Let me share some snippets of my expertise with you. I hope you find them useful and if you would like to chat more, just…
Recently, I had the privilege of witnessing an individual demonstrate exceptional professional integrity and skill in their field. It was a powerful reminder of the impact that dedication and mastery can have, not just on the quality of work produced, but on inspiring those around them. Watch this video to learn more and let's discuss how we can all apply these principles to enhance our work and inspire our teams.
Next time you invite someone to update your team, try interviewing them instead of asking them to give a presentation. They will like it better (no formal prep!) and you and your team will be able to ask questions that really 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.
Top tip: 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 and see what happens. Let me know how it goes!
Mission. Moment. Mess. Elevate your public speaking skills by embracing a simple yet impactful framework I share with my professional speaking students: Mission, Moment, Mess. Dive deep into your personal narrative by reflecting on your core mission, a life-altering moment, or a challenging mess you've navigated through. Transform these reflections into compelling stories, and practice telling them aloud. Watch this video to learn more…
When is the last time you took a risk? Calculated perhaps, but none the less risk. A leap of faith? 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 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.”
In a world where opinions seem to dominate every conversation, how about we try something different? Let's be the individuals who prioritize understanding over asserting, who ask the questions rather than rushing to provide the answers. Imagine the impact we could make by choosing to be voices of kindness, seeking to comprehend every perspective. Watch this video to learn more...
Notice your inner expert by listening to your audience. I noticed something about a group I was working with recently that hit me in the face, and in the heart.
After my presentation, a few came up to me to thank me and then they went into an extended description of what I did that apparently was especially meaningful to them. I was touched and I discovered a bit of what they experienced from me, my inner expert.
It reminded me to do the same when I am in the audience. A simple “Thank you” is certainly very nice. However, a “May I tell you what you did that helped me, touched me, encouraged me…?” is much, much better for the one telling and the one receiving.
Why did you hire me? What a powerful question to ask your boss or your client. Hidden in the answer are the unnamed expectations which we’re often unaware of, but that really tell us what’s important to them. 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 collaboration and mutual respect.
How is it where you live? Where you work? 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!?
Next time you give a technical presentation, REMEMBER while the data and insights you share are crucial, what truly captivates your audience is YOUR unique perspective. You're the expert in the room - the voice they've come to hear. It's your interpretation, your take on the information that adds invaluable depth and makes the session truly enriching. Watch this video to learn more!
Facilitate your next presentation instead of simply presenting. In every presentation you do consider how to involve others. Without participation you will simply have spectators quietly judging you and your content. With facilitation you will have fellow participants engaged.
Nora Dunn from Saturday Night Live in the 80s told my class of actors, “Your job is not to please the audience, your job is to engage the audience.” (And it is in the engagement that they will be pleased.) You cannot engage if you only talk, no matter how good you are. The audience, especially today’s audience, has far more wisdom than we do. Let them talk to one another and learn with them.
Pro tip: Never say,” Turn to the person next to you”. Instead get them moving with “When I give you the signal I want you to get up find two other people who are not at your table and go and sit with them to form a group of three AWAY from the tables (you will have to enforce this). Then tell them what to discuss for 5-8 minutes (not too long or they will start talking about sports and their kids) then ask, “What did you just LEARN from your group?” (rather than “What did you just talk about?”) and then wait in silence. When they start talking you have engagement.
Reflecting on the essence of our lives amidst the hustle of business, work, family, and friendships, a profound question emerges: What is the way life should be for you? When was the last time you paused and thought, "Life is good"?
In the relentless pursuit of success and fulfillment, it's essential to carve out moments for introspection, to identify what truly makes life worth living for each of us. These moments of clarity not only refresh our perspective but also anchor us in gratitude and purpose.
Whether it's the joy found in small daily achievements, the peace of early morning solitude, the laughter shared with loved ones, or the satisfaction derived from making a positive impact—these are the experiences that weave the tapestry of a fulfilling life. Watch this video to see what one of mine was recently.
I encourage everyone in my network to take a moment today to reflect on this: What aspects of your life bring you the most joy and fulfillment? How can you incorporate more of these moments into your everyday life? Let me know in the comments!
Let's share and celebrate the diverse and personal ways we each find meaning and happiness in our lives. Your insights could inspire others to pause and appreciate the beauty of their journeys.
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.
“There you are!” Ever wondered about the vibe you bring when you enter a room? Your presence has power! Whether it's at work, home, or anywhere else, the energy you carry can truly light up the space. Next time you step into a room, remember, you've got the magic to make it brighter! Watch this video to learn more.
