Empowering Engineers – “Reflections Of An Intern”

Dave Hill - Feedback From an Intern

Feedback from a High School Intern Pursuing a Career in Engineering:
“I have finally settled in here at Texas A&M. I wanted to once again thank you for the amazing and enlightening internship, which has strengthened my drive to pursue a career in engineering. As promised, here is my take on the internship.

One of my favorite parts of the internship was meeting with so many different people in different fields. This really expanded my view on what was really out there and as a senior in high schoo;, being enlightened as to what kind of fields there are other than what you are interning in helps in your decision as to what you want to start in at college. Another part of the internship that I very much enjoyed was the visits to the chemical plant. Before going to the chemical plant, I would hear the title “Process Engineering” and I was very confused, but talking with the engineering project manager about it got me very interested. Also, being able to see another place for chemical engineers and being able to see what is available with a chemical engineering major was something that I was looking for in the internship. I also enjoyed learning the safety side of things. Putting together tox-sheets showed me how much effort goes into safety and how before I took it for granted. Learning about transportation and logistics in a company was also very enlightening. I already had an idea that transportation was complicated, but actually being a part of it showed me how important it is to the company. Though I enjoyed seeing what transportation was about, I wish that I could have had a project with engineering project manager that possibly introduced me a little more to engineering. Other than that, I enjoyed the internship and appreciate that you took four months to help guide this high schooler, while most would accept nothing less than a person with a year of college under his belt.

Once again I would like to take a moment to thank you for everything you have done for me. I will use my experiences with the chemical corporation and your teaching to guide me as I take the leap into college and soon into a career.
Thanks!”.

What can we learn from this?
1) I am proud to work for a company that supports an intern program. It empowers high-schoolers by helping them understand and experience life as an engineer.
2) Some of these interns may have such a good experience that they might end up applying to work for us.
3) I have found out that some of the school districts have formal intern programs where students can apply for an internship. They are accepted on criteria such as grades, career goals, hobbies and an interview with the School District Intern Coordinator. Our interns have come from the Richardson school district in Texas. If they have a positive experience and then decide to work for us, we are potentially getting the cream of the crop.
4) Recently, I discovered that there are high schools with Magnet campuses all over the USA. These are schools that get more focused towards career niches, e.g. The School of Science and Engineering in Dallas school district that has been recognized as among the best public schools in Texas.
5) Being proud of the organization I work for is an important component of what makes my job good. No job is perfect, and there are trade-offs. If an employee is considering jumping ship to work for someone else, this could be one of the factors that convinces him or her to stay – “the other company is offering me more money, but why should I move when the organization I work for makes me feel proud and treats me well?”.
6) The importance of good career choice is clear to me when I look at my coworkers and friends in the community. Some of them are in their 40’s and 50’s and still changing careers; even I have changed careers three times. Some of these people are deeply unhappy, caught in a rut in a working environment that does not fuel their passion- they cannot find a way out. They are handcuffed to pay checks, awaiting benefits to lock in, or feel they are too old to make a change – what a tragedy. This really helps drive home my passion to help young people get it right early on.

What can you do?
1) Set a goal to provide high-schoolers with an internship at your workplace, get the information on how it can be done, and help make it happen
2) If you own a business or can get permission for students to visit your workplace, why not contact schools to see if there is an opportunity for you to provide a real life career day for students that are considering a career in your type of industry
3) Participate in career days at schools
4) Talk to your kids and help them find their passion, listen to them and guide them. Once you start narrowing down the options, make the effort to find out how to get them to visit people in that business and learn the positives and negatives of the jobs. Help them learn what the trade-offs are
5) Give them the knowledge and help them set specific measurable goals to get grades that will make college become a reality. Reward achievement to encourage progress.
6) Before enrolling your kids in a school, take the time to visit the school and talk to the teachers and principal. Find out what challenges the school faces so you are well aware of the success potential. We live in a world of choices; make the effort to make good educated ones.

If you have any advice, thoughts, stories or comments on this subject, please feel free respond to this blog or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.) www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved

The Empowered Engineer – Finding Your Career Goal

Dave Hill - Starting Up A 30,000 Horse Power Ship Engine

I have had an interesting, colorful, and prosperous career as an engineer. Very little has been planned in my life; however, I have been very lucky that I have nearly always stumbled in the right direction, allowing my career to blossom.
I grew up in small towns in Ireland, and career guidance was non-existent. Even when I went to a boarding school, there was nothing in place to steer me in any one direction. Fate was a major factor. We now live in a world where career guidance is a lot more accessible, career days at school and research on the internet opens up doors of understanding. At an early age, engineers show the signs of technical inclination, but when reaching a point where they choose a specific type of engineering to pursue, there appears to be some randomness. My conversations with up and coming engineers indicates the initial choice may be “what sounds cool”. In other words, young engineers may not get it right the first time. Stumbling around to find one’s way to a fulfilling career is still the norm.

