Thoughts on How to Give a Better Presentation

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

Presentations – some of us enjoy doing them, some of us hate to do them and most of us are stuck somewhere in between.  But almost all of us have to do them.  Unfortunately we often don’t do them well.

Guy Kawasaki in his book Enchantment has a few suggestions that might help.

Customize the introduction – be aware of your audience and somehow tailor the introduction to them.

Sell your dream – most of the time, what you are doing is communicating a “dream” for a better future for your audience. You’re not really trying to sell a product, introduce a program or a new ministry outreach.  You are “selling” them a better future for themselves or others.  Help them to think of what could be.

Think screenplay, not speech – telling a story is much more compelling than giving a speech.  Check out Nancy Duarte’s website and books for some great help in this area.

Dramatize – Use evocative pictures, dramatic videos and etc. to make your presentation exciting.  Provide inspiring information that moves people forward.

Shorten – for some reason we tend to think longer is better.  Actually the opposite is true.  Guy uses his guideline of 10-20-30. Ten slides in 20 minutes with no font smaller than 30.

Warm up the audience – Go early and meet the people you will be speaking to, circulate among them and greet them.  Have some fun and make some friends.

Speak a lot – in other words – practice.  The more you speak, the better you will become.

Some good tips in my opinion.  Also, I highly recommend Nancy Duarte’s materials – I have benefitted greatly from them.

Blessings on you today as you serve our Lord, BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a169b0

“Unstuck: 8 Characteristics of Healthy Systems” – by Tony Morgan

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

Good article by Tony Morgan on his blog about the characteristics of healthy sytems in a church.

“They empower leaders to accomplish ministry without always having to get permission.

They are embraced and championed by the top leadership.

They mobilize many people rather than leaning on a select handful of talented individuals.

They simplify the path.

They are established around key touch points in your organization.

They improve over time.

They need to change over time.

They are measured and monitored for trends.”

Good article and I recommend it to you – especially if you are responsible for the systems in your church.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a167x5

Teams vs. Stars

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

What would you rather have – a few exceptional individuals that are several levels above all those around them in expertise and productivity or a tight team of average people?

The common wisdom, especially in the high tech fields, is that you go for the exceptional individuals.  In fact, it has become something of an accepted truism in this area.  Facebook, LinkedIn, Groupon and etc. all seem to lean this way and go for the “stars” in their fields.

Apparently that has been successful to this point.  But how does that fare for the long-term?  Will a group of stars actually outperform a good team of average people in terms of the long view?

In a post on the Harvard Business Review blog, Bill Taylor co-founder of Fast Company magazine contends that the team will outperform the stars over the long-term. He uses some sports teams as examples as well as some companies that have lasted for a very long time.

In my personal experience a good team outperformed a group of stars.  I played football for a very small school.  We had a coach who had a deep understanding of leadership and how to build a team.  We were tight and played well together and we consistently beat teams from bigger schools that had much, much better athletes.  All because we had a leader that knew the importance of how to build a team and to get the best from each of us.

So personally I believe a good team of average people will outperform a group of stars over the long term.  What do you think?  It appears that Mr. Taylor’s article stirred up so much activity that he had to write a follow-up article.  Check it out and let me know your opinion on this subject.

Grace and peace to you as you serve our Lord, BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a164j5

“The Happiness Dividend”

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

Interesting post on the Harvard Business Review blog about the importance of happiness in the workplace.

Why is this lack of happiness at work important? Job satisfaction is not only the key predictor of turnover rates, inThe Happiness Advantage, I make the research case for the fact that the single greatest advantage in the modern economy is a happy and engaged workforce. A decade of research proves that happiness raises nearly every business and educational outcome: raising sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%, as well as a myriad of health and quality of life improvements. Yet even those companies that do take leadership training seriously still ignore the role that happiness plays in leadership effectiveness.

Interesting article and worth reading for your consideration.

Hope it is a great Saturday for you.  BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a15y1y

TGC Asks: Why Do You Ask God to Send Revival?

Amplify’d from thegospelcoalition.org

Del Fehnsenfeld, senior editor of Revive magazine, published by Life Action Ministries in Buchanan, Michigan:

Prayer for revival is a natural overflow of resurrection hope. The logic goes like this: the Bible is the story of how God is working in history to make everything new. Jesus is the central figure in the story. He dealt decisively with what is wrong with us and with the world on the cross, and proved it by rising from the dead and then pouring out his Spirit. And since the story ends with everything being put right or “summed up” in Jesus (Eph. 1:9-10), we know that God’s plan is to move history forward from where things are to that final climax. Thus God is always working by his Spirit to manifest and extend Jesus’ presence, honor, and authority.

But that process is not always incremental. We learn from both the Bible and church history that there are seasons when God’s Spirit works with extraordinary and undeniable power to rapidly move individuals, communities and even nations toward Jesus. This is revival. Knowing God’s final agenda helps me pray with confidence for the intensification, acceleration, and multiplication of the work of the Spirit right now! Read more at thegospelcoalition.org

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a15ry0

Have You Considered A Sabbatical?

