This has been a year where many have felt hopelessly divided.
A heavy focus on differences divides us. It puts common ground out of our reach.
Discovering similarities unites us.
When everyone else has given up on someone
For anyone who's ever been "uncomfortable" while presenting
The tortured life of Senior Leadership
Senior executives spend their days listening to endless proposals and briefings. They sit through so MANY presentations, it TORTURES them to listen to presenters who don’t get right to the point.
I’m sure you watch YouTube videos. Have you ever watched one that took a long time to get to the point? You know that feeling you got? Did you ever fast-forward hoping they would get to something good? Did you ever skip out before the end?
Senior executives LIVE with that feeling.
It’s torture. There’s no other word for it.
I’m sure they would wish for a remote control that could fast-forward. And they would use it liberally.
This is how to stand out from this crowd in your executive presentations:
A night of goodness
I love tomorrow’s holiday, a great tradition born on a chilly November night, exactly 400 years ago.
Dreamed into being in 1621 by a tough people after endless struggle through long periods of great hardship, tremendous hardship, more than we could ever imagine.
They sat down together as community, and enjoyed a moment of peace, for the simplest of purposes: to be grateful. Together.
Their hardships were not over. Far from over. This moment was no more than “a time out.”
It was a, “Let’s stop what we’re doing and create a night of goodness.”
It was also a perspective shift: “Let’s step back and admire what we’ve created amidst the swirling winds of adversity.”
The secret of those who criticize you
Executive presence doesn't work with training wheels
Many executives who come to me for executive coaching come prepared with their word-for-word script.
What’s the problem with speaking from a script when you’re giving a presentation?
Well…what does a script say about your mindset? About your thoughts and feelings about yourself? Your feelings about the audience? About your true power?
Having a script sends out a lot of messaging about you that you might not want to be sending.
Breaking through to human
The price of silence
Then she would ask, “Are there any questions? Are we all on board?”
Crickets. Dead silence.
Lucy was a little relieved there were no objections. Then she would say, “Okay, moving on…” And go to the next item on the agenda. She was terrified that they would object to her plans, and she had no idea how to handle it if they did.
Your presentation Mojo or Getting your Mojo back…
When something bad is “inevitable”
The one question you should never ask
Daniel's "crash course" for impressing senior leadership
What Daniel ran into is what all human beings run into: the more you try to impress others, the more you move away from your true self. You get tangled up in knots. The more you do it, the less impressive you become.
People are not impressed by someone who is trying to impress them. It’s a road that leads to anxiety and defeat.