Presentations – YOU be YOU

You’re on stage in 15 minutes.  Your slides are bang on, your shoes are shiny, and your hair is perfect.  You could do with an emergency toilet stop but there just isn’t time.  You’ll treat yourself to that once this is all over.  You stand up and share your pearls of wisdom.  You sound disjointed, there’s no flow, your heart is racing, and you really wish you hadn’t put off that toilet stop. You feel like you’re on a treadmill and you can’t get off.  Never mind, only 20 more traumatic minutes to go.

Sound familiar? We work with lots of people who struggle to present with confidence.  This lack of confidence can be stressful and debilitating. 

So, why does our confidence take such a hit?  There’s lots of reasons, but here’s a few of the key ones:

❌ A lack of preparation

❌ Complacency

❌ A lack of self-belief

❌ PTPD (Post traumatic presenting disorder) Being mentally scarred from previous presentations.

These are all legitimate reasons but, in our opinion, nerves are heightened when the presenter tries to be someone they’re not. They aren’t authentic. They aren’t standing up at the front and being their true selves.

They might try and be like Mark, the amazing presenter with gleaming teeth from Marketing, who doesn’t look nervous and appears to be making it up as he goes along.  Everyone admires Mark, even though he’s actually quite annoying.  You think, “I’m going to be like Mark” (even though your teeth aren’t gleaming).  You march around the stage making it up as you go along and of course, you forget your words, your slides, your name, and even what day it is.

What about the funny one?  That’s Zoe from HR who’s hilarious and has her audience laughing all the way through.  You think “I’m going to be like Zoe”.  You aren’t funny, you’re dying on stage. You try to save the day with your best gag, but nothing, not even a giggle.

As a presenter there’s a danger that you’re putting yourself under far too much pressure.  The important thing to remember is that YOU are YOU. 

✅ Don’t try to be someone you’re not

✅ If you’re naturally funny, don’t try to be

✅ If you don’t use big words, don’t use them

✅ If you have an accent, embrace it

We’re not saying don’t be influenced by other presenters, but don’t copy them and never put off that toilet stop!

Leading Change – Are you Agile?

Change is never too far away.  How your teams respond to change will depend on the change culture of your team and your business… A change culture can be divided into 4 categories:

• Chaotic – The perception might be that the business isn’t scared of change, but when implemented, it can appear to be a little chaotic. Businesses also fall into the trap of launching change for no reason, giving off the impression that change is happening for changes sake and this leaves people feeling uneasy and uncertain

• Static –Here, a business is stuck in their ways and probably feel that things are ticking along nicely and as a result they feel they don’t need to change. The business will ultimately pay the price in the long run

• Confined – The feeling here might be frustration. The employees know that change needs to happen, but the business isn’t quite as receptive.  This might be because they are blind to change, or because of a lack of resources.  The business runs the risk of losing good people because of their frustration

• Agile – A business that is change agile is ready for change. The feeling around the business is that change is seen as positive and is a good thing.  Employees are looking for processes and procedures that can be improved.  The leaders are open to ideas and welcome challenge.

Here’s a short video from Mike to explain more about the 4 cultures of change 

The PU View   

We use this model in our ‘Leading Change’ course and it really helps to get the delegates to reflect on where their business is at when it comes to their change culture.  It’s always a mixed bag.  Interestingly, a lot say there is a difference in perception when it comes to how they would describe the culture and how their SLT would describe it, e.g. the SLT would say the culture was agile, but the employees would describe it as chaotic.  This lack of awareness leads to increased resentment and a lack of trust.  In your next team meeting, ask your team how they would describe the culture and why.  Then, work together to identify how you can make your team a little more agile.

Book Recommendation    

A leading guru in the world of leading change is John Kotter.  A book we would recommend by him is ‘Leading Change’.  Not the sexiest of titles but a great book none the less!

Remote Working – Tweak your Management Style

Managing a team face to face can be challenging; throw remote working into the mix and it can become a whole lot more difficult…  

Many managers say some of the main challenges they face with managing remote teams include:

• Keeping tabs on everyone in their team
• The lack of face to face communication
• Too many emails/phone calls
• A lack of trust – Are they doing what they say they’re doing?

