Archive for November, 2008

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Happy Thanksgiving – Take The Week Off!

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Here's Hoping That This Week Is Special For Everyone

Here's Hoping That This Week Is Special For Everyone

Loyal readers & subscribers, here’s hoping that this upcoming week is a great week for you – I’m taking it off! Blogging will resume next week…

For my readers in the U.S., you know that this week is all about family, turkey, and of course football. I’m not sure what it is about turkey that always seems to make everyone fall asleep, but I’m hoping that when I wake up this year the economy will be on an uptick, gas will still be under $2 / gallon,  and the world will have settled down for awhile.

For my international readers, pretty much all of the United States will be taking time off this week to celebrate the arrival of Europeans into the New World. For better or for worse, it’s what has gotten us to where we are today and we think that that’s a good thing.

Have a happy and safe week no matter where you are and we’ll talk next week.

- Dr. Jim Anderson

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Need Some Help With Self-Promotion At Work?

Friday, November 21st, 2008
In Order To Be Successful, You Need To Know How To Promote Yourself

In Order To Be Successful, You Need To Know How To Promote Yourself

It’s just a little bit off-topic, but Meridith Levinson over at CIO.com just interviewed me as a part of an article that she wrote titled Self-Promotion at Work: 8 Tips for Shy People.

In these times of economic uncertainty, these tips might be just what the Doctor ordered for your career. Check the article out and let me know what you think about it.

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SMART Goal Setting Tips For Those Of Us Who Give Presentations

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
To Improve Your Presentations You Need A BAG And SMART Goals

To Improve Your Presentations You Need A BAG And SMART Goals

So you’ve given a few presentations (or maybe you’ve give a lot of ‘em). You feel relatively comfortable when you stand in front of a group of people and talk. You may not really like doing this, but you are reasonably sure that you are not going to faint or burst into flames while you are doing it. What’s next? The key to getting better at giving presentation is to dig deep down inside of yourself and find the answer to one very important question: just what are you trying to accomplish?

The answer to this question can be any one of a whole bunch of things. These include acceptance by your peers, more money, a promotion, admiration, or even simply to be seen as being successful by others. There is no wrong answer here – you get to choose what will motivate you to become a better public speaker. Now it’s time to BAG it. Yep, we’re talking about crystallizing what drives you and using that to create a Big Audacious Goal (BAG). This is some big presentation goal that you have not yet achieved but that if you became better you could. This BAG goal will serve as a constant reminder as to what you are trying to improve towards with your presentation skills.

If your BAG is where you are trying to get to, then it’s time to come up with a way to get there. You may have heard this before but one of the best ways to make measurable progress towards an objective is to set SMART goals for yourself. What does S.M.A.R.T. stand for you ask? Why that must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-lined. Perhaps a bit of an explanation is required:

  • Specific: You need to be very clear on exactly what you want to accomplish. “I want to be a better presenter” is too vague. “I want to give 5 more presentations” is very specific.
  • Measurable: Business loves metrics these days and so do your goals. How are you going to track your progress? If you want to give 5 presentations, then you need to track how many you are giving each month. If a month goes by and you have not presented, then you are falling behind.
  • Attainable: I call this the Tony Robbins syndrome. If you set a goal to be as good/successful as Tony Robbins, then you are probably going to fail (how many Tony Robbins does the world really need?). However, if you set a goal to be the best presenter in your department, then you just might be able to do this.
  • Realistic: Once again, let’s keep your goals real. If you want to get paid $1M to give speeches to your company, then perhaps you should create a more realistic goal.
  • Time-Lined: What do you need to accomplish by when in order to make this goal a reality?

There you go – with a BAG and SMART goals you now have the ability to become the presenter that you always dreamed that you could be!

Have you ever created a BAG for yourself? Are you still working towards it? Have you set SMART goals to reach this BAG? Were you able to stay with those goals? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Lights, Camera, TV Presentation? 4 Tips For Speaking On Television

Monday, November 17th, 2008
Presenting On TV Requires 4 New Public Speaking Skills

Presenting On TV Requires 4 New Public Speaking Skills

Perhaps you have managed to overcome your fear of speaking to groups of people. Maybe you even have developed ways to deal with difficult questions and keep a presentation on track no matter what happens while you are speaking. However, are you ready to take your skills to that ultimate broadcast medium – television? Probably not, because there the rules are all different. It turns out that there are four simple things that you can do to make sure that you shine on the “boob tube”.

Jo Jo Harder is a fashion designer who found herself being asked to appear on television shows after she started her “America’s Top Dog Model” contest. Talk about being unprepared! Through her struggles and learning she has come up with four top tips for how a presenter should prepare to appear on television. Here they are:

