Why you may not be Super successful yet!

The three reasons people do not achieve success in their goals.

1. They don’t know what to do
2. They know what to do but don’t do what they know
3. They say they’ll do something and then don’t do what they say!

So what can you do to overcome these and achieve success?

1. Don’t know what to do

So if you have a business to run, you presumably have some idea what you want your business to grow into, the profit you’d like to draw from it or the number of clients you want to serve.

You may have a business coach who can help you make the right business decisions, guide you through the tough times and help you capitalise on the good times.

There is no qualification for setting up your business, you don’t have to pass any exams, but equally there is no official step-by-step guide as to what to do.

So the best you can do is get advice and ideas from people who have done it before you.

You may have a wealth of ideas and your problem is choosing which to put your time and energies into.  That was my problem until I started using the employ/enjoy tool. A quick and easy system for sifting through your business ideas to choose which are worth investing in.  You can get this tool free of charge as part of the 30 Day Superhero Business Owner Challenge I am running throughout May . See here for details.

2.  Don’t do what you know

Why is that?  Procrastination? Fear? Lack of motivation?  These are also issues a trained and experienced Business Coach can help you with.  

And these are also issues my 30 Day Challenge is tackling by giving you daily tips, activities and guidance to check you have no obstacles in your way.

Also by doing it together as a group, the motivation and competitive element kicks in so there are fewer excuses NOT to do what you know.

3.  Don’t do what you say.

Step 1 in the 30 Day Challenge is to commit publicly to the challenge you want to achieve in 30 days. Commit to yourself, to others around you and in the public domain means that you feel less inclined to give up or stop trying as you know you are accountable to others.

If that sounds painful, that’s EXACTLY why you should be doing it. So I challenge you – what would you like to achieve in 30 days that you have been putting off until now?  See what others are saying about it on Facebook.  Then take the plunge – I dare you.  Click here to get the free resources in any case!

HOW TO DO MORE EFFECTIVELY

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and wish there were more hours in the day?  Do you feel like if you don’t do it, then nobody will? Have you read all the books and blogs on time management but you still don’t know where your day went?  If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, this webinar is for you.

  We all know that we need to prioritise, we have to multi-task, make use of technology to save us time etc. but what happens when we just run out of steam or just don’t feel like doing what we know we have to?

This FREE webinar will help you

• discover your own style and preferences so that organisational skills flow more naturally
• discover the secrets of creative procrastination,
• her enjoy/employ tool,
• Step by step ideas to incorporate Nicci’s 5 principles of Time and Self Management into your daily life to keep you focused and motivated most of the time!

The 5 Principles of managing time, work, life and yourself:

1. Lifejacket school of thought – look after yourself first, then you can look after others.
2. Know yourself and work to your strengths.
3. Prioritise as if each day were your last.  Feel good about saying no.
4. Don’t make lists, have systems.
5. Ask for help. We are great givers, not such good receivers.

For more information, tune into the webinar next week.

Those that have attended this as a workshop have said,

“The 5 D’s is a great system, thanks for sharing”

“I’ve finally put time in the diary for me. Thank you”

“I’ve already started to implement some of your suggestions”.

To register for live event Monday 30th April 10am or receive a copy of the recording go to: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/414537718  The recording will only be available until midnight May 4th

Value your Managers – or you could lose 65% of your staff!

In today’s Sunday Times Best Companies list the one key element that is highlighted as the most directly correlated to success is good management.  This is closely followed by good leadership so if you get both right you are not only going to be financially successful but have a motivated and inspired work force too.

Some of the highlights of the report:

• Malcolm Walker of Iceland, winner of the Best Big Company to work for 2012, says that the difference in sales for the company with a motivated manager versus a demotivated manager can be at least 20%.
• The coverage of the award states that the Best Companies featured in the list have a higher number of good mangers that encourage the personal development of their team as well as absorb the pressures from above.
• It goes on to say that 65% of staff who have a manager who does not listen to them or share information would leave tomorrow if they were offered another job.
• Where employees feel their manager doesn’t listen to them, 77% feel their company is taking advantage of them and are not motivated.

Couple this with the results of the survey released last week by the Chartered Management Institute which states that nearly half of UK managers are viewed as “ineffective” by their staff. The survey* proves that organisational performance and management abilities are clearly linked with 39% of managers in low performing businesses deeming their line managers to be effective, compared to 80% in high performing organisations.

