Persuasive Public Speaking.  One of the most effective ways to persuade your audience is to relay a personal story or an example that shows the benefits of your recommendation to your audience.  Religious leaders have used this technique for over 2000 years with great success.  This video explains how the persuasive public speaking technique works.  Fearless Presentations is a presentation training course offered in major cities all over the world, and here is a video from Doug Staneart, CEO of The Leader’s Institute, who gives a explains this technique in the courtyard of the Vatican.

By Connie Timpson/Keynote Speaker/Instructor/The Leader’s Institute

As a journalist I got to do a lot of really cool things, like ripping a hole in the clouds with the The Blue Angels.  It was easy to talk about “tearing across the sky, and painting a beautiful jet trail across the blue.”

It’s a lot harder to talk about a subject or event that is flat out earth-born boring, or intimidating.  Like the time I was asked to a rather posh dinner where the entrée was a scientific discussion of nuclear energy.

My dessert – would be persuading these brilliant men and women to think I was smart enough to understand at least part of what they were talking about.  If they trusted and liked me, my dessert would be full-fat whipped cream on top of chocolate souffle…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

With a curling iron in one hand and phone in the other I quipped to my mom, “There will be scary-smart people there, all speaking in subparticles.  I don’t speak subparticle.  Smashing atoms is way above my resume level.”

This wise woman came right back with great life and business advice.  “All you have to do is be who you are, smile, listen, be curious, and share your unique stories.”  Mom was right.

No one asked me if I had a PHD or even where I attended college.  Ironically, they were curious about my work.  Before long I found myself smack in the middle of several conversations, asking questions that helped me build rapport and trust.  I left with a fist full of business cards, an armload of ideas for reporting on one of the world’s most complicated and controversial subjects, and the satisfaction that my knowledge was far less important than my ability to relate to people and get them to share their expertise with me.

People Skills Trumps Knowledge

In these “get a job” “keep my job” tough economic times, being able to communicate with ease, confidence, and clarity is like holding Julia Child’s secret recipe for chocolate soufflé at a cooking contest.

In a recent survey by Accountemps (published in USA Today) People Skills proved to be the deciding factor for landing the job:

CFOs were asked, “If two candidates interviewing for an accounting or finance position had similar skills, which one of the following additional qualifications would you find most valuable?” Their responses:

Personality or people skills:                 2009- 31%                2004- 1%

People Skills Trump Knowledge

You may believe that some people are born communicators, gifted with charisma, poise and the ability to charm even the most jaded boss.  In reality, charisma, poise and the ability to charm and communicate clearly, can be developed.

Ronald Reagan was not born talking to a camera or persuading audiences to believe him.  He developed his people skills.  We learn while still in diapers, that if we look right in the eyes of our parents, listen and repeat what we hear, and smile a lot, that we will be rewarded with adoration and applause.  It is never too late to become adored, or at least well liked.

Forget rewriting your resume.

Ditch the ubiquitous, and boring power-point ideas.

Develop your people skills.

Smile, be warm, and approachable. Smiles and warmth put the receiver at ease.   They disarm and bring a positive feeling to meetings.  Smiles tell our bosses or potential bosses that we are open and easy to be around.  Being approachable creates trust and rapport.  It helps build strong relationships with colleagues.

The man who gives little with a smile

gives more than the man who gives much with a frown. –Jewish Proverb

Listen, really listen and respond. Listening is a huge compliment to the speaker.  It shows respect.  It says that you are interested in what he or she has to say.  Most important, your response, based on what you just heard, gives you the opportunity to then naturally build your credibility, and create rapport.

Communicate clearly and concisely – using a lot of PHD words will only bring you the label of “professor.”  Clearly and concisely communicating your ideas with common words and clarity gets buy-in and understanding.

Be enthusiastic – if you do not talk enthusiastically about your idea, or field of expertise, you can’t make anyone else love your idea either.

Be curious – what is the company’s vision, what can you do to solve problems and bring new ideas to fruition?  Showing interest in the company’s future sends a message of wanting to grow, lead and understand.

Developing people skills is like putting money in the work-relationships bank.  It will pay you enough dividends that you can afford to book a table at your favorite expensive restaurant.  Go ahead, order the chocolate soufflé!

Connie Timpson

Sr. Instructor/Keynote Speaker/The Leader’s Institute

Create Like A Wild Child!^tm

By Connie Timpson

Give a child a shovel on the beach and he will create a dream castle.  Give an adult a shovel and he will most likely store it in the garage.  Millions of ideas have been stuffed into garages, attics, drawers, or abandoned in corners.  All because we are afraid to take risks, to give our ideas real hearts and voices.

