Intro to my “Performance Power-Up” Video Series, with some excerpts from a few episodes.
Visit http://www.lamplighter.com.au/viewStory/Video+Seminars to find out more and subscribe.
Peter’s Performance Power-Ups – Video Intro
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Category Archives: Authentic Speaking
Boost Your Leadership, Communication and Performance
Receive a weekly boost to your leadership, public speaking, communication with ”Peter’s Power-Ups” Weekly Videos.
The videos just started being broadcast – once per week, for up to 50 weeks. The series include:
- Gifted Leadership Series I – Bring Out Your Talents and Gifts as a Leader, and the gifts and talents of your followers, and
- Authentic Speaking Series I – Connect, Influence and Persuade people with genuine and powerful public speaking and communication principles.
Each series is around 75 cents per day (less if you can claim for tax). You won’t even have to miss out on a Coke or Coffee each day for that amount. Even one idea that you receive from these videos will be worth much more than the 80% of painful learning and development you tolerate elsewhere. But I’ll provide you with many hundreds of ideas and principles that you can apply to help you grow as a professional, as a communicator, as a leader and as a person.
Visit http://www.lamplighter.com.au/viewStory/Video+Seminars for further information and to subscribe.
Thank you to those of you already subscribing. I welcome your comments and requests any time.
To any North American subscribers: Don’t worry, my accent is perfectly understandable – probably more than Hugh Jackman, and you watch him all the time 
Cheers!
Peter McLean
New Video Seminar Series
I’m announcing a new development opportunity that I believe will benefit anyone and everyone. I don’t harangue people with endless sales pitches on useless products. I provide high level consulting, coaching and development opportunities for clients and have no intention of turning away from the integrity and “class” that I’ve demonstrated through the years, but this announcement is about an addition to our services that will be available around the world 24/7 via the internet.
I’ve created several online video seminar series to help people grow as leaders, as communicators and as individuals. These are based on my original doctrinal research, my years of consulting and executive coaching and my studies and business experiences across more than two and half decades on three continents.
Each series is centred on the themes of leadership, communication and performance. Up to 50 five-minute videos will be delivered straight to your inbox every week throughout the year. That’s just enough length for the modern attention span and our busy schedules. View them anywhere, any time, on any device, until the internet expires.
The Different Series Are:
- Gifted Leadership: Bring out your gifts and talents and those of the people around you to create extraordinary performance – all while actually enjoying what you do. Lead in your business, family and community. Topics include: Your Driving Leadership Purpose™. What are your Deepest Gifts? Developing High Performance. Strategic use of your gifts. Leading the ‘Unleadable’. Learning from great leaders. Being ‘in the zone’. Collaboration. Communication. And much more…
- Authentic Speaking: Be a persuasive and inspiring communicator who leads others to great results. Communicate in a genuine way that truly connects with people, in all kinds of situations. Topics include: The 3 Cs of Authentic Speaking®. Connecting with your audience. Speaking to persuade. Building Confidence. Overcoming fears. Building Presence. Using powerful narratives. Avoiding ‘Death by PowerPoint’. Object Lessons. Great speaking models. Commanding the room. Integrity. The heart of the message. Power vocabulary. And much more…
- Professional Service and Sales: What do clients really need and want? How do you connect with your clients to build greater professional relationships and more business for the both of you? Topics include: What clients want. What you have to offer. Being proactive. Nurturing clients. First impressions. Power questions. The Commitment Matrix™. Negotiation. Marketing analyses. Time management. And more…
These will be relaxed, enjoyable and informative videos, set in my home office. No fancy graphics. No fluff or fads. Just pure content that will actually make a difference.
Why am I doing this? We are all so busy these days. I often talk with people who say, “I’d love to come to a workshop or have you come to my firm, but there just isn’t time.” Well, this is as flexible as you can get and presents a low level of investment for great return. If you’ve already been a client of mine, or have been to one of my workshops, you will still find great value and new ideas, or old gems that you had forgotten. If you’re new to my services, this will provide you with a wealth of practical ideas and insights that will help you. Don’t worry: you can still hire me or attend a workshop to gain more value.
Your Investment: Each series only costs $250. To be frank, just ONE idea that helps you would be worth 20-1000 times that. I’ll give you hundreds. There’s no excuse not to sign up.
Early Bird Discounts: Pay only $200 (get $50 off) if you buy by April 25, 2013 (Australian ANZAC Day). If you can claim your expense on your taxes, it may cost you as little as $108 dollars over the year – that’s less than 30 cents a day. You couldn’t buy water with that money, or even air! (Make sure you choose ‘early bird’ in the course option while the offer lasts.)
