Have you ever presented an idea in a meeting that was met with silence only to have someone a short time later present a nearly identical idea and receive an enthusiastic response? When that happens, people feel understandably frustrated or even marginalized. There are many reasons that this happens, but often it boils down to not confidently grabbing people’s attention and clearly articulating your idea.

In addition to building a solid reputation and strong credibility over time, there are 5 things you can do to grab attention and get your ideas heard.

1. Speak up.

People who speak with greater projection not only grab attention, but also sound more confident. If you are naturally soft-spoken, this will take a bit of effort. I find that it is helpful for some people to imagine speaking to someone at the farthest corner of the room. People who struggle with this often feel like they are yelling even though those around them say they are speaking in an average volume. It is especially important as you begin speaking to be loud enough to grab attention. If you can relate to this, ask for feedback as you continue to find your volume.

2. Use your body.

Your body is a valuable tool to help you grab and keep attention. Leaning forward signals that you have something to contribute and draws attention to you. Use purposeful gestures to hold attention and illustrate points. People who fidget look nervous, which can cause others to doubt ideas. Keep your hands on the table when you speak, and don’t play with pens, rings, paper or other distracting objects.

3. Make eye contact.

Making eye contact as you’re sharing an idea not only helps people stay engaged, it increases your confidence. Make sure to connect with everyone in the meeting. Don’t avoid intimidating people or focus exclusively on people with whom you feel most comfortable.

4. Speak clearly and concisely.

People can’t support an idea they don’t understand. Rambling and repeating yourself will only confuse people or cause them to lose interest. Either way, you lose. We have helped thousands of people learn how to clearly and concisely present their ideas. With practice, you can become very good at it.

5. Manage your pace.

People who speak slowly have a difficult time keeping others engaged. If you want people to listen, pick up the pace. Just be careful not to speak so quickly that people can’t keep up. It is also important to adapt your pace for your audience. If you are sharing an idea with a group of slower-paced, analytical people, slow your pace to give them a chance to consider the idea. On the other hand, if you have a group of high energy, fast-paced people in the meeting, you will lose them if you don’t speak quickly.

When you put all of these together, you are much more likely to confidently share your idea and keep listeners engaged. The days of your idea falling on deaf ears only to have it positively received when someone else shares it will be over.

Do you experience frustration in getting your ideas heard? How is it impacting you, your teams and your customers? If you’d like help in learning to confidently and clearly present your ideas and get them heard, contact Dr. Heather Johnson to discuss options that can be customized for you.

Dr. Heather Johnson is an internationally recognized speaker with extensive experience developing leaders.  With a doctorate in Psychology and over 30 years of business experience, she works with leaders to quickly identify individual and team performance obstacles and develops customized solutions that lead to rapid change and lasting results. Heather facilitates public and in-house workshops that deliver personalized, practical, and immediate results.  Some of her most requested topics are: Influence, Emotional Intelligence, Team Building, Communication, and Strategic Planning. For more information call contact us here or call 651-210-6021.

Do you need to influence up?
Influencing others is a critical skill for anyone in a leadership position. You may influence peers, your team, vendors, customers, and, of course, executives. Although the foundations of influence apply to all audiences, the five tips below will help you influence executives.

1. Clearly state what you want

Executives, more than any other audience are looking for the bottom line. They are listening for what you want and whether or not you make a good case for it. Tell them at the beginning what you want, make a clear case for it, and end with a direct call to action.

2. Be concise

No rambling. Focus on the big picture instead of details. Although there are always exceptions, executives want presentations to be very brief. As you review your content, continually ask yourself if points are essential to achieving your purpose. If not, cut them out and focus on what is.

3. Make your points clear

Executives listen for the main points. Make sure yours are clear.

This will increase the likelihood that they hear and remember your points. Your points will only compel action if they are heard.

4. Prepare for smooth, logical delivery

Choppy delivery is often perceived as nerves, which can cause executives to lose confidence in your message. Don’t make the mistake so many others do and over-prepare for executives. When you do that, you’ll sound canned. They will likely disengage and then hammer you with questions to see if you really know what you’re talking about. Prepare enough so you know your points cold, but don’t memorize every word.

5. Exude confidence

The more confident you look and sound, the more confident executives feel. When they feel confident, there are fewer questions and you are more likely to achieve your purpose. Make eye contact with even the most intimidating executive. Speak with a strong voice and eliminate fillers.

Executives are a unique audience and require a unique approach. The next time you prepare for an executive audience, apply these five tips to help ensure your success.

Dr. Heather Johnson is an internationally recognized speaker with extensive experience developing leaders.  With a doctorate in Psychology and over 20 years of business experience, she works with leaders to quickly identify individual and team performance obstacles and develops customized solutions that lead to rapid change and lasting results. Heather facilitates public and in-house workshops that deliver personalized, practical, and immediate results.  Some of her most requested topics are: Influence, Emotional Intelligence, Team Building, Communication, and Strategic Planning. For more information call contact us here or call 651-210-6021.

The presentation you thought you nailed didn’t get the buy-in you anticipated.

You didn’t understand why your boss wasn’t thrilled with your results on the project because you thought you did it just the way he asked.

