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

Written by Debbie Bailey


Presenters sayrepparttar darndest things…

- “I’m sorry but I have a cold today so my voice may sound a little funny.”

- “I just found out about this presentation yesterday, so I didn’t have as much time to prepare as I would have liked.”

- “I wanted to get copies of our reports, but couldn’t…”

- “I meant to bring…”

- “Oh, I should have told you about it earlier…”

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

I call these APOLOGIES, EXCUSES, and CONFESSIONS. It is always surprising how often and how easily presenters use these kinds of NEGATIVE phrases in their presentations.

Up until now, that is.

If you want to WOW your audience, you have to adopt and live byrepparttar 107968 motto: NO APOLOGIES, NO EXCUSES, NO CONFESSIONS.

I can tell you from experience, it isn’t easy to do--but it will serve you well in your business career.

Here’s why you should avoid these kinds of negative comments. When you APOLOGIZE, MAKE AN EXCUSE, or CONFESS at any time during your presentation, you are in essence saying torepparttar 107969 audience, “Don’t expect a lot from me today because I’ll probably disappoint you.” It never fails to amaze me how many presenters do this before, and often many times throughout, their presentations.

DOING YOUR BEST MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY “I’M SORRY”

The kinds of APOLOGIES I often hear in presentations go something like this: “I apologize if you can’t hear me too well, but I have a cold today.” OR “I’m sorry I didn’t bring in a sample, but I couldn’t arrange it on such short notice.” OR EVEN “I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you that earlier in my presentation.”

The truth is, if you have a cold or don’t feel well, sooner or laterrepparttar 107970 audience will figure it out and because you didn’t use it as an EXCUSE for why you might not perform well, they will respect you for your effort. I have given some of my best presentations when I wasn’t feeling 100%. I attribute it torepparttar 107971 fact that I overcompensated by really being “on.” It is possible to perform well despite feeling poorly. And, at minimum, you owe it to your audience to try!

Instead ofrepparttar 107972 statement “I’m sorry I didn’t bring in a sample, but I couldn’t arrange it on such short notice,” try framing it inrepparttar 107973 positive, “I am working on getting you a sample and I can deliver it next week.” Isn’t it just as easy to PROMISE, rather than APOLOGIZE?

As forrepparttar 107974 statement, “I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you that earlier,” my question is, why would you APOLOGIZE torepparttar 107975 audience for forgetting something they had no idea you’d forgotten? If they think you’ve done it exactly as you were “supposed” to, what possible benefit do you receive from clueing them into your error? I advise you never to APOLOGIZE for making a mistake thatrepparttar 107976 audience didn’t notice first.

Communication strategy during a time of strategic planning

Written by Lee Hopkins


"Rubbish!" shoutedrepparttar large, aggressive man inrepparttar 107967 red-striped shirt (we had to pay attention to him because he ownedrepparttar 107968 company).

"The staff don't need to be told anything. When we've sorted out allrepparttar 107969 details and haverepparttar 107970 adverts ready to run, then we'll tell them. They don't need to know beforehand, it'll only stop them working" he went on to loudly proclaim.

It's hard to ignorerepparttar 107971 wishes of your client, especially when he's paying you so well and has browbeaten every other consultant, as well as his management team, into submission.

Yet my experience, again and again, is this:

If you don't tell them what's going on, they'll make it up anyway!

Employees not present at strategic planning offsite meetings aren't dumb; they're just not present. They know you're away (they think probably planningrepparttar 107972 future ofrepparttar 107973 company, their jobs and their salary cuts), so they will gossip and rumour-monger to their heart's discontent while you are not 'mindingrepparttar 107974 store'.

So planning your internal communication is an essential prerequisite to effective and committed implementation of any business strategy. It also goes a long way towards problem minimisation.

In order to minimiserepparttar 107975 internal and external risks of gossip and rumours, therefore, you should have it very firmly set in your mind that a communication outliningrepparttar 107976 outcome ofrepparttar 107977 planning should arrive with all due speed, consistency and completeness.

The following guidelines have been tested by experience and found useful:

1. Design and agree The communication strategy should be designed and agreed by all as part ofrepparttar 107978 planning process, not an adjunct activity delegated to a junior manager who, in all probability, wasn't even atrepparttar 107979 planning meeting.

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