Archive for the ‘presentation skills’ Category

The Vulnerable

Dr Brene Brown is an amazing researcher, author and speaker on being brave. She’s not the kind of ‘feel the fear and do it anyway!’ brave, but the ‘let people in’ brave – which is arguably tougher.
This sort of brave is about lowering your guard, even when it may hurt. It’s about showing you have a human side and that you may not have all the answers – even when your title implies you should. It’s about showing that which we would call our ‘weaknesses’.
While many people find it difficult to share their weaknesses, here’s the irony – we see vulnerability in others as a strength. It shows you can do something others won’t, it makes you more relatable and it makes me feel at ease with my own weaknesses.
Displaying vulnerability builds massive connection with your team and makes it easier for them to get on board with your message. This is influence at its best.
Your weaknesses may just be your strength.
As always I’d love your thoughts on this here.
Cheers,

Darren


Let Them Speak

Everyone has an opinion they want to share. (You just have to look at the pointlessness of Twitter to see this). It helps us feel heard and connected to our community and tribe. Abraham Maslow described this as one of our basic human needs.
As a leader it’s your job to let them share their opinion.
Your challenge is to ensure that they don’t take too long, do it in the right place and understand that they don’t have the final say. This will drive connection and this will in turn drive your ability to influence.
Are you up for that challenge?
As always I’d love your thoughts on this here.
Cheers,

Darren


The Bermuda Triangle

When I was a kid I was fascinated by the Bermuda Triangle. How could planes and ships just seemingly disappear without a trace with no valid explanation? Various theories have been put forward by experts, authorities and fortune tellers as to what happened. Only recently have valid theories been offered – namely that they are just coincidences.

The modern day version of the Bermuda Triangle is the Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370. No one (alive) seems to know what happened to it.

But if you search the internet you will find hundreds of theories on both the Bermuda Triangle and MH370. These theories range from a suicidal pilot, the plane being captured by the Russians through to North Korea using a remote hacking program to steal the plane and harvest the body parts of those on board.

The individuals creating these theories are basing them on their own understanding of the facts, research, observations, beliefs, mis-understandings, biases, suspicions, paranoia, vendettas, agendas, desires to build themselves up and the wish to be the person that is right. People create theories because we don’t like incomplete information – we guess and make stuff up to fill in the blanks.

The same thing happens in your workplace. When people don’t know why certain decisions are being made, they cannot help but use their own understanding of the facts, research, observations, beliefs, mis-understandings, biases, suspicions, paranoia, vendettas, agendas, desires to build themselves up and the wish to be the person that is right to explain what is going on.

Stopping this is simple. Explain the reasoning behind decisions that effect people. When they know why, they wont have to make up a reason for a decision they don’t understand. This builds trust and increases your chance to influence your team.

As always I’d like your thoughts on this here.

Cheers,

Darren

 


Do you believe in climate change?

It’s the wrong question. Beliefs are hard to change. They are bound up in what we think about ourselves, our biases, what we think people like us should think. Changing a belief means admitting how I defined myself as yesterday is no longer correct for how I define myself today.

Whether someone believes in climate change or not is a moot point – it’s happening with or without their belief

The better question to ask is, “Do you understand climate change?”

If you ask better questions you get better answers…and more sales.

As always I’d love your thoughts on this here.

Cheers,

Darren


We don’t need another connection

We don’t need another connection; what we need is help.

Over the last week I have been contacted by 3 people on LinkedIn stating that they wanted to connect with me so they can add greater value to their ‘5000+ connections.’

But I’m not sure that their connections are sitting down thinking, “I need to get some more LinkedIn connections!” But they are thinking, “I need help with this problem!”

The one telling aspect as to whether someone is of value to their connections is the amount of publishing they do. It is easy to get to 5,000 connections – anyone can do that with a bit of effort. What’s more difficult is to publish 10 articles over 10 consecutive weeks. That requires thinking, being vulnerable and putting your ideas on the line. That is much harder than getting 5,000 connections.

When you provide value people see it. It may not be value they need today – but value never goes out of fashion.

As always, I’d love your thoughts on this here.

Cheers,

Darren


The Story Behind The Numbers

How do you find the stories behind the numbers? Just tell us what the numbers mean

I fly a lot and Virgin Australia told me what my numbers were….and what they mean.

Over the last 12 months I’ve:

– taken 76 flights….which means I must know the safety demo off by heart

– Spent over 5 days in the clouds….which means I have seen a lot of in-flight movies

– visited Melbourne 17 times….which means they think I like the coffee

– travelled 76,829kms…which means I’ve done over 2 laps of the globe

…which all puts me in the top 1% of Virgin Australia travellers.

