Are You Sabotaging Your Career?

Written by Brent Filson


Continued from page 1

Here's a few thoughts onrepparttar third method. Generally speaking, humans learn in two ways: by acquiring intellectual understanding and through experience. In our schooling,repparttar 107969 former predominates, but it isrepparttar 107970 latter which is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas; for our experiences, which can be life's teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

Look back at your schooling. Was it your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students, that you remember most? In most cases, your experiences maderepparttar 107971 most telling impressions upon you.

To transfer your motivation to others, use what I call my "defining moment" technique, which I describe fully in my book, DEFINING MOMENT: MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION.

In brief,repparttar 107972 technique is this: Put into sharp focus a particular experience of yours then communicate that focused experience torepparttar 107973 people by describingrepparttar 107974 physical facts that gave yourepparttar 107975 emotion.

Now, here'srepparttar 107976 secret torepparttar 107977 defining moment. That experience of yours must provide a lesson and that lesson is a solution torepparttar 107978 needs ofrepparttar 107979 people. Otherwise, they'll think you're just talking about yourself.

Forrepparttar 107980 defining moment to work (i.e., for it to transfer your motivation to them),repparttar 107981 experience must be about them. The experience happened to you, of course. But that experience becomes their experience whenrepparttar 107982 lesson it communicates is a solution to their needs.

(3) CAN YOU HAVE THE AUDIENCE TAKE RIGHT ACTION? Results don't happen unless people take action. After all, it's not what you say that's important in your leadership communications, it's whatrepparttar 107983 people do after you have had your say.

Yetrepparttar 107984 vast majority of leaders don't have a clue as to what action truly is.

They get people takingrepparttar 107985 wrong action atrepparttar 107986 wrong time inrepparttar 107987 wrong way forrepparttar 107988 wrong results.

A key reason for this failure is they don't know how to deliverrepparttar 107989 all-important "leadership talk Call-to-action".

"Call" comes from an Old English word meaning "to shout." A Call-to-Action is a "shout for action." Implicit inrepparttar 107990 concept is urgency and forcefulness. But most leaders don't deliverrepparttar 107991 most effective Calls-to-action because they make three errors regarding it.

First, they err by mistakingrepparttar 107992 Call-to-Action as an order. Withinrepparttar 107993 context of The Leadership Talk, a Call-to-action is not an order. Leaverepparttar 107994 order forrepparttar 107995 order leader.

Second, leaders err by mistakingrepparttar 107996 Call as theirs to give. The best Call-to-action is notrepparttar 107997 leader's to give. It'srepparttar 107998 people's to give. It'srepparttar 107999 people's to give to themselves. A true Call-to-action prompts people to motivate themselves to take action.

The most effective Call-to-action then is not fromrepparttar 108000 leader torepparttar 108001 people but fromrepparttar 108002 people torepparttar 108003 people themselves!

Third, they error by not priming their Call. There are two parts torepparttar 108004 Call-to-Action,repparttar 108005 primer andrepparttar 108006 Call itself. Most leaders omitrepparttar 108007 all-important primer.

The primer sets uprepparttar 108008 Call, which is to prompt people to motivate themselves to take action. You yourself controlrepparttar 108009 primer. The people controlrepparttar 108010 Call.

The primer/Call is critical because every leadership communication situation is in essence a problem situation. There isrepparttar 108011 problemrepparttar 108012 leader has. And there isrepparttar 108013 problemrepparttar 108014 people have. In many cases, they are two different problems. But leaders get into trouble regardingrepparttar 108015 Call-to-action when they think it's only one problem, mainly theirs.

For instance, a leader might be talking aboutrepparttar 108016 organization needing to be more productive. So,repparttar 108017 leader talks PRODUCTIVITY.

Onrepparttar 108018 other hand,repparttar 108019 people, hearing PRODUCTIVITY, think, YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE ME MORE WORK!

Ifrepparttar 108020 leader thinks that productivity isrepparttar 108021 people's problem and ignoresrepparttar 108022 "more work" aspect, h/she's Call-to-action will probably be a bust, resulting inrepparttar 108023 people avoiding committed action.

Let's applyrepparttar 108024 primer/Call dynamic torepparttar 108025 productivity case. The leader talks PRODUCTIVITY: but this time uses a PRIMER. The primer's purpose is to establish a "critical confluence" –repparttar 108026 union of your problem withrepparttar 108027 problem ofrepparttar 108028 people.

In this case,repparttar 108029 leader creates a critical confluence by couching productivity withinrepparttar 108030 framework of MORE MEANINGFUL WORK.

The primer may be: LET'S GET TOGETHER AND SEE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN ACTION PLAN THAT WILL ENSURE THAT THE PRODUCTIVITY GAINS YOU IDENTIFY AND EXECUTE WILL ENABLE YOU TO WORK AT WHAT'S REALLY MEANINGFUL TO YOU.

