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How to Overcome Fear and Enjoy Public Speaking

Public SpeakingDo your palms sweat, knees shake, heart race, and stomach fill with butterflies whenever you are asked to speak to groups? Mine used to and I would let the fear stop me from saying yes. Guess what? I still feel those sensations but have learned some valuable tips that help me to channel that nervous energy and get the butterflies flying in formation so I can seize opportunities that arise. You can too.

This week I had the honor and pleasure to speak at the 2016 Phoenix SCORE Small Business Symposium. During my preparation and delivery, I reminisced about of some of the public speaking techniques that I have learned during my past 30-years as a public speaker and facilitator.

Prepare

  • Build up a reserve of information—be ready with 100 times the amount of information than you can possibly share in the allotted time.
  • Develop clear written objectives, an agenda, and bullet points about what you would like to accomplish. Resist writing out your presentation word for word. Instead, let your slides and bullets prompt your thoughts.
  • Arrive at the room early enough in order to get everything set up and ready to go before the first participant appears. I have found that there is always something that needs to be tweaked to match my preferences. Test all the equipment that will be used. Technology doesn’t always cooperate as intended, so be ready with an alternate plan if necessary.
  • Keep everything organized and professional-looking to reduce distractions and optimize your efficiency (i.e., chairs orderly, supply table neat, posters straight, attractive handouts, layout highly technical training tools).

Connect

  • Dress just above the level of the best-dressed person in the room. You’ll feel better and your participants will see you as the professional you are.
  • Check your ego at the door. Deliver your presentation in a conversational way.
  • Welcome each participant as he or she enters the room. This will ease both your and their anxiety.
  • Hold their attention—present information using a variety of ways in which people learn best (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic, creative, analytical). Tell relevant and entertaining stories. Build in exercises. Use exhibits and metaphors to demonstrate concepts and principles.
  • Meet your audience at their present level of consciousness and strive to lift them to a higher level.

Engage

  • When you begin, engage the participants within the first 60 seconds. Ask a question. Have them greet a neighbor. Something to involve them.
  • Engage people’s hearts and minds—lasting transformation occurs only when the heart is involved. Personal stories and examples are a great way to connect heart to heart.
  • Keep PowerPoint slides simple, using few words and nothing smaller than a 24-point font size. Remember also that a picture is worth a thousand words. You want people to focus on you and your message not straining to read wordy slides.
  • Allow people to share their unique point of view. Be a spherical thinker—see everyone’s viewpoint (opinion) as a valid point on a sphere.
  • Deliver what you’ve promised so that you maintain your integrity with your audience (or reach consensus to do otherwise).

Flow

  • Keep the energy moving and building; don’t let the momentum drop.
  • Trust your intuition to know the perfect questions to ask and the right exercises to use to help the group progress
  • Mix it up—keep things interesting and fresh by varying the exercises and by occasionally springing surprises upon your audience.
  • Don’t be afraid of a little chaos—it’s a natural part of the process. Trust that order will eventually appear.
  • Maintain the delicate balance between achieving results and allowing time for dialogue.

Enjoy!

  • It’s easier to be a speaker or facilitator if you love people.
  • Have fun with the people in your audience. A smile and a little appropriate humor go a long way toward lightening up tense situations.
  • Give it your all by pouring your heart and soul into it.
  • Don’t take things personally—people are never upset for the reasons you think.
  • Look for opportunities to WOW!—make the experience unique, memorable and enjoyable.

I hope these tips help you to overcome fear of public speaking and hone your own speaking and facilitation skills.

What other public speaking techniques do you use?

Much success and fulfillment,

Ray

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(Adapted from Chapter 15 in my new book Energize Your Business: Engage Your Employees with an Inspiring Strategic Planning Process. Read free chapters and learn more at www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz .)

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What do Great Leaders Care About?

5 Focal Points of Great LeadersGreat leaders care as much about the growth of their people as they do about the bottom-line—those leaders constantly strive to build high-performing teams while also encouraging individual fulfillment.

Paraphrasing from Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, in their bestselling business book Built to Last, in great organizations everyone knows exactly what needs to be done and when to do it. Like gears in a precision-made clock, everyone’s part synchronizes perfectly with everyone else’s. If someone is absent or having a bad day, like clockwork someone else steps up without missing a beat—without excuses, without ego.