So what does all this tell us? That in a difficult economic climate, the way forward for improving revenue is to make sure your managers are fully trained, fully aware of their importance on their staff as well as on the company results and that the importance of good management cannot be underestimated.

Are we asking too much of our managers? Can we expect them to be Superheroes?

Superhero managers need at least these 3 things

1. The right mindset that they are there for the team; to listen to them, encourage them and take responsibility for them
2. Great communication skills to manage upwards, downwards and sideways so that everyone is well informed and able to do their job to their best ability.
3. Great organisational skills to deploy the right resources at the right time to be effective as well as efficient.

I have developed a programme for discovering and uncovering Superhero Sales Managers as I believe the future of UK companies’ success lies here.  If you are interested in an induction programme that will save you time and effort getting a new manager up to speed and may make at least 20% difference to your bottom line and save up to 65% of your sales force leaving in just 7 days please go to www.SuperheroSalesManager.com/freebook

*The CMI-Penna report, produced with Henley Business School, draws on findings from almost 4,500 managers, including over 300 CEOs and 550 HR managers. http://www.managers.org.uk/news/nearly-half-uk-line-managers-are-ineffective

Related articles

• Ineffective management ‘costs country £19bn’ (moneysavingstoday.co.uk)
• Half of UK bosses are “ineffective” (newstatesman.com)
• Skills shortages are chief concern for managers (frugallivingadvice.com)
• ‘Half managers say bosses are ineffective’ says Chartered Management Institute (menmedia.co.uk)

Why I love presenting part 6: Presenting for Profit

Presenting can really help you feel good– the applause, the praise afterwards, the requests to speak at other meetings. That is all great for your ego but does it help grow your business?

Of course it can help raise your profile, could get you new clients even if you are told “This is not a sales pitch” and generally get you new respect and interest from your audience. But if you are  presenting to prospective clients you want to make sure that your presentation sells you, your services and your company in the most effective way possible.  Here are some of the ways you can make sure that your audience is moved to take action as a result of your presentation.

Preparation

So far in my blogs I’ve talked about the 10 steps to preparing your presentation – if you prepare well and know your audience you well appeal to them and they are more likely to take action.  In your preparation make sure that there are marketing materials that people can pick up . If you are running a workshop, at the very least you should make sure that the hand outs have all your contact details, special offers, free gifts etc on them.   Most importantly make sure there is a call to action in everything you do (you will have heard that about your website, your promotional pieces) make sure there is one here for you, whether it is to leave a business card in a prize draw, conect with you on Linked in or visit your website for a free gift. In your preparation you will have thought about which of your services or products appeals most to your audience and showcase that in your presentation.

Presence

In my second blog I gave you 9 tips for overcoming your nerves in presenting. If you present with power you are more likely to win the confidence of your audience. They are more likely to pick up your marketing materials, invite you to speak at their event, connect with you on Linked In or Facebook, so make sure you make that easy for them by mentioning in your talk how people have followed you as a result of your presentations in the past. Make sure that you have practiced your presentation so you can speak without notes. Much more impressive.

Engage from the start

In my 3^rd blog I talked about how to engage with your audience from the start. Building rapport with your audience is going to make them like you and want to know you more. You can move on to a trust-based relationship which is much easier to sell from.  Build on that by contacting your audience afterwards, for feedback, for comments or to take the next step towards working with you.  Make sure your speaking engagement means you get a list of the audience members and their contact details so that you can do that.

Power of questions

As I mentioned in my 4^th blog, if you can get your audience to say “yes” to questions at the start, they will be inclined to agree with you or take action when you ask them to try something later in the presentation.  It also opens up the audience’s mind to agree with you and therefore take that path of the next stage of working with you.

Passion

In my previous blog I talked about knowing your topic and being passionate about it. If you are genuine about what problems you can solve for your audience and if you show that you really do care about them and believe that your products or services will genuinely help them, then you have a better chance of them believing you. As humans, we are very good at detecting any incongruences in a public speaker so make sure you mean what you say and that your tone and body language are saying the same thing!

Presenting for profits

Firstly, decide what problems or pain your services or products provide the solution for.  Tell your audience that you understand that pain, perhaps you have been through it too or some of your previous clients have.  Then demonstrate how you have resolved that problem, taken that pain away.  For example, I meet a lot of business owners and Executives who have a great service, a real talent or skill that could be useful to others. But for some reason they are unable to sell or market themselves effectively. Often it is fear of being seen to blow their own trumpet, or fear of failure, or fear of success that holds them back from really being successful in their business or career.  My coaching programme uncovers that fear and addresses it so that clients leave me more confident, more self-assured and have more clarity about the next step in taking their business or career further.

