Online Presentation

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/how-to-give-a-killer-online-presentation/2585?tag=content;drawer-container

7 Tips for Giving a Killer Online Presentation:

• Gratuitous analogy. 
• Keep your energy level up. 
• Tell anecdotes. 
• Modulate your voice. 
• Ask engaging questions. 
• Pause for emphasis. 
• Avoid “slide show” speak. 

Public Speaking

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/conquering-your-fear-of-public-speaking/1690

1-Face your fear. 
2-Know your material cold. 
3-It’s not all about you.
4-Interact with the audience.
5-What’s the worst that can happen? 

How to Be a Great Storyteller

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/how-to-be-a-great-storyteller-and-win-over-any-audience/6460?tag=content;drawer-container
1-First, determine who your audience is.


2-Second, put yourself in your audience’s shoes and ask three questions: 1) What’s in it for them, 2) why should they care, and 3) what criteria do they use to determine if whatever it is you’re pitching is a good idea or not.


3.Third, develop your story by satisfying those three questions.

Here are some examples:

• If you’re an entrepreneur pitching investors, your story could relate to the genesis of the idea - if it’s an interesting or amusing story - and how it will change the world, so to speak. If you can somehow relate it directly to investors as individuals, i.e. involving family, technology they might use, etc., that’s good but not necessary. 
• If you’re pitching potential customers, you can tell the story of how your product or service did something amazing for another customer and how that customer benefitted in terms of gaining market share, for example. 
• If it’s an elevator pitch about your company, don’t do the usual boring …

If it’s an interview and you’re asked to tell them about yourself, don’t just rattle off the companies you’ve worked for and your accomplishments.

Tutorial: How To Negotiate a Final Deal

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/tutorial-how-to-negotiate-a-final-deal/16591
Negotiations can be frustrating, especially if you already feel as if you’ve “closed the deal.” However, it’s a truism that the deal isn’t really closed until the final contract is signed, and it’s that final contract that comes out of the negotiation process.
STEP #1: Lay The Groundwork
STEP #2: Prepare for the Negotiation
STEP #3: Have the Right Attitude

• Style #1: Competitive. The negotiation seen as a win-lose proposition. Concessions by one side are viewed as a victory for the opposite site and the emphasis is on having your side win at all costs. Such negotiations generally damage customer relationships, because one side ends up feeling as if they got screwed.
• Style #2: Cooperative. The negotiation is seen as a give-and-take proposition. Both sides are trying to be fair to one another, and see the need for a long term relationship and thus the negotiation is all about compromise and on not losing too much. Such negotiations seldom damage relationships, but they don’t improve them either.
• Style #3: Collaborative. The negotiation is seen as a win-win proposition. Both sides see their goals as aligned and work together to forge an arrangement that moves both agendas forward. The emphasis is on finding a way for both sides to win, big time. Such negotiations are the building blocks of strong customer relationships.
• STEP #4: Beware of Mind Games
• • Mind Game #1: The Palatial Environment. Some execs have impressive offices, or invite you to a ridiculously luxurious venue, because they want you to be awed and grateful even to be there.  If you are, you’re as stupid as teenage girl who’s impressed by a neat car.
  • Mind Game #2: The “He’s Too Busy” Routine. 
  • Mind Game #3: The Underling Gauntlet. 
  • Mind Game #4: The Way-Too-Sexy Assistant. 
  • Mind Game #5: The Meeting Extension. 
  • Mind Game #6: The Big Wait. 

STEP #5: Don’t Let It Get Personal

Top 9 Lies That Big Corporations Tell

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/top-9-lies-that-big-corporations-tell/16465?pg=2
LIE #9: “Employees are Our Most Valuable Asset”
LIE #8: “Your Responses Will Be Completely Confidential”
LIE #7: “Business Taxes Are Killing Us”
LIE #6: “We Are a Meritocracy”
LIE #5: “Your Participation is Entirely Voluntary”
LIE #4: “Unions Force Jobs Overseas”
LIE #3: “We Are Environmentally Friendly”
LIE #2: “We Are Neither Racist Nor Sexist”
LIE #1: “Our Core Values Are…”

The Real Secret to Personal Productivity

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/the-real-secret-to-personal-productivity/7862?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

If you’re into lists, The Real Secret to Personal Productivity is:

• Discipline
• Focus
• Strong work ethic
• Passion for your work
• Something to prove

#1 Question Every Leader Needs to Ask

http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-research/1-question-every-leader-needs-to-ask/1883?promo=713&tag=nl.e713
What Makes a Leader?
Level One: Sociopath
Level Two: Opportunist
Level Three: Chameleon
Level Four: Achiever
Level Five: Builder
Level Six: Transcendent

7 Ways to Write a Better ‘About Us’ Page

http://www.bnet.com/blog/small-biz-advice/7-ways-to-write-a-better-8216about-us-8217-page/753?tag=content;drawer-container

10 Words That Should Never Appear on Your Website

 http://www.bnet.com/blog/small-biz-advice/10-words-that-should-never-appear-on-your-website/966?tag=content;drawer-container

“Innovative.” Just about every company claims to be innovative.  Most aren’t.  You don’t have to be innovative to be successful.  But if you truly are innovative, show me.  Describe products you developed.  Describe processes you modified. Give me something real — then I’ll know you’re innovative.

