Seven Habits of Amazingly Successful Salespeople

More than ever today, all of us are selling. In business, we sell our products and services. In life, we're constantly selling our ideas, our plans and more. Being able to influence others is part of the selling process, and we can all learn from people who are successful in selling.

The best salespeople seem to practice a set of common habits. Here are seven habits of highly successful salespeople.

1. They hustle when others hunker down.

When times get tough, the unsuccessful want to circle the wagons and hunker down into something safe and cozy. Unfortunately for them, life isn't designed to be cozy or safe. It rewards those who take risks and venture forth in hustle mode. Successful people have a sense of urgency about them. They know how to embrace hustle mode when it is necessary.

2. They constantly work at being relationship farmers.

They are not pushy salespeople. Instead they are constantly creating, building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships. They think of themselves as farmers — constantly nurturing, caring and doing the day-to-day tasks to grow a strong harvest farther down the road.

3. They thoroughly research their prospects.

The best-kept secret of social media is that it is a brilliant tool for research. One ninja-level trick is to start with LinkedIn to get the basics about a person, such as where your prospect went to school and worked. Then move on to Facebook to get more information about what he or she likes, such as restaurants, vacations, pets, kids or quotes. Then they move on to Twitter and track their tweets, their re-tweets and the people they follow. They learn volumes about potential clients this way.

4. They make direct, personal connections.

They deploy social media with pinpoint, precision accuracy. None of this “My cat is sleeping” kind of baloney. They research like crazy (see point No. 3), and then they take massive action to connect with others in a way that is meaningful to the other person. Let your prospects see you as an ally rather than just another pest trying to fake a common interest only to sell your stuff.

5. They are resoundingly resilient.

They know they are going to get knocked down every now and then. But 99 percent of the time they know they can get back up, dust themselves off, and get back in the game. Smart salespeople learn from mistakes and make themselves better after a bruising.

6. They do self-surgery and give themselves a “try-ectomy”.

They don't settle for a lame, “Well, at least I tried,” pity party. They keep going till they get results. Remember Master Yoda from Star Wars. “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” Stop resting just because “you tried.” Successful people know that you don't get paid for trying. You get paid for results.

7. They embrace technology to help people.

Today technology is not a department — it is integrated into everything we do in business. Top salespeople don't get enmeshed in the technology, but always have a mindset to use it to be more productive and help others. They use video tools like Google+ Hangouts, Skype, and Eyejot to connect with more people. As I’ve said for years: It’s not about the e-commerce (electronics), it’s about the r-commerce (relationships).

Terry Brock gives real-world, practical tips on how to generate revenue and increase productivity. He's the former Chief Enterprise Blogger for Skype, former Editor-in-Chief for AT&T's top-rated blog, and is co-author of the best-selling McGraw-Hill book about social media, "Klout Matters." He's also an international Speaker Hall of Fame inductee and travels around the world helping business leaders connect with their customers building relationships and increasing business.                  

How Cherishing Mistakes, Being Clueless and Stress Fests Helped Birchbox's Success

Birchbox founders and co-CEO's Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp are revolutionizing how you shop -- and help you discover your favorite quality beauty products by delivering samples right to your door, for just $10 a month.

The duo came up with the concept while attending Harvard business school. Inspired by the luxe beauty finds their friend (and first hire) Mollie Chen would bring home from her job as an editor at Condé Nast, Barna and Beauchamp wanted to bring this sample approach to the masses. Some 400,000 customers, the launch of Birchbox Man, a monthly-digital magazine and men's style guide, and expansions into France, Spain and the UK (thanks to the acquisition of Parisian service JolieBox) later, they've created an enduring brand and growing community. We caught up with Barna and Beauchamp to talk about finding balance and the courage to take the plunge into the unknown.


Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when you were first starting up?

KB: Not knowing has had so much to do with our success. Of course Hayley and I had a big dream with Birchbox, but I believe a big reason we are successful is because we did not have the time to obsess about the long-term strategy. On a daily basis, the business was growing so quickly that Hayley and I needed to focus on keeping the customer experience strong and what needed to make that happen tomorrow and next week -- not in 12 months or five years.
HB: In terms of business approach, it's hard to say, because I really do cherish all of our mistakes.  I look back on each of them as a learning experience that helped get us to where we are today. But one thing that I've gained perspective on lately, and I wish I had realized earlier is about balance and knowing that building a business is a marathon and not a sprint. In the early days the intensity and stress level of our work was through the roof -- very little sleep, not much personal time and every little thing felt hugely important. Perhaps that adrenaline level and total commitment are what a young business needs from its founders, but I'm pretty certain that there was a lot of energy that could have been put to better use.

