What Messages Are You Reinforcing?

What we repeatedly do is what we become known for.  Others form perceptions about us by acutely observing our behaviours.  We are the medium and we are the message. (A tip of the hat to Marshall McLuhan!)

What if someone is always playing the role of “Class Clown” in management meetings?  Even though Andrew meets all his targets and knows his stuff, he is always joking and acting in a flippant, casual manner in meetings.  His managers and peers perceive him as “not serious about the business and doesn’t care about getting into more senior roles.” 

Send in the Clowns!  Don't let it be you.

 What if someone is compliant and meekly accepting when he/she is loaded with more and more work?  When Emma is approached by her manager and colleagues with requests to take on another project or help them research and write the report for the board meeting, she is always obliging and always says “Yes.”  Yet underneath her cheerful exterior, Emma is seething with indignation and frustration that she is always the one who is loaded down with more and more work.   Emma has been reinforcing the message that she is the “Willing Workhorse” who is dependable, gets things done, and likes to help.  

What about someone who is the quieter, more reflective person on the team?  As the National Procurement Manager, Janice is on the executive management team at her company, a leader in the logistics industry.  She attends all the meetings without fail, yet Janice’s voice  is only heard when she is asked a direct question.  Otherwise Janice is content to listen carefully to the vigorous discussions that are the basis for their high-level decision-making.  Janice is certain that the others know her value and her contributions to the business.  She likes to gather all the data, analyse it and formulate her responses and recommendations after the meeting is over and she has time to think through all the options. 

In the minds of the other executive team members, Janice is perceived as a non-player who might as well not even be there.  No, they cannot see what she does behind the scenes; they can only see and hear that she is not “present” when it counts at their meetings.  The Managing Director has noted Janice’s lack of input and interprets it as “reticent to put her views forward, a bit timid, lacking in confidence ….” 

In each of the three examples above, the managers are repeating the same behaviours and reinforcing the same messages over and over again.  Unless they change these behaviours, they will continue to be perceived as:

The Juvenile Joker

The Willing Workhorse

The Quiet Achiever

The solution is to become far more personally self-aware and consciously manage how others perceive you in the key forums of organisational life.   Stop being your “natural self” and letting things take their natural course.  Stop the behaviours that are hurting your image, such as being the Juvenile Joker around the office and in meetings.  When asked yet again to take on more work and your in-tray is overflowing with high-priority projects, deliberately pull back from saying “Yes” like you always have and say “I am not available.”  Be ready to stall, defer and negotiate. 

If you are “The Quiet Achiever,” and need time to prepare before speaking, get into the habit of thinking about and jotting down some comments and questions on key agenda points before you go into the meeting so you feel confident and ready to speak without being prompted.  Be visible and audible in meetings and you will rapidly enhance your executive presence.  If you have found that others are claiming credit for your ideas and solutions, intervene with the appropriate persons and in the appropriate forums with your own clear communication that it was you who deserves the credit.  Do not overlook it when someone claims your ideas.  Immediately step in and correct them.  If they have got away with plagiarising your ideas in the past, they will assume that you won’t challenge them on it.  But you do challenge them and set them back in their box.  They won’t try it again.

In summary, what we consistently do and say is reinforcing the same messages over and over.  If these messages are not how you want to be perceived by significant others (including those who will make decisions on your future), it is time is stop these behaviours and put other ones in their place.  Do it slowly and gradually at first until you know that you can confidently build the messages and meanings that will enhance your executive presence.

To your Success,

Lynne Lloyd

Managing Director

People Results

p.s.  If you would like to attend a professional development program that will get you started on building a strong and successful executive presence, our next ExecutivePresence Half-Day public workshop is being held on Wednesday, 29^th August 2012 in Brisbane.  For more information, contact People Results direct on 1300 167 981 or enquiries@peopleresults.com.au. 