Dave Hill - Chief Engineer Officer

Looking back into my past, I remember living in a small town in Ireland called Rathdowney. There was a one room schoolhouse where the teacher taught all grades, and whose first task in the morning was to light the coal fire to keep the room warm. The schoolhouse had outside shack-like toilets. Fast forward a couple of years, and I am studying at an engineering college in Glasgow, Scotland, and I had been sponsored by a British shipping company called the Bank Line, and they were paying for all college fees, accommodation, food and even travel back to Ireland for vacation. On top of that, they paid me a small wage. At the age of 20, I flew out to Bombay, India, as an engineer cadet on a cargo ship. About eight years later, I was wearing four gold and purple stripes on the cuffs of my engineering officer uniform, indicating that not only had I reached the top qualification as a chief engineer officer, I was also working at that rank. By the time I was 25 years old, I had traveled around the world seven times, and by the time I finished this 14 year career, I had been to 75 countries. This career ended literally the day I got married. Four years earlier, I had met a Canadian girl in Darwin, Australia, while we were both working on a square rig sailing ship. I was on the sail training ship for a year traveling from Australia to the Caribbean via the Indian Ocean, around South Africa and up the South Atlantic. When I moved to Canada, I transitioned into a career as a machinery loss prevention specialist for the property insurance industry and stayed at that for 6 years. That career transitioned into a Corporate Principal Risk Engineer Career in Dallas, Texas, working for a chemical corporation.
While working for the chemical corporation in Dallas, the company would sponsor high school kids to come to our department as interns. They were high school kids who were just getting the inkling of wanting to become an engineer, and my company was providing them with a unique opportunity to explore this further. It fascinated me to learn that when I asked the question, “Why did you choose to become an engineer and what prompted you to decide to pursue a certain type of engineering?”, the frequent answer I got was, “I was good at math and science and my teacher suggested that I become an engineer. The reason I chose a particular specialty in engineering was because it sounded cool!!!” Based on this feedback, it looks like career choice still has some “randomness” and there is still a need for stepping stones to allow young engineers to stumble in the right direction. At my kid’s middle school, I do keynote speeches to educate the students on success strategies, and do educational sessions to help them decide if an engineering career would be a good fit or not. I talk about how I had continuously built my foundation with a passion for learning, and this had allowed me to change careers and each time reaching greater fulfillment.
.

TEN THINGS YOUNG ENGINEERS CAN DO TO GET NOTICED AND PROMOTED
1) Understand your passions and find a career that might be a good fit
2) Choose a job that will be valued by the organization (you will lose energy if you do not have this vital component)
3) Develop a passion to learn, expand your knowledge and skill set to the limit
4) Use you time well, pursue a routine of learning by listening to personal and professional development material while exercising or driving to and from work. Develop skills in communication, negotiation, conflict management, listening, management, leadership and presentation skills etc.
5) Find a career where a company recognizes and supports the importance of professional and personal development (ask if they have an audio library etc.)
6) Supercharge your learning ability by having mentors. Many experienced engineers are thrilled to be asked to help someone out by sharing knowledge and experiences (ask!).
7) Find a company that will provide you with a structured career path
8) Ask for uncompromised honest feedback during performance reviews
9) Develop a positive “can do” attitude. Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer – get yourself noticed.
10) As your career progresses, determine what aspects of your job excite and energize you and what aspects you dislike. Develop a plan to move your career in a direction where you do more of what you like and less of what you dislike.

