I knew it wasn’t going to be your normal conference kickoff keynote when I entered the ballroom and found a bongo at every audience seat. I was in the audience that day with about 400 other attendees. We couldn’t help but pick up the bongo, inspect it and experiment with tapping on it. Then one …
Part 3 of 3: How to Turn Your Presence into LEADER Presence
“How is leader presence any different from normal presence?” My student asked this question immediately after I defined the two elements that make up a first impression; your perceived confidence and your approachability. My student persisted with a follow up question before I could even respond, “I mean, isn’t your presence just these two things, …
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Part 2 of 3: FIVE Ways to Develop Leadership Approachability
The conference call went silent for only a second while she was thinking. Then my boss said, “Russ can be there. Set up the meeting.” Well, it looks like I was about to book a flight to Boston from Houston. Without any thought to my personal schedule, my pregnant wife, or my 2-year-old son. I’m …
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How to Build Leader Presence in 3 Parts
Part 1 of 3: CONFIDENCE, the First Building Block of Leader Presence When I begin a communication workshop the topic of first impressions always comes up. We start by defining the three areas of impression your audience will have of you. One student will usually say, “So I just need to make sure that when …
Failure doesn’t teach a lesson without this…
My son had his eyes set on the biggest stuffed animal, but throwing the balls into the basket was not going to be as easy as it appeared. After three failed attempts at tossing the balls he looked up at me and said, “I want to try again.” I could see where this was going. …
Leaders Want These Two Skills In 2018
I’ve noticed a trend in our customers’ professional development requests. This trend began about 4 years ago. What I found interesting was that each customer was working on the same specific need. This specific need was actually created by an entire generation. That generation is the Baby Boomer Generation. The Coming Storm Baby Boomers are retiring …
Blank Slide Syndrome
Tomorrow you are presenting an overview of the project you are working on to the entire department. You blame your workload as the reason you procrastinated until the last minute to start preparing for the presentation. You open the company PowerPoint template, choose File/Save As, name your presentation, and begin your masterpiece. The title slide …
Four questions to answer before speaking to any audience
It was “Meet the Teacher Night” at the High School for my wife and I before the school year started. My son was an incoming freshman this year. My wife and I made our rounds from one classroom to another, following my son’s new class schedule. We were excited for him starting this next chapter in his …
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