How to Be a Better Presenter in 3 Easy Steps

Presentations are increasingly part of academic and professional life. Don’t bother trying to fight it. Instead, use your poised and polished presentation style as an opportunity to shine. Here are three easy techniques that will dramatically improve your presentations.

1.   Practice out loud
Whether or not you have a script, practice by reading or reciting your speech out loud. Not only will this allow you to make sure it is long (or short) enough to fill your allotted time, but it will help you memorize your speech or have it flow better. Reading words on a page might be great for visual learners, but hearing your own voice say the speech and by using your real gestures and movement, you reinforce the speech through your other senses. You will also be able to identify and correct awkward word choices, rushed transitions, or tongue-twisting sentences before you are on stage.

2.   Record yourself
An audio recording (from your phone) is helpful because it allows you many of the benefits of practices out loud without the hassle of having to find a private space. Record it until you get it the way you want and then listen to it using headphones. The benefits, however, of videotaping yourself are substantial. Practice your gestures, pacing off different points during your speech, making eye contact, and projecting. And for an advanced lesson, play back the video in fast forward. This is the best way to identify repetitive, and often distracting, hand motions.

3.   Feel your feet
Nerves are natural. The comedian Jerry Seinfeld once noted that more people are afraid of public speaking than death, which means people would rather be in the coffin than delivering the eulogy. If you feel this way, it is perfectly normal. Sometimes that apprehension takes the form of nervous movements or rushed pace of the speech. You literally can’t wait for it to be over and it shows as you rattle off your points too fast for anyone to understand. And some of us have a lot of “performance energy” that can make us a little too bouncy during presentations. All of these can be helped by a simple move. When you take the stage, feel your feet in your shoes. Feel the shoes upon the firm ground of the floor or platform. This simple mental move will instantly quiet your body and has a calming effect that will help you slow down and keep your nerves in check.

Follow these rules and you’ll be giving your own TED talk in no time!

This article was published by Saturday Academy. 

The Secret to Being Fascinating

Pace Car: having one and being one

In the world of racing, there is something called a pace car.  It is out in front, setting the pace and demonstrating the angles to the curves of the course.  Especially in amateur racing or in educational driving experiences that people might do on race courses, the pace car is especially critical.

In our professional careers, we have pace cars as well.  Leaders at your company who mentor you in the ways of the business and model the pace of decision making.  Journalists, bloggers, authors, or TED talk speakers who are inspiring you with new ideas to propel you forward.  Admired business leaders about whom those authors write and who blaze new trails.

And in the other ways we are the pace car for others to follow.  We are setting the trajectory of the curve that will avoid risk and launch us into the straightaway. 

As a woman in a male-dominated industry, I have often had to be my own pace car.  I couldn’t look around and see mentors or role models that were helping me navigate or modeling things for me who were like me or who had blazed the trail in front of me.  From tactical issues like how to dress for a board meeting or larger issues like finding my unique position as a leader were left for me to figure out.   This is probably why I became a self-professed professional development junkie.  This is probably why I never had a job that wasn’t created for me to a large extent.  Why I wanted to work with and for smart and capable people (generally men) who would tell the truth and I have been blessed by their advocacy.  Why I feel a responsibility to mentor women at my company (and there are so many talented and capable women at Planar) and the industry (through groups like Women of InfoComm Network, Women in CE, and others). 

So, I have come to peace being the pace car.  It no longer fazes me.  In fact, I do some of my best work quickly and under pressure.  I don’t mind the visibility and attention that comes with that position.  I don’t fear failure as much as many do (which is both a blessing and a curse, let me assure you).  I highly value feedback from those who mean it for my good.  And I am constantly trying to improve my times and those who are following in my tracks.

We should be constantly asking ourselves, “who is your pace car?  How can you be a pace car to others?” and using the results of that question to drive to new results.

See you on the track!

It Takes as Much Energy to Wish as it Does to Plan

"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." - Eleanor Roosevolt

Be an SME

A Subject Matter Expert (SME) is a person who has experience and capability in a certain field of study or discipline.  On major project teams, they are the ones who you can in to make sure that what you are proposing is technically feasible or won't break a current process or system.  Although in today's fast-paced, mobile, technology-drenched environment, people are rewarded for broad curiosities and interests, there is no substitute for deep expertise in an area.  So, as we begin this new week, I am challenged to think about the areas in which I am an SME and how I can go deeper to learn more to strengthen my value there and how I might make that expertise available to solve problems and create possibilities.

Student's Guide to LinkedIn: 4 Things to Know

The following article was recently featured on LinkedIn.

You may have heard about LinkedIn and wondered whether it was for you.  As a student, particularly a high school student or in the early years of your college journey, you might wonder if the time is right to join this network or wait until you have more experience or your diploma and are looking to start a your professional career.  Here are some thoughts to consider.

1. You are starting your career now

The skills you are learning and the relationships you are building now, will be important later as well, so don’t wait.

