Joy@Work Podcast

If there's one complaint I hear about a presenter's skills from their boss or a their HR, it's that they don't adjust their presentation for their audience. And yet those presenters genuinely believe that they do adjust for their audience. So who is right? Well, they're both correct of course. The presenter thinks they are adjusting but they don't really KNOW their audience. What about the audience themselves? What do they think? Sadly the audience don't have an opinion because they stopped paying attention and moved onto other, more exciting things like thinking about lunch or updating Facebook. To capture their attention and motivate them to act, you have to get top KNOW your audience Image already added

n this AdvantEdge Guide I am sharing how you can make your presentations engaging, memorable and interesting by utilising the New Golden Circle of Visual Storytelling. There are three parts to this guide. I shall start with the problem, that is that most presentations (and presenters) are boring. That Smartphones are a presenters enemy and you try to give too much information in one go. Then we'll look at how you can gain and keep someone's attention and lastly, we'll look at how your brain thinks visually and how to use visual storytelling so that you gain attention, engage your audience and make your presentation interesting and memorable. Most presentations are boring Take a moment to consider how many presentations you have attended that were fascinating and interesting and memorable. I suspect that you can count them on one hand. Yawn yawn and yawn again It's almost as if someone invented a special tool to keep all the people passive and obedient. A tool that is used in almost every organisation around the world. A tool so cruel in its design that everyone dreads it. A tool that will eat away at your time and steal the fun you might have with your family. What if that same tool could be used for good? A time when people learned and felt motivated. A time when they truly began to understand what was happening now and in the future. That same tool could be used to change the world and make it a better place. Well it can. Because that tool is "the presentation". 70% of meetings are a waste of time says one HBR survey. To be honest, I think that there's another 29% out there who were attending a presentation and lost the will to complete the survey. Is it true? You tell me. How exciting, memorable and useful are the presentations (and meetings) you attend?

You want to make a greater impact and you want to be seen as an exceptional presenter, but nobody seems to care what you say or how you say it, let alone act on the information you shared. What you need to do is motivate your audience to pay attention and motivate them to act on the information you share and to do that, you need to start with WHY it matters to them.  How do you quickly and easily go about this and put together an amazing and impactful presentation?  In this AdvantEdge guide, I'm going to share three essential aspects that will equip you to quickly, and easily put together an amazing and impactful presentation so that you motivate your audience to pay attention and motivate them to act on the information you share Generating motivation to ... Motivation Direction Finding Your Why

It’s all about being “natural” or “charismatic”! It is, you’re right of course. So shall we mere mortals give up then? It is true that some people appear “natural” and “charismatic” when they deliver a talk or presentation. But they usually neglect to tell you the real secret of their confidence and “natural” ability: that they are exceptionally well prepared, and have fine-tuned this and practised it multiple times. I know, because I am one of those people. Workshop participants and attendees for my keynotes often remark how “engaging”, “entertaining” and “insightful” I am sharing this with you not to brag, but to humbly tell you that I wasn’t always this good. Furthermore, I am not as good today as I will be tomorrow! For today is another day to prepare, practice and hone my presentation, my message or my keynote. I am not especially gifted. I am rather introverted, though I may be less frightened than some people of being the centre of attention. I am anxious before every single presentation. And I am fully prepared for 75% of them. Another 5% is when I am caught off-guard and I am suddenly expected to speak wonderously and my mind scrambles for something poignant and fabulous. As for the rest – those I think I can wing it. I’m wrong, of course, but they are learning moments all. These “secrets” of great presenting are available to anyone with the will and desire to make an impact and be the change they want to make in the world. PIMP stands for Purpose, Importance, Method, and Product. The four essential elements of being exceptionally well prepared for your presentation, indeed any communication. Think of the last presentation you attended or watched, that resonated with you. You can remember the presentation vividly, you knew why you were there and how it was important for you. You also had a clear idea of what you were supposed to do after the presentation. The presenter communicated very effectively with you, engaging you personally and you felt a real connection with them. You recall ideas and specific stories from that presentation. Well, that was a PIMPed presentation. Now, if you are wishing that you had attended a presentation like that but cannot, for the life of you, recall one. Then that is sad. You have yet to experience a PIMPed presentation. But fret not. Before long you will be delivering one yourself and, just to be sure, you should video record it and watch it later. That way, you will have both delivered and watched a great, memorable, purposeful presentation. When you, and your audience, know the purpose of your presentation, they know what you intend to achieve and that this matters to them. When you and your audience members understand what is important to each member, then they realise the value of your presentation. When you choose to tailor and deliver your presentation in the most appropriate and engaging method for your audience, then they will understand your message easily. When you and your audience know the product of your presentation, they know precisely what they will be doing with the information now. Of course, there’s only one way to begin discussing how to PIMP your presentation than using that same format and approach here. So let’s start with your Purpose (and mine) My Purpose in this series of presentations is to encourage you to adopt the PIMP process to all of your presentations from now on. Indeed, I am going to encourage you to use this for all of your communications from here on in. Why should you adopt PIMP? PIMPing your presentations will allow you to quickly and easily prepare exceptionally well for any presentation you make. Even when you present on the spur of the moment! This will enable you to prepare to communicate in the way your audience’s brains work. You might think that it is super obvious that it would be greatly beneficial if all of our communication was prepared and delivered in the way the recipient's brain receives and processes information, but it is surpri

