We’ve all been there before. We experience the high of being productive, and then one day we just stop. We aren’t experiencing a crisis or anything (at least most of us aren’t), but we just experience the feeling of unproductivity. Telling ourselves to be productive isn’t doing anything, therefore we don’t. Well, that all ends now. Here at AirSend, we have come up with a list of disciplines that is guaranteed to keep the productivity train in motion. 

Stop Multitasking.

While the idea of multitasking sounds amazing, it actually slows down the productivity train. Having multiple tabs opens actually increases stress, and reminds us that we have unfinished assignments. Pace yourself! Take your time and create a schedule of what you will accomplish. In essence, learn how to manage your time. It’s not easy, but once you get the hang of time management, productivity becomes much easier.

Take Breaks.

While it may seem like taking scheduled breaks periodically is counterintuitive, it actually improves concentration. If you have a set of tasks ahead of you or a long task, scheduled breaks maintain performance levels. Give your mind a refresher. Taking 15-minute breaks three-five times a day is suggested. Lie down, color, eat, watch your favorite youtube video, knit, exercise, read, do whatever you need to do to relax and refresh yourself. Additionally, having scheduled breaks gives you something to look forward to. 

Add Aesthetics to Your Life.

Research shows that adding pleasing elements to your workspace can increase productivity by up to 15 percent. Add things that will make you smile such as, candles, knick-knacks, pen collection, motivational signs, whatever makes you happy. By having aesthetic, you will feel more inclined to be productive; simply because you have things around you that make you smile. 

Eat a Live Frog!

Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It’s a metaphor, calm down. Don’t actually go hunting for a live frog. The ‘eat the live frog’ technique is actually an immense asset to productivity. Brian Tracy explains this technique. Summed up, your frog is the most crucial task on your to-do list. It is usually the task we tend to save for last or even procrastinate.

Well, according to Tracy, the key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity, is to actually conquer your frog first thing in the morning. “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first,” (Tracy). In essence, if you have multiple crucial tasks, take on the hardest, or in this case the ugliest, one. “Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else,” Tracy.

Get Organized and Limit Distractions.

This is a two-in-one double-decker sandwich. Research says people who have messy workspaces tend to be less efficient and more frustrated. Note that being organized is different from having an aesthetic workspace. Aesthetics= happiness; similarly, clutter=sadness. To improve your mental help and work efficiency, retire all things unnecessary from your workspace; and this includes distractions such as cell-phones, iPods (if those still exist), books, lotion, chapstick, chargers, unnecessary tabs open, etc. If it helps, mute your notifications, so you don’t have a waterfall of notifications pouring down your screen. 

Follow these disciplines, and I guarantee your productivity train will be full-speed ahead. 

AirSend is a versatile digital workspace to share files, send messages, and complete tasks. With AirSend, we apply the aesthetics, multitasking, and organization. See how AirSend can help you.

How the AirSend brand came to be - part 2.
How the AirSend brand came to be – part 2.

In our previous post about branding, we talked about some of the lessons we learned along the way to develop and launch a product successfully in four months. As we discussed previously, one of the keys to bootstrapping your way to a successful new product or service launch in less than half a year is having a clear vision and roadmap.

But clarifying your vision and roadmap is only the first part of developing a complete brand.

The next part is deciding how you are going to communicate those aspects of branding (vision, mission, guiding principles, and core values) with the world. Communicating these aspects helps not only your customers but also your team know what you are all about. If done correctly, it lets your customers know what to expect from you and it lets your team know what is expected of them.

Logo and Brand Voice = Face of Your Product

Source: unDraw

With AirSend, we built a contextual workspace that brings all your conversations, files, and to-do lists into one place so that you can get work done better and faster. This workspace will save millions of hours for professionals who work with clients, improve their focus and quality of life, and help them get work done faster and more easily.

So how do we communicate that with the world? There are a lot of different approaches to marketing, but the most basic and necessary step before social media, ads, and press kits is to decide on your logo and brand voice, or the face of your product.