These are all valid challenges; however, they can all be overcome.  Here’s a few ideas:

• If your normal management style is a controlling one, change it. If you continue to virtually control your team, they will push back.  You need to encourage autonomy and empowerment during this time and with that, will come mutual trust and respect.
• Where is she now? Stop being paranoid.  Just because Janet hasn’t answered that email, or called you back, doesn’t mean she’s watching ‘Homes Under the Hammer’. Trust people to manage their own workload, at a time that suits them.
• Be more specific about what emails you need to see/don’t need to see, when a phone call would be preferable etc. By setting out a clear communication structure for you and your team members to work to, will help reduce unnecessary e-mail grenades and voicemail tennis!
• Adopt a Growth Mindset – use positive language when speaking with your team. Negativity is contagious.  Before you know it, a normally vibrant Janet is now feeling exactly the same as you and this attitude will do nothing for motivation levels.
• Respect individuals’ feelings towards change – working remotely can be a massive change for some and it can take time to adjust. If anyone appears resistant, use open questioning to find out the root cause.  Only then can you help to tackle the problem together.

The PU View

Ultimately, it’s about you being proactive and leading from the front.  A little tweak of your management style coupled with you demonstrating total trust in your team will go a long way in helping your team to be more self-confident, empowered and productive.  It’s also important to work with your team when making decisions.  Involve them as much as possible.  We guarantee, you will reap the rewards in the long run.

Our Recommendation

Who doesn’t love a good TED Talk?  Here is a selection of the best clips that focus on remote working.

Active Listening – What if you could be at Level 5?

“Are you listening to me?” After a slight pause I respond with a hesitant “Yea, of course I am”. My wife then takes the pin straight out of the hand grenade and hits me with, “What did I just say then?” I try desperately to put the words I think I’ve just heard into a logical sentence that would get me out of jail, but sadly for me, I fail miserably!

One of the main culprits of a communication breakdown is when one, or both parties simply don’t listen properly. You may feel as though you are listening intently, but it’s all about perception.  In my example above, I thought I’d done all the right things – I nodded and I even made random noises to demonstrate I was listening but something told my wife I still wasn’t listening properly.  Maybe it was the fact that I was playing with my phone or watching Sky Sports that proved to be the final nail in my coffin!

Where do you sit on the Listening Ladder?…

5 – Empathetic

4 – Attentive

3 – Selective

2 – Pretend

1 – Ignore

The PU View

If the perception of others is that you are at 3, 2, or 1 then there’s a good chance that communication will break down.  People’s perception of you will be that you are rude, bad mannered and in some cases, even ignorant.  Not great traits to have if you are trying to build solid relationships.

To be at 4 and 5 you need to treat the individual with respect and give them the ‘VIP Active Listening’ treatment –

• Listen intently to what they have to say, picking up on key words/phrases and more subtle clues like their body language, tone and manner.
• Acknowledge responses, ask relevant, open and probing questions.
• Put your phone away! Give them your undivided attention, with full eye contact.
• If needed, go somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed or become preoccupied.
• Use gestures and positive affirmations (-such as nods, appropriate facial expressions etc.) to show you’re giving them your full concentration.

Despite the fact that this isn’t that hard, it’s surprising how many of us still go on ‘auto-pilot’ and assume that it’s okay to just select the bits we want to, or can be bothered listening to.

Book Recommendation

A great book for improving your listening skills is

Active Listening: Improve Your Conversation Skills, Learn Effective Communication  by Joseph Sorenson.  It includes 6 essential guidelines that you can follow to improve your overall communication skills.

Manager to Leader – Making the Leap

“Let it go, let it go…” – I know, sorry, you’ll have that stuck in your head for the rest of the day!

One of the biggest hurdles that new leaders have to get over is letting go of their managerial duties.   As a manager you are in the thick of it and most managers quite enjoy being on the front line.  They enjoy making operational decisions, dealing with employee issues and making sure everything ticks along nicely.

As a leader however, you have to step away from these duties and think more strategically.  It’s tempting to want to jump back in and get your hands dirty but your team won’t thank you for continually holding their hands or micromanaging them.  You have to let the managers manage.  Are you making the leap?  Here are a few tips from us to help with the transition:

• Get a mentor. Someone who has been there.  Someone whose knowledge and experience you can tap into (and whose shoulder you can cry on if you need to!)
• Trust your management team. Delegate to them and empower them.  Build solid relationships based on mutual trust and respect.
• Don’t micromanage your managers – just let them get on with it.
• Get your managers involved in the decision making process. Be open to ideas and really listen to what they have to say.
• Create strong communication channels with your team – be open, transparent and honest.
• Lead by example and model the behaviours you expect to see in others.
• Look at the bigger picture and think carefully about how you can translate it in to ‘every day speak’ for those around you.
• From now on, all eyes are on you so make sure you live and breathe your company vision and values.

