Saturday, September 21, 2013

Craig Valentine is a Confident Communicator (CoCo)


Craig Valentine has several interesting speeches on his YouTube channel. We selected one of the speeches and shared it with our CoCo Experts. We asked them to rate Craig based on his Communication Skills. Here is the result: 100% raters said that Craig Valentine is a Confident Communicator (CoCo).


 
 
Top 5 points that make Craig a Confident Communicator:

1. Delivery of Speech: Craig has clear voice and great fluency. During his speech, he stresses on appropriate words and uses intentional pauses to make an impact. He has demonstrated great vocabulary and command over English Language.

2. Speech Content: Craig is master of his topics and expresses them extremely well. This topic could have been boring but he added humor and personal story to make it interesting. There is a clear and concise message that listeners can take home. In this case, it is "Don't sell the product but sell the result".

3. Vocal Variety: Craig is effectively maintaining his pace in the speech so that audience don't feel rushed. He is emulating sales representatives by changing his pitch. Note: He asks following question immediately in a normal tone, after his conversation with first sales person "What is he trying to sell me?". He then shouts "The Car" with high tone to give emphasis on the answer. His command over voice modulation is worth praising.

4. Body Language: Craig has great control over his facial expressions. He enacted his surprised self beautifully. For instance, he uses facial expression, gesture and body posture to convey his joy after talking to second sales person "Where do I sign?". Extremely effective!

5. Confidence: He is very enthusiastic about his topic and doesn't look nervous at all. He engages the audience and maintains proper eye contact. He made his speech convincing and believable.
 
 


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

How to promote your CoCo Score?

There could be several innovative ideas to showcase your assessment score [Click here to request an assessment]. Four widely used ways are as follows:


1. Update Resume: 
- Add CoCo Score to resume header e.g. CoCo Index for Communication: 9/10

2. Mention in Cover Letters:
- Mention about CoCo Score in email scripts and cover letters.

3. Update Dice Account:
- Update 'Certifications' section as CoCo Index for Communication - 9; Certified in 2012
- Update 'Links' section as External Blog RSS URL: www.youtube.com/user

4. Add to LinkedIn:
- Add a test score on LinkedIn: Name as 'CoCo Index for Communication' and Score as 9/10

Or just let us create your profile on www.CoCoIndex.com where employers are constantly searching for best talents. Click here to request an assessment.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Invest in yourself - The five attributes by Mohit Chandra


For those of you not familiar with Mohit Chandra, he is partner and Executive Director with KPMG Global Services and has been in the professional services business since fifteen years. He published his open letter for Indian graduates through The New York Times News Service in May, 2012. 

There are five key attributes employers typically seek and, in fact, will value more and more in the future. 
1. You speak and write English fluently 
2. You are good at problem solving, thinking outside the box, seeking new ways of doing things
3. You ask questions, engage deeply and question hierarchy
4. You take responsibility for your career and for your learning and invest in new skills
5. You are professional and ethical: Everyone loves to be considered a professional

As per him, over half of the pre-screened résumés lack the English ability to effectively communicate in business. So reader, it is on you – to develop comprehensive English skills, both written and oral. 

Get your assessment score today, monitor your current communication levels and improve as per the corporate standards. Contact us at Assessments@CoCoIndex.com

Be the Purple Cow

Seth Godin is an author, entrepreneur and public speaker: He has written several books but 'Purple Cow' is all-time best seller. He educates business owners to "Transform their Business by Being Remarkable". 

Let me use the same analogy to explain my point. 

We have reached the point where we can no longer market directly to the masses. We've created the world where your resumes are invisible. The traditional approaches are obsolete. There is a need of putting a purple cow into your profile and make it remarkable. Stop Advertising and Start Innovating.

Consider you are driving and you see cows grazing on green grass in a ranch. Exciting!
Then you see another ranch with cows and one more... after sometime you will start to ignore the cows. What once was grazing is now common. Suddenly you see a purple cow. Now that would be interesting at least for a while. 

You just need a while to get noticed and grab the opportunity. Contact us now to add 'CoCo for Communication' score to your profile: Assessments@CoCoIndex.com 

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

It’s time to make your Resume Visible

Job seekers face a whole lot of challenges during their job hunt. The most common is: “I am applying to ‘recently posted’ positions on job portals but it’s been a long time that no one is calling me for an interview”. Have you given a thought, what’s wrong at the recruiting side? 

Scenario #1: Recruiters get 100+ resumes for each requirement which they post on job portals. The first thing they do is: Search for required keywords and consider 10% of the total resumes received for the next screening round. Then they RANDOMLLY call these considered candidates and assess their communication and interpersonal skills along with domain knowledge. They trash other resumes once they get the perfect match. 

Note: Candidates with exceptional technical skills, who are certain that they can be considered for next round, have competition with the top 10% of the crowd and should make sure that their resume STANDS OUT and they get the very first call. 

Scenario #2: The second most important parameter that companies look for in a candidate is excellent communication skill. Hence most of the time recruiters look for a balance of technical and communication skills in a candidate. They love to present a candidate to their hiring authority who is confident, professional and speaks well even if candidate is not technically a rock-star. However there is NO tool in the market to help recruiters find a candidate who is a confident communicator and at least technically average. 

Note: As discussed above, 90% of the resumes that can be a potential match are INVISIBLE to the recruiters. There is a need to make them visible. 


If you think that you are one of the victims of the current recruiting system and are not getting a call, then CoCo Index services can benefit you: 
We make your resume visible and add credibility to it. Recruiters are interested in knowing your communication abilities in advance. CoCo Index gives you a recognized platform to get your communication skills assessed and showcased. We also provide you an online link in case recruiters want to verify the authenticity of the assessment. The link can be added by in your resume or cover letter.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Five C’s of Leadership


At the seventh annual BlogHer'11 Conference, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi shared with attendees her five C’s of leadership:

1. Competency: To move up in any job or in life you need to be skilled at something. 
2. Courage & Confidence: If you’re good at something, you must have the courage and confidence to speak up. 
3. Communication Skills: You must be able to communicate what you are planning to do in a compelling manner. 
4. Consistency: You should be consistent in your performance.
5. Compass: You must have moral integrity. 


CoCo Index is in line with Indira Nooyi's belief that Communication and Confidence are critically important in today's corporate world. We help candidates build confidence to communicate effectively in various corporate settings. Visit us at www.CoCoIndex.com.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Why English is important in the corporate world of now?


This question has been asked many a times during job interviews in countries like India and China where English is not the first language.


There can be many right answers but "cross-border business interactions with the English speaking countries" will be the prime one. The developed countries utilize other country's resources when 1) they do cost cutting or 2) they don't have enough resource supply for fulfilling their demands internally. At other end for exporting goods/services countries, this relationship evokes development in infrastructure making it necessary to learn a globally acceptable language.

Is it a good trend? Well we don't know. But it is helping economies to grow, creating new job opportunities and letting entrepreneurs fulfill their dreams. 

More and more individuals in India and China whose first language is not English, have learnt or are learning English so that they can participate at the global level and provide their services. Individuals who seek opportunities in English speaking countries like United States of America or United Kingdom, prepare themselves not only in verbal skills but also in interpersonal skills. They also learn about their history, culture, and work environment so that they can use references to communicate well.