What risk is there in sharing ideas?  Many, you say, theft, betrayal, ridicule, doubt?  Oh yes, and let’s not forget jealousy and ego.  As Albert Einstein said,

Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Careful!  Hatching idea! Protect your idea.   Nurture it, grow it and strengthen its shell, layer upon layer.  But make sure it gets sunshine, has many friends, and takes risks.

There is only one idea like yours.

The only bad idea is the one that is never given a voice!

Take a walk on the “Wild Right Side”

Let the wild child run, create and have ideas.  Pull on your magic hat.  Get out your sorcerer’s wand and start making magic.  Think like you’ve never thought before.

Access both sides of the brain – unlock your fears of being a little “wild.” 

• Put a lid on the left side that is always telling you,  “Be careful, do not take professional risks, don’t share your ideas or someone will take them.”

• Live your creative life on the right side of the brain. Prompt the creative energy with color, words, and an open attitude.  Recapture the childhood creator.

Invite only creative teachers and other wild child friends into your memory banks.  Dare to become an organized visionary who thinks “With no creative boundaries!”

Speak Up.  No Criticism Allowed!  Creative Genius at Work – yes – YOU!

• Believe in your idea – At the age of fourteen Filo T. Farnsworth saw the idea for electronic television in the parallel lines of his father’s potato field in Idaho.  He battled with David Sarnoff of RCA until the bitter end.  Sarnoff became rich and Farnsworth won only the title of “The father of television.”  But while watching Neil Armstrong step on the moon, he said, “it was all worthwhile.”

• Play with your idea – a better football, NERF balls, play dough, slime, all came from playing with an idea.  The more they kicked it around and played with it the bigger the idea grew.
• Give your idea a heart, voice – J.K. Rowling envisioned Harry Potter for a long time before she sat at a table and took up a pen.
• Bring your idea to life – give it a heart and voice – Jim Henson created Kermit while home with the flu.  He was inspired by his mother’s old green coat.  He got the scissors, added a tennis ball, and Kermit was born!
• Love the process – Stephen Spielberg said,” I dream for a living.”

• Surround yourself with inspiration – Quotes, color, words. Every idea has color, texture, and strategy.  Colors like Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange and Green energize the creative soul.

Every new idea is a great one. The only bad idea is the one that stays in your heart and head.  Bill Gates – We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.

Taking a risk on your idea, and giving it a voice, may be scary, but it will never be realized if you keep it silent.  Let that Wild Child run free!

Connie Timpson

Copyright 1/20/09 by The Idea Works!^tm

Leadership development is, after all, personal development.

*****

“I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” Booker T. Washington

Those who would seek to make less of me by evoking negative reactions and emotions must never be allowed to do so. I must have the power of will to maintain my integrity, to love especially those who would, by my own fallible judgment, not be deserving of it.

*****

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves” Carl Jung

Leadership begins within. We must first be able to lead a disciplined life before we can lead others. Every external experience provides the internal lessons we grow from.

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“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our example is our leadership. It is seen in the extremes of life, where character is revealed.

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“It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.” G. K. Chesterton

I wonder what the context of this quote was? I think it had to do with organizational boards.

*****

“In the long run we are all dead.”  John Maynard Keynes

Laurie Beth Jones, in her book, “Jesus Lifecoach” tells an interesting story… A woman suffering a terminal illness is asked what is it like to live each day knowing that she is dying? Her reply is simple, “What’s like to live each day pretending you are not?”

*****

I grew up in a very poor, rural town in Arkansas.  Even though I was poor, I was taught that education was the key to getting out of poverty, so I worked my way through college, qualified for a couple of scholarships, and took out massive loans hoping that, some day, my education would make me rich.  A couple years out of school though, I was making a whole lot less than my friends who started working right out of high school, I had a ton of new expenses like insurance, rent, car payments, and college loans to pay back.  I quickly realized that the amount of money that I was pulling in after taxes was less that the minimal expenses that I had.  I was going bankrupt one paycheck at a time.  That’s when I got angry.  I was told that I would be wealthy if I went to school, but I was actually getting poorer every week.  I figured that there must be a better way, though, so I started looking for people who were succeeding, and I started to try to model what they were doing.