The AirSend Logo

When trying to decide on a logo, think about what you want your logo to convey.

What attributes of the product should it represent? What feelings do you want it to evoke?

We spent weeks thinking about these questions before we chose a dandelion to represent AirSend. We chose the dandelion because it is simple and accessible, yet wondrously capable. Dandelion seeds spread over vast distances quickly and effortlessly through their perfect design.

Like the dandelion, AirSend is about effortless connection. AirSend makes communication a breeze and is built for easy, every-day use to connect people to get work done.

If you get stuck, try listing out the top three best attributes of your product. Then, try thinking of plants, animals, items, or symbols that also have those attributes.

The AirSend Brand Voice

Source: unDraw

The other way that you communicate your brand is through your brand voice. This is the voice you use to write everything from emails to website copy. And since it is often the first impression that customers have of you, it’s important you develop your brand voice wisely.

For AirSend, we wanted to continue with the theme of simplicity and accessibility that we started with our dandelion logo. AirSend is for all professionals and their clients, so we want to make sure that we use simple language free that is of technical jargon.

Show who you are.

There are many other aspects of branding, such as brand colors, typography, visual design, and marketing content, but your logo and voice are the guiding factors when it comes to how you communicate your brand to the world.

At the end of the day, branding is about letting people who you are and what your product is all about. So first, know who you are and what you are offering. Then, announce it to the world.

It’s as simple as that.

To see the complete AirSend branding guide, click here.

How the AirSend brand came to be.
How the AirSend brand came to be.

Running a business has been described as “insomniatic,” “constant,” and “challenging.” It’s not for everyone, but for those who choose entrepreneurship, the process and result of creating a new brand and launching a product or service can be highly rewarding. The excitement and sense of accomplishment that come from solving a problem and sharing your solution with the world far outweigh the stress of never-ending coffee breaks and sleepless nights.

AirSend began as a desire to make something new that would help take us to the next level of success as a company with prior experience in file storage and sharing.

As with many bootstrapped start-up product launches, the story of AirSend is one of camaraderie, vision, and leadership. We went from product concept to MVP launch in four months and created a digital workspace for professionals and creatives that has already begun to garner high praise from users.

We wanted to share our story because we think it could be helpful to other entrepreneurs.

These are the lessons we learned through the process of creating the AirSend brand story to launch our MVP.

Lesson #1: Every good solution begins with a worthy problem.

The best products and services make your customers’ lives easier, and the way to do that is to solve a problem.

So how do you find a worthy problem?

We used three criteria to find our problem space.

  1. The problem needed to be personal — something the team could relate to with ease.
  2. The problem needed to be an issue faced by large numbers of people on a daily basis (thus generating the possibility of millions to billions of future customers).
  3. The problem needed to have a solution that we could provide which would have a transformative impact on customers’ lives by saving them time and money or improving their quality of life.

After extensive team brainstorming using our criteria as a framework, the problem we zeroed in on is context switching at work.

What is context switching?

Source: unDraw

Context switching refers to the act of jumping, or switching, between different tasks and apps. It requires significant mental energy and has been called a killer of productivity.

As a team, we experienced the negative impact of context switching on a daily basis when we created our first product — FileCloud, an enterprise file sharing platform that is currently used by millions of users in 3000+ organizations across 90+ countries. Working as a bootstrapped start-up meant that everyone was constantly juggling multiple tasks and apps to get work done. We also saw the negative impact of context switching on FileCloud customers since the product gave us an inside view on how people do work and share files.

Context switching was a problem that we could deeply relate to; it is a problem that is faced by almost everyone; and because of its large negative impact on productivity, creating a solution to this problem — which we did with AirSend — would have a transformative impact on customers’ lives.

Lesson #2: Have a clear vision so you know where you are going.

Once we had our problem, we needed to form a clear picture of our destination. We needed to give voice to our vision.