This is just a test publsihing

"Some people are just more naturally empathic than others" the CEO brusquely informed me. "It's not personal, it's business" he went on quoting that bundle of joy Donald Trump. "They should know what's good for them, and do what I suggest. Why should I have to influence them or show empathy?" The CEO pushed back his chair as if our session were over. His company was struggling. Several key staff had recently departed and were working for a competitor. He still insisted that empathy was not something he needed to do, and he was perfectly capable of influencing his team. It was they who needed to change, not him. You've met someone like this I'm sure. And you're wondering how I'm going to suggest that they change right? But no, there is a twist here. How do you influence them to have more empathy and more easily influence others? You see, it's terrific to have someone like that CEO in your life. You are not like him. You care. You show a genuine concern, and there are only a few people who, well, they simply don't deserve your love and respect. How do you show empathy for someone and influence them when they don't "do" empathy? Especially when you know that they really need to "do" empathy so that they can be a better influencer.

Today is your birthday! OK, maybe it’s not actually today, but happy birthday anyway. This is the one day a year when a few people, your mum and maybe an aunt, send you an actual birthday card. Remember those? Real physical cards. Heck, nowadays people can’t even be bothered with an e-card. but I digress. This week you’ll learn how you can retake control of your time and get back at least 20% of your work life to enjoy doing other things that matter. Let’s get back to your birthday. At around 8:30 on your birthday morning, your postal delivery person comes to your home and delivers the first card that your Mum sent in the first-class post.   Where are you at 8:30 in the morning? The Postman always delivers twice Either at work or on your way to work right? Oh, well. On your doormat at home (yes, the Royal mail delivers to your door… and everyone else’s door too) lies that birthday card from your dear mum. At about 3 in the afternoon, the postal delivery comes again to your home and delivers a second birthday card. This one from your aunt who chose the second-class post because she’s a little more frugal than your mum. A second birthday card pops through your letterbox. Where are you at 3 in the afternoon? Oh, yes, you’re still at work aren’t you. So let’s say that you leave early today because your partner is treating you to a special birthday dinner and you want to be ready. You arrive home at about 5:30 pm and there on your doormat lie two birthday cards. The thrill that someone remembered and even cared enough to buy, write and send a real card through the post envelopes you with a warmth of love and celebration. Now, imagine that you have just taken over the reins at a huge distribution company that is losing more than one and a half million dollars a day. The company has been losing money for years and years, decades even, and no-one seems to know how to stop the haemorrhaging. The company can trace its roots back to the early 16th century during the reign of Henry VIII. I am, of course, referring to the Royal Mail. The same organisation who delivered your birthday cards. For more than a hundred years, the Royal Mail has struggled to make a profit and the continued losses could mark the final demise of this nearly 500-year-old organisation. I’ll give you a minute to fix the problem. It only takes 10 to 15 seconds because you doubt that the answer could be that simple What was that, in less than 10 seconds and you know that you should deliver once a day? Well, that seems pretty obvious. So you argue and debate and cajole and use every shred of your influence and the twice a day delivery becomes once a day. So tell me, did you care that your birthday cards arrived in the morning and in the afternoon? Of course not, you weren’t there anyway. Had they been delivered together, it would have made no difference to you. The twice a day delivery service added no value to you. Indeed, when it went to once a day, nobody noticed, and nobody really cared. Sure, in the days of Jane Austin when the ladies would be sat primly at home with their embroidery and awaiting the morning letter from their lover, and then later, more eagerly asking Papa if the afternoon post was here with yet another letter from her dearly beloved. But by 2004, we even had this newfangled and strange tool known as email. The Royal Mail had lost millions and millions providing a service that added no value its customers cared about. We walk in circles because everyone else walks in circles so we walk in circles like everyone else… So, what are you doing each and every day that’s adding no value to your customers? How many meetings do you attend that are a complete waste of your time? How many emails do you reply to that add little or no value? How many texts do you send that achieve little more than a beep at the other end? What other activities are you doing every day that, anyone with fresh eyes, would question “why do you do that?” Your answer, of cour

