Take a risk

Let's kick of 2023 with a question - when was the last time you took a risk? A calculated risk perhaps, but none the less, a risk. A leap of faith maybe. A time you spoke up first at a meeting. A time when you silenced your usual meeting speech or even a time when you realized you didn’t need to be at that meeting at all!

It’s fun and sometimes amazing to look back over our lives and notice the risks we did take, the ones that worked and the ones that didn’t, and to then ask ourselves what we now know even more about ourselves. Richard Rohr wrote, “It is never a straight line, but always three steps forward and two backward—and the backward creates much of the knowledge and impetus for the forward.”

As 2023 unfolds, think about the risks you take and what you learn from the experience?

Be a boss whisperer

Have you ever considered leading your boss? Now don’t tell them, but sometimes you will hear about “managing up” when in fact that seems to me to be short-sighted. What your boss, maybe every boss, needs is a fellow traveler to notice what they did well, to suggest a next step, to console, and to consider a possible ‘plan B’. Now make sure you don’t tell them you are mentoring them or leading them, no need for that. Instead take yourself out of your appointed role from time to time and instead of “speaking truth to power” consider your own power to speak to a fellow struggler, a fellow traveler, a fellow person who is doing the best they can at this very particular moment. They are just like you with all the fears and chaos and worries that you have. They might just need you to be their “boss whisperer.”

Give people YOUR take

Give people your take on the information in your presentations. Remember, YOU are the expert and YOUR TAKE is what people really want to hear. Watch this video to learn more.

Vertical vs Horizontal

Do you live and work on a vertical level with those ‘above’ and others ‘below’? Some marriages are like that. Some corporate teams operate like that too.

The one on ‘top’ as somehow superior to the others. Some even relish this superiority. Those ‘below’ understand that this set up is meant for obedience and conformity, to be careful, stay in line, don’t rock the boat.

Other teams operate on a horizontal level: with each person being respected as ‘social equals’ who are contributing to the whole. Not all are the ‘same’ but all are contributing with cooperation and respect.

How is it where you live? Where you work? In your country? In your family of origin?

What I find interesting about the vertical set up is that the real power belongs to those below: if they move, guess who falls?!

Unnecessary words

Think about the words you add unnecessarily into your vocabulary. In this video I talk about how ‘HI GUYS’ didn’t go down very well. Be aware of words you’re using that may rub your audience up the wrong way and try something else instead…for example, simply using the person’s name.

Humor in presentations

BE CAREFUL with humour in presentations…especially with sarcasm. Humor is instantly not funny when it hurts someone or embarrasses them. The best humor actually comes from the audience themselves. Learn more in this video!

How to present with limited time

DON’T speed up your presentation if you have limited time. Give a good paced presentation with the right amount of information for the time available. Focus on the essence of the material and give YOUR take as the expert.

Facilitate your next presentation

Facilitate your next presentation instead of simply “presenting.” In every presentation consider how to involve others. Without participation you will simply have spectators quietly judging you and your content. With facilitation you will have fellow participants engaged.

Nora Dunn from Saturday Night Live in the 80s told my class of actors, “Your job is not to please the audience, your job is to engage the audience.” (And it is in the engagement that they will be pleased.) You cannot engage if you only talk, no matter how good you are.

The audience, especially today’s audience, has far more wisdom than we do. Let them talk to one another and learn with them. (And a hint: Never ever say,” Turn to the person next to you”…instead get them moving with “When I give you the signal I want you to get up find two other people not at your table and go and sit with them to form a group of three AWAY from the tables (you will have to enforce this). Then tell them what to discuss for 5-8 minutes (not too long or they will start talking about sports and their kids) then ask, “What did you just learn from your group?” (and then wait in silence)…when they start talking you have engagement. Avoid: “What did you just talk about?”

Considering what your audience needs

When preparing your presentation, think about what information the AUDIENCE NEEDS and how they are going to use it. It shouldn’t just be what you want to say. Make sure you truly understand the essence of your presentation and can deliver it less than 3 minutes. Then hey presto... you have a powerful opening or closing!

PREPARE your presentation for all!

Do you use powerpoint? Remember it will look different on the big screen to how it looks on your computer screen. Organize the visualization of yours slides for those who are visually impaired, and ensure it’s simple enough that you can capture it for these people. Also consider people who are hearing impaired - always use a microphone. It makes you stronger and ensures you are the centre of attention, which is why they invited you there – you’re the expert! Watch this video to learn more...

Think of the audience

When you are asked by an outside group for a tour of your facility, don't think of it as a marketing activity. Instead think of the audience. Who are they? What will help them solve their problem? Why did they pick your facility?

Do they really need to know how many trauma surgeries you did last year, or do they need to tour your trauma department and talk to the surgeons and nurses? Do they really need to endure the standard dog-and-pony PowerPoint program or do they need the time to have a robust Q&A...not with your CEO or CNO, but rather your most endearing ED nurse?

