I don’t know the origin of the term “all hands meeting.” Sometimes people refer to it by the acronym AHM.  Just a little advice — AHM can also refer to:

• Automated Hacking Machines
• Adaptive Handoff Management
• Airline History Museum
• Airport Handling Manual
• Anterior Hyaloid Membrane

…and over a dozen other terms, so personally I would avoid it.  Could be confusing.  As acronyms usually are.

Anyway, I would venture the All Hand Meeting term originated with the maritime phrase “all hands on deck.”  Picture the ship captain (that’s YOU!  Or the EXECUTIVE TEAM!), charting a course (the BUSINESS STRATEGY), and then calling the crew (EMPLOYEES) up top for a hearty kick in the wooly britches.  The captain urges the swashbucklers to toughen up for the voyage (NEXT QUARTER), brace for the next storm (STRUGGLING GLOBAL ECONOMY, NEW COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES), and fortify themselves for a long stretch without provisions (BUDGET CUTS), not to mention and stingy meals of stale bread and water (LOUSY RAISES AND BONUSES).   Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! 

Ah! The All Hands Meeting.  What will you say when you get up to speak about the state of the organization?  How will you stand and deliver a talk that perfectly frames the current issues, challenging people to move forward and redouble their efforts?  

The purpose of the all hands meeting is quite simple.  Think of it as the President’s State of the Union Address.  You may not get 40 standing ovations on live TV, but your talk should stir genuine emotion from your employees.  Strive to speak eloquently, succinctly and clearly about the current and future state of the enterprise.  Paint a vision of where you have been and where you are going.  Get out the compass, set a course, and tell us how we get to that distant shore.

So, your AHM is coming up soon.  Where should you begin?

May I suggest that the first step is NOT to pull out the musty, old slide deck from the LAST quarter’s all hands meeting.  Think about starting from scratch, and preparing a fresh, new, “killer” presentation.  

What you say matters.  Every word.  Take time to make it great.  Getting people together isn’t logistically easy, and it’s expensive.  And your own professional reputation is riding on this.  You’re evaluated as a leader every time you get up to speak.  Make it count. 

One thing about this fall that’s worth noting - people are still feeling “at sea” because of economic uncertainty.  You would think they would be more motivated to work hard.  But people are actually  paralyzed by fear.  Clear the log jam and get that ship sailing.  

I do everything in my power to shut out the drumbeat of negative economic news, as I know you do.  But  most people don’t.  So it takes a toll.  They need leaders who will stand up and lead. People are only human; they’ve been resourceful for a long time, projects are demanding, and they are tired.  They need to be inspired.

My advice? To inspire, you have to BE inspired.   Ask yourself these questions and then answer them for your team: 

1.        Where are we going? And why is it the right course?  How do you know?

2.       What makes you believe it can be done?  

3.       How do you know that our team can do this?  

4.       Where can we course-correct?   

5.       How do you know we can do it? 

6.       What’s cool about our company? (Tell them how brilliant they are)  

7.       How will we know when we’ve arrived?   

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I took accounting in college, got a C, and was grateful to make it through.  It just didn’t come easily.  At 19, I couldn’t envision a time when I would need to read a profit and loss statement.  The best thing about it was it was a summer course so I could study at the university pool, and the boy who volunteered to tutor me was pretty cute.

It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy courses outside my major, journalism.  I loved biology, for example.  My semester project was to research and write a vegetarian cookbook with original recipes (fairly radical back then.)  I discovered that I detested the lentils and tofu.  It’s a texture thing.  I grew up in the Midwest where we eat steaks and burgers for breakfast.  But I digress.

As I look back, I realize that that I’ve always liked learning through experience.  History is replete with stories of people who did, too.  When Apple’s Steve Jobs dropped out of college he enrolled in a caligraphy course, which he credited with helping him to develop the deep appreciation for design that now characterizes every Apple product.

Some things you can learn in a book, others you can’t.  The other day, a friend emailed to ask me to recommend some books on public speaking.  She was distraught about a business presentation and writing a to do list - did I have suggestions?  I told her to forget the books- and get busy speaking.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m the author of two, soon to be three books, so I believe in reading. But books are just the first step in speaking well.  Get your head out of the book and get up on your feet.  Schedule a talk.  Practice.  Take  a course.  Give another speech.  Take another course.  Join Toastmasters.  Give another speech.  Speaking is something you learn by doing.

