Month: June 2010

Categories
Entrepreneurs Online Business

Hosting Your Own Teleclass? 6 Do’s and Don’ts for a Successful Outcome

Hosting teleclasses is one of my absolute favorite list building strategies. Apart from being easy to do, it’s a great way to interact with my audience and get to know them, and also let them get to know me. But as with anything new there’s always a learning curve involved.

Over the years I’ve developed my own style for hosting teleclasses and found some shortcuts that allow me to present my content so that everything flows smoothly. Today I’d like to share with you my top six dos and don’ts for hosting teleclasses so that you can shorten your learning curve when you’re ready to host your own teleclasses:

1. Do prepare notes and timings. Even though you want your information to flow naturally from one point to the next, it’s also really important to have a plan and something to refer to so that you can stay on track. Planning out your topic timings means that you’ll also be able to deliver all of the information that you want to share, and within the timeframe that you’ve allocated. It also shows that you respect your attendee’s time too by sticking to your published schedule.

2. Don’t staple your notes together but do number your pages. I realize this may sound like a contradiction – if your notes are not stapled together you could easily lose your page (which is why I tell you to number them). However it’s so much easier to turn pages that are not bound than it is to fiddle around turning pages that are stapled. And any added distraction will only cause you to lose focus when you’re presenting your teleclass.

3. Do make sure you’re comfortable. This goes from the room you’re presenting in to the clothing that you’re wearing (and everything inbetween). Okay, I know it’s a teleclass and no-one can see you, but if you’re not comfortable with what you’re wearing and constantly fiddling around with it, you will come across as sounding distracted and not focused. This also goes for your surroundings too – if they’re not conducive to delivering your information, i.e. background noise, it will come through in your delivery and your attendees will sense that.

4. Do give yourself plenty of room. When I host my teleclasses I prefer to sit on the floor rather than sit at my desk. This allows me plenty of space to lay out my notes and any other materials that I may have without having to have everything bundled together on my desk. And it also goes to point three above – I’m much more comfortable sat on the floor with plenty of space around me which means that I’ll be able to focus much better.

5. Do be respectful of your attendee’s time. This means making sure you stick to your teleclass timings and if necessary ensure that you have a timer or watch in front of you at all times. Personally I take off my watch and have it on the floor in front of me so I can see the time throughout my call.

6. Do mute your attendees out during your presentation. This is important because you will get a much better quality recording if the line is completely clear of any background noise; and it also means your attendees get a clear line too. You can always open up the lines for questions at the end of your call.

Follow these simple steps above and you’ll soon be on your way to hosting your own successful teleclasses.

Categories
Success Attitude

Living Beyond the Statistic and Claiming Your Talent Advantage

“People are happiest and most satisfied in life when they are engaged in actions and activities that draw upon their natural capacities, skills, and abilities.”

It’s true, and this is the sixth principle of our Perceptual Style Theory, or PST, to help us make sense of the everyday differences people experience between themselves and others.

To review, here are the first 6 principles of PST:

1. People perceive the world differently.
2. Differences in perception result in psychological diversity, and psychological diversity is the most profound diversity there is.
3. Perceptual differences can be grouped into 6 unique Perceptual Styles.
4. Everyone believes that their way of experiencing the world is the right way (and until they learn differently – the only way!).
5. A person’s Perceptual Style is innate and determines what natural capacities, skills, and abilities they have.
6. People are happiest and most satisfied in life when they are engaged in actions and activities that draw upon their natural capacities, skills, and abilities.

Building your daily actions around your natural skills – literally claiming Your Talent Advantage – is what the sixth principle is all about.  Knowing what you do naturally well makes a difference in all aspects of your life – family, friendships, hobbies, work, everything.   Let’s use an example of your job to illustrate this point.

A recent survey revealed that 61% of people polled said they hated (not disliked) their job. This represents a staggering amount of dissatisfaction. What is the cause of so much unhappiness for so many as they do something that occupies a large amount of their daily lives?

Think back on how you chose what you do for a living. If you are like most people, you received very little career guidance based on your natural skills and landed in your career field by happenstance. The chance of ending up doing something that draws upon your natural skills if you followed this all too common “career path” are very small. The truth is very few of us have gotten any solid feedback in our lives about what we do well, and “Will this job allow me to use my natural gifts and skills?” is not a common question people ask themselves when job hunting. The sad fact is that far too many of us have little or no idea what our natural gifts and skills even are.