Let Us Not Diminish the Hero

With the footie season in full swing and the London Olympics just around the corner, we are hearing and seeing a great deal about heroes in the mass media.  The epithet of “heroic” is often used rather too loosely to describe people whose actions are not necessarily heroic in the true sense.  A hero is brave, courageous and has little regard for personal protection or safety in his or her actions.  Do our star footballers qualify for heroic status?  Perhaps some do like the recently-retired Darren Lockyer who rarely transgressed in his off-field behaviour.  Darren has been a superb role model of a true professional for others to admire and emulate on and off “the paddock.”

Sally Pearson, superb Australian athlete and strong chance for Gold at the London Olympics

Is there a hero within each of us?  Under the right set of circumstances, we can all be heroes.   One circumstance that every mother knows well is the instinct to be fiercely protective of one's children. Just anyone try to hurt our child by word or deed and we will spring to the attack.  

In organisational life, we are often called on to be “heroes” as we lead and teach others, becoming role models for how to think, say and act courageously and ethically.  However, what we often neglect to do well is to let others know what we have achieved and how we achieved our results. Sometimes we may even be dismissive and self-deprecating about our successes, thinking that anyone else could have done as well.  Not necessarily so, given that each individual is a unique combination of talents, experience and temperament.  

One of the practical techniques in the People Results’ Executive Presence workshop is how to have a selection of personal success stories at your command and to speak those stories readily when you unexpectedly bump into the Managing Director in the car park, or find yourself face to face with the Executive Chairman in the middle of a CBD coffee shop.  These are precious moments of truth when you can speak with power and conviction about your recent achievements, always giving full credit to the involvement and contributions of your colleagues and team members.

In your success story you will cast yourself in the role of “hero” in how you led and guided your team to reach the successful outcomes.  Because of the skill and finesse in which you conduct this conversation, you will not be perceived as boastful or big-headed.  Quite the opposite, in fact, you will be regarded as being articulate and self-assured.  In the workshop, we practise this technique using a very simple and effective conversational model.  

To enhance your executive presence and stand out as a leader within your organisation and in other key forums, we invite you to attend the Executive Presence for Women Half-Day workshop on Wednesday, 20th June in Brisbane.  

People Results also offers the Executive Presence workshop in-house for your staff members.  Please let us know if you would like to discuss this option.

To Your Success,

Lynne Lloyd

Managing Director

People Results

Executive Coaching and Talent Development

Telephone:  1300 167 981

Mobile:  0421 998749

Email:  enquiries@peopleresults.com.au

Web:  www.peopleresults.com.au

The Big Speech: Once More with Feeling Please!

The ACTU President, Ged Kearney, opened their National Congress this week with a speech that was well crafted and about the right length.  It should have gone well but the manner of her delivery unfortunately meant that her speech failed a fundamental test.  From the parts of the speech that were shown on Sky News, she expressed some core beliefs and the values and vision of the Australian Union movement.  Her delivery should have matched the power and passion of her words. It didn’t!

Why?  Because Ged’s head was continually bobbing up and down as she read the speech word for word from the written version on the lectern in front of her.   Just when a point needed to be made with strong conviction, Ged’s head would go down again to read from her written speech.  

  

If only Ged had kept looking up as she spoke!

The audience members saw that Ged’s non-verbal behaviours did not match the words she was speaking.  When it comes to a choice between believing what someone says and what someone does, we always pay more attention and give more credence to what we see people doing.  It was Ged’s non-verbal actions that would have distracted the audience from the actual content of her words.  If she couldn’t speak with her head up, looking at the audience and speak the words clearly and confidently, they could not play their part and listen with their heads and hearts open.

On such a big occasion as opening a National Congress, we can certainly sympathise with Ged.  She wants to remember exactly what is in the speech; she is anxious that she will forget what she has to say.  The solutions are to rehearse the speech a few times over and to memorise some of the really key points.  A quick glance to the written speech every so often to check the next major point should be enough.  Then you can keep looking ahead and around at the audience members who are “the customers” of your message.