I attended a fabulous course in London last year run by Dr Joanna Martin on this very topic and she is certainly one of the best in this field.   (If you are lucky enough to be visiting or living in Australia in March 2012, catch her great 1-day courses in 5 cities, visit http://www.shiftspeakertraining.com/partner/13972/psau )

If you can’t make it there, I will be running my own Presentation Secrets course in Surrey in March.  This course focuses on any hang-ups you may have in presenting, how to overcome them and put together an example presentation that reflects you, your skills and your passions.  If you’d like more information about that, send me your email address. The first 10 people to enquire will receive the course at £95 instead of £195.  For more details on the course go to  www.manage2improve.co.uk .

Related articles

• How to Deliver a Killer Business Presentation (mashable.com)
• Why I love Presenting part 1 (manage2improve.wordpress.com)
• Why I love presenting part 4: The power of questions (manage2improve.wordpress.com)
• Why I love presenting part 3: engaging your audience from the start (manage2improve.wordpress.com)
• Why I love presenting part 5: Passion (manage2improve.wordpress.com)

Why I love presenting part 5: Passion

 If you have passion it will help you overcome your fear and lack of self confidence.  So easier said than done, how to generate passion in what you are saying?

  Rule 1 – have something interesting to say!!!

  Make your presentation  into an entertaining story that people will want to spend their time listening to;

9 Elements of a great story: 

1. Accurate – you don’t want people being distracted, going off at tangents if you get a fact wrong
2. Clear – so a child or teenager would understand it on one level
3. Interesting – keep the pace going, don’t let it get drag and get boring
4. Involving – ideally get the audience to react, fill in blanks, put hands up, move about, etc
5. Memorable – have just two or three key messages that you repeat throughout that the audience take away with them
6. Personal – if you can make it personal to you or someone you know that helps engage the audience even more as they are thinking about you as well as the story
7. Relevant (back to knowing your audience from Blog 1)
8. Well structured – it has a beginning, middle and an end although you don’t have to tell it in that order!
9. Gets a reaction or makes demands on your audience – makes them want to do something as a result of listening to you.

Rule 2  Be passionate about what you are saying

   Be turned on by the excitement of converting others to your beliefs, your ideas.  Be a vital component in your audience’s vision for        the   future.  Show that passion in the way you speak, in the language you use, the gestures and animation you demonstrate on stage. Project your aura and transfer your beliefs to the audience any way you can.

Remember, some people are more engaged when you use visuals, others with sounds and others like to touch or experience things. As well as using your visuals and your voice in different ways, you can engage with different groups of your audience by choosing words that appeal to each of the 3 groups.  

For example,  see if you can spot the 3 types of words in this sentence:  “ Imagine yourself standing in front of an enraptured  audience, hanging onto your every word, their eyes and mouths open in amazement and wonder, then hearing the thunderous applause and compliments ringing in your ears and the sense of pride and accomplishment when you complete your talk.”

Varying the type of language you use means you get through to different types of people and engage with them.

For the next and final blog in this series I will be looking at how you can use presentations to move your potential clients to take action.

For more details on live presentations skills course in Surrey during 2012 see www.manage2improve.co.uk/How_we_work_with_you

For a special deal on preparing you for your next presentation, 90 minutes of coaching and personalised coaching, face to face or via Skype for just £149, contact info@manage2improve.co.uk

Why I love presenting part 4: The power of questions

From all the presentations I’ve seen, presentation courses I’ve been on and from my own experience, the most engaging  presenters start with …   a question.  Great speakers and trainers I’ve seen this year Joanna Martin, Andy Harrington, and Tony Robbins all start with questions which require the audience to say “yes”, “I” or raise their hand.  I didn’t get this at first but I’ve since realised why.