The Fastest Way to Build a Million-Dollar Business

Step 1: What is the ideal number of customers?

As you plan your million-dollar business, first consider the number of customers you think would be ideal. For example, ask yourself if it would be easier to generate $100,000 in sales from 10 customers or $10,000 from 100 customers. I would imagine a business with only 10 clients would sell to other businesses and have perhaps two partner-level salespeople. A business with 100 customers, each buying $10,000, likely would also sell to other businesses but could get away with perhaps two or three more-junior salespeople.

Step 2: Pinpoint the ideal number of products

Next, look at the number of products that would be the ideal portfolio to get to the $1 million mark. Would it be easier to sell $1 million worth of one product or $200,000 worth of five products? How about $100,000 of 10 products? Keep weighing the relationship between the market potential for any one product against the complexity of managing multiple product or service lines.

Step 3: Pick the ideal number of locations
Step 4: Pull it all together


http://www.bnet.com/blog/build-business/the-fastest-way-to-build-a-million-dollar-business/540?tag=content;drawer-container

Are you innovative and up for new and big ideas?

1. Mountain Climbers

You want to start a business to achieve something special and leave your mark on the world. You set big goals, and friends describe you as “driven.” For you, life’s greatest moments occur when you achieve a hard-won objective.

2. Freedom Fighters

You want to start a business because you can’t stand working for someone else. You like making the decisions and controlling things. For you, building a business represents the ultimate in freedom to decide what to do and how to work.

3. Craftspeople

You take pride in your work and melt when somebody recognizes your unique skill or ability. You want to start a business because it will allow you to do what you’re really good at.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/build-business/do-you-have-the-right-dna-to-start-the-next-twitter/313?tag=content;drawer-container

Is Your Staff Too Nice?

There is a condition afflicting organizations that often goes undiagnosed because it is perceived as benign. The truth, it is corrosive.

I call it the “disease of nice.”

To those of you more accustomed to working in offices where people are more often thrusting daggers than smiles, the very mention of too much niceness might seem laughable. A bad joke. It’s not. When I say “niceness,” I don’t mean politeness. Niceness in an organizational setting is the avoidance of conflict.

Note I said “avoidance,” not absence.

Dag Hammarskjold, one-time head of the United Nations, got to the heart of why niceness is a problem when he said, “It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy — from lack of character.” In other words, those who act nice lack backbone; they are either pretending not to care or really don’t care about the issues or worse the organization for which they work. Both are unhealthy.

While non-confrontation may seem more desirable – and it is on an interpersonal level – when it becomes part of the culture, it can wreak havoc. Case in point is General Motors. For a generation at least, its senior management avoided addressing the key problems facing the company – high fixed costs in manufacturing and a bloated distribution system (too many brands for too few customers). Both issues would have involved tackling labor costs and dealer relations; failure to address either sank the company into bankruptcy.

How do you know if your company has fallen into the too-much-niceness syndrome?  Here are some tip offs.

People say, “Oh wonderful.” A lot. We all like to get a pat on the back but when affirmation is constant, then you know it is nothing more than “happy talk.” Utterly meaningless.

In meetings, people say, “Hmmm.“  That means the other person does not really like what you have to say or do, but is reluctant to voice his doubts or opposition.

“Yeah, okay,” is common feedback. We all want to hear that people like our work. But when all you get is fine, fine, fine, then it means that no one is really thinking about what you have to say.

Colleagues frequently say, “No matter!” This may be the worst symptom of all – apathy. When employees cease to care, then the team is in trouble. They are tuned out and are only along for the ride until they can find something better to do.

Conflict has a positive role to play in every company. Very often it is referred to as “creative tension,” that is the jostling over issues that are vital to the future of the organization. Once upon a time an executive said that if you have two direct reports who always agree with you, you do not need both of them. While not wholly true, the adage underscores the point that bosses may be served best when their subordinates feel they can debate the issues with them.

Failure to address conflicts creates a non-confrontational culture that is complacent. And in today’s world complacency is a recipe for slow decay. Organizations thrive when its members feel they can voice their ideas even when those suggestions may be contrary to the way others think. You don’t want employees throwing stones, but you do want them to have a pebble or two they can hurl when the status quo needs breaking.