Dave Hill - Principal Risk Engineer

If you have any advice, thoughts, or comments on this subject, please feel free respond to this blog or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.) www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved

Attention Grabbing Presentation Skills – Get Noticed and Promoted – “Illuminate your Speech or Presentation with Clear Transitions”

Dave Hill - Speech Transitions

Envision you are listening to a speech or presentation where you are enthralled by the information being presented and the stories being told. You blink or lose focus for a split second, and suddenly you have no idea what the person is talking about. They seem to be off on a tangent. You rationalize what is going on, “Ok, one minute we are talking about humor in the workplace, and now you are talking about the company financial difficulty and restructuring. How did we get here? Where is he going with this? I am lost and confused- time to zone-out and grab a nap”.
The two most common reasons that lead to this kind of scenario include bad speech structure or inadequate transitions from thought to thought. Let’s discuss transitions.
The fundamental importance of transitions is that they help the audience follow along step-by-step through your presentation. They let the audience know that you are deviating from the previous train of thought. Here is a simple speech structure to illustrate where you would typically incorporate transitions:

Opening Story
TRANSITION SENTENCE
First Point/First Story
TRANSITION SENTENCE
Second Point/Second Story
TRANSITION SENTENCE
Third point/Third Story
TRANSITION SENTENCE
Conclusion

SOME TRANSITION STRUCTURE OPTIONS:

Reiterate your last idea
EXAMPLE
“Now that we have discussed how humor at work and can evoke creativity and bring you leading edge technology and profits, let’s discuss how conflict in the workplace can erode earnings and force you to lay people off to maintain a viable business.”

Ask a question and lead into your next idea
EXAMPLE
“Will we ever reach a point where the culture in the corporate office embraces the fundamental concept that respect and trust amongst employees and leaders increases profits? It’s easy to come up with examples of negative traits, but let me give you some recent indications that indicate that positive change is underway”.

Use words that clearly indicate a shift from the previous train of thought
EXAMPLES
“Let’s look at this from another perspective”
“Let me go off on a tangent for a minute”
“Let me put this into a real-world scenario”
“You may be envisioning this as someone else’s problem, but let me twist it around and demonstrate a different line of thought”
“Today we have covered the benefits of respect, trust, and levity in the workplace. I want to demonstrate my passion for this subject with one final personal story. The story may at first seem irrelevant, but with a bit of thought, you will understand why I am standing here today”.

SUCCESS STRATEGY
What can make transitions powerful and crystal clear is when you incorporate purposeful movement into your speech or presentation.

EXAMPLES
1) “I have discussed how effective I have become as a public speaker; however, let me take you back to when I was a young engineer standing in front of corporate executives and my mind went blank”.
Note: As I am saying the words “let me take you back”, I am walking slowly to the left or the right to symbolize going into the past. If my speech wording has me going into the past again, I make sure I use the same side for clarity and consistency. If I was to talk about going back to my childhood in the same speech, I would walk further than I had walked to get to the young engineer stage placement.

2) “We have talked about my humorous escapades as a teenager, now I need to take you to a different place, the place where pranks go wrong and consequences are dire”.
Note: As I am saying the words “now I need to take you to a different place”, I might decide to step backwards, or backwards and diagonal to symbolize moving into a negative story.

3) “My talk today was designed to change your life. I have a personal story that will demonstrate how my life was changed”.
Note: As I am saying the words “I have a personal story”, I might step forward center stage to symbolize moving into the positive story in my speech conclusion

WORKSHOP EXERCISE
Take 20 pieces of paper and on each one write down a topic or word that you can easily talk extemporaneously about “on the spot”. Put the 20 cards into a bag, take out one card, and talk for 30 seconds about what’s written on the card. After 15 to 30 seconds, pick another card and use a transition to flawlessly lead into the topic written on the second card. This is a fun way to help public speakers hone their skills with transitions.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on this subject. Please use the comments section below or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com – Thanks, Dave

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.) www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Photo Attributes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyron/ / CC BY 2.0

Powerful Presentations – Get Noticed and Promoted -“Start Your Speech or Presentation with Pizzazz”

Dave Hill - Energize Your Audience

Imagine you are standing in front of an audience delivering a speech or presentation. After your first few lines, you notice the audience losing energy and interest, and leaning back in their chairs. Some people are looking at the ceiling with their hands behind their heads. What happened?
This is a hypothetical scenario to lead into this article on how to start a speech or presentation. If you want to suck the energy out of an audience, start with fluff like this:
“Good morning everyone, it’s a pleasure for me to be here today. What a miserable day it is out there, will this rain ever end? We have a smaller than expected audience, but I think we will still have some fun and education. Why are you guys spread all over the room, why not fill some of the empty chairs up front. Let me remind you that if your cell phone goes off I will publicly humiliate you………Ha, Ha, Ha.”

Last week, I was coaching someone who was getting ready to enter a speech competition. His speech was excellent with a great blend of humor and stories coupled with a delivery that had energy. The speaker was animated and provided excellent visual details to bring us into his stories. My main recommendation to him was to stand center stage at the start of his speech, take time to scan the audience members while smiling, but most importantly, I suggested that he cut out the “fluff” at the beginning of his speech, and instead bring us straight into his first story. His first story is powerful, and has the “sit up in the seat” kind of audience impact.

