Deepening Your Influence

This is an example of deepening your influence we highlighted in a recent webinar for ACHSM.

Picture This Scenario in Your Workplace

You have some team members who have to do presentations to the rest of the department in order to try and influence change, but they are falling way short.

Essentially, you want to influence your team to get on board with the idea that they improve their presenting skills. 

How could you introduce the layers of consequence in a way that has impact but does not insult the people in question?

“In the departmental presentations…

1. I’ve noticed that some of the important departmental staff have a tendency to be distracted or switch off [Immediate issue]
2. As a result we are not making the most of our opportunity which, as we know, affects all of us in various ways [Bigger consequence]
3. In fact, there’s a lot of pressure on our presenters because their batting for us all, and after a couple of bad experiences I bet they’re losing sleep or feeling stressed before, during and afterwards. [Personal implication]

Therefore we should ask 'why this is happening?'

'What could we achieve if our presentations had more impact?'

'How good would we and our presenters feel if we nailed them every time?'

And from there, you set the scene for the people with the problem to be much more engaged in your discussion about a proposed solution.

Finally, here is a link to the ‘Quit Now’ advertisement copy we mentioned in the same recent webinar for ACHSM. This gives a succinct, creative example of how to influence your audience with few words, well placed images and a powerful scenario. 

Parents TVC Copy

Phil Preston & Michael Neaylon

Founders, presentability

On behalf of the presentability team

5 Quick Lessons from the Presidential Debate

- by Nick Morgan

The received wisdom is that President Obama lost the debate and former Governor Romney won; 2/3rds of Americans polled thought so, and the commentators certainly did.

So what follows is a contrarian view.

My belief watching the debate was that all 3 participants lost, heavily – including Jim Lehrer, who was unable to function very well as a moderator and should not be asked back.

Read more >

Book Review: Become a Key Person of Influence

Daniel Priestley's book is a call to arms for entrepreneurs to distinguish their space and claim their micro-niche by becoming a KPI - a key person of influence.memorable.

Read more > 

Define Your Own “Style” to Become a Memorable Speaker

As we have found when delivering our public programs, there is always healthy enthusiasm for the style elements we focus on. Content and delivery are both important for structuring a clear message, making that relevant for your audience and engaging them, however it’s introducing your own style that will make you truly memorable. 

 

Why? You are unique. The more you acknowledge and emphasise your personal speaking and communication style, the more you stand out in meetings, board rooms, and your presentations in general.
 

To develop your style, here are five simple, effective tips to become even more memorable: 

1. Get feedback: Ask people who see you communicate professionally for feedback on what engages them most about you and your personal style. Make sure you get a mix of people whose opinion you respect to make the best decision on what works for you.
    
2. Grow the good: when we’re coaching people we like to emphasise what’s working for them - in all aspects, including style – more than what’s not. Perhaps it’s your well-placed humour, natural enthusiasm, or charismatic stillness and authority that work for you the most.
    
3. Discover other styles: once you’ve found the qualities that work for you, avoid resting on those alone, as you’ll limit, rather than expand, your communication style. It’s not unlike going to the gym and only doing the same routine for months or years on end. You’ll end up developing only one muscle, rather than making the most of your own physique by mixing up your routine from time to time.
    
4. Avoid imitation. Phil and I are both members of the National Speakers Association of Australia. A well-regarded and highly paid fellow speaker recently said that he never watches his competitors. We want to concentrate more on our audience and the authentic connection we make with them rather than our competitors or colleagues. By all means watch other speakers for their techniques and their skills, but avoid too much comparison and imitation.
    
5. Bring more of you to the room than you think you need to. Now that you’ve mined your points of difference, bring as many aspects of those parts of yourself and the way in which you communicate to the situation as you possibly can. Most people – in a diligent effort to be professional, or sometimes out of nerves or fear – bring only one aspect of their personality to a presentation. We’ll remember more about you and your material, the more we feel we’ve got to know you. 

There are many people wanting to be heard in meeting rooms, and in the marketplace. Make yourself one of the ones whose are not only heard, but remembered.
 

 

Coaching for even greater presentability

To fast track the definition of your own style and be more memorable in the boardroom, your next meeting or an upcoming presentation, contact us for coaching or details of our upcoming courses. 

Click here to find out more.

Video - presentability Capabilities

Phil Preston & Michael Neaylon give you an overview of presentability capabilities for greater presenting influence: Click here to view video

 

Until next time, keep practicing your presentability, 

Phil Preston & Michael Neaylon
FOUNDERS & DIRECTORS

On behalf of the presentability team

Crafting Content to Captivate Your Audience

We recently gave a webinar on Crafting Content to Captivate Your Audience. 

For all who were able to attend we hope you gained some good ideas that will help inspire you to create captivating content for your next presentation.

A recording of the webinar isn't available unfortunately, however you can view the slides for the webinar here.

If you're in or around Sydney and want more around crafting your presentations for greater clarity, cut-through and influence why not consider our one day public program on Sept 18. 

Click here for more details: Public Program Tuesday Sept 18

Keep improving your presentability

Michael Neaylon & Phil Preston

your presentability team 

support@presentability.com.au.

Gaining Boardroom Influence

How do you gain more boardroom influence with your peers?

In a recent private webcast for a leading association Phil gave a range of effective tips to help people increase their peer to peer persuasiveness, including:

Use framing to defuse issues or dismantle barriers

Give your audience an understanding of you, the topic and them.

• Let them know your role and background and how it pertains to addressing the issue (even if it seemingly doesn't).

• Give them your take on the topic, and display your full understanding of its nuances.

• Show them you acknowledge them and their point of view.

By using this simple, effective technique you can raise the bar on your effectiveness from 4 out of 10 to 7 or 8 out of 10.

To find out more about creating content to captivate any audience we have the following FREE webinars available that you can register for, click on a date that suits you:

Thursday, 9 August - 12:00PM AEST

Wednesday, 15 August - 12:00PM AEST

Keep improving your presentability

Phil Preston and Michael Neaylon

Free Webinars on Overcoming Nerves and Creating Content

Listen to our FREE Webinar - Overcoming Speaking Nerves

We held an online Webinar called Overcoming Speaking Nerves, and were delighted at the number of guests who attended the call.

If you missed out, don’t worry!  We’ve made it available for you so you can listen to it at a time that suits you.

Please click on the appropriate link below to listen and enjoy:

MP4 File: Webinar – Overcoming Speaking Nerves

MOV File: Webinar – Overcoming Speaking Nerves 


Upcoming Course and Another Free Webinar

We run public programs, tailor in-house solutions and remote coaching. 

Our next public one-day course is in Sydney on September 18 and you can take advantage of our super early bird rate of $395 (saving of $255) if you register by August 17.
Click here to find out more

Your next free webinar is on 'Creating Content To Captivate Your Audience.' 
This half hour webinar is on midday, August 9, from the comfort of your own computer. 
Click here to register

Until next time, keep improving your presentability.
  

Phil Preston and Michael Neaylon

On behalf of the presentability team
www.presentability.com.au
support@presentability.com.au