  1. Know Your Subject & Be Prepared To Talk About It: So this sounds sort of silly, but in the end it’s really the reason that you are on television in the first place – you are the expert. One thing that you need to understand about television is that it’s all about time management: you need to speak in short, crisp statements that leave an impression. Your time on camera will be very short and knowing your stuff will help you to make the most of it. I’m hoping that it goes without saying that you should spend some serious time practicing answering probable questions.
  2. Study Your Customer – The TV Show: Even if you’ve never seen the show that you are going to be appearing on before, you had better spend some time coming up to speed on it. You need to know the names of the hosts, the name of the show’s producer, and of course the basic format of the show. You need to know EVERYTHING that you can find out about the show including what time of day it is on, how long it’s been on the air, where taping is going to be taking place. Of course, you also need to know WHAT you are expected to be talking about and just how long you will be expected to be speaking.
  3. Looks Count (A Lot!): No matter what your mom told when you were growing up, on TV looks really do count for a lot. It’s not so much about your looks (you look maaavvolous darling), but rather it’s all about the clothes that you choose to wear. What you want to wear are bright, rich colors. What Harder recommends that we stay away from are white, ivory, and pastels with the exception of women’s blouses and men’s shirts worn under a jacket. Hopefully it goes without saying that EVERYONE needs to stay from bold prints, plaids, and check patterns. If you show up early enough and have a pleasant personality, you just might be able to get some attention from the show’s makeup artist. This can be critical because without some help, we all have a bad habit of looking “washed out” under bright lights. Now just make sure that you’ve combed the hair and trimmed the nails and you should be good to go!
  4. Maintain Your Cool: Remember that television is all about ratings and so the show is having you on in order to try to boost their ratings. That means that anything can happen (“That’s interesting, but let me now introduce your long lost father…!”). Sit with your hands in your lap, your feet crossed away from the camera and look into the eyes of the person who is interviewing you. Smile as much as you can without seeming too weird. Help the show to manage its time by keeping your answers short and to the point. Always be prepared for the host to do something unusual and keep your cool at all times.

So what do you think about this list? Is there anything on the list that you don’t think is important? What should be added to the list? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Presentation Challenge: How To Successfully Talk To Teens – And Survive!

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Presenting To Teens Takes A Special Talent In Order To Get Them To Listen

Presenting To Teens Takes A Special Talent In Order To Get Them To Listen

Anytime we speak in public it can be a challenge that gets our heart racing and causes us to start to sweat. However, if you really want to take the stress up a notch, then just try talking to a group of teens and watch your heart either start to beat double time or just stop altogether. Why do we have such a hang-up about presenting to teens? I suspect it’s because we don’t quite know how best to talk to them: they are no longer kids, but they are not yet adults either. We simply don’t feel that we know HOW to talk to them. Well get in line – I’m sure that their parents feel the same way! Let’s have a talk with Pandora Scooter who for the past 15 years has been teaching and putting on workshops for teenagers all the time. She’s got some tips that we can all use to get over ourselves and get on with the presentation…

Scooter points out that even the most experienced speakers seem to have a deep set fear of talking to a group of teenagers. When asked why they fear this audience more than a hall filled with over a 1,000 adults, they come back with answers such as “They won’t care about what I have to say”, “They won’t listen to me”, “I’m afraid of them”. It turns out that just like with everything else in life, there is a grain of truth in what these speakers are saying. Specifically, often times teenagers will look like they aren’t paying attention in order to appear “cool” to their friends – even though they may be hanging on your every word. If you can give them something to focus their attention on, then they will listen to you and you can make an impact. Here’s what you need to do:

  • Challenge Them Right Off The Bat: Your teen audience probably has been told to be there – they didn’t decide to come by themselves. This means that they are expecting you to treat them just like every other adult does – assuming that they care about what you are going to be talking about. Turn this assumption on its head. Ask them a question, get them to raise their hands or stand up. Do SOMETHING to make sure that they realize that this is not just another boring presentation.
  • Stop Talking About Yourself: In a nutshell, unless you are a rock star, your teen audience won’t really care about where you’ve been or what awards you have won. Keep your introduction short and sweet – what’s your name and why are you here?
  • Don’t Be A Pushover: If you take the time to be honest and direct with your teen audience, then they will respond. Almost without fail, there will other discussions that start up while you are talking or there will be people who are clearly not paying attention. You need to not ignore these events, but rather point them out and work out what is going on with the offenders. Simply by showing that you are paying attention to them and that you are not going to ignore them. This will catch their attention, and most of the time will solve the problem.
  • Say “Thank You”: By showing respect for your teen audience and expressing gratitude to them for their participation in your presentation you will capture their hearts and minds. This may seem like such a small thing, but saying “thank you” half-way through your presentation shows that you have something to base it on and warms the audience up for the rest of your presentation.
  • Use Your Eyes: Eye contact can be the key to making your presentation a success. By making direct eye contact with members of your audience, you can ensure that they are engaged. You can take this one step further by calling out individual listeners and working them into your presentation “this gentlemen in black seems to be agreeing with me”, etc. For an audience that is more used to being ignored, this will put them on their toes as they eagerly wait to see who get called out next.
  • Be Available: At the end of a presentation to adults, you would probably tell them how they could get in contact with you if they needed any additional information. Make sure that you do the same thing for your teen audience. Hey, very few if any of the teens will actually take you up on your offer of further contact, but the simple fact that you made the offer will go a long way in gaining their respect and may make your message take hold at a deeper level.

Have you ever had an opportunity to present to a teen audience? How did it turn out – was it a success or was it a disaster? Did the teens pay attention while you were presenting or did they have their own conversations? Do you feel that you connected with any of the teens? Did anyone seek to contact you after you were done? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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