There’s No Such Thing as a Dumb Question!
When I present at conferences or in-house professional development events, I regularly get a sheepish hand raised and the phrase “this is probably a dumb question…” spoken as the precursor to a question. When I hear this, two things immediately come to mind. The first is recognition of the huge leap of courage the individual has taken to ask the question, and the second is, the trust they feel in the moment that I may be able to answer it. When I respond, I always reassure the person that it is not a dumb question, and that it is likely …
Interruptions
One of the challenges associated with presenting to your colleagues, clients or even at a conference is the interruption of late arrivals. For some it may be a matter of course or culture, ie everyone is always late to meetings, it could be they went to the wrong venue, lost track of time or were caught in traffic. It’s safe to assume in almost all instances it has NOTHING to do with you. When people are late to my programs, I am always welcoming and if there is any participation coming up, I use that time to check in that …
Less is More
Don’t be tempted to put every single word you plan to say on the slide or a sheet of paper. When presenting to your colleagues, a board or at a conference, the audience want to hear what YOU have to say not read a screen or document. Too often because we know too much about our subject we A Overwhelm our audience with too much information so they remember very little B Sensory overload them with data or images in on screen presentations that distract or do not support what you are saying C Talk too fast Sometimes less is …
Kairos and Chronos – How are you spending your time?
We often us the term quality time when talking about family and friends, but realistically, shouldn’t all our time be quality time? I recently read the book, Igniting your true purpose and passion by Robert Michael Fried. A specific paragraph got me thinking about two words in Greek that represent time. Not time in the traditional sense of a ticking clock, or quantitative time, referred to as Chronos, but Kairos, the Greek word for qualitive time. When working with managers and their teams, I regularly hear, we don’t have time for training/meetings/professional development [insert reason or excuse here]. In business, …
How a Mentally Healthy Work Culture Impacts on Productivity Guest – Graeme Cowan
Graeme’s world changed in 2000 when as a joint Managing Director of an Executive Search Division of a recruitment company, Graeme experienced a mental breakdown resulting in him being out of the workforce for 6 years. He emerged from the crisis with a very different view about how we can build resilience and mood to thrive in times of change. In 2007, he launched his first book, Back from the Brink which former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair commented “…is a brave book that will certainly help remove stigma, and provides real hope and practical help”. In 2009, Graeme worked …
