I’ve been presenting in front of audiences, small and large, for 25 years. And although I enjoy it, it’s not unusual for my breath to shorten and my palms to get sweaty, in those few minutes before stepping on stage or in front of a room full of people. I realize that for some, public speaking is much more stressful. For others, it may be paralyzing.

For those of you who either choose to present, or are in professional roles that call for public speaking, using your imagination may help.

In the days prior to your presentation, try visualizing regularly, a perfect presentation and audience response.

Imagine that you’re completely relaxed, in control and feeling great. Visualize right down to the details of what you’ll be wearing (which should be something you feel great in).

At first, simply visualize yourself comfortably calm, and imagine your audience approaching you afterwards to thank you for a great presentation.

While you’re visualizing, make an effort to relax your hands and fingers. You’ll be amazed at how this small action will help your entire body relax. (If you find yourself tensing during your presentation, consciously relax your hands and fingers. It may help you mentally tap into the relaxed state of mind you experienced during your visualization.)

In addition to conditioning your mental state, be sure to be well prepared. Once you’ve memorized the flow of your presentation, you can incorporate the overall flow of the presentation into your visualization.

So before your next presentation, give it a try—sit back, close your eyes, relax, and imagine the best.

Finding yourself frustrated with an employee, co-worker, or manager?

Perhaps an employee has gone over your head to communicate a concern, without addressing you directly. Or maybe a co-worker isn’t contributing fairly to a team project, and the extra work is falling directly on you.

If you decide to address a concern directly with an employee, co-worker, or manager, and your aim is to generate positive change, stick to the impact their behavior may have on business (i.e., meeting organizational standards, productivity, working effectively as a team, efficiencies). Avoid discussing the impact it may have on your personal stress, workload, or status.

Focusing on how the issue impacts you personally, weakens your position as a team member, and/or a leader.

If you find yourself struggling to find the business case behind your concerns, you may want to re-evaluate whether it’s worth addressing.

In order to maximize results, any issue or problem you bring to the table at work should come with a clear recommendation, and that recommendation should have a strong business case behind it, including your specific plan and willingness to personally contribute to the solution.

One of my colleagues and I were having a conversation recently about how often leaders may not individually possess the skills and abilities that are crucial to successfully lead an organization. We agreed that the strongest leaders are those who know where they excel, and where they need help—and aren’t afraid to ask for needed support.

It’s not important that an individual leader possess every skill, or have every level of experience necessary to successfully lead or manage an organization. It is, however, crucial that a leader is comfortable identifying, orchestrating, facilitating and managing talent. And he or she must be OK with not being the sole expert.

Acknowledging where you might appreciate support from your staff or colleagues demonstrates a strength, not a weakness. If one of your staff members is awesome when it comes to organizing large amounts of data, and you find it daunting, engage him or her to help. If you’re stumped as to a sensible change strategy, engage a few key players to offer specific recommendations. Then use the ideas as a springboard for your own planning process.

As a leader, you may be bound to considering the input of others, however you’re not bound to using each and every idea. Be sure to set clear expectations and position your outreach as gathering data or exploring a strategy that will help you make a prompt and effective decision.

So the next time you feel stumped or you’re experiencing a block of some kind, remember that your ability to ask for help may have an extraordinary impact on your organization’s success.

I posted a blog entry at holiday time in 2007 and re-posted it here. Because some things never change. Warm wishes for a wonderful holiday to you and yours. Looking forward to posting in 2010!

Originally posted: 12/12/07

Interesting how a good portion of corporate America follows a lack of productivity curve during the holiday season. You’d think that the end of the Fourth Quarter would bring some frantic productivity towards reaching the year’s stated goals. And of course it does for a few. Most though—based on my observations and experience—follow the trend of multiple social gatherings with fellow co-workers, an increase in cube visits and small talk, early departure for celebrations and/or holiday shopping, and the overabundance of unhealthy food served on desktops in cubes across America.

Perhaps part of our lack of productivity is caused by these distractions, or by the sheer exhaustion from increased personal obligations and preparations above and beyond our workloads. Whatever the reasons, I mention it here in the hopes we won’t beat ourselves up too much. —Because we’re not alone.
Above all, here’s to an accepting and grateful mindset during the season. Enjoy and happy holidays to you and yours.

Studies—and our experience—tell us that during organizational change, employees may spend as much time gossiping and speculating, and trying to figure out what to do, and how to do their jobs, as they do productively working. The question isn’t how to eliminate a drop in productivity during significant change, because we’re not capable of eliminating it. In fact, we should expect and plan for it. The question is how can we minimize the drop in morale and productivity so that we minimize the risk to our employees’ and our organization’s success.