Further Discounts: If you refer a friend or colleague who subscribes before June 1, I’ll give you $25 credit per referral, for use towards other video series, workshops or consultations. Sign up 10 or more friends or colleagues and I’ll give you $350 credit towards any video series, workplace profiling, workshop or consultation. Just make sure they mention your name when registering.
Fair Use: I am happy for you to personally show a sample of a video to others and of course you should use the ideas in your own work and development, but note that this is all my original IP. I am trusting you to keep your video links private and to respect copyright. They cannot be shared, tweeted, facebooked, or otherwise published in any way to other people. I don’t want to have to restrict your access. Besides, the lawyers in my family would have a field day and they have enough work already.
When: The videos will commence broadcasting in early May. They will arrive at the start of the day (West Australian time) once per week. Each series will be broadcast on a different day of the week.
Make A Request: The first set of video series will start in May of 2013 (further series will follow in time). Although each series is fully planned out, I want to provide some flexibility and responsiveness, so the episodes will not all be filmed right away. As a founding subscriber, if you have a request for specific topics or questions you’d like addressed or answered under the series’ theme, then send it through. If I think many of the subscribers will be interested, I’ll include an episode on your topic.
To buy, simply visit our website now at http://www.lamplighter.com.au/viewStory/Video+Seminars and click on ‘Buy Now’ for the relevant series.
If you would like to sign up for more than one series, simply return to the website after buying and order more.
Here is the series information if you don’t want to visit the website yet:
THE ONLINE VIDEO SEMINAR SERIES – Starting May 2013
| Gifted Leadership Video Seminar Series I. 40 online videos on the most important skill you can build: your leadership. Learn how to use your gifts to bring out the gifts of others for high performance.
Topics include: Your Driving Leadership Purpose™. What are your Deepest Gifts? Developing High Performance. Strategic use of your gifts. Leading the ‘Unleadable’. Learning from great leaders. Being ‘in the zone’. Collaboration. Communication. And much more… EARLY BIRD deadline: April 25, 2013 |
| Authentic Speaking Video Seminar Series I. 50 online videos delivered straight to your inbox every week throughout the year. Each video has 5 minutes of great information, tips and boosts to your speaking and communication – just enough for the modern attention span! Become a more powerful and authentic speaker.
Topics include: The 3 Cs of Authentic Speaking®. Connecting with your audience. Speaking to persuade. Building Confidence. Overcoming fears. Building Presence. Using powerful narratives. Avoiding ‘Death by PowerPoint’. Object Lessons. Great speaking models. Commanding the room. Integrity. The heart of the message. Power vocabulary. And much more… EARLY BIRD deadline: April 25, 2013 |
| Professional Services Client Relationships & Sales. 40 videos for professional services providers, based on our research and work improving customer service and sales for professional services firms: what clients really want, how to connect with your clients, how to provide great services, keeping up with fees.
Topics include: What clients want. What you have to offer. Being proactive. Nurturing clients. First impressions. Power questions. The Commitment Matrix™. Negotiation. Marketing analyses. Time management. And more… EARLY BIRD deadline: April 25, 2013 |
Don’t wait. Buy now and be part of the founding subscribers. You won’t regret it.
Visit at http://www.lamplighter.com.au/viewStory/Video+Seminars, scroll down the page and click on ‘Buy Now’ to make your choice(s).
Please note: There are NO refunds, but we will happily resend any lost links.
All material Copyright 2013 Peter J. McLean
Email me or contact me through the blog if you have any queries .
Takeaways from last Authentic Speaking Exec Leaders Workshop
Here are a few of the takeaways from our last Exec Leaders Authentic Speaking workshop (end of February – apologies for the delay):
- Your ‘presence’ is dependent on your ability to confidently portray and communicate your values, vision and determination as a leader.
- Working with unions requires a tough stance, combined with common sense.
- The vast majority of staff – even radical union members who are against you – will respect you just for standing up to give your message, as long as you are honest and have integrity.
- Negotiation requires a clear sense of mission, but a clearer understanding of your stakeholders’ underlying motivations.
- Some audiences put a premium on a “just the facts ma’am” approach for certain kinds of presentations – e.g. at technical conferences you want substance that you can use – without fluff and nonsense.
- MC-ing and hosting events like international conferences requires ‘bigger’ personality and a cheerful disposition.