Some of the ways I start a speech or presentation are as follows:

Telling a story
1) When telling a story, I like to use one of the following action verbs to bring the story into the present and to allow the audience members to become part of the scene: Envision, visualize, imagine, picture. I put as much detail into my sentences as possible to conjure up visual images.
EXAMPLE: Picture my 12 year old son standing in a field in Ireland. He had just gained the confidence to feed grass to a cow in a field. He hesitantly held out his hand with a fist full of grass, and the cow inched towards him with its huge lips stretching towards the grass. It was at this moment I had an impish smile on my face and shouted out, “Oh my goodness, it’s a bull!” You have never seen a little boy panic and recoil so quickly.

2) Another way I start a speech is to give the audience the date, time and location of the story, followed by some visual details:
EXAMPLE: “It is March 23rd, 2005, at the BP refinery in Texas City. Imagine you are walking through the refinery that day. An event is about to unfold that will change your life forever. You will wonder if there was something you could have done to prevent your friends getting killed. That day, a total of 15 people were killed, and over 170 injured in an explosion. You will carry this memory for the rest of your life. Today, we are going to talk about efforts underway to make sure this type of accident never happens to us”.

Ask a rhetorical question
EXAMPLE:
“Have you ever been asked a question by senior management where you had the answer in your head but your brain went blank? Have you ever walked away from one of these scenarios thinking to yourself I am such an idiot- I know this subject inside out, why could I not get my thoughts together?”

Use a quotation that relates to your speech content.
Try to use a quotation that is not well known; it will have more impact. Make sure you reference who the quotation owner is.
EXAMPLE
John Wayne once said, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway”. Today, I am going to talk to you about ethics, standing your ground in the face of adversity, and following your passion with uncompromised values.

Ask a funny or absurd question that the audience can relate to
EXAMPLE:
Can anyone here relate to how men tend to run their cars until the gas tank level is down to the fume level, and feel they would die if they were to stop and ask for directions? Today we are going to learn how to coach our husbands on minimizing unnecessary stress and also understanding the fundamentals of mutual respect. The first thing I want to cover is toilet seat etiquette; let your husband know loud and clear – “If I sit on the toilet and fall in, we fall out!” To drive your point home, show him what flannel pajamas look like!

Provide a shock statement
EXAMPLE
I arrived home with a bunch of roses for my wife. There was no particular occasion, it was an impulse action. What floored me was her piercing words, “So……, you are having an affair!”

SUCCESS STRATEGY
1. Practice, practice, practice your opening story etc. so it is flawless. If you spend the first few sentences stumbling around with words, um’ing and ah’ing, then your image and credibility as a speaker can be diminished right from the start.
2. In general, do not open up with controversy- start with ideas people will be agreeable to. When trying to convince people to accept an idea it can help to give them two subject related rhetorical questions that they will nod in agreement to. The third related question is the one that may get potential resistance, but the previous affirmative nodding may help coax them into agreement or at least a consideration.
3. When deciding how to start a speech, consider what kind of opening is suitable for the audience. I personally use a lot of humor in the workplace and out in public, but I have to take into consideration the appropriateness to the occasion and to the audience. If I have a speech or presentation in the corporate office that may involve conflict or disagreement, I may still decide to start with a humorous anecdote as I have found that humor is a great tool for reducing tension.
4. Making fun of yourself is an excellent ice-breaker- audiences feel comfortable laughing at this type of self inflicted humor. Laughter helps you form a bond with the audience which can get them interested in your subject matter and can also make them feel at ease and more likely to respond to additional humor and stories.
5. One of the important things to remember is that your stories, rhetorical questions, etc. should relate to your subject matter. Do not use humor or stories for the sake of it. Choose the ones that will enhance your content. It can also be extremely powerful if you can include information that the audience can relate to. Professional speakers spend time learning about the audience while customizing a speech for an event.

SOME CAUTIONARY NOTES ON SPEECH OPENINGS
1. Do not tap on the microphone to see if it is working- why would you want to annoy the audience?
2. Do not open with a joke. The impact of a joke is only successful if the audience members do not know the punch-line. In the world of e-mail and internet access, many jokes are already worn out by the time they reach you. Use your own stories and vignettes that have proven effectiveness.
3. Don’t use a story that goes on and on and on before reaching a conclusion or the punch line. The audience will lose interest and lose track.
4. Don’t use rude jokes. This is a quick way to turn-off an audience. Just because some people laugh does not make it appropriate to the occasion or the audience.
5. Do not try untested humor with questionable effectiveness

Dave Hill - Don't You Love an Energized Audience?

