Learn Their Names

Memorize the names and faces of people in organizations or on various boards with whom you work. Sometimes there may be a lot of them, but you don’t want to be caught not knowing a specific person. You will often see people outside the context in which you know them, and you always want to be able to make the connection.

I was pretty amazed at a conference I attended where Diane Sawyer was the speaker. She spoke to me for less than three minutes before her talk. And when onstage, she made a reference to me by name and made a joke about TRESemmé, our line of hair-care products. Literally, she had just met me for the first time; we spoke for a couple of minutes, and in that time, she memorized my name and what I did—and she used it in her speech to make connections with the audience. Now that’s professional.