When people take the time to discover what they do naturally well, consciously develop those skills, and actively seek employment that uses those skills, how they feel about themselves, their job, and life in general is remarkably different from the norm. Career guidance designed to help you discover your natural strengths and talents and then seek an area of employment where they will be used and appreciated is very rare. It takes a little effort to discover your natural strengths are, but once you are clear on what you naturally do well, you can create a list of the top ten skills that you need to use regularly in a job in order for you to find it satisfying, stimulating, and meaningful. These ten skills become a checklist against which you can evaluate any job or career and determine if it is a fit for you.

Don’t become part of the statistic of people who hate what they do. Life is too short to spend it toiling at something that is no fun. We are all going to end up in the same place eventually, so make the journey there interesting and rewarding.

About the Author:

Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 27 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley.  He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. He’s a partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents. www.aciforcoaches.com

http://www.aciforcoaches.com/
Categories
Planning & Management

Managing the Transition: How to Face Employee Resistance Head On When Introducing Workplace Changes

A preponderance of managers and supervisors are overly familiar with long sighs and disheartened groans from their employees when they introduce yet another organizational change or a new initiative. And in the aftershock of a devastating recession, the sighs and groans are turning into fear.

While supervisors do not have the authority to reject or the power to deflect organizational change, they do have the opportunity (and, we believe, the specific responsibility) to clearly and truthfully communicate the reasons for change.

Similar to a stool with three legs, three easy steps can greatly assist managers in creating a sound platform for transition during periods of change:

3 Ways Leaders Can Face Employee Resistance Head On to Make the Transition Easier for Everyone Involved…

1. Managers need to be convinced that the change is indeed needed. For example, the change is either opportunistic or required to ensure ongoing business viability and success.  By focusing on what is needed, the options to create it (including an examination of risks or exposure) and the intended results from it, you will determine what change needs to happen. You will see why the changes need to happen right now. You will able to develop a strategic plan on how the changes will occur.  And, you’ll be able to determine the value and impact that each change will bring to your organization.

2. Next, managers need to understand the change experience through the lens of their employees. Employees will be more open and willing to support change when they are given information that clearly addresses their fundamental questions. Honest, open, timely and truthful communication is absolutely essential during a transition. This means your management team must agree on an accurate, forthright and unified response to the following five questions.

o What is the change? (Get specific)
o How was the decision made? (Include who made the decision)
o Who does it impact, and what does it mean to them?
o What is the value of the change to the organization and the employees? (Focus on benefits and effects.)
o What are the next steps? (Describe the roles and actions.)

3. Lastly, management needs to establish effective ways for sharing (communicating) this information with employees through multiple channels. For example, if there are individual employees who will be impacted more than others (particularly if there are perceived negative implications), general courtesy and good ethic implies you meet first with these employees. Share the same information but specifically describe how it affects them and their position.  This should be done immediately before the departmental meetings.  Smaller, team-style meetings provide a more open and comfortable environment for questions and discussion.  All-staff meetings are also an option depending on the size of the organization (such as those with less than 50 employees) and assuming that your message is not laden with “bad-news” to specific employees or groups whom have not yet heard the message. It is also helpful to consistently communicate the message of change as critical for the company, through written format, such as a company memo or newsletter, assuming the message is clear, straight-forward, and focused on the value of the change (benefits), or the sincere effort to prevail (i.e., a legitimate downsize or layoff) in times of challenge.

Managing the transition and implementing change is critical for organizations. Poor behavior, poor communications and poor execution will have long-term negative consequences for the organization.

Remember, change provides opportunity. So, help your employees embrace a new paradigm of change as an opportunity versus the widely held and limiting perspective of change as an unsolicited and undesirable mandate.

How you manage the transition will be remembered by the employees. Good behavior will clearly have positive long-term effects. Poor behavior will lead to contention, lack of trust, lack of productivity and turnover. So unless you goal is to close the business, poor change behavior is not a long-term success strategy.