- If you don’t have a positive, praising approach to people at special events, work it up because people want to and deserve to be appreciated.
- Being ‘bigger’ than you usually are when on the public stage renders you noticeable and more ‘listenable’.
- Remembering names in conference situations can be a tremendous strength – learn how.
- The host sets the tone – is the leader – for major conferences.
- Try out a different voice – perhaps literally – now and then to stretch your skills and repertoire.
- Management communication requires different tools for different situations and results – don’t rely on email for everything, it’s a poor cousin to real communication.
- Change requires effort, but is possible if you challenge yourself.
Next Authentic Speaking Exec Leaders workshop is on August 5-6, 2013. More info at http://www.authenticspeaking.com.au/viewStory/Executive+Leaders+Speaking+Workshop
“I will never enjoy public speaking!”
“I will never enjoy public speaking!” she said.
On the second morning of a two day public speaking workshop, one of my clients was adamant that she would never want to speak in front of a group, never enjoy the experience and never volunteer to speak in front of others. An accomplished and highly educated professional, experienced and trained in logic and debate, she still could not see how it was possible.
“I disagree, you will!” I said.
One hour later, she completed a witty and humorous presentation that segued into a very serious topic. She was smiling, engaging her audience, telling sarcastic jokes and providing the emotional and intellectual basis of a sustained argument on a difficult topic. We were delighted and enthralled. When she sat down I asked her,
“Did you enjoy that?”
“Yes, but…”
“No ‘buts’, just ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” I insisted. “Did you enjoy that?”
“Yes.”
“Then you enjoyed public speaking. But just two hours ago, you were telling me you would never enjoy it!”
Her face lit up, realising her breakthrough. She went away from the workshop enthused about her newfound skills, with an awakened desire to speak more. Moreover, this is a critical skill in her position and profession, so she will be able to use it to be far more successful.
There’s a line of thinking in personal development that says “Go with your strengths” and leaves it there. If we want to continue to grow as leaders and as people, we must not just use our strengths, we must build on them.
It’s one of the reasons that personality-based profiling for jobs is not a strong predictor of success. Different personalities can use different routes to accomplishing the same goals. When our consulting or coaching work requires some psychometrics, we frequently use a work preferences assessment – Harrison Assessments – that assesses what people enjoy in their work. The theory (Enjoyment-Performance theory) is that if you enjoy it, you’re likely to be good at it and vice versa. And it’s ‘uncannily accurate’, as one of my clients has said.
The work preferences tool is brilliant in that it caters to change and growth over time. I’ve just built a path for someone to enjoy public speaking – the world’s number one fear. I often build paths for people to enjoy all kinds of aspects of their work - organisation, management, communication, strategy, leadership – by digging past what they do to what they are passionate about and then translating that into developing the skills they need.
Empty affirmations are not enough. I don’t just have people repeat some Tibetan-style mantra: “I will enjoy public speaking, hommm…” Nor is it about accessing some hidden psycholinguistic power that will knock people over with your subconscious energy wave. (Using ‘subconscious’ implies you’re a Freudian, by the way.) The people in my workshop were able to develop powerful speaking skills because I taught them valid underlying principles and techniques, gave them exemplars, stretched their boundaries and encouraged success in line with who they genuinely are.
I found an entry point for this person’s development and her courage that allowed her to use her intellect to speak about something of importance to her. She used her passion about her topic and the understanding about public speaking that I conveyed in order to overcome her fear of speaking in front of others. She put forth the effort and reaped the rewards.
Use what you enjoy to develop new skills and be careful, don’t ever tell me you could never enjoy public speaking.
Lessons from Authentic Speaking workshop
A few observations derived from this week’s Authentic Speaking Foundations workshop:
- Connecting with people on a genuine level – sharing something of yourself – can create change where previously there was obstinate resistance.
- Drawing on shared experience can create tremendous allies in furthering change.
- Influencing people requires a combination of intellectual and emotional appeals.
- You need to be committed to a purpose in order to speak convincingly.
- Finding your passion is important to determining your views on any topic.
- Anyone can learn to enjoy public speaking.
- Passion is not about empty emotion, but about a personal, intellectual and spiritual commitment to a cause or topic for which you have an affinity.
- “Motivational” speakers are too often empty shells. You have to have substance and work with people’s own self-originating motivations.
- Content is king.
- You would choose to listen to the most inarticulate speaker instead of a Barack Obama if you had an intense interest in the speaker and their subject and believed they had integrity and the ability to convey something you would find personally valuable.