So what are the benefits of questions to start a presentation:

• Questions mean you take control of the room, you are in charge, it adds to your level of authority.
• It requires the audience to respond to you by raising their hand, or saying something.  That gets people looking up, feeling part of a group, a movement rather than in their own little bubble. It also raises the energy level in the room.
• Getting people to react will give you a feeling of confidence that will lift you if you are feeling nervous.
• On a basic level, check they are in the right place, they are there for the right reasons and to remind them of the benefits of being there, e.g. “Who is here because they are fairly confident in giving presentations but would like to see if they can improve?”  “Who is here because they have to give a presentation soon and want to use this session as preparation?”  “Who is here because giving presentations is one of the worst things they can think of and they want to overcome that fear?” “Who’s here just because they want to see themselves on video?”  The questions should aim to cover 100% of the audience so they all have to put their hand up at some point, and are unconsciously getting to know something about the people around them.
• By asking these sorts of questions, you can show them that you understand their situation, you empathise with them which could lead into your story, your journey of how you overcame your fear of presenting, for example. It also builds that rapport, which is an unconscious state of trust and responsiveness, so they feel positively towards you.
• You are also setting expectations for the rest of the presentation. They realise they won’t get away with texting messages, reading something or daydreaming if they are being called upon to listen, think, make a decision, take action in the form of shouting an answer or raising their hand.
• If you want people to take action at the end of the presentation, getting them to take small actions throughout the presentation is building up to that.

So script and memorise the first few lines, the first questions you open your presentation with. As you relax into your presentation (yes that is possible!) you can adlib, react to your audience etc. but it’s really important to get that first impression right and engage with everyone in the room.

Listen to speakers, webinars, videos and see how many of them start with a question and how that makes you feel?  Let me know what you think.

For more details on live presentations skills course in Surrey on 15^th January 2012 see www.manage2improve.co.uk/How_we_work_with_you

Related articles

• Why I love presenting part 3: engaging your audience from the start (manage2improve.wordpress.com)
• Why I love Presenting part 1 (manage2improve.wordpress.com)

Why I love presenting part 3: engaging your audience from the start

A chance to get to know people, to engage with them, to build rapport with them – that’s the buzz I get from presenting.

Building rapport and a connection with the audience has to start from the very first moment they see you and hear you.   You’ve probably heard that people will make a snap judgement about you in the first 7 seconds and they will need 21 subsequent contacts with you to change that impression! That’s great if the first impression is good.

So how do you make that first impression count?

1. Dress within the boundaries they would expect you to.  So smart suit for a corporate presentation, something a bit more relaxed if it is a networking presentation.  It is always good to be a bit surprising to stand out, a splash of colour, something memorable but not too strange as otherwise the audience will be concentrating on that and not on what you are saying.  Unless the talk you are giving, the story you are telling has a particular costume to go with it, to make a point.
2. Smile.    Greet the audience as good friends, look genuinely pleased to be there (You can do that now you as you are in control of your nerves from last week’s blog!).  There are some great speakers who deliver very funny and inspirational speeches with a deadpan expression, they have found their unique style. Until you have done that, be as attractive as you can.
3. Eye contact . This really makes a difference for engaging with your audience. If you look over people’s heads or, even worse, down at your notes from the start, people will not be as engaged as if you look them straight in the eye. It takes practice, but try and direct your presentation into the eyes of everyone in the room. Start by making sure you address the audience to your right, your left, in the front and at the back.  You could even make a plan to do that until it comes naturally. Getting someone to video your presentations, means you can check this aspect of your presentation, as well as many others.
4. Actively engage with 100% of your audience with what you are saying.  Let’s look more at this.

On a recent webinar on presentations I asked those registering, how they began a presentation, almost everyone answered “An introduction about myself” .  But does that really engage your audience? Think about the best presentations you’ve seen, did any of them open with “Hello, my name is …and I’m here to talk to you about……”  I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of those but did they really make you sit up and pay attention? Or did you use that time to look for a pen, turn your phone off, check who else was in the room etc.

I’ve also heard it said that the best presenter starts with a joke, average presenters with a story and the worst presenters start with statistics. Not sure I agree with that either, depends how you tell’em!  But all of those would work if done interestingly and with integrity and relevance. So make sure however you open your presentation, it  comes across naturally (are you comfortable saying it?) and that it is relevant and of interest to your audience (goes back to the preparation stage of really knowing your audience).

From all the presentations I’ve seen, presentation courses I’ve been on and from my own experience, the most engaging  presenters start with …… .what do you think? 

RT @NicciBonf or post your answers on my Facebook page www.Facebook.com/Manage2improve

For more details on live presentations skills course in Surrey on 15^th January 2012 see www.manage2improve.co.uk/How_we_work_with_you

Related articles

• Why I love Presenting part 1 (manage2improve.wordpress.com)