In the Confident Presentation Skills workshop, we cover some practical techniques that are great enablers to presenting calmly, clearly and confidently.  This workshop is available as an in-house program exclusively for your staff members or we regularly hold public workshops throughout the year.

Our next Confident Presentation Skillsworkshop is being held in Toowoomba on Tuesday May 29th 2012.  We are registering a maximum number of 10 participants and limited places are still available.

Happy Presenting, 

Lynne Lloyd 

People Results 

www.peopleresults.com.au 

Presenting Confidently: Rise Above Q & A Pitfalls

As applause breaks out across the audience at the business lunch, you realise that your speech has been well received.  You feel pleased and somewhat relieved.  But then, as is the normal protocol, your host invites the audience to ask their questions. 

While you are able to control the content, structure and flow of your presentation, once the baton is passed over to the audience, it is not possible to control who will ask a question and what questions will be asked.  The key point for the Q & A session is that, as the speaker, you are still in control, aided and supported by the moderator of the function. 

You will feel even more in control and confident in your responses with the following tips and techniques from People Results:

Staying in Control

Occasionally a questioner is less interested in asking you a genuine question as they are in promoting their own views in public.  The typical questioner will frame their question with two to three sentences.  By contrast, the expansive questioner will keep talking for an extended period rather than actually asking a question.  This situation does not arise often because most people observe the Q & A protocol and ask a question.

But when it does happen, you need to interrupt the questioner quite strongly and at the same time put your arm up with your hand palm-side out, saying clearly, “I have to STOP you there; time is getting away.  What is your question?”  If the person still persists in not asking a question, interrupt her/him again immediately, “We need to move on.”
 

At the same time, deliberately turn your gaze and body right away from the questioner and toward the rest of the audience members, asking if someone else has a question.

The Hostile Questioner
Rare but it does happen that someone has an “axe to grind.”  Pity that it is against your head!

In this situation, first and foremost, keep calm and composed.  Let your features and expression be completely neutral, neither happy nor unhappy.

Do not respond to the hostile questioner in the same way if he/she was angry, loud and aggressive.  Before you answer, acknowledge to the questioner and to the audience in general that the topic is one that some people feel strongly about and that you understand and respect others’ views provided they are expressed in a respectful, reasonable manner. 

Ask the questioner to remain calm and you will be only too pleased to answer her/his question.  As you respond, acknowledge any points you agree with and acknowledge others where you have a different view.  Be careful not to let the questioner back in as it is not the time or place for a to-and-fro exchange.  


Wrap up your answer on a positive note with any points of common ground.  As you finish, turn your gaze and body to the other side of the audience and ask, “Are there any other questions?”

Gaining Time to Answer
Some questions are unpredictable and come out of “left field.”  Initially your mind goes blank and you struggle to formulate an answer.  Here are some tactics to use in this situation:

·         Throw the question back out to the audience or group members.  “Has anyone else experienced this problem?  Please raise your hands.”  If you get one or some responses, ask him/her, “Can you tell us what happened?  What did you do?”  If you don’t get any responses, you have still “bought” yourself some time to think about the question and come up with a short response.

·         Respond by saying, “Let me check if I understand the question.  You’re asking “……”  By reflecting the question back and clarifying for understanding, you have bought yourself some time to think it through and answer it.

·         Respond by saying, “That’s a very important question; (you’ve bought a little time) and “I would like to answer it by …..”  There may be more than one issue in the question and you can only answer it in part.  Acknowledge when you cannot answer question in full because of time limitations or lack of information.

Talking and Taking Up Too Much Time
The questioner may be one of those meandering speakers who finds it very difficult to go in a direct line in their communication.  Instead they try to give all the background and examples and talk and talk without getting to the question.  This condition is sometimes called “verbal diarrhoea,” and someone who is a sufferer is harmless except that he or she is taking up the limited time for Q & A.

 

Like the Staying in Control situation on the previous page, but this time gently interrupt this questioner and ask, “What is your question?” 

