What Do You Hide Behind?

February 20, 2018

Wasn’t Hide’n Seek a great game as a child?  I actually enjoyed it even more as an adult, when I would play with my children.  It was all any of us could do to not giggle if the seeker passed us.

But hiding is not always a good idea. I don’t mean hiding behind physical objects, or even people.  We have all seen children hide behind their parents.  As adults, I think we often hide in similar ways.

An adult may be hiding behind embarrassment or shyness, and using it as an excuse to not do more or not step out into a new role or face a new challenge.

Do you, or anyone you know, hide behind a job title?  I have seen this happen so many times!  Sometimes it’s a sign of superiority, as in, “I’m too good to do that task.”  Sometimes it’s just passing the buck – “This isn’t my department so someone else should do it.”  Sometimes it’s even done in social situations—when you meet someone and you learn they are on a different, lower, professional level, will you drop them?

Likewise, do you hide behind inferiority?  Do you tell yourself that you don’t deserve the opportunity or promotion?  That others have been there longer or are more deserving?  If so, are you hiding behind an inferiority complex?

There is such a thing as a fear of success.  The more successful I become, the more travel I have to do, and I dislike traveling.  I love teaching and guiding people to success, but I’d prefer to do it in my own backyard.  Still, if I want to be successful, it means traveling the globe and I continue to dislike hopping the pond.  So do I hide behind my dislike of travel and sabotage my future success?  Not intentionally, of course.  But it is possible that people have done so unintentionally, not realizing what was causing their failure to advance.

It is possible you are hiding behind a show of confidence.  I admit, I find myself doing this.  To almost everyone’s surprise, I’m a shy introvert.  Really.  So networking is very difficult for me.  So I assume what I believe is the personality of confidence.  It works so well that people are surprised to learn that I’m shy and introverted when they get to know me better.

You can hide behind your education and/or your alma mater.  You can hide behind your past and use it as an excuse to get ahead or a reason to not advance.  You can switch the word excuse in the last sentence with the word reason if it makes you feel better.

You need to be your real self. There is no reason to hide.  Age and experience helps us see that.  It’s okay to dance like nobody is watching, but only if you are a dancer and want to dance.  Dancing to fit in or for some other reason isn’t the real you.

Be authentic.  Be genuine. Stop hiding behind good or bad reasons.  Step out . . . and live your life!

 

Lindy is a Speaker, Consultant, and Business Author, currently living in Atlanta, GA, and available to answer your questions anywhere in the world. Focusing on Communication, Leadership, and Corporate Culture, you can be more successful with Lindy as your Consultant. Learn more at www.LindySpeaks.com or www.EarlMarketing.com.

 

Two Parts of a Presentation

Blog 119                                                                                                                    February 6, 2018

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  I know the answer, but it’s not relevant here.  So why start here?  Because every paper, every presentation, even every conversation, has a beginning.  A good paper and presentation, and possibly even a conversation, has an ending.  There is usually important information in the middle as well, but as the rule of primacy and recency states, the information in the middle is the most likely to be forgotten.

There are two parts of every presentation.  Every presentation is a combination of the content as well as how it is presented.  We have all seen poor presentations of good material.  In fact, I saw one just this morning.  A local Mayor had obviously not planned the presentation he was sharing, so he read the slides to his audience.  The information presented was factual if not actually intriguing, but the presentation was pretty bad.  In fairness, the Mayor is a good speaker, but he did not present well this morning.

Good content is needed for every presentation. How often have you heard someone cram ten minutes of information into a forty minute presentation?  Painful, wasn’t it? If you don’t have anything useful and helpful to say, by all means say nothing.  A short presentation of only a few pertinent points is far stronger, and much more appreciated, than a longer presentation of irrelevant, dull, or innocuous information.  So, do your homework and find information that needs to be heard.  If you can’t, chuck the presentation.

Again, we have all been subjected to poor presentations due to content:  Often too little information given way too slowly, or data or information that is such common knowledge you wonder why anybody believes it needs to be presented at all.  Sometimes even absolutely incorrect information.  I once sat through a meeting listening to the Director of Communications give an erroneous definition of Communication to a room full of Pastors.  The worst part was listening to people congratulate the speaker afterwards.  It was all bad information, but the balloons made the event festive.

Which brings us to part two, which is equally important, the how you present.  If you feel you need to decorate the room to enhance your presentation, you may need to rethink what you’re saying or how you’re saying it, and maybe both.

Bad presentations have a lot of things in common – they are often read.  If you are going to read to your audience, do everyone a favor and email your notes, allowing everyone to stay home and read your presentation themselves.  One of the challenges that all too often accompanies reading, is turning your back on your audience.  Really?  This isn’t high school and it’s not high school in the 1970’s before computers and laptops were common place.

I would think, based on experience, the single largest mistake I have witnessed in presentations is quite simply a failure to practice.  Saying you have gone over it in your head is NOT practicing.  That’s like a musician practicing in their mind.  Would you accept that from a student learning any instrument? Of course not!  The importance of giving your presentation, often repeatedly until you know and can present it well, cannot be overstated.  Do the work!

Beyond the practicing, make sure your verbal and non-verbal communication are excellent.  If you have the ability to write a great presentation but cannot deliver it equally well, ask someone else to do so.  Why have your knowledge suffer in translation?  If your skills are good, work to improve them.  Modulate your tone. Make sure you do not laugh at, or through, your jokes. Be careful to never yell.  If you do yell, your audience, without knowing why, may feel attacked and won’t even be able to explain what happened, they just know they left feeling bad.

If you can entertain and educate your audience from one place, by all means stand still and talk.  There is nothing wrong with remaining in one place.  If you’re comfortable roaming the aisles or cutting between tables, and it does not distract from your presentation, that’s fine.  Whatever you can do to enhance your presentation is great.  If, however, you are walking back and forth because you were trained to not stand still, you will look like a caged animal pacing their cage.  Don’t do that.

A lot of work goes into a good presentation.  If someone tells you how easy and fun it is to be a public speaker, it’s possible that they don’t do it well.  There are groups for these people where they can learn how to improve.  A mirror and some practice time will help as well.

When you give a good presentation, you are asking people to give you their attention and their time.  Make it worth their cost.

 

Lindy is a Speaker and Business Consultant to International and Domestic firms.  Contact her for more information at LMEarl@EarlMarketing.com or Lindy@LindySpeaks.com.