Tag Archives: Inspiration

03-Planning the work of a team, 04-Managing a project team

Making a change

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If I’m being honest – I PROSCRASTINATE!  Thus why I’m just now posting my first blog deliverable.  I’ve somewhat “successfully”  functioned this way for as long as I can remember, but I know that I can do better and I’m trying to rectify my situation.   I realize that my condition adds stress to all the people’s lives who count on me daily to accomplish their tasks and I want to change, but I haven’t – until maybe recently.

A combination of a few recent events in my life have hopefully helped me turn the corner for the better.  First, I need to apologize for my last thirty plus years of waiting till the last moment to start studying for tests (sorry Mom and professors), turning in work projects at the last moment just in time to meet deadlines (sorry boss), and even hitting the snooze button a few too many times each morning (sorry wife!).

A few months ago my wife and I found out that we are expecting our first child, a son, and it thrills us both!  Since then I have often thought about what kind of person he will become and what will he learn from me as he grows up.  I want him to be a polite, motivated, and caring individual who works hard, has great friends, and is able to experience all of the wonderful things our world has to offer.  I also don’t want him to pick up on any of my bad habits and so I am realizing I need to make a change, quickly because he is due in September.

During this time of reflection my sister forwarded me an email with a speech given as the commencement address to the University of Texas graduates by Naval Admiral William McRaven.  You may have already seen or read this speech, but in his address Adm. McRaven speaks about how changing the world is possible and ten lessons that he learned during his distinguished career in the military.  http://www.utexas.edu/news/2014/05/16/admiral-mcraven-commencement-speech/  His first lesson about accomplishing the simple task of making your bed each morning took me back to my days spent in the military.  I realized that waking up with a sense of purpose reminds me every morning to stay focused on my tasks and not to waste time on Facebook, playing solitare, or checking ESPN for random sports stories.  This initial task, at least for the last two weeks, has started my day off right and allowed me to positively tackle the oncoming challenges each day.

We also were assigned the reading “The Brand Called You” in BUS634P. The Brand Called You  This reading reminded me of the importance of how every action that I take impacts the impression that I leave with customers, colleagues, classmates, family, and espically my soon to be child.

I am working to change my current brand and stop proscrastinating for my son most importantly, but I also believe that if I am successful in doing so the benefits will improve my relationships both personally and professionally.  From a work perspective, I anticipate advancing in my career and leading a team of sales people.  My desired brand of punctuality, on time results, and dependability needs to be in place before I can effectively expect to manage others.  While I fail some days, I am striving to change my habits and am making progress.

I don’t know if you have experienced the same doubts or concerns, but if so how did you change your patterns, lessen your daily distractions, and become someone who accomplishes everything on their daily checklist?  Thanks for any help you can provide – from me and my soon to be son!

 

01-Structuring a problem, 06-Building a case, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, evaluating evidence, stress-testing recommendations

“Born to Run”

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If you’re like me, you enjoy getting book recommendations, preferably non-fiction about real people, doing real things, in real places.  “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall is just that and also has several parallels to MP concepts that we can learn from.  It begins with a simple subject of running and it’s impact on injuries and transforms into a fascinating story of McDougall’s search for truth and ultimately lead’s to his conclusion that running long distances barefoot is the key to health, happiness, and longevity.  From utlra-marathons to Mexican cartels, this book has a little bit of everything and is highly entertaining.

The MP concepts are evident throughout the book as McDougall starts with a simple problem, gathers information, build’s a case for his hypothesis, and then delivers it in a fun and entertaining story.  Here’s a link to an overview of the book from McDougall’s website if you’re interested in learning more about it:

 

http://www.chrismcdougall.com/book.html

 

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, storyline structure

Deconstructing a Ted Talk

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Happy early 4th of July! Before I head out to the pool to enjoy this long weekend, I thought I would leave everyone with a few tangible tips on how to make a presentation great.

Everyone is familiar with Ted Talks, and for good reason—they contain powerful ideas that often change people’s attitudes, lives, and the world. I happened to find an article that deconstructs one of the most viewed Ted Talks of all time: “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” I do encourage watching it when you get a chance, as it contains some intriguing and useful ideas. Whether you get to watch it or not, here are some takeaways that can be applied to future presentations.  Click Here for the Ted Talk and full deconstruction of the speech.

1. Get your audience in the proper mindset right away. Simon did this by getting the listeners “to question,” but you can be creative here with stories or astonishing facts.

2. Have an inflection point, and be sure to emphasize it.

3. Make your speech tangible by bringing in examples or research to support your ideas (duh!), but do not spend too much time or get into the nitty-gritty details. Otherwise, you risk losing your listeners.

4. Build suspense into your story. More direct eye contact helps you achieve this effect.

5. Consider using parallel structure. Think JFK’s famous line: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” As for Simon, “We follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.” Very impactful!

6. Pause for impact, but you need to be strategic with quantity and placement; keep them to a minimum and spaced out.

7. The most viewed Ted Talks do not use PowerPoint slides, so do you really need to?

8. This one is my favorite: fascination cannot be faked. Hopefully you have the privilege of being fascinated with what you present because this allows you to connect with your audience. And if you are not fascinated…well, good luck?!

I would like to add “smile” to the list as my own. When I was an intern, that was one of the most important pieces of advice that I received regarding public speaking: “Don’t forget to smile while presenting.” I was a little surprised with this advice since I thought it could take away from the seriousness of a formal presentation, but the more top-notch presentations I see, the more I notice the smiles throughout the speeches. This goes together with tip #8, but I thought it needed to be called out specifically. Hopefully I smiled during the Delta presentation…

Lastly, I came across an article titled, “How to Give a Killer Presentation,” which appeared in the Harvard Business Review last summer (you can get the full article through the Emory library system; click here for a portion of the article). It was inspired by the Ted Talk given by Richard Turere, which this one YOU MUST WATCH (Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with lions)! Richard was an unlikely candidate to give a Ted Talk: terribly shy, spoke poor English, and had difficulty producing coherent sentences. But, his idea was so inspirational that the folks at Ted worked with him to frame his story and give a powerful speech. Boy, did he nail it!

The lesson here is that you do not need to be the best speaker to be engaging and inspiring. There are tools and tips you can follow to improve presentations (i.e. the list from above, this HBR article, all the other posts on this blog…), and if you let your pure passion and unique personality shine through honestly, people will hear you. And how about Richard’s smile? My heart melted.