Why is storytelling such an important skill to have? What makes stories so powerful? No better way than to share a story of my own.
Stories bridge the gap. They are a great entryway between your ideas and your audience's. Because stories aim to demonstrate underlying principles, the narrative you choose is malleable, and if you choose one that your audience can relate to easily, the more effective it becomes.
References
Steve Jobs' presentations were incredible. Why? His remarkable presence, his personal brand, and the simple yet strong slide decks made the difference. Everyone would cheer when he announced the first iPhone, or the innovative Macbook Air. The black and blue fade background with big white letters zooming in would mark that generation of computers for good. What made Jobs so influential on stage? What made people line up to see him? Let's figure that out.
References
Doing the right thing is not the same as doing the thing right.
Meaningful practice makes progress. How do we practice? How to prepare for a big online presentation, a team workshop or a webinar, in a way that is purposeful and tells you that you're doing better than last time?
I'm breaking my answer in three parts: why it's important to practice, what to practice when it comes to speaking in public, and how to do it in a way that is meaningful and lets you know you're improving.
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Reference material
The continuation of last week's episode on paralanguage. If you're curious to get the context behind it, check episode 57.
What makes people want to see TED talks? Usually because speakers that go there have great ideas to share. And what makes them so interesting that people can be engaged for such a long time?
I would personally love to acquire such incredible gravitas. They always look so collected, and yet so confident. These people are truly inspiring, and I'm telling you there's a way to get there.
How do you become more confident and interesting when speaking in front of others, and how do you add that special something that makes people want to listen to what you have to say?
We've been exploring posture and gestures lately. They are incredible resources that take advantage of the visual senses and pairing them with the actual message that others hear.
Because we now understand how effective gestures are, it becomes important to realize the conditions in which we do them, specifically the space and boundaries we have available. Also, when interacting with others, we want to actively engage with them, create an impactful experience and somehow justify the time and energy they're spending with us.
When you talk with others, how do you increase your confidence while still being respectful of others? How do you leverage the space around you to send a message more meaningfully?
Conversation is one of the most spontaneous activities for people to engage in. Everyone loves talking with others, be it an extrovert on a introvert. If you think about it, introverts are very much selective extroverts; meaning, they like to expand with a limited number of people they can trust.
Talking gets more interesting when it becomes slightly physical as you move your arms and make certain gestures with your hands. Depending on the situation, you might choose different gestures.
Which ones are right to use when speaking in public or reasoning with someone who's close to you?
Imagine yourself having a conversation with somebody; a deep one, in fact. The ideas being exchanged require some effort to understand, and they take time to fully absorb.
Now imagine you're absolutely still when you're talking. Arms down, fixed expression on your face, 6 feet away from the other person.
What does it look like? Is it awkward or funny? Is it provoking or is it rather something you see yourself doing? What would you change in that picture?
If you're part of a product team, chances are that you talk about solving certain problems on a daily basis. Teams who use Scrum, for instance, plan their work together every day. Part of their process includes understanding where they are in the context of their sprint goal.
There is often the challenge of discussing those goals from a text file, maybe a product requirements document or a Jira ticket. The time spent writing that kind of information is considerably higher than if you were to either talk about it or draw it. This challenge becomes more significant when someone or everyone is working remotely, and it can become increasingly simpler as the team adopts new methods.
References
Go back to any situation where you had to make a decision with anyone else (maybe your team or a client). Think about the documents you had with you, and how they supported the group. Think about the experience of coming up with those documents and how different it would be if you didn't have them. What does that picture look like?
More than once I've had people come up to me to ask for help on this subject. They either want to schedule a call to explore a quick set of options or they email me to start and plan a big subject for the long term. Active listening plays a big part in validating the other person's point of view when talking face-to-face, and transferring all the information into writing has become even more valuable, as all points are confirmed on paper and revisited at a later time very effectively.
It is clear that writing is very different from talking. It takes somewhat longer, and it has the potential to be interpreted differently from expected. However, with the reality of remote work, writing eloquently and efficiently becomes an important skill to have.
So how do you make writing almost as smooth and effective?
References
More and more, people come together to watch online webinars, talk to clients in important meetings and attend training workshops. They're more accessible, affordable and convenient, particularly for those who live far from the big cities.