Q: What do you think would have happened if you had that sense of balance then?

KB: I would have slowed down the growth of Birchbox and potentially shifted focus and resources to areas that make sense for a more mature company that we could study. The big problem with that is that there is no clear analog for Hayley and I to model our business after. We need to figure out what works for Birchbox, and not rely past precedent.

HB: If I had truly understood that being a balanced, calm and rested leader was more important than the extra hour of email from 1:00-2:00 AM, I would have been making better decisions and been a better role model for the team. If I had this perspective earlier, we could have avoided some burn out and created the more sustainable culture that we've achieved today.

Q: How did you learn this lesson?

HB: Over time as the business matured and grew, I learned to let go of the little things to trust my team and the momentum of the business. My first vacation post launch proved to me that even if I lost email service for several hours, not only would I be able to relax and have fun, but the business would not fall apart without me. I also remember a Sunday afternoon in the office with Katia when we talked about how much we loved building Birchbox, and if this was going to be our long-term career and a huge part of our waking lives, we better make sure we have fun doing it. When we take a step back, we are lucky to have the privilege of living through our toughest days as business leaders and it's important to remember that.

Q: How do you think young entrepreneurs might benefit from this insight? 

KB: There is a lot of positive in the unknown. You can see it as a positive and as something that frees you, rather than something that prevents you from taking action.

HB: When you're 110 percent committed to making your startup work it's tough to pull away from quantity of work to focus on quality. If young entrepreneurs are able to understand this earlier than I did, I think they could create a more sustainable approach to building their businesses, make better decisions on a day-to-day basis and store up their energy for the times it really matters to push hard.

Q: Besides inventing a time machine, how might they realize this wisdom sooner?

HB: In some ways, learning to create balance is something that must be learned over time. The amount of decisions you need to make on a day-to-day basis starts to feel normal, your confidence builds and the stress level recedes. But having a support network of friends and family outside of the business that can provide feedback and a safe haven from the workplace is important. Mentors can be a sounding board and shed light on unnecessary stress and achieving work-life balance. Also, it doesn't hurt to make rules. For example, choosing one day each weekend to totally unplug and then dedicating a set amount time for work is better than kind of working through the whole weekend. Little things like reminding yourself to get up from your desk and move around make a difference too.

Q: What are you glad you didn’t know then that you know now?

HB: I'm really glad the business unfolded the way it did. If you had told me four years ago that we'd be running a business of this scale and a team of this size I would have been too intimidated to even start. But instead, little by little, Birchbox grew in the way it was meant to, and I was better prepared by my experiences to take on the next challenge as it came.

Q: What's your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

KB: Go from aspiring to being as fast as you can. It is the best way to learn whether your idea has a customer and whether you love dedicating your days to see it come to fruition. Don't worry about realizing the full vision in the beginning but try to build a MVP [minimum-viable product] that allows you to test the key aspects of the model and the questions you have about it's potential.

HB: Don't just start any old business to start a business. Instead, make sure you truly love the concept and the team you're building it with.  It's the best feeling in the world to make an idea a reality, but it's also going to be very hard work. It's the people you work with and the impact your have that make it worthwhile.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231503#ixzz2tPKUML00

Is Delegation a Nasty Word?

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inShRecently, I delivered a leadership seminar to school executives. The focus was on administrative mentorship with a particular emphasis on delegation. I asked the principals in the room as to why they don’t delegate more.

Before sharing their responses, I will share why I asked the question. School leaders, like most executives, are in over their heads in work demands. Not only do we ask more from our schools and their administrators in terms of programming, assessment, communication and accountability, but we expect them to “stay current” in an ever-changing technological and educational landscape that has huge implications not only on core instruction, but also on professional development, budgeting and many other areas.

A research article published by NAIS (Northern Association of Independent Schools, an association that provides services to more than 1,700 schools in the United States and abroad) spoke of the frequently overwhelming demands on the head of school.

In their study, the authors found that school heads identify “big-picture” aspects of their job, such as providing vision, managing their school’s climate and values, and working with their boards, as most demanding. Right behind those on the continuum are such tasks as managing their school’s financial health, fund raising, and strategic planning. And that does not even include such ongoing administrative staples as instructional oversight and student relations.

