Delivering A Speech? Maintain Eye Contact
Body language is very important when delivering a speech. Have you ever seen our great leaders fidget or make unnecessary movements while addressing the nation? Since you are the center of attention while making the presentation, you should mind every move that you make so as not to bore or distract the people listening to your speech. So you already have a speech prepared, you know the topic well and you are now standing in front of the audience. They are in for a treat because you have prepared a great presentation, yet you also know that they have a very short attention span. How would you keep them interested with what you are saying? The answer is to maintain eye contact.This is one public speaking technique that great speakers use when addressing a large group of people. Here are some tips on how you can use this “trick” to keep your audience interested while delivering a speech: Once you have already started speaking and have delivered your introduction, take a look at your audience. Do not be nervous if you see one or two people frowning as you are not sure of exactly what they are thinking. Instead of looking out for unfriendly or blank faces, search for the people who are smiling and nodding their heads. Try to focus on this person for a couple of minutes and look him or her in the eye. This way, you would have an immediate “friend” in the audience to whom you can look at and gain confidence from. This will not just increase your confidence but also relax you in the course of your speech. Gaze steadily at your audience, moving from one part of the room to another. This way, you would immediately grasp their attention. Never read your speech. Just make an outline of the important points that you can expand on. If you have visuals, do not read the bullet points word for word as this might imply that your audience cannot read that themselves. With this, you are instantly creating a “bond” with your audience as a speaker since you do not have to keep on looking at your notes through the course of your speech. The key to delivering a great speech is to just breathe, relax and make eye to eye contact with your audience. Thus, you are not just making a physical connection with them but you are also ensured that you come out as a sincere speaker who wants to inform and interact with the audience through your speech.
Blueprint for Leadership – How to Be a Better Leader
If you were to build a house, you would begin with a blueprint. This blueprint proves useful because it contains more than directions on how to build a house. It also describes the finished house. So, what does this have to do with leadership? Last month I asked an audience of leaders to tell me the characteristics of an ideal leader. Their answers were (in the order collected): A good listener, enthusiasm, passion, shows appreciation, a visionary, role model, trusting, integrity, organized, knowledgeable, credibility, persuasive, charisma, team building, clarity of purpose, problem solver, attitude of service, leads by example, patience, willing to act without complete knowledge, understands followers, consistent, empowers other people, and adapts to change. I’ll add that this is essentially the same list that I receive from other audiences when I ask this question. From this comes some useful insights. 1) Notice what the list contains. All of these characteristics relate to the human side of leadership. That’s interesting because I often hear people minimize this side of leadership with terms like “soft” or “touchy feely.” Actually, applying these characteristics requires more strength than not. 2) Notice what the list excludes. Absent from this list (and all lists from other programs) are characteristics such as stern, mean, serious, short tempered, vindictive, tough, angry, harsh, punitive, controlling, violent, or ruthless. And that’s interesting because many popular representations of leadership emphasize at least one of these “hard” characteristics. In fact, these characteristics are the refuge of those who lack the strength (or the skills) to apply the human side of leadership. 3) How about you? How would you rate yourself as a leader compared to the list of positive characteristics? If you were to survey the people who report to you, how would they describe your leadership? Would they list characteristics from the “soft” list or from the “hard” list? Could you become more effective by improving upon any of the “soft” characteristics? And how about the other leaders in your organization? Do they truly maximize human potential? People want leaders who treat them with genuine compassion, courtesy, and respect. They want leaders who help them become more successful. They want leaders who inspire them with a vision for a better world and show them how to go there.
Are You a Leader or a Slacker?
Do you claim to be a Leader in your business or your field of expertise? I have noticed that many people claim to be Leaders, but I consider them Slackers instead. A Slacker is someone that basically likes to give instruction or direction, but takes no action on advancing themselves or their business. Does this describe you, your up-line or someone else on your Mastermind Team? Here are some clues that might help you out. Leader: Praises his/her team and offers encouragement Slacker: Quick to find fault and slow to give praise Leader: Holds himself/herself to a higher standard that his/her team Slacker: Has a high level of expectation for his/her team but doesn’t hold himself/herself to that same standard Leader: Leads by example and is a role model for his/her team Slacker: Blends in with crowd and never steps up to take a leadership role Leader: Has deep rooted belief in his/her business and leads new teammates through the growth process (learning the business and facing obstacles) Slacker: Convinces a person to join his/her team then pawns them off on someone else or simply pushes them to the side (Referred to as “sign and drop”) Which of these characteristics, best describes you and your teammates? Be honest with yourself. Just remember, that a leader must lead and nourish others through the growth process. If he/she loses integrity and fails to take action, then this same failure mindset will ripple down to his/her teammates. A team will duplicate their leader and their leader’s actions. Let me ask you one last time…Are you a Leader or a Slacker?