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on this subject. Please use the comments section below or send an e-mail to dave@davehillspeaks.com – Thanks, Dave

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.)
www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved

Last Photo Attributes:

http://flickr.com/photos/blmurch/ / CC BY 2.0

Getting the Exceptional Workplace – “Taking Customer Service to the Doctor”

Photo by Lauren Nelson

It was a Wednesday afternoon in September, 2009, and I was at the doctor’s office to have a chest infection checked out. While reading an article on leadership in the Small Business Magazine, I witnessed an event that disturbed me. At the reception window a woman in her 30’s was checking in for her doctor’s appointment. They pulled her details up on the computer and pointed out to her that she had a balance overdue of $20.29, and told her that she would need to pay that today. The patient was soft spoken, and explained that she could not pay the deductible today or the outstanding amount on her account due to her financial circumstances. The receptionist said that she would have to check with the doctor to see if he would still see her today, considering the inability to pay. The receptionist came back and stated that the doctor would see her, but she would have to provide a specific date for full payment of all payments due. She also said that in the event of non-payment by that date, there would be an additional $15 penalty. The patient explained again that she was in financial difficulty, and could not give a specific date for payment. The receptionist then asked the woman if she would like to set up a payment plan. The woman nodded, and she was then brought away from the reception area through a door to an inside office.
What disturbed me was that the receptionist had conducted the conversation in such a loud manner that everyone in the reception area was able to hear what was going on. I imagined how embarrassed I would be if I had been in the young woman’s position. She maintained her composure, but my instinct told me that she had been publicly humiliated. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment, and I began to wonder if I wanted to remain a patient of this doctor. I, like many people, have been challenged financially at periods of my life, and can relate to being in a difficult position. It was great that the doctor had a system to work out a financial plan; however, it would seem to me that the doctor’s office could easily have a system which also maintains human dignity. The patient could easily have been directed to go to the more private back room at the first indication of financial difficulties. If you were this woman, would you come back to this doctor in the future? Would you recommend this doctor to your friends? Is there an opportunity for customer service improvement? – Absolutely.

Dave Hill - Customer Service

Now let me take you to one of my favorite customer service locations- the beer- brewing supply store. The Texas temperature has dropped below 90 F, and I get ready for one of my favorite hobbies- brewing beer. I started this hobby over 20 years ago using simple techniques. However, with annual investments and upgrades to equipment, I now own overly complicated high-tech equipment. I get the ingredients from a supply store in Dallas, Texas. As someone who only visits the store a few times a year, here is how I get treated:
I open the door, and nearly immediately my name is shouted out “Daaaaaave!”, making me feel as good as Norm from the TV series Cheers. Immediately I am asked how I can be helped, and I am pointed to where all the different ingredients for my recipe are located. They help me adjust the weighing scales to take into consideration the weight of the container, even though they have showed me how to do it 30+ times over the years. They do this every time I visit without complaint (I can never remember the sequence of pressing the scale reset buttons). Once I have the malted barley ingredients weighed out, I typically find that one of the store employees is there without prompt, offering to put the grain through the grinder mill for me and package it so I do not get my clothes dusty. They then go down my list to make sure I have all the ingredients I needed and then they question me on any other things I may have forgotten so I do not have a repeat trip. On one particular occasion as I was paying for my ingredients, another customer came in with a bottle of his home-brew beer and asks the store owner to taste it for quality. The owner takes a drink, asks me to taste it, and then comments “this is so good, I would pay money for it”. I could see the customers face light up with pride. Before I left the store, the owner made small-talk and jokes with me, and also reminded me that the club was having a party soon and to make sure I turned up. I left the store feeling good.
Since I have been brewing so long, I now regularly receive catalogues for supplies. The online purchase of ingrediants is sometimes slightly cheaper than the store, but I would not think of going that direction. I feel loyal and I want them to succeed.

