The Dreaded Word
It’s sure to strike fear in the hearts of the most seasoned sales staff. It’s guaranteed to terrify all but the most courageous and self-assured executive. And, what it does to clerical and lower level management, production staff, and almost everybody else is simply too gruesome to describe. What is it you ask? It can be summarized in a single word.
Change.
Nothing else, save a pink slip or an order to give the keynote address at the next corporate convention is so likely to reduce even the most confident employee to a quivering mass of jello. Yes, change is inevitable, but it should be handled carefully. One important element of successful change is certainly how you communicate it.
First, never forget that major change will be tough. No matter how much you prepare; how much you gather outside information, solicit stake-holder input, or offer reassuring speeches or even grand reassuring gestures, there will be stress and resistance. Old habits are hard to break, even for key employees.
Second, know where you’re going. Why is it necessary to change? What’s going to be different? Who will be affected? Avoid buzzwords. Sure, the company needs to be “lighter on its feet” and “more flexible” but know exactly what that mean to the organization communicate it in understandable terms.
Third, listen. Tell you employees the drivers that compel change and what you hope to achieve. Offer a range of possible solutions and solicit their input. At best, you may develop some effective strategies from the responses you get. But, regardless of the responses, you will achieve an associate force that feels involved and empowered. By explaining, soliciting input, and listening you will be a long way down the road to achieving critical buy-in.
Fourth, act early and often. The worst thing for morale would be change that’s “sprung” on your associate force. They feel bushwhacked; because that’s exactly what’s happened. Start the change process well before the target date. Communicate often, and never confuse process with results. Just because you have a smashing power-point and have formed a series of transition teams, don’t think the communication battle is complete.
Fifth, reach people any way you can. That powerpoint given in transition team meetings is a good idea; but it shouldn’t be your only idea. Frequent personal conversations are a key part of transition management. If you have a company intranet site, use it. Have an easily accessible and easily understandable page devoted to the change. Use Email, your managers, and drop in on the work floor yourself. People absorb information in different combinations of ways. Some people are predominantly visual learners, some need to write things down, others need to hear it. Do all these things.
Change is required to keep pace in the modern marketplace; but change is the dreaded word. The key to effectively managing the transition is the same as the key to ultra-motivated employees: encourage buy-in. Make everybody feel they’re an integral part of the change and that, perhaps, they even contributed to the shape of the things that will come.
photo credit: stephenphampshire
Podcast: Sources of Inspiration
In our lives, we all have different people, things, books, movies, music, etc. that inspires us. What inspires you? Tim ‘Gonzo’ Gordon and Roger Pike discuss the sources of inspiration they find.
1. When you give a speech, you’re perceived as an expert.
2. When you speak about a subject, you learn more about it because you have to organize and articulate your thoughts.
3. People want to meet you.
4. People will be inclined to mention you to other people.
5. People will be inclined to do business with you over other people.
6. You learn to become a better, more skilled and sensitive communicator.
7. It helps you in your one-on-one communication.
8. It gives you confidence.
9. Even though you may have similar experience and skills as a colleague, if you speak in public you are perceived as having an edge over others.
10. Learning to speak off the cuff, being good on your feet, draws people to you and you’ll find yourself with more friends and business acquaintances.
11. Personal growth.
12. A person who is an excellent public speaker will generally get a promotion over the person who is not a public speaker.
13. You are viewed as a leader.
14. Your leadership skills will increase.
15. Your value to your organization increases.
16. It helps you become a better entertainer.
17. The better you get, the more fun you have at it.
18. Being a good and effective public speaker improves the quality of your life.
19. You can make money as a speaker. You may even opt for a career as a public speaker.
20. It’s been said that writing and speaking are two skills that can significantly improve your income.
21. If you are paid to speak, chances are you will also be paid to travel to other locations. It’s a great way to see parts of the country that you might not have otherwise visited.
22. When you become an accomplished public speaker, the confidence will translate to other areas of your life, and you’ll realize much more of your potential.
23. Public speaking pushes you out of your comfort zone, where self-growth exists.
If you’re in business and do any amount of networking, you’ll see some sort of presentation or speaker on a regular basis. It could be a luncheon meeting where the local Mayor is giving a brief presentation, or someone from the Salvation Army updating the group on an ongoing project.