Although leading organizational change calls for numerous leadership skills, strategies and approaches, a strong plan is crucial to leading change effectively. The answers to these questions will serve as a great start to your planning process:

- How will you anticipate the change and plan for its impact on productivity?
- How will you carefully create a plan for, and strategize, the change?
- How will you communicate the plan to your employees?
- How will you engage employees in the change initiative?
- How and what resources, coaching, and support, will you provide your management team and employees to help them lead themselves and others through the change?
- How are you planning to communicate—and receive feedback—throughout the change?
- How will you evaluate your own leadership effectiveness throughout the change?
- What follow through and maintenance strategies will the organization need once the change has occurred?

A strong leader’s change strategy will be based on the understanding that a clear plan is the first priority, and the success of the plan is dependent upon the engagement and successes of individual employees and teams.

Both locally and globally, organizations are currently being called upon to compete and survive during economic uncertainty and risk. Organizations are launching multiple new “raising the bar” initiatives to upgrade products and services—all designed to differentiate a company’s or agency’s ability to compete and survive now, in order to thrive in the future.

But here’s the rub. Employees only have a finite amount of energy and strategies that they can offer their organizations, above the day-to-day demands of their jobs. It’s not uncommon to see stress levels high, and morale low, due to additional job responsibilities put upon employees who have survived a downsizing. For leaders, the ability to effectively activate accountability and sustainability around multiple initiatives becomes a challenge as—like their employees—they find themselves stretched to the limit.

So if you’re a leader, my recommendation is to consider the feasibility of slowing down just long enough to assess the number and complexity of the new “raising the bar” initiatives in progress in your organization. More importantly, assess the progress to date on each initiative. If you find that one or more of the assigned projects are significantly lagging, you may want to establish a top priority and offer the vision, the plan, and incentive to succeed at one initiative at a time.

When feasible, realigning your organization’s goals based on realistic timeframes and a regard for your employees’ bandwidth will create a more motivating and engaging environment. Motivated and engaged employees are what’s really going to help an organization survive now and thrive in the future.

When someone asks you for clarity about a new initiative, your level of confidence is projected through your credibility, physical posture, preparedness to respond succinctly to inquiries, and ability to reassure, rather than convince.

Let’s say you’re a leader preparing for an initial presentation relating to organizational changes or new initiatives, which will include a Q&A session. If you’re not completely confident, or you’re not yet ready to share details, then ask yourself these questions as you prepare for the presentation: What are you confident about? Are you confident that regardless of what the final solution may be, you absolutely trust your team to recommend the solution that will best impact your employees and the business? Are you confident that you’ll be holding meetings over the next couple of weeks to keep yourself well-informed of the status of the initiative? Can you guarantee that you’ll keep people well-informed as you solidify strategies moving forward?

Whether you have every “i” dotted, or you’re still in the midst of creating strategies, be sure, when asked, that you’re prepared to genuinely reassure—versus convince—others of pending successes.

We live in the city, and when we take a quiet walk at night, the glimpse of flickering lights and movement in each house window profoundly reminds me of the simultaneous realities taking place only 50 feet apart from one another.

I see this as a metaphor for how simultaneous realities may also reside among the people we meet or associate with at work.

When experiencing frustrations, conflict, or a lack of clear communications, we often make assumptions and judge others based on how we see the situation within our own reality.

Reaching out to others for clarification, and probing to understand someone else’s reality, can be very powerful in breaking down barriers, building relationships, and minimizing conflict at work.

If we continue to remind ourselves that our reality or world-view may not be that of our neighbors or our co-workers, perhaps we’ll continue to see the benefit of sharing ours and learning more about theirs.

Whether you’re an executive, a manager, or an individual contributor—if you want to increase your odds for gaining support and/or approval towards a change strategy, be sure that your recommendation is presented as a full-blown solution versus a complaint.

Problem-centered complainers bring a problem to the table, and offer verbal criticism about what isn’t getting done, or “should” be done. They seldom generate results while the problem remains a problem.

Effective professionals prepare and document a recommended plan of action, and include a role for themselves as part of their proposed solution. This approach generates respect and maximizes a person’s or team’s ability to be heard, and impact change.

You’re probably well aware of the amount of time and effort it will take to prepare and propose a full-blown solution to an existing problem or issue that you know needs attention. You may have a choice as to whether you get involved in the process. Or, it may be a requirement of your role. Either way, are you ready to take on the challenge of truly making a difference?

In my opinion and experience, consistent superb performance or consistent poor performance from an individual employee or a team—over time—serves as a mirror to our performance as leaders.

Although high performers tend to excel regardless of their environment, an effective leader can have a significant affect on creating a motivating environment where individuals or teams choose to thrive over time. Remembering to offer a consistent level of attention and resources to your top contributors, as well as those who may be struggling, is essential.

The first steps towards leadership effectiveness when performance has been consistently poor, is taking responsibility, briefly acknowledging it with the individual and/or the team, moving forward to set and maintain clear expectations (standards) for performance, and providing the tools, resources, and coaching that every employee deserves. Then follow through with the appropriate kudos for their successes, or consequences for their lack of performance.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it!