It’s easy to see what greatness looks like in the sports and entertainment industries, since they are so visible and are studied relentlessly under a microscope. We saw it with Brian Epstein and The Beatles 50 years ago. We saw it in 2016’s Super Bowl upset with John Elway, Payton Manning, and the Denver Broncos. We saw it with Dayton Moore and the 2015 Kansas City Royals. More than see it, we feel it!

Here are 5 essential focal points of great leaders in great organizations:

Aspiration – Great leaders aspire to achieve lofty visions and have their employees and organizations “be the best they can be.” They generate a high level of “Team Spirit.” The highest aspiration for any organization is to have the entire team performing such that they almost move together as one unit in pursuit of a mutual goal.

Assessment – Great leaders assess the present situation to determine the best path forward. They continuously monitor employees and customers to better understand their ever-changing desires and expectations—always looking for ways to increase their level of satisfaction and fulfillment. They are also skillful predictors of their competition’s next move.

Alignment – Great Leaders create alignment and support from the top of the organization to the front-line. They strive to get everyone focused and moving in the same direction, toward the same vision, demonstrating the same behavioral values.

Accountability – Great leaders coach employees to live their agreements. They create a culture of personal responsibility and accountability such that employees understand the level of performance that is expected of them. Great leaders understand that anyone who chooses not to fulfill their agreements will probably be happier somewhere else, and they help them to see that.

Acknowledgment – Great leaders catch people in the act of doing things right. They build a culture of celebration and appreciation while improving the quality and depth of communication, strengthening relationships, and building trust.

How are your leaders doing with implementing the 5 focal points? What other focal points do you suggest?

Much success and fulfillment,

Ray

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Adapted from Appendix B of my new book Energize Your Business: Engage Your Employees with an Inspiring Strategic Planning Process. Read free chapters and learn more at www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz .)

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How to Ignite Enthusiasm withYour Mission

Mission EnthusiasmDo you have a mission statement that clearly defines the unique business that you are in or about?

Do your employees and customers understand your organization’s mission?

 

W. Clement Stone said…

“When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.” 

Clearly defining your mission helps you to know which opportunities to say “yes” to and which to turn down. It becomes your “energy umbrella.” Every opportunity under the umbrella of your mission is a wise investment of your organization’s energy and resources. Anything outside the umbrella will not resonate with what is important to your organization. It is a valuable tool to decide on what to expend precious resources.

 “Clearly defining your mission helps you to know what opportunities to say ‘yes’ to and which to turn down.”

 A mission statement is an umbrella proposition that should encompass all you chose to do. It defines the business you are in or about. A mission statement, well written, will answer the following questions:

  1. How do you choose to have people behave (most important core values)?
  2. Why is your organization here (core purpose; the heart of your mission statement)?
  3. What does your organization do (products and services you provide)?
  4. What results do you desire for your organization (beyond just making money)?
  5. Who does your organization serve (your customers)?

The key to crafting a good mission statement is to make it simple but not too vague. Make it heartfelt and not too heady. Make it unique to your organization so as to distinguish you from your competitors. Make it memorable and inspiring to all who read it.

Here are a few mission statement examples that may help get you started with creating your own:

Starbucks Mission: To inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Our TLC Mission: We help create cultures of character and success that inspire hope and awaken the greatness in people, organizations and communities—guiding organizations to get clear, get organized, get going, and get results.

When you have completed your organizational mission statement, consider asking your department managers to gather with their direct reports to craft each department’s mission statement. This exercise will help employees to become clearer about the scope of their service to the organization. Additionally, you will find it to be a meaningful and engaging employee team building experience.

I always recommend to my clients that they revisit their mission annually, because their organization needs to evolve as the needs of their target market changes. Your organization’s core purpose and core values should stand the test of time once you get them right. However, keep your mission like clay that you continue to mold as you get clearer on the business you’re in or about.

Enjoy igniting your enthusiasm and burning desire by creating or rejuvenating your mission statement.

Much success and fulfillment,

Ray

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(Adapted from Chapter 4 of my new book Energize Your Business: Engage Your Employees with an Inspiring Strategic Planning Process. Read free chapters and learn more at www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz .)