Book Recommendation 

One of our favourite books that we would recommend  is Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet.  A fantastic book for all leaders new and old.  It will help you to create a team where everyone displays leadership traits.

Managing Change – Get them on board

Colin was quite impulsive – so much so that on some days he would wear his Wednesday socks on a Thursday. It wasn’t only his socks that bore the brunt of his impulsiveness, Colin was the same at work too, especially when it came to leading change within his team.

Colin’s team were going through lots of change recently – changes in processes, people and procedures. It was never ending.  One evening, over his bedtime Ovaltine, Colin had a great idea.

He legged it into work the next day, bought everyone a frothy coffee and told them about his ground-breaking idea for driving change. He nodded politely at those who expressed concerns, ignored those who were the even slightest bit reluctant and told a few others who had ideas of their own that he would “Look into it pronto”. Which of course he never would.

Colin pressed on with his plans (– and only his plans).  Five weeks later he was found licking his wounds over a lion bar in the canteen. Not surprisingly, Colin’s plans had failed miserably.  He hadn’t listened to his team. He hadn’t got their buy-in for the changes he had imposed; he simply hadn’t got them all on board.

If you’re planning a change, make sure you ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have you got buy-in for the change from your entire team? If not, how can you get everyone engaged and passionate enough to share their ideas and concerns
2. Who in your team are most likely to resist the change? Why? What can you do to help them?
3. Do your team feel uncertain about the change? What can you do to ease their uncertainty?
4. What challenges might you face in attempting to make the change a success? How do you intend to overcome such challenges?
5. Whose help do you need to enlist to ensure that the change is a success? How do you intend to get everyone on board?

The PU View

Employees have a voice.  They want to air their thoughts and opinions. They most probably have some great ideas.  In our opinion, the manager must create a culture where people can speak up.  A culture where they can challenge the status quo without fear.  Only then will employees feel like they have been heard and as a result will most likely buy into change.  Shackling employees only leads to a lack of trust and resentment.  Basically, don’t do a Colin!

Book Recommendation

A really great book for leading change is Switch; How to change things when change is hard, by Chip and Dan Heath.  It’s packed full advice and tips to help you successfully lead your next change project.

Employee Engagement – Are you switching them off or on?

Meet Fred the Foreman. It’s 1980 and Fred’s out of control moustache and curly perm are slowly taking over his whole face. He stands in his brown camel coat with clip board in hand watching as the staff slowly clock in for another riveting day at the jam factory. He watches them as they unenthusiastically put lid after lid on pots of sticky jam. Fred shouts at them if they go too slow or if they are doing it wrong. He never pats them on the back for doing well. The day ends and he watches as they rip off their hair nets and run to the door to clock off again.  Fred comments to his peers that this is the quickest they’ve moved all day.

Fast forward 40+ years and some managers are sadly still managing in this way. The perms have probably made way for a fancy flick, the moustaches may have turned into carefully preened beards and the brown coats have been replaced with business suits, but management styles in some cases haven’t moved on at all. I meet managers all time who micro-manage and display zero trust in their people.  What they fail to realise of course is that there is an undercurrent of disengagement bubbling away.

These types of managers will no doubt sit in their management meetings chatting about why their teams aren’t performing, why they are disengaged, why no one looks interested. They don’t realise that they are the reason why people feel the way they do.

If I met a manager like Fred in his Monday morning meeting, I’d love to ask him:

• Do you empower your team? In what ways? Do you hand over responsibility and accountability for projects and targets?
• Do you provide regular and timely feedback to help reinforce desired behaviours and improved performance?
• Do you recognise great team performance and encourage the sharing of best practice?
• Do you instil a healthy, positive and transparent culture? A culture where employees feel happy to work in?
• Do you trust your employees? Do they trust you?

Chances are, Fred would answer no to all the questions above

What about you?  How would you answer those questions?  Hopefully this has given you some food for thought.

Other Resources 

We’d highly recommend Drive, by Dan Pink.  Packed full of tips and advice all supported by evidence, with the aim of helping you to engage your employees and motivate them at work.

Management – Taking up your first role

Rachel had thought long and hard before applying for the internal management position. Rachel knew she was ready for the next step but getting the job would mean that she would have to manage most of her mates, not to mention two fellow colleagues who were also going for the same job. “It’s now or never” she thought…Rachel took a massive glug of wine and began to update her CV.

Two interviews later and a stone lighter with worry, Rachel was offered the position of Manager within her existing team. More wine was consumed during the weeks leading up to her start date and self-doubt started to creep in – “Can I still be part of the team?” “Will they still be my friends?” “How will I manage them all?”

