Month: October 2017

[:en]They say that the 3 top fears for a human being are public speaking, death and dancing in public, and it seems they are in that order. As I have worked as a Coach and consultant with many people and as a manager of teams, I can confirm that public speaking fear is indeed very threatening for many people.

The reasons behind it might vary from just an introverted personality, insecurities or just the regular fear that we experience when we are trying something we are not proficient at, something new that is uncomfortable and that we may do in a clumsy way.

But there is no doubt that how to present in public is a skill like any other that you can learn, practice and become comfortable doing through theory and practice.

Here are 5 things that will help you start and get ready for your next presentation:

1. Content. In some cases, this is easy if you have a product or service to present or you have knowledge to share, in others you need to do some research, analysis or gather information. In any case the best content for you to present is that where you are an expert and where you have deep knowledge of the subject. Then if you draw from personal knowledge, experience, and life stories that content will be easy to memorize, easy to engage your audience and it will be more powerful. If you draw from something you don’t master, then duplicate your efforts to understand it and master it before presenting.
2. Delivery. You might use a presentation tool or not, you may use some props or not. And this is one of the areas where you can learn more and get some public speaking classes and practice on various topics like voice, body language, presentations, openings, closings, etc. But the key point to remember is if you were the audience, if you were one of the people listening to your presentation what would be the most effective way to present? Create a powerful and useful presentation by being concise with your message, making it entertaining and even fun if possible (everybody likes to laugh) while creating a nice experience aligned to your audience.
3. Intention. Do you want to sell? Do you want to convince? Do you want to share important data? Be clear from the planning stages of your presentation: what is your intention and how will you accomplish it better. Then while presenting make sure that your intention is clearly stated and present your points on why the audience needs to buy, be convinced or be aware of important data. Don’t forget: always to state the benefit they will get.
4. Attitude. I once heard that it is selfish not to be a speaker. Throughout the years we all have accumulated knowledge, experience, life lessons, tips and tricks, and we have also heard about that useful new app for the iPhone. Therefore, don’t hesitate to think that you have something valuable to share. True, it might not be valuable for all of your audience, but be sure that if your content, your message, your lesson helps at least one human being to improve in his business, in her career, in his life; you are giving a great presentation.
5. Confidence. How is your confidence? Super nervous of course, even seasoned speakers get nervous before a presentation but here are some ideas to have the right self-confidence and secure attitude that you need for a successful presentation. First think that the audience is not your enemy they want you to succeed, they don’t want a boring presentation or a bad experience they want you to be successful in providing a great experience. Also, think you are the expert, of course there are other experts in the audience and there might be someone that knows more than you about this topic, but for the majority of your audience, you know more because of the simple fact that you prepared for this. And finally imagine you are explaining this to only one person and not dozens or hundreds.

Even if you don’t intend to become a professional keynote speaker, I recommend embracing this as another skill that you need to learn and to practice. No matter what your profession or industry is I have seen how useful it is for a person, in any field, to be a good presenter and how bad it is to do it carelessly without the right preparation. With some basic ideas, you can improve these 5 points over time and become a great presenter.

Do you want public speaking improvement? Explore our coaching training options like executive coaching for VP and assessments and subscribe to our list to get a useful monthly newsletter, click on the image below:[:]

[:en]Coaching has become a popular formula for leadership development in organizations and it is migrating from a private engagement for top level executives with their coaches to organizations looking to create a full coaching culture in their workplaces. But what does that mean? Having a coaching culture is not telling your managers to coach better or to practice active listening. Coaching is a personal transformation because it allows everyone to develop a better version of themselves with these principles:

 

• Create Consciousness. Deepen your awareness of values, potential, empowering and limiting thoughts, perspectives and habits to understand what you want and need.
• Develop Leadership. Be the owner, own your change and your results. Leadership starts with your capacity to take yourself from A to B.
• Get Results. Change the way you think, talk and execute to achieve your results. And to help others do the same.

These are the 5 elements that you need to consider to create a successful coaching culture with your leaders and take your organization’s leadership to the next level.

1. Starts from the top. No difference from other important key initiative in your organization, it must flow up-down with the CEO and Executive Team embracing coaching as the way to work and develop people. If you don’t have full buy-in from your CEO and active participation from him/her learning techniques, practicing them and mastering them then the team won’t follow. This is a project where your leadership needs to LEAD.
2. Understand what it is. The key problem in the coaching profession is the common misunderstanding on what it is and what it is not. The definition and expectations of what a coach does are different in the minds of your Executive team members, VP’s, Directors and employees. If you want the project to succeed the first step is to establish what coaching is? What it will mean in this organization? What is the impact for employees? What is the impact for customers? What areas of the organization lend to use or implement coaching techniques? Create an assessment to align expectations on what it means to embrace this culture in your organization.
3. Invest in good coaching skills leadership training. There are many programs in the market and as in anything else different levels of quality. Make sure you have a leadership program that is effective in creating coaching skills with your leaders. Ask how the classes are taught, for example our programs always present a new skill, demonstrate it, have participants to practice it and then debrief the experience and reaffirm learning and future practice activities are defined to solidify learning.
4. Pick a program for managers and leaders not for coaches. You don’t want your management team to become professional coaches. In fact, you don’t want to get rid of management which will be still necessary to create results in your company. Coaching does not replace managing. What you want is leaders with great management skills who add to their repertoire coaching skills and learn when to coach and when to manage.
5. Make it a company-wide project. Create in internal marketing campaign, adopt coaching as one of your company values and do all necessary to create awareness at all levels that a new culture is being implemented and what that means for everyone. This includes creating the mechanism to measure implementation and observe if new behaviors are being adopted by managers.

Several observable behaviors will be used by your managers as the coaching culture is adopted and you will see the tools in action through:

• Non-threatening productive conversations learning how to be a better leader.
• People development making your team more resourceful and showing up more with solutions than with problems.
• Improved interpersonal relationships and employee engagement through the exercise of listening, rapport and empathy techniques.
• Effective goal management and priorities. Based on a crystal-clear definition of goals, values, priorities and execution plans that bring results.
• A new way of communicating with new awareness on the language used in conversations and the power of words.
• High performance through the adoption of mindfulness in the organization, the ability to be fully present in projects and conversations and being non-judgmental to increase collaboration.

Need help? our Leadership with the Power of Coaching program is one of the key elements you will need to adopt this culture.[:]