Show Don’t Tell

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this goes for word pictures, so the advice to writers is show don’t tell. For example:

My friend Des is really kind and cares about others. - This tells you about him.

My friend Des works as a volunteer with the local Samaritans. He often looks in on the older members of his community who live alone and regularly supports local events. He takes trips at his own expense to work on a new school in a poor area of South Africa. - This shows you who he is. (And the photo shows you what his project looks like)

Car dealers know this. You might be impressed by facts and figures, but the nice ads in the Sunday papers show you how it might look. Many people buy a new car after they have taken a test drive. The car speaks for itself, it shows you if you’d like it. Those of us who want to be successful in life need to take this on board. If you want people to give you more responsibility at work, by all means tell them that you want it and that you think you can handle it, but you need to show them that you can do it. Take on an extra task that no-one else wants to do, tidy up the coffee area, organise a collection for someone who’s retiring, show that you can be responsible. Most managers know that the best indicator of future performance is past performance – if you can do it once, you can do it again. Show them!

There is a message here for those of us who are in business or self-employed. We depend on people to choose our services. Why should they? People buy from those who they know, like and trust. We can tell them how good we are, what good value our service might be, but how do we show ourselves to them?

People choose our service when they see who we are. Often people have chosen to come to me for counselling or coaching on the strength of a few minutes chat on the phone. I am able to show them who I am and I have become known to them in that conversation. Customers assess whether I can supply them with the service they need on the basis of being shown my interest, concern and passion for my work and my clients.

At present I am promoting a Coaching Diploma course. All the facts are available on the Internet, and I have spent money on advertising, and you might think that people will either sign up or not sign up. In fact, information and advertisements are only a small part of the story. I offer free coaching days to people so that they can come and find out about coaching, and I am able to be known and assessed as a person. If they they sign up to the course, it is because of my interest in my subject, my commitment to coaching, my belief that it helps people, and my passion to make this a brilliant and successful course whose graduates will become its greatest fans. I show what the course is worth, alongside telling them the facts. I show them myself, in the hope that they will know, like and trust me. Show don’t tell.

Technorati Tags: CSP Coaching,Coaching Diploma,Show don't tell,business coaching,writing