Tips for Public Speaking

Tips for Public Speaking

• Always Give the Audience Something to Take Home
• Don't Defer Answering Questions. If a question pops up in the middle of your presentation, that’s awesome: someone is listening! So seize the opportunity
• Ask a Question You Can't Answer:Asking questions to engage the audience often feels forced. Instead ask a question you know the audience can’t answer and then say,” That’s okay. I can’t either.” Explain why you can’t and then talk about what you do know
• Fuel Your Mental Engine. Think about the session in future.
• Share a Genuinely Emotional Story: Many speakers tell self-deprecating stories, but simply admitting a mistake is a waste if you only use it to highlight how far you’ve come. Instead, tell a story and let your emotions show. If you were sad, say so. If you cried, say so. If you felt remorse, let it show. When you share genuine feelings you create an immediate and lasting connection with the audience. Emotion trumps speaking skills every time
• Pause for Ten Seconds: Pause for two or three seconds and audiences assume you’ve lost your place; five seconds they think the pause is intentional; after ten seconds even the people texting can’t help looking up. When you start speaking again the audience naturally assumes the pause was intentional... and that you’re a confident and accomplished speaker. A poor speaker abhors a vacuum; only confident speakers are secure with silence. Take one long pause to gather your thoughts and the audience will automatically give you speaker bonus points
• Share One Thing No One Knows:  I’ve never heard someone say, “I was at this presentation the other day and the guy’s Gantt chart was amazing...” I have heard someone say, “Did you know when you blush the lining of your stomach also turns red?” Find a surprising fact or an unusual analogy that relates to your topic. Audiences love to cock their heads and think, “Really? Wow...”
• Don't Make Excuses
• Don't overload your slides
• Don't Ever Read Your Slides
•  Your audience should be able to almost instantly scan your slides; if they have to actually read you might lose them
• Always Repeat Audience Questions:Unless microphones are available, rarely will everyone in the audience hear questions other audience members ask. Always repeat the question and then answer it. It’s not only courteous, it also provides you with a little more time to think of an awesome way to answer each question.
• Always, Always Run Short:  If you have thirty minutes, take 25. If you have an hour, take 50. Always respect your audience’s time and end early. As a bonus, that forces you to hone your presentation – and to prepare to shift gears if your presentation takes an unexpected turn. Finish early and ask if anyone has questions. Or invite them to see you after the presentation. But never run long… because all the good will you built up could be lost.

Mixed Bag

I had a client recently who mentioned that consultants use "plastic words". Here are some examples

6 CEO Productivity tips
1.Take breaks every 20 minutes
2.Make yourself uninterruptable sometimes
3.Manage your energy, not just your time
4.Don't be a slave to email
5.Keep your emails short and sweet
6.Delegate, Delegate, Delegate: Delegation is the most important fuel for productivity

Developing Yourself

‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’ Jim Rohn

C Suite Meeting

Developing a C Suite meeting:

1. Build a rapport
2. Framing the meeting (What do we want to accomplish from the meeting?)
3. Execute the framework
4. Wrap Up

 Sales opportunity can be identified using  FUD: Fear, Uncertaininty and Doubt

Toastmasters Conference

I attended the District 60 Toastmasters Conference today. Some interesting things that stood out

1. Average age of a Toastmaster worldwide is 47. Does that mean young folks don't think this is important or are they not aware of it or simply we have not reached out to that audience?. In any case, the age explains why the social media uptake is so low! My Toastmasters club has individuals who are 20 years old to members with 20 year Toastmasters experience.

2. The District 60 has 5000 members and only 10 percent are on social media

3.Revenue for a a TM district is primarily from club memberships and conference. The district makes about 194K in revenue. About 96K is from membership fees.

4.The District gave an early bird '$99' to drive more registrations this time. They made it a 1 day event (which I think makes sense). The turn out was still low that they had expected 

5. There were about 360 folks today, about 180 of which were first timers. I thought this was pretty cool. 

6.Personally, I think there is too much focus and pressure on Distinguished Status. Perhaps, as the revenue is tied to membership, that could be a reason.

7.I saw some folks get DTM and were awarded a medallion while some good music ("eye of the tiger") was playing in the background. DTM is the highest level at Toastmaster.They had a "hug " line with past DTMs cheering and hugging them as they joined the exclusive club. I thought it was cool!

8.Emergencies can strike anytime. The fire alarm blew up and at about 5 pm, and everyone was asked to exit out. A tough moment for the organizers. My wife was at home, so I went back.  The event did resume but I could not attend it.

9.The guest communication and leadership recipient was Dr Ophira Ginsburg. She had a pretty inspiring speech about how she encourages women in Bangladesh to undertake breast cancer examination. Her logic was that in the west, breast cancer is detected early and in about 90 percent of the case, it is fixed. In the emerging markets, this is identified very late and sometimes can't be treated.

I was a first timer and on this was a good use of my Saturday. Was it worth the money? Hmmm...perhaps the 99$! 

Outsourcing Trends in Canada

Given some of the work, recent discussion and forums that I have attended, here are a few notes on the Outsourcing Trends in Canada

 

1. Clients are assessing and redefining the current opening model due to shifts in the outsourcing market (regulatory compliance, cloud offerings, temporary foreign workers etc.) 
2. Cloud computing is becoming the preferred sourcing alternative  and OSFI has placed guidelines for that. Cloud based elements in an outsourcing contract will increase to about 50% in 2017 from about 10% in 2010.Audit of cloud service delivery models is an expectation of clients 
3. As a result of multi sourcing  and shared services, clients are looking for early contract renewals or End to End strategies 
4. Buyers are beginning to get concerned  with CSR capabilities of outsourcing providers
5. Canadian depth and presence is becoming  a key requirement during vendor selection. 

 

CIO career strategy

 http://www.itworldcanada.com/blog/cio-career-strategy-managing-for-success/99208

• Recognize that you are your own “CIO brand”. What does your brand say about you? CIOs often let their personal brand be defined by default based on their current position and company, which is not ideal. Are you a CIO known for driving transformation or alternatively, at the opposite end of the spectrum, for optimizing existing operations? Whatever it is, you need to proactively make sure that you are conveying the right message in a positive way to match your career aspirations.

• Jim Collins outlines the “Hedgehog concept” in his book Good to Great, where he suggests that we all need to find the sweet spot in our professional lives which is at the optimum intersection of “what we are good at” with “what do we have passion for” and “what is our economic engine”. So the question is what is the career sweet spot for you as CIO? Once you have clarity on that question, it will help you plan the development of your career and desired end state.

• You should never stop looking for your next position, be that internal or external to your existing organization. As important as your current role is today, be open to new opportunities and exploratory calls from executive recruiters and industry contacts. You never know when one door will close and a new door open for you that is so much better than your current reality.

• Network, network, network. Given daily priorities and time pressures, CIOs can often become quite insular. Connecting with peers to share lessons learned and best practices can help provide insights and heightened value added thinking. Social media can greatly enhance the reach of that networking.

• External recognition of your accomplishments as a CIO is a good way to get the message out about who you are and what you do. Be willing to share your story publicly and consider participating in the various award programs.