Knowing this about the stressors of school leadership I turned to the assembled and asked whether they delegate as much as they should. When the majority responded to the negative, I probed further. Using a think-pair-share technique, the participants were asked to complete the following sentence: “I would delegate more if I …”

I received these primary responses:

1. Trusted my colleagues more
2. Wasn’t so controlling
3. Had more time to think about what to delegate
4. Knew how

This feedback was not surprising. Article after article speak about the challenges for leaders and small-business owners to relinquish control and delegate. Why? Delegation is a foreign concept for many who think that they need to hold all of the cards or to have their spoons in every pot. Those who are willing to share responsibility may not invest the time into doing so strategically or may not even know how to go about it.

Trust is one crucial element to effective delegation and teamwork. You have to believe in your people in order to empower them. But it takes more than willingness and trust to delegate effectively. Others important components include:

• Decide what to delegate. Start with a small project or one that doesn’t have to be completed in a specific way. This keeps the temperature low and the end goal in sight.
• Pick the right person or group. Take time to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the members of your team. Select those whom  you’re confident can do the job well. They should be self-motivated and comfortable working without constant supervision.
• Provide clarity about the expected outcome. Include timelines and deliverables and provide a template or guidelines for the project. The more that you can spell out in detail, the less the risk of subsequent confusion or error.
• Grant the necessary authority. Supply the control and leeway for your co-worker to find the best approach on his own. This increases his creativity and initiative while boosting his self-esteem.
• Be prepared to assist. You may need to delegate the task as a whole, but can often still assist here or there. Also, make sure to offer proper training to build skill and efficacy for the task designees.
• Monitor progress. Stay on top of things and correct/redirect when necessary. This motivates colleagues (who don’t feel abandoned) and helps you catch problems early. Obviously, inexperienced colleagues will need tighter control than seasoned veterans.
• Recognize key milestones and celebrate successes. Anything from a simple “thank you” or “well done” to arranging for awards, gifts or bonuses.

A study published in the Gallup Business Journal found that the most cohesive and successful teams possess broader groupings of strengths, rather than one dominant leader who tries to do everything or individuals who all have similar strengths.

The process of building a well-informed and properly trained team allows leaders to harness various talents and perspectives for the collective good. It may be challenging at first, but will pay great dividends over time while also alleviating some of the crushing burden that often sits on a leader’s shoulders.

Naphtali Hoff (@impactfulcoach) served as an educator and school administrator for over 15 years before becoming an executive coach and consultant.

The 5 steps for an effective ‘tradigital’ advertising campaign

"Tradigital" marketing combines traditional advertising such as direct mail and TV, newspaper, magazine and radio ads with digital marketing to create stronger results than either could do on its own.
I outlined the concept in an article a couple of weeks ago, and now I’ll outline the steps necessary for an effective tradigital campaign.

1. Know your audience

It seems obvious, but targeting an advertising campaign to the wrong demographic (or to “everyone”) can be a costly mistake resulting in poor results. With a clearly defined target audience, it is much easier to determine where and how to market your company.

2. Be creative

We use an acronym AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Insuring that this criteria is met will result in a more effective ad that delivers results. A well-crafted ad can often make the difference between a successful or disastrous campaign.

3. Have a ‘vanity URL’

In a tradigital campaign, your goal is drive as much traffic as possible to your digital destination. Many small to mid-sized companies continue to struggle with a website that is less than optimal. Many have a long wish list of how their site should be, but do not have the time or resources to get it there.
Here’s where a landing page or vanity URL can help.

Simply stated, this is a one-page website that has the sole purpose to welcome your visitors, show off your product or service, and allow visitors to quickly and easily find and act on your current promotion. That may or may not be something you have done, but the key here is to come up with a name that is easy to remember and ties in your company.

On average, the conversion rates of landing pages in tradigital campaigns are between 8 percent and 10 percent with one (a golf course) at a high of 32 percent. Can you imagine if a third of your traffic converted into new leads? To put this into perspective, quality traditional websites average a conversion rate of around 3 percent.

4. You need a social media tie-in

A good tradigital strategy allows consumers to respond on their terms. If the landing page does not attract their attention, a custom Facebook tab that serves the same “landing page” function also works well. Of course. the social nature of FB, with the ability to share a page or to simply come across the offer because your friends also participated in it, can quickly multiply your responses.

5. Don’t forget email marketing

With many social media sites now charging you to sponsor an ad to reach a larger portion of your fans, email marketing remains the most effective way to close a prospect who is in the decision making process of buying your product or service. As you collect all of your leads from the landing page, and from the custom tab on your Facebook page, it is essential to have an email marketing strategy set up and ready to go.
This five-step ‘tradigital’ strategy, which uses a well-crafted TV, radio and newspaper ads to raise awareness of your company and add a sense of urgency to your offer, will increase the results of your campaign by 35 percent or more.
In the next series of articles we will drill down into each one of these steps so that you can clearly understand how a tradigital strategy delivers maximum results.