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Infuse Your Culture with Values

Core Values GraphicWhat does your organization stand for—your core values? Successful business owners understand how vital a company’s core values are to creating a company culture that results in happy, productive, successful employees, which, in turn, leads to happy customers and a healthy bottom-line.

Values are your guide for weathering ethical dilemmas. They become the fabric for weaving good sound decisions. Values become your employees’ moral compass. For your company’s values to permeate throughout your organization, it will take conscious, consistent, deliberate actions.

Jim Collins & Jerry Porras (authors, Built to Last) say…

“The only truly reliable source of stability is a strong inner core [purpose and values] and the willingness to change and adapt everything except that core.”

Core values form the root system of your organization. Values nourish and stabilize your company. They represent the ideals that your organization stands for. They form your legacy. The more widespread and deeply imbedded your values, the more likely it is that your organization will stand the test of time. A company that knows and practices core values can weather storms and the winds of change… (Click here to read more of this LinkedIn article)

 

(Adapted from Chapter 3 of my new book Energize Your Business: Engage Your Employees with an Inspiring Strategic Planning Process. Read free chapters and learn more at www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz .)

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Goal-Setting the SMART WAY in 2016

Football Goal“Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy.”

~Dennis Waitley, author of Seeds of Greatness

“Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives.”

As I am sitting here reflecting on successes during this past year and projecting possibilities for 2016, I am reminded how goals give us greater clarity and direction for living more joyful, fulfilling, and meaningful lives.

Here’s a little guidance about setting goals the really S.M.A.R.T. W.A. Y. Make them…

  • Specific (not too vague),
  • Measureable (so you know the progress you’re making),
  • Attainable (but a definite stretch),
  • Relevant (in alignment with your purpose, values, mission and vision), and…
  • Time-bound (scheduled milestones). It is also important that you have them be…
  • Written (this makes them more solid), and build in…
  • Accountability (hence the need for individual development plans for your employees) and, finally, have a strong…
  • Yearning to achieve them (never underestimate the power of enthusiasm).

Lofty goals can be both inspiring and daunting at the same time. With that in mind, you’ve probably heard the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” And you probably remember the answer: “One bite at a time!” This is exactly how you can help reduce the overwhelmed feeling people may experience as they begin to tackle “big, hairy, audacious goals” (BHAG’s), an acronym created by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book, Built to Last.

17-CH08-Fig07-P105-MM G-O-S-TTo reduce overwhelm and procrastination, large goals need to be broken down into smaller, “bite-sized” milestones in order to get a better understanding of what it will take to achieve them. These milestones are sometimes referred to as objectives, strategies and tactics. A goal can be segmented into objectives, objectives segmented into strategies, and strategies segmented into tactics—in a cascading effect, ranging from larger to smaller segments. This is similar to a stream cascading down a mountain. With each subsequent segment, the goal becomes more refined, more clear, and more specific.

Think of goals more as a process than as a destination. People grow and become stronger as they stretch toward goals. The bigger and more hairy (difficult or complex) the goal, the greater is the potential for growth and transformation, so long as it doesn’t cause people to feel too overwhelmed.

“Think of goals more as a process than as a destination.”

Enjoy this dynamic, effective goal-setting process for jumping to lightspeed in 2016… and feel the force!

Much success and fulfillment,

Ray

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(Adapted from Chapter 8 of my new book Energize Your Business: Engage Your Employees with an Inspiring Strategic Planning Process. Read free chapters and learn more at www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz  )

 

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Today’s the day

Energize Your Business cover

Hope you’re having a very Happy Holiday season.

Today only purchase my Energize Your Business eBook for only $0.99! Just click here to purchase https://amzn.to/1JgFKhW

Great tool for planning and strategizing for 2016.

 

 

You’ll enjoy:

  • vivid color graphics
  • convenient built-in links for easy searching and navigating from topic to topic
  • sharing with your team on a computer screen, tablet, or on a projector screen

Please help me to spread the word about this special offer. https://amzn.to/1JgFKhW

Much success and fulfillment,

Ray

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‘Tis the Season to Celebrate

celebrateSuccessful companies celebrate often and use their celebrations as opportunities to reinforce their cultural values.

