Energized Employees Power Profits – What a Thirteen Year Old Boy Can Teach Us about Attitude

Dave Hill - Ideal Workplaces Article

Picture a 13 year old short boy on a soccer field. He is playing defense during a tough tournament game. The score is 1-1; the teams are equal in strength and energized to score the winning goal. The opponent he has been assigned to mark is tall for his age, and towers at least a foot higher than him.

On the sideline, I joke with one of the other parents that these two boys standing side by side in the distance look like father and son with the height difference. Suddenly, there is a breakaway. The ball is kicked from mid-field and comes in high; I see the agile short defender stoop and spring vertically, stretching his body up into the air, trying to head the ball away. The tall boy also goes for the ball and easily makes contact with it, nudging it towards the goal posts. He chases it and is about to take a shot at goal when the defender aggressively clears it away with so much force that both of them tumble to the ground. There are cheers from the parents at the sideline and a few words of encouragement from the coach. The defender is my son Eric; I have been proudly watching him play the game since he was four years old.

Many kids at this age have started sprouting; however, my family has not had anyone reach a height greater than 5 ft. 3 in. for a few generations. Growing pains are not a genetic concern!

This vignette gives you a picture of my son’s focus and attitude. He does not let his stature get in the way of following his passion for sports. He uses his skills and his perceptions to play smart, and it impresses me and makes me chuckle when I see him trying to head the ball when an opponent looms over him.

One of the great things about kids is that they can teach adults “stuff”. Stuff we knew when we were kids, but the gentle erosion of life’s challenges can leave us cynical and diminish the “can do” attitude. Last year, I had a gentle reminder when Eric announced that he wanted to try out for the school basketball team. My first instinct was to frown, “go negative”, and try and convince him to choose a school sport where he could be more successful. He went to try-out anyway, and came home elated, telling us that he had been accepted onto the team. When I attended his games, I could see that he was focused, highly energetic, and played smart. He gave 100%, even though playing against his many “towering opponents” was an obvious challenge. The year has come and gone, and it was with surprise for me and delight for him when he came home with the announcement that his basketball coach awarded him with the “Most Valuable Player” medal at the end of the school year. His attitude and dedication had once again prevailed. I had an opportunity to reflect on my own attitude and recalibrate myself for focusing on challenges rather than strengths.

Research has shown that attitude is a critical employee component along with experience and qualifications. Over my nearly 30 years experience in three different engineering careers, I have met many remarkable people. A good job for me includes having coworkers who I respect and trust, and who are wired to help each other succeed. I have had some tough jobs, both physically and mentally, however when I reflect back into the past, I remember all the great people who made life rewarding.

A director I reported to a few years ago had an infectious positive attitude. No matter how bad things got, no matter how frustrated we got, he would bring optimism. Research has shown that successful employees do not just have experience and qualifications; they also bring a healthy attitude to the workplace. I have heard speakers talk about the ideal employee being made up of 70% attitude and 30% experience and qualifications. These types of statistics are always questionable, but the bottom line is that hiring people with the correct type of attitude is as important a consideration as qualifications and technical ability. Hiring employees with an empowering attitude, combined with experience and qualifications, is a worthwhile endeavor.

What can happen if you take the time to hire people with a workplace empowering attitudes?
1. Increase customer service satisfaction
2. Reduce employee turnover
3. Increase productivity
4. Conflict and negations are handled while maintaining healthy trusting and respectful relationships
5. Coworkers are motivated

How do you hire people with healthy attitudes?
One of the ways of identifying new hires with an attitude that will help grow your organization is to get to understand how people think and deal with workplace challenges. The following are some example interview questions that can help find the best employees:
1. Describe a situation where you made your coworkers laugh.
2. Picture a heated conflict situation you have been in. Explain how you dealt with this situation and what the outcome was.
3. Describe fun activities you have had with coworkers outside the workplace.
4. What character traits would your ideal boss have?
5. What aspects of your communication skills would you like to improve on and why?
6. Give me an example of a time you felt that your interaction with a coworker or boss did not go well?
7. In your opinion what makes a great workplace?
8. What personal development training have you volunteered for in the last 5 years and why?

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on employee attitude. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Attention- Grabbing Presentation Skills – Cultural Considerations – “My Ass-tronomical Mistake”

Dave Hill - Cultural Considerations For Presentors And Travelers

In May 2002, I spent three weeks traveling around Chile and Brazil, doing safety audits of chemical plants. I arrived at a chemical plant in Brazil and I was fascinated that the place was full of beautiful trees and landscaping, with birds and animals making it part of their home. In a way, it reminded me of a private zoo. At the water discharge area, the waste water was pumped through an aquarium which had beautiful tropical fish in it. The visual effects of this chemical plant were awesome and they set the stage for a very positive visit. My main hurdle at this location was that I didn’t speak Portuguese, and the people I was meeting up with spoke broken English. I have never been one to let my lack of languages get in the way of communication, so I used hand gestures, facial expressions, smiles, and a few key words to allow me to get my work done. Everything about the Brazilians impressed me- their use of hydro-electric power, their focus on conserving energy, and their passion and friendliness.

There were two things that went wrong during this visit that still get me chuckling today, and remind me of a key consideration when interacting with people of different cultures.

During my safety audit, I took the time to work on a project with one of the local Brazilian engineers. In Brazil, I noticed that the engineers appear to be high up on the social scale. They were all immaculately dressed in suits and ties, and looked extremely professional. I was brought to the top of a steep grassy hill where the engineer I was working with wanted to show me the location where he wanted to put new processing equipment. There had been a heavy rain that morning, and the ground was very slippery. In fact, it was so slippery that we had to pull ourselves up to the top of the hill by clinging onto the surrounding wire fence. At the top of the hill, the engineer pointed out the area where he wanted to put the equipment and then started to unroll his engineering drawings. While unrolling his drawings, he let go of the wire fence and immediately lost his footing and started rolling down the grassy hill, picking up mud as he fell, with his engineering drawings blowing away into the distance. He came to a stop at the bottom of the hill with his face, arms and suit absolutely caked in mud. I carefully came down the hill clinging to the wire fence. I went over to him and asked him if he was ok, making an “ok” sign with my hand. The engineer was not happy with what had happened and went away to get cleaned up.