Have you ever considered leading your boss? What your boss, maybe every boss, needs is a fellow traveller to notice what they did well, to suggest a next step, to console, and to consider a possible ‘plan B’.
Make sure you don’t tell them you are mentoring them or leading them. 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 traveller, 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”!
I challenge you to embrace the power of presence. Whether it's a meeting, a conversation, or any moment of connection, bring not just your head, but your heart and all of your energy into it. Truly engage, listen deeply, and fully immerse yourself in the experience.
Let's transform ordinary interactions into meaningful connections. Are you ready to bring your whole self to every moment today?
I regularly see posts about 'staying curious' on social media. How often do you find that others are curious about you, or do they instead seem to want you to be curious about them? So let's be curious and help them figure out their unarticulated question.
I wonder if so many of us look to the presenter, homilist, teacher, boss, meeting planner for what we ought find within ourselves. That special question that we could articulate, and even let them know what we want from them instead of wishing and hoping. I write to my priest when his words have really moved me. I think he needs to hear it because Catholics tend to thank him or say nice things about his homilies, but I want him to know WHAT he said that moved me and why. I need to articulate first for myself and secondly for him.
Same with my mentors and teachers and customers and clients…I want to articulate for them what they may not know about themselves…what they did or said that moved me. I do it first for me. Then for them. How about you?
Next time you're presenting, remember: Dessert First! Give your audience what they're craving right from the start. This small shift in presentation strategy could make a big difference in the impact of your message. Watch this video to learn more!
Let's talk more about the “Unarticulated Question” …those questions our audience members or our prospects have that they don’t ask us! Recently, Richard Rohr quoted the psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961) - one of the founders of modern psychology. Rohr mentioned that Jung believed that much of our suffering comes from our inability to accept “legitimate suffering” simply because we are human! Rudolf Dreikurs recommended that we have “The Courage to be Imperfect”…because we are! Both psychiatrists thought the idea of perfection was a folly…a misguided approach to life. Being ‘useful’ was far more important than being perfect.
How does this coincide with the “Unarticulated Question”? Well, it seems to me that presenters, speakers, and homilists often strive for the 'perfect something'. A turn of the phrase, a PowerPoint that would Wow, an audience response that is just right, even a good, sustained laughter or applause.
In fact, it is the facilitators and the improvs among us that know that the audience is the brilliant piece, not us. This is why stories told early and concisely followed with small group discussion works so much better than ‘giving a great talk’ or “Let’s review the agenda I prepared”.
Rohr, Jung, and Dreikurs remind us of our common humanity and the more we move WITH and FOR the audience and our teams, the more ‘useful’ we will be. What do you think?
Continuing with this series about the “Unarticulated Question” …those questions our audience members or our prospects have but don’t actually ask!
Last week I talked about the first coaching question I learned from the Center for Executive Coaching - “What would make our time great for you today?” - and how, rightly phrased, it gets to the heart of the issue immediately. The follow up to that question I learned from the book “The Advice Trap” by Michael Bungay Stanier. He called it the “AWE” question.
AWE stands for “And What Else?” Another huge “Duh” for me! Ask that question and guess what…people go deeper. Ask again and deeper they go. I’ve used it to the 5th repetition and have realised it is a terrific opener that gets to what is ‘really’ important. And that all happens without giving any advice!
The author has helped convince me that nobody really needs my advice although many smile, take notes, or thank me. When they are guided with simple questions, they get to go inside themselves just a bit more to discover their OWN brilliance.
In fact, this is a question we can even ask ourselves! Now that is brilliant! What do you think?
How much jargon has slipped into your day to day work and even your presentations? ADR, JAHCO, NQF, PAYOR MIX, HIPAA, RAPPS, TIPS, CHIRP?
Remember your audience is coming from chaos: emails, children, no breakfast, traffic, a request for a divorce, an elderly parent with another fall. So, consider this: spell it out, say the words, explain in lay terms what the term is and what it means. And mostly what its importance is for this presentation: for THIS presentation.
It is too easy to rely on what we think the audience knows...they don’t often know the most important part of your presentation which is ‘your take’ on the data, the stuff, the topic, the thing that they came to hear about. They all have a number of boxes in their heads and your jargon and your content is ready to go into those boxes with a self-assured “Oh, I know what that means!”
Make sure that your take on things has no prepared box. Be different enough to present what has to roam from box to box so that they cannot dismiss what you say with “Oh I know that!” Instead they have to respond with “Uh, I never heard it presented that way before!”