Have you ever worked in an organization with too much “niceness”? Would you add any other red flags to my list?

Related:

Getting a Good Start to a New Job

A Simple Plan to Turn Meeting Blah-Blah into Effective Action

If something is important enough to meet about, don’t waste that time by not following through.

Here are four steps you can take to ensure your meetings come to a productive close and result in effective action. Don’t overthink this stuff. The list is simple because the solution is simple.

1. Create an action plan. The plan should include key decisions made, next steps, who is responsible for each step, and due dates. Keep it to a page or less.
2. Send quickly. Get it in the e-mail to meeting participants within 24 hours after the meeting, to ensure momentum is not dissipated.
3. Follow up. As deadlines approach, send reminders to make sure people are on track.
4. Report back. Once all the tasks have been accomplished, inform the group and outline next steps, if any.

Make these steps a part of every meeting you run and you will never again be accused of wasting people’s time.

For more on effective meeting management, HBR.org sells a Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter.

How do you ensure that meetings end in effective actions?

Related Reading

• What Not To Cut in a Recession: Meetings
• Meeting One-on-One With Every Last Staffer
• Three Simple Rules for Productive Meetings

The 7 Dirty Tricks That Bosses Play (and How to Cope)

This post is based on an ancient, dog-eared, xeroxed document that I recently discovered in the bottom drawer of the desk of a middle manager who died of a sudden ailment.

That document, which had clearly been passed from hand to hand for decades, contained seven secret ways to get employees to do what they’d rather not do, without the hassle of paying them more.

The document was stamped — in red letters — with the words “DO NOT REPRODUCE” and “FOR MANAGEMENT EYES ONLY.” Even so, I have decided, at vast risk to my career and life, to post its contents for all to see.

Fortunately, the document also contained (in the form of warnings to the boss) advice on how a smart employee can overcome the trick and even play it to advantage.  So get ready to have your eyes opened, and learn how to make sure your boss doesn’t play you like a used accordion.

Method #1: The Development Opportunity

• The Problem: You need an employee to take on an unpleasant assignment that he would normally avoid like the proverbial plague.
• The Solution: Turn the onerous task into a “development opportunity.”  It’s easy!  Explain that doing the awful job will increase the employee’s value to the company and enhance long term career prospects.  Paint a rosy picture of how impressive the project will look on the employee’s record and resume.
• Helpful Hint: If you position the donkey-work effectively, the employee may actually feel grateful towards you… an emotion that you can later use to extract further concessions!
• WARNING: If the employee in question is savvy, he’ll be suspicious the moment use the term “development opportunity.”  He’ll ignore your blandishments and look at the intended work with a jaundiced eye and refuse to do it. If you force him, though, get ready for trouble, because he’ll insist that he can only pursue the “development opportunity” at the expense of other projects that are just as (or more) important.  If this happens, you’re probably better off letting the employee off the hook and assigning the “opportunity” elsewhere.

Method #2: The Sacrificial Lamb

• The Problem: You’ve got an important meeting where you want to float a controversial idea, but don’t want to get shot down by your peers or your own management.
• The Solution: Find an employee who is ambitious but a bit insecure.  Ask her to present at the big meeting, positioning it as way for her to “gain some visibility” with upper management.  Help her prepare her slides, and neatly insert the controversial proposal so that it looks as if it is her idea. In fact, convince her to “own” the idea.  Then, if the excrement hits the fan, the odium gets blown on her, not on you.
• Helpful Hint: If the lamb gets shot down, act surprised that she presented such nonsense and apologetic for bringing her to the meeting.  However, if by chance the proposal gets kudos rather than brickbats, immediately insert yourself into the presentation and make it clear that it was your idea all along.
• WARNING: A smart employee may accept the invitation, but will refuse to be sacrificed.  Instead, she’ll establish that YOU are the source of the controversial proposal and insist that YOU answer any questions about it.  What’s worse, your top management will probably “get” what just happened… and consider your employee to be clever and savvy for not letting herself be sacrificed.

Method #3: The Rock Fetch

• The Problem: Your employee is pressuring you to make a decision that you don’t want to make.  For example, an employee has a pet project which, if approved, might raise his visibility to the point where it threatens your own.  But if you don’t approve it, the employee may get pissed off and try to leave his job.
• The Solution: Explain that you definitely plan on making a decision shortly, but before you do, you need some “additional information”, preferably something that will take a long time to gather.  When the employee finally brings the requested data, ask for more informaiton, or for buy-in from somebody off-site, or for a detailed analysis, or whatever…
• Helpful Hint: Pour on the praise every time something is correctly fetched.  Think of the employee as a being like a dog who runs off and fetches things and then returns, panting, for a nice pat on the head.
• WARNING: An employee who’s wise to this ploy will be aware, from the start, that a decision isn’t going to be made, no matter how many rocks he fetches. He’ll try to bring matters to a head by insisting that he needs a decision now, and that, if a decision can’t be made right now, he’ll assume it’s “no.”  Then you’re stuck, because he’s forcing the decision that you’d rather not make.

