Become More Productive and Successful by Rough Guider (ebook reader computer .txt) 📖

you for any technical hiccups.

 

Arrive in good time.  Your presentation may be in your office or in a town hall somewhere across the globe, but in either event you should ensure that you arrive in good time.  This will allow you to check out the technical facilities, get a feel for the surroundings and ensure that your voice carries well (depending upon whether there are microphones or not).  Arriving late, under pressure with your nervous system under attack, is not a great start.  [BTW, if you are late, certainly have a routine to keep yourself calm and at ease.  Taking 3 deep breaths really does work.]

 

Liaise with the other presenters (where possible).  It would seem an injustice if you have spent hours honing your presentation skills, hours putting together a lively, informative and engaging presentation and hours rehearsing your speech in front of the mirror only to find out on the day that part of your content has been covered by another presenter in the overall line up or indeed that your anecdote or witticism has already been communicated to the audience.  I would highly recommend that you cut these problems off at the pass.  Perhaps there is someone centrally coordinating all the presentations, but if not it would definitely be worth checking that all that hard work doesn’t disappoint at the end of the day.

 

Nerves.  I feel that I could write a book (and you would be bored reading it) on how to steady your nerves before a presentation.  But I won’t.  I’ll summarize this down to a few, hopefully very useful, bullet points.  First of all, what can you do to reduce the level of nerves?  Try some of the following techniques and see which work best for you:

 

Follow all the steps listed above to optimize your level of confidence.

 

Take 3 deep breaths before you start (see above). It really works.

 

Rather than standing at the front of the room, perch on the side of a desk (if there is one at the front) or adopt another stance or position that naturally puts your body at ease.  It is strange but true, but where you stand and how you position yourself can make a significant impact to the way you feel.

 

Enjoy yourself.  Practise shifting the nervous energy from fear to enjoyment.  This, I suppose, is more of a mental exercise, but I guarantee that if you go out there with the intention of enjoying yourself the nerves, at least partially, move to a place where they are more constructive.

 

Perform as many presentations as possible while you are going through the learning curve.  As with any skill, practice makes perfect and the more presentations your deliver the more relaxed and confident you will become.

 

There are also techniques to hide/shield nerves if you find it hard to overcome them.  These are as follows:

 

Don’t hold anything in your hands, such as a piece of paper with notes on, as it will flap around due to the nervous energy within you.  Rather place it on a lectern or desk or better still have a PowerPoint or other electronic presentation that negates the requirement to hold anything.

 

Don’t have any change or keys in your pocket in case you start jangling them.  This can be done subconsciously and can prove very annoying to the audience.

 

Don’t worry about ‘pauses’ in your speech.  They can be up to several seconds long and if timed right (that is, not too long) they actually come across really well in a live environment adding to your sense of gravitas and credibility.

 

Don’t pace around the room or continuously step forwards and backwards.  This provides an indication that you are nervous.  You certainly don’t have to be rooted to the spot, but if you decide to move around the ‘stage’ make sure that it is a purposeful action (for instance, to point at something or to grab someone’s attention) rather than a general aimless wander.

 

Quick reference guide.  I often find it useful to refer to a quick reference guide on how to present well.  So here are some tips that I hope you will find very useful:

 

Provide an overview of what you are going to speak about to provide context.

 

Be passionate about the topic you are presenting.

 

Be interactive; obtain audience engagement, perhaps through asking questions.

 

Use eye contact wisely.  Don’t just focus your attention on the CEO!  Keep everyone engaged and feeling a part of the meeting/event.

 

Use your footwork wisely.  If you are going to walk around the stage limit the number of walkabouts you undertake and make them work for you.  Use them to re-engage the audience (if it is a large crowd).  However, don’t walk around too much as you’ll tire them out.

 

Use arm gestures, but again make these controlled and infrequent.  Continuous arm gestures make it look like you are flapping (literally).

 

Keep your hands out of your pockets (it looks untidy and you may jingle the keys or change you have housed there).

 

Don’t hold anything in your hands if you are nervous (it will shake)

 

Don’t be monotone.  Change the pitch of your voice, otherwise you may send the audience to sleep.

 

Think about the speed of delivery.  There’s no need to rush through your presentation.  If time is tight say fewer, more important things.

 

Don’t be negative.  Don’t say “I feel nervous” or “I don’t feel prepared”.  This puts you under pressure from the start.

 

Speak clearly with a strong resonance (a strong voice).

 

Remain natural when you speak.  Don’t force your voice or manner.

 

Introduce yourself if no-one else has.

 

Smile.  Everyone likes a smiley rather than grumpy individual.

 

Be informative.  Make the points as interesting as possible.

 

Don’t use acronyms or abbreviations that members of the audience won’t understand.  You risk them getting lost on the way.

 

Have some clear takeaways for the audience to remember.

