Category Archives: Your Gifts

Boost Your Leadership, Communication and Performance

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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

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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:

  1. 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…
  2. 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…
  3. 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 .

You Can Build New Strengths

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I was in a conversation with a group of businesspeople and one of the group – a published business coach and “life coach” (she also has a business that focuses on ‘talent’) - said that when it comes to public speaking people either just “have it” or they don’t. Apparently, she thinks she has it. I immediately disagreed and launched into why she is wrong.

I cannot count the number of times I have come across people, quite often some kind of highly regarded professional or educator, who think that some seemingly special skill cannot be developed in others. I shudder to think of the kinds of staid and regimented growth their clients would have if they listened to them. Talent can be developed.

In one of the books out there on strengths, the authors go into almost ecstatic praise of General Colin Powell for how he demonstrated such a brilliant gift as a speaker at one of their events. The authors then comment along the lines of, “But that was Colin Powell and he has an innate gift that no one can approach. That’s his strength.”

The conclusion that they seem to draw is that a strength is an outcome in an adult’s life that should be accepted for what it is, without any others being able to make the commitment to developing that same strength. That is, they believe that what you’ve got is all you’ve got and you should just work with that.

The evidence from psychology, neuroscience, biology and life around us is that new talents and strengths can be developed.

Every week, I work with clients on their leadership, their communication, their businesses and their lives. Within ONE DAY, I have seen people turn from fearful, anxiety-ridden, shy people who would never get up and speak to becoming powerful speakers confidently moving a room with reason and emotion, because they were given the tools to see how they could talk with a group in a meaningful way and they had a reason to now try to develop this skill. It CAN be learnt.

My doctoral studies are on the development of professional giftedness. It’s an original term that I have coined, to denote someone who appears to have an innate gift that they have developed into a talent that sets them apart from the rest of their peers. There is a great deal to consider in terms of human development and how that contributes to these individuals’ talents and skills, but their ‘innate’ gifts are ones that the vast majority of people have within – these people have learned to tap into their own gifts in order to achieve a meaningful goal and purpose. They use their existing strengths to develop new ones.

But ‘therein lies the rub’: if you don’t have a real purpose and need, you won’t be as likely to develop the gifts and talents you need.

One last point: I have a very different perspective on human development. That’s because my youngest daughter has cerebral palsy. She turns 6 in May. She cannot move herself around, she cannot feed herself as a rule, she cannot speak (though she communicates a lot).

In the last couple of months, she has started to sit herself up consistently. It has taken over 5 years of hard work on the part of teams of people to finally get her to be able to sit herself up. When she started doing it, my family was jumping up and down and basically throwing a party for her. It’s a huge relief for health reasons and her ongoing development.

This is a small step for others, but an incredible leap for Alyssa. If we had said, “Well, you either you have it or you don’t!” we never would have gotten to this point.

Don’t give up on becoming something and growing because some self-proclaimed life coach or otherwise says you can’t. It may take a lot of hard work and assistance and you may not become the world’s greatest. But that small step for others may be a giant leap for you and it will all be worthwhile.

Your Gifts as a Leader

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A couple of pics of participants in our ‘Your Gifts as a Leader’ workshop:

Your Gifts as a Leader Workshop

Your Gifts as a Leader Workshop

Typical of the comments I received were those of Brian, a senior business advisor and partner, who said:

“It was a great refresher … with numerous new thoughts, information and processes. I will be a better leader and person as a result of this session and it will enhance my overall life.” – Brian

Activating your gifts as a leader is about using your own personal gifts in a positive manner to enhance leadership with a purpose. We covered a lot in a short period of time and there was much more to cover.

I’ll be running a two and a half day leadership experience mid-2012 that will use some of the information from this workshop, plus much much more … :)   In coming posts, I’ll be asking some questions to help you reflect on your leadership experiences. I appreciate your comments and reflections at any time.

If you attended this last workshop and are reading, please keep interacting through this blog and share your experiences and development.

Making 2012 a Better Year

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Here are a few ideas for achieving better results in 2012.

  1. Focus on What’s Important – This is why New Year’s resolutions frequently fail. People say without much reflection that they are going to get new clients, get a promotion, lose weight, be a better dad, but don’t take the time to sit back and reflect and determine a specific course of action to achieve what is most important. As with any strategy, your goals for 2012 will only be fulfilled if it makes sense and you arrange the environment and your resources appropriately to achieve those goals.
  2. Use Your Strengths to Build New Strengths – Marcus Buckingham is wrong. Your development is not just about identifying your current strengths and then living with them forever afterwards. I help build new strengths in people all the time – it’s what I do in my leadership coaching, my public speaking coaching, my consulting and other work. It’s what I’ve done for myself constantly over the years. Resting on your laurels and saying “This is the sum total of me” and never trying to better yourself is just a silly way to exist. The trick is to not to fall for someone else’s version of what you “must” be, but use what you are good at to create new growth and new results.
  3. Partner With Great People – If you have found great people who are service oriented, smart, have integrity and achieve positive results, DON’T LET THEM GO! If you like them, all the better.
  4. Clean House – I used to work in a job where the business cycle matched the calendar year so that every new year as a new raft of work and clients. It was good for allowing you to clean house and start afresh. I would take what was good about the previous year and incorporate it into the new one, while seeking creative ways to forge new opportunities, try new approaches and focus on some different challenges and results. We frequently do it with our businesses at the end of each financial year. How about cleaning out all the junk (both physical and metaphorical).
  5. Don’t Let Fear Of Failure Guide Your Actions – Fear inhibits the brain’s executive functions, making it difficult to think clearly or rationally. It is, instead, driving a fight or flight response. Fear is an enemy of good thinking, so don’t let it determine your path.
  6. Put Aside Time And Money To Relax – Don’t let every day be taken up with demands, but take the time out to smell the roses, or prune them even if you must. But set aside that time right now – book it into your calendar and set aside the money to do it.

How do you plan to achieve better results in 2012?