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

Have you considered a sabbatical? It has been documented time and again that sabbaticals are a healthy thing, yet we as individuals and as organizations never seem to find the time.

For an organization, they become powerful tools for recharging your people and then for retaining them.  For an individual, they can be incredibly life-giving.

Michael Hyatt has a great post on the five benefits he received from the sabbatical he just finished. His observation was that a sabbatical gives you the opportunity to:

Recharge physically and emotionally. This is more important than you think. We were made to surge, then rest. We can’t just go, go, go, and expect to function optimally.

Slow down and enjoy being. God made us human beings, not human doings.

Reconnect with God. Everything in contemporary culture conspires against the pursuit of the only One who gives meaning to everything else.

Gain clarity on my priorities and goals.

To secure alignment with your spouse. As the prophet Amos asks, “How can two walk together unless they are in agreement?” (see Amos 3:3).

These are some powerful reasons to consider your own sabbatical.

So – what is preventing you from taking a sabbatical?  What are your next steps?

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a15rcv

How Good are Your Leadership Skills?

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.” – Peter Drucker

Often, one of the greatest impediments to our team’s effectiveness is us as is noted in Peter Drucker’s quote above.  We are often the limiter. In fact Joseph Juran, one of the fathers of the total quality movement, often stated that at least 80% of all quality issues were caused by management – not the workers.

It is critical as leaders that we are continuously learning and growing.  Also, that we are very self-aware, that we are conscious of the ways that we hinder our people and that we are in the process of addressing those issues.

The Mind-Tools site has a pretty good assessment tool to help you with seeing where you are in regards to your leadership skills.  Click here to take the assessment.

Grace and peace to you, BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a15phd

7 Questions to Ask Your Boss

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

As a leader, you are on a path of continuous growth and we need the input of others to develop well.

One of those people who can provide you valuable input is your boss.  I am not talking about an evaluation sort of thing, but of you being intentional and going to your boss and asking him or her some very specific questions about some key aspects of your role.

James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their excellent book, A Coach’s Guide to Developing Exemplary Leaders, give a list (one of many!) of seven questions to ask your boss to help determine how well you are in regards to “Modeling the Way” or setting the right example for your team.

So try asking your boss these questions:

“How well do my actions align with the organization’s goals and strategies?

How well does my performance align with the vision?

How well does my performance align with the values?

How well do I strengthen [constituent] relationships?

How do my actions affect others’ performance?

How well do I reinforce what we stand for – Model the Way?

How well do I demonstrate my personal commitment to team members?”

Some good questions that ought to be revealing and very helpful to you as you grow as a leader.

Have a great weekend.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a15fu1

One Way to Transform Your Work Day

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

Are you really satisfied with how your workday flows?  Do you have times of replenishing your energy throughout the day?  Are you energized at the end of the day or depleted and dreading getting back on the treadmill the next day?

Tony Schwartz, who consults with many Fortune 50 companies, is focused in this area of personal energy stewardship / management.  Check out his two sites, TonySchwartz.com and The Energy Project, for some great articles, tips and tools to help you manage your energy.

One key way to help transform your workday is to simply take back your lunch. Too many of us see our lunch time as simply more time to work on projects instead of a critical time to take a break, eat some nutritious energy giving food, and to pause and refresh our minds.  As Christians, it can also be a time of reconnecting with the Lord in the midst of a busy day.

So today – take back your lunch and become more effective in your ministry.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a158cj

Immediate Action Drills

Preparing yourself for the challenges of life.

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

When in combat, there are certain actions you need to take automatically. Pausing to try to figure out what you need to do could result in harm or death to you or others. To prepare soldiers the Army (at least they did a LONG time ago when I was in) drills and drills soldiers on how to react almost instinctively to certain situations such as an ambush. They called these exercises Immediate Action Drills. At a certain point, your reaction to certain situations becomes almost instinctive – which is the point.

The point is made that when Captain “Sully” Sullenberger was able to land his passenger jet on the Hudson River with no loss of life, it was due to years of training that enabled him to quickly make the right decisions almost instinctively. So, the questions is – how are you training yourself so that when you are in the midst of a crisis, you make the right decisions? I am talking now more about a personal crisis – a time when extreme pressure comes about to make a decision to possibly compromise your values, great personal loss and the many other things most of us face sometime in our lives. What are you doing to prepare yourself?

In his book, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, N. T. Wright talks about a threefold patter of character development.

Have the right goal – loving God and others.

Identify the steps to the goal – self-giving love, kindness, humility, forgiveness – and practicing these things until they become habit, they become your “natural” response to the challenges of life.

The power to implement these steps – following Jesus and depending on the Holy Spirit.

The key is to practice and practice doing these things until they become your instinctive response to situations. So that you do respond in self-giving love to others, so that kindness is a natural reponse, so that you are quick to forgive others.

The other key is to understand that it is not possible to do without the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is by His power that you are able to truly build these habits into your life.

Now when are you going to take some time to get before the Lord and design your training program?

Blessings on your week,

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1506c

Do you hate to wait?