Dave Hill - My Home-Brewery

TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO KEEP YOUR CUSTOMERS LOYAL
1) Train your employees on the importance of customer service and the expectations
2) Get feedback from your customers – what do we do well, what can we do better – have a competition to encourage feedback
3) Keep the contact with the customer positive, start by smiling and ask “how can I help you today”
4) Embrace respect, trust, and levity in the workplace, get employees talking positively about the workplace away from the office
5) Teach your employees name memorizing skills – remembering names makes customers feel important
6) Promote an office with a culture of helpfulness and teamwork. This shine will come across to customers
7) Make sure everyone knows what the customer wants and what their role is in helping the customer
8) Make notes in the file on previous customer discussions so that you have small talk ready
9) Go out of your way to help customers – do something extraordinary that they will communicate to friends
10) Listen to your customers needs, do not interrupt. Use listening skills

SOME RECENT CUSTOMER SERVICE OBSERVATIONS
1) I have seen a waiting room where most of the reading materials incorporated light hearted, fun reading material instead of the usual doom and gloom of the newspapers and magazines
2) My financial planner has a big screen TV where he would normally have the channel set to a station which showed the daily stock price trend. During my semi-annual visit to his office while the recession was at its worst, he had me laughing because he had chosen to play cartoons on the TV instead. He told me and my wife that the financial news was too depressing for his customers and so he was taking action.
3) When I recently went to get a new pair of glasses, the store manager set the stage for fun. He immediately started toying with my wife and me and pointed out glasses that he did not want me to choose. “If you are John Lennon you can choose these round glasses, if not, don’t even think about it!!” Catching onto his playful demeanor, I responded “so it looks like I need to choose frames that are somewhere between a John Lennon and a Sarah Palin style!!” We spent over half an hour in this play mode, and the glasses buying experience was totally enjoyable. Price was good, quality was good, and the customer service experience was exceptional.
4) I am at the airport security at the stage where you hold up your boarding pass for security to look at just before you enter the metal detector frame. I held my boarding pass rigidly, and the security girl smiled at me and stated, “You do that so well, I bet you practice!” Catching onto her smile and her playfulness, I replied “Some people try to wing it; I practice in front of the mirror until it is beyond perfect”. She laughed and waved me through. Security screening was an energizing process for me that day.
5) I am at the dentist, and he has taken the time to make some notes on a conversation we had at my previous visit. “How did your vacation to Ireland go”? “Your daughter has just started high school, how is that going”. His small talk is personalized, and makes me feel validated.

If you have any advice, thoughts, or comments on this subject, please feel free respond to this blog or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.) www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved

The Exceptional Workplace – “Superhero Leadership”

Dave Hill - Thoughts On Superhero Leadership

In a world where the media inundates us with negative news, it was a breath of fresh air recently to read a CNN article on the Top 10 Heroes of 2009 (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive09/index.html). If there is one thing that energizes me, it is ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Here is a brief look at a few of the 2009 contenders for the CNN annual search for individuals changing the world.
1) A New York City school bus driver who has handed out 70,000 free meals in his mobile soup kitchen
2) A bartender who has brought a sustainable clean water system to 25,000 people in 5 countries
3) A contractor in Iraq who has distributed nearly 650 free wheelchairs to children in need.

Imagine how proud you would feel if one of these incredible people was your manager or a coworker. Reading this article immediately had me reflecting on two people from my past. They were my bosses for several years (at different times) when they held a management role in the corporate office. One is now a successful consultant and also finds the time out of his busy schedule to give back to the community. He, his wife, and some friends cook up hot dogs and buns and drive to the street corners where underprivileged people looking for on-the-spot work gather. He delivers the food at lunchtime, knowing that the people remaining have not been able to get work that day. He also takes the time to mentor a low income family. The other boss not only has an infectious positive attitude, he also gives back to the world, he has had exchange students in his house over the years, and he also has mentored low income kids to help guide them towards success. These are just a sample of the things they volunteer to do.

Why is this important to me? In my job as a risk engineer, I am continuously challenged in my quest to prevent low probability accidents. Over a 12 year period, there have been times when I have felt that my job was not valued, and that I should seek out a more satisfying job. I want to share the importance of having managers that are good human beings and good leaders, whether in the workplace or in the community.

After working as an engineer for nearly 30 years in three different careers, I learned a long time ago that there is no perfect job. Every job has its trade-off’s. You can have an excellent job (e.g. it makes you feel important, it challenges you, it provides opportunities for advancement, it provides opportunities for ongoing personal and professional development etc.), but you have a boss that is less than perfect (e.g. lack of trust, compromised ethics, questionable values, treats you like an employee rather than a human being etc.). You can have an excellent boss (e.g. impeccable ethics, goes to bat for you, looks after your promotion and pay raises, is a good human being, inspires you, has a positive attitude), but a less than perfect job (e.g. you feel that the job is not important to the company, you do not feel energized, you do not spend enough time with your family etc.). Everyone can relate to job trade-offs, and this becomes extremely relevant when companies are focused on creating a culture that minimizes the turnover of valued employees.