An Effective Style To Use In Public Speaking: Audience Participation
An effective public speaker should be able to utilize devices that will be able to capture the attention of the audience. One effective means for them to give you that much needed interest is this: get them to go on stage. Make them participate. When someone is on stage and he or she happens to be a member of the audience, the rest will almost always stay attentive. Why? Because they would like to see what you will be doing to one of them. Also, because they are thinking they could be up there themselves and so to save their precious egos from embarrassment they at least need to know what is going on. No matter how good or excellent you are as a presenter or as a public speaker, nothing beats the excitement of getting someone to be on stage who really should not be there in the first place. What is going through their minds at that moment when you pull an unsuspecting someone from their complacency is that, “Oh my god, what if the speaker selects me to go up there next? What am I going to do?” Then later, “I need to pay attention to this.” A little bit later as you go through your presentation, the audience will then most probably think, “What point is he/she making?” And then as you take your point across, the audience will then get to think, “Now I get it.” Because you made them pay attention, you have forced them to listen and respond to your statement in the privacy of their minds. However, there are those extremely shy and very sensitive members of the audience who might withdraw from going through the rest of your presentation if they hear you will be calling on them up on the stage. The objective is to gain an audience and not to lose any of them. Make it clear prior to your asking someone to come up on stage with you that you are asking for a volunteer and that no one will be forced if they do not want to. Notice that if the majority of your audience are shy, once you finally get someone to be on stage, all of them will almost always heave a sigh of relief that you would actually feel a breeze pass you by, really. Another way to get the audience to participate as well as pay attention is by giving them due recognition. Try to acknowledge a single member of the audience for a specific achievement or a moment of a good performance, or also acknowledge a group of the audience.
Accounting Service Support and Guidance to Multiply Your Profits
Accounting is one such job which is crucial for the development of the business but is utterly clouded with boredom. If you hire professional accountants and CPAs in your firm, then loads of money goes into their payment, installing an entire in-house accounting department with complete amenities, and tiresome vigil over the accounting professionals all the time. Instead it would be great if you avail the accounting services New York. You will have to pay half of what you are doing now plus stress free business hours. Accounting services New York firms are renowned for their flawless and accurate accounting job throughout US. These accounting firms employ hardcore professional CPAs, bookkeepers, and accountants who handle the bulk work with swift speed and in an immaculate manner. These professionals are expert and experienced in their work. Before hiring such professionals in an accounting services firm, these accountants are given exhaustive training sessions and coaching in how to manage and handle tough jobs with alacrity. Wherever you may be located in the US, you can still enjoy the benefits of the accounting services New York and let your business prosper with sound support. Accounting work deals with calculating monetary gains and losses, making statistical figures, preparing financial reports, taxation, issuing and entering the details of invoices, preparing balance sheet, economic reports drafting, and the estimation of gross and per capita income. All of these aforementioned tasks need great deliberation and accuracy. A small error may lead to irretrievable loss for the business. There are lots of expenses made almost daily in your firm including bills of raw material, electricity charges, repair services bills, and even canteen supply which needs to be recorded and enter into the accounts books regularly. Since, all these expenses are made on the basis of office accounts so have to be included and deducted from the business income. Experts of accounting services New York keep an eye over every single dollar being deducted from your account and keep the invoices intact and filed in specific folders. This gives a clear cut view of how your business is going and what all changes and modifications are required in its accounts dealing so as to make it prosper more. The most essential change which you will notice after outsourcing your accounting work to an accounting services firm is that of the growth of the business. You will be able to take your attention off the accounting woes and concentrate your energy and mind on other important chores of the firm which hitherto have been neglected to a greater extent. Experienced and professional accountants in the outsourcing firm will be assigned to your company to work and thenceforth they will be responsible for managing, recording, and systematizing your entire accounting issues. You will be in direct contact with them so that whenever urgency for certain information or any record pops up, they could answer your needs promptly. Now, you must have understood how beneficial accounting services New York can be for your business development. Also, you will feel stress free since you will have sound accounting system working at the back to support your business all the time.