2. Join LinkedIn

It is the world’s largest professional social media network at 380 million users.  A new member joins every 2 seconds.  Go ahead and list your school, major activities or awards, service organizations for which you volunteer, and list your title as “Student” (unless you want to get creative and you want to be an “Academic Technician” or “An Agent of Change”).  You’re your profile professional and focused on academic or professional work, not your preference in music or your summer vacation plans (there are other networks for that).  List out your skills and experience so others can endorse you.  Don’t forget to list entrepreneurial activities as well.  Your profile is 11x more likely to get viewed with a photo and 13x more likely to be viewed when you list skills.

And remember, it is editable, so things that are important for you to highlight today might not always be, so plan to curate your profile regularly to make sure the most important things are highlighted there.

Like any social network, don’t give out your personal information too broadly.  Things like your personal email address and the like can be hidden.  You can choose to use your first name and last initial until you are more comfortable with the system.  You should include a picture, if you are comfortable, but make sure it is professional (like a school photo or one taken when you were giving a speech or working in a lab, instead of one taking on a jet ski or at the football game).  You must make wise decisions regarding your own privacy, of course, and those are very personal decisions that you should consider with your parents and trusted advisors.

3. Connect

The whole point of a social network is to, well, network.  Start by sending LinkedIn requests to your teacher or professors.  Invite fellow career-minded classmates.  Invite your mentors and adult friends that know you well.

4. Be generous

There are several features on LinkedIn that all you to participate in a generous way, as you learn the ropes.   

First off, you can read the news feed of those you follow and like or comment on their news.  Congratulate someone on a new job or major project completion.  Comment thoughtfully and supportively on a published article.

Second, you can endorse the people you are connected to for their skills.  A few endorsements per person is appropriate. 

Thirdly, you can write recommendation notes.  Read what others have written and you can add your own.  Remember that these will likely live on the site for years to come, so keep them professionally worded and highlight transferable skills.  For instance, when writing a recommendation for a friend who was the yearbook editor, you can mention that project, but then say how you appreciated their attention to details and deadlines and how they modeled teamwork.  Those are things that future employers officers might be interested in, after all.

If you start supporting, endorsing, and recommending others, you will find that they will do the same for you and your profile and network will grow.

This article was posted on the Saturday Academy website. 

Action Creates Opportunity

We often think that opportunity creates action.  We will do something great once some external condition is met.  But the opposite is true.  Action creates opportunity.  Start making movement and see your goals easier to achieve.

"5 Things" Article Featured on rAVe

"Five Things Everyone Should Know How to Do" was featured in a recent rAVe newsletter to the ProAV industry.

The Secrets to Great Emails (or how to avoid big problems)

My life revolves around email. I use it to communicate with colleagues and customers at work. I use it to organize volunteers for the neighborhood block parties.  I use it more than it should, for sure. It is a horrible medium in many ways.  It doesn’t have the advantages of body language of face-to-face conversations or even the phone of voice of a phone call.  The asynchronous nature of the medium is great for convenience, yet it is not great for building understanding.  And still, I rely on it more than I should.

As a result of this personality flaw, I have learned a thing or two about email communications that are worth sharing.  Before you hit “send” run through this quick check list that has served me well.

1.Watch Your Buts

In spoken conversation, the words “but,” “however,” or “that being said,” all have a way of deflating energy.  They have a way of negating whatever positive thing you might have said before the word but and over email the negative tone comes through even stronger.

You are beautiful, but you have spinach in your teeth.

You are doing a great job, however you could do better.

It’s going to be a sunny day, although it will likely be too sunny and hot

You get the idea.

Before you hit “send,” go through and edit out the buts.  Break the sentence into two.  Think about how you can start the sentence with “Yes, and” instead of “But.” 

2.Scan for I’s

Have you ever finished up a note and noticed that every sentence in the email begins with the word “I.”  That is a great way to communicate selfishness in your email communications as they come off a little more one-sided than they would in a face-to-face conversation.  Scan your emails for sentences beginning with pronoun word “I” (or variations “me,” “myself”, “my”) and if there are too many, edit them out.  Instead of saying “I appreciate the invitation” say “It was great to receive your invitation.”  Those little edits will go along way to communicating gratitude and your regard.

3.Watch Your Column Inches

I am famous (infamous) for the long email.  Just because I can type like a bandit on my iPhone (or Blackberry before that) doesn’t mean I should.  Journalists writing for the newspaper would get a certain number of “column inches” to fill.  You should think about email in the same way.  A lot of email is read on mobile devices (or in preview panes in email software) and if your recipient has to scroll too much they will miss things or refuse to read it at all.  It is good to remember that not everyone is as comfortable with lots of words (I confess and you know who you are).

