As I checked in for my flight this morning, I couldn’t help thinking the following:
We check in for travel, we check in with our significant others, we check in at work, but how often do we check in with ourselves?
So, all I encourage you to do — starting today — is to ask yourself the following three questions:
What right now in my life do I need to STOP doing?
So often, in an effort to respond to a situation immediately, we hastily send out an email, answer a question or make a call that lacks thought.
As a result, the recipient either misunderstands the communication, doesn’t get the full context, or is unnecessarily annoyed.
Had we just taken a couple of minutes to craft our message, think about our response, or plan the call, we could have been so much more effective and in the end,
In a recent workshop on Leadership Presence, one of the participants shared that her manager often asked her if something was upsetting her.
She was mystified, because as far as she was concerned she had been fully engaged and positive in the meetings. When she asked why he thought that, he said she often looked upset. That was when she realized that her look of concentration and thoughtfulness was in fact being interpreted as consternation.
When striving to make a more significant impact on your audience, whether you’re speaking in front of a large audience or simply speaking up in a meeting, either virtually or in person, having a solid grasp of presentation skills is extremely important.
Who is the audience?
Understanding your audience is critical to if you’re going to have the maximum impact and master your presentation skills. The first thing you determine is who you audience is —
Awkward encounters come in many forms, but the two that can cause the most discomfort are those when you are greeted by someone who treats you like an old friend when you have no idea who they are or how they know you and, conversely, when you clearly remember that you have been introduced to someone several times, and they look at you blankly when you greet them.
“I hate going to holiday parties,” my friend Miri complained.
“What don’t you like?” I asked.
“I’m not great at mingling, and I don’t like making small talk.”
“Anything else?”
“I get tired of telling people my life history and what I do for a living,” Miri replied.
Do you ever feel like this?
Talking about first impressions. Have you ever watched two young children meet each other for the first time? They are usually introduced, look each other warily up and down for a few seconds and then one says something like, “Do you want to go and play on the trampoline?” Sometimes, prompted or not, it is off they go. Give them exactly three minutes and they are chatting and playing away,
Our times have been dubbed the “Age of Distraction,” and I was recently reminded of how potentially perilous distraction can be, especially for pedestrians! I was driving to CNN and I was on the phone talking to a potential client about presentation topics. I was so engrossed that I literally didn’t notice the police officer at the crosswalk, telling me to stop.
He pulled me over and gave me a very stern warning.