A Key Element In Public Speaking: Timing Pauses
Timing is essential when speaking in public. The cliché: It is not what you say but more on how you say it, applies so much to public speaking. Where you put your pauses during your presentation is one of the important aspects of maintaining an audience that is free from drowsing off. Couple this with humor and you are definitely on a roll. Timing is the element involved during reactions that are spontaneous especially on developments during your delivery that are unexpectedly expected. Do not forget, though, that when you expect any laughter to burst any time soon, avoid speaking as your voice and whatever it is that you are saying will most probably be drowned out by the noise of the audience. Make sure to remember that laughter is extremely difficult to get and so very much easy to discourage. Try as much as possible to maintain eye contact with the audience for a little time longer when you deliver that punch line. The audience size could also affect the way you use your timing. When the audience is small, the presentation you have will most probably be delivered in a lesser time compared to if you have a large audience. The reaction of a large audience will get to be a little longer and not as quick as if the audience is small. You also have to wait until the seemingly ripple effect of your punch line gets to that audience in the back row. Believe it or not, putting that much needed silence in your presentation is one of the hallmarks of a skilled and good presenter. No public speaker should jabber constantly away in the hopes of keeping an audience glued to anything it is you have to say. Ironically, this is one effective way to keep their focus off you. The use of silence adds that much needed polish in your presentation making you appear as a confident expert. Short pauses are effective to use in order for you to separate your thoughts. These pauses last from half a second to two. You do not have to literally count though, just keep in mind to slow down. This gives the audience a chance to absorb all of what it is you are getting across. It also helps if you change the inflection in your voice during the end of a thought as this could also signal to the audience that another thought is coming their way. Pauses are also an effective means if you want to highlight something. Put it before any word or thought you want the audience to focus on, they will most definitely get that.
3 Powerful Ways to Recognize an Opportunity
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur one of the things that you’re going to have to do is be able to recognize opportunity when it knocks. An opportunity to fill a much needed gap in the market or to change your business to take advantage of a trend could mean the difference between a little bit of success and a huge amount. But you must know what these opportunities look like so that you can grab them when you see them. Here are three ways to recognize an opportunity. It Might Not Be Perfect One of the earmarks of a good opportunity is that it doesn’t sound too good to be true. A true opportunity that has great potential isn’t going to be perfect when you encounter it. You’re going to have to do the work to make it into a successful venture. However, one thing that should have is potential. If you can see it becoming a great idea in the future than it might just be the opportunity that you been looking for but just be sure that just because an idea is imperfect that you don’t discard it completely. It Is Built on Previous Failures The best ideas are the ones that have evolved over time because they have been honed through past failures. If an idea has been through the furnace of discovery, there is a much greater chance of it working when you decide to implement it. In other words, you might want to give an idea time to fail a few times before you decide to run with it yourself, because otherwise, you’ll be making all of those mistakes yourself and that won’t result in the grand opportunity the you’re envisioning. It Might Not Be What It Was Intended to Be Used for Originally Some of the best ideas that have ever been thought of were completely different takes on what a product or service was originally intended for. The idea might’ve been a failure as it was intended but it sparked an entire new thought process and brand-new applications. These accidental inventions ended up being something completely different because someone had the ability to see past the original application. For example, both the slinky and silly putty toys were intended for industrial application. However, they failed as intended and instead became some of the most popular toys ever invented.
Leadership: Is It For You?