Speakers come in all shapes and sizes and levels of competence and awareness.
I say awareness, because as a speaker I think being aware of a variety of things will carry you a long way in your presentation, however long or brief it is.
Speaker awareness is one of the main things I tend to evaluate, along with delivery, pacing, content, paying attention to the audience and – of course – did they finish within their announced time?
Let’s start with ’speaker awareness.’ To me, as a member of the audience, it means that the speaker appears to have an understanding of his audience (the makeup of the group he’s speaking to), the size of the room and what areas he may need to pay special attention to, the comfort they have with their material and – as the speech goes on – the understanding of the material and the overall reception of the audience to the material (check our podcast on ‘Listening to Your Audience’ for more on this: http://budurl.com/baya).
If the speaker is unaware of a number of those issues, he or she becomes more of a ‘talking head’ who may appear to be speaking on television to an unseen group, instead of to an actual live audience right in front of them. That approach puts an emotional distance between the speaker and the audience.
Having awareness as a speaker also brings into the picture other things I mentioned: length of the speech, pacing, knowing the content inside and out; it all adds up, and answers the question: did the speaker understand his audience and what their expectations are?
Of course I instinctively judge a presenter’s delivery: how was their intro (did they get our attention or did they spend a minute thanking the hosts and put us all to sleep or send us to our Blackberries?), did the content of their speech seem well-organized and cohesive or was it haphazard and rambling?
Content is probably the hardest thing to judge – but as an audience member I like it when I hear a presentation that leaves me with a good feeling. And that may mean I feel good because I was just made aware of an important topic that I was woefully uninformed on, or it makes me feel good because I felt inspired by the stories and the call to action by the presenter. Either way, how you make your audience feel is important and should always be a part of your planning and organizing.
At the end – when everybody’s watching the clock – is the speaker conscious of the audience’s expectations on when the meeting is scheduled to be released? Did she stop five minutes ahead of time so that everyone felt like they were just given an extra five minutes of their day to do with as they please? Or did she run over by six or eight minutes and make everyone uncomfortable and fidgeting – and even watch as a few of her audience trickled out before the presentation had completely wrapped up?
What do you look for when you’re sitting in the audience? If you’re a speaker, you probably check for things that non-speakers would not notice.
Would love to see what things stick out in your mind the next time you’re watching a speaker at a service club breakfast or luncheon meeting.
photo credit: Marshall Astor – Food Pornographer
Podcast: Listen to Your Audience
As a speaker, do you ‘listen’ to your audience? If you do, it’s amazing the amount of information they ‘tell’ you that you can incorporate into your presentation.
photo credit: quinn.anya
10 Reasons to Practice Active Listening
If you listen to our podcasts now and then, Roger and I will bring up ‘active listening’ as one of the most important aspects of communication. Simple: it’s true. Here are some reasons why.
- By actively listening – before you’re thinking about responding – you have a chance to digest what is actually being said by the other person involved in your communication.
- Active listening shows genuine respect for the other person.
- It’s been said that we have two ears and one mouth so that we can use them in that proportion: listen twice as much as we talk. It’s true – it really is a good guideline.
- Active listening encourages thoughtful responses. It also encourages a more relaxed pace in your communications and gives space to respond.
- By practicing active listening you’ll tend to look the other person in the eye – which gives them the confidence that they are being heard. Being heard and being acknowledged is one of the most valuable things a person can feel.
- Active listening requires more focus and attention than a casual conversation – which tends to require more energy; but also gives you more payoff.
- Active listening encourages more intimacy and brings people closer together.
- Active listening will set you apart from almost everyone else that person encounters during the day – and will make you more attractive to them. Yes, even in a business setting.
- For most people active listening is a higher level of focus than they’re used to – by becoming a skilled active listener you are expanding your horizons.
- Active listening shows that you care about the other person and the quality of communication that the two of you are engaging in.
Can you think of any more reasons to engage in active listening? Leave a comment!
Roger Pike unveils a list of ten steps that will give you powerful communication skills. The list may be easy – but that doesn’t mean following through on all ten will be! Give a listen as Tim Gordon joins Roger in this informative podcast.