Don’t Know the Answer
When you are asked a very detailed or technical question and you don’t know or are not sure of the answer, say so simply and clearly.  Explain that you don’t want to be specific until you have the current figures or check with someone in your company.  Ask if the person will provide their contact details to you afterwards, and you will be happy to get this information to her/him.

Do you have some tips that have worked well for you or others?  Please add your thoughts and experiences on how to handle the Q & A session with confidence and success. 

If you would like to discuss your professional development (or on behalf of your team members) in public speaking/group presentation skills, please contact us for a confidential, no-obligation conversation.

Happy Speaking!

Lynne Lloyd

Managing Director

People Results

Executive Coaching and Talent Development

Telephone:  +617 39101003

Email:  enquiries@peopleresults.com.au

Web:  www.peopleresults.com.au

Love the Voice You’re In: Managing Our Vocal Image

Like our breathing, our voices are just there.  Any time we want to speak, we do so without effort or preparation.  Because of its ready availability, our voice is something that we take for granted and rarely pause to think about.  Yet how we sound is equally important in building executive presence in our organisation and externally as our visual presentation. As we become more conscious of the power of our vocal image and how to manage it, we can have an impact on and manage how we are perceived within the team and by the senior decision-makers in our organisation.  In this article we will look specifically at challenge for people who have a naturally quiet voice and some easy techniques to be better heard in meetings and other workplace settings. 

Have you ever heard your own voice played back in an audio recording or on a video?  What was your first reaction?  Was it something like, “Oh, what a surprise!  Is that really how I sound?”  When we speak, we actually “hear” our voice internally via our vocal chords to our middle ear and not through our ears.  So we do not hear ourselves as others do unless we listen to a recording of our voice.  When we do hear our voice through our ears, it can seem as if we are hearing someone else’s voice rather than our own.

Certainly if one’s natural voice is so quiet and low that colleagues around a meeting table must strain to hear what we are saying or cannot make out part or all of what we are saying, this will be damaging our vocal image.  The clues will be there.  For example, if others frequently ask you to repeat what you said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch what you just said,” or “I can’t hear you; can you speak a bit louder please?”  Also look out for non-verbal signals such as people around the table looking a bit puzzled or frowning after you speak.  More than likely, they couldn’t hear you and their feelings of frustration and mild irritation are playing out through their facial expressions.  Think about when you want to hear someone’s words, and you can’t– for whatever reason –how do you react?  Do you feel somewhat cut off and even unsettled?  After asking the quiet-speaking team member to repeat their words a couple of times, and you still can’t hear her/him, you will stop asking.  And inevitably you will stop listening.

Here are three People Results’ techniques that are easy to implement and useful for all, particularly the person with the quiet, soft voice:

1. What is your usual posture as you sit at the meeting table?  Do you slump in the chair or crunch your body over the table?  These body positions restrict your air passages and diaphragm which in turn reduces the amount of air you have available when you speak.  Sit upright and feel your spine stretch out.  You will immediately feel more buoyant, alert and authoritative.  Consciously maintain this posture throughout the meeting.

2. Proper breathing is the foundation of a healthy voice.  Raise your awareness of your own breathing and as you prepare to speak, breathe deeply in and out, taking a good amount of air into your diaphragm and lungs.  (An important aside, getting more oxygen into the blood stream by breathing more deeply also pumps more oxygen into our brains and helps us thinker quicker and smarter.)  Our voices are actually supported and carried on cushions of air from our breathing.  Think of your voice as having to be pumped up with air like the tyres on a bicycle you are about to ride.  

3. As you speak, deliberately project your voice forward and out to meet the person who is positioned at the furthest point from you in the room.  You will notice how actors on stage are able to project their voices out across the stage and at times right out to the audience.  The distance you need to project your voice depends on the situation, i.e. how close or far you are from the person at the most distant point in the room.