- Great public speaking means being a bigger version of yourself – not a fake.
- You must communicate your vision, passion and purpose in a way that benefits the audience.
When Everyone’s Watching … Romney and Obama
How you perform in private and in public need to go hand in hand – it’s called integrity.
The first US Presidential debate between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama was a fascinating example of the problem of public and private perception and performance. Mr. Obama has a flair for tightly worded dramatic readings of speeches. Filled with inspiring abstractions and rhetoric, they often get the blood pumping. Yet, to many Americans, he has failed to deliver on his promises (a book on the first year of his presidency was even called “The Promise”) and after his election quickly became aloof and condescending.
Mitt Romney, who has not laid claim to the same high levels of rhetoric and exposition, managed to floor President Obama in their first debate. He commanded the floor, had great command of detail, guided the proceedings, enumerated policy points, was warm, enthusiastic, responsive, clearly articulated his positions and was highly engaged with his opponent and the process; all areas where President Obama fell down. Yet Mr. Romney’s problem is his perceived “flip-flopping” on major positions. Whether this is from a lack of clear communication or from an actual propensity to blithely and expediently change opinion, I’m not one to say.
The problem for both candidates is their apparent willingness – or that of their campaign advisers and advertisers – to play fast and loose with facts. Truth has been a great casualty in this political battle.
I’m not judging either candidate as a person, nor am I commenting on their politics. As I’ve written before, I’m not even American – it’s not my election. (Nor do I want trolls adding their two cents worth – reading through comments such as one sees on the New York Times website, the level of invective and ignorance on both sides is astronomical.) As a standalone debating performance, however, there is a lot to learn from Mitt Romney’s “presidential” début.
Here are a few salient points:
- Your level of verbal engagement with others is an indication of your respect not only for the individual, but for the audience.
- Eye contact with those you are speaking with (and not just the camera) is so important to your perceived authenticity.
- The microphone, and the camera, is always on. Never think your body language is unimportant. Don’t slouch behind the lectern, don’t look down the whole time someone is speaking to you. Smirks and derisive laughter are no substitute for cogent arguments.
- Clearly articulated positions (e.g. there are five things I am going to do), are ultimately so much more effective than vague abstractions (e.g. we’re going to change the country).
- If you can clarify, summarise and articulate someone else’s position better than they can (such that they are now nodding with you), you’re on a roll. If you can then either deconstruct or directly refute those positions, even better.
- Don’t assume that your private preparation is adequate to the task. Rehearse in a focused way with someone at the appropriate level.
- Don’t rely on hackneyed, over-used phrases and slogans when the other party is coming up with specifics.
- Come to the party ready to rock. When you’re up in front of everyone, you’d better be ready to perform at the highest level you can. Phoning it in just won’t work.
- If you’re beaten on the night, demonstrate your ability with the next encounter. Don’t go out to everyone else the next day complaining, “What I should have said was …. “
- Don’t assume that you can now label the other team (leader, organisation, competitor, etc.) as having won just because that wasn’t “the real” person who showed up. Admit your defeat and take responsibility - that’s called integrity.
- Leadership does require clear and powerful communication.
I’ll write in further posts about the credibility gaps in both communication and leadership and the issues they present, but it’s important to note that how the electorate views these individuals is impacted by their perceived integrity – and that means that they have to mean it when they say ‘No’ and mean it when they say ‘Yes’ and not allow the moment to change their values.
As leaders, we need to ensure that we passionately communicate our values, ideas and vision in a believable way. And that means that we need to live what we say we believe. We need to be honest with ourselves as well as with our constituents in order to keep their trust.
Public Speaking for Executive Leaders Workshop
February 25-26 2013 is our next Authentic Speaking Executive Leaders Workshop.
Designed for confident senior leaders or leaders with more speaking experience, this workshop is designed for leaders to dramatically improve their speaking, leadership and their brand as representatives of themselves and their organisation. For peers only, we use my original Authentic Speaking(R) approach to bring out your personality and persuasive abilities and help you to connect, persuade and inspire your audience.
The workshop is highly participative, with limited numbers to ensure individual coaching in a confidential and supportive environment. We consider your various audiences – both external and internal to your organisation – and how you can more powerfully communicate your vision and message. The results are simply outstanding.
This is what one of the participants at our last Executive Leaders Workshop in July said:
“I found the individual and personalised training and feedback during the course to be particularly valuable…. I learned … skills and techniques during the course which I am confident will enhance my performance when giving a variety of presentations in the workplace.”