Many of our clients love to read.  So do I.  But this proclivity can be an obstacle if you don’t take the next step.  At a certain point, reading one more book won’t help you improve one iota.  

Every leader I’ve ever worked with who is a great speaker tells me they started speaking early in their career - and kept going.  You can learn later in life.  You just need to put some muscle into your plan.  If you do the same thing with the same result, it’s like going to the gym and doing curls with two pound weights; no matter how much time you spend, you’re never going to have Popeye arms.  No pain, no gain.  Raise the stakes.  Then, practice like mad.     

It’s also important to get clear about the difference between “preparation” and “practice.”  Preparation is the thinking and writing and editing of your script and materials such as slides or handouts.  Practice is getting up and saying it out loud.  Many times.  Many, many times.  

Sometimes clients will say, “I’ve been working on this for weeks,” or “I’ve spent hours on this presentation.”  However, upon further examination of the above statements, I find they’ve been dinking around with the slides, rejiggering the bullet points, creating four quadrant process visuals that you couldn’t read with a magnifying glass.  As far as “practice?”  The night before the presentation, at 9 pm, they get in bed to review the slides, until their loving spouse or significant other roles over and begs them to turn off the light.  This, my friend, is not practice.  

So if you love books, keep buying books for heavens sake.  Support your favorite authors.  Just don’t stop there.  As Gloria Estefan sang,

Get on your feet

Get up and make it happen

Get on your feet

Get up and take some action  

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If your audiences could vote with their feet, what would happen?  

Interesting question, isn’t it?  Most of the time you’re speaking to a captive audience.  What if they didn’t have to stay?    

I had the opportunity to stand at a podium and watch the room empty out.  It was as painful as you might imagine.  

This was right after I left television news and started my business. The event was the American Bankers Association Conferenc in Bermuda.  Early in my new venture, I was thrilled to be asked to be the ”warm up act” for the main program.  The session ran from 9 to 12 so that the bankers could get afternoon tee times.  And just to remind those attending the conference what it was really all about, the ballroom had a scenic vista of the oceanfront course.

The keynote speaker (following me) was Howard Fineman, the legendary Newsweek Chief Political Correspondent.  I was a little nervous but okay until I checked in with the meeting planner.  She sheepishly informed me that Mr. Fineman’s schedule had changed- he needed to catch an earlier flight back to Washington - and would I mind if he spoke before me.  Like I had a choice.

Now, Howard Fineman is no Jerry Seinfeld, but he is a very good speaker and he’s collected a lot of inside stories on the legendary political figures he’s covered over the years.  As a new speaker, I was still pretty sure that the audience was not going to laugh when I presented the “10 Steps for Success with the Media,” or whatever I was talking about.  

You know how people try to make you feel better by saying, “How bad could it be?” or “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”  In this case, it happened.

As Fineman left the stage, the mass exodus began, and it was as if the fire alarm had gone off.  Two thirds of the room emptied before I was even behind the podium.  I felt like a little tiny person with a little tiny speech. I was visibly rattled and utterly convinced that those who were stayed did so because they felt pity.      

I wish I’d had my wits about me.  I considered “fainting” but had no idea how to make it look real.  I could have come up with a room-emptying line and caught the next flight to Boston. “Good morning, before we begin I wanted to announce that Titleist golf balls are 75% off in the lobby for the next 10 minutes.”  Or, “If any of you are interested, Cameron Diaz is giving autographs on the beach.”  

Instead, I just started the talk, as planned.  I cut half of it out but it was still an eternity.     

That got me thinking.  What would happen if every audience could vote with their feet?  What if they always had a choice? Would they stay or would they go?

Pretty intriguing question, isn’t it?

Whether you’re the featured speaker, the speaker following the featured speaker, or the only speaker,  everyone in the audience is exactly like you.  What I mean is, they all walk into the room wishing they were someplace else.  

This is still what scares me and thrills me about speaking.  If professional speakers are honest they would tell you the same thing.  It’s not the fun, it’s the fear. That’s why they work so hard to tell some stories and add a little humor.   All to avoid the humiliation.      

When speaking to a captive business audience, remember your audiences DO have a choice, if only in their minds.  Even if the occassion is a mandatory all-hands meeting, they only have to physically be there.  Mentally they can still check out.  That’s why it’s important to take another look at your material and be ruthless.  Can you make it more interesting?  Tell a few stories, make them smile?   

