I was listening to two managers in my workshop when he said it. They were doing a role-play exercise and focusing on coaching style questions but it was obvious to me now, this manager didn’t quite get it yet. I heard him ask, “Did you ask Jenna from Marketing to help with this?” The response […]
“Well, that guy’s an idiot.” He said it so matter-of-fact. As if he were pointing out the color of the car we were riding in. It was stated as if “Everyone knows it. It’s common knowledge and everyone agrees with me.” Wow. That’s a strong opinion. I couldn’t help myself. I just had to ask one […]
My concern for the upcoming event increased when I asked the executive how their organization defined leadership. His response was, “Well, you really can’t define leadership because there isn’t just one definition. Everyone has their own definition.” Hmmm…. How do you teach something you can’t explain simply? It’s the job of senior leadership to remove the […]
Golf has always been a game of both simple and complex. Speaking persuasively to an audience can feel the same way sometimes. For an audience to commit to following a leader, influence will always play a role. Since I know many leaders love to hit the links… I’ll use golf as the metaphor to teach […]
There are two ways to get someone else to do something. You can tell them or you can persuade them. Telling can lead to compliance or conflict. Persuading can lead to commitment. I’ve found that gaining commitment through communication can be done in four steps. I call this method WiFi. It’s not what you think. […]
Isn’t it funny how there always seems to be that “one guy” in every audience that seems bound and determined to get the best of the speaker? I’m not going to oversimplify this by saying every tough question is asked for the same reasons, but we all know tough or even aggressive questions will eventually […]
My student finished presenting his persuasive case to the audience and then opened it up to questions. “Have you calculated the internal costs to our organization due to the downtime this project would cause?” When I saw my student’s face, I knew this hadn’t been part of his calculations. Every second the pause hung in […]
I was sitting in a conference-room meeting with one of our customers just observing. One gentleman did not speak much, but when he did… everyone listened intently. I tried to figure out what he was doing with his responses and I found something! He was using a simple structure for each response. Now, I’m sure there […]
When I first started speaking in the early ’90s I was flattered to hear from some audience members that I reminded them of Jim Carrey. “You definitely bring the energy!” I loved hearing that. My world crashed back down to earth real quick when former students were tested after class on the content. The organization wanted to […]
I bet you didn’t think I’d drop that deep question on you so early in the morning! Don’t worry, I’m not going to get all philosophical here on you. Pondering an answer to this question could take a couple lifetimes! So, let me tell you why I bring it up… It’s the foundation for anyone in […]
