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Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
May 17th, 2012
Are you remembering to rehearse your presentation a number of times before you deliver it? Remember exceptional presenters rehearse everything! Allow plenty of time before the presentation. Work back a few weeks and allocate time to rehearse with a ‘buddy’ who can give you some constructive feedback using the 4-step feedback method which outline firstly what you think you did well and would like to improve and then what your buddy thinks you might like …
Leave a commentMeta Programs Sort by Self/Sort by Others
May 15th, 2012
Do you work with someone who acts like a ‘doormat’ and always ‘puts themself out’ for others at their own expense? Or perhaps you work with someone who is downright selfish, who is always putting their own needs ahead of the rest of the team. The ‘sort by self/sort by others’ program will assist you to better understand why it is that people behave as they do within a group. What do they mean? People …
Leave a comment27 things every engineer needs to know about influencing their stakeholders
May 10th, 2012
From the common task of resolving a misunderstanding with a colleague, to more complex tasks like negotiating the terms of a deal, we all use a variety of communication strategies aimed at influencing the people around us every single day. What we know from the research into psychology and human behavior since the 1960s is that that influencing skills are integral to good business. Regardless of whether you are the team member managing upwards, the …
Leave a commentDealing with difficult people – the Woody Woodpecker
May 10th, 2012
This person agrees to everything, any deadline, no matter how impossible. You cannot trust them to complete actions delegated to them at the meeting. Tactics: Question their agreement and limit it to what you believe is within their capability, or divide an action into parts, each leading into the next and keep them to the timetable.
Leave a commentInfluence Patterns
May 8th, 2012
If you’d like to fine-tune your ability to influence others, a book I can recommend is Influence; The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. In this book, Cialdini outlines the key influence patterns that exist in human communication. Once you are aware of these ‘unconscious’ patterns of influence you can use them to increase your power and reduce the likelihood that you will be manipulated by others. I will cover the first three of the …
Leave a commentDealing with difficult people – The swamp buffalo!
May 3rd, 2012
The swamp buffalo is the person who tries to dominate the presentation or meeting and take over from you. They have a strong opinion on everything and by force of their personality and impressive noisy output, they force others to acquiesce. One or all of the following strategies may help you: Allocate them a task so they are busy. Send the group to an activity – to redistribute the energy. Use Satir’s ‘Leveller’ and redistribute …
Leave a commentMove Towards/Move Away
May 1st, 2012
When attempting to motivate people to follow our plan, adopt our strategy or change their behaviour it is helpful to know what specifically motivates them. Some people are motivated by moving toward their desired values (receiving a carrot), whereas others are motivated by moving away from undesired values (avoiding a stick). In general, we all have move toward and move away values, but research has shown that for some people one direction predominate. It is …
Leave a commentArticulation exercises
April 26th, 2012
Try these articulation warm-ups before your next presentation: “What a wonderful thing is the Tigger, for Tiggers are wonderful things! Their hops are made out of rubber; their bottoms are made out of springs. They’re bouncy, jouncy, flouncy, trouncy, fun, fun fun fun fun. But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I’m the only one. Yes, I’m the only one.” “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter …
Leave a commentPowerPoint Tips
April 24th, 2012
Big font size: Best practice in PowerPoint slide design suggests you use a minimum of 30pt. Keep the lights on: Remember no one looks forward to a dim future! So create an alert, bright atmosphere that encourages the audience to take in the information on your slides and keep the lights on. You might need to change your slides if you can’t read them with the lights on. I suggest a light background and dark …
Leave a commentBest friends forever
April 19th, 2012
Have you ever stopped to realise that even those people you seldom interact with tend to respond favourably when you approach your relationship with them as if they are a long lost, valuable friend? It’s a basic fact of influence that if the other party perceives you to be committed to the relationship with them they will generally respond in kind. So do you need to change the way you interact with your team members, …
Leave a commentYou cannot bore someone into buying your product!
April 17th, 2012
You cannot bore someone into buying your product! This is a famous saying by David Olgivy. Have you ever been subjected to the classic sales pitch where the sales person told you all about themselves and how clever they are, instead of listening to you tell them what you need and why you need it? People are much more interested in solving their own pain, than in listening to you going on and on about …
Leave a commentMy tips for influencing others in a positive and empowering way
April 12th, 2012
Rapport, rapport, rapport! Before you can influence others you must build rapport with them. My advice is to: Understand the person’s personality filters – the way they experience, respond to and manage their environment. Make a plan – what do you want to achieve? Use pacing and leading – pacing involves being like your audience in your dress, body language, eye contact, vocal variety, style, language, interests and attitudes. Some people call this matching or …
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