That’s when I invested in my first “leadership course.”  The tuition was $795, which was about half of my monthly salary at the time.  I was terrified to “spend” the money, but the coach who was leading the program guaranteed me that the course was an investment and not an expense.   She was right.  Within six months of taking the class, I had tripled my income.  Within a year, I had doubled it again.  It was slow and steady, but within 10 years (before I was 35) I made my first million dollars.  It only took me another six months to make the second million…

Here’s what I figured out and what has helped me and thousands of others get to a higher level of financial success.  Knowledge is vital to getting ahead, but it’s just the ticket to get into the game.  What you do with the knowledge is much more important to your success.  The most highly sought after skill in business is not accounting, or engineering, or computer skills – it’s public speaking.   Folks who reach the highest level of every institution typically know less about the day-to-day operations than the newest employee; however, they tend to excel at leading and motivating people.  The very best leaders in any organization are not the people who grow their own stature.  They are the people who grow other leaders.

Once I figured this out, I realized that just about everything that I was doing to get ahead was absolutely wrong.  For instance, I used to work from early morning into late in the night to make my productivity high for the company.  I was working really hard, but I never got promoted.  The reason why was that I was so productive, that the manager couldn’t afford to promote me.  If he did, he’d have to hire two people to replace me.  Don’t get me wrong, though.  I’m not saying sluff off and you’ll get promoted.  Instead, I started to teach the people around me how to do what I was doing to increase their own productivity.  Many hands make light work.  When the next promotion came around, I was the obvious choice.  In my early days, I always wanted to make myself look good and make my “competition”, my coworkers, look bad.  I figured that was an effective way to get ahead.  Instead, that just made my coworkers mistrust me, and when I needed their help, it was very challenging to get it.  After the leadership course, I realized that people who build up their coworkers are seen as “natural” leaders, so I took a different approach with remarkable results.

These are the skills that will help any person in any industry get ahead:

• Public Speaking and Communication Skills – The better you carry yourself with confidence, the more persuasive you will be.

• Conflict Resolution Skills – anyone can start an argument, but only an elite few can resolve conflicts in a way that both parties feel as though they have “won”.
• Building Leaders – The success of a person is not determined by hoe successful he/she has personally become, but by how successful the people around them become.
• Problem Solving (in groups) – Most of us feel satisfied when we come up with a perfect solution to a problem, but then later, we have challenges getting the team to buy-in to the solution.  Group problem solving is a skill that is highly sought after in every industry.
• Persuasion – It doesn’t matter how good your ideas are if you can’t win people to your side.  People who are persuasive are very valuable to organizations.

If you are looking for a way to get to the next level in your industry, focus on developing these leadership skills, and you’ll see opportunities present themselves very frequently. When the next round of layoffs come down the pipe, you’ll have an stark advantage.

I’ll be teaching a number of classes coming up in the next couple of months as will a number of our senior instructors. The much-anticipated Leader’s Institute Leadership and Public Speaking Boot Camp is coming up in about a month. We still have a few seats left, but hotel space is very limited. If you’d like to attend, make sure and register ASAP. Register for the Leadership Boot Camp on Feb 25-28, 2010.

Quick Leadership Tip: Establish Solid Trust before Offering Advice. We often want to make a splash when we are put into leadership positions, but remember that your team is much more likely to follow you if they trust you. Establish trust first, then lead.

Upcoming Fearless Presentations Classes:

Feb 8-9 Manhattan <<Register
Feb 11-12 Baltimore <<Register
Feb 18-19 Seattle <<Register
Mar 4-5 Orlando <<Register
Mar 11-12 San Diego <<Register
Mar 18-19 Toronto <<Register
Mar 25-26 Chicago <<Register

Quick Public Speaking Tip: Practice with a Person. A lot of us try to practice our speeches or presentations alone or in front of a mirror. However, that kind of practice is likely to make us more nervous. We are our own worst critic, so we tend to knitpick ourselves when we practice alone. We also don’t get the visual and verbal feedback that a friend or coworker can show us, so we may not know if we are communicating clearly. Instead, grab a trusted friend or coworker and run through yur presentation with them. They can offer valuable insight.

I’ve got to tell you, when I start talking about our programs, I get real excited. So she first asked me about the High Impact Leaders class, and I explained to her that the class really helps people increase their self-confidence in ways that no other program can. It helps participants increase their sphere of influence by networking more effectively, build trust, resolve conflicts, influence people and motivate the next level of leaders with her organization. Most people who attend are absolutely shocked at what they can accomplish not only after attending but actually in the classroom as well!