To keep the fires of company enthusiasm stoked, show appreciation for all the valiant efforts of your team. This extremely effective motivator costs nothing and has a lasting, positive effect. Create a culture of Acknowledgment. Show appreciation for individual and team achievements. Praise the slightest improvement. Praise every improvement. And by all means, share the wealth through bonuses and/or other concierge benefits.

Celebrate milestones achieved. Celebrate each other. Think of fun ways to show appreciation.

There is great power in appreciation. When it comes to our finances, we want our bottom-line and our investments to appreciate—to increase in value…to rise…to escalate. When it comes to human nature, appreciation has a similar relevance. As human beings, we all want to feel uplifted and valued—as friend, family member, employee. William James said, “The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

To illustrate the power of this principle, let me share my recent experience as an interviewer on a job interview panel. One of the applicants shared that the main reason she wanted to leave her existing job was, she didn’t feel appreciated by her boss. When she talked with her boss about important matters, she reported, he didn’t seem interested. She also observed that he was often critical. “The only thing that seems to matter to him,” she said, “is the bottom-line.” His lack of appreciation at the personal level had caused this valuable employee to seek employment elsewhere. Could this be happening in your organization?

Why does something as simple as showing appreciation have such a phenomenally positive effect? Because it invokes a fundamental, universal principle. Social psychologists call it the natural Law of Reciprocity. Reciprocity refers to the human tendency to respond to a positive action with an equally positive action, rewarding kind actions with kindness. Reciprocity means that, in response to friendly actions, people are frequently much nicer and much more co-operative.

Physicists call it the Law of Cause and Effect: For every action, there is a reaction.
Meta-physicians call it the Law of Attraction: Like attracts like.

Dr. Masaru Emoto, researcher and author of Hidden Messages in Water, who studied the effect of words on our water-dominant human physiology said, “Water has a message for the world: The world is linked together by love and gratitude . . . The words ‘gratitude’ and ‘love’ form the fundamental principles of the laws of nature and the phenomenon of life.”

When we express gratitude or appreciation to another person, they feel better; and, simultaneously, we feel better at a deep, cellular level. It actually strengthens our molecular bond with each other.

Try this simple self-assessment: Do you receive far more appreciation than you deserve—yes or no? Do you regularly dish out healthy portions of honest, sincere appreciation to associates, friends, and family members—yes or no? Could there be a correlation?

The bottom-line: if you want more appreciation, show more appreciation.
If you want to brighten a person’s day and lift productivity, give an honest, sincere compliment.

If you want to increase the productivity of your team, create a culture of appreciation and acknowledgment in which people are catching other people in the act of doing things right. Similar to throwing a pebble into a pond, you will send a powerful ripple of gratitude throughout your organization.

Lao Tzu said, “Your behavior influences others through a ripple effect. A ripple effect works because everyone influences everyone else. Powerful people are powerful influences.”

“Your behavior influences others through a ripple effect. A ripple effect works because everyone influences everyone else. Powerful people are powerful influences.”

Enjoy creating a positive ripple of appreciation this holiday season with your team members, with your family, and beyond.

Much success and fulfillment,

Ray

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(Adapted from Chapter 10 of Energize Your Business: Engage Your Employees with an Inspiring Strategic Planning Process by Ray Madaghiele. Learn more or purchase at www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz .)

 

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Thanksgiving VIP Special

Energize Your Business cover

Receive your special 30% VIP discount code (good through 11/30/15) to purchase Energize Your Business…

Hope you and your family had an amazing Thanksgiving and are recovering from Black Friday, especially if you braved the early morning frenzy.

If you’re still shopping for gifts for your entrepreneur friends and family members, here’s a thoughtful solution that I think you’ll like…and you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home.

To receive you 30% discount: simply go to www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz , click “Order Print Book”, add to cart, then enter the Discount Code QNDM8CN5, click “Apply Discount”, check out, and they’ll be delivered to you!

Have a great weekend and happy shopping!

Ray

Read the first few chapters for free at www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz

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How Do You Measure Your Success in Business and Life?

Golden Rule 02These turbulent global times demand that we return to basic universal principles both personally and professionally.

