PUBLIC SPEAKING: THREE MYTHS TO AVOID
Executives subscribe to three myths that hurt them in presentations, contends public speaking consultant Nick Morgan on Forbes.com:
Myth 1: It's best to start with a joke
Humour is fine when done right, Mr. Morgan concedes, but the problem is that most executives aren't comedians and lack the skill or practice to put across a good joke.
Myth 2: Too much rehearsal is bad
Executives are busy and like to be in control, so they avoid rehearsals, which take time and involve not being totally in control. But when they deliver their speech, he notes, "they look like they're learning as they go, an appearance incommensurate with authority." You won't get stale with rehearsal, he adds, but arrive with energy and focus.
Myth 3: It's better to go right to the Q and A
If you don't rehearse, you won't be comfortable with your script, so it's tempting to ditch the prepared talk and plunge right to questions and answers. But you can't control what's asked or the order in which questions are asked. In particular, he stresses, you can't control the last question, and you're likely to end on something obscure or idiotic - not the best final memory to leave your audience.
Transitions expert William Bridges asks three questions of leaders who approach him to help them with change. The questions are worth asking yourself in any change initiative, because, as he writes in Executive Excellence magazine, they reflect what your staff - the people who will make the change work - are pondering:
What is changing?
Often leaders undertake changes that nobody - including themselves - can clearly describe. When Mr. Bridges asks the question, he is fed vague answers such as, "We're developing a world-class HR infrastructure," or "We're rethinking how we go to market competitively and differentiate ourselves." That gobbledy-gook is not a call to action.
He acknowledges that, in the early stages, leaders often only have a vague idea of what will change; they simply sense change is necessary. But you must move beyond that so a complex change can be reduced to jargon-free statements that share your intention clearly to the people who have to make the change work. "Until leaders can explain the change clearly, in a statement lasting less than one minute, they can't get other people to buy into the change. Longer explanations and justifications will also have to be made, but this one-minute statement will be the core of people's understanding," he writes.
What will be different because of the change?
It's not sufficient to explain the "what" and the "why" of the change. "I go into organizations where a change initiative is under way, and ask what will be different when the change is done - and no one can give an answer. Some managers expect me to tell them!" he says.
Many change projects are designed and launched at such a high level in the organization that the planning is unrelated to the daily work of the average employee. The decision makers have little idea how the change will make anyone's life or job different - even though that is exactly what employees need to know to embrace it. If the differences can't be spelled out now, he says, you need to tell people how those differences will be identified - by whom, and under what criteria - and when they'll be explained.
Who's going to lose what?
The first two questions concern the change - the shift in the situation. You must also address the transition - the psychological reorientation that people must make for the change to be successful. "It starts when the affected people let go of their old situation. Endings come first. You can't do something new until you let go of what you are currently doing," he observes.
He stresses that even transitions that come from good changes begin with losses, as the old way is given up by people who are used to it. You can't avoid this element of the change, trying to talk only about the positive aspects of the switchover. You must affirm your staff's experience and help them to deal with it.
HOW TO DO YOUR TO-DO LIST
If you keep your to-do list on a computer, try paper instead for the next week. If your to-do list already is on paper, shake things up for a week and try the computer. It's important to experiment, says Ali Hale on the Dumb Little Man blog.
"It's very easy to get stuck in our ways and to assume that the system we have is effective just because it vaguely works," she says.
The biggest mistake we make with to-do lists, she contends, is that we get too ambitious, writing down all sorts of things we would like to complete. That leads to feeling overwhelmed.
Instead, restrict the list to three to five tasks. Avoid "nice to do" items; if you want to keep track of them, they should be on another list. Delegate what you can, and jettison tasks that really don't need to be done.
Finally, she urges you not to immediately add new tasks to your list when they arise. Stick with what's on today's list, focusing on one task at a time, rather than flitting between them, and leave new things for another day.
POWER POINTS
Heads, the choice; tails, you might know it
When faced with two choices, toss a coin. In the brief moment when the coin is in the air, you suddenly know what you are hoping for. Mnmal.tumblr.com
Angry? Identify triggers
Health columnist Melinda Beck urges you to keep an anger log to monitor what makes you angry, identifying your triggers. She says anger tends to rise in increments, from 1 (frustration) to 10 (rage). Try to catch yourself at 3 or 4, so that you can address the situation more rationally. Wall Street Journal
A lesson in branding
Here's a lesson in branding from Alan Mulally's early moments as chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co. "I arrive here, and the first day, I say, 'Let's go look at the product lineup.' And they lay it out, and I said, 'Where's the Taurus?' They said, 'Well, we killed it.' I said, 'What do you mean, you killed it?' 'Well, we made a couple that looked like a football. They didn't sell very well, so we stopped it.' 'You stopped the Taurus?' I said. 'How many billions of dollars does it cost to build brand loyalty around a name?' 'Well, we thought it was so damaged that we named it the Five Hundred.' I said, 'Well, you've got until tomorrow to find a vehicle to put the Taurus name on because that's why I'm here. Then you have two years to make the coolest vehicle that you can possibly make.'" Fast Company Experts Blog
Don't try harder, try different
Instead of trying harder, try different. See if a totally different approach will be more effective. Seth's blog
Connect the dots
Things that are close together on a computer screen are seen as related. So if your buttons, checkboxes or links are too far from the element they support, visitors to your site will miss them.
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox
A word on e-mail
To format an e-mail message you have pasted into Microsoft Word, the best chance of quick success - 90 per cent of the time it will give you satisfactory results, says Word expert Allen Wyatt - is to select the text and press Ctrl+Alt+K. Allen Wyatt's WordTips