4.Don’t Bury the Lead

Taking another page from newspaper journalists, they assumed that most people would read the headline, some people would read the first sentence and most would not finish the article.  This means they would organize the facts, explanations, and outcomes of their story and prioritize the important things to the top of the article.  You should do the same.  Don’t bury action items, questions, or the like at the bottom of an email.  Put them at the top or in the subject line so that people know why they are reading.  You can always repeat them at the bottom (with some highlights for the most important things) for emphasis.

5.Be Prepared to Walk

Some things are best not handled via email.  Even for those of us who love it, it is not the best way to confront bad behavior, deal with sensitive or controversial issues, or to build relationships with new people.  So, if you read your email and sense there is an emotional tinge to the conversation or things not being said, walk away from email and walk over to that person instead.  Call them, visit with them, call a meeting, take them to coffee (or happy hour), anything to take the issue away from email where it will only get more spun up and complicated.  You wouldn’t think something as innocent as email would be capable of such rabble rousing and drama.  Don’t let it take control of you.  Email is a great tool and it is there to serve you.

How To Get Promoted in Four Easy Steps

There is a ladder, if you will, that you must climb to be qualified and recognized to take on more responsibility (in exchange for more authority, more compensation, and more influence that may come along).  There are many rungs to the ladder, but today I want to talk about the first four and how you can give yourself a promotion and grow as a leader.  In short, you should be secure on each rung before you could expect to climb to the next.  Together, you can give yourself a promotion in four easy steps.  Let’s begin.

Rung 1: You can manage your time

Most individual contributors (that is, people who are not managers, but responsible for their own work) have one main resource that they alone can allocate: their time.  We all have the same 24 hours a day and how people choose to allocate those hours makes a huge difference in their results.  A lot of experts have written tomes on this subject (some of my favorites are Getting Things Done, the classic 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the provocative 4 Hour Work Week, and the insightful Better Than Before), mobile apps have been written to help track and monitor time allocation, and there is no shortage of life hack websites that will walk you through best practices for time management.  But if you can not manage your own time and get work done in a reasonable timeframe with reasonable effort, no one will consider you ready for more.  If you don’t know how you spend your time or feel like you are chronically under-estimating the amount of time things will take, missing deadlines, or letting down your team mates, this is a place to start.  To be a manager, you must first manage yourself.

Rung 2: You can optimize your potential

Once you have mastery over your deadlines and tasks, you can build upon that to make the most of your capabilities and interests.  You start with an understanding of your style, approach, and thinking processes (using tools like Myers-Briggs, StrengthFinders, Kolbe, and others that I have blogged about in the past).  You get feedback from worthy mentors.  You seek out professional development opportunities.  You strive to get better and to outgrow your current assignment.  You broaden your perspective beyond how you spend time today to apply yourself in new ways to new problems.  You know what you need to inspire and drive you and you make sure your environment is right (which is described in detail in the book Triggers).  You never stop managing your time and you never stop growing, of course, but you have reached this rung of the ladder when you have a vision of your best self and understand yourself well enough to play from your strengths and propel yourself to new heights of performance.  If you want to be a leader, you must first lead yourself.

Rung 3: You can manage other people’s time

The first supervisory job that most people have involves managing other people’s time.  You make sure people show up for their shift.  You make sure the phones get answered as expected and the call queues are not too long.  You make certain that there is adequate coverage to handle expected traffic at a trade show or retail environment.  You sign time cards.  You help them know what to do between punching in and punching out.  You offer up work instructions and on-the-job training.  In many cases, you can help others reach the first rung of their ladder by managing projects and allowing more capable people to manage their time towards the good of the project.  This is where basic employee engagement comes into effect.  Good managers have employees that have the time and resources to achieve the goals at hand.

Rung 4: You can unlock other people’s potential

This is the run where leaders emerge from among the sea of managers.  Their employees not only want to use their time better, but they want to be better.  Using both encouragement and discipline, they realize that honestly, delivered respectfully, is a gift and can help high potential individuals achieve more than they thought possible.  Identifying latent talents.  Probing for unrealized motivations.  Describing hidden possibilities and bringing those to light.  Establishing new standards and enabling people to do more than what is required so that they can feel pride in their work. Helping individuals bloom, where they are planted and to find new landscapes to explore.

These first four rungs on the ladder illustrate a great truth about getting recognized and promoted: most things are within your control.  

Whether or not you want to be a manager of people (that is not everyone’s ambition), these same principles apply.  As I have said before, you don’t have to wait for someone’s permission to get the experience you want and need to further your career in whatever direction you wish to direct it.   You, alone, can effectively manage your time for maximum results.  You alone can be curious about your own potential.  And without a job change or a fancy title, you can help others do the same.  From whatever role you are in today.  It won’t be long before you are ready for the next challenge and that will be recognized by others. You’ll be doing a bigger job already when the opportunities come your way.

Blogging for Technology Association of Oregon

You can read about "Five Things I Wish I Knew in the First 5 Years of My Career" on the blog for the Technology Association of Oregon.