On average, the conversion rates of landing pages in tradigital campaigns are between 8 percent and 10 percent with one (a golf course) at a high of 32 percent. Can you imagine if a third of your traffic converted into new leads? To put this into perspective, quality traditional websites average a conversion rate of around 3 percent.

4. You need a social media tie-in

A good tradigital strategy allows consumers to respond on their terms. If the landing page does not attract their attention, a custom Facebook tab that serves the same “landing page” function also works well. Of course. the social nature of FB, with the ability to share a page or to simply come across the offer because your friends also participated in it, can quickly multiply your responses.

5. Don’t forget email marketing

With many social media sites now charging you to sponsor an ad to reach a larger portion of your fans, email marketing remains the most effective way to close a prospect who is in the decision making process of buying your product or service. As you collect all of your leads from the landing page, and from the custom tab on your Facebook page, it is essential to have an email marketing strategy set up and ready to go.
This five-step ‘tradigital’ strategy, which uses a well-crafted TV, radio and newspaper ads to raise awareness of your company and add a sense of urgency to your offer, will increase the results of your campaign by 35 percent or more.
In the next series of articles we will drill down into each one of these steps so that you can clearly understand how a tradigital strategy delivers maximum results.

On average, the conversion rates of landing pages in tradigital campaigns are between 8 percent and 10 percent with one (a golf course) at a high of 32 percent. Can you imagine if a third of your traffic converted into new leads? To put this into perspective, quality traditional websites average a conversion rate of around 3 percent.

How To Rewire Your Brain For Happiness

Our brains naturally hold on to negative experiences more than positive ones. These 3 strategies will help you learn to focus on the positive.

In Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, neuropsychologist Rick Hanson says our brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones. That built-in negativity bias helps keep us safe.
This means that we readily notice and internalize anything negative that happens to us during the course of a day, while glossing over anything positive because we're busy solving problems or scanning for something to worry about. For example, as entrepreneurs, we often tend to overestimate the threats and underestimate the opportunities for our businesses.
In business relationships with partners, employees or colleagues, trust is often a delicate fiber that connects us and can easily be broken. As Hanson puts it, "Uncomfortable experiences are immediately fast-tracked into memory stores: Once burned, twice shy ... Strong dislikes are acquired faster than strong likes ... Something bad about a person is better remembered than something good."

Rewiring Our Brain

It pays to become adept at knowing how to reshape our brain so we counteract our default to the negative. In his book, Hanson reveals how to do just that—how to train our brain to hardwire all the positive experiences, to "take in the good" that happens every day in our life. This involves turning a positive event into a positive experience.
We can make this happen if we take 10, 20 or 30 seconds to savor the positive moment. And there are many of them during the course of a day, Hanson says, but we just don't notice them. These brief seconds of paying attention to what has happened and relishing it makes the positive experience sink in so it can develop into a neural structure. The more we do this, the better we become at balancing our hardwired negativity bias with an ability to take in the good.
Drawing on years of research in neuroscience, Hanson shows that to build inner strength into our brain, we need to meet three core needs: safety, satisfaction and connection. Learning which positive experiences can satisfy these core needs every day goes a long way toward helping us cultivate positive emotions and hardwiring contentment and peace so we can focus on a successful life.
The following three tactics, which help fulfill your core needs, can help you concentrate on the positive.

Practice Being Calm

You can boost your sense of safety by regularly focusing on experiences that make you feel calm. Calm is an attitude of composure that lets us function at our best in stressful, harried or charged situations. It's means moving away from a crisis-driven mindset.
We often miss opportunities to practice calmness because we're used to being "on" all the time. For example, calmness isn't rushing from one airport gate to another when there's ample time for making our connecting flight. It's taking a real break from your business during the day to have an uninterrupted meal. It's waking up an hour earlier so you don't have to rush through traffic. It's giving your child an extra 10 minutes' of peaceful attention in the morning.
Create such moments during your day to experience calmness, and intentionally focus on the experience for a few seconds to relish how it feels. Repeatedly internalizing experiences that bring a sense of calm to your life helps you build that emotional muscle so you're better able to face situations in your business or personal life without feeling pressured or rattled by them.

