Productive Team Meetings

March 26th, 2009

Love ’em or hate ’em, meetings are part of our working life. As a leader in meetings, there are a few techniques that you can use to draw people into the meeting and get them contributing. This makes the meeting more productive as everyone is contributing and quicker as you are not sitting around waiting for someone to volunteer the information you are after.

So in your next meeting (which will probably be later today) try some of these techniques:

  • Where possible, avoid meetings straight after lunch. People naturally become sleepy after lunch. Meeting when our bodies are wanting to sleep does not bode well for interaction.
  • Speak to one and address many. This is an amazingly simple technique that will bring people into what you are saying. How do you do this? Simply use the word ‘you’ when possible. For example, instead of asking, “Does anyone have any questions about the sales budget’, ask, “Do you have any questions about the sales budget’. The difference is subtle but important. When you ask the first question, people in the meeting think, “He is not speaking to me so I can try and “hide here in the silence.” However, when you ask the second question the thought pattern is, “He is talking to me. What are my questions?” This is the reaction you want.
  • Give directions with confidence. If you have ever taught children, you will know that children can smell fear in a teacher, and will exploit it to their advantage. The same is true with adults. Whilst we will generally not play up to the level of children, if the directions you give are weak and ambiguous, people will not follow them with the same conviction as they would if you gave clear and strong directions.
  • Get their feedback properly. Feedback is often sought by asking, “Are there any comments or thoughts about the new sales plan?” This is general and consequently vague. Instead, ask, “How can you implement this new sales plan with your current customers?” Once again, this is focused on 1 person, but also on how they will use what they have just learned. They will instantly start thinking of how they will use what they have just learned.
  • If you want a quick meeting, remove all the chairs from the meeting room before hand. If people are standing up, they will be less inclined to waste time

How will you use these techniques in your next meeting? Please let me know below.

Happy meetings!

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Australian Public Speaking Training


How Obama Wrote His Speech

January 21st, 2009

By now you will have seen the speech from the leader who we hope will set a new path for the United States of Ameria.

Have you ever wondered how the speech is put together? Follow this link to find out. (You may need to log into facebook).

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=44345466733&h=bX9nX&u=WiA-7

Cheers

Darren

 


A Presentation is a Lot Like a Marriage…

November 13th, 2008

A presentation is a lot like a marriage; you spend a lot of time setting up good intentions and preparing for what you will do; then when you get into it, you end up doing whatever you want.

 

Whilst this may not necessarily be true of marriages, it does highlight the power of the analogy – and that is why you are still reading.

 

Why do analogies work?

 

Analogies work because they draw on a well known topic (a marriage) to explain another (the difficulty of giving a speech). As we can all relate to failed intentions in a marriage (even if it is only a truism!) it highlights how we can have failed intentions in our presentation.

 

Analogies can be drawn between similar objects – ‘The human heart is like the fuel pump in a car”, or dissimilar concepts – “Pupils are more like oysters than sausages. The job of teaching is not to stuff them and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within.”

 

The best analogies are those that draw on dissimilar objects to make a point. Using dissimilar objects creates dissonance in our thought patterns and causes us to think more thoroughly about what is being presented. This helps us remember the point. By showing that two dissimilar objects are closely related (marriage and presentations, students and oysters) you break the chain of thought in your audience and plant a new thought.

 

How can you use this today?

 

Consider how you can use analogies to more clearly explain your message. Will an analogy help clarify your point, make it more memorable and cause people to think about what you have said? If it does, then you will change the way your audience thinks, and to having the impact that you are after!

 

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Australian Public Speaking Courses


Serious Message? Then Lighten Up!

October 18th, 2008

Should a serious message—a life saving message—be entertaining? Only if you want it to work!

