Speak Powerfully... coaching session 6

Humor is your weapon to win attention, humor is your tool to stand out, humor is your winning edge. For those who need a less aggressive metaphor, humor is the icing on the cake that makes your message attractive and a pleasure to consume. 

This new 7 minute coaching session quickly reviews seven actions you can take to add humor to your business speech or presentation.

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A baker’s dozen “saver lines” (thanks to Art Fettig, Herb True, Robert Orben, and David Glickman)

• that was hilarious on paper
• oh good, I was looking for a quiet place to rehearse
• here’s another one you won’t like
• I know you’re out there...I can hear you breathing
• when you guys get quiet, you don’t mess around
• that’s OK...I can wait
• it says here ‘pause for laughter’
• this is what’s known as a mid-laugh crisis
• ah, I’ve discovered the silent majority
• so much for comic relief
• smiling doesn’t count folks...you have to laugh out loud
• I hear dead people
• I’m touched by your enthusiasm

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 5

A speech is like a dance, with the speaker and audience as dance partners. Sometimes leading, sometimes following, effective speakers engage - dance with - their audiences. Engagement both takes energy and builds energy.

This 7 minute coaching session outlines seven ways that you can maintain and increase the engagement and energy of your audience while making your presentation.

listen to the summary podcast of the Powerful Speaking series



Try this MP3 version if the above doesn’t play on your computer

7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Subscribe to 7 Ideas Coach via email or through Apple iTunes

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 4

A speech is like a dance, with the speaker and audience as dance partners. Sometimes leading, sometimes following, effective speakers engage - dance with - their audiences. Engagement both takes energy and builds energy.

This 7 minute coaching session outlines seven ways that you can maintain and increase the engagement and energy of your audience while making your presentation.

listen to the summary podcast of the Powerful Speaking series



Try this MP3 version if the above doesn’t play on your computer

7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Subscribe to 7 Ideas Coach via email or through Apple iTunes

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 3

How you start your presentation or speech sets the audiences expectation. If you begin with a strong opening, end with a powerful close, and have relevant material in the middle, listeners will forget and forgive any parts that are uninteresting or less than well done. They will perceive the entire presentation positively as a whole.

This 7 minute coaching session covers the essentials of crafting a powerful opening, and includes seven different ways to do it.

listen to the summary podcast of the Powerful Speaking series



Try this MP3 version if the above doesn’t play on your computer

7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Subscribe to 7 Ideas Coach via email or through Apple iTunes

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 2

If you want to stand out and be heard, then you need to make sure your speech or presentation is organized so it can be followed by the listener. The following are seven things you would do well to pay attention to...

listen to the summary podcast of the Powerful Speaking series



Try this MP3 version if the above doesn’t play on your computer

7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Subscribe to 7 Ideas Coach via email or through Apple iTunes

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 1

Poor speaking is so tolerated as normal for business that perhaps no other skill gives as quick a payback for effort as learning to speak with clarity, brevity and energy. Small and basic improvements in speaking in front of others will typically elevate one well above the crowd. Plus effective speaking is one of the best tools for cultivating influence.

Acquiring the skills to improve speaking is not actually difficult to do, but takes time, practice and discipline. The following are a seven key practices to develop speaking mechanics and delivery.

listen to the summary podcast of the Powerful Speaking series



Try this MP3 version if the above doesn’t play on your computer

PDF Checklist of 7 Essential Elements of Speaking Delivery

7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Subscribe to 7 Ideas Coach via email or through Apple iTunes

We’re taking a break this week to prepare for our next series...
Powerful Speaking
Stand Out and Get Your Message Across in the Business Environment

Look for it March 30th

Leadership Momentum... session 7

A fundamental paradox of effective leadership is getting people to pursue excellence without thinking about it, eliciting top performance on “autopilot.”

Most people have had the experience of driving and arriving at a destination without remembering the trip. Much of human thinking and behavior is unconscious, essentially on “automatic pilot.” Expert marketers, politicians, and stage magicians are known for how they use unconscious “default” behavior to exert influence in what people think, perceive, and choose. Savvy leaders do well to adopt the same influence tools.

There can indeed be a fine line between manipulating and tricking people on the one hand, and nudging and influencing with integrity and transparency on the other. But as Thaler and Sunstein note in their book, Nudge, rarely is there a “neutral” option in choices and decisions. Leaders will invariably find themselves to be choice architects, influencing others whether they want to or not.