Vision is all about the future. It’s the North Star that guides you over mountains, across rivers and oceans, through seemingly insurmountable challenges.

When forming your vision, make sure it, like the North Star, is lofty and inspiring. A vision is what keeps the team going through those sleepless nights. It is fuel for passion and a guiding light that ensures everyone continues to work towards the same goal.

Our vision for AirSend is: Connecting People to Get Work Done.

We want to help people increase productivity — get work done better and faster. And we want to do that by making it easier to connect and collaborate by addressing the issue of context switching.

Research says context switching can cost up to 40% of your time (one to three hours of an eight-hour work day).

Imagine if AirSend helped reclaim just 15 minutes of productivity per day for 10 million people (just 0.14% of the world’s population). That would be 625 million productive hours per year, or $10.6 billion of additional productivity based on a median hourly wage of $17.00 per hour.

Even a small improvement to productivity can bring transformative benefits to society. If we can accomplish the above, then we will have achieved our vision.

Lesson #3: Choose the path you’re taking to get to where you want to go.

Source: unDraw

After homing in on our North Star, we needed to clearly define the road we were going to take to get there. This is where mission comes in.

While vision is all about the future, mission is about what you are doing right now and who you are serving to reach your vision. Mission is the strategy, the actions that you need to take on a consistent basis, to accomplish your vision.

While context switching affects all professionals, it is worst for freelancers, creatives, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals who work with clients. These professionals not only need to handle work context, they also deal with client context on a daily basis.

We decided to make AirSend about solving the problem of context switching for these professionals, so our mission became to build a people-centric digital workspace that is easy to use, fast, and functional so that professionals and their clients can get work done.

Lesson #4: Decide on your mode of transportation.

Once we had a clearly defined path, it was time to decide how we were going to travel that path — we needed to develop our guiding principles.

Guiding principles are an extension of your mission statement. They tell you how to execute your mission and give your team a solid vehicle to get where you want to go.

We believe that for a digital product to become beloved and iconic, it has to be blazing fast, immensely appealing, and of high value to its users. With these factors in mind, we decided on the following guiding principles to fulfill AirSend’s vision and mission:

Source: unDraw
  • Easy, Fast and Functional — Our product needs to be easy to use, fast, and functional at all times.
  • Exceptional Utility and Value Pricing — We will offer exceptional utility at a compelling price point to make our product accessible to as many people as possible.
  • Perfection with Purpose — We will work with purpose towards perfection in everything we do, from design to development and beyond. Perfection may be impossible, but we will never give up. That is perfection with purpose.

Lesson #5: Know who you are.

Source: unDraw

At the end of the day, who are you? In other words, what are your core values? Knowing the answer to that question has a huge impact on everything that you and your team accomplish.

Clearly defining your core values is essential. It is the final piece of the picture. Your problem is your reason to start the journey, your vision is your North Star, your mission is your path, your guiding principles are your vehicle, and your core values are you.

Without Odysseus there would be no Odyssey. Similarly, a team without core values isn’t a team.

Our values are that we are customer-centric and authentic. That means we strive to solve the difficult real-world problems that matter most to our customers, and we stay true to ourselves by adhering to that purpose.

Summary

Here is a summary of what we came up with after going through the above brand creation process.

Our Vision

Connecting People to Get Work Done.

We envision a world where professionals and clients connect and collaborate quickly and easily to get work done.

Our Mission

Our mission is to transform the way professionals work with clients by providing a people-centric digital workspace that is easy to use, fast, and functional.

Our Guiding Principles

  • Easy, Fast, and Functional — We ensure that AirSend is easy to use, fast, and functional.
  • Exceptional Utility and Value Pricing — We strive to offer exceptional utility at a compelling price point to make our product accessible to as many people as possible.
  • Perfection with Purpose — We work with purpose towards perfection in everything we do, from design to development and beyond. Perfection may be impossible, but we will never give up. That is perfection with purpose.