I continued my safety audit going from section to section of the chemical plant. Everything was immaculate and the documentation was thorough. It energizes me to see people implementing safety at a high level, and I spent a lot of time smiling at people, thanking them for doing good work and simultaneously giving them the “ok” sign to emphasize my appreciation.

On day three, the head auditor came up to me with a sarcastic smile on his face and said, “You need to stop doing the ok sign, it is an extremely rude gesture here in Brazil”. My face dropped when I considered that I had already done the damage by inadvertently telling about 20 people that they were ass@#!&!’s…even the poor mud-caked engineer.

I made my apologies and there were no hard feelings; they knew that my intent was not bad and they laughed it off. I must admit that I was angry with myself because as someone who has travelled to 75 countries, I should have known better and should have researched the cultural differences before visiting.

This memory reminds me of the importance of understanding cultural aspects whether you are visiting a foreign country or presenting to people of different cultures. In a previous article, I talked about “audience analysis” so you can hone your presentation materials to your audience’s needs and circumstances. Imagine how powerful it would be to know ahead of time what different cultures will be represented in the audience and to incorporate some cultural uniqueness that they can relate to. The other benefit can be to get an understanding of gestures that are considered appropriate or inappropriate, and to understand ahead of time the cultural nuances of the audience. Here are some general examples:

Brazil
• The “O.K.” sign is considered very rude and vulgar; the “thumbs up” gesture is used for approval.
• Clicking the tongue and shaking the head indicates disagreement or disapproval.
• Presentations should be expressive and have some flair.
• Brazilians are expressive and passionate conversationalists. Be prepared to be interrupted.

France
• Use last names and appropriate titles until specifically invited by your French host or colleagues to use their first names. First names are used only for close friends and family
• Academic titles and degrees are very important. You are expected to know them and use them properly.
• The “ok” sign, made with index finger and thumb, means “zero.”
• The French use the “thumbs up” sign to say “ok.”
• Keep your hands out of your pockets.
• Be on time. The French appreciate punctuality.
• The French dislike disagreeing and debating in a public forum, but enjoy a controlled debate, whereby an informed rebuttal is appreciated.
• Presentations should be well prepared, comprehensive, clear, well-written, informative, and presented in a formal, rational, professional manner- appealing always to the intellect.
• The French do not tell or like to hear jokes. They prefer intelligent and satirical wit. Funny stories of real life situations are appreciated.

Ireland
• The Irish are uncomfortable with loud, aggressive, and arrogant behavior.
• A “Reverse V for victory” gesture is considered obscene.
• The Irish respect reserved behavior. Initial meetings should be low key.
• Always be sincere. The Irish dislike pretentious behavior.

India
• Use your right hand only to touch someone, pass money or pick up merchandise. The left hand is considered unclean.
• Do not touch anyone’s head. The head is considered sensitive.
• Feet are considered unclean. Pointing footwear at people is considered an insult.
• Never point with a single finger or two fingers (used only with inferiors). Point with your chin, whole hand or thumb.

Country-specific information is excerpted from the “Put Your Best Foot Forward” series by Mary Murray Bosrock.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on success strategies for presenting to multi-cultural audiences. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Energized Employees Power Profits – Embracing a Culture of Learning from Mistakes – “Engineering Projects – When Things Go Horribly Wrong”

Dave Hill - Empowering Employees and Leaders

Back in July 2000, my wife and I decided to build a large wooden fort in our back garden for our young kids. The cost of a fort “kit” was well over $1300, which was well beyond our means. As a frugal Irishman I would never be able to convince myself to spend that kind of money anyway. The next best thing was to do some reverse engineering and build it ourselves. It would be a great weekend project. On the way home from work each day, I would pass a store that sold garden forts, and they had a beautiful fully assembled one in the front parking lot as a display. Every day for about a month I would stop for about 10 minutes, pretending to check it out, and then covertly take out my tape measure and measure up a few parts and enter them with diagrams into a small note book. The reverse- engineered plagiarized design started to come together slowly but surely, and soon we were ready to buy the materials.

We arrived at the local hardware store in our old Ford Escort station wagon to choose the best pieces of wood from the lumber section and bring them home. By the time the wood was loaded in the car, it was weighed down to a level where the exhaust pipe was nearly scraping the ground. There were big sheets of plywood and a plastic slide tied with rope to the roof, and the 4 x 4 pieces of wood were stacked thickly in the body of the station wagon. We drove home carefully, making sure we did not lose any of our precious cargo. When we arrived home, our young kids were elated with the thought of having a wooden play fort. This was going to be a great weekend….or was it?

That weekend there were noises of bits of wood being cut, nails being hammered, and the grunts and groans of hundreds of screws being inserted into the structure. Bit by bit it started to take shape. At some stage during the assembly, I discovered that I had miscounted the amount of 4 x 4’s I needed for the frame. Since I was in the middle of assembling, I asked my wife to go back to the hardware store and get a 10 ft. length.

The total cost of this play fort was going to come in under $300, and we were having a fine time “barn-raising” as a family, putting it together. It is always a good day when you can apply your engineering skills to some home projects and get to stand back and admire the workmanship and revel in the cost savings.

