Between no and yes sits maybe. It’s the step that makes change palatable.
What maybe are you including in your presentations to make it easier for the audience to change their mind?
As always would love your thoughts on this.
Cheers
Archive for the ‘public speaking courses’ Category
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
Of Course You’re Nervous
The number one fear people have when speaking, selling their services or asking someone out on a date is that they are nervous. For some it can be debilitating and others just mildly distracting.
Of course you’re nervous – you’re human.
Nervousness is an adrenaline rush and serves to prepare us to perform. Without the correct amount of nervousness you’re going to fail. The secret is to harness your nervousness so you can perform without it distracting you.
Like most things in life – It’s a balance
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.
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 Problem with Corporate Stories
Humans are hard wired for stories. Stories are how we share information from one person to another. The Aborigines have been writing them on walls for 40,000+ years, Hollywood is based around telling stories and all religious texts are full of them.
But there is a problem with them in the corporate world.
While we need stories in the corporate world, there is one thing we need before them – a reason to listen.
If I don’t know why you’re telling me a story, why would I listen…or keep reading your newsletter?
Just because you have a great story does not mean I will give you my attention, listen to it or read past the first three lines of your e-mail.
I have to know what is in it for me – otherwise I will switch-off or delete your e-mail.
Cheers
Darren
Don’t sack the mistake
The 2016 Census was by all accounts a debacle. The day after it, in an apparent show of leadership Prime Minister Turnbull said that heads would role over the incident.
Why would you do that?
We all know that we learn more from our losses than our victories. What will throwing out all those valuable lessons give the ABS? A new group of people who learned the lessons from a book.
‘Heads will roll’ might get the headline, but not a better census count.
Cheers
Darren
I can Read!
The pitch is a confidence game. The audience expects you to be confident.
If you have to read your slides or a script to the audience then you are not confident.
How do you know if you are seen as confident? Count the number of words on your slides. If there are more than 2 lines of text you are reading.
Turn the slides off and speak to your audience. It will show you as confident.
Your audience will appreciate that.
Cheers
Darren
The Best Person to Pitch
I’m often asked if I can do the pitch for my clients.
I can’t – for 2 reasons.
1. I don’t know your product. It will be quicker to teach you to present than to teach me about your product.
2. The potential client wants to see you as the leader.
If you can’t stand in front of your client and speak to them about what you are selling to them they wont have the confidence that you can fulfill the contract.
Your ability to speak is the essence of your leadership. If you’re at the front of the room and cant lead then you’re an impostor.
You’re the best person to pitch your ideas. If this scares you, juts install the training.
Cheers
Darren
The Pitch – Sign Posts
I recently drove from Adelaide to Melbourne.
The first sign out of town said I had 756km to go. I mentally calculated how long this would take.
After 20 minutes there was another sign – 722km to go.
I kept looking for these signs to know that everything was on track.
Clients do this when your pitching to them. Tell them that you can solve their problems, and then sign post it all the way through your pitch. It will keep them engaged.
Cheers
Darren
The Pitch – The small Common Ground
When selling your idea there is usually only a small area of common ground between you and the person you are selling too. Rarely is this common ground understood as the same thing.
You might be selling legal services but the customer is buying peace of mind.
You might sell bridge engineering but the customer is buying smoother traffic flows.
If you know that the customer is going to buy a different version of what your selling, change your pitch to sell what they want to buy.
The competition who keeps beating you is doing this.
Cheers
Darren
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