I have seen many people over time speak from the stage and yet lack the essence and stage presence in order to make a powerful speech that will impact people. As a trainer and speaker who has spoken to thousands of individuals, allow me to share certain concepts that will make you a very Desirable and Effective Speaker. Whether you are doing a small presentation or a huge one, the principles are the same.

1. Know the WIIFM

Do you know what is the greatest FM station in the entire world? Its WII FM station. It basically stands for “What’s In It For Me”. Most presenters start by sharing a joke or telling a story, while this is good, it does not usually get the buy-in from the audience right from the beginning. Speakers should try immediately start by addressing why the audience should listen to them (WIIFM). It can come in the form of presenting a problem and making it clear that it is a BIG problem. Once the audience agrees with you and find that they need the solution, they will know that they have to listen to you.

2. Create Empathy by Sight

Most speakers do not maintain enough eye contact with their audience. They speak to audiences, but do not take time to scan the audience when they are talking. Scanning is very important as it helps the audience know that you acknowledge their presence. A simple technique that I teach my participants is to pick three persons in the audience; one on the extreme left of the audience, centre and the extreme right. When you talk, slowly move your head from left to right, pausing for three seconds before you move to the next target person. Look out for the eyes of each person. When a person knows you are looking at him/her, they get attentive and listen closely to what you have to say.

3. Involve Participants In Actions

The more kinestatic you make your audience, they more they will enjoy it! Being kinestatic means that they are able to move their hands or legs, echo back what you have said, sharing what they have learnt with each other or patting each other on the back! These actions are important in creating energy in the room and you should us them throughout your entire program. They keep the energy level high and want to learn more.

4. Be Clear

One of the fastest way to lose an audience is to speak softly. It is important to know that audiences do want you to succeed. So, it is important to loose the inhabitations and articulate every word clearly. Test out how loud your speech is by asking the last person behind if they can hear you and give them permission to signal you if your volume of your voice were to dip.

Follow these principles on the stage or presentations and people will follow you. Start by making a Deep Impact today!

PS: I could be holding a seminar on “Training People to Speak from the Stage and earn Tons of Money Sharing Your knowledge”. Would that interest you? Email me at coach(a)deepimpactonline(dot)com if you are keen.

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I watched this video and felt that the amount of effort in ensuring that everyone dances to the same rhythm and pattern is simply astonishing.This only happens when people keep rehearsing and striving for perfection in their art.

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All companies go through tough times and some go through the pits of hell and back to Earth again. How do you steer your organisation in the right direction even things look bleak?

1. Show them Your Resolve to Make it the Tough Times

In tough times, most people always look at the situation and assume its worst. Morale is usually down and people are even afraid to lose their jobs. Leaders have to constantly share with their followers that there is still a silver lining in the clouds. He has to constantly show them there is a way and in order to weather through the hard times. A leader is constantly optimistic, and yet realistic to the actual situation around him/her.

Consider Winston Churchill when he was fighting against the Nazis in a one-front war.

“We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi Regime. From this, nothing will turn to us. Nothing! We will never parley. We will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land. We shall fight him by sea. We shall fight him in the air. Until, with God’s help, we have rid the earth of his shadow.”

Are you willing to tell your staff, “We will never give up. It might take a long time to get there, but we shall prevail!”

2. Acknowledge the Brutal Facts

In all great companies, the leadership is always willing to acknowledge that they do not know all the answers and there is a harsh reality facing the existence of the organization. They know that even being in leadership, they still need feedback from their staff. Even when the times are turbulent, they will make consistent efforts to look at their profit and loss statements and acknowledge there are problems. They do not hide between the “Oh, aren’t we great?” mentality.

Even Churchill consistently relied on facts and data from the statistical office to provide him with clear facts of reality. Even when the Nazis were winning the war in Europe, he mentioned that “I… had no need for cheering dreams… Facts are better than dreams.”

3. Show them the Law Of Sacrifice

It continues to amaze me to see that whenever there are pay cuts in the companies, most companies cut down-up, meaning lower levels of employees’ salaries are usually cut first before senior management are affected. To get people to respect and follow us, we have to first take the lead.  Senior management are always willing to sacrifice their pay.

I read a story of a company during the hard times, cut the CEO’s pay by 70%, Middle managers by 50% and the workers by 20%. Everyone in the company knew that if anyone was affected, it was always the management first.I’m not advocating that pay must always be cut during tough times, but management always led by example and are willing to sacrifice for their staff.

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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In all teams, whether you have been together in your team for many years or even just a few weeks, I noticed that building teams and relationships are somewhat related to growing Orchids. Here are the principles that will work in any team setting.

1. Developing Trust is like Watering Orchids

Growing Orchids is about consistency. I have to water the plants everyday and should do it regularly since Orchids are basically poor water retainers. A consistent spray of water at the roots is essential in Singapore’s warm weather. In developing relationships, we need to be consistent in the frequency of interaction.

More meaningful interaction means that you learn about your colleagues behaviour and friends, therefore resulting in trust. They do not need to take a lot of your time, but short consistent moments are important.

2. There is a season for flowering

When I first bought the Orchids, it was really beautiful and full of flowers. However, after a short span of 6 weeks, the flowers naturally died and the plant was back to simple green colour. It was after about 8-10 months of consistent watering and adding fertilisers, we could finally see another bloom of flowers. It started it small shoots growing and little buds started to appear. After a short time, flowers started to emerge and my family could just witness and admire the labour of our hands.

In all relationships and teambuilding, it requires a lot of time and energy. I could be doing a lot of work to make the relationship work out and sometimes the other colleagues do not respond as fast as I wished. However, when we keep sowing and cultivating the relationships, people will naturally feel loved and will start to open up to you. This to me is the flowering process.

3. Admiring Orchids helps to relieve stress and enjoy the work of our labour

When we start to see the fruits of our labour, we should always take time to enjoy and reflect on our achievements. Many organisations keep rushing from one project/assignment to another without calling for a short celebration. This helps staff to relax, know that their boss appreciates their work, gain recognition for work and also provide a positive work cycle where teams are encouraged that they are making progress. Work is meaningless if we also do not enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Ready to Cultivate your Team? You can contact me to advise on Teambuilding Activities or Creating a Cohesive and Dynamic Work Culture.

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