Note what we've done: The primer is LET'S GET TOGETHER AND SEE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN ACTION PLAN.

The actual Call is fromrepparttar 108031 people to themselves: LET'S INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY BY WORKING AT WHAT'S MEANINGFUL.

With that Call,repparttar 108032 leader moves from just getting average results (YOU MUST BE MORE PRODUCTIVE: i.e., you're going to solve MY problem) to getting great results (YOU COME UP WITH WAYS TO TIE PRODUCTIVITY INTO MEANINGFUL WORK: i.e., you're also going to solve your problem.) So, here's whatrepparttar 108033 leadership talk Call-to-action is truly about: It's not an order; it's best manifested whenrepparttar 108034 people give themselvesrepparttar 108035 Call; and it is always primed by your creatingrepparttar 108036 "critical confluence" -- they'll be solving their problem as well as yours.

The vast majority of leaders I've worked with are hampering their careers for one simple reason: They're giving presentations and speeches -- not leadership talks.

You have a great opportunity to turbo charge your career by recognizingrepparttar 108037 power of leadership talks. Before you give a leadership talk, ask three basic questions. Do you know whatrepparttar 108038 people need? Can you bring deep belief to what you're saying? Can you haverepparttar 108039 people takerepparttar 108040 right take action?

If you say "no" to any one of those questions you cannot give a leadership talk. Butrepparttar 108041 questions aren't meant to be stumbling blocks to your leadership but stepping stones. If you answer "no", work onrepparttar 108042 questions until you can say, "yes". In that way, you'll start gettingrepparttar 108043 right results inrepparttar 108044 right way on a consistent basis.

2004 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He has worked with thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at www.actionleadership.com


A Winning Motto: No APOLOGIES, No EXCUSES, No CONFESSIONS

Written by Debbie Bailey


Continued from page 1

Inrepparttar presentation context, APOLOGIES are almost always unnecessary. NEVER APOLOGIZE for anything, except perhaps if you step on an audience member’s foot or if you have so much energy that your booming voice blasts in their ear. Even then, your APOLOGY should be framed positively… “I am sorry. I am so excited to be here, I nearly brokerepparttar 107968 microphone!”

“PARDON ME,” AND OTHER LAME EXCUSES YOU HATE TO HEAR

EXCUSES are things we say to eliminaterepparttar 107969 responsibility we have for our success (or lack there of it). Like APOLOGIES, EXCUSES tell your audience not to expect a lot from your presentation because you have very good reasons (i.e.repparttar 107970 EXCUSE) for not being able to deliver.

“I just found out about this presentation yesterday so I didn’t have much time to prepare,” is a common and frankly, over used, EXCUSE. Other then tellingrepparttar 107971 audience NOT to expect a lot from you because you aren’t prepared to deliver, what positive purpose does this EXCUSE serve?

Before you make another EXCUSE, remember what it feels like to be onrepparttar 107972 receiving end of someone else’s excuses. If that doesn’t stop you, I don’t know what will!

“FORGIVE ME FOR I HAVE SINNED” AND OTHER CONFESSIONS TO AVOID

The CONFESSION is what happens whenrepparttar 107973 presenter tellsrepparttar 107974 audience something they have no business knowing. My favorite confession goes something like this…

“I’m really nervous today.”

The CONFESSION “I’m really nervous today” letsrepparttar 107975 audience know right offrepparttar 107976 bat that you will probably be a disappointment because you aren’t a very good presenter. It’s our strange attempt to setrepparttar 107977 bar really low.

So why do we makerepparttar 107978 CONFESSION? CONFESSING your nervousness to your audience lets you offrepparttar 107979 hook for performing well! Whilerepparttar 107980 audience may chuckle politely at your CONFESSION, many audience members stop listening carefully because they know that you are probably too “nervous” to meet their needs.

NEVER CONFESS torepparttar 107981 audience your nervousness and chances are, they will not know. Remember that while anxiety feels bad,repparttar 107982 truth is, it rarely shows. In fact, while you are worrying about your anxiety,repparttar 107983 audience is concentrating on your message and whether or not you are meeting their needs. I challenge you to live byrepparttar 107984 vow, NO APOLOGIES, NO EXCUSSES, NO CONFESSIONS. Your audience will thank you!

For much more about this and other Presentation Secrets, check outrepparttar 107985 book "15 Presentation Secrets: How to WOW Evenrepparttar 107986 Toughest Audience," by Debbie Bailey available at trainer2go.com/ebooks.html.

Debbie Bailey is author of the book "15 Presentation Secrets - How to WOW Even the Toughest Audience." She is well known for her life changing presentation skills classes. In addition to training at some of the most successful companies in Corporate America, Debbie has also taught Presentation Skills for United States Marines, San Diego State University, and UCLA Extension.


    <Back to Page 1
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use