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

Waiting is hard – but it is critical to our growth.  God often uses this time of “waiting” to shape and grow us.

Pastor Daniel Darling has a great guest post on this subject on Michael Hyatt’s blog.  It is well worth your time to read over this weekend.

Hope you have a blessed weekend!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a14umg

The Phoenix Checklist – A Thinking Tool

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

Problems or challenges often motivate leaders, but there are times when we come up dry or empty as we try to resolve an issue.  It just seems that our approach is not adequate to help us think through a situation thoroughly.  That is where Thinkertoys comes in.

Thinkertoys is one of my new favorite books.  It is chock full of thinking tools that will give you multiple creative options for problem solving.  One of these tools is the Phoenix Checklist which was originally developed by the CIA according to the author.

Thinkertoys has a “blueprint” section for each of the tools where the essentials are explained.  The blueprint for the Phoenix Checklist is:

Write your challenge – Isolate the challenge you want to think about and commit yourself to an answer, if not the answer, by a certain date.

Ask questions. Use the Phoenix Checklist to dissect the challenge into as many different ways as you can.

Record your answers. Information requests, requests, solutions, and ideas for evaluation and analysis.

That is the “blueprint” of this tool.  Following are a few examples of the questions on the checklist:

Why is it necessary to solve the problem?

What is the unknown?

What is it you don’t yet understand?

What isn’t the problem?

What are the boundaries of the problem?

What are the constants (things that can’t be changed) of the problem?

Have you seen this problem before in a slightly different form?

What are the best, worst, and most probable cases you can imagine?

There are many more questions on the checklists that are excellent.  Check it out – this is a great tool to add to your leadership toolbox.

Hope it is a great Wednesday for you!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a14rid

The 67th Anniversary of D-Day

URL:  http://www.army.mil/d-day/

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a14ouz

Seven Life Management Best Practices

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

Well, it is a beautiful morning here in southwest Michigan and it has been a great weekend with my family. Having made some changes in my life, I have found greater fulfillment and, even more importantly, my family is healthier and stronger.  More of my weekends are now centered on my family and other key relationships.  I have changed many of my life management habits and have grown stronger as a result.

Greg Salciccioli talks about this in chapter 4 of his book, The Enemies of Excellence, 7 Reasons Why We Sabotage Success.  In chapter 4 Greg talks about how bad life management habits often derail so many leaders.  I know that to be true for myself.  While I wasn’t “derailed”, I was much less effective, less fulfilled and frustrating my family.  I made changes which were hard at first, but have been some of the best decisions I have made yet.

Following are seven best practices Greg has identified – see which ones you might need to incorporate into your life:

Establish work boundaries.

Schedule vacations and personal planning times a year in advance.

Invest mornings in uninterrupted, high-priority activity.

Engage in daily exercise, providing emotional and mental relief as well as energy replenishment.

Use the afternoons for management, including meetings, phone calls, and e-mail.

Guard evenings and weekends for relationship connection and peraonal enjoyment.

Invest in outside insight from mentors, coaches, and trainers focusing on personal and professional growth.

Personally, I have greatly benefitted from implementing many of these practices into my own life and my life and that of my family is much richer as a result.

Making these changes is not easy, but it is worth the effort.

Grace and peace to you,

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a14nhc

Encouraging Your Team by “Speaking Their Language”

Amplify’d from bgallen.com

I have been out of the state for two weeks and it is good to get back to a routine and to not be living out of a suitcase!

Someone wrote somewhere that the lowest form of thinking is to think that others think like we do.  That also holds true in thinking that others like to be managed in the manner we personally prefer.  I have found this to be the case so often.  Personally I am an abstract thinker – just give me the big picture and the objective and I will figure it out.  However, whenever I am managing a concrete thinker in that manner, I end up frustrating them greatly.  They need more definition and not just a fuzzy idea.

When dealing with your team, it is important to know their “love language” and how to relate to them in a manner that is meaningful to them.  If a team member is motivated by words of affirmation, you need to be intentional about writing them notes of appreciation or going by their desk and giving them a verbal “pat on the back”.  If their “love language” is quality time, then you need to be intentional about scheduling regular times of uninterrupted conversation with them (TURN OFF your cell, e-mail and so on – they want your attention!).  Maybe they respond to gifts and there is a way to give them a gift card for a cup of coffee or a dinner out with their spouse.

I met with a very sharp leadership team a while back and it was interesting what they learned with just a few questions.  The senior leader was very wary of micromanaging but was frustrated with a leader who wasn’t being more proactive.  That subordinate leader, for his part, just assumed if the senior leader did not mention something specific, then it wasn’t important.  What the senior leader considered to be an empowering style of leadership (which is his preferred style) was actually frustrating to his subordinate leader as he needed more definitive guidance.  So with just a few questions and some discussion, they have come to a better understanding of how to work together.

The key is – you have to get to know your people and to realize that they are unique individuals that respond differently.  Learn their “love languages” and learn how they prefer to be managed.  It will be well worth your investment of time.

To learn more about the love languages click here.

Hope you have a great weekend!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a14fkt