Owning a business usually means wearing several different hats—often at the same time. Employer, manager, marketer, diplomat, business strategist, problem solver, counsellor, coach, just to name a few. (Are we tired yet?) And each hat needs its own voice. Voice? Talking hats? What the...?

Let me explain.

Every role you play in the running of your business requires that you communicate with someone. The way that you communicate depends on which hat you're wearing at the time. And, the audience you're communicating with determines which hat you wear.

Let me repeat that.

The audience you're communicating with determines which hat you wear.

This is a very important point to grasp as it will affect the outcome of everything you say, write or do.

For example: Let's say you sell bicycles. You employ sales people and back up staff in the shop as well as a website guru for your online sales. The hat you wear as an Employer has a different voice than your Marketer Hat which is different again from your Business Strategist Hat.

The need arises for you to speak to one of your sales folk about his performance. His character, education level, attitude and experience will tell you whether to don your Coach Hat or Manager Hat. As a coach you will communicate differently—through choice of words, demeanour, tone, body language and facial expression—than a manager. Getting the hat right will ensure the meeting achieves its best possible result.

Think about all the hats you wear in your business. Perhaps you're an independent professional with no employees. Who do you communicate with and what hat must you wear to do it?

· Clients: diplomat, counsellor, problem solver...?

· Prospective clients: marketer, authority figure...?

· Suppliers: manager, customer (for an "other side of the table" look)

Now, think about the differences between each voice. How do you speak to a supplier? How does that differ from your conversation with a client? And how does that contrast with the language you use in your marketing materials?

(Heads up: If there is no difference, your business' bottom line is most probably not living up to its full potential.)

What's your favourite hat in the collection? 

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript.

So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."

He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing.

"We missed the R !  We missed the R ! We missed the R !"

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.

The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"

With a choking voice, the old abbot replies,

"The word was ... CELEBRATE!!!"

(Ya gotta wince)

Credit for this one goes to Brian from wideformatonline.com - the online magazine for users of wide format printers in Australia and New Zealand.