To see the complete AirSend branding guide, click here.

The journey continues.

Based on our vision, mission, guiding principles, and core values, we built a contextual workspace that brings all your conversations, files, and to-do lists into one place so that you can get work done better and faster. This workspace will save millions of hours for professionals who work with clients, improve their focus and quality of life, and help them get work done faster and more easily. But the AirSend journey is far from over. In fact, it has just begun.

One of the key pillars that has helped us create and launch a product successfully has been the work we put in to defining who we are and what we want to do as a team. Everything else — the meticulous work that goes into design, development, marketing — is driven and guided by the factors discussed in the lessons we’ve learned so far.

We hope that sharing our story helps you on your own journey of entrepreneurship.

Bon voyage! — The AirSend Team

Alrighty, folks. It is time to break out our library collection and review this week’s book topic: referrals. As indicated by the title, we are going to be tackling “The Referral Engine,” by John Jantsch. John Jantsch? Is he not the guy who is the brilliant author, speaker, and marketing consultant that hosts his very own marketing podcast called The Duct Tape Marketing? Yes! That’s the guy! To find out more about his and other like-minded marketing podcasts, check out our other blog on the top three marketing podcasts. In this mini-series, we will crank out our analysis of two chapters that are incredibly useful. This blog post will cover the one out of two chapter analysis. The second upcoming blog post will cover our second analysis. The chapter we will be covering is “Chapter One: Realities of Referral” Let’s dive in. 

Chapter One: Realities of Referral

Throughout the reading of this novel, Jantsch repeatedly presents a theme. A “how-to” theme. That theme is how to get your customers to refer your business, or in this case market for your business. Jantsch also grounds his argument of marketing campaigns behind the idea of word of mouth (WOM). He’s not wrong. Word of Mouth is considered to be the most effective form of promotion. Why? Simply because a person is more likely to believe something that comes from a person that he/she knows or respects, instead of sources like commercials or print ads.

Think about it. Would you rather try a weighted blanket because a commercial told you it was amazing, or because your favorite aunty told you it is worth the try? See my point? Anyway, in addition to WOM, Jantsch argues that the social drive for marketing referral is the hypothalamus. We had to reread the sentence too- don’t worry you are not crazy. The argument is actually logical. According to Jantsch, the hypothalamus likes validation. Additionally, the hypothalamus registers pleasure in doing good and being recognized for it. 

“Human beings are physiologically wired to make referrals.”

Jantsch, John. The Referral Engine (p. 3). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Now that we have an idea of what WOM is and a fun fact on the hypothalamus, we now enter the five realities of referrals.

Reality #1: People make referrals because they need to

One of the key takeaways from reality #1 is that we rate and refer as a form of survival. Not survival in the sense of nomadic tribes, but survival within the community. In other words, building credit. We refer to build our own form of social currency. We refer to connect with other people.

“I think the growth of many popular social networks can be traced to the fact that people love to connect and form communities around shared ideas.”

Jantsch, John. The Referral Engine (p. 4). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Reality #2: All Business involves risk

As much as the hypothalamus enjoys validation, it also controls and analyzes fear. However, fear is a necessary risk in creating or maintaining a business. Check out our other book review, “Uncertainty,” by Jonathan Fields to understand and conquer the concept of fear in your business.

“When we make a referral, we are putting the trust we have established with the recipient on loan to the person or company being referred.”

Jantsch, John. The Referral Engine (p. 5). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Making decisions is another element of risk. Through Jantsch’s perspective, decisions about business are the same thing as making decisions about a purchase. 

“People don’t get emotional and passionate about ordinary products, a satisfactory result, or a fair price. They talk about things that surprise them or make them feel great about themselves—and, in effect, remove the feeling of risk they might have about doing business with that firm.”