Since she was very happy with how much her confidence had grown in Fearless Presentations, she also asked about our Public Speaking Secrets class as well. I let her know that the Public Speaking Secrets was a great way to really practice and grow the presentation skills that she had already developed in the Fearless class. In that program, we take public speaking confidence to another level by helping participants design significantly more complex presentations and to high level audiences.

I started to see her facial expression change from excited to a little confused, and she paused and thought to herself out loud, “Maybe I should come back and take this class again before trying that one.”

I smiled and let her know that a lot of people do that because graduates of the program get to come back for half the normal tuition and folks who come back tend to increase their confidence exponentially the second time.

I thought that she would get more excited about all of the different opportunities, but instead, she seemed a little overwhelmed. As she started walking back to her seat, I stopped her and asked her if I had said something wrong. She just looked at me and said, “They all sound really good, but there is no way that I could go to all of them. I’m just not sure which to choose.”

A couple of months ago, all of our instructors got together at the home office, and I let them know about what had happened in Las Vegas. Every single one of the instructors said that the same thing happened to them almost every time they teach a class. So we started to brainstorm about a way to help people get the benefits of multiple programs in a faster and easier way.

So to Sarah in Las Vegas (and all of the other folks over the years who had a similar dilema), we are very excited and proud to introduce to you The Leader’s Institute Public Speaking and Leadership Boot Camp. If you can only attend one of our program, this is the one to go to.

We’ve taken the powerful presentations skills that have made the Fearless Presentations class the world leader in public speaking programs as well as the leadership skill development that made The Leader’s Institute famous — all in one program. We just announced the first class which will be in Dallas on Feb. 25-28 a short time ago and the response has been fantastic. We still have a few seats left in the class, but we think this one is going to sell out.

In addition to the skill development, we have a couple of really exciting guest speakers. For those of you who are Dallas Cowboy fans, “Mr. Clutch” Drew Pearson is one of our guest keynotes. Since retiring from Football, Drew has built a huge marketing company and is well know as a great motivational speaker. In addition, my friend Jake Billingsley will also be speaking. For you Survivor fans, Jake was a finalist on one of the shows not too long ago, but even more interesting than that is how he got onto the show. He used publicity to build up his celebrity so that he was the natural choice when the producers were looking for a new cast member. He’s turned that experience into a great speaking career as well. But really, he’s hilarious, and you’ll learn a lot while being really entertained.

This boot camp is going to truly be an event to remember. It has great instructors, great skill development, fun guest speakers, and it is in a really cool location. We’re holding the program in the Fort Worth Hilton which was the last hotel that JFK stayed in, and it’s just a few blocks away from the Sundance Square. Sundance Square is a really nice downtown location with lots of nightlife and great restaurants and stores. And of course, it’s just a mile or so away from the Stockyards which is the home of Billy Bob’s — the World’s Largest Honky Tonk. They have a rodeo indoors every weekend. You’ll love the location.

To save a seat in the class, make sure and register quickly. Space is limited.

What?! Snow in Florida? Inside the gates of one of America’s most visited attractions? Yes, Cinderella lost her slipper in the slush, and it is raining Iguanas in the sunshine state. I dressed most of our plants as blanket mummies hoping to keep freezing temperatures out and plant life in.

Our phone rings and the caller speaks “lizard.” The Iguana tale has captured our imagination, tickled our funny bone and kept our attention. We humans love a good story, and Florida’s unladylike winter temperatures have given us a colorful book of them. (The iguanas will scurry back up the trees as soon as warmer temperatures defrost their little innards.)

Put Stories Into Your Presentation. Use your own stories to help you make a point or explain a premise. Your audience will understand and relax much more quickly if you tell them a story.

Stories of the “unusual” capture our attention. We remember the “different” story. We even repeat it. If you want to get your audience’s attention while making a presentation, tell them a unique story about yourself that supports your main point.

Persuade me to listen to the facts – wrap your stories in the cloak of drama, humor, or the oddities of real life. The sooner you tell me a colorful story to make a point – the quicker you will get buy-in.

Put compelling and visual details into your storytelling – call your iguana by name, tell us about walking him on a leash and how you are rescuing the once “pet” iguanas from the freeze.

I checked in with our backyard lizards and they are content to let sleeping lizards lie, but I will be telling stories about them!

To do it, I wrote an article and published it to a number of article databases and used Traffic Geyser to distribute a how-to video about Super Bowl Parties. If you want a laugh, here is the video…

I know, those Food Network chefs have nothing to worry about, but hopefully, we’ll have that phrase captured in search engines by the Monday class. Enjoy.