Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive

coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want

to be perceived. I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking

about remembering names. I never remember people's names.

I've heard this lament from six different people in the last month alone.

If this is a struggle of yours, here are five actions that will put you on a path to success.

First, adopt the belief Dale Carnegie wrote about in the granddaddy of all self-help books

How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Everyone in the world, he said, has one word that is the most special to them, their name.

If you adopt this belief, remembering names becomes more than just a courtesy, it becomes a way to display your core values

and a way to bestow honor and respect on the other person.

Second, listen to your self-talk. What do you say to yourself about your difficulty with names? Do you say,

I just can't remember names, or I'm terrible at remembering names, or the instant someone says their name to me I've already forgotten it.

All of those are self-fulfilling prophecies with no room for improvement.

It's no wonder you're not doing well.

Instead, give yourself permission to get better. How about this?

I'm working hard to get better at remembering names.

Or, remembering names is really important to me and I'm making progress.

Those statements allow you to grow

incrementally. Make them yours. Third, be prepared. It's pretty rare that

someone just blurts out his or her name unexpectedly.

You can usually tell when you're about to hear someone's name.

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