Summary

Vocal image is one of three core components of a positive and confident executive presence:  how we Look, how we Act, and our Words.  This conclusion has been reinforced by the experiences that some participants in the People Results’ Executive Presence workshops have discussed.  Equally qualified and as technically proficient as their colleagues, they talk about how they are often “drowned out” in meetings by the more dominant voices of their colleagues.  They struggle to get their voices heard even to the point that colleagues have taken ownership and talked knowledgeably about the work or ideas that the participant has been responsible for.  Managers and colleagues come to the conclusion that their quiet colleague is shy and timid and prefers to sit listening in meetings rather than contributing.  To be viewed as a valued contributor, it is critical to be both seen and heard and therefore to develop a clear and credible vocal image. 

People Results is delighted to announce our new Talent Development Program – WomenSpeak – that assists women to connect with their most powerful voice by modifying and enhancing their natural voices:  Registration is open for the WomenSpeak Half-Day Workshop on Thursday, 19th April, 2012 in Brisbane.  If women colleagues in your organisation and network may be interested in attending, please forward the details on to them.  Thank you.

Looking forward to continuing this conversation on vocal image and inviting you to add your thoughts and experiences.

Lynne Lloyd 

People Results 

Email:  enquiries@peopleresults.com.au 

Telephone:  07 3310 1003/ 0421 998749

Web:  www.peopleresults.com.au

Presenting in Front of Others? One Day It Will Seem Easy

There are many ways to incorporate activities that build our executive presence into our calendars.  What is this concept of executive presence?  It is the combined perceptions that others form about us through the ways we present ourselves at work and in key external forums:  through our attire and grooming, our chosen actions and our verbal behaviours. 

We are walking and talking billboards that generate self-messages throughout the day. Perhaps a slightly scary thought but it does not have to be daunting if we keep the following acronym up front and central to our thoughts:  L A W – our looks, our actions and our words.  

There are a myriad of ways that executives, managers and professionals can shape their executive presence and we cover many of them in the People Results’ Executive Presence workshop.  Whenever I am asked, “What is the one most effective way of communicating my executive presence?” the answer I give is always “Look for and eagerly take up opportunities to present yourself and your ideas in front of groups.”  

Typically we shrink back from being the one to present to the Board of Directors, to a group of major clients or customers or at a business or industry conference.  It is easier to let someone else do the presenting.  It is never the right time for us and we rationalise why this is so because we are “too busy, “not good at that presenting stuff,” “got more important things to focus on,” and so on.

Why do we feel like we have to climb the mental equivalent of Mount Kilimanjaro to create and deliver a group presentation?  We are generally very familiar with the information we are presenting on and even the outcomes we wish to achieve.  So this is not the difficult part.

We may fear doing a group presentation because something could go wrong.  We could make a mistake or forget what we want to say and go “blank” in front of everyone.  Or we don’t like being the centre of everyone’s attention.  That feeling when everyone’s eyes are boring into you and the weight of their expectations feels like a heavy burden.  Let someone else do the presentation of the new Strategic Plan to the Board, we think, even though we contributed 80% of the ideas and effort that went into it. 

Our caution is caused by fear that is not rational; it is emotional.  For the most part, the causes of our fear lie in childhood experiences and possibly in our previous attempts to present before a group at work or in school. 

In my view, the biggest reason why many of us do not become great presenters is that we simply don’t do enough presenting.  There is a secret to becoming a very good presenter.  The secret is to present, present and present.  Most of us only present when we absolutely have to do so.  Therefore we are always in the foothills of the mountain rather than experiencing the climb and the glorious view at the top of the mountain.  So rather than struggling to get out of presenting, struggle to get into presenting by looking for and volunteering to present over and over again.  

Attending a course such as People Results’ Confident Presentation Skills workshop, reading books and other materials, watching and listening to others’ presentations are all good ways to learn.  But they are not going to get you out of the foothills of the mountain.  The only sure way is to present, present and present and one day it will seem easy.  On that day, you will have reached the level of the successful and confident public speaker.

