want to make. Such action adds a note of spontaneity and reality to the presentation, if it is done smoothly and appropriately. After all, it is a real-life situation, so why not treat it as such? Many training presentations are far too formal to begin with. Although they are really conversations among people, more often than not they sound like recitations or readings. You can do worse than behave spontaneously and naturally.

Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium

CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and

You’ve decided to join a gym, but you’re not sure the best way to work out, and don’t want to pay for a personal trainer who may not really know what he’s talking about? Already an experienced weight lifter, but aren’t getting the results you want? Read on for the best tips for working out if you have a full gym facility, and the secret to extreme muscle growth.

Before and After

You should always warm up before lifting any weights. This means a light jog or other low-impact activity that will raise your heart rate and raise your core temperature by a few degrees. This should last at least 5 minutes, preferably 10 or more. After this, you should do joint rotations. This is not a stretch, it is preparing the joint for work by encouraging blood flow. Then, do the resistance training. At the end, stretch all of the joints you have worked that day. Studies have shown that stretching before weight training actually reduces the muscle’s capacity, and does not prevent injury as was previously thought. Stretching after the work out will protect the joint and prevent cramping.

After working out you will also need an increased intake of protein because that is what muscles are made of.

Length of Time

The resistance training part of your workout should not last longer than one hour. After a warm up, your body is in an anabolic state, meaning that it is ready to “build up” or repair any damage you do to it by running hard or doing other hard work. However, after 45 minutes or so (again, this varies by individual), your body goes into a catabolic state, meaning that your body is ready to “break down” or eliminate anything that may threaten your survival. Entering a catabolic state is good for breaking down body fat and eliminating lactic acid from your muscles, but other tissues are equally damaged by being in a catabolic state. You should be mostly concerned about your kidneys and your muscle fibers that will be compromised if you continue to push yourself. I repeat: working out for more than one hour will hurt your muscles, not help them.

The Isotonic Workout

Isotonics is a fancy word for what traditional bodybuilders do: contract the muscle in order to move a load. In other words, lifting and lowering weights.

As for the weight training itself, free weights are excellent because they make your body balance while lifting them. However, many people prefer nautilus machines for exactly the same reason: they feel safer not having to balance the weight. I will not give you weights, sets and reps to do, because there are a myriad of sources of routines written by all sorts of experts. I recommend you experiment with various programs, because although all muscles fundamentally work the same, everyone has different levels of hormones, different metabolism, and different levels of comfort. Pick up the latest fitness magazine of your choice for current work outs.

The key to remember when following a routine