Jantsch, John. The Referral Engine (p. 6). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Reality #3: Nobody Talks about boring businesses

Jantsch makes an important argument here. To build a business, you have to first discover or create something that makes your product stand alone. A product that gets people talking. You should have a product that convinces and encourages people to refer to you. Take AirSend for example. We stand alone from our competitors because we have the ultimate efficient life hack. We give out customers the opportunity to do everything from ONE place. Send messages, organize files, assign tasks, create a guidebook with a built-in wiki, work with email, and more! What are some ideas or products that make you stand alone from your competitors? What does your product have that others do not? Why should customers use your product and not your competitors? These are the questions you must ask yourself when you design your product. 

Reality #4: Consistency builds trust

Put simply, having consistency, authenticity, and repetition in a business are the foundational tools of the referral trade. Customers come back because they like what you have. If you were to change this, chances are customers will slowly stop coming back. Of course, changing your product for the better is always a good thing, but keep it in moderation. Take your favorite restaurant for example. Let’s say you go to your favorite Thai restaurant. They serve your favorite duck curry. One day, you go in to have your usual, and all of a sudden, instead of seeing your usual on the menu, you see Mexican dishes. Would you feel inclined to go back? An extreme example, but you get the idea. To gain referrals, stick with your product and build consistency and authenticity. 

Reality #5: Marketing is a System

According to Jantsch, there’s an easy equation to remember. Business= systems and processes. Referral generation is a set of processes within the overall marketing system.

“You must embrace the true value your organization produces and develop a referral system that allows you to bring the best of your authentic self to every opportunity.”

Jantsch, John. The Referral Engine (p. 9). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

“Expecting referrals is not about you; it’s about getting the customer what’s possible. Find a way to detach yourself from any personal feelings of pride or self-doubt and get to work on creating a brilliant system that’s focused on getting results for your customers.”

Jantsch, John. The Referral Engine (p. 10). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition .

Summation

Referrals aren’t easy to gain; however, if you have a product that you know will sell then half of your work is completed. You must remember that with referrals comes trust, loyalty, credibility, and an amazing product. If you have these elements in your business, the rest is up to your consumers. Let your customers do the marketing for you. All you need to do is trust them, and have passion and belief in your business. How hard can that be?

Jantsch offers amazing insight into the essence of referrals, how to create your referral system, building your authentic strategy, creating your customer and strategic partner network, and more! Look forward to our second chapter analysis!

AirSend helps businesses and entrepreneurs create a versatile digital workspace to share files, send messages, and complete tasks. See how AirSend can help you.

Here are five keys to effective communication from George J. Thompson’s book Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion.

Have you ever been misunderstood? Chances are the answer is yes, whether you’re aware of it or not.

The frustration of saying one thing only to have your words misconstrued by the listener is something we all experience at one time or another. In our personal lives, misunderstanding causes unexpected hilarity and unnecessary arguments. In our professional lives, the consequences can be more serious.

If a potential client misunderstands what you say, you may lose the opportunity to work with them. And misunderstandings between business partners or between managers and their employees can have a negative impact on productivity and overall business success.

Effective Communication = Success

Source: unDraw

While it isn’t always your fault, practicing effective communication can go a long way in preventing misunderstandings before they begin. Effective communication is the key to success in business not only because it mitigates the negative effects of misunderstandings but also because it is the foundation for excellence in sales, marketing, management, and collaboration — all central aspects of running a business.

So how do you communicate effectively?

Here are five keys to effective communication from George J. Thompson’s book Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion. The first three are positive actions, or things we should do to communicate effectively, and the last two are negative actions, or things we should not do under any circumstances.

Key #1: Know what you represent.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

— Plato

Whenever you talk to someone in a professional setting, whether that person is a customer, employee, or business partner, you are representing something other than yourself. You might be representing your company, a product, or your department.

It is important that you know what it is you represent and the reason why you are communicating at all times. Before you open your mouth, think about these questions:

  1. For whom am I speaking?
  2. Why am I speaking?

Key #2: Move your audience.