“As long as you do everything exactly the way I want it when I want it, you can do it any way you want whenever you want.” The Head Chef told me on my first day in his kitchen. There was to be no ambiguity, no doubt that there was one way of doing things, and it was his way. I wasn’t there to express my creativity and brilliance. I was there to follow orders and comply with any and every demeaning request. With his first sentence, my new boss had stripped me of any personal control and all autonomy. Boy, did I feel motivated?!? It was, however, the most efficient kitchen I had worked in. We turned out surprisingly excellent food and you could, quite literally, eat off the floor. Rarely did anything go wrong, but should someone make a mistake, then Chef would be quick to bellow profanities and ensure that it was unlikely you would make that mistake again. Well, either that or you ran crying from the kitchen never to return. Within a year, this chef was awarded his first Michelin Star. We celebrated by working harder than ever, scrubbing floors with more gusto and no-one ever dared to argue or question the Chef’s absolute authority in all matters. Success it seems is maintaining control. Maintaining absolute control over every team member requires the gentle art of micromanaging everything. Every single little thing. Absolute control. And using power to get what you wanted. Taking all control from team members and empowering them only insofar as they could comply with precise instructions barked often in close proximity so that you could enjoy a shower at the same time. Most new managers quickly learn a similar lesson. That exerting power over others gets them to do things. Keeping tight control enables you to maintain discipline and authority. And, in the short term at least, be successful. And as the team grows, and new people join, the controlling manager soon finds that no-one else can be trusted to get things right. Other people just don’t care enough to make everything perfect. So you micro-manage every tiny aspect of the operation. Stress levels increase and every team member fears making even a tiny mistake. For the controlling leader, any time you turn away, someone will be undermining your authority. Trying to steal some of your power over team members for themselves. You need to spot these interlopers early and either get them out or undermine any respect or authority they have gained. Belittling them in front of everyone can be very effective and if you can make them cry in public, so much the better. Of course, you can trust no-one, even when you place family members in their “meritocratically” assigned roles (refusing to accept that nepotism has any place in your decisions). You rally your flunkeys to police on your behalf and alter the rules and policies to tip the balance firmly in your favour of maintaining absolute power, authority and control. Honesty becomes corrupt and whilst you demand transparency from others, you never practice it outside your inner circle. The controlling leader lives in constant fear that someone else is trying to take away their power and control Yet most controlling leaders often began their career with good intentions. They became controlling leaders because it works. Well, it works in the beginning. When you are young (and perhaps foolish) your leadership approach is going to be about control and power. It seems to work. No scrub that, if you are big enough in some dimension, it works because others give in to your tantrums and belligerence and do your bidding. Because this locus of control shows signs of being effective in the short term, it can quickly become the de-rigour standard by which the leader operates. And we know that power corrupts the soul and once you have tasted real power, its addictive properties mean that nothing else can get in the way of your fix. But then there comes a point when your ego and pride get in the way of better decision making and micromana

Recently, I spent a few days being completely cared for. I was allowed to do nothing for myself. Forced to lay in an uncomfortable bed, unable to get out being tied in via neck and arms to machines and tubes, with more tubes coming out of my body. And all the time I was intensely aware of every single passing second. Every beep and gurgle, ever waft of air and alarms, oh the alarms. My senses were hyper alert in an environment that had simply too many parts clamouring for attention. Yes, I was in a hospital. At least this time, it had been a choice. Now, I don't tell you this to garner your sympathies. All that should matter to anyone is that I am now out and recovering very well thank you. No, it's because I relearned some incredibly basic ideas about leading ourselves and leading others. Why we hate to be trapped in a bed or any environment and how our stress is made extreme by the more basic and fundamental (perceived) threats to our life. My experience this past week in the hospital will be little different to anyone in intensive care or high dependency. You have just emerged from a traumatic experience. Shock is the most useful term here. Shock to have come through, shock that things worked well, didn't work so well and shock at the discovery of each new tether to the bed. With each tube, you have lost a little more personal control. The alarms, the incessant alarms clamouring for attention. Like the front cover of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, these bid you not to panic but to keep calm. And then there are the monitors. Those glorious machines who flash and hum and beep and shriek. And of course, your readings are above and behind you. Out eye line. Noise emerges and you have no clue what it means. It just sounds alarming. You try to look around and make no sense of anything except red or yellow flashing lights. All you can see are the machines of others in the room. Of course, if you are in a private room you may have the benefit of less clamour, but then you won't have much company either. Seeing others are like you makes it just a little more tolerable. The gentleman opposite spent the night going through a traumatic and frightening instability at exactly the same time as I did. I can hear my alarms, feel my heart thumping, fluttering and pounding whilst watching his very very frightening numbers and his wretched face peering back at mine in the terror of the moment. The nursing staff, whilst not completely blase, really behave as if this were perfectly normal. Which for them, it is. They see this day after day after day. I am seeing it for the first time. There's me looking at a guy who's heart might explode in front of me, and honestly, I had no clue that your heart could clock that sort of rate and pressure and not explode. I'm not just not asleep, I am so awake that every fibre of my being is screaming at me. The nurses tell me that it is better to allow myself to become less sensitive, less worried. That my own stress is making it far worse. Of course, I know that this is true. That I am also in the middle of a panic attack, let alone atrial fibrillation, but I cannot turn off any of my alertness. Oh the blessed relief of sleep, but it never comes. I finally dropped back into sinus rhythm at 8.30 the next morning. The choice of drugs had, at last, done their job and I knew that recovery was somewhat more certain and a glimmer of hope began to emerge. I might actually make it out of here. Those of you who have been where I was, know exactly what I'm talking about. As I learned from my fellow inmates, whilst some are more sanguine having been through it before, the feelings and responses are essentially the same. You can tell on the faces of those who have just one single tube removed. Prior to this, they were as miserable and sickly as everyone else, and suddenly their whole countenance lifts. Immediately they look better. And, so long as it was a good decision to remove that tube, they remain a tiny bi