Then came the bad news; my wife arrived home with the piece of wood inside the car and I could see that she was somewhat upset. She looked at me and said, “I have good news and bad news”. “What’s the good news?” I asked”. “I found a really great piece of 4 x4”. “What’s the bad news then?” She smiled sheepishly and said, “I managed to fit a 10 ft. piece of wood into an 8 ft. long car.” She then showed me that she had pushed the piece of wood all the way into the car so she could get the hatch door closed. Unfortunately, the last push had also caused the piece of wood to hit the front windshield causing it to pop out and break. The cost of the fort was due to be about $300, the cost of the additional piece of wood was $25, and the cost of a new windshield was about $200. The new cost of the fort was now $525!

The fort was finally finished on the Sunday evening. My wife put the finishing touches to it by painting vines on the sides using the light of a lamp she had brought from the living room. Immediately there were shrieks of joy from our kids as they climbed, chased each other, and slid down the slide. The negativity of the broken windshield became a nuisance of the past, and I put the memory in my story file to use at a later date.

As an engineer of nearly 30 years, I have made my fair share of mistakes while doing projects. I have been lucky that I have nearly always been surrounded by positive, uplifting people and have grown to learn that mistakes are normal and part of gaining experience, but most importantly, they are things you get over and sometimes you even get to laugh at them. I have been at meetings where we were wrapping up projects and celebrating our success with a special lunch. Sometimes the meetings would include a segment to encourage people to talk about what went wrong. People would talk about improvement opportunities for the next project. Occasionally, there would be a competition and gag prizes for the person who confessed to causing the biggest mishap. Not only did this help diminish the embarrassment of making mistakes using lighthearted humor, it also provided a forum where people could learn from each other’s mistakes.

A positive forum for learning from mistakes is highly beneficial to any organization. The benefits can include:
1. Creating a culture where people openly admit mistakes and are not afraid to let others know (rather than keeping quiet and hoping that the mistake does not get noticed or lead to adverse conditions such as an accident)
2. Giving us the opportunity to do things differently and benefit from the results- Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
3. Building morale and improving teamwork and camaraderie by diminishing the negativity associated with errors
4. Inspiring people to set far reaching goals and push the limits of technology without the hindrance of career limiting reprimands

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on creating a workplace culture that embraces learning from mistakes. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Net Meeting Presentations – What Happens When Your Cranky Baby Argues With A Top Executive On a Conference Call?

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Article on Net-Meetings

Imagine you are on a monthly global net-meeting conference call that is being hosted by a manufacturing executive. On the phone, he is getting down to business and moving from hot-topic to hot-topic while moving through his slides. There are several hundred people listening in. As he is stressing an important point, the piercing scream of a baby wailing with gusto comes over the phone. There is silence for a few seconds, and then the executive asks, “Is that a baby? Has someone got a baby with them?”

This was a real life scenario back in 2006. I was silently chuckling at the unusual situation that was taking place, when a timid voice on the phone said, “I am phoning in from home, sir. My wife is sick, and I had to come home to look after the baby. I didn’t want to miss your call”. The executive politely asked everyone to press “star six” to mute their phones and he continued his net-meeting conference call. Is that what you would call a “career limiting moment”?

As someone who has been presenting technical information for over 19 years, I have learned from my mistakes and experiences and also from other peoples. This article is written so that you do not have to go through the same learning curve as I did. Before I get into the success strategies for net-meetings, let me share two more examples that we can learn from:

1) In 2004 during a period of cost cutting at the corporate office, alternatives were being explored to conduct technical training using a net-meeting approach. Management wanted to explore this forum as an alternative to a face-to-face training session where people would usually fly in from all over the world. The subject I was asked to present included training people on the risks relating to explosions at chemical plants, refineries, and gas plants. This was a subject that I had presented at technical conferences and I already had a one hour dynamic presentation. All I would need to do was hone the presentation to my audience’s specific needs. The most popular parts of this presentation were videos of different types of explosions. The videos depicted how different flammable gases produce different explosion characteristics. They also showed parts of test buildings getting blown apart during live testing. There were segments of videos showing doors and windows failing catastrophically with research engineers cheering loudly.

As a mechanical engineer and as someone who has seen his fair share of audio-visual and other equipment failures, I decided to test my presentation to make sure the videos would play flawlessly. It did not take me too long to find out that playing the videos in a net-meeting forum was not going to work with the online net meeting tools I had available. The bandwidth of the internet connection would not allow the videos to play effectively on a computer that was being monitored by a coworker in another city. The video segments were choking on the limited internet bandwidth, and were playing ineffectively. I had to regroup, eliminate the videos, and rely on being able to describe the effects rather than demonstrate them. Imagine an Irishman on a net meeting doing impersonations of different types of explosions.

2) This year, one of our technical people started doing monthly net-meeting conference calls where he would discuss and present on accidents, concerns, and revisit lessons we had learned from previous challenges. The presentations were on target for the audience, the slides were uncluttered, and he had great visuals to drive home the points. One of the challenges he had was that some people on the conference call had weak internet connections, and as he moved through the PowerPoint slides with photograph visuals, the slides would still be loading on some peoples screens when he was already moving on to the next slide. This was causing frustration for people who were on the conference call and trying to view the net-meeting PowerPoint presentation at the same time. The simple fix was to send people the presentation ahead of time so they could watch it directly from their computers without an internet connection. The slides were numbered to make sure that people were looking at the correct slide.