Audiences are made, not found.

— Aristotle

The second step after you know what you represent is that you must communicate in a way that generates compliance, cooperation, or collaboration.

Your overarching objective as an effective communicator in business is to bring your audience into harmony with your goals. If you’re talking to a potential customer, that means convincing them to try your product or service. If you’re talking to a business partner, that means helping them see your perspective.

No matter what your audience’s starting point is in terms of knowledge and opinion (Point A), you need to move them to where you want them to go (Point B).

Getting your audience from Point A to Point B is moving your audience.

Key #3: Disappear personally.

Source: unDraw

In the process of moving your audience, you must disappear personally. Remember that you are representing something other than yourself whenever you communicate in a professional setting. You are not you — you are your company, product, or department.

That means you leave everything that is irrelevant at the door. Had the worst day of your life yesterday? Is that relevant to the objective and what you are representing? If not, then keep it to yourself when you’re talking to your new client or having a meeting with your employees.

The more you can disappear personally in front of others, the greater power you will have. Power that you can use to make your business successful.

Key #4: Don’t lose your temper.

Source: unDraw

The previous point — disappearing personally — will help with this. In his book, Thompson describes a state called Mushin, which translates to “no mind.” It is a state of being with no ego — no biases. A person in this state is calm and centered. No matter what is happening, she remains undisturbed.

You must practice Mushin at all times. No matter what is happening, never show anger. The moment you lose your temper is the moment you lose all hope of effective communication.

Key #5: Never insult.

Source: unDraw

Along the same lines of not losing your temper — don’t insult others. Remember that your goal as an effective communicator in business is to bring your audience into harmony with your objectives. If you insult people in any way, they are much less likely to want to comply, cooperate, or collaborate with you.

Insulting others also builds ground for them to stand on that they didn’t have before. Now the main focus becomes your attitude and what you are actually trying to communicate fades into the background.

Practice = Improvement

Like most difficult yet worthy endeavors, effective communication in business is something that you may never perfect. However, practicing the five keys above can lead to improvements that will help you achieve the success you’ve been working towards.

AirSend is a versatile digital workspace for businesses to share files, send messages, and complete tasks. See how AirSend can help you as your business grows here.

Social Intelligence (SI) is one of the complex forms of knowledge. There are a variety of definitions, however, all maintain one commonality: relationships with others, or in this case, people skills.

In this blog post, we will discuss the theory of SI,  key element: S.P.A.C.E., the ways to increase your SI, refresher course, and several book recommendations that discusses the essence of social intelligence (whoops sneak peek). Alright, time to blow some minds away…with knowledge! 

Theory of Social Intelligence

According to Karl Albrecht, Social Intelligence (SI) is the ability to get along well with others and to get them to cooperate with you. Sometimes referred to as “people skills,” SI includes an awareness of situations and the social dynamics that govern them, and a knowledge of interaction styles and strategies that can help a person achieve his or her objectives in cooperating with others. Additionally, SI also involves a certain amount of self-insight and a consciousness of one’s own perceptions and reaction patterns.

Several theorists in the past decade have expanded on Albrecht’s theory of social intelligence in relation to emotional intelligence and intelligence quotient (IQ). Before diving into Albrecht’s theory, we will briefly pay homage to one particular theorist that has imparted his findings in relation to SI.

Harvard Professor Howard Gardner, he presented the idea that human intelligence is more than a single trait or intelligence quotient (IQ). Gardner’s claim led to his “MI” theory, (multiple intelligence), in which there are eight different forms of intelligence. These eight different levels adhere to at least one of the human potentials.

Many researchers now accept Gardner’s proposition that intelligence is multidimensional, and many believe that each of the key dimensions of intelligence can continue to increase throughout one’s life, given the appropriate experiences, challenges and growth opportunities. However, Gardner’s theory, though complete in itself, is actually incomplete on a much larger scale.