Last week, one of my clients did just that.  He didn’t have to.  He gave an engaging, personal, 18 minute presentation to introduce us to the sales team.  His stories worked, the photos were funny, everybody loved the T-shirts he passed around, as well as the show and tell props.  It was the perfect set-up and the best introduction anyone has ever given me.  

The effort he put into it paid off.  Not only did he engage them from the start.  He modeled the communication skills he was asking them to develop.  It was obvious he put time into it - exactly what he expected them to do - as they learned to engage customers and prospects.  It set up a great 1.5 day session.      

I’ve never actually met Howard Fineman and he hasn’t a clue who I am, but all the same, I want to thank him.  It was really good to get that nightmare over with.  And it taught me to think about audiences not as bodies in chairs, but as people with ”feet.”

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“Practice does not make perfect.  Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

- Vince Lombardi

 Ray Allen, Celtics

If you haven’t been following the Lakers/Celtics in the 2010 NBA finals (one of THE great sports rivalries of all time) you are definitely missing something.  You sure as heck don’t need to be a basketball fan to grasp this epic story - two titan teams- whose history dates back to the 60’s.  There is simply no matchup in sports better than the Celtics and the Lakers.    

Celtics fans believe (rightly) that as the relatively “new” leader of the team Rajon Rondo goes, so goes the game - and that’s true.  He’s incredible.  However - Ray Allen - the veteran shooter - has been a deciding factor in the Celtics wins (and losses) so far.  In game 2, Allen broke the record for the most 3-pointers in an NBA final game - and the Celtics won.  On the road.  It was incredible.

Why is this important to you as a leader or a professional who has to hit the “court” every day?  As we all know, performance is about perfect practice.  Your “game” will be judged by how well you communicate your big ideas and inspire people to achieve results.  What makes you great is what makes a player like Ray Allen great.  And it isn’t”God given talent.” 

Ray Allen’s remarkable career is a testament to his utter dedication to routine practice.  He can ALWAYS be found on the court before EVERY game, often alone, taking shots.  This dedication, which some might describe as “every day is Ground Hog Day in the NBA” has built his stellar career and positioned him as future Hall of Fame legend.  

Becoming a great “shooter” isn’t about getting it right once in awhile, when it “counts.”  You have to hit the court consistently.  Allen has it all committed to memory (both the mental kind and the muscle kind) and he works it before every single game.   I strongly recommend taking a couple of minutes to watch the You Tube video below - and listen to what he says as he shows you his routine.  It isn’t just about basketball, that’s for sure.

By the way I never apologize for sports analogies.  If there are people- male or female - who don’t get it, then so be it.  The parallels between sports and business are so right on.  Listen to truly great athletes talk about how they do it - and one thing you learn is there’s no such thing as natural talent.  

Ray Allen was a gym rat all through high school and college.  Even when he was 8, he had to make 8 lefty layups and 5 righty layups before he would leave the court.  So his practice habits were etched in stone early in life. 

At the same time, you can’t be discouraged if you didn’t start speaking well early in your career.  The legendary Michael Jordan’s work ethic is proof that you can catch up.   Coach Phil Jackson, commenting once on his former star player said, “The weakest part of Michael’s game on the offensive end was his shooting and so he obviously mastered something everyone said he couldn’t do…and he did it by shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting consistently.  This guy said - what are my weaknesses - and how do I make them my strengths - and he did it.” 

Every time you get up to speak people are sizing you up as a leader.  Every game counts. That’s why you can never take the practice time for granted.  This week, one of our clients called his coach after a major presentation to say it was just “okay.”  He’d had a “good game” a couple of months before - knocking a presentation out of the park - and then he decided he didn’t have time to prepare and rehearse the next one with the coach - and no surprise - the presentation just didn’t fly.   What Ray Allen knows (and he is admittedly almost OCD about it) is what all of us must learn - if you don’t get out there and practice, you aren’t going to have a good game.  

 

 Ray Allen on how to become a shooter: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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I had failed to pack running shoes and it was going to be four long days without stress- relieving exercise at the Whittemore School at the University of New Hampshire.  The Bates team was there to deliver a Communicate like a Leader program for 25 senior executives.  By day two, my guys were sick of hearing about the exercise thing, so they dropped me at Macy’s on the way to dinner at Outback (we travel in style) to buy some Nikes.  Macy’s carries 1,973 styles but nary a thing you could remotely consider appropriate for a workout unless you like the look and feel of sexy four- inch black strap pumps on a treadmill.   The ONLY fitness category offering was the new fangled Sketchers “Shape Ups™ that Joe Montana has been so sincerely touting on TV. 

