Author Archives: Jim
Leadership: Give them encouragement!
In my favourite film of all time, Field of Dreams, farmer Ray Kinsella tells his wife of his plan to raise their crops to the ground so he can build a baseball stadium so that famed baseball players can come back from the dead to play again.
Her response…“If you really think you should do this, you should do it!”
Do we show enough true support when people come to us with their ideas?
Image attribution: CC image courtesy of you get the picture on Flickr
Professional speaker secret
“If you aspire to be one of the best in your field, ask yourself every day – How can I do this better?”
…the great Patricia Fripp, award winning speaker, executive speech coach and sales presentation trainer, who delivered two training courses I attended, one in San Francisco, U.S.A., the other in Sydney, Australia .
Bonus secret – there’s some great stuff on her website.
Food for thought?
Who’s responsible in your business?
Are you clear who is responsible for each of the key tasks in your business?
Do you , like Apple, as highlighted in Adam Lashinskys excellent book Inside Apple, have DRIs?…Directly Responsible Individuals?
Or is it all a bit vague with perhaps two people responsible for some things, and maybe teams of people responsible for others? If so, thats just not good enough!
Make sure every action list or meeting record you create has the task, the deadline and the DRI…solely, singly, and alone. Accountable.
OK?
Lean in to life’s opportunities!
This excellent article from Forbes magazine, by Mary Kopczynski, calls on women to lean in and accept the opportunity to speak at events, a sentiment I heartily support.
I am also reminded of the need for both men and women to lean in and accept more of the opportunities of all types that life presents.
All too often in the past, I for one, have held back too often, when the answer was, lean in and accept the opportunity!
Image attribution: CC image courtesy of jCarlitos on Flickr
What’s your dream for your next presentation?
It was so good a speech that several years ago we all celebrated its 50th birthday. So good, it helped change the world. So good, it stirs your soul just reading it.
“I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
So, with all that in mind, what are your aspirations for your next presentation?
Image attribution: CC image courtesy of UIC Digitlal Collections on Flickr
Are you making the right choices in your business?
Strategy. Some people over-complicate it. They intimate that it is a subject only for business gurus and multi-national companies.
No. Strategy is simple. It is an essential practice for all business owners.
Strategy is about making specific choices to win in the marketplace.
As A. G. Lafley, former Chairman and CEO, Proctor & Gamble, and Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management stated,
“Strategy is an integrated set of choices that uniquely positions the firm in its industry so as to create sustainable advantage and superior value relative to the competition”.
Setting a strategy is about choosing to win.
Are you choosing to win in your marketplace?
Image attribution: CC image courtesy of Skinnyde on Flickr
Be a better presenter!
Garr Reynolds is a world renowned guru on presentations.
Here’s one of his presentations….a reminder to us all that we can do better with our next audience.
Presentation tips for teachers all!
Life: Don’t give up. Turn up. And take your boots!
I was never very good at football. Just an enthusiastic left back. Eventually, my team Richmond Amateurs, gave up on me and dropped me.
“Do I stay at home on Saturday afternoons and miss out on all the fun or do I turn up at the games with my boots…just in case?”
For once, I did not back down in the face of adversity and you can guess the rest…the opportunity to regain my position soon presented itself!
Don’t give up. Turn up. With your boots!
Where can you take them today?
Image attribution: CC image courtesy of noodlepie on Flickr