- David Woolfe, General Manager Legal & Risk, Relieving CEO, Co-operative Bulk Handling Limited
The workshop is being held at beautiful Joondalup Resort in Perth, with fabulous lunch at Bistro 38 Restaurant each day. (If people only talk about the lunch afterwards, you know the workshop or conference was worthless. They don’t only talk about lunch after my workshops, but I do try to provide the best wherever possible!)
This is a high level human development event. If you want to challenge yourself and grow and would like to enrol or obtain more information, visit our dedicated website at www.authenticspeaking.com.au or just email me through the ‘Contact Us’ tab above.
Before and After – Authentic Speaking Workshop
I’ve uploaded some ‘Before and After’ video samples from one of a group of participants in our August Authentic Speaking Foundations workshop (www.authenticspeaking.com). This was a two-day workshop to dramatically improve public speaking and communication skills. You can see Ashleigh’s progress even in just the first day. (There is nothing commercially sensitive in her presentation.)
Amongst the many leadership and performance-related services I provide, from the moment I started my consultancy I identified public speaking improvement as a critical service for leaders and motivated employees. I have worked with hundreds of professionals to improve their speaking. Ashleigh’s progress is quite typical of the results we achieve.
Watch how her whole demeanour and involvement with the audience changes – and how, even on video, her speaking is so much more engaging and powerful. (It was even better in person!)
My thanks to Ashleigh for giving permission to publish the videos! It’s often difficult to display participants’ videos due to the many personal and commercial issues involved. (Apologies for some of the squished look of the first two, as it’s a byproduct of the YouTube conversion.)
Before
After – Day 1
After – Day 2
Communicate a message filled with personal meaning that makes a difference to your audience!
Our next public Authentic Speaking Foundations workshop is on November 5-6, 2012, and then February 18-19, 2013 – both in Perth, Western Australia. Head to www.authenticspeaking.com.au for more.
Our next Executive Leaders Authentic Speaking Workshop is being held February 25-26 in Perth. For already confident speakers and leaders, this workshop is a peers-only event that moves speakers on to a higher level and addresses issues pertinent to executives and senior leaders: including ‘presence’ as a leader, stakeholder engagement, communication and persuasion with colleagues and staff.
These workshops (as well as my leadership and performance-related workshops) are available in-house or by arrangement in any state or country.
We also consult with organisations on internal and external communications, strategic communications plans and internal networks and incorporate these into structured change initiation and management plans that can cover everything from initial ideation through communication and implementation to concrete results. Results are what we’re after, so we can act as a strategic partner in every aspect of organisational growth in order to achieve those results.
Private executive coaching is always available for dramatic ongoing growth and support, to work through very personal issues at the heart of your speaking (such as extreme anxiety), and for powerfully communicating key messages at critical events and junctures (for example, strategic company initiatives, national representation and special public events). I have worked with CEOs and MDs of billion-dollar organisations, small business owners, and people wanting to hone their wedding speech. We can manage private coaching both face to face and online for remote support (for those of you who are interstate or international). Visit my dedicated website at www.authenticspeaking.com for more.
Don’t Rely on the PowerPoint
I attended a very good presentation last week by the Australian CEO of General Electric, Steve Sargent. He enthusiastically involved his audience and displayed comprehensive and passionate knowledge of his business. I won’t critique his speech per se, but offer some praise:
Steve had some very busy PowerPoints, with a great deal of information on them, and he was using them as an aide memoire for his presentation. At one point, the PC stopped projecting anything and Steve had a painful wait as technicians attempted to correct the projection and get his information up on-screen. After some moments of waiting, Steve launched into a description of further aspects of the GE business, sans the projection. At that point, not only did Steve demonstrate great respect for his audience’s needs, he also demonstrated his breadth of knowledge about the business (look Ma, no hands!) and was more interesting than the summary slides he had been using up till that point.
The PowerPoint came back up a few minutes later and he then continued to use it for his presentation. He had some powerful trends information for which he used visual references and that he explained very competently.
After the formal presentation, Steve then provided some in-depth responses to questions from the audience. He once again demonstrated his insight with impromptu responses, without the aid of PowerPoint. To my mind, energetic and enthusiastic as he was throughout, the latter part was still better than most of the prepared PowerPoint presentation.
As a speaker, you must be prepared for the worst and communicate clearly, passionately and directly with your audience. Don’t rely on the PowerPoint. It should be used as a visual support, with you as the primary source.