Listen to hear seven ways that leaders can consciously influence unconscious “automatic” behavior...

read the summary leadership article on Leadership Momentum



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7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Subscribe to 7 Ideas Coach via email or through Apple iTunes
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Leadership Momentum... session 6

Organizations and individuals alike are constantly implored to develop a competitive advantage. Paradoxically, what may give you a real edge is a well-honed capacity to collaborate. In an increasingly complex world, leaders are more likely to face the challenge of collaborative projects and partnerships - efforts that will require different professions or different organizations to work together, including endeavors that span business, nonprofit, and public sectors.

There is hardly a better competitive advantage than being comfortable and effective in working across boundaries to achieve mutually beneficial results. Collaboration is not for the faint of heart. The following outlines seven essential ingredients leaders should include to assure success in collaborative projects.

read the summary leadership article on Leadership Momentum
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Leadership Momentum... session 5

Your network is the sum of connections you have with other people that might be used to share benefits. Networking is the intentional actions you take to build your network.

Networking is a lifelong endeavor, likely to play a vital role in making the achievements you desire a reality. There is no time like the present to take the initiative, and begin networking wisely. This session outlines seven fundamental principles of successful networking for long-term value.
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Leadership Momentum... session 4

Poor speaking is so tolerated as normal for business that perhaps no other skill gives as quick a payback for effort as learning to speak with clarity, brevity and energy. Small and basic improvements in speaking in front of others will typically elevate one well above the crowd. Plus effective speaking is one of the best tools for cultivating influence.
Acquiring the skills to improve speaking is not actually difficult to do, but takes time, practice and discipline. This session gives leaders seven key points to remember:
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Leadership Momentum... session 3

Effective leaders develop agility in understanding themselves, interacting with others, and managing their life endeavors by intentional development and application of specific modes of thinking. This coaching session outlines seven modes of thinking that are of particular importance to leaders.
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Leadership Momentum... session 2

If you truly are driven by escaping mediocrity and accelerating achievement, you have to resist what most people do, which is focus on weaknesses.

Most people have been introduced to the idea that they should emphasize building on their strengths. Even so, Individuals and companies alike still persist in approaching development and performance management by identifying relative weaknesses and then trying to shore them up. The trouble is, if you do everything generally well, you will probably avoid failing but certainly fail to achieve excellence. This session offers seven ideas to stimulate your thinking on strengths.
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Leadership Momentum... session 1

Credibility generates an assumption of capacity to accomplish objectives. Moreover, credibility generates trust, and trust automatically gains a leader the benefit of the doubt. People carry on with their efforts, look beyond mistakes, and work around annoyances and inconveniences.

Savvy leaders know that multiple credibility indicators are more compelling than any single credential or quality. The seven assets and qualities discussed in this session are not exhaustive, but certainly among the most likely to broadly gain leaders credibility.
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Change Leadership... session 7

Culture is what people do when the boss isn’t looking. It’s the behavior, attitude, and atmosphere that happen unconsciously.

Want a culture that embraces change and innovation? Then cultivate an appreciative culture.

I use the word appreciative to describe a company culture where people both contribute to a positive climate AND take care of the business. Appreciative cultures highly value competency, excellence, and results as much as feeling good about their workplace. Two meanings of appreciative fit: to recognize with gratitude, and to increase in value.

Appreciative cultures are resilient to change, not resistant. They seek and reward change that adds value. This session outlines seven actions leaders can take to encourage and reinforce a culture of change...
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Change Leadership... session 6

In the 21st century, increasing complexity is a hard fact for almost all organizations - whether large or small, or business, public, or non-profit.

The combination of knowledge-based work plus increased complexity calls for a different kind of action to move organizations forward, which in turn impacts what kind of leadership styles are most effective and what kind of leaders are needed for the future.

The ideas in this session explain 3 different kinds of complexity, as well as appropriate leadership responses to varying levels of complexity...
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Change Leadership... session 5

Too many change initiatives suffer from what preeminent executive coach Marshall Goldsmith calls the 1 2 3 7 problem - implementing change is a 7 step process, but leaders often leave out steps 4, 5, and 6.

To detail, leaders too often (1) Assess the Situation, (2) Identify Solutions, (3) Plan Action, but then leap to (7) Implement Changes - leaving out efforts to (4) Seek Buy-in Up, (5) Seek Buy-in Across, and (6) Seek Buy-in Down. Oops.

Effective leaders are intentional about creating buy-in for expected change. This podcast covers seven things leaders need to know...

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Change Leadership... session 4

There is fundamental paradox of effective leadership - people make their best effort only when they voluntarily choose to do so. Leading is the art of giving people a genuine choice to follow, while making the choice to follow irresistibly compelling.

A true act of leading is determined not by the “leader” but by the person who chooses to “follow”. Leading can be defined as the act of gaining willing followers for a course of action when the way forward is uncertain or unknown. At its core, leading is about creating conditions where people willingly change - this session reviews seven ways how...
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