 

When VirginBlue first started operating, it had a reputation for being a fun airline on which to travel. The most obvious thing that the flight crew did to help keep the flight less boring was to have some fun with the ever dull safety demonstration before take off. They would have lines such as, ‘Don’t smoke in the toilets as there are smoke detectors and cameras watching you’ and ‘life jackets have a light to read by and a whistle for attracting sharks’.

 

Whilst these elements of humour were never going to get the crew invited to appear at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, they did get the passengers attention. Passengers paid attention if only to hear the odd line out.

 

On a recent flight I asked the flight attendant why they no longer used humour in the safety announcements. She said that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) had directed them to stop adding humour as the safety demonstration was a very important task that everyone needed to be taken seriously.

 

So what has been the effect of removing the humour? We ignore the demonstration and safety message. We know we should listen, but simply could not be bothered. This puts us and all the other passengers at risk ‘in the unlikely event of an emergency’. The safety message is less effective and does not convey the necessary information we need to hear.

 

Advertising companies know this very well. That’s why they spend lots of money trying to come up with funny ads! It helps to grab our attention so we listen to the message.

 

How are you using humour in your presentations? You don’t have to have them rolling in the isle and you certainly should not use jokes. Aim to entertain your audience so they are paying attention long enough to hear what you have to say.

 

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Australia’s public Speaking Coach


Are You the Authority?

September 25th, 2008

You are speaking to a prospective client. You are making your pitch for business. As part of your presentation you quote some figures to support your argument. The question is, ‘Do you quote the source of the figures or do you leave that bit out?’

What is the answer? Well that all depends. What are you trying to achieve? Are you setting yourself up as the expert or are you after another authority to back your argument.

Today I was working with Peter as he prepared his sales pitch for new business. He is an expert in trading commodities (iron, oil, wheat etc). During his presentation he said,

‘BHP tells us that in the last 10 years, China has used more steel than the U.S. has used in the past 100 years. You need to be in commodities to be part of the action.’

So should you quote the figures as coming from BHP or leave them off?

What is the effect of quoting BHP in the figures? Quoting BHP as the source will set them up as the expert. They will be the people with the information and you will be seen as ‘the messanger’ that knows the information. This puts you in a subordinate role and not the true authority.

To overcome this, we changed the sentence to read,

‘In the last 10 years, China has used more steel than the U.S. has used in the past 100 years. You need to be in commodities to be part of the action.’

The difference is subtle, but profound. Without the reference to BHP, Peter became the expert. He was no longer playing a subordinate role to BHP. Peter was now the one to be listened too and the centre of authority. If he is pressed on where the figures come from, he could state that the figures come from BHP. This would act to further reinforce his position.

Should this be the tactic that you use all the time? Certinally not. Once you have set yourself up as the expert, you can use other authorities to support your position. By using other authorities to support your stance as an authority you are strengthening your position. However, if you do it the other way around, you will be seen as trying to achieve your authority by riding on the coat tails of others.

What if you are not an expert at what you are trying to argue? What do you do then?

This is where you can draw on other authorities to establish your credibility (as opposed to authority). By stating what you believe and then having others support your position you gain vicarious authority. Alternatively, you can state how others support what you are saying. This authority will never be as strong as setting yourself up as ‘the’ authority, but it will be better than having no authority at all.

Do you agree?

Cheers

Darren

Speak Motivate and Lead: How Real Leaders inspire others to follow

www.executivespeaking.com.au


No Thank You

September 18th, 2008

Should you open a presentation, a sales pitch or training session with, ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Thanks for coming along’?

When you stand to speak (or are seated at a team meeting) you need to grab your audiences attention right from Word Won. This means that you have to be giving them information, setting the scene or otherwise involving them in your presentation right from the first word. You have very little time to get and keep their attention. Don’t waste it!

But I hear you say, ‘People do not make judgments that quickly!’

Yes they do! Just watch someone channel surfing in front of the TV. Within a few seconds they have moved on to something else. Your audience will do the same mentally to you, so don’t waste anytime.