Method #4: Promising the Moon

• The Problem: You’ve got a valuable employee that you’re afraid of losing, but can’t pay what she’s worth.  What’s worse, she knowsshe’s a valuable employee (uh oh!) and is beginning to see the disparity between the value she provides and the reward she gets.
• The Solution: Management is all about having a vision, right?  So you need to create a vision in that employee’s mind of a future where she’ll get all the wonderful things she deserves.
• Helpful Hint: Your vision must be free of actual commitments, details, and timelines, but short of that, feel free to make whatever vague, wonderful-sounding promises you think will keep her happily working away for the peanuts you’re paying her.
• WARNING: A perceptive employee will try to pin you down on details. When you make vague promises of a bigger salary, for example, she’ll want to know exactly how much and when her salary will change.  If you say that you can’t make specific commitments, she’ll realize that unless you’re willing to talk specifics, nothing is going to change. In that case, she’ll probably start making future career plans based on the (entirely true) assumption that you were just making it all up anyway.  Which you were, of course.

Method #5: The Boogie Man

• The Problem: You understandably want your employees to work longer hours for less pay. However, you’re afraid they might leave for another job if you ask them to do so.
• The Solution: Keep them in a state of constant fear.  Distribute any and all articles you can find about high unemployment and the bad economy.  At every employee meeting hint at the possibility of a layoff… by denying that a layoff is imminent!  (It works!) Purchase a copy of “The Black Book of Outsourcing” and leave it on your desk where your employees will notice it.
• Helpful Hint: Long term, be sure to support political candidates that are against universal healthcare, because God knows the last thing you want is for your employees to have health insurance if they dare to leave your company.
• WARNING: Intelligent employees will figure out right away that you’re simply trying to amp up the level of unreasoning fear.  Worst case, they may start to wonder why you’re attempting to manipulate them in this way.  After all, why else would you bother, if things were really as bad as all that? Chances are they’ll start networking to find a new job. Of course, the rest of the dunderheads will remain quaking in their office chairs.

Method #6: The Professionalism Ploy

• The Problem: You need employees to work 50 or 60 hours a week but you only want to pay them for 40 hours a week.
• The Solution: Convince your employees that they’re “professionals” and therefore are expected to put in long hours.  Even if they’re doing rote office work, or your customers are paying by the hour for their services, make certain that employees think that they’re like lawyers or doctors, rather than workers who’d probably be much better off if they formed a labor union and demanded paid overtime.  Think of it this way: getting your employees to work an extra 20 hours a week is like increasing your staff by 50%… without costing you a thin dime!
• Helpful Hint: Always position the demands for unpaid overtime in the context of a “competitive threat”.  Makes sure they know that the extra hours are “standard practice” in your industry, as if that somehow makes it OK to steal time from people’s lives and turn it into profit margin.
• WARNING: Some employees know enough about the world to realize that, unless you’re a doctor or a lawyer who owns his own practice, you ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL.  They realize that they’re being paid to do a job, and that their actual salary is the money they make, divided by the hours they spend to make it.  They will feel that, since you are insisting on unpaid overtime, they have the right to reclaim some portion of their personal lives.  They’ll make personal calls at work; take long lunches, etc., because, frankly, they feel you owe it to them.  Which, of course, you do.

Method #7: The Tied Hands

• The Problem: You have to power to give your employee something that she wants, but would prefer not to give it to her. Example: he wants and deserves a big raise, but you’d rather keep the bulk of the yearly salary increase for yourself, or for somebody you like better that the employee in question.
• The Solution: Pretend that your hands are tied. Cite vague, unknown forces (e.g. “our salary guidelines for this year”) that prevent you from doing what you’d “really love to do if you  could.”  If that doesn’t work, cite your own boss as the “bad cop” who won’t play along.  (e.g. “Bill says we have to tighten our belts this year and I can’t possibly confront him without possibly using my job.”)
• Helpful Hint: Be as vague as possible, because (after all), it’s hard to pin jello to the wall.
• WARNING: Even if you’re vague, your employee, if he’s smart, will demand the truth, in the guise of wanting to understand the situation more clearly.  He’ll ask to see the salary guidelines in writing, for instance. Or he’ll ask exactly what the big boss said to you. Or he’ll demand to speak to the HR group.  Or whatever.  If that happens, you may end up truly helpless… when it comes to stopping him from getting his way.