I am an excellent procrastinator! I can put things off for absolutely no better reason than I don't feel like doing them right now. Of course, I have plenty of excellent excuses, and I believe all of them. Until I choose not to. So I force myself to do the stuff I don't really feel like doing and keep at it until I do feel like doing it. Until that moment where I can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I learned the real origin of that phrase, by the way, in 1993. The Standedge Tunnel is the longest and highest canal tunnel in England on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal between Diggle and Marsden. I lived, at the time, right above the tunnel. It was closed when I lived there, slowly being renovated to allow pleasure boats to go through. I would often break through the barriers blocking the entrance to walk through the tunnel with visitors to enjoy this unique piece of history. Legging-boat-normal.jpgNot only is the tunnel long, it has a bend. And in the 1800's you had to "leg it" to propel your barge through. The horses would be taken over the hill to rejoin the boat on the other side. This was a hard slog and on the way from Diggle to Marsden, tired barge "leggers" would be happy to come around the bend and see the light at the end of the tunnel. I learned a couple of things from my mentor, Dr John C. Maxwell, that has helped me and many other enormously in getting stuff done. Better still, getting the right stuff done. Here are five keys to getting (the right) stuff done: Make choices Use the Pareto or 80/20 Principle Understand if it is important and/or urgent Apply the 3 R's, and Use the Rule of Five The Problem is procrastination... or is it? One of the main reasons you and I procrastinate is that we don't want to give up our options. And it's a real dilemma. Just today I had to make a choice about a sandwich to eat for lunch. If I took the steak sandwich that meant I couldn't (or shouldn't at least) take the chicken avocado sandwich. IF I do this, then I won't be able to do that. What if I make the wrong choice? What if I should have chosen differently. And then, we'll go through past decisions to guide current thinking. But the past is filled with the regrets of "if only". If only I had not started smoking when I was 9 years old, perhaps today I would not be suffering heart disease. If only I hadn't done that thing first, I wouldn't be facing this problem today. You and I battle these two enemies of making choices through every decision. Maybe you've gotten over the doubts for some things, but other matters will leave you prevaricating for hours. Ask a man to choose a paint colour from a chart. Ask a woman to choose just a single pair of shoes. So secret number 1 is that we have to make choices. There are limited time and energy available in a day. The secret to getting the right stuff done is choosing to do the right stuff! Duh, John, of course it is. But how do I choose the "right stuff"? I'm glad you asked. The second secret key to getting the right stuff done is identifying whether the thing is important and/or urgent Most clients when I ask them, tell me that they prioritise based on urgency trumping importance. That is they do the stuff that they should delete because it is urgent and then don't have time to do the stuff that matters. This leads to stress and lack of accomplishment. Great leaders know the difference between being busy and accomplishment. It really doesn’t matter how busy you are. It’s what you achieve that makes a difference. This was one of my big weaknesses. And, if I am not careful, can easily be again. I can easily get distracted by something new and shiny… especially some new technology. I am getting better, but it still requires my self-discipline and diligence to keep this up. Time and again I hear excuses from people that they didn't have time to do something. They'll tell me, for example, that their kids or their family are the most important thing in their life. They mean it to