Success Strategies for Presenting Using a Net-Meeting Forum:
1. Learn the capabilities of the net-meeting software and hardware you are using.
2. Understand the limitations of computers that people may be using (old computers with limited memories, poor internet connections- such as phone service).
3. Practice your presentation online with someone in a remote location so you can find out what issues or challenges there could be.
4. Know your audience and customize your information to their knowledge level.
5. Consider including humor to keep the presentation upbeat and energized when it is appropriate for the audience and when it suits the content of your presentation. Entertainment can help keep the attendees’ attention and can also help with information retention.
6. Use a darker background with lighter lettering to keep it easy on the eyes of participants (the glare from a white background with dark letters can easily tire the eyes).
7. Have a back-up plan in case the technology fails (will you e-mail plan B instructions, etc.).
8. Understand time zones and the impact on people having to stay late or get up early (or connect from home with sub-standard computers etc.).
9. Get people to disable call waiting if they are participating by phone.
10. Provide a list of participant’s names, contact numbers, e-mail addresses, and an emergency contact number in case there are technical difficulties – have a plan.
11. Send your presentation to people ahead of time including an agenda. Number the slides.
12. Get people to test the net-meeting ahead of time so there are no disruptions or delays.
13. When people log in to your online net-meeting, decide ahead of time if you want to choose the option of “accepting” each individual attendee when they “call in”, or do you want them to be automatically “logged in”. If you have a large group of participants connecting to your net meeting or if people maybe logging in late, it can be distracting if you have to stop your presentation frequently to “accept” the attendee.
14. Determine ahead of time if you are going to let people ask questions throughout the presentation, use the online “chat function”, or just ask questions at the end. Let them know at the beginning of the presentation what the rules are.
15. Find a quiet undisturbed area to conduct your call.
16. If there are other people in the same room as you (when you are presenting) ask them to mute their cell phones and keep them away from the phone. Cell phones, Blackberries and similar devices can cause feedback noise if they are located near the desk phone.
17. Ask people at the beginning to mute their phones so there is no distracting background noise.
18. Open with an icebreaker – a story that relates to your material, a shock statement, a quotation, or a rhetorical question.
19. Get some audience interaction about every 5 minutes to keep the energy levels up and to keep it interactive. If you anticipate that questions may not be forthcoming from the attendees, you could consider setting things up ahead of time where people will ask a question you have previously provided them. You could also arrange ahead of time for someone to give a real life example that will illuminate your point.
20. Maximum time for an effective net-meeting could be in the range of 1 to 3 hours.
21. Suggestions for video conferencing – Your clothing should have pastel type colors and have no stripes. You should make no sudden movements as this will cause blurring in the video image. You should speak slowly and clearly and there should be no distractions within the video line of sight. Watch the lighting – e.g. if you are bald and there is glaring lighting in the room, it may make you look as if you have a hole in your head.
22. If your presentation content is controversial with the possibility of conflict, you should consider all other options first. There is generally no substitute for face-to-face meetings when there is the potential for disagreement. A face-to-face meeting allows you to build rapport with others, and also allows you to take into consideration body language and other non-verbal audience feedback during the presentation.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on success strategies for conducting net meeting type presentations. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Attention- Grabbing Presentation Skills – “How You Can Give Your Audience the Attention Span of a Crocodile”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Article

Back when I had hair, a six-pack stomach, and when slide rulers were cool (25+ years ago), I took a sabbatical from my career as a cargo ship engineer officer and drove around the coast of Australia with a friend for six months. We traveled in a very old Chrysler Valiant, a six cylinder workhorse of a car that brought us safely around the coast of Australia. We mostly camped in the National Parks around the country, and while traveling through Northern Australia, we worked for a short time on a small banana plantation. The plantation we were working on was adjacent to an estuary where salt-water crocodiles up to 30 ft. long were known to live.

The place where we put our tent was about 200 feet from the water in a very scenic spot overlooking the water. The night we pitched our tent, the owner of the banana plantation brought a cow on a rope. He hammered a thick wooden post into the ground about 150 ft. from the water and tied the cow to it with a 5 ft. length of rope. With a smile on his face, he said that it was just a precaution in case a crocodile got some ideas to travel on land and cause trouble. It did not take me too long to work out that “trouble” meant me or my friend becoming a late night snack. The farmer explained that the salt water crocodiles have great focus and excellent concentration. He said that research has shown that the first day they concentrate on your movements, the second day they make a plan, and the third day they implement the plan and try and get you. He then explained that if we should wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of the cow getting attacked, it would be a really good idea to “high-tail-it” out of there. So there we were, protected from highly focused crocodiles by a cow and a tiny Swiss Army Knife I had in my pocket. Don’t you love the Australians and their happy-go-lucky simplistic way of thinking and their saying, “She’ll be alright mate!”

Fast forward 25 years, and the subject of focus and concentration of human beings rather than crocodiles is on my mind. The challenges of crocodiles with their three day concentration and focused plan of attack is behind me, but now as a public speaker and trainer I have to deal with the challenges of humans that are unfortunately on the other end of the concentration scale. Research shows that the typical human being has an attention span somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. I am sure we can all relate to our minds wandering during meetings and presentations.

Imagine a dysfunctional meeting. The presenter is droning on and on, reading words from his PowerPoint slides, and guiding the audience with his laser pointer. Some people are sneaking a peak at their laptops, the “Crackberry addicts” are holding their devices by their crotches thinking that nobody can see that they are getting their e-mail “fix”. The younger people are pecking away at high speed on tiny electronic keyboards, twittering or texting information to friends, coworkers, and any extraterrestrial aliens that may be checking the planet for signs of life! Wouldn’t it be great if people could be “in the moment” for three days like crocodiles rather than 5 to 10 minutes as humans?

As a presenter, I learned a long time ago that there are methods that you absolutely need to use to keep an audiences attention whether you are delivering a 20 minute presentation or a 2 day workshop.