Here are some examples of successful organizations that deliver exemplary service by putting into practice a simple, timeless, and powerful core value—The Golden Rule. If you think it’s “too touchy-feely” for your organization, think again.

How about Hewlett Packard’s “The HP Way”— which focuses on respect and concern for the individual. It is simply the Golden Rule, which says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

HP was identified in Built to Last, by James Collins and Jerry Porras, as one of the most successful visionary companies of the past hundred years.

One of the most popular business books of all time, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, dedicates over half its contents to illustrating different facets of “The Golden Rule.” Since the book’s release in 1936, it has sold more than 15 million copies. Today, it is still listed on bestseller lists along with other current top-selling business books.

Not convinced yet? One of the oldest and largest business associations, Rotary International, advocates applying “The 4-Way Test” in making sound business decisions.

Before deciding a course of action, apply “The 4-Way Test” to the things we think, say and do:

  1. Is it the truth?
  2. Is it fair to all concerned?
  3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
  4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

These are all facets of “The Golden Rule!”

Conclusion: It simply makes good business (and personal) sense to invoke this universal principle of service in order to attract and retain customers (and valued employees).

Whenever I facilitate the core values portion of the strategic planning process, I begin by asking the participants to brainstorm these two types of Golden Rule questions:

  • “How do you like to be treated as an employee?” and
  • “How do your customers like to be treated?”

Answering these simple, yet profound, questions will establish or clarify the behavioral values of your organization. Also, the greater the number of employees you involve in defining “their own behavioral values,” the greater will be their enthusiastic buy-in for implementing them.

You will find that these values also provide a worthwhile tool for measuring individual and team service success.

So, how do you like to be treated?

Much success and fulfillment,

Ray

Ray Madaghiele is Chief Inspiration Officer at Business Energizers™, a division of TLC, an organizational and human excellence company.

Ray is the author of the book Energize Your Business: Engage Your Employees with an Inspiring Strategic Planning Process, which was launched last week. Learn more or purchase at www.EnergizeYourBusiness.biz . This article is adapted from Chapter 11.

Ray is a Master Facilitator who has a unique lifestyle as a full-time RVer, operating his business while he and his wife, Lyn, roll across North America. Their present RV lifestyle evolved from Ray’s 3,369 mile, 70 day, transformational bicycle ride from Phoenix, AZ to Ground Zero New York City in 2002.

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The First 5 Steps Successful Businesses Take to Create Their Own Destiny

Energize and engage your employees with an inspiring strategic planning process that helps everyone get clear, get organized, get going, and get results. That’s what successful businesses do.

Here are the first 5 steps of the strategic planning process cycle that, done right, tends to amplify and accelerate the success of any organization:

To Get Clear about your unique company culture and strategic direction…

  1. See Where You Ar05-1stPhase Intro-Fig04-P31-Get Clear COI 2015-04-21e – Many leaders are trying to run their organizations with “flat spots” that decrease productivity, produce inefficiencies, and impede growth. A strategic plan is vital for any start-up or seasoned business. It is like a trail map and compass for hiking in the wilderness. But to begin any journey, you first need to know where you are.
  2. Remember Your ‘Big Why?’ – Knowing your core purpose keeps you centered on what’s most important—during good times and challenging times. The purpose of your organization is like the seed of an apple. No one knows the potential yield of your organization and how much can be produced in the lifetime of your company.
  3. Infuse Your Culture – Values are your guide for weathering ethical dilemmas. They become the fabric for weaving good sound decisions. Values should be at the core of all the decisions employees make. They show what your company stands for.
  4. Know Your Business – Clearly defining your mission helps you know what opportunities to say “yes” to and which to say “no” to. Once you have created your mission statement, you will have defined the limits of what you will focus on as an organization. W. Clement Stone said “When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.”
  5. Envision Your Future – When you create a clear vision, it expands the collective thinking of your organization to encompass greater possibility and influence. A lofty vision is energizing. It excites everyone involved. It generates hope for the future. Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

How well has your organization done with involving your employees in the creation of these first five elements of the strategic planning process?

Much success and fulfillment,

Ray

(Excerpts from Energize Your Business: Engage Your Employees with an Inspiring Strategic Planning Process)

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