Raise Your Satisfaction Awareness

When you're feeling satisfied, you're more likely to experience such feelings as gratitude, gladness, accomplishment and contentment. These are powerful antidotes to the negativity bias in our brain. So it's important to become more aware of what satisfaction means for you, and then take the time to savor the experience when it happens.
For instance, it may be closing a sale or completing a project ahead of time. Or it may be as simple as learning something new every day. You need to be clear about whatever it is that brings you satisfaction so you can create more of these opportunities but, more important, so you can savor them when they do happen.
If you need inspiration in this regard, consider how Rich Jones, CEO of Open Watch, a company that builds tech solutions for independent media groups and nonprofits, goes about it. In "Hacker Lifestyle: How I Feel Satisfied With Every Day," Jones offers a simple three-pronged approach that works for him: "Every day," he says, "I simply force myself to do 3 things: Get paid. Get fit. Make something cool." What are the three things that make you feel satisfied as an entrepreneur?

Value The People In Your Life

You can strengthen your sense of feeling connected by regularly focusing on experiences during the day in which you feel cared about or valued. You can also focus on experiences that make you feel like a good person, such as when you feel compassion or when you're doing something kind for others.
Marshall Goldsmith, voted one of North America's top 50 Thinkers in 2011 by the Harvard Business Review, says that when asking older people who are dying what advice they'd have for others, one of the themes that consistently comes up is to focus on friends and family. You may have wonderful business associates now, but when you're 95 years old and you look around your death bed, very few of your business associates or fellow employees will be there waving goodbye. Your friends and family will probably be the only people who care for you and be there for you in the end.
As psychologist William James once said, "The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated." Don't let the daily preoccupations with your business cause you to miss the appreciation you receive from those closest to you.


Bruna Martinuzzi is the founder of Clarion Enterprises Ltd. and the author of two books, Presenting with Credibility: Practical Tools and Techniques for Effective Presentations and The Leader as a Mensch: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow.

Insights from an app-developer veteran: Think simple, low-risk

The press loves an “app millionaire” — entrepreneurs that make big money as their products attract venture capital, or the assimilating hands and deep pockets of a technology giant like Apple or Google.

Most developers will never live in that world.

The majority will make their living as contractors or employees working on other people’s apps, but some make a living writing their own apps and releasing them in the various stores. I have been living off my own apps for a decade now. From the Treo 600, through the iPhone revolution and on to the growing popularity of Android.
At the risk of sounding like a hoary old man of the hills, I’ve seen a lot of changes and been astonished at the ways in which the market has developed. But some things have remained true throughout the 10 years I’ve been running Hobbyist Software, and I expect they’ll go on being true long after I’ve hung up my keyboard. So here are a handful of tips and observations for the solo developer.

Satisfy your own needs

My most popular apps are ones that I’ve developed for myself to satisfy my own needs with devices that excite me. If you want a capability on your device, chances are there are other people thinking the same thing. Having a problem you want to solve for yourself means that you are more committed to it and actually understand it. It’s also a lot more fun.

Take feedback and act on it

Without exception it has been feedback from highly engaged users which has allowed my apps to keep developing over the years, to improve and stay fresh. I respond to most customer emails myself and aim to do so quickly. This seems to have a lasting halo effect as customers recommend my apps to their friends. Many people are surprised and very pleased to get an email from the real developer rather than a support minion.

Keep it simple – but not too simple

You’ll typically get most feedback from the highly technical users who want lots of complicated features and options. These guys are great, they have some killer ideas, but they are not the majority of your users. In order to keep the broader base happy, you need to keep things simple. Palm OS used to talk about ‘the zen of Palm.’ They obsessed about letting users act in as few taps as possible. Apple has embraced this desire for simplicity — though, with Apple, making things beautiful can sometimes get in the way of achieving the goal.

Looks matter

When I started developing, apps were called applications, and we cared more about what they did than how they looked. Times have changed. For your app to be a success, it needs to look good. Spend that bit of extra time (and maybe money, if graphic skills aren’t your thing) to give it a bit of polish.

You can’t predict success

Apps are like pop songs. You write the app, you polish it and you release it. You don’t know whether it will be a hit or flop. That is true even after your first successful app. Most pop bands are one-hit-wonders, and most developers will struggle to follow initial success. I had low expectations for the app that would become my most successful project, and others that I was super-excited about disappeared without a trace. You do your best, release your app, then move on if you need to.

Small is good

I have been accused of lacking ambition, but I like my small, low-risk approach. I don’t have employees, I have never spent more than a few thousand pounds to develop, design, and launch an app. Many developers are working towards a big launch on borrowed money, hiring an expensive team of rock star developers and publicists, hoping and hanging on for that ever elusive venture capital or big tech buy-out. I look at most of those app ideas and wonder why they didn’t just build their app in the evenings, launch it, and see what happens. Most will disappear without a trace, but a good idea that fulfills a need will gradually find a market. And probably has as much chance of hitting it big as any other decent app, with a lot less risk.