When companies are hiring or promoting people into a management position, it is important that the people being recruited or promoted have the right skills, the right attitude, exceptional management skills and are decent human beings. A badly placed manager can cause a significant erosion of profits if your valued employees start to head out the door and go work for the competition.

Some Traits of Exceptional Managers That Can Drive Loyalty:
1) Exceptional communicators trained in skills such as negotiation, listening, and conflict management.
2) Inherent positive attitude
3) Impeccable ethics and can be trusted
4) Open door policy where direct reports can discuss problems and get guidance (one of the bosses above once told me that part of his job was to remove hurdles so I could be successful)
5) Invites feedback and direct reports can speak openly and frankly
6) Strong healthy sense of humor and encourages levity
7) Communicates frequently
8) Have value for work-home balance
9) Treats workers as human beings rather than “just employees”
10) Recognizes and rewards direct reports at every opportunity
11) Coaches and mentors
12) Leads by example
13) Encourages the type of risk taking that will advance the company
14) Exhibiting the character traits of heroes

10 Traits of Managers That Will Drive Your Employees to the Competition
1) Micro-management
2) Withholding information that affects direct reports
3) Cannot be trusted
4) Lack of respect for direct reports
5) Indecisive
6) Sarcastic (covert negativity) sense of humor
7) Lack of communication
8) Leads by fear
9) Manipulative
10) Does not tolerate mistakes

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.) www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved

Exceptional Presenters Get Noticed and Promoted – “Take my Word for It”

Imagine you are developing a very important speech. You have identified the speech structure, the points, the stories, the beginning and ending, and you have written it out. You are now looking at the written words, trying to work out how to get the speech to the next level- and you are stumped. The speech could be for your wedding reception, a eulogy at a family funeral, a keynote at a conference, an important meeting, or even a speech competition. In this blog, I will explain some of the simple online tools I use to hone the words in my speeches.

My goal in speech writing is to have clear, concise information and stories that illustrate my points. When I am telling stories, I want the audience to have vivid details to the extent that they feel that they are actually witnessing the event.
The most important piece of advice I can give you is that every word has value in a speech, and getting to the exceptional level requires you to analyze words to see if you can find ones that give a better sentence flow and visual detail.

THESAURUS (MS-Word – Toolbar/Tools/Language/Thesaurus or Shift+F7)
I use the Microsoft Word Thesaurus extensively- whether I am writing speeches, blogs, newsletters, or even books. There are times that I find a specific word I use is getting repetitive in my sentences, so I use the thesaurus to come up with a different word. I want my sentences to stand out and clearly describe what I am saying.
Example sentence that would get changed:
“The speech title is an important part of a public speaker’s speech” – This is a clumsy sentence with too much word repetition. I would plug “speech” and “speaker” into the thesaurus and look to see if there are any better words to frame the sentence. If not, I would spend time playing with the sentence until it sounded better – “A good speech title will get the audience sitting up in their seats with interest, you immediately have their full attention”.
Another useful place to find an online thesaurus is http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dictionary.htm. It helps find more visual words in sections such as synonyms, related words, and antonyms. An online visual (MindMap style) thesaurus can be found at http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

IDIOMS (words that mean something other than the literal meaning)

To try and add additional quality to my writing, I will also check out what common idioms are available to see if I could weave them into a sentence. You can enter a word into the search engine of the following website http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/. If you type in “word” in the search engine it comes up with about 120 idioms. One of them is “take my word for it” – I decided that this would fit in the heading of this blog heading – Exceptional Presenters Get Noticed and Promoted – “Take my Word for It”.
I also find idioms useful for developing humor. I take a common idiom and change the last word.

ACTION VERBS
When I am editing sentences to provide more visual details, I sometimes use the following site http://workbloom.com/ (see action verbs in the left hand column). I use action verbs a lot when telling stories; it helps me bring the audience into my story and become part of it. Look how I started off this blog with an action verb – “Imagine you are developing a very important speech. You have identified the speech structure, the points, the stories, the beginning and ending, and you have written it out. You are now looking at the written words, trying to work out how to get the speech to the next level- and you are stumped”.

