Rule 4

When you are standing in front of a room presenting, what are you really trying to do? Most presentations I see re-enforce the presenter’s position as a Stepford Wife Manager rather than as a leader.

Most people are, really, trying to survive – to get it over with without major damage to themselves or the project. Some are trying to enhance their image – “make” people see a certain aspect of themselves that they wish to portray. Some people, however, are there to create a powerful shift in emotion and comprehension in the audience backed up with a call to action. We react to them. We are glad of them. We know that we need them.

The problem with the first two approaches is that they are internally focused. It’s all about you. If your mind is on “you” when you are presenting – you lose. Don’t misunderstand: yes, you have outcomes that you are seeking and they are important. It’s just that you cannot achieve them if, in the room, your mind is on you and how you are doing – surviving, impressing, etc. These things come to the third type of presenter as a natural by-product of creating that shift in the audience.

Here are some thoughts to get your juices flowing:

• Why are you presenting today? How are you moving the world forward?

• How would your presentation – preparation and delivery – alter if your main goal was to create an emotional shift in the audience, an “aha” moment, a desire to interact with you and ask questions, a desire to act to support your aims?

• No professional presenter starts her preparation for the big day by firing up PowerPoint – even if she intends to use slides in the presentation. Do you?

• When you are standing up there, is your brain fearful about what the reaction will be or whether you will be better than last time? Or are you focused on your message and communicating, in that moment, with other human beings? (the other thoughts are important in the preparation, but dangerous during the presentation)

• If it is a new and contentious message that you are delivering – do you really want to test it out live on an important audience for the first time without taking soundings and winning allies?

• Review your last presentation. If it was an “information download”, why did you present it rather than sending an email (“I was told to” doesn’t count – at your level of seniority, you can do “what you’re told” whilst taking control of the outcome and content). Is presenting the right medium for relaying information to people – unless that information is included merely to back up the creation of emotion and a call to engagement and action?

• How do you feel when you are ”we’ve been good” dry facts (the “I’m a good girl, I know my stuff and have prepared – so you can’t get me today!” presentation style). Do you do that to others or do you act boldly and stand apart from the herd, as a leader must?

• Can you see the Tiger at work in every one of the questions asked above, driving you away from the your courageous self, stopping you speaking your truth and pushing you back into your box? Can you see the Tiger at work when your colleagues present. Are you content with that?

Remember the leadership Rules – 4, 5 and 6. A presenter who does not take leadership of the room is not a presenter. She is choosing instead merely to put herself forward as a candidate for the job she already has.

Over to you,

Jim.

Click on the image to view the Rule 4 video.

Click on the image to view the Rule 5 video.

Click on the image to view the Rule 6 video.

Oh yes they are.

Whether “they” are having a whine at the water cooler, marking time until pay day faithfully comes around again, fiddling their timesheets or working heart and soul to push the cause forward, they are strongly motivated to do it.

The real question is whether or not they are motivated to do what you need them to be doing.

External motivation can only be done by carrot and stick. Carrot and stick – buying and punishing people – is gone now. It hasn’t gone because it isn’t pleasant. It’s gone because it is too complex to do in the 21st Century ideas economy, and too time consuming. “Motivating” people is now all about helping people find their own motivation. Self motivation. And how do we create that alchemy in 5 or 5,000 people? Inspiration.

If you manage people in the 21st Century ideas economy, you are in the inspiration business. That’s the day job. Facilitating the creation of desire in people to want to perform and growing the self-belief and self confidence to think that they can do it successfully.

That’s a legacy. That’s an honour. That’s a craft worthy of study and perfection.

Jim.

Click on the image to view the Rule 4 video.

If you are a regular subscriber, you’ll know that I am giving a piece of the Taming Tigers jigsaw that cannot be explained during a presentation over four blogs. If you are new to the blog, you can find the previous installments here

The Ten Rules for Taming Tigers are divided into four groups.

·         The Integrity Rules (Rules 1-3)

·         The Leadership Rules (Rules 4-6)

·         The Change Rules (Rules 7-9)

·         The Esteem Rule (Rule 10)

Today it is the turn of the Leadership Rules to come into the spotlight.

