RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us (by The RSA)
Monday, 22 July 2013
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
A SKILL EVERY BUSINESS PERSON CAN’T AFFORD TO NEGLECT
What is the one thing that most people fear more than anything, and is an essential skill for any business person?
Delivering a Presentation! Am I right? If so read on……..
The problem is that most people avoid having to do presentations all their life – through school, college, university and in their jobs. Bad move! Why, because you never gain the practice and experience to be able to build your skill and confidence.
I was one of the lucky ones. I had always had people looking at me and from the age of 5 years old I was encouraged to stand in front of audiences and present. Why, because I am an identical twin! But it is never too late for anyone to learn and hone a new skill.
Yes, I know that’s a real bummer, especially when you hate the thought of standing in front of others and speaking. However, in any type of business you need to confidently and competently pitch for business, present at seminars and conferences, present yourself in videos for web and social media content, to name just a few.
“Yikes, do I really have to?” I hear you think. The answer is a resounding YES! Just stop for a minute and consider your lost business opportunities if you avoid, or worst still mess up really important presentations. How detrimental is that to your business growth?
Commit to developing your skill and confidence. In my experience of training people in presentations skills, for over 20 years, a major problem lies in what’s going on in your head……
“What if I freeze and dry up?”
“What am I going to say?”
“They will all be looking at me!”
The thoughts go on and on.
Get rid of negative thoughts and replace them with several positive ones like “I am really going to enjoy this presentation.”
Write down all your negative thoughts. Cross them out and write the overriding positive thought that countermands the negative. Now read them out load to yourself, on a regular basis, on the run up to and immediately before your presentation. Try it out it out and see how well it works.
Preparation, both mentally and practically is one of the keys you can never afford to skimp on. Not only do you need to know your ‘stuff’, you also need…..
3 – 5 key point’s dependent on the length of your presentation
A good strong beginning
A logical flow
A good sound ending that leaves them remembering your key points or a call action.
Remember that it’s OK not to know the answer to a question as long as you get back to them with an answer later. Just be honest and confident about it.
Prepare for your role. I once saw the worst presentation ever by someone who was so nervous his sheet of notes rattled directly in front of the microphone. Not only that, he apologised several times during his speech, and looked petrified. What he had not realised and had never been taught is that……
You are playing the role of a confident and skilled YOU! If someone had taught him to practice and perfect that role he would have had no problems at all. Why, because the presenter was Anthony Hopkins!
Be your natural self. Don’t try to be humorous or tell a joke if this is not your natural style. Let your passion and enthusiasm out. That is what ‘sells’ you and what you have to say to your audience.
Practice makes perfect and it also build confidence. By this I do not mean standing in front of a mirror and practicing your presentation until it is perfect – although that does work well for some people. This is one skill you have to develop in public. There’s no getting away from it you just have to get up there and present!
Use every presentation as a learning exercise. Do not beat yourself up at the end by thinking of everything that did not go to plan. Remember…
1. No one knows exactly what you were going to say, so if you forget something they will never know. How great is that?
2. You will look a lot more confident and professional than you think. In my experience most people who watch a video of themselves presenting says this.
3. Allow yourself to find one thing that was wrong with the presentation. Identify the learning in it and move on.
4. Follow the one learning point with three positive points that you did well. Can’t think of any? Here’s ‘your starter for ten’ – you got up and did it!
Seek out opportunities to stretch yourself and develop this vital business skill. So, no more excuses. But remember, jumping straight into presenting at a conference may be a step to far to begin with and could destroy your confidence. Build up to this by taking baby steps at first with small presentations.
Most of all learn to enjoy presenting. Good luck and let me know how you get on and what you learn.
Monday, 15 July 2013
Friday, 12 July 2013
10 Reasons Why Co-working Leads to Business Growth
Ever wondered how effective your time could be if you combined your business networking activities with your daily work activities? That is a major part of the concept behind co-working environments. These are offices such as The Business Loft, in Newport (South Wales) http://bit.ly/18RU0Q3 that offer daily, flexible rental of work space and individual desks (co-working desks) where space and time are made for networking and collaboration.
When I was appointed as the Business Incubation Manager for the University of South Wales I had no idea what co-working environments were and how they could benefit business growth. However, I was lucky enough to be put in touch with Mark Hooper, the founder of Indycube http://bit.ly/18RUc1N a social enterprise providing co-working spaces for start-up and small businesses in Wales. Working in collaboration with Indycube we have adopted their philosophy that businesses grow best in an environment where the people take a genuine interest in each other’s work in a supportive and reciprocal way that aids business growth.
Co-working has many advantages. It…….
1. Offers a professional work environment on a day by day flexible
basis – As a registered Associate can turn up and hire a desk for
a day for only £10!