Rob Jonson is a self-taught programmer who has been releasing apps under the Hobbyist name for 10 years. Rob makes his living selling apps (including the best selling VLC Remote and VLC Streamer) direct to customers via app stores. Rob made his first app, Butler (a no.1 best seller), on Palm OS for the Treo600 (arguably the first smart phone). Rob managed to make the transition to iOS with the best selling VLC Remote, released in 2008, the earliest days of the App Store. Along the way, he’s released apps for Palm OS, Web OS, Android, Windows Phone, iOS, Mac, and Windows. One of his early cult Palm OS apps even influenced the key ‘Just type’ feature of Web OS. You can find out more about his apps and Hobbyist Software.

Going live: Tips for first-time corporate speakers

You’ve been asked to speak at an upcoming business meeting and have learned that some important people will be in the audience. There is a lot riding on this. And the reality is this presentation could open doors for you, including the exit!

Speaking in public is a natural requirement of most corporate positions. It also is a leading fear for many people. Yet, with a little preparation and practice, you can manage that fear and present like a rock star — delivering for your company, elevating your position and avoiding being shown to the door!

Follow these eight tips and you will surely succeed as a first time corporate speaker:

1. Embrace the anxiety. Most people will tell you to relax before giving a public speech. But that’s easier said than done. Public speaking activates your adrenal glands and creates nervous energy. Take a step back and reassure yourself that what you are experiencing is normal.Harness that energy and make it work for you, not against you.Make a conscious decision to use purposeful movements, meaningful gestures, and direct and continuous eye contact.
2. Open with a grabber. This is one of the most common tips for the first-time corporate speaker. Don’t start by saying, “My name is ____, and I’m here to talk about …” Someone’s (hopefully) already introduced you and your topic. Your job is to start your presentation with a story, startling statistic, a little known fact — something that will break the ice and engage your audience.
3. Fact-example-fact. This is a good way to structure the points of your speech to drive them home. State a fact. Then give an example that illustrates that fact and its implications. Then state the fact again, in a different way.
4. Employ visuals. They say a picture’s worth 1,000 words. If you have specific audiovisual elements that can illustrate your point, use them. But be careful with this one. Some think that having a slideshow with their presentation will automatically make it more engaging. In fact, if used poorly, any audiovisual can distract from the overall message. Use slides when they are relevant to what you are saying, maximizing the impact of your message.
5. Include soundbites. This is the Twitter age. If people like what you say, they’ll share it with the world, but only if it’s memorable and brief. Format the takeaways of your speech as short but interesting soundbites that encourage people to pass them on.
6. Practice, practice, practice. Your speech works on paper, but how does it sound out loud? Practice your speech out loud a minimum of five times before you deliver it. The first three times, you may find yourself editing your speech and honing your content, determining what works and what doesn’t. Once you’ve got your message in shape, it’s time to focus on delivery. Find a small group of colleagues, friends or family members ask for their honest feedback. The better prepared you are, the more confident you will be when you speak at that all-important meeting.
7. Have a conversation. Instead of talking at your audience, talk to them. Share with them what you want them to know, why it’s important, and most importantly, “what’s in it for them.” Use a little humor where appropriate. Be authentic and you’re sure to connect with your listeners.
8. Be passionate. This is the most important tip: Get excited about the subject you’re speaking about! Your audience will be as engaged as you. When your excitement is genuine, you will convey a “sit up and listen” energy, and your enthusiasm will be contagious.

Whether you’re addressing a room of 10 or a stadium of 10,000, these tips for the first time corporate speaker can help you deliver an engaging and memorable presentation. With a little preparation and practice, you’ll gain confidence and discover that speaking in public an opportunity that can take your career to the next level.

Stephanie Scotti is a strategic communication adviser specializing in high stake presentations. She has 25-plus years experience of coaching experience and eight years teaching presentation skills for Duke University. She has provided presentation coaching to over 3000 individuals in professional practices, Fortune 500 companies, high-level government officials and international business executives. Stephanie holds a bachelor’s in speech communications and education and a master’s in organizational communications and business. Learn more at ProfessionallySpeaking.net and ProfessionallySpeakingBlog.com.

How to Achieve Your 2014 Leadership Goals

101It’s that time of year when many of us, with the best of intentions will write a leadership development plan, or establish goals for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, most of us will fail to achieve those goals.