Regards

Lynne Lloyd 

Managing Director 

People Results 

Telephone 07 3910 1003 

Email:  enquiries@peopleresults.com.au

Web:  www.peopleresults.com.au 

People Results' Mission:  Leaders who Confidently Think, Say and Do. 

p.s. Our popular One-Day Confident Presentation Skills workshop being held on Wednesday 18th April, 2012 in Brisbane.  Numbers are limited so please register early to avoid disappointment.  

The Decline of Goldman Sachs’ Employment Brand? Three Career Signposts.

Some of the employees at Goldman Sachs refer to their clients as “Muppets,” so we learn from the letter that ex-employee Greg Smith wrote.  What I take from calling clients “Muppets” is that the investment bankers at Goldman Sachs are pulling their strings like puppet-masters, controlling what their clients know, say and do. Their clients are puppets with nothing in their heads except what they put in there.

How could a firm be so arrogant and show such distain for their most important stakeholders:  their customers?   Plainly Goldman Sachs’ analysts and bankers still consider themselves to be masters of the finance and investment universe.  They are so smart and all-knowing.  Didn’t they top their class at Harvard and Princeton?  Are they not the few that got through the tough selection process and won a job at Goldman Sachs?”  Are they not the best and brightest of their generation?

Thanks to Greg Smith, we have been given an insider’s glimpse of the way things really are within investment banking firms.  There is no reason to think that other firms are greatly different from Goldman Sachs.  How ugly and how disrespectful it shows them to be towards their clients who have trusted them to invest their millions and billions wisely and well.  It appears that nothing has been learnt and nothing has changed since U.S. investment firms packaged up mortgages into fancy –sounding investment products and, promising high returns, sold them to “muppets” around the globe. 

What will happen at Goldman Sachs as a result of this revelation about clients being their “muppets”?  Maybe a client or two will leave them in the short-term and go to other investment banks.  In the medium to longer-terms, probably not much will change in the culture of Goldman Sachs and the bankers will go on with the same thinking, the same words and the same actions.   

What is likely to “stick” to Goldman Sachs is the damage to their employment brand from these recent revelations.  Will the best and brightest graduates still want to get into Goldman Sachs?  Will it make a difference to graduates to work at a firm or corporation that demonstrates respect and appreciation for their clients?  Instead of investment banking, will the best and brightest graduates choose to go into another financial services sector or profession that is untarnished or, more accurately, less tarnished?  Or will Goldman Sachs and other investment firms just offer even more dollars to sign them up and they will park their reservations about the firm’s culture?

Following are three points for personal career management arising from the recent Goldman Sachs’ revelations:

·         Go beyond the glossy marketing and public relations that large companies and firms use to woo you; find out what it is really like to work there from someone who is currently or has recently been employed there.  Ask her/him open questions such as:  What do you like about working there?  What don’t you like?  What would you have liked to be different about working there?  Why did you leave?

·         Do your personal values mesh well with the ways that the employer operates their business or organisation?  In other words, you don’t want to be going into work thinking about being on the horns of another dilemma that day, every day.  Just one example, if you respect your clients and regard them as your raison d’etre, you will be most unhappy working in an organisation that does not share your values.   Can you write down your core personal values?  If not, it is important to find out what your values are; in other words, what do you believe in and what gives you fulfilment in your life and work? 

·         Listen to what your heart and gut are telling you when making decisions about your next employer and don’t just go on your logical reasoning.  Your logical reasoning might be indicating, “OK, there is $5,000 more in this offer than the other offer.  Even though I am drawn to the other company, it makes sense to go for more remuneration.”  Yes, when all other things are equal, it makes sense to take the top offer but at other times you are experiencing some niggling doubts about whether you would really like working there.  Those niggling doubts are your emotional intelligence (your heart and gut) jumping up and down, saying “It’s not the right move for you!  Don’t do it!”   With respect to the money, you will be OK because, when you are working well and achieving highly, the money will always come too.

Lynne Lloyd

Managing Director

People Results

Executive Coaching and Talent Development

Telephone:  +617 39101003

Email:  enquiries@peopleresults.com.au

Web:  www.peopleresults.com.au