I tried them on.  The foot actually rolls in these odd shaped things.  You can’t stand still.  The rounded heel to cushy middle prods your foot forward.  It’s like walking on a workout ball.    I paid the $100 and couldn’t wait for my maiden test run; rising at 5:30 in the midst of a Nor’easter, I commandeered the only umbrella from the front desk and set off.   I felt like I was bouncing.  These Shape Ups claim to “improve poster, strengthen the back, firm the buttocks, improve blood circulation, tighten abdominals and get me into shape without setting foot in a gym” and at the end of 45 minutes I felt at least optimistic that was true.  

I don’t mean I saw immediate impact on the derriere (thought I did check the mirror); but I had an inspiration for my morning presentation.  This was precisely the metaphor I was searching for; a perfect corollary to the awkward experience of learning how to tell a good story.

 Whether you tell stories or you don’t, learning to use our five step process can put a crimp on your style at first.  It doesn’t allow you to carry on without a point, and everything you put into the story needs to lead to it.  So it can be awkward to apply the structure but eventually it is a roadmap that accelerates the process of developing a story you can use in a business presentation.

I walked into the classroom later that morning sporting the shoes (with my suit) and proceeded to tell my story; I demonstrated the rolling motion; then I related it to the storytelling process. 

Bates Story Structure  

The                    The                   The                  The                The

Set Up             Build Up             Scene              Lesson         Universal Theme

I wouldn’t be able to give you the entire storytelling course here, but here’s a quick sketc.  The Set Up is the who, what, when, where of your story - where it begins. The Build Up provides a storyline with some characters and interesting details.  This leads to The Scene; a pivotal moment in the story such as a conversation or realization.  This moment leads to The Point- a personal lesson, observation or ephiphany.  But you’re not finished.  You still have to expand that to provide relevance to the audience through The Universal Theme- how it applies to them.  

We’ve been perfecting this structure for several years and I’ve watched how executives who thought they didn’t have a story bone in their bodies embrace it and become confident storytellers.  Think of it like trying on a new shoe.  The foot is the moving part - the actual story.  The shoe is the story structure that keeps it laced up, aligned and moving in the right direction.  

I’m still wearing the Shape Ups as I write this.  I guess I’ll have to report back in a few weeks when I can tell you whether it is living up to the promise.

In the meantime, try on some new stories.  Think about how to structure them to make a powerful point. In no time they’ll be in “great shape.”

Anybody have a full length mirror?   

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“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”  -John Wayne

A couple of years ago a good friend and mentor told me that he thought I needed to get a little more “swagger.”  Not confidence, specifically, he used the word swagger.  It’s a cool word.  Fun to say.  Swagger.  I wasn’t sure exactlly what he meant at the time, but the message was that something needed to be ratcheted up.

Was it, attitude?  Charisma?  Self-Assurance?  Sauntering into the saloon, boots jangling, John Wayne-style, ordering a double and tossing it down?  Swashbuckling onto the ship, Johnny Depp-style, to take prisoners into foreign waters and make them love it?   

I looked it up.  

 swag·ger (swgr)

As an unabashed fan of American Idol, I’m particularly intrigued by one of this year’s top three finalists, Lee DeWyze.  His musical talent has always been obvious but he looked like he was hiding his personality under a bushell.  He was kind of …well…shy.  More than once, judge Kara DioGuardi prodded him.  ”Do you believe you can win this thing?”  Wow, that’s tough on live TV in front of 35 million Idol fans.  But we got what she meant.  You can’t be a superstar unless you believe you are.

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“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

-Steven Covey

It’s that time of year - corporate strategy meetings, team off-sites, global leadership meetings, board of director meetings; they’re coming fast and furious.  If you’re like my clients you are preparing at least one presentation, probably a few.  Some of my clients go into this process like a Chinese fire drill (which I realize isn’t exactly politically correct - I looked it up - it’s a pejorative expression originating from the 1900’s referring to a bucket brigade that is accomplishing nothing) so if I’ve offended you then so be it.

