Tara Augustine

Being intentional with the wording of your question in an open-ended framework will yield meaningful dialogue. It helps to encourage students to share their motivations and values, which helps you uncover what truly matters to them. Skilled questioning shows empathy and curiosity. In admissions, mastering skilled questioning transforms conversations from information exchanges to genuine relationship-building opportunities.

Thoughtful questions show genuine interest, invite deeper conversation, and help to uncover what truly matters to the other person. In admissions, asking the right questions not only helps identify a student's goals and concerns, but it also allows you to tailor your message in a way that feels personal and meaningful. At the end of the day, good questions build trust. Trust drives decisions.

Pairing your value prop with the relationship you've built with a student is essential to closing the enrollment authentically and effectively. A strong relationship allows you to understand the student's motivations, goals and concerns; which in turn, gives you insight into what truly matters to them. Aligning our institution's unique value with their personal needs and aspirations turns a transactional interaction into a meaningful connection, which helps make you the right fit.

The reflection questions and asking those to your direct report to help them uncover where they are at and the next steps instead of directly telling them their next steps, I think this will be largely beneficial.

The facts that you need a high level of energy to maintain a positive attitude, but that you also need a positive attitude to maintain a high level of energy is a chicken and the egg scenario. It all starts from within!

To learn that almost half of new employees fail because "they can’t accept feedback, they’re unable to understand and manage emotions, they lack the necessary motivation to excel, and they have the wrong temperament for the job" is interesting. These are all things that are under their personal control. 

The idea that energy management is more important that time management is an interesting one. The fact that energy actually impacts the amount of work you get done, while time spent doing work does not necessarily impact the amount of work you get done. This is important to understand and I think at a larger perspective, the idea of salary vs. hourly comes into play. Paying for an employee's time versus an employee's work. 

I saved the image demonstrating the puzzle of the four elements of a successful sales person. I am going to utilize this image and information on my weekly wrap-up email with my team next week. It really does take all four elements to perform the best at their jobs.

Many of the areas covered in this section warn us to stay away from using absolutes or guarantees. This is true in regards to employment, financial aid, and even facilities. You also want to avoid any verbiage in which you are creating comparisons with other schools. Misrepresentation is what you want to steer clear of, and also implying something that may be inaccurate.

I strongly believe that by commiting to always being truthful, transparent and helpful you create the culture of stellar student service. In the reading, when it mentioned that the best way to overcome mistakes with students is in the delivery, attitude, and positive interactions with the student it rang true. "Mistakes happen: we’re only human, at the end of the day. So if you find that the customer is indeed right in whatever complaint they’re making or issue they raise, the best thing you can do is face up to it. This is a much more effective way of getting… >>>