There is also another reason why you don’t want to start with ‘Good morning’ or something else as pointless. When you say ‘Good morning,’ or ‘Thank you’ you are putting the focus on you, and not your audience. It is about you giving the audience something and – in social terms – you are asking for something in return (them to say Good morning to you). And 9 times out of 10, the audience wont say anything, so they are not giving back and the relationship is broken before it begins.

I am not advocating losing all social niceties!

You can say Good morning to your audience once you have set the scene. Once you have them wanting to listen to what you have to say, you can greet them and go through the pleasantries if you must. When you do this, it will mean more to the audience and they will keep listening after it! This is what you want.

So don’t waste the start of your next presentation. Start with a bang and leave the salutations for later.

Cheers

Darren

You liked this tip? There are many more great points like this in my latest book, Speak Motivate and Lead.


What’s your first word?

September 16th, 2008

What is the first word you say when you speak? Is it …Ummm… …Errr… or ‘Well…’ How does this make you look and sound?

The first word you utter sets the tone for how people will understand and respect your message. Are you being powerful, persuasive or pointless?

Powerful words have a reason to be said. They help convey your message in a way that adds value. They give direction to what you are saying and where you are going. They are often short words in short sentences.

Similarly, persuasive words give a direction as to where your message is going. They invite your listeners along on the journey. Often they are words that have emotional attachments to them.

Pointless words kill your presentation. They should be avoided at all costs. What are pointless words/phrases? They include:

  • Um, er and Arr
  • Oh
  • I
  • Me
  • Welcome
  • Thank you
  • Hello (except when greeting in a one-on-one situation)
  • What we are going to look at…
  • I’d like to tell you…
  • Can I ask you a question about…

When you start any message with these type of words, you will lose your power and the respect of your audience. Your message will be diluted and you and your audience wont even know why or how it happened.

Now it’s your turn to listen. For the next two days, listen to the first word people say when they are speaking. This can be on the ‘phone, in a meeting, or in the coffee room. Count how many pointless words you hear and see how it affects your feeling of their message. Then compare that to the powerful or persuasive words that others use.

Let me know how you go.

Cheers

Darren

Speak Motivate and Lead: How Real Leaders inspire others to follow


How Do I Speak Without Sounding like a ‘Know-it-all’?

August 11th, 2008

A client recently asked me, ‘How do I share my successes without looking like a know it all?’

 

This was a fair question. Peter had taken a business from near bankruptcy to one of the best performing businesses in his industry. Out of 1300 businesses, he was ranked 27th and is the only business that was growing while all others were shrinking. He was concerned that if he stood up and said ‘this is what we have achieved and this is how I did it’ he would sound like a know-it-all. And would be right.

 

How could he overcome this problem?

 

One of the best ways to overcome this problem is to change the focus of your message. Don’t focus on what you did, but rather focus on the process you implemented and what it achieved; make the process the hero.

 

Let me explain.

 

Peters’ industry had a massive legislation change that caused a big drop (15-18%) in revenue across all businesses except his. He experienced 10% growth. The reason he had the growth was he set himself up for the growth and told his team to expect it.

 

But if he stood up at his industry meetings and spoke about his successes he would be seen as lucky or a know-it-all.

 

So Peter and I worked on making the processes the hero and not him. We identified the processes he set up that enabled his success. He then spoke about the success that process had. This change – though subtle – was enough to take the focus off him. It was still clear that he instigated and drove the process but it was not about him being the hero. The process was now the hero.

 

How can you apply this in your work? Instead of telling others what you have done, tell them what the processes you implemented have achieved. Tell the benefits that have been gained by using the process. This will take the focus away from you being the hero and enable you to share your successes with out being a know it all.

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Speak Motivate and Lead: How Real Leaders inspire others to follow


McDonalds, Rolex and Your Next PowerPoint Presentation

July 23rd, 2008

What can McDonalds and Rolex tell us about PowerPoint?  Heaps!

 

It’s all about Branding.