The challenge with these kinds of events is that we cannot know for sure if the experience will meet reasonable expectations, even if the topic is of our utmost interest. Maybe the speaker struggles with the slide deck, maybe the sound quality isn't optimal.
If you're speaking at such an event, how do you increase your odds of success? How do you prepare for that great webinar or that great meeting with key stakeholders?
In this episode we're exploring posture; what it means and how to effectively show good posture.
Before 2020, most people would go to the office and work together. They would gather by the watercooler and chat, have important meetings with clients and partners, visit other coworkers' workstations to discuss design work, perform pair programming, or simply exchange ideas creatively.
Then the pandemic hit, and everything changed. Most of the world has switched to ways of working that required them to talk through a screen most of the day. What was once a super natural thing to happen turned into a chore. Up to this day, there are still people who want to benefit from technology without jumping through the hurdles every time.
How will you ensure smoother, distraction-free calls and meetings? How do you get up and running for those with less effort and waste?
In this episode I am suggesting 3 essential components of a good setup for online calls, and I will also be suggesting a budget setup to improve it.
References
* Logitech H390 headset: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UXZQ42
* Samson C01U microphone: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HXE4BYW
* NexiGo N660P camera: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L7ZLNHB
* Logitech StreamCam: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W4DHNBF
Natasha Wellington-Hillsman is a Human Resources Business Partner and Leadership Coach with 25 years of experience in manufacturing and healthcare. Her focus is on Nonprofit, Career Development, Conflict Resolution, and Facilitation.
She is currently a Director of Human Resources at Luminis Health, Leadership Coach at Wellington-Hillsman and Professor at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.
Reference material
Every time I record a podcast, or sometimes when I have prepare any sort of presentation to my clients or my team, I always use the same procedure:
Today's focus is on point 2: frame the topic well.
Good preparation elevates your message, your confidence and your audience's engagement.
When you start to develop your idea, you might realize that you might have holes you need to fill. For example: Is this idea too vague? Does my audience really understand the points I'm making? Can they keep a clear picture of the whole thing? How will they respond?
Here's my one question to you at this stage: how do you reduce the odds of misunderstanding and indifference? Think about how you already do that: the techniques, the experience you have, what others tell you to do. What does it look like?
Here's how I came up with the MoSMoS framework to solve those challenges.
References
Preparation is a crucial skill to have. While most people praise posture, confidence and tone of voice, only a few appreciate the prep work under a powerful presentation or a productive meeting. Today we'll explore the impact of preparation with a couple of examples and, after that, how to do so regardless of the situation.
Start 2024 on the right foot! If you want to become a successful communicator, make the difference amongst your peers and leaders, and boost your career, learn the 5 essential components of communication.
In further episodes we'll explore each of those elements in practice so stay tuned!
In a military operation, communication is not just important; it can be a matter of life or death. Clear, accurate, and concise communication can be the difference between success and failure on the battlefield.
However, in the chaos of a mission, miscommunication can lead to disastrous consequences. Orders misunderstood, coordinates confused, and critical information miscommunicated can jeopardize the entire operation and put lives at risk.
How can the military ensure that every message is accurate, every instruction is clear, and every communication is brief yet comprehensive, especially in the high-stakes environment of a mission?
We explore the ABCs of communication – Accuracy, Brevity, and Clarity.
Knowing the reasons why certain people take certain positions breaks barriers of potential conflict and increases the quality of collaboration, from coworkers and teams to the tougher stakeholders like customers, clients and directors. Let's explore the topic in three segments: what is conflict, its five levels, how to resolve it, and some practical examples.
Understand the Thomas-Kilmann conflict resolution model: https://www.mtdtraining.com/blog/thomas-kilmann-conflict-management-model.htm
Our workdays are filled with different activities: making decisions, talking about the solutions we're building, building them, planning, writing email, meetings... It's 2023, and it becomes more and more valuable to grow out of our specialty by understanding a little bit of everything others around us do, as well as developing human skills that help us collaborate better and be more productive.
When we have so many things to do and learn, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find time to focus deeply in our work; whether we're writing code, designing a marketing campaign or a webpage, analyzing data, etc.
What can you do to increase the amount of time to perform deep, focused work, and manage your time better? Talk less. Be concise.