 

Above all, be memorable (for the right reasons).

 

 

Negotiation skills

I suppose the alternative title for this chapter could have been “Getting your own way”.  Why on earth do some people end up with great deals (or get their way) when others don’t?

 

Well here are some tips you can follow:

 

Do your research.  Understand who you are dealing with and what is important to them.  Anticipate the questions and/or objections that the other party may have and ensure that you can deal with them.

 

Have clear thoughts (and document them) on what would be a good deal for you.

 

Be stubborn.  If you have a solid negotiation stance don’t allow the other party to ride roughshod over it.  Stay firm, if it clearly makes logical sense to do so, and be iterative in your discussion if the other party is effectively ignoring your argument.

 

Turn the conversation around.  Don’t let the other party lead the discussion.  Make sure that you have an agenda and follow it.

 

Follow your logic not theirs.  Don’t fall for what appear to be clever arguments or tactics that don’t actually stack up in the cold light of day.  Stay true to what you believe in.

 

[However] Be fair and reasonable, or expect to lose.

 

If possible, reach an agreement that keeps everyone happy.  If you push too far, the other party will walk away – perhaps not now but as soon as they realize that there is no value in the deal for them.

 

Assess who has the balance of power.  The more power you have the stronger your negotiation position.

 

Where appropriate make sure that you have more than one bid or tender.  Even for relatively small contracts your position will be that much more powerful if you can demonstrate that you have alternative quotes that perhaps provide better value.  From experience, unless at least 3 quotes are obtained from reputable companies you don’t have even an initial feel (let alone an accurate one) for market prices.  Also, let all the parties know that you are seeking competitive bids from other businesses to help focus their minds on the overall value for money of their offering.

 

Don’t be afraid to revisit the deal at any time before you sign on the dotted line.  If you feel that you haven’t done a good job on the negotiation front and realize later that the deal won’t yield an acceptable to return for you (perhaps your planning wasn’t a great as it should have been) then be upfront and transparent to the other party explaining that you can’t sign until the deal hits a certain threshold in terms of financial return.

 

Good cop, bad cop.  One useful technique to try, particularly where you find it difficult in a face-to face situation to push hard on (say) price, is to leverage the fact that your boss has set some firm financial targets for you with respect to the deal.  In other words they won’t buy the goods or service for more than £X or they won’t sell your services for less that £Y.  In practice, I have found this process extremely useful and it allows you not only to defer discussion at any given point in time by stating that you will have to run the proposal past your boss as it does not fulfill the requisite financial criteria, but also it allows you to be seen as the person trying hard to make the deal work in what are clearly difficult circumstances.  You should ensure that you obtain your boss’s permission to cast them in the role as ‘bad cop’, as the tough, perhaps inflexible manager, in case they are somehow contacted directly or otherwise uncomfortable with the approach.

 

If you are unable to reach agreement during the process of negotiation here are some ideas to consider:

 

Would a longer term deal allow either party to be more flexible on price?

 

Would an exclusive relationship seal the deal?

 

Would the introduction of enhanced service levels better your cause (or a fall back to more basic/standard service levels if price remains the absolute sticking point)?

 

Would a dedicated account manager provide the added ingredient to allow you to finalize proceedings?

 

Would either a discount for prompt payment or a discount for signing before the month is out add the incentive required?

 

Would the advertisement of your relationship (Public Relations exercise) make the deal appear more interesting?

 

Would future price caps be of interest?

 

Would enhanced data analysis be of importance?

 

Build good relationships.  It is all very well squeezing every last penny out of your vendors, but this could lead to them providing a sub-standard service, given they are making little or no money out of the deal.  At the other end of the extreme, it is important not to let inducements (also remember the Bribery Act) to cloud your view of a relationship.  You owe it to your business to secure a value for money deal.

 

 

 

 

Down time

Down time isn’t great.  You’re bored, your boss thinks that you’re not doing much and everyone seems to be losing.

 

I sometimes see people surfing the net or having pointless conversations (and hence stealing the time of others) as they haven’t got enough to do.

 

Well, without doubt it can be very hard to self-motivate yourself when you haven’t got much to do.  Each request or task starts becoming a chore or at the very least a distraction from watching sport live on the web or perhaps doing your shopping on line.

 

So what should you really do?

 

Remember that one of the most effective ways to get on in business is to impress your boss.  So tell them the situation as it is.  Hey, what if they decide to make you redundant?  Well, to be fair I can’t legislate for that but what I can say is that all the managers I have worked for have held me in high esteem for my honesty and transparency.  This has culminated in them having the trust to send more, normally juicy, work down my way.  Now let’s make this clear.  If you are being lazy and simply not doing the work you are meant to be doing that is bad.  However, if you have completed allyour work to an acceptable standard (or higher) then that’s good.  I can’t give guarantees here, but if I was a betting man I would expect