 

When you put together your PowerPoint presentation do you go for the McDonalds branding? McDonalds branding is everywhere and on everything. It is on the door, the floor, the roof, the shirts of the staff, the coffee cup you get and even the napkin that you wipe your mouth with! They include their name in just about every product they sell. There is the McHappy meals, the McFlurry and the one that start it all – the Big Mac! This branding has helped them build a very profitable worldwide business. But there is a down side. Every store is the same. It is the same thing over and over again.

 

Do you have a McPowerPoint presentation?

 

Or do you go for Rolex branding?

 

How does Rolex Brand itself? Rolex positions itself with symbols that typify their brand. Rolex pays big money to people like George Clooney, Cindy Crawford, Nicole Kidman, Michael Schumacher, Ian Thorpe, Anna Kournikova, Martina Hingis, Alex Popov and even NASA to wear their watches. Rolex does not put its logo on everything that moves, but rather, it puts it on selective people that provide the ‘right’ image for their brand. The result is a brand that is subtle, but well known, and well known for excellence.

 

So what is the difference between a McPowerPoint and a Rolex PowerPoint? It’s in the slides!

 

Do you have the same corporate background on each and every slide? Do you have the logo in the same spot on each slide, as though it is etched on the screen? Do you have the same bullet point after bullet point in the same font, in the same colour, in the same size for each of your 37 slides? Do you have slide transitions, text transitions and pointless clipart? Worst of all, do you have PowerPoint Police that must vet your presentation to ensure that your presentation is in line with corporate branding? If you have answered ‘Yes’ to any of these then you have a McPowerPoint Presentation and it’s time to change.

 

Turn your next presentation into a Rolex presentation!

 

With your next presentation, get rid of your logo. If you have an interesting presentation they will remember who you are and where you’re from. Aim for no more than 6 words per slide – tell the rest of the story with a picture. Destroy all clipart – you have a digital camera on your phone so got take a photo and use it! Use a different colour for each slide – when was the last time you found looking at a painted wall engaging! Don’t be afraid to use white space. Go Zen – less is more. Consider including video that shows your message.

 

By branding yourself as Rolex does, you become more than just another commodity that can be negotiated down to the lowest price. You will become unique and therefore different in the market place.

 

Feel free to share this with those that love to use PowerPoint. And if you know someone who works for Rolex, let them know too!

 

Cheers

 

Darren Fleming

Australia’s Public Speaking Coach

Speak Motivate and Lead: How Real Leaders inspire others to follow

 

 


Obamas’ New Hampshire Concession Speech

July 21st, 2008

You might like this 4 minute video by Obama. He has some great speaking techniques that he uses well – very well. This is his New Hampshire Concession speech

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QS_-KSuyJE&hl=en&fs=1]

The first technique he uses well is Anaphora – repeating over and over again, “Yes we can.”  There is no doubt to what his message is. The repetition draws us in to his message.

He then Draws JFK and Dr Martin Luther King Jnr in as examples to support his argument. He does not dwell on them – just mentions them in passing – but he does it very well. This gives authority to what he is saying.

He then goes on to mention specific examples to drive his message home to the audience. He mentions the textile workers in Spartanburg, the Dish Washer in Las Vegas and the little girl going to the crumbling school in Dillon – as almost to mention them by name – This helps the audience connect with his message. It helps the audience become emotionally invested in what he has to say.

He also lets the audience pay their part in the speech (granted that they are all paying supporters – but they play their part well). He lets the audience contribute to his speech through cheering, chanting and clapping. He then draws of their energy and incorporates it into his speech. What would it be like if he said “Quiet – I want to say something”? Whilst we may never speaking to this type of chanting, letting the audience laugh or stop to think is just as important.

He then ends a concession speech with the power of someone who had won the primary. This shows absolute belief in his message and what he stands for.

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Speak Motivate and Lead; How Real Leaders inspire others to follow


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