The PU View

If we met Rachel, we would take her for a brew and explain that a few things were about to change over the coming months. Here are just a few:

1) She will almost immediately stop getting invited to the pub on a Friday afternoon.
2) She will have to start making all her own brews. (Drinking a brew made by the team could be poisonous).
3) She will have to either sit on her own for lunch or move to the boring ‘Big Wigs’ table.
4) She was once the one telling all the jokes but from now on, she’s likely to be the butt of them (never to her face though, always behind her back).

Of course, we’re only joking, well, apart from 1, 2 and 4.

Are you currently feeling like Rachel? Here’s some tips from us on coping with your first three to six months in a new management role:

• Don’t dive in – Use the first few weeks/months to observe and listen to the team. You’ll have your own ideas about how things should run but don’t jump in. Not only do you have to adjust to your role, everyone else does too. You’ll get peoples backs up if you do things too soon.
• HELP! – Don’t be scared to ask for help from the other members of the management team. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness and they’ve all been where you are now at some point. Tap into their knowledge and experience and keep an open mind.
• Teamwork – Don’t push your team away. Use them to come up with ideas and suggestions about how the team should move forward. Again, this is not a weakness – in fact, getting their buy in to team changes is a sign of great leadership.
• Trust them – Don’t feel like you have to micromanage everyone. Let them crack on. By micromanaging them you will undoubtedly create a culture of distrust.
• Be Patient – Wigan wasn’t built in a day, or was it Rome? Anyway, don’t expect too much too soon. Implementing your methods will take time and lots of patience.

Here’s wishing you all the very best of luck if you’re currently finding yourself in the same position as Rachel. And remember, never, never, never drink a brew made by one of your lovely team.

Other Resources 

A great book for all managers is; Radical Candor by Kim Scott.  Reading this will help you to create a culture where everyone in your team provides feedback that’s honest and direct.

 

 

Certainty – Are you Scared of the Dark?

Our brains are hard wired to protect. Our brains need certainty. When we feel uncertain, our brains go into ‘protect’ mode. For example, I’m from Wigan. If I were to go to a strange place on my own for the first time, let’s say, Accrington, my brain would know that I wasn’t 100% happy. As a result, I would be on red alert. I would be subconsciously looking for danger. I’m not saying I would be rolling over car bonnets, or peering around corners before walking around them but I would subtly be on guard. Imagine I walked into a pub and ordered a drink and the bloke at the side of me heard my accent and unashamedly admitted to also being from Wigan. We would be chatting like best mates in no time. He could well be a serial killer, but the fact that he’s from Wigan would be enough to provide my brain with certainty and I’d no longer be on red alert.

Another example is the dark. Many of us are scared of the dark. We are scared, not of what we can see but of what we can’t see. Our brain knows that something is wrong. Due to this uncertainty, it goes into overdrive and the dressing gown hanging from the back of the door suddenly turns into a ghoulish ghostly figure, ready to pounce!

The PU View

How much certainty do your employees feel? I’ve worked with tons of teams down the years. The teams that got the best results were always the ones that worked in a culture where the manager hid nothing. In other words, they instilled a transparent culture – a culture where every individual felt certainty. When I was in a team like this, If I felt uncertain of anything at any stage, l knew that I could approach my manager and I would be given an honest answer. No blagging, no waffling and no lying. As a result, my teammates and I trusted our manager implicitly and we felt ‘safe’.

Similarly, I’ve worked in teams where things were completely the opposite. The shiftiness (is that a word?) in their response to questions and the way they kept things to themselves all created uncertainty. My brain would go into ‘protect’ mode and so I would resist or question most things. “What’s he up to?”, “Why won’t he give me a straight answer?”, “He’s trying to get me out of the door”. He wasn’t of course, he was just a poor manager with zero communication skills. The uncertainty however, led to distrust and an unhealthy environment to work in.

Do you provide enough certainly for your team? Are you allowing their brains to go into ‘protect’ mode? If the answer is ‘yes’ then maybe it’s time you worked to tighten things up. Don’t leave them second guessing or you’ll really struggle to create an open culture of certainty and mutual trust.

*Please note, I have been to Accrington and it’s not that strange, it’s actually quite nice!

Other Resources  

The Chimp Pardaox by Dr Steve Peters is a brilliant book that will help you to understand why you react the way you do, but more importantly why others react in a certain way especially when faced with uncertainty.

Listen to Mike provide some advice around certainty in this short video from our YouTube channel