Why? We fail for a lot of reasons, most importantly, we underestimate how hard it is to change behavior.

There’s others reasons too. We often set high-level, nebulous leadership goals such as “be more strategic” or “be a better leader” without having a way to measure our progress towards achieving that goal. There’s no accountability, no way to see if we are making progress, and no motivation to keep trying.

I recently attended a conference where leadership-development guru, author and coach Marshall Goldsmith was a keynote speaker.

He shared a technique that’s he’s been using for years that helps him achieve his goals. At the end of his presentation, he asked if anyone was interested in participating in some research (for 10 days) using a similar technique to leave a business card. He said most people won’t — and if they did, they wouldn’t stick with it.

Well I did — I haven’t given up — and I’m loving the results! Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Establish your goals
Establish a number of daily, behavioral objectives — things that you have an opportunity to do every day and can answered with a number (i.e., 1 to 7 scale). It’s important that your establish your own objectives — things that are important to you — but here’s a list to choose from if you need some examples or help getting started:

1. I did my best to really listen to others.
2. I had positive interactions with others.
3. I did my best to be happy.
4. I set measurable goals for the day.
5. I did my very best to achieve my goals.
6. I added value today.
7. I inspired someone today.
8. I helped someone else be successful or solve their own problem.
9. I was engaged in my work.
10. My work had meaning.

Step 2: Daily follow-up and measurement
There are a number of ways to do this. You can have a good friend call you or e-mail every day and ask you to score yourself on each question. No long-winded analysis, beating yourself up, or excuses — just a number. You or your friend should keep track of your answers on a spreadsheet.
Or, you can use the tool that I’m using for the research. You are welcome to participate in Marshall’s study using simply providing your e-mail to this link. There’s even an accountability app that does the emails and scoring for you.

I’m not a behavioral psychologist, but I could guess why this seems to working so well. When I first started answering the questions, my scores were pretty low. However, responded to that darn e-mail every day has motivated me to really pay attention — and try harder — to things that may have gotten overlooked without the reminder.

Although I haven’t seen my results yet, I know my numbers are going up. And just like when you step on the scale when dieting and see those numbers go down, it’s motivating to see the measurable results!
I wish you success and happiness in 2014!

Dan McCarthy is the director of Executive Development Programs at the University of New Hampshire. He writes the award-winning leadership-development blog Great Leadership and is consistently ranked as one of the top digital influencers in leadership and talent management. He’s a regular contributor to SmartBlog on Leadership. E-mail McCarthy.

4 Senses of Character-based Leadership

Too often, I read blog posts or engage in discussions where different definitions of leadership are present.

One definition of leadership implies position. It states that the person in the position of leadership is the leader.  If they’re “in charge” or “at the top” or “where the buck stops,” then they’re the leader.  Their position is the reason we grant them influence over us.  That’s positional leadership.

Another type of leadership; my favorite type, is no respecter of position. I call this character-based leadership. Character-based leaders are people who have chosen to adopt a leader’s mindset, regardless of their position in the organization.  Anyone can be a character-based leader. Their character, their “who-they-are” will not let them simply go with the flow or “do whatever.”  They decide they will be a leader to the extent they are able.

It takes a number of talents and, possibly, a great deal of luck, timing and positioning to be a position-based leader. You have to get a position. Many people work years to achieve a position. Someone must put you in it or you simply take it.  But either way, a number of factors impact your ability to get a position of leadership.

To be a character-based leader, you only need four things I’d call senses. Any one of these senses is proof that anyone can be a character-based leader. If you have two or three, you may even have some influence in your homeowners association or in your workplace.  But to be a great character-based leader, you’ll need all four.

4 senses of character-based leadership

Sense of mission: What are we trying to accomplish? Without accomplishment, there is no need for a leader. Leadership implies motion. Motion without direction is wasted. Your purpose will pull you into your future. A great mission calls you to its hope.  Your efforts will affect, maybe even create, the future.

Sense of urgency: If there is no urgency, if the thing can be done “whenever,” then there is little need for leadership. Great missions are those that must be done and they must be done soon. Great causes must be achieved as soon as possible. Without a sense of urgency and you may never reach your goal. Urgency is the key to great customer service.  Check out “A Sense of Urgency” by John P. Kotter for a wonderful book on the topic.

Sense of responsibility: Responsibility is the understanding not only that something must be done, but also that you must do it.  Often, we’re not very accurate or wise when it comes to what we must do. We delegate too little or too much. We give people the power to make us fail, or we withhold the resources necessary for others’ success. An objective sense of responsibility is necessary to good leadership.