Considerations for keeping your audience engaged:
1. When audience members are entering the room, welcome them, talk with them, and build a rapport.
2. At the beginning of your presentation, ask people to refrain from using laptops, Blackberries, etc. Make the suggestion with humor, for example: “Anyone caught e-mailing, texting, or Tweeting will be invited to sing the national anthem!”
3. Keep side conversations under control. Do not allow others to disrupt the presentation by chatting.
4. Engage the audience as soon as possible, use rhetorical questions, shock statements, questions, and stories
5. Open with impact – this is your first big opportunity to draw the audience into your presentation (click this link to see my previous article on introductions and presentation openings).
6. Change your presentation method frequently using methods such as:
• High quality uncluttered PowerPoint slides
• Move to a flip chart to provide a more detailed explanation of a point
• Conduct a question and answer session to engage the audience
• Form a break-out session. Get groups working on a problem and identify group leaders who will present back to the class
• Get one person to give a demonstration to highlight a point
• Get everyone involved in an exercise that involves individual problem solving
• Tell a short story that relates to the point and make sure it is one that the audience can relate to
• Put humor and other entertainment in your presentation even if it is a technical presentation
• Use short videos and clear illustrative pictures to get your point across
• Walk into the audience to engage them, ask them questions, and get their point of view.
7. Don’t overly criticize wrong answers or opinions otherwise you may not get any more feedback.
8. Tell the audience that there are going to be quiz’s during and after the presentation. This will help people focus and retain information.
9. If you are conducting a training session you can use an exercise such as getting everyone in the room into a circle, they throw a light fuzzy ball to each other. As each person catches the ball they have to say one thing that they have learned so far. Consider what other “games” are appropriate for your presentation and the audience.
10. Use simple handouts that require them to fill in missing words in short sentences. When people write down information it keeps them engaged and also has the added benefit of helping them remember the information.
11. Give out prizes to people who give terrific answers, get the room in competition mode. Remember, people at all levels of an organization love to win. Maximize positive feedback.
12. Break up the usual social “cliques” and form different groups either randomly or using a numbering system. This may also help reduce the potential for distracting social side conversations. The members of the groups can be changed every few hours if necessary.
13. Use stories and vignettes frequently to bring your information into perspective.
14. Get audience members to share their stories.
15. Keep the presentation conversational.
16. Use humor that is appropriate to the occasion and to the audience.
17. Relate to the audiences needs and experiences and provide value.
18. Be personable and energetic.
19. Know your audience (what are their needs, what are their concerns, customize your material).
20. What’s in it for them? (ask yourself this question at each section of your presentation)
21. Make sure you provide adequate bathroom breaks.
22. Make sure you know how to control the temperature in the room in case it starts to heat up and make people drowsy (or too cold and cause people to lose focus).
23. Keep your PowerPoint slides uncluttered – include relatable pictures and clear headlines in 40+ font size as much as possible.
24. Maximize your eye contact with your audience – learn how to do it effectively.
25. Use vocal variety and project your voice to the level that everyone in the room can clearly hear your voice. If someone asks a question, repeat the question back to the audience if the voice is not audible to the whole group.
26. Use gestures to illuminate your points and stories.
27. Use purposeful movement to enhance your presentation content.
28. Determine if your handouts and other reading material can be handed out afterwards so that people are not reading ahead during your presentation.
29. Use first names as much as possible (use tent cards or other types of name tags if you cannot remember the names).

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on keeping the audience engaged. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Energized Employees Power Profits – Humor In the Workplace – “Turning Challenges Into Chuckles – How I Attacked the British Navy”

Dave Hill - Finding humor after encountering challenging circumstances

The world had gone mad (again) in 1982. The British and the Argentineans were at war over what seemed like a desolate island with apathetic sheep that did not care which country’s flag flew over the sheep-dip. At that time, I was working on cargo ships as an engineering officer and an offer had been extended to me to participate in the Falklands war. They wanted me to work on a cargo supply ship that would bring supplies to the British Navy in the war zone. They were offering over 1 ½ times my normal pay (danger money). Over a cold beer I considered the logic. I would go to no-man’s land, I would be working on a ship that did not have any means of defending itself, and I would be working in the heat of the engine room that would be a tracking point for the Argentinean Exocet heat seeking missiles. Even fully armed navy ships such as the HMS Sheffield had met with disaster at the hand of the Exocets, and many people perished. I finished my beer and decided that the sheep would have to fend for themselves.

Little did I know that my involvement in the Falklands war would take an unimaginable twist of fate. Some people joked that it was an Irish-English thing that made me “take on” the British navy, others may say that the guilt and safety concerns for the innocent sheep got to me.

The story unfolded at Portsmouth harbor in the South of England, where the cargo ship I was working on was anchored. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon in July at the end of the Falklands war. I had been on the night shift in the engine-room and had some free time at hand. I was given permission to take the cargo ships little sailing dingy (called the Jolly Boat) out for a sail in the harbor. The chief officer Brian kindly used the ship’s crane to lower the Jolly Boat into the water for me. I assembled the rigging, and in no time, I was sailing off into the distance with fresh air in my lungs, leaving the scenic English countryside behind. After an hour of sailing, I was at the mouth of the large harbor and the wind started to die. I was becalmed without even a set of oars to help me. I sat in the dingy and started to take a nap in anticipation that it could take some time for the wind to pick up again. I needed to doze off to prepare my brain for the night shift. I was young and fearless without a care in the world and soon I drifted off to sleep.

To say that all hell broke loose would be a big understatement. Imagine you suddenly wake up in a small boat to the thunderous sound of a ship steam horn bellowing. I jolted awake to see a huge ship towering over me and a mountainous bow wave rolling in my direction. The ship was so close that I could hear people screaming at me (bad English curse words!). There was no doubt in my mind that the ship was traveling at high speed and was frantically trying to steer around me. The black smoke from the funnel and the size of the bow wave gave a clear indication that they were running the engines at full throttle, and steering at full rudder to avoid hitting me. The ship that towered over me was no ordinary ship; it was the huge British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes. The HMS Hermes was coming back from the Falklands war and had turned sharply around a corner to enter the deep channel of the harbor, only to find me in my little dingy in the middle of the channel, with windless sails slapping as the boat rolled from side to side.

Back on the cargo ship, the chief officer had been watching the event play out. He was an avid photographer and was observing me through the telescopic lens of his camera as the HMS Hermes succeeded in evasive action. The wind picked up shortly afterwards, and I made my way back to the cargo ship, paid a high- speed timely visit to the bathroom, and reflected on my close call with death.