QUOTATIONS
Quotations can also add color and detail to a speech. A quotation that relates to your subject matter can be used at the beginning of a speech, at the end, or even to enhance a point in the main part of it. It is appropriate to identify who the quotation owner is. You can see me using quotations in my demo video on my web site at http://www.davehillspeaks.com. One of my favorite quotation sites is http://www.quoteland.com/

WORD COUNT (MS-Word – Toolbar/Tools/Wordcount or Ctrl.+Shift+G)

If your speech needs to be a specific length, use the rule-of-thumb: 700 to 800 words = about 7 minutes of speech time. MS-Word has a toolbar which will automatically count your words in your Word Document.

FINAL NOTE – Putting It all Together
Envision (ACTION VERB) yourself sitting down writing a speech; you have used the thesaurus, idiom and quotations to bring depth to your sentences. As you sit looking proudly at your creativity, the words of Truman Capote come to mind – “To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the music the words make” (QUOTATION). Mark my words (IDIOM), these simple techniques will help you bring your speech writing to the next level.

Dave’s website: www.davehillspeaks.com
Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Powerful Presentations – Get Noticed and Promoted -“Just-In-Time Presentation Skills”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Training

1) Imagine your boss walks into your office and announces that he needs you to present to senior management on a subject within half an hour.

2) Visualize yourself just about to present a PowerPoint presentation and as you are setting up, the projector bulb pops and you have no notes or handouts to guide you.

3) Envision you are at a meeting discussing a project and its benefits, but the non-verbal body language from the audience indicates that they are not getting it. You know that you need to quickly come up with a more visual explanation technique to clarify and illuminate your points.

4) Picture yourself standing beside a friend or family member who is asking you to deliver a eulogy at a funeral in two days time.

Reading these statements may make many of you feel gut wrenching stress. Public speaking is fearful for many people, and short notice public speaking can cause people to have extreme anxiety, loss of sleep, and loss of the ability to keep thoughts lined up.

Twenty years ago, I stood up at my wedding and spoke briefly at the reception. “Briefly” is the key word! Back then I was scared to death of public speaking, and on the most important day of my life, I was unprepared. I held the microphone with sweaty, nervous hands and said my high speed thanks in what seemed like one long breath. I did not thank the Hungarian community properly at the reception. There were many of my wife’s family friends who had gone all out to help us put a wedding together on a very tight budget. If only I had known what I know now about public speaking, I could have thanked them properly.

As time went on, I discovered that I needed better speaking skills to help me succeed as an engineer. I joined a public speaking club. Public speaking soon became a passion, and I started to excel and have fun.

About 8 years ago, I discovered a speech development technique that has been invaluable to me. I use it to develop my own speeches and presentations and help other people gain clarity on how to make a speech effective. The side benefit is that it also helps me memorize the structure of my speech. The technique I am talking about is Mind-Mapping, and it has been around since the 1960’s. Tony Buzan is credited with being the “inventor” of this process.

The photo shows my speech writing book with simple mind maps to help guide me through my speech development process. This book also contains the Mind-Map for the three speeches that brought me to the finals of the 2004 World Championship of Public Speaking in Reno, Nevada.

In this article, I will outline its use specifically for the purpose of short notice speeches or presentations. If you want additional information on this subject, go to http://www.imindmap.com/.

STEP 1 – Clearly identify what you are going to talk about.

If you cannot describe what you are going to speak about with the amount of words that would fit on the back of a business card, you may not be focused enough yet. Make sure you clearly identify what you want to talk about before you proceed. What is your primary subject matter? Let’s use a speech I developed on multi-cultural diversity.

STEP 2 – Clearly identify what main points you want to make

STEP 3 – Identify what stories you could use to support and illustrate your points

STEP 4 – Identify what order you want to put your information and stories in. Determine what would be the most impactful opening, and how you could tie the ending back to the opening story.

STEP 5
Depending on the amount of time available, you could now either:
1) Write out the speech, hone it, and practice it out loud (If your speech needs to be a specific length, use the rule-of-thumb of 700 to 800 words = about 7 minutes of speech time).
2) Practice it out loud using the mind map as a mind jogging memorization tool

Keep practicing until you get it to flow without stumbling. I practice out loud while driving my car, and once I have the speech outline, transitions, and stories in my brain, I then practice in my home with a focus on my hand gestures and physical movement that will enhance the speech. Stories are typically easy to remember, spend most time memorizing the transitions (from point to point and from story to story). Make sure your opening and ending are practiced so they are flawless.

FINAL NOTE – sometimes my Mind-Maps get complicated. Here is one I used for a training session; I call it my Mind-Map on steroids!

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.)
www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved