6-9-10 Shoulda Told Me #11

Practice makes perfect. Hmmm, I guess maybe that someone DID tell me. I can distinctly remember my mom telling me (relative to music) that practice makes perfect.

Unfortunately, just because Mom said so, didn’t necessarily mean that I easily translated that to my professional life. Duh.

In the past, I’ve talked about the communication skills that I defined in my model for executive skills and traits (1-4-10 Let’s Talk). And I’ve also talked about preparation, knowing/reading your audience, and how to seal the deal (3-12-10 Yea, There’s a Presentation for That). But today, I’m even more focused.

I still remember giving my very first presentation. No, I don’t remember the topic, but I do remember my physical reaction to the actual “giving of the presentation”. Frankly, it was horrible. Before I started and during the entire pitch, I had an awful case of the butterflies. I’m pretty sure that when I got up in the front of the room and looked out at the audience, all they saw was a terrified young woman with a bona fide deer-in-the-headlights look going on. My mouth was so dry you could’ve spun cotton in there. And my hands shook as I put up the first view foil. (For those of you under 40, we didn’t have Powerpoint back then. We had someone type up our presentation and then copy it to transparencies which were then shown on the screen. Heck, I’m guessing they don’t even make the transparencies or the display machines anymore!). And answering questions was excruciating as my brain seemed to have taken a vacation to less stressful climes.

That had to be the longest half hour of my life. But somehow I muddled through.
And I swore that it would never happen again.

So I did my research. I identified a couple of people that I thought were very good at giving presentations. And then I took the time to meet with them and ask a lot of questions.

The very best advice I got? Practice. If you want something bad enough, its worth some practice. And I decided that I wanted to be GOOD at giving presentations or talking in front of groups of people.

I finally realized that it really wasn’t so dumb to stand in front of the mirror and give my presentation to myself. Or it wasn’t so dumb to give the presentation in my car on the way to work. Or it wasn’t so dumb to ask a trusted colleague to listen to a dry run. All of these….. Over and over.

Did it help? Well, yes. I like to think that I ended up being pretty good at delivering pitches. At least others told me so. I will tell you that I never eliminated the butterflies (and that’s okay, because I felt that kept me on my toes). But I was able to minimize the nervous reactions during the pitch and I was able to rein my brain in so that it stayed in place during those q & a sessions.

So, I sure wish someone had told me sooner that practice makes perfect at work too!

Cheers!

6-7-10 Pomp and Circumstance

In the past, I’ve talked quite a bit about the need for the new executive to have outstanding communication skills. In fact, the Executive Skills and Traits Model has an entire section devoted to communication (12-30-09 Morphing to a Model and 1-4-10 Let's Talk ). If you are like me, you intuitively know how important those skills related to communication are. However, for me, reading some model or some dry explanation of a concept doesn’t really bring home the importance of it within the day-to-day business life of the executive.

One of my survey participants gave some feedback that gives an interesting view on the importance of the communication skill set -- a view that I hadn‘t considered in the past. This executive said, “I wish that I had known more about the amount of time required to be spent in ritual and ceremonial activities -- all employee meetings, service milestones, customer program visits, production milestone rollouts, community events, etc. The skill desired is to be able to speak extemporaneously in a variety of settings on a variety of topics in front of large crowds of stakeholders.”

Hmmmmm. Packed into those two simple sentences is an amazing amount of info for the new executive to consider.

First, of course, is the surprise that many executives experience when they realize how much time they will spend in activities that they perceive as having nothing to do with their job. Wrong! You are now a figurehead for your organization and for your company. That means you have to lead those ritual and ceremonial activities. That takes time -- a lot of time. You need to plan for it and you absolutely must make sure that you don’t short-change these activities.

Second, you may not like leading these type of activities, but you better learn to be good at it. For example, it is up to you to make the new product rollout celebration a happy and rewarding time for the employees that have worked so hard to make the new product happen. This is your chance to publicly say thank you to all those that have given so much of themselves.