Sense of service: If your mission serves only yourself or a small crowd, you have no chance of becoming a great leader. Great leaders serve great people in worthwhile causes. Great leaders often must overcome great difficulty to achieve great service.  There is no great work unless it benefits others. Include just one other person in your objective, do something simply for their benefit, and in that moment you elevate your own mission, leadership and responsibility.
If you don’t have all four senses, don’t worry. You can develop them. In fact, I bet those closest to you can already see signs of all four (or they wouldn’t stick around). Find your greatest mission, focus your energy toward that mission, and you will develop the other senses. Don’t let anything stop you. You can make 2014 the year you develop all four senses and become a great character-based leader.

Mike Henry Sr. is the chief instigator of the Lead Change Group, a global non-profit community dedicated to instigating a leadership revolution. He’s also one of 21 co-authors of “The Character-Based Leader: Instigating a Leadership Revolution… One Person at a Time.” Connect with Henry on Twitter @mikehenrysr and on LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+.

The 30-Second Rule: How to Create Unforgettable Presentations BY Peter Economy

You want your audience to hang on every word. To make that happen, you have to be sure you win them over in the first 30 seconds of your presentation.

Whether your audience is your boss, your banker, a small team of direct reports, a ballroom full of conference attendees, or thousands of people worldwide connected via teleconference, your success depends on being able to make a great presentation.

Great presentations are well-organized, flow logically from one idea to another, and ultimately leave the audience leave feeling rewarded and enlightened. All well and good, but if you don’t hook your audience in the first 30 seconds, all your careful preparation may be for naught. Therefore you have to begin with a bang! A television commercial has only 30 seconds to grab your attention; the same is true for you and your presentation.

The following steps will help you up your game:

Brainstorm Ideas

Start building your presentation by brainstorming. Share ideas with co-workers, draw flow charts, or talk with relevant customers or vendors. Make time to write down your initial ideas without concern about how they flow, or if they even seem to connect. As a way to start, consider your audience. Who will be there? What do you want them to understand at the end of the presentation, and what impact do you want have? How long should you talk? How detailed should you be? Brainstorming is an important step to begin building a good presentation, because although your ideas are not refined during the process, it helps you focus in on the details you need.

Write a Basic Outline

Once you have a general idea of what you want, create a foundation for your presentation by writing an outline. This outline forms a basic structure for your presentation; with it you list and build upon your ideas. The outline should include an introduction, three to five important points that elaborate on the main idea(s), and a conclusion that recaps what you’ve just covered.  of your introduction. Conclude your outline by telling your audience what you just showed them.

This outline format, although simple, forms the basic structure of a well-organized presentation. More complex and longer presentations can be easily created by multiple, simple outlines like the one described above and then piecing them together with transitions. The outlines are building blocks, and their brevity permits you to string ideas together and present more complex material in concise, understandable pieces.

A completed outline can help you conceive an optimum opening “bang” that you will hook your audience. It can be a funny cartoon, some amazing statistics, a dramatic personal story, a good joke, or a pithy quote. Some speakers have found that starting a presentation with silence can be quite effective. Whatever you do, remember that you need to get the audience hooked in 30 seconds or less!

Connect Ideas Together and Fill in the Details

After completing your outline, write as many outlines as you need to cover the scope of your presentation. Connect your outlines with transitional words and phrases like, “Expanding on this point…” or “As a result of….” Use pictures, graphs, spreadsheets, samples, or other props as you see fit to help you illustrate your points. According to research, when information is presented with vivid images, people will remember 95 percent of what they see and hear. Remember to specifically tell your audience what to look for in the props and how these further prove or demonstrate your main theme. 

Polish and Practice

Once you’re satisfied with the structure of your presentation, practice by reading it aloud. You may find that areas that are well-written sound awkward when read aloud. Refine as needed, and also look for portions that could be deleted in the interest of clarity and brevity. If your presentation is long and complex, consider how you might break up your ideas so you keep your audience focused on your main points. Think about how to smoothly transition between topics (sometimes revisiting or referring to the source of your opening bang can be a good way to link one section to the next).

Turn Up the Energy

Deliver your presentation with personal energy and enthusiasm. Remember that the final product should reflect your unique perspective, insights, and energy. Illustrate the key points with flair, by showing rather than simply reading from a script. And remember: the last 30 seconds of your presentation are almost as important as the first 30. Summarize your points clearly and succinctly, and leave your audience with a brief, inspiring or uplifting message to take with them after the presentation ends.