The chief officer Brian was in tears of laughter. He told me that this was the funniest thing he had ever seen. I joined in the laughter, took the mocking from my fellow ship mates in my stride, and this became one of many unusual stories that were to color my life while traveling to over 75 countries.

The lesson I would like to share with you from this story is simply that when bad things happen, you can most times use a positive attitude, a sense of humor, and literally celebrate it with laughter. When I was home nearly a year later, I received the attached photo and note from the Chief Officer. It hangs on my bedroom wall in a picture frame, and 28 years later it still makes me chuckle whenever I look at it.

In the following BBC news headline from July 21st, 1982, it mentions that the HMS Hermes came into Portsmouth harbor surrounded by a “small flotilla of boats”. Makes me wonder……..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2515000/2515987.stm

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on finding the humor in life’s challenges. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.

Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Attention Grabbing Presentation Skills – Get Noticed and Promoted –“Presenting To Hostile Audiences”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Article

In May 2005, I was at a review meeting at the corporate office in a conference room. People were taking turns to present technical information to upper management for approval. The person speaking before me was presenting on a very unpopular subject. His presentation dragged on and on, and I could feel the negative energy level rising in the room. I had gone to this meeting feeling relaxed; the information I was presenting would benefit the company and help implement new regulatory safety requirements. I had also brought along the two page procedure which described the process for implementation. It was short and to the point. The concept I was presenting was logical and was already being implemented informally at the company’s chemical plants. I felt it would only take a short time to get the nod of approval. That was the plan…the result was very different.

I stood up and gave a short outline of my proposal and its benefits to the organization. At the same time, one of the executives who were visibly infuriated by the previous speaker quickly scanned through my procedure. He then aggressively flung it on the table and declared, “This is rubbish“. He then picked it up from the table and threw it down again, repeating, “This is rubbish“. The room with 20 of my peers and numerous executives went deadly silent. My boss and I looked at each other, and I immediately stated that I would address the concerns outside the meeting. Ah yes, another fine day at the corporate office. I went back to my office after the meeting; I was furious and humiliated. The vice president of my department came to my office a few minutes after the meeting and sat down to talk to me. I think he was trying to understand if I was angry enough to quit. I was very close. Less than a month after the disastrous meeting, my safety procedure was approved as written, and a few months after that at the company Christmas party, the executive came up to me and stated, “I have been told that an apology would be in order“. Somehow this did not make me feel much better.

This story leads into this week’s article on using persuasion techniques to help gain consensus on the concept you are presenting.

10 Success strategies for persuading potentially hostile audiences
1. If people suspect that they are being “tricked” or “coerced”, you could break the bridge of trust and set yourself up for failure for future presentations.
2. When your presentation has been developed, consider reviewing it with your peers to make sure the content is fine tuned to your audience and their level of understanding.
3. If differences in opinion or conflict are a possibility, you can open with remarks such as, “I realize that many of you today may have issues with what I am presenting. It is important for me to tell you that I have spent a lot of time trying to see this issue from your viewpoint. We may not agree on everything, but we do have common goals. How we can get to the common goals is what my presentation is about today“. This can help the potentially hostile audience understand that this is not a one-sided viewpoint. It sets the scene for a decision making partnership.
4. It can be very beneficial to identify common ground at the beginning of a presentation. This sets the stage for possible agreement. On the contrary, if you were to start off on an unpopular topic that immediately hits a nerve; you run the risk of emotional conflict that can remain throughout your presentation.
5. Use respected sources of information wherever possible to build credibility.
6. Identify any “fuzzy logic” in your presentation such as statistics that are hard to nail down. This can help the audience trust that the information you are bringing to the table is not lop-sided. You might say, “One of my challenges in putting together this presentation was to give you specific, hard facts to help you make good decisions; however, I must be honest and tell you that some of the examples are based on limited data, but I still feel they are relevant“.
7. Provide supporting information in your presentation to demonstrate that other successful people in industry or in the community (that the audience can relate to) are either in agreement of the concept you are presenting or are practicing it. This will help deflect the perception that what you are presenting is radical or nonsensical.
8. Arrive early to the meeting and take time to have conversations with as many audience members as possible. Use humor where possible to diffuse tension. Try to remember people’s names as it can be beneficial to be conversational with them during the presentation using their names. An example would be, “John, I have heard you talk about this and I respect your views. Similar views are shared by Steve and Michael, and I feel that we can all reach a reasonable conclusion with some minor changes”.
9. Build your credibility wherever possible, let the audience know how much experience you have with a subject, dress like a professional, and have the posture and speaking skills that will help build your credibility.
10. When conflict is potentially going to cause emotional barriers for progress, it can be very beneficial to build allies. If possible, meet with some audience members one-on-one ahead of time to explore the potential resistance, and to make your case in a non-explosive/emotional forum. If someone in the audience helps support your concept, this can be a huge benefit to gaining consensus as a group.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on presenting to potentially hostile audiences. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Energized Employees Power Your Profits – “How I Smuggled 2000 lbs of Contraband Past the Canadian Customs Officer”

In July, 1994, I was living in London, Ontario, in Canada with my wife. We did not have any kids at that time, and were able to do things like woodworking classes. The other woodworking students had all decided to do small projects such as spice racks, small wooden boxes, and coffee mug racks. We, on the other hand, had other ideas. We would turn up with what seemed like half the Amazon rainforest strapped to our car as we had decided to make a full-size workbench with 10 drawers, 2 cabinets, and included dove-tail type joint connections. We were so into woodwork that I even gave my wife a portable table-saw as a wedding anniversary gift. Here was my engineer logic, “She loves woodwork, it’s our anniversary, and it will make her happy”. About 20 years later, I feel she is nearly ready to forgive me!