Be careful when you are asked for the tour. Find out first what your visitors want.

The importance of giving your audience choices

In your next meeting give people more choice. Lace your language with choice making: ‘Is it possible that…?’ ‘Could it be…?’ ‘I wonder if…?’ instead of making a judgement. Maybe you’ll decide to watch this video to learn more…or you could decide not to!

The rule of 3 to make your next presentation THE BEST YET

Take 3 MINUTES to learn the rule of 3 and your next presentation will be THE BEST YET! It focuses your answer, helps you to understand exactly what you’re going to say and most importantly makes the audience remember what you said. And not only does it work for presentations, you can use it for wedding toasts, speaking to a stranger in an elevator, talking to your kids…

Watch this video and give it a try. Let me know what you think.

Simplify and illuminate

How much jargon has slipped into your day to day work and even your presentations? ADR, JAHCO, NQF, PAYOR MIX, HIPAA, RAPPS, TIPS, CHIRP, MOB, HOPD...

Great presenters simplify and illuminate as not everyone in the audience knows what all those letters are! So, consider this: spell it out, say the words, explain in lay terms what the term is and what it means. What is its importance for this presentation? For THIS presentation!

In most cases, the audience doesn't know the most important part of your presentation which is ‘your take’ on the topic, the data, the 'thing' that they came to hear about. They all have a number of boxes in their heads and your content (or jargon!) is ready to go into one of those boxes with a self-assured “Oh, I know what that means!” Make sure that your take on things has no prepared box. Be different enough so they have to roam from box to box and they cannot dismiss what you say with “Oh I know that!” Instead they have to respond with “Uh, I never heard it presented that way before!”

The importance of being specific with your feedback

I learned a lot from the time I spent with a group of Saudi Arabian doctors, nurses and administrators at the American College of Healthcare Executives Global Executive Program. My main take away was how specific and detailed the feedback they gave was. WOW! It almost made me tearful. It reminded me that I should be more specific about what I liked, learned and appreciated about interactions with people, whether at work, at home…in the airport! Try it this week and let me know how you get on!

Try a French Salon for your next networking event

Here’s an idea for your next networking lunch or dinner to help people get to meet one another and to harvest some of the wisdom that’s in these people. It’s called a French Salon, and when I did it at the Ritz Carlton for some of my clients, it was amazing. People still talk about it! Watch the video to find out more!

How to stop reading from your presentation slides

STOP reading from your slides when presenting! If you do, the audience will wish they could get that hour of their lives back again. Simplify your slide deck using the archive technique described in this video, then TEACH the slides, don’t read the slides!

It's all about the performance

One of my clients mentioned to me this past month that in their coursework they were striving not only for information, not only for behavior change, but also for ‘performance based’ courses. This may not be new to you but to me it represented an important word shift…knowledge, behavior, and performance.

My graduate students read to understand, we demonstrate to isolate useful behaviors, and we practice to get so good that our performance is second nature. Actors call it ‘muscle memory.’

Can you think of a time when you said the right thing at the right time, in the right way…and even you were surprised with the outcome!? Perhaps that went beyond what you knew, beyond how you behaved, and the ‘performance’ was the integration of it all. Behavior change is certainly good. Performance, well that may be something different and better altogether.

Take your presentations to the next level

Here’s an idea to take your presentations to the next level. I call it, ‘The Larry King’! Try interviewing a person of prominence in the audience. Their ‘prominence’ is simply because they are the one being interviewed, not that they are a bigwig! Spend 15 minutes asking unrehearsed questions about their career, then let the audience get involved and ask their burning questions too! The answers are always fascinating (especially if you ask what they wanted to be when they were a little kid!) Meanwhile there is actually something else, something powerful, going on in the minds of the audience as well. Watch the video to find out what! Give it go…what’s the worst that could happen!

Mission-Moment-Mess

Steve and Jayne Lowell introduced me to three very useful words: Mission-Moment-Mess. I sometimes use them for personal reflection, sometimes to frame a speech or a coaching call, often as a set of choices for someone taking my presentation skills class, and always as a reminder that words provoke the story.

Can you imagine giving a presentation on any of those three words and not launch into a story, an example, a person, an interaction? Even in ordinary conversation we can probe gently with “What do you think drives your efforts (mission)?” or “What was that moment like for you?” or “That sounds like it was quite a mess! How’d you get out of it? (or better “What did you learn from that?”)

As I reflect on my previous day I’ve found it helpful to just briefly, always non-judgmentally, and honestly ask…”How did I act on my mission, what was that special moment, and whew, how’d I get out of that mess (or what did I learn if I’m not out yet!”) Of course at the same time thankful for people like Steve and Jayne who remind me with their words.