Today, take moment to think about what do you want to be remembered for in your presentation, or your next meeting, or a conversation with your boss. Take a moment longer to watch this video where I explain more!
Today, think about what you can do differently to what you've done before and different to everybody else, and how that might help you THINK differently.
Give encouragement! With your children, spouse, colleagues, even your boss. Say what you liked, what you learned and what you appreciated. It’s a real skill but helps to promote growth, and create a culture of appreciation.
There’s something I’ve noticed on the TV and radio recently that drives me crazy, and it inspired today’s top tip! In an interview (or any conversation really!) ask open ended questions, don’t go on to give options of answers, confusing and restricting the other person’s response. Stay quiet and see what the other person has to say!
Do you have the same problem as me, and find it hard when something happens in a meeting or a conversation and you need to say the right thing FAST? Here’s a top tip to help deal with this situation. Let me know what you think!
When was the last time someone offended you? And how did you react? It's important to take a step back and think what might be going on with the other person. Don't just react, make a considered response. Learn more in this video.
When giving presentations, doing podcasts, even leaving a voice mail, think about the message you want to convey. Really think about the person it’s going to. The results are interesting. Watch this video to learn more and let me know what you think!
Everyone has a To Do list, but how about a To Be list? Who are you going to BE today? This is the list that defines your success and your significance. Take two minutes out of your day to learn more in this video.
Here are my top tips for when you find yourself in an interview style presentation, for example on a podcast. Don't be part of the group On and On Anon! Watch to learn more.
Sometimes we can easily get discouraged. If you end up taking 3 steps forward, but 2 steps back, remember to learn from your mistakes to inform your next step! Watch this video to learn more!
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.
Something to think about this year - If you routinely give your team members gifts try something very different…give gifts to your team member's children! Not the same thing, give it some thought, you might even interview your team individually and see what each child is interested in. Not a specific gift the parent wants but “your” gift to them based on what you get from the interview. A book for a fourth grader? Or a cookbook! Clay for a middle schooler. What interests are there? Not just a gift but a present that understands your presence to their parents in this present moment.
When you present your facility and its people to the Board of Directors, your city council, or your state representatives remind yourself that they will remember the feeling you portray, not the content alone.
Your statistics need to have heart as well as head in them. Not only stories about patients but perhaps people telling the story - willing patients and families, doctors and housekeepers, nurses and maintenance. What would it be like to have them present? Interview them, bring the face and feeling of your place to the meeting.
This is what they will remember long after the meeting is over. This brings excitement about your place to your audience’s understanding.
Next time you invite someone to update your team, interview them instead of asking them to come with a presentation. They will like it better (no formal prep) and you and your team will be able to ask questions that get to the heart of what is needed. This works great with quality and safety data, financial information, construction updates, and finding the mood of some of the staff.
A recommendation: get rid of the tables and bring the chairs up close to you and the one you are interviewing. This creates a sense of community and intimacy and helps support the one being interviewed…distance of any sort (as well as tables!) creates spectators instead of participators. Try it. Take the risk a few times and see what happens.
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?
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 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.
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?!
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.
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!