Sometime after that, we had a phone call from Buffalo, New York, USA. The person calling was an old Jewish friend of the family whose husband had died recently. She was offering us his 100+ years old woodworkers’ workbench, a huge solid piece of oak that was in great condition. Even all the parts of the vice were made of oak and perfectly preserved. We told her we would arrive at her house on the weekend and bring it back to our house in Canada to provide additional working areas for our numerous projects.

We arrived at her house and she was in a grumpy mood. She was still bitter over the fact that in her husbands will, he had requested that he be buried with his first wife back in Israel. She angrily stated, “He’s dead, I’m the boss now, he’s buried here in Buffalo and I will be beside him for eternity when I go!” Following that outburst, we went to the garage to view the workbench; it was a piece of woodworking art. It was beautifully constructed, and had all the signs of being built and used by a professional woodworker. The workbench seemed to weigh a ton; we struggled to inch it bit by bit out of the garage, over to my old Ford Tempo. We slowly turned the workbench upside down, and gently removed two legs by removing wooden dowels and tapping the joints. We managed to insert about 1/4 of it into the trunk of the car. There was still about 10 feet of it sticking out from the rear of the car, so we had a complicated rope system stretching all the way to the front bumper to keep it in place.

We said our good-byes and the minute I took my foot off the clutch, the car’s front started to rise. I had to “work the clutch” to get the car moving and simultaneously keep the front wheels on the road. Driving very slowly, we arrived at the tiny Canadian Customs Booth at the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls as the sun was going down. It was a miserable, drizzling day, and I was tired. The customs officer slid his booth window to the side and asked me, “Anything to declare?” I answered, “No,” and he immediately waved me on. As I took my foot off the clutch carefully to move the car forward without doing a “wheelie”, I noticed my wife glaring at me and rolling her eyes. We got away from the bridge and she shouted at me, “Nothing to declare…what about the workbench, Einstein?” I drove on thinking to myself, “I need to get better focus”. So what about that customs officer? He is paid to look for people smuggling things into the country and the 10 feet of “contraband” workbench sticking out of the car was not exactly “hidden”! I imagine it was just another tough day at the office for him!

This week’s article focuses on energized employees. Are your employees fully engaged in their work tasks or are they just doing the minimum? Is there a lot of activity rather than actual achievement? Does your workplace have a culture of candor where people are focused, participating, and speaking up at meetings, or are they non-active participants unless they are asked a question? If your employees are not fully engaged, this can have a huge negative impact on your bottom line. Another erosion of profits can be the extra burden that is imposed on workers when others are not towing-the-line. To put this in perspective, a friend who was going to retire in a year or two is handing in her notice today. She told me that her coworker is not doing as much as he could, and she is worn out having to do extra work. This sudden resignation is going to hurt the company in many ways. There will now be an extra burden on everyone else. Elevated stress levels can impact loyalty, and a destructive cycle of resignations can easily evolve.

Top 10 things companies can do to keep employees empowered and engaged:
• Create a culture of respect and trust
• Empower employees to come up with solutions rather than just problems, give them ownership
• Know the employees and treat them as human beings rather than just workers
• Conduct honest performance reviews and implement a measured corrective action plan to encourage employees to improve engagement and achievement
• Implement programs that will build camaraderie and team spirit amongst employees
• Establish a recognition and reward program that will encourage employees to put in the extra effort
• Regular communications to employees
• Develop a forum where employees are empowered to provide ideas. Allow them to give feedback on tasks that are of questionable value, that are robbing them of time
• Make sure that personal and professional development opportunities are available including multi-functional cross-learning
• Look for ways to bring fun and energy into the workplace

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on empowering and energizing employees. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Energized Employees Power Your Profits – “I Held the Hand of the Young Woman and Comforted Her…As She Died”

Dave Hill - Article On Energized Employees

Do you ever stop to think about the exceptional people who are in your circle of friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and workmates? Who are the people who inspire, motivate, and help move you forward in your life? This article is to recognize a few people and to highlight the importance of having exceptional human beings surrounding you.

It was an early Saturday morning in May, 2004. I was at the sideline cheering on my son who was playing soccer. One of the other parents, a policeman called Joel, arrived very late with his son, and I saw that he looked stressed. I asked him what was up. Joel said that he had been rushing all morning and was a few miles from the soccer pitch when he saw a bad car wreck on the side of the road. The emergency vehicles were already there, lights flashing and cordoning off the crash area. Joel saw that a car and a cement truck had been in collision. He was off duty and rushing to get his son to the soccer game on time, but his instinct told him he should stop and see if he could help out. His voice was stressed and emotional when he said, “Dave, I am so glad I stopped. I was able to hold the hand of the young woman in the car, and comfort her… as she died.” Even though I have not seen him in years, I will never forget him and his kindness.

Fast forward to this Christmas and my elderly, jolly neighbor Jerry is at our house having dinner. He is one of those exceptional people who are “wired” to help others. To give you some recent examples, he noticed our house gutter drain pipe had blown down and he “took care of it”. I had a dead tree in my front garden, and he cut it down for me and even removed all the limbs and branches to the local recycling depot. When he clears leaves in the fall, he usually clears leaves from numerous houses on each side of his own without prompt. When my wife came back to the house one day, and found the back door open while I was on a business trip, our good neighbor checked the house room by room for any possible lurking thieves. When he visited his daughter before Christmas, he drove to Ohio from Dallas loaded up with tools to help renovate her house.
While at our table, he said something that impacted me. He told us that he had been at the Lowe’s hardware store that day and was wearing his baseball cap that had a small worn US Army emblem. A stranger stopped him and asked, “Did you serve in the forces?” My neighbor answered, “Yes,” and the stranger handed him a gift card for $25, and said, “I would like to give you this as a small token to thank you for serving your country.” The stranger then walked away. My neighbor stated, “You know, I served two terms in Vietnam over 40 years ago, and that stranger was the first person to ever thank me.” What a terrific act of kindness.