Albrecht’s social intelligence theory expands the multiple-intelligence concept (Gardner’s theory) to include another valuable way to observe the multiple forms of intelligence. From his expanded idea comes the key elements of SI, which inevitably leads to finding success at work, home, and beyond.

Key Element: S.P.A.C.E.

Albrecht breaks down SI into five different levels: S.P.A.C.E. From the five levels comes various succeeding effects. Let us first begin discussing the five levels. According to Albrecht S.P.A.C.E. stands for:

Situational Awareness: This is the ability to read situations and to interpret the behaviors of people in those situations.

Presence: This includes a whole range of verbal and nonverbal behaviors that define you in the minds of others.

Authenticity:  This comprises the behaviors that cause others to judge you as honest, open, and “real.”

Clarity: This is the ability to explain your ideas and articulate your views

Empathy: This is the ability to “connect” with others. (2006).

From S.P.A.C.E. comes the positive effects as noted by the professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology, Ronald Riggio. If one were to follow the five steps that comprise social intelligence, they would develop effective listening skills, knowledge of social roles, rules, and scripts, verbal fluency and conversational skills, social efficacy, and impression management skills.

In summation, the key concept to S.I. is essentially being in-tuned with your surroundings, attentive to others, and becoming social through easy communication. Of course, gaining the effects of S.I is easy, however, developing or increasing our SI is not that easy.

Ways to Increase your SI

“Social intelligence isn’t easy to master—if it were, there wouldn’t ever be another awkward conversation at a party,” (Morin 2019). According to Amy Morin, psychotherapist and best-selling author, there are people who find social intelligence easy to master, while other people may find it quite the opposite.

Sometimes we may enter a socially awkward situation, internally confused and panicky, trying to mentally blow through a list of possibilities on how to abort the mission. Or sometimes we may be a wallflower who yearns to become social but lack the resources to become one.

Well, fear no more! After some thorough research, we have created a small but effective tactical plan to helo increase your SI. The best part is that you do not have to immediately jump to become the “queen of the ball.” Here are our tactics:

  1. Pay close attention to your surroundings. According to Morin, “socially intelligent people are observant and pay attention to subtle social cues from those around them,” (2019).
  2. Practice Active Listening. Active listening is where you reflect back what you believe the speaker said in order to ensure a clear understanding. Further, take the time to think about what the other person is saying. Doing so will encourage more thought on your answer, which will surely impress the other person. 
  3. Increase your Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to control emotions in social situations. For example, a person who does not have emotional intelligence would usually express the wrong kind of emotion at the wrong time. For instance, a person laughing at a funeral. Not good. Through the practice of Emotional Intelligence, comes the result of empathy. 

These are our tactics to help you take the first steps in learning social intelligence. Whether at home or at work social intelligence proves to be a healthy practice to mentality, the self, and the emotions.

Bringing it all together

We realized we threw a mouthful of information at you, but it’s alright! You’ll be feeling more knowledgeable than your next-door-neighbor. Just kidding. But you will definitely feel knowledgeable. Let us do a refresher course. 

What is Social Intelligence? SI is a theory proposed by Karl Albrecht, which is the ability to get along well with others and to get them to cooperate with you. Often referred to as “people skills.”

Key Concept: S.P.A.C.E. Learning the acronym results in amazing effects, and therefore becoming a better person socially. 

Tactics. Pay attention to your surroundings and the people around you. They serve as your social cues. Practice active listening. Increase your Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence results in empathy.

Book Recommendations

Here are some book recommendations we highly suggest reading. They not only prove to increase your knowledge of what we discuss, but they also prove insightful. 

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success

Written by: Karl Albrecht

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

Written by: Daniel Goleman

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Written by: Daniel Goleman

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success

Written by: Amy Morin

Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice

Written by: Howard Gardner

AirSend is a versatile digital workspace to share files, send messages, and complete tasks, and improve SI. See how AirSend can help you.