Third, there are the large crowds that are usually associated with ceremonial activities. Ack! I know that there are some folks that truly enjoy speaking to large crowds of people. Not me, personally, of course. I was like most executives -- butterflies, dry mouth, etc. But I learned to do it. I had to. And as a new executive, so do you.

And finally, there is the whole idea of balancing planned comments vs. extemporaneous comments. When you lead one of the ceremonial events, you don’t want to stand up there and woodenly read a prepared speech. And on the other hand, you also don’t want to get up there and speak off-the-cuff. Why? Because, unless you are very good or very experienced at off-the-cuff speaking, you WILL screw it up. Trust me on this -- I’ve seen it happen many times.

So take the time, work with your support team, and script the event. Think about what makes the day special for everyone in attendance. Ponder who should be called out for special recognition. Determine the special effects needed to make the point. Write a speech. Read it aloud. Often. In other words, prepare! And then on the day of the event, you will be ready. Put the speech in your pocket and then tell people how special they are. If you have practiced, you have the words in your mind --- you don’t need to read them off of the sheet of paper. Yes, you will still have butterflies and yes, you will probably make a couple of mistakes. But that’s okay -- those butterflies and those unk-unks are what keep you sharp and on your toes.

Cheers!

Let's Talk

Okay, some more discussion about the various aspects of the Executive Skills/Traits Model…….

As discussed last time, the communication function consists of the following skills: listen, network, and speak.

Listening. Of course, this is an important skill for any business person. But it is vitally important to the success of the new executive. Think of it this way. Most times, the new executive is promoted to an area where he/she has no first-hand knowledge or experience. So unless the new executive actively listens to the experienced people in the organization, the executive is unlikely to find much success. In this context, active listening will be reflected in the decisions and strategic moves that the executive will make during his/her tenure.

Network. There are multiple layers to the network that the new or aspiring executive must have…… with peers, subordinates, customers, suppliers, etc. The fact is, most executives are not the “doers” of the organization. The hands-on work of the organization is actually conducted by others. So the executive must have an extensive network in order to get things done through others. Let’s face it, the business world is a place of what I call “favors”. I do this for you today and then sometime in the future, I can call on you (a member of my network) to do that for me. In reality, the new executive has been building his/her network since the moment he/she walked in the door to a new job --- WAY before becoming an executive or even a manager.

In addition, a network eases decision-making. In most companies, organizational decisions are arrived at by consensus within the executive team. By establishing a network among his/her peers, the executive is more likely to be able to build the necessary support for his/her ideas and initiatives.

Speak. Of course, oral communication skills are important at any level of the organization. And in fact, many times the new executive has been promoted because of (at least in part) his/her speaking skill. In the functions of an executive however, the skill will typically have a much broader range, with communication occurring at many levels both within and outside the organization. To be successful, the new executive must be able to tailor his/her speech content and patterns to the audience. (Don’t you just hate listening to a speaker that is not taking the non-verbal cues that the audience is sending?!) Additionally, as an executive for a company, he/she is more likely to become an external representative for the company. This means contact with the media (a whole other discussion, to be sure) or with non-business related public (think non-profits, politicians, etc.). In such cases, the executive must have the public speaking and interaction skills to successfully represent the organization.

So what? Well, it is unlikely that you were promoted to the executive payroll if you have poor communication skills. But, and this is a big but, how often do you “check” your communication skills? How often do you catch yourself formulating an answer even before the other person quits speaking? If you are doing this, then you are not practicing active listening. Or, how often do you “tend” your networks? They don’t maintain themselves. You must actively work to keep the various channels in your network open. And finally, you probably have a lot of experience using your oral communication skills to give presentations. But have you consciously checked those skills lately? Have you developed some bad habits, like saying “um” or “like” every other word? Or jingling your change in your pocket? Bad habits can creep in.

Let’s face it folks ---- if your communication skills irritate the people around you (bosses, peers, subordinates, etc.), you will not succeed as an executive.