2. Avoids the isolation of working from home – Face to Face
interaction is a huge motivator for most people
3. Offers businesses the room to expand – At The Business Loft we
also offer business mentoring and training
4. Enables you to understand what businesses around you are
doing and how you can collaborate or support each other –
Makes coming to work more productive and enjoyable
5. Increase your potential for business growth and new clients –
Within the first two months and with only 6 businesses at The
Business Loft we had 10 successful work collaborations
6. Increase the potential for collaborative projects – Freelancers and
small businesses working together on a joint project
7. Increases the flow of creative ideas – Tapping the creativity of
people outside your own business can increase creativity further
8. Offers you a team of supportive people around you at work even
though you are all working in different businesses – Supportive
help and thoughts on a problem or a skills gap make working
alone so much easier
9. Increases your contact database – Exchanging useful contacts
without having to go out networking every day
10. The opportunity to network every day with different businesses –
Different people turn up every day to book a desk which adds new
dimensions to the co-working environment
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Sunday, 7 July 2013
NETWORKING YOUR WAY
It is all too easy in business to think that your way of doing something is the best or even the only way, especially if it is successful for you. The problem with that way of thinking is that it may reduce opportunity, stifles initiative or reduces confidence in those around you.
How do I know this? Well, I come from a long line of obsessive compulsive controllers and I really did believe I knew best! (Yes, I was very arrogant at the time). Then someone challenged my thinking by throwing down the gauntlet– never could resist one of those.
The Challenge
So my challenge was to attend a networking meeting and not make any pro-active approaches to introduce myself to people. I was allowed to make eye contact and smile but nothing more and I was not to hide away in a corner. I love networking and at that time I fully believed that my technique of working a room was the best, so this suggested way of doing it did not sit comfortably with me.
My way of networking was more pro-active than reactive. I would introduce myself to people and strike up a conversation, asking them about the job or business. I am really interested in other people and the work they do so this comes easily to me. Also my objective was always to identify at least 3 prospective clients and get their business cards so that I could follow up and arrange a meeting.
Well the gauntlet had been thrown down so off I went. The room was filling up when I arrived so I got my cup of tea and stood by myself in the middle of the room. Oh boy, did I feel uncomfortable in that situation. My stomach was in knots and I was trying desperately to look relaxed and confident when actually the opposite was true.
It seemed to take for ever but eventually two gentlemen came to talk to me. They were the only people I made contact with at that event so I did not meet my usual target of at least three contacts. However, as it turned out, they were from the Royal Bank of Scotland and by following up, as I usually did by setting up a meeting with them, I landed one of my biggest ever contracts at that time.
Moral of the Story
There is always more than one way to skin a cat – as the saying goes. It really does not matter how the initial networking approach is made. What matters is how you then communicate and present yourself.
Successful Networking in Action
· Look confident when you make your initial approach
· Ask them lots of questions about their work or business – people
love to talk about themselves
· Remember the 80:20 rule – get them to talk 80% of the time to be
able to find out about them
· Mention briefly what you do. Only elaborate if they ask for more
information
· Listen for the common ground between you and anything that
identifies that they may need your services
· DO NOT try to sell them anything
· Exchange business cards
· Follow up by phone, within 48hrs, with the goal of getting an
appointment (NOT selling to them on the phone)
Over to You
If you have not already done it now is as good a time as any to take the Networking Challenge, find out your best approach and start to grow your confidence.
Always remember that most people find it challenging to begin with.
Monday, 1 July 2013
6 STEPPING STONES TO SUCCESS
How many times have you caught yourself thinking?
· They wouldn’t be interested in seeing me?
· Who do I think I am going for something so big?
· I am not in their league.
· I do not have enough credibility/experience/knowledge.
· What happens if I fail?
· I could never do………because………would be so jealous of me.
· That’s too hard and I would show myself up as a fraud.
· I must do ………. before I make those sales calls (or something
else you fear doing)
Feel free to add some of your fearful thoughts to this list. The more you identify the more you can rid yourself of them.
Fear paralyses. It stops you taking action and moving towards success. It allows you to discount valuable opportunities and can even stop you seeing them altogether. Fear of failure can hold back and even destroy success if you let it.
The first time I ever felt a massive failure in life was when I had to close my first business. After seven years of putting my heart and soul into my designer knitwear business I had to make the very difficult decision to close it down. The bottom has fallen out of the market and I had no other option.
I was devastated. My dreams were shattered and I felt such a failure. It did not help having some family and friends tell me that I was not cut out to be in business. Then a true friend came along and told me to sit down and write a detailed list of all the things I had learnt over the seven years. Four sheets of paper later she had me read it out load to her. That was powerful enough but what she then said changed my life – “So having read that out, how can you think you are a failure? Life is about learning from adversity and moving on.”
I also learnt that the more we see failure as a negative experience, the more likely we are to allow our fears to hold us back from success. So here are six steps you can take towards success:
6 Stepping Stones to Success
1. Remember that fear holds back or even destroys success, if you
allow it to. Identify the fear and change your mind-set by taking
positive action to move forward.
2. Look past the fear by rejecting it from your mind so that you can
see the opportunities life brings to your door and take action on
them.
3. Refuse to listen to people who are negative and put you down
when things are going badly.
4. Surround yourself with supportive people who challenge you in
positive ways.
5. Whenever you fail at anything, big or small, write down a list of
what you have learnt, read it out load and see how many stepping
stones you have created to move forward.
6. Take positive action now!
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