Now I love all these clients but let me explain what I mean by the fire drill.  One of them emailed his 14 page draft with about 17 slides at 10 p.m. the night before our 7:30 a.m. coaching session.  Another sent five separate documents related to her presentation with detailed notes five minutes before our 1-hour coaching call.  A third guy just went MIA.  We were scheduled to talk the day before a ”test run” with his boss and I never heard from him.  Three days later he replied to my voice mail with an email apology - he was sorry but it hadn’t been ready, he thought it was okay, not sure, would like to talk… but was heading out for a long weekend… catch up next week… 

Let me take a step back and say it’s fine to do some things “just in time.” If you’re asked to bring a salad to the neighbor’s backyard barbeque Saturday night you can run to the grocery store at 5:45, whip it together at their salad bar and show up looking like a hero.  However, preparing a presentation is not like making salad.  You can’t just toss it all together the day before you speak.  And once you’re past the third grade, the dog ate my homework excuse just doesn’t fly.   

Whenever clients fail to meet a deadline or go right up against it, you can take it to the bank - they’re doing the same thing at work.  With a coach, they’re just flushing company money down the drain.  At work it can be their careers.  In their wake - they create chaos.  It doesn’t just hurt them - it hurts everybody who is waiting on them and counting on them.     

We all have pressure.  Unless you work for the Save the Endangered Caterpillar division of the Environmental Protection Agency and your hours are 9 to 3:30 and everything can wait, you have deadlines. If you’re not busy you’re dead.  For the sake of your career and your sanity it is time to stop pretending that you can do it all.  You have to know your priorities and be ruthless about how you use your time.        

The other day I was on the phone with a client and I recommended he make a list.  1 through 10.  What are you priorities?  What’s the next action step?  When can you complete it?  How will you know you’ve succeeded?  It’s easy to do this with a coach or mentor but you can also do it for yourself.    

1. priority -activitiy - deadline- measure of success

2. priority -activity - deadline - measure of success

3. priority - activity - deadline  - measure of success

etc. 

It’s simply amazing what happens when you write things down.  Writing engages your brain, the list stimulates creativity and checking things off gets you pumped.  You don’t need a ten hours of strategic naval gazing introspection to get your priorities on a piece of paper.  They’re in your head anyway, for heavens sake.  It took my client ten minutes.   

Of course, if making a list was the start and end of success then we’d all be Warren Buffet. Once you have the list, you have to take one more step.  SCHEDULE those activities ON YOUR CALENDAR.  What gets scheduled gets done.  You know this because if you switch over to your own calendar right now you’ll see a bunch of things scheduled today.  You’re an efficient person.  these will get done.  

So stop trying to rearrange your to do list.  Put the important stuff first.  Get it on your calendar.  Stop the madness, set priorities and put down your bucket. It’s spilling all over the place. 

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“When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.”

-General Stanley A. McChrystal, leader of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan

One of the most widely-emailed stories last week was an above-the-fold, color-splashed New York Times PowerPoint diagram portraying the complexity of American strategy in Afghanistan.  As the NYT observed, it looks more like a bowl of spaghetti than a strategy.  As I read it I thought about the old black and white war movies in which war generals drew battle diagrams in the dirt with a stick.  Boy we’ve come a long way, haven’t we?  

Computer generated charts, graphs and bullet points are now apparently a running joke at the Pentagon.  Military communications are dominated by unruly PowerPoint presentations that are stifling real communication.  “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” said General H.R. McMaster. 

I don’t know about you but I’m not laughing.  I’d like to know that when those brave guys and gals go out on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan that everybody’s got the same clear plan in their heads.  I don’t mean to imply that the military considers this a laughing matter.  High ranking military officials have serious concerns that PowerPoint is damaging critical thinking and thoughtful decision making.  But the horse is out of the barn and nobody knows how to corral it back inside.

Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?

Bad PowerPoint is such a running joke in American business today.

Maybe lives aren’t at stake, but your business is. 

The other day one of my new clients came in to prepare for a presentation he was giving in London to about 400 global leaders in his company.  He’d delivered the same presentation to small groups; but it was going on the big screen and he wanted to “check the slides” before he left.  “Minor adjustments,” he said.

“More like a PowerPoint grenade,” I replied.

One structural diagram had so many boxes and messages in the smallest type I’ve ever seen (is there a “nano-point”?) which you couldn’t read with a magnifying glass.  Another had six text boxes each with 12 bullet points.  I’m not kidding. 

Here’s what I’m going to propose.  Copy my article, or just cut and paste the photo and send it around your company today.  Ask for comments.  Get people talking about PowerPoint.  Then send me your comments.  I will post them in the blog.  

By starting the conversation perhaps you can make some changes.  It’s time to start using visuals to make things easier, not harder, to understand.  It’s not too late to win the battle in business.  

Pass the sauce, please.

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I used to hate it when my mother said “It’s right in front of your nose, dear.”  Have you ever actually tried to look right in front of your nose?  (I just did it.)  It’s a weird feeling. 

Try it. 

Really, nobody’s looking.  Go ahead.

Wow, you really know how to live dangerously. 

Seriously, did you get dizzy?  I did.  And I couldn’t see a darned thing. After three or four seconds I stopped because it was uncomfortable. No wonder my mother also used to say, “Don’t cross your eyes or they’ll get stuck.”  

She was right.

What I mean is you can get stuck trying to see what’s right in front of your face – the story of your company.   Even a crackerjack marketing/PR/communications team sees it from the same perspective you do.  It’s simple anatomy – you’re so close you can’t see it.     

Nobody knows your business like you do.  You are smart, self-reliant, and you’ve lived the story.  It’s hard to take a step back.  So there you are looking straight down your nose, so close that you may go cross eyed.  

You are the best one to TELL your story but before you do, you may need to take a step back and get someone to helpyou.  Another person’s perspective will help you to fully appreciating what that story really is.  Your story is not the features of your products or services.  It’s about who you are as a company and why customers want to do business with you.      

Recently we started working with a new company which had a cool technology and a lousy message.  I’m saying you could spend 47 hours reading the copy on their web site and I would defy you to explain what they’re trying to say.  But chat with the CEO for two minutes and you see he’s clearly passionate about it.   

So we started asking questions.  We listened, talked some more, revised, revamped, and eureka.  Cool stuff.  The picture came into focus.  I love it when when everybody looks up at the same time and you can tell they are thinking, ”This is fun!”        

It can be scary to let go and twork with a coach or consultant; to try to tell your story to someone else.  You may be a little afraid of the holes in the story, or the questions you hate to answer.  But when you do this, it’s amazing how the answers fall into place.  And you may as well address those gaps because it’s what your audience is thinking about anyway.  

So, my advice is, before you assign the team to spend hours slaving over another PowerPoint deck; before you ask the “Web guy” (I know they’re not all guys but that’s the lingo) to revise your web site; before you sit down with one more trade press reporter, or go to an industry conference or even meet with a big new prospect, get some professional help.  Bring the story into focus.  Uncross those eyes and get the story right.     

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I was talking the other day with one of our executive coaches, Margie Myers, about what makes people sit up and pay attention.  She told me about this hilarious cartoon that appeared in the New Yorker back in the 80’s.  It’s called What Dogs Hear.  Being a dog lover I went looking for it.    

When I saw it I realized - it isn’t just about dogs.  Is it?    

Imagine that dog is YOUR AUDIENCE.  (I know, I’ve had some ”dog” audiences too, but I am not meaning to insult dogs or audiences here. Simply trying to make a point.)  They are really trying to listen.  But they can’t hear.  It isn’t their fault.  They’re trying, they really are.  You just aren’t speaking dog language. 

If you want your audience to sit up and pay attention and maybe even give you a big kiss after your presentation, your only hope is to talk to them -about them.   

The other day I took a look at the first draft outline for one of my client’s presentations.

Blah Blah Blah.  It didn’t need a tweak - it needed a shredder. As in a do over. So we hauled out the Audience Agenda exercise from Speak Like a CEO, and I asked him to switch chairs.  That often helps people change perspectives -move out of their own mindset into the mindset of the audience. I asked him to imagine he was the CEO of his company.  What was on the guy’s mind? 

He came up with three questions - 

• How can we seize new market opportunities this year?
• How can we improve our profitability?
• Do we have the right people on the team to do it?

Voila.  An outline for a talk that will get a CEOs attention. I predicct he’ll be all over it like a dog on a bone.

Please don’t be a blah blah blah speaker.  Take time.  Do the 180 thinking.  Write down the issues on your audience’s mind.  Build your talk around that. There, isn’t it simple? 

Woof!

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