Actions Have Consequences – Make Yours Positive Especially in the Time of Change

Keeping employees well-informed and engaging them will foster a climate of resiliency and it will build momentum that will advance your organization.  This level of employee engagement is reinforced by what Geoff Colvin recently presented in the Fortune Magazine article, How are Most Admired Companies Different. Colvin mentions that champion companies “ensure they understand what employee engagement means, measure it and hold managers  (not just HR staffers) accountable for it, and connect it to business objectives…” We strongly believe that change, whether for growth, improvement or survival/reinvention is key to business productivity, efficiency and intimately, profitability.

About the Author

Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica are management consultants and business performance improvement specialists with more than 50+ years of combined experience in helping organizations just like yours manage the transition. Failure to communicate head on is just one way to sabotage your business – get our complete “Self-Sabotage in Business White Paper” at: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php and uncover the common, subtle ways we harm our performance.

Categories
Work Life

Job Hunting Mistakes: Why Passion May Be a Problem When Finding New $100K+ Executive Opportunities

Anna is a client of mine who, after 25 years in her field, is tired of the work.  It is boring and just doesn’t get her juices going.  She wants to strike out onto a new path or she wants to do something important and make a contribution.

“Karen, I just want to be passionate about what I do.  I am so tired of working so hard and not getting any recognition,” she exclaimed.

Can you relate?

Often we use the word “passion” to describe what we want in our next position.  Usually we use it as a code word to say we want to do something interesting in our next role.

And that’s where I begin to have a problem.

Since 2002, I conduct close to 300 free, no obligation, 30-minute Strategy Sessions in a single year.  I really enjoy doing them because each situation is unique and different.  Together, we brainstorm about how to approach a career or job search with fresh and insightful ideas, always looking to significantly improve your results right away.

But when someone, like Anna, says that they now want to pursue their passion in life, I get knots in my stomach.

Why?

Well, to be honest, pursuing your passion is NOT presenting your potential!

3 Reasons Why Your Current Thinking About Passion Should Change When Looking for New $100K+ Executive Roles

1) Passion is not something you pursue; it is something that you have.

Passion is applied to something that you are interested in.  It is not a beacon of light in the darkness that will tell you that you’ve arrived at your destiny.  When I talk to someone who is trying to find their passion – out there somewhere – I know that it will be a long time before they find it.

2) Passion is a result of success; not something you get when everything lines up right.

Passion is basically a follow-up emotion created when you are doing something you are good at.  I never thought I would start and run an executive coaching firm.  But as I got really successful at it, my passion came and now I love what I do.

3) Passion is the energy to persevere whenever we are challenged; it is not the momentum that propels you to a destination.

One of the reasons why, after landing, 80+% of executives become discouraged and disheartened within six months is because they are thinking incorrectly about “passion!”   Many are looking for the employer to give them “passion” while doing their job.  Within weeks of starting a new job, most realize that the new employer only wants a lot of hard work, doesn’t appreciate their experience and gives them very little recognition for what they know.

Passion can be a “dangerous delusion.”  It sounds right, but it is oh, so, wrong.

Opportunities are being fought for vigorously by many, many others who want that job as much as you do.  Making an emotional decision as to whether a position is right for you by using “passion” as the barometer, is a great way to extend your search, stay confused and/or get more stuck than before!

Now, I suggest you look at the pursuit of you next position by identifying your economic “potential.”

How to Use Your Economic Potential To Find Great $100K+ Executive Opportunities

Answering these 5 tough questions can identify your potential…

*  How you are meeting what the market demands today (not yesterday)?
*  Why would someone want you as opposed to someone else?
*  When will you provide a return on investment for the company?
*  What latent potential do you have that is of value to the employer?
*  How are you presenting yourself – as a luxury, top-end item or a commodity?

If a potential employer sees some of these elements in you, then you have an opportunity to plug into your passion. And once success is yours, it is a-m-a-z-i-n-g how this fuel called “passion” shows up on the scene.

For more tools and information about how to land an $100K+ executive role, read my bio and click on the link to my website: www.MarketOneExecutive.com or my blog, www.ExecutiveActions.blogspot.com

About the Author:
$100K+ Executive-Level Career Coach Karen Armon prepares leaders around the world for their next move. Her popular book, Market Your Potential, Not Your Past is a hit among executives who want a clear-cut, systematic game plan that drives careers forward. Now get her new FREE eBook, “Ten Micro-Trends that Impact Executive Careers Today” at http://www.marketoneexecutive.com/ebook.asp and take a critical look at today’s marketplace