** Are You Presenting With Power?

** Your responses indicate that you have some experience and talent as a presenter, but you still have some way to go. As you continue your journey as a leader, the following suggestions may assist you in those areas that your self-evaluation suggests require particular attention. Be Yourself: The sense you may have during a presentation that "This doesn't feel like me" is a sure sign that your focus is in the wrong place. Concentrating on how you feel cuts you off from the needs of your audience. Your first step in getting beyond this is to be able to state, in as few words as possible, the message that you want your audience to leave with, why they need to know it, and what you want them to do with it. Merely telling yourself not to be self-conscious won't do the trick. You need a clear, specific goal to concentrate on instead. Coaching Tip: A presentation is simply an extension of every day life. How it looks to the audience is more important than - and unrelated to - how it feels to you. Be Prepared: Often, people are convinced that they don't know the right way to prepare for a presentation, so they put off preparation for as long as humanly possible. Instead, start by defining your goal. Then create an outline to prioritize your thoughts and develop a logical progression. People are most receptive to information - and most able to retain it - when it comes in the form of a story. Coaching Tip: You are telling a story. Define your goals and make an outline. Keep It Brief: Always ask yourself, How little can I say to get my point across? The temptation, especially if you are excited or nervous, is to tell your audience everything. Listeners neither need nor want to know everything. The more you tell them, the less they are likely to retain. Try instead to give the audience the option of asking questions. When they ask for more, you then have "permission" to tell them. Coaching Tip: Show them the nuggets, not the ore. Impart Your Wisdom: A presentation doesn't need to be torture. Think of it as an opportunity for your audience to see, understand and accept your point of view. It is a chance to proffer your information and your opinion. If you focus on your discomfort, you are powerless. If you choose instead to focus on your audience's need to know - and your desire for them to feel the same level of commitment and enthusiasm that you do - you have all the power that you will ever need. Coaching Tip: Be an impassioned advocate. This is your opportunity to get the audience to understand and accept your point of view. Keep It Conversational: The difference between talking to one and talking to many is less that you might imagine. A presentation is still a conversation; you just happen to be doing most of the talking. It remains an exchange of information. Your audience communicates its level of understanding with its behavior and eyes. If you think of the audience as a monolithic "them," it will intimidate you. The truth is, there is no "them." An audience is a collection of individuals with individual reactions. Make eye contact with as many members of the audience as you can - as soon as possible. That will remind you that you are dealing with individuals, not a collective consciousness. Coaching Tip: Learn to regard

presentations as a series of simultaneous one-on-ones. Be Passionate: Audiences want to be led. As a presenter, you open a doorway through which they come to your viewpoint. Don't hide your passion and commitment. That's like standing in the doorway and making it impossible for them to pass. Instead, use your passion and commitment in the service of your message. Become the doorway. Coaching Tip: Make it easy for your audience to give you what you want.

I hope this helps you on your leadership journey. Remember that negative actions in front of others have the potential to grow, whereas positive actions can only be destroyed by adverse circumstance.

** Is Your Team Following? ** Overall your results are in the top range. The following may trigger ideas for further refinement of your leadership approach. Your responses indicate that your team is more energized, active and committed in its behavior than it is clear on its goals and how it is expected to reach them. You have the chance to capture all of this energy and improve results by developing your own leadership abilities.

Some Specific Comments: Building Vision: Your group has the energy and knowledge to become a high-performance squad. Cross-functional teams are probably already delivering improvements. You should work towards becoming an expert practitioner at running core strategy executive meetings that stretch your team beyond out-of-the-box thinking. Aligning People: Your senior team members appear to have an attitude that really motivates people. They will benefit from owning their own strategy-development process and learning some of the methods of behavioral reinforcement that sustain high performance. Are your team members able to lead major change initiatives succeed you? Is their feedback to you working as well as you need? Leading Yourself: Your team members show excellent collaboration skills that reflect directly upon you. Congratulations! They appear eager to get involved in changing things for the better - the hallmark of success. Try them in

different team-leading roles. You should compensate yourself and them well as you move towards world-class performance. ** Is Your Strategy a Winner? ** Your responses indicate that you and your organization are well established at setting and maintaining the direction you want. Congratulations! Improvement is always necessary of course. The following are some specific suggestions to assist you in those areas that your self-evaluation suggests require particular attention. Some Specific Comments: Creating Vision: Your strategy development is well established. You are functioning at a high level, particularly if strategy is cascaded down the organization. You have probably been practicing these excellent behaviors for a number of years. Aligning People: People are well aligned and involved with the strategy, and managers appear to participate actively in strategy development. Continue to reinforce strategic direction at all company meetings. It may seem repetitive, but its advantages will become obvious. Leading Others: The strategy you and your team have developed is widely executed by managers. Have you learned how to flex the strategy-development process to reflect the organization's major priorities each year? Do human resources policies, such as performance management and succession planning, produce a sense of team spirit?