In my own world, I think about people who have been “guiding lights” and forces to help encourage me and help me succeed in life. People who have the positive spirit and can see their way through any turmoil. People who have spirit and can find happiness and positive energy wherever they go. Mentors, who have pushed, challenged, and encouraged me, many times making me take uncomfortable steps to force me to stretch my capability. Strangers who have interacted with me and help me see the good in the world.

Having worked for nearly 30 years, I understand the importance of companies hiring not only experts, leaders, and exceptional communicators, but good human beings who are trustworthy and who will instill an aura of positive energy that will motivate others.

Albert Einstein wrote:
“The ideas that have lighted my way and, time after time, have given me new courage to face life cheerfully have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth”.

Some Traits of Exceptional Employees:
1. Inherent positive attitude
2. Impeccable ethics and can be trusted
3. Open door policy where direct reports can discuss problems
4. Invites feedback and encourages people to speak with candor
5. Strong, healthy sense of humor
6. Exceptional communicators trained in skills such as negotiation, listening, and conflict management
7. Makes friends at work
8. Values work-home balance
9. Treats fellow 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

If you have any advice, thoughts, or comments on exceptional people who have had an impact on your life, please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.

Thanks,

Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Attention Grabbing Training Skills – When Things Go Wrong – “Emotional Conflict and Violent Agreement”

Dave Hill - Article on Organizing Training

In a high speed “do more with even less” workplace environment, disaster sometimes rears its ugly head.

Imagine you’re in a highly technical training class with subject matter that would bring strong emotional viewpoints to the table. There is no doubt that there will be conflict and heated arguments.

This article covers a not-so-perfect training session being conducted by a contract company that specialized in the technical subject. As someone who also provides training on technical subjects and training technical people how to present information effectively, there are some lessons we can all learn from this.

How could a technical training session being conducted by a highly qualified company come unraveled at the edges and set us (the customers) up for potential failure?

The training class was being organized by our group at the corporate office to train and educate technical workers on a radical change in the way they would normally do things. My boss and I had attended this training class a year previously when it was conducted by the owner of the company, someone who was highly respected in industry. The training had been of a very high quality.

A few days before the recent training session, we were informed that the owner would not be conducting the training; it would be an employee that we were not familiar with. It surprised and concerned us that the owner would only be attending the training session in a support role. When we talked to the alternate instructor by phone before the training session, we started to have concerns.

Fifteen minutes into the training, a trainee in the seat to my right, nudged me to get my attention, and whispered sarcastically, “Is this his first time doing training?” Not a good sign!

What went wrong during this training?
1. The trainer appeared nervous and inexperienced.
2. He did not provide a very clear up-front description of the concepts that would be covered, and how all the different parts would fit together to help our company move forward with the significant change. He should have provided a detailed example to help portray how the technical information was to be actually applied.
3. He appeared to be unfamiliar with the material on the slides, his awkward long pauses between sentences gave the indication that he was frantically thinking about what to say next. He was also spending a lot of his time reading the words from the slides using his laser light to annoyingly “bounce” from word to word. He would fly past information when it was clear that attendees needed clarification on specific points.
4. Occasionally his boss, the owner of the contract company, would interrupt him and tell him he was wrong, and correct him.
5. The owner of the contract company was taking notes (as the employee was delivering the training) and developing new slides on a laptop (it appeared that our training session was also being used to help develop better training materials).
6. At times, there were emotional disagreements between the class attendees and the owner of the company that made for awkward moments.
7. I give the instructor some credit for trying to use humor in his training, but he was off-target. The trainees were already grumbling about blatant sales pitches being included in the training material (the contract company also provides services to help mitigate identified hazards). He would make comments such as, “I will not go into this in too much detail because my company does not provide this service – ha, ha, ha”. With groans from the trainees, his boss, the owner of the company scowled, cringed, and politely told him to stop using humor.
8. The instructor had not taken the time to customize his presentation so that the calculation tools and methodology and spreadsheets would mirror those that our company uses. These differences made an already complicated subject even more confusing.
9. During breaks, there were trainee conversations that gave a clear indication of frustration.
10. The emotions were very high during the training. There were even times where people were even portraying “violent agreement” (emotionally charged arguments where everyone was actually in agreement!).
11. Side conversations were not controlled by the instructor, and were disrupting to the training session.
12. The trainees filled in the training evaluation sheets, and it was indicated that they rated it “fair to poor”.

What Were The Results?
1. The contract company, and particularly the instructor, lost a lot of credibility (I would be hesitant to recommend this instructor to anyone).
2. My boss and I lost a lot of credibility as we had organized the training session.
3. The new program we were trying to “sell” to the trainees was off to a very rough start. We knew that they would be grumbling to upper management and hurdles for progress would potentially appear.

What Could We Have Done To Make Sure The Training Was Successful?
1. We should have spent a lot more time preparing for the training session:
• We had assumed that we would get the owner of the contract company doing the training; we should have confirmed this.
• We should have spent time with the instructor customizing the training using our company-specific spreadsheet tools, terminology, etc.
• We should have made sure that there was a very clear picture of the training structure up-front. This would have helped the trainees understand how all the different parts fit together

What are some of the other things I learned during this three day training?
1. Before the training session, we had prepared numerous “actual” technical examples for the trainees to work through, and for the trainer to facilitate. These were scheduled for day three. The trainer and his boss suggested that we split the class up into five groups, get them to solve the problems, and present the results to the rest of the class one by one. They indicated that this would be more effective and more controlled, given the emotionally charged atmosphere. This was great advice and worked exceptionally well.

I would appreciate any comments, tips, or personal stories on training sessions. Please use the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com. Let’s help each other succeed.
Thanks,
Dave Hill

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (Bio, Keynotes, Workshops, etc.)
http://www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2010 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.