The Leadership Rules

Rules 4-6  are called the Leadership Rules. We first begin to lead ourselves, take control of our own lives rather than being dictated to by our fears and those fears that we have made our own under  the influence of others (parents, teachers, spouses, bosses, etc). We also begin to interact with others in a different way. Being true to ourselves, we become able to inspire and lead them.

Rule 4 – It’s all in the mind – directs us to the chatter within our heads, the mad conversations between our “selves” and our “egos”. If we cannot lead our own heads, how can we lead others? We develop the self awareness to notice when the inane chatter is holding us back. This, in turn, allows us to make informed choices based on this information – to act as intelligent humans rather than accepting our initial reaction. To put our “selves” above our “ego” in moments of pressure and doubt.

Rule 5  - The tools for Taming Tigers are all around us -invites us to re-engage with the world as interdependent creatures, expressing our truths including our vulnerability, and allowing others to support, to fill gaps, to be inspired and get involved with us. It’s about “being real”, and authentic and builds upon the first four Rules. Dependence and independence begin to feel less important. We start to achieve together, to flow. We also begin to realize the mysterious truth that the person we needed most to move forward was sitting there waiting for us to ask, even if they had never heard of us before. We begin to realize that many of the skills and resources we need to act are already available within us. This result only seems to happen if we are following Rules 1-4.

 Rule 6 – There is no safety in numbers – invites us to consider following our own path. Not a path of independence but of spirituality (this is very different to religion). Our path of spirituality being the path that brings us purpose, meaning, integrity with our values, connection with others and the means to grow as a person. To fearlessly be the man or woman we wish to be rather than seeking approval or traditional securities.

Of course, as we lead ourselves, we naturally begin to be able to lead others.

Please feel free to post comments, thoughts and experiences.

Jim

Click on the image to view the Rule 4 video

Click on the image to view the Rule 5 video

Click on the image to view the Rule 6 video

It’s been a busy week for presenting and Tuesday found me striding into the gothic magnificence of London’s historic Guildhall to deliver the after-dinner address to the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators at their annual banquet. Now I have immense respect for these senior folk, the guardians of corporate governance in the UK and around the world and I considered it a real honour to have been invited to address them.

The top table faced the Wellington and Nelson memorial statues as we took our seats in the room which Her Majesty the Queen chose as the venue for her Coronation Breakfast.

Around four hundred members of the Institute took their seats for dinner, formally dressed.   I shared my table with two Knights, the President of the Institute and guests from around the world.

Now I speak to audiences of over five hundred on a weekly basis. It gives me a pleasant adrenaline hit. But for some reason during dinner, my Tiger came to tea. Roaring wildly and telling me that this was all going to go wrong. He was a surprise guest. And very unwelcome.

I excused myself after the main course and went out into the cold evening – desperately missing my old comrade in arms, the cigarette – and set to work on my Tiger with the 10 Rules.

Rule 1 would play its part – but not until I heard my name announced and stood up to their applause. Now it was time for Rule 4. Time to follow my own advice on dealing with the battle in your head when the crunch moment comes and the pressure, for whatever reason, is causing a problem. The book goes into more detail but my favourite weapons in this battle are to look for  real evidence that you’ll be fine – and to get lost in the task rather than the self analysis. I also used some of the tips from the Taming Tigers Learning course – “Present” – particularly Key 6 “You Cannot Read Minds”.

The alert was reduced from Red to Amber (I enjoy Amber) by the time I re-entered the room to face the “tasty looking dessert” Tiger before speaking.

I enjoyed the speech immensely and I hear that the members and guests of the Institute did also. It came as a surprise to be attacked by the Tiger before presenting. But a salutary reminder to stay alert.

The message?  Rule 4, “It’s all in the mind” is the only way to deal with pressure situations, where you risk delivering a second rate performance (in sport, at work, wherever!) simply because of a Tiger… (that isn’t really there, is it?)

Finally my thanks to my hosts on Tuesday for their kind hospitality. I wish them every success with their difficult but vital role in a hard climate where they are sure to be tested.