Leadership is something that is fundamentally part of a society. It is necessary in any good society that someone stands up and takes charge. Leadership is essential, we know that, but does that mean everyone out there is a leader? The fact of the matter is that some individuals are not made to be leaders. They are followers. And just as important in society as leaders are followers. So, where do you lie? Are you going to play leadership roles within your life? For many people, the instincts to take those leadership roles just comes to them. It is just something that happens. They step up to the plate when needed. They respond first in class. They take charge of the baseball game on the playground. They step up to the plate on the job. While you can not be first in every case, individuals that have leadership skills will often be seen and heard throughout their lives. But, not all leaders are born with this talent. Many of them must learn it. People with an ambition to be a leader can do so by taking classes and studying the necessary skills that it takes to be a leader. While all of this may sound simple, it can be quite a task to learn. It is hard to teach a person to react in a situation that is not planned well. Because leaders are determined by their actions, we often see that leadership roles are filled with individuals who put themselves out there to be chosen, so to speak. But, this is not always the case. In many cases of emergency, leaders are those that take charge long before anyone else reacts. In that, these individuals will have a cool head about themselves and be able to see the necessary work ahead while others are worrying, panicking or simply in shock. These are probably the true leaders in our society.
MASTERMIND TEAM: DO YOU HAVE ONE?
The key to life is to be around the people who will empower you to reach the next level in life! In order to exceed your present reach, you need to be around people who will help you stretch a little farther. The secret to a productive mastermind team is for you to surround yourself with people who you can always learn from. A sign of a very intelligent person is to be smart enough to realize that you need to learn from others who can contribute to your WHY in life. As you know, my ultimate outcome is to develop the #1 personal self-development company in the world. Each and every day I strive to immerse myself in material and people who will enable me to achieve our corporate mission. As you look at your own mission in life, you need to ask yourself a very honest/straightforward question ….“Is my personal development engine in Forward, Neutral or Reverse?” The answer is very simple. All that you need to do is to write down the top 10 people you regularly associate with. As you review the list, realize that you will become an exact duplicate of those 10 people — financially, spiritually, physically and psychologically. Once again, be honest with yourself. If you are not 110% happy about what you see yourself becoming due to your present relationships, you need to take ACTION immediately! Make a decision to develop a mastermind TEAM! Unfortunately, 95% of people will never take the action needed in order to become part of a mastermind team. They will continue to live their lives and wonder WHAT HAPPENED to their LIVES and all of their DREAMS. You need to stop whining and begin working on yourself to become part of a Mastermind Team! I am proud to say that each and every day I associate with people who are either at my level of enthusiasm, excitement and intelligence or even more so than I am, which is the key to a personally productive mastermind team. You need to be a part of a group of people who make you want to exceed your present reach. Be honest with yourself and know that you need to change your associations in order to achieve your God-given dreams! You will be amazed by the results. Your life will SOAR like an EAGLE to the ends of the earth if you change your associations!
Leadership Learning: The Real Costs Of Not Doing Leadership Training
A report from the Said Business School at Oxford University in the UK found that British businesses and public sector organizations are wasting almost $140 million on executive education programs that are poorly conceived and delivered. The study went on to say that 35 per cent of HR directors and 21 per cent of other executives believed that their current training and development programs were meeting corporate strategic objectives. The bulk of the money was being spent on individually developed courses for senior executives. If those businesses want to quit wasting all that money on bad management training, I know where they can get their moneys worth. And it doesn’t have anything to do with having more academics design special courses, events, and outings for senior staff. Here’s a novel idea folks. Why not spend your money on leadership training and development down in the trenches, where it will really do some good? Most companies don’t do nearly enough of that. In 2003, just 7 percent of training budgets in the US were spent on first line leaders and most of that was for learning administrivia and for prophylactic HR. The fact is that front line leaders don’t get much training at all and precious little of it is actually about leadership skills. Maybe that’s because companies think they’re saving money by not investing in front line leader training. True, there’s no budget line item absorbing funds that might be spent on the executive dining room, or art for the CEO’s office. But there are what economists call “opportunity costs,” the costs of not training front line leaders. There’s the opportunity cost of lost productivity. Good frontline leadership builds both morale and profitability. There’s the opportunity cost of lost leadership. Great companies develop most of their own leaders. If you have to go outside for leadership you incur recruitment costs and transition costs. Finally, there’s the cost of lawsuits. Good frontline leadership creates organizations where lawsuits are less likely. And, if the company is sued over a supervision issue, defense will be easier if the leaders have been doing their jobs. How about your company? Do you develop your own leaders? Do you help them develop the skills they need to improve morale and productivity and avoid lawsuits? Think about that the next time you consider the training budget.