Social media is now the back-yard fence, the office water cooler, the front porch swing, the global cocktail party. It’s the place where people gather to exchange pictures of their kids, swap recipes, talk about the news, and, of course, it’s a place where people do business. Now, social media can add another job to the long list of things it can do: crimebuster. Yes, it’s true, as a story that recently appeared in my local newspaper makes clear.
Not long ago, the Salem Statesman-Journal, an Oregon newspaper, told the story of a Medford, Oregon man attempting to escape the law. He fled the state, running from charges that he had sexually abused an Oregon girl for four years, beginning when she was just eleven. The victim’s family started a Facebook page. A tip to that page led investigators to Michigan; and from there to Pennsylvania, where the fugitive was arrested.
Every day, creative people find new uses for the interactive internet; which we here at Communication Steroids believe includes things like blogging, internet chat, and, of course, the social media. Some of those uses can catch criminals. Others can help you stay in touch with your customers; provide them human contact to answer their questions, handle their complaints, and talk to them about new and exciting products. The interactive internet has the power to reach out to people from coast to coast and beyond.
Savvy business leaders understand the power of the interactive internet to build profitable relationships. But, even if you find someone who’s still skeptical of the net’s power to make money, you must certainly understand its power to undermine your marketing and damage your reputation.
That power was recently underscored by another story; again from Oregon. It seems a football player at the University of Oregon (a very successful program that just last year won the PAC10 championship and a berth in the Rose bowl) was disappointed at the coach’s handling of a disciplinary matter involving another player. He went public with his criticism, lambasting the coach in a four-letter-word filled diatribe. That Facebook posting was, apparently, the last straw and resulted in the players’ dismissal from the team.
The U of O’s problem is a very clear example of why every business leader must pay careful attention to the social media. Thanks to the social media, your marketing department just expanded. It now includes every single solitary employee you’ve got. For good or ill, every person on your payroll is now a public representative of your organization. What they say online has the power to bring a fugitive to justice, or to tarnish the sterling reputation of a quality and successful enterprise.
The United States Air Force gets it. They’ve published a handbook on social media for their PR officers. They warn, “If the Air Force doesn’t tell it’s own story (online), someone else will.”
Are you keeping track of what’s said about your company or your industry online? Are you using the social media to build relationships? Are you telling your own story? Or are you letting someone else do it?
Roger and I both use LinkedIn as a way to connect with people, start up communications, and participate in group discussions. But when we sat down and talked about how we each use LinkedIn, it was apparent that we both approach the useful tool from different sides.
Give a listen to the podcast and find out how we use LinkedIn.
Podcast: How We Use LinkedIn to Connect and Communicate [16:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadMaking Public Speaking FUN! Part 11
Let’s dip our ladle into another swirling soup of out-of-the-box ideas for Making Public Speaking FUN, shall we? We’re about through wading through the oodles of ideas submitted via HARO.
Let’s take a nod first from Justin Foster, a Founder and Partner with Tricycle Brand Development
I follow some fairly basic but outside-the-box rules whether I’m speaking to a large event or in a small group:
I encourage interruption. At the beginning, I tell the audience to feel free to stop and ask questions; even challenge me on a point. I encourage the use of Twitter. This does two things: endorses new thinking/technology and provides the people who don’t know about Twitter a chance to learn some thing new.
My last slide doesn’t say “Questions?” or “Q & A”. Instead, it says “Open Discussion” along with prompting questions like “Clarification on terms?” “New trends”, etc. This really sets up the audience to have a good exchange rather than that uncomfortable silence after the presenter asks “any questions?”
I never do hand-outs in advance unless it is for a particular exercise during the workshop. Instead, I put them up at the podium and instruct the audience to come and get them. This accomplishes many things: keeps them focused on the presentation, is a gauge of interest, and creates an atmosphere to talk with them afterwords.
Jackie Gordon, an Executive Singing Chef (!) at DIVALICIOUS INC. likes to sing. Well, I suppose if you have the chops, why not?
I always incorporate music in my public speaking. It’s a great ice breaker and crowd warmer. It’s always in context of what I am speaking about so it makes the content multi-sensory and sticky.
Sandy Gluckman, Ph.D in Plano, Texas, the author of a leadership book, “Who’s in the Driver’s Seat?” likes to get someone (or two or more) else up on stage with her. She says “I am a keynote speaker at leadership and business conferences. Here’s what makes my talks great fun…”
I use performers with me onstage. I elaborate my ideas by bringing two performers with me who enact scenarios scripted to model the leadership skills I speak about. The interplay between my content and the performer’s humorous dramatization of this content keeps audiences spellbound and transforms the motivational keynote into an experience they will not forget. The performers may act or sing or use drums.
