Act confident. Be confident. Keep delivering the presentation and ignore your mistakes. Even if the audience notices any mistakes, they’ll take more notice if you lose your composure.
Search engines are your friend. A quick suggestion from a web search and a few minutes of testing might give just as good a solution as hours on the phone with tech support.
Place the puzzle pieces face up. The puzzle is easier to solve when you can glimpse pieces of the picture. Show your work. Some concepts are easier to understand after pulling them together in a single view.
At the end of the day I ran through my presentation and talked through it as if narrating while both envisioning and performing steps. This gave me a mindful practice run where I performed and observed my presentation simultaneously. I’ve heard of the benefits of visualization and this allowed me to marry two forms of preparation. This approach helped me increase my focus instead of just going through the motions.
I give many presentations. Much of the content is redundant. I’ve created templates to cover various business requirements. Add or remove modular templates to quickly construct a full presentation based on current needs. Using this approach you can decrease your preparation time and the risk of errors. This strategy can also be applied to questions that you receive frequently. For presentations you can keep unused templates in the backup to address any questions. You will appear far more prepared without a significant increase in effort.
I went to a town hall where the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world was speaking. I positioned myself next to the aisle and waited for the end of the meeting. When the CEO finished speaking I stood and waited for him and his bodyguards to pass. As the CEO was walking up the stairs of the auditorium aisle I waited for his view of me to open then confidently said, “Thank you.” He was clearly not expecting anybody to say a word to him but reacted quickly. His head swiveled to me as he smiled and brightly responded, “See ya!” My associates behind me didn’t see or hear my side of the conversation but were all surprised to see the personal acknowledgement I received. I’ve since used this story multiple times to tell others how I’ve spoken with a top CEO.
What if you were trying to pitch an idea with marker on whiteboard or pen on napkin? How could you convey a memorable message with a drawing? After drawing a symbol, simply explain it. This will convey the meaning to the audience and give a visual cue by which to remember the concept. Your goal is to convey a concept, not to sell a work of art.
I was preparing a professional presentation for delivery. I took notes during an untimed dry run of my demonstration which helped me memorize key points and refine my content delivery while also illuminating gaps in the presentation.
I couldn’t find a solution to a problem in any of the available resources. I recorded my questions and moved on. Not long after my mentor was able to quickly answer several questions and provide context. Time saved. More learned. Momentum and energy retained.
When I finish my highest value work first, it gets my best brain cells. The rest of the day is less stressful knowing my most important tasks were done best.
Create templates. Creating a time entry template saved me not only time in entry, but also a notable amount of cognitive strain involved in counting hours on a 24-hr clock and matching against an associated activity tracker. The template took care of counting, time per day, total hours, manual entry in web fields, and start and end times. The template eliminated more than 80% of the steps in the process and the steps eliminated were the most time consuming and cognitively challenging.
When considering multiple variables, you can put them down on paper, spreadsheet, or whiteboard. You will intuitively begin organizing the information and identifying trends and relationships.
Get in the same room with a collaborator. Information and nuance are exchanged at lightspeed when face to face. The room can be physical, digital, or metaphorical. Don’t limit yourself. Communication is too valuable to needlessly handicap.
I started a training program that required eight different learning modules. However, the organization released a separate, overlapping training program. The redundant work initially made me angry. After looking through the details, I had an epiphany. I sent my manager an email. I reframed the disruption as an opportunity to streamline my training. The result was one month of training instead of four.
While learning a complex application, I struggled to find the answer to a couple of questions. I took some time to explore the software and stumbled on a seemingly mundane menu option. At first I was going to ignore it and move on, but I paid attention to my curiosity and clicked on the link. Another dimension of the interface opened to me and I quickly found the answer to my earlier questions.
While following instructions pause to look around periodically and get your bearings. You’ll learn more about each step of the process and how it contributes to the whole.
Document your work, particularly when making assumptions to get to a solution. Writing down your decision-making process is a powerful tool. You can leverage it for future decision-making, learning about yourself, or expanding your understanding of the issues.
Before a phone call prepare your key points to cover and place them in writing in front of you. If the conversation goes off the rails it will help you bring it back on track. If making calls near a computer (practically mandatory in today’s work environment) you can quickly type those in Word, Notepad, or any text editor. You will likely see an improvement in the quality and efficiency of those conversations.
Look your kid in the eyes when speaking with her. This simple technique raises the level of connection. It’s especially important when your child is speaking to you. It will greatly amplify the value of the exchange. You can see the appreciation exuded in your child’s eyes and face. Long after the words or ideas are forgotten the emotion and value of that connection will remain.
Online CPE learning can be completed by downloading the attached documents and going straight to the test. Listening to all the videos may give some additional insights, but the test questions often require searching for specific details in the text. Cut the time from 120 minutes down to 20 minutes of research.