As a self-confessed #AvGeek these numbers mean something to me – and engage me in their brand.

It gives me insight into my travel, something trivial for me to talk about….and costs Virgin nothing.

When you share the numbers in your sales presentations do they engage your audience and connect with them on an emotional level?

As always, I’d love your thoughts on this here.

Cheers,

Darren


The Shortest Story

‘For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn’

– Ernest Hemingway.

It’s not the length of your message that has the impact, but the thought you put into it.

Would love your thoughts on this here.

Cheers,

Darren


Confidence is B.S

Confidence comes when you know you will be successful. If you don’t know that you will be successful you can’t have confidence.

What you need is courage. Courage to take the next best step. When you do that, you move forward. Eventually you reach a point where you know you will be successful, and you can have confidence.

The trick to having courage is to install a process so you know what to do next. When you know what to do next, and then next, and then next and then next again you end up with confidence.

Whether you are delivering a presentation, selling a product or fixing a car, if you don’t have a process…buy one.

Cheers

Darren


How Your Leadership Style is Perceived: Leader, Imposter, Enemy or Loser?

The way others perceive you and the way you think about yourself will determine why people follow you.

Leadership can be looked at from two perspectives. The first is you – do you see yourself as a leader? The answer is yes or no. The second is your followers (staff, superiors, market etc). Do they see you as a leader? Again it’s yes or no.

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If your followers see you as a leader, and you carry yourself as one, they will perceive you as a Leader. It’s a case of your followers saying that they want someone else to take control and make decisions. You see yourself as that someone and fill the need they have. This is what everyone wants.

If you’re not in the Leader quadrant you will have trouble.

If your followers see you as a leader, but you don’t carry yourself as one, they will perceive you as an Imposter. It’s like the team leader who has been promoted from within but won’t take charge for fear of not being liked. The Imposter is the sales person who goes to see a customer but won’t lead the sales call. The customer is not interested in doing the sales person’s job and won’t see them the next time they come back.

Where you have real problems is when the followers don’t see you as a leader.

When the followers don’t see the person in charge as a leader, but that person carries on as though they are, then they are seen as the Enemy. It’s the motivational speaker who comes out after lunch and says, ‘We’re having a great time – let’s do some star-jumps’ and the audience thinks, ‘No – you’re a tool!” It’s the sales manager who declares, ‘This month we’re going to get budget! Why? Because we’re just going to get it!’ There is no grounding in reality and you get lots of push-back. This is the most dangerous place to be.

The final place is where no one sees the person in charge as a leader. Here they are simply perceived as a Loser. It’s a case of the followers saying “I don’t want to listen to a message you don’t want to give’.

Levels of Engagement

The Loser has to deal with disengagement. No one is listening – but that’s not usually a problem as the person in charge is not speaking.

The Enemy has to deal with disinterest. They could be giving out next week’s PowerBall numbers but the followers don’t care because they think the leader is an idiot.

The Imposter is dealing with disillusionment. The followers want to follow or buy but are not getting the guidance and leadership they want. This is why good staff leave poor managers and reliable customers start looking elsewhere.

It is only when you are perceived as the Leader that you get engagement. Here people want to listen to what you have to say. In this position you have influence and can sell more. This makes your life easier. You’re happy because you’re getting budget. Your superiors are happy because you’re doing your job. Your followers are happy because they are getting the leadership they want.

From Imposter to Leader

Over the last dozen years of working with senior managers I have seen that about 90% of people hold themselves in the Imposter position. They want to be the leader, but are afraid that if they step up they will be seen as the enemy.

The key to stepping up from Imposter to Leader is courage. Do you have the courage to take the next step in the process? Don’t look for confidence and that is often too far down the track. Have a plan to follow and have the courage to take just the next step in the process.

How have you found working for Leaders, Imposters, Enemies and Losers? Leave your comments below.

Cheers

Darren


The Pitch: Cut Consider Choose

The tender cycle has three stages, each with their own objective. Unfortunately most that make it to stage 3 answer the final question the wrong way and miss out.

Stage 1 – Request for tender.
This is about the cut. Cut out those who are not qualified to complete the project. This reduces work.

Stage 2 – Tender Docs
The client is looking for suppliers that they can consider for the project and excluding those that are not good enough. As such, suppliers put forward all the reasons they should not be excluded.

Stage 3 – The Pitch.
The pitch is about a reason to choose – why should they choose you over someone else? Unfortunately most suppliers simply re-present their tender docs which are reasons to not be excluded – not reasons to be chosen.

This is not what the decision makers are looking for.

Cheers

Darren

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