I hope this helps you on your own leadership journey. Remember that the ultimate authority must always rest with the individual leader's own reason and critical analysis. This is one of the burdens and joys of leadership.

*** How Well Are You Leading? *** Your responses indicate that you are already an accomplished leader within your organization. The following comments may trigger ideas for further development of your leadership approach. Your feedback regarding our approaches and material would also be most welcome. You indicate that you are better at leading your people than at defining and personally committing to the direction you want. If you are new to the job, this is to be expected. But if you have been the leader for more than three months or so, you should consider how effective your methods are in creating a successful direction. Your team may be well-motivated by your interpersonal style, but remember that successful performance improvement is the true purpose of leadership and the ultimate motivator.

Some Specific Comments: Building Vision: You probably have some type of mission or vision statement that outlines your organization's performance goals. Does your strategy-development process include a proper strategic horizon and initiatives for change? Can you define the three most important things that have to be done this year? Would all your team members agree on these? Have you established the critical competencies your organization needs to succeed? Aligning People: You appear to have the kind of skills that really motivate followers. This is essential to reaching high performance. Strategy development and behavioral reinforcement may be the key to improving performance. Are your team members able to lead major change initiatives and to succeed you? You may already practice feedback. Is it working well? Leading Yourself: You seem to have built the essential foundation for successful leadership at any age. You are eager to get involved in changing things for the better - the hallmark of success. You should be extending your personal leadership plan into personal career planning. Are you clear what will constitute a stretch performance for you and your organization in the future? How do you compensate for those leadership traits that occasionally let you down?

*** Are You In The Valley Of Despair? ***

Since your organization has not undergone a major disruption recently, you may be experiencing the Valley of Despair for other reasons. Do you feel like your superiors are adrift? Are you working harder than ever but getting less done? Do you find yourself complaining to colleagues? The Valley of Despair is visible by low morale for whatever

reason. Remember that your team members look to you, their leader, to help them restore their cohesiveness and sense of purpose.

You rated yourself as unmotivated for whatever reason-perhaps changes taking place around you. It's important that you recognize that when you are in the role of leader, every one of your subordinates makes the decision, consciously or unconsciously, to follow or not follow you on your journey. How you think, how you behave, how you demonstrate what you feel, what you say and what you stand for are vital to them in learning to trust you - and continuing to trust you. This applies even when they are at a distance, geographically, ideologically or organizationally. What can you do to improve your own morale and that of your team? The following are some suggestions based on your responses to our quiz. Your Future, Your Choice. In times of change, when it seems you need maximum comfort and stability from your leaders, the opposite may be true. Familiar patterns, like leadership, production and rewards, break down, and your level of discomfort may rise. In fact, many things you thought (and hoped) were under control, may not be as buttoned-down as you would like. Additionally, your superiors have exactly the same problem with their own bosses! Coaching Tip: This is the time to recognize that your future is under your control. Seek an independent view of your situation from someone you trust, and prepare to energize your career plan and tactics. Get ready for a possible move. Good luck! More Work Is Not The Answer. The situation you are in may call for long hours and tremendous effort. This is reasonable for those occasions when deadlines or critical improvements require a short burst of extra work. But you should not sustain such an effort over an extended period of time, and it certainly shouldn't feel like "the norm around here." That feeling you have of working harder while becoming less productive is created by the disruption to work processes as a result of change. You may feel this acutely if you are someone who needs to achieve a great deal. Is your relationship with time in balance, or is time controlling you? Coaching Tip: Balance between work and other parts of your life is now more important than ever. So put more effort into those other things, too! Try to maintain a healthy relationship with time. Activities with your family and friends, your hobbies, and your spiritual life are important paths out of the Valley. Misery Loves Company. It's one thing to discuss your changing situation with colleagues in order to get clarity, but it's quite another to be drawn into long, negative conversations with those who feel just as bad as you do. Some people like to share their misery and pull others into their "band of victims." These conversations often cause things to feel a lot worse than they really are! Coaching Tip: Don't engage in misery-sharing with colleagues. Recognize that your negative feelings are temporary and that they can be destructive if you unleash them in the wrong context. Suspend the impulse to get too involved in negative chitchat. When you do, you're being a good leader by leading your self well. This Valley is just one of many you will face on your leadership journey.