Sandy even offers a link to a clip showing this (right-click and save the target)…
Back to the props with Kathy Klotz of San Jose, California:
My audience expects my speaking to be fun – by nature of what I do (my backgrounds are in improvisation and marketing). One thing that I do to surprise people at the very beginning of my talks (not all the time but a fair amount) is come into the room dressed as a walking metaphor. For example, I spoke several times about how PowerPoint can be a crutch for people and I entered the room with fake bandages and on crutches – which gave people a surprise and a laugh. Metaphors stick and visual metaphors are hard to forget. I also speak on branding and messaging. To illustrate the point of “Frankenstein branding” where all marketing materials are inconsistent and patchwork, I have dressed like Frankenstein with non-matching clothes. You get laughs, claps and giggles – but you hit the point home. I still have people who come up to me and say they never forgot that talk.
Wendy Levine shows that a simple prop can get people to having fun:
“I was hosting my first Toastmaster contest. It was a humor and evaluation competition and while the votes were being tallied, I had to briefly interview each contestant. I brought a couple playing cards and put them in different pockets. After a couple superficial questions I’d ask, “And is this your card?” It caught them off-guard and gave the playful among them something to work off of if they wanted.”
Another way to use a prop is to hand it to the audience and challenge them to come up with some use for it, as Ana-Marie Jones, Executive Director of CARD – Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters in Oakland did:
The thing that has always gotten my audiences laughing, smiling and fully engaged is for them to be active in learning and presenting. To have my audiences learn how to generate solutions to emergency preparedness problems, I hand out zip-top bags and have them generate how they would use them in an emergency.The instructions are that their answers can be sensible, silly, sexy, serious, sentimental — all answers are good. I give them 20 or 30 seconds to generate as many answers as they can, then go around the room with them calling out their answers. Sample answers: protect my photos; use it as a glove or condom; I’ll save my goldfish; it’s a tragically see-through porta-potty. Sometimes they act out the answer. But people are always creative and funny. Evaluations frequently mention that they thought the presentation was fun and memorable, and I present to diverse audiences across the US and internationally.
Another way to bridge the gap between speaker and audience in a FUN way is to spice up a dry or technical talk with magic, such as the suggestion here by Jared M. Spool, a User Interface Engineering from Andover, MA.
I give presentations to audiences large and small all over the world, often speaking at more than 20 conferences each year. While my topic is fairly technical (Creating usable designs) for a technical audience (web designers, programmers, managers), I have developed a style that lets me do some cool stuff.
The neatest things I’ve done is include magic tricks (my son is a professional magician, so I’ve picked a few up) and human bar charts (where I administer a survey as the audience is walking in, then have the survey participants line up based on their answers).
You can see pictures of the human bar chart here.
Here’s me doing a cards across at SxSW with an audience of 1000+ folks.
Gotta love the human bar charts! Definitely a creative idea. Finally let’s wrap up our series on Making Public Speaking FUN (for now anyway) with a contribution from Tamara Shaya, the Public Relations Specialist at Crescent Project, an organization that bridges the gap between Christians and Muslims. Tamara offer some tactics from Crescent Project’s CEO Fouad Masri, a Lebanese minister who speaks extensively to various religious and political people on Middle East politics, Islam and Christianity and social justice issues for Arab women, among others.
1) Fouad will say something surprising or funny during the first few minutes of speaking to the audience. He usually starts out with jokes. One statement that gets the crowd laughing is, “I met my wife at a matchmaking dinner for terrorists.” or “My friend said he hates Lebanese food because they use too much garlic…I told him, of course they use garlic, we brush our teeth with garlic.” Since the topic he speaks about is usually heavy for the audience, it helps break the ice and he eases the audience with jokes.
2) Fouad also uses stories to captivate the audience and help make a point. He’s an excellent story-teller and uses specific situations from a man he met in Morocco to a Tunisian woman he met at a party to help bring home his message to the audience.
Thanks again to all to contributed to our series on Making Public Speaking FUN! Be sure to contact us if you have a story to contribute.