The meeting you had with your direct report left you feeling frustrated…he just didn’t listen. Did you?

Influencing others requires many things to come together: a logical presentation of information, credibility, and conviction in your message for starters. We often forget the impact listening has on whether we are successful when influencing.  Effective listening leads to greater understanding and credibility providing us with a gateway to influence.

While most people would agree that listening is a critical skill to develop, few understand the nuances of listening that can make or break the ability to influence.  There are five approaches to listening. The most effective influencers go beyond active listening and learn to use each of the five approaches effectively.

The five approaches to listening:

1. Appreciative listeners simply enjoy the interaction and listen for enjoyment, humor, and to connect  with others.
2. Empathic listeners listen to understand others better.  They try to understand both the speaker’s  perspective and emotions.
3. Comprehensive listeners focus on the main ideas.  They are naturally good at identifying  problems and opportunities even when people are disorganized.
4. Discerning listeners pay attention to details others miss. They minimize distractions and listen for  specific, detailed information.
5. Evaluative listeners listen for information that will help them evaluate or judge the accuracy of the  speaker or the content.  They verify facts and don’t tolerate exaggerations or inconsistencies.

Understanding to what degree you naturally use each of the five approaches will help you be more influential in all settings.  Using the wrong approach to listening in a given situation may lead to missed information, damaged credibility, and lack of buy-in among other things.

Consider the following examples:

Jennifer is an IT Director presenting a change to her team of 20.  Jennifer’s natural listening style is a combination of comprehensive and evaluative listening.  We tend to present information the same way we like to hear it.  For Jennifer, that means a clear concise message with proven facts to back it up. That is exactly how she presented this change, so why didn’t her team get on board with the change?

The primary style of many of the engineers in the room was a combination of discerning and evaluative approaches.  That meant that they wanted much more detail about how the change was going to be implemented, their role in the change, and how it would ultimately impact them.  While they appreciated the facts Jennifer provided, they found her argument too high level and vague to be influenced by it.  Jennifer would have had a much better chance at influencing this group if she had adapted her approach to their listening style and provided them the details they needed to get on board.

Tom is a customer service representative who fielded a call from an angry customer.  He listened to the customer until he thought he understood the problem and checked with the customer to make sure he got it right.  Tom was relieved when the customer confirmed that he got it and proceeded to move forward with the solution.  While the customer’s frustration diminished, it didn’t dissipate altogether. Why would a customer still be frustrated after Tom solved his problem?

Tom’s comprehensive listening approach enabled him to quickly determine and solve the problem. That wasn’t the only thing the customer needed, however.  When people are experiencing strong emotions like this customer was, they also want empathic listening – someone to just listen to them vent and hear how difficult the problem made their lives.  The ideal response to this customer would have been if Tom would have listened empathically first and heard the customer out and then moved on to comprehensive listening to solve the problem.  Had Tom adapted his listening style with this customer, he would have been more likely to have a promoter at the end of the call.

At what point in a meeting should the appreciative approach be used?  Which of the approaches do the most successful sales people use?  How is the listening style of a leader different from a manger? These are just some of the questions that can be answered by better understanding the five approaches to listening and how to adapt your style to your audience for more effective influence.

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Dr. Heather Johnson is a nationally recognized speaker with extensive experience developing leaders.  With a doctorate in Psychology and over 20 years of business experience, she works with leaders to quickly identify individual and team performance obstacles and develops customized solutions that lead to rapid change and lasting results. Heather facilitates public and in-house workshops that deliver personalized, practical, and immediate results.  Some of her most requested topics are: Influence, Emotional Intelligence, Team Building, Communication, and Strategic Planning. For more information call contact us here or call 651-210-6021.

Everyone whose success depends on the ability to influence can benefit from learning how to use the power of story effectively. Whether you are telling the story of your business or illustrating a point, stories are an effective way to engage and relate to your listeners.  A well-told story gets attention and drives home points in a way nothing else can. Stories create a visual image and connect emotionally in a way that grabs attention and gets remembered. When you tell a story effectively, your listeners will remember it long after they remember anything else that you may have said.

Effective stories don’t just happen.

They all share certain characteristics that you can learn as well.  Below you will find five keys to telling powerful stories that you can start with to increase your ability to influence.  Apply them each time you tell a story for maximum impact.

1. Make it personal – The best stories come from your personal experiences.  First, because you are emotionally connected to your experience, you will naturally convey more emotion when retelling it.  This will enable you to connect better with your listeners.  Second, your preparation time with a personal story is much shorter because you already know what happened and don’t have to try to commit it to memory.   You have experiences every day that can be turned into engaging, purposeful stories.  It is just a matter of creating a list so you have them when you need them.
2. Keep it genuine – If you aren’t telling the truth, listeners will know and you’ll lose credibility.  In addition, there is a natural passion and ease that comes from recounting an experience that connects you with your listeners in a way exaggeration or fabrication can’t.
3. Co-create a mental picture – Allow your listeners to experience the story with you.  Create a mental picture that puts them right in the middle of it feeling what you felt and experiencing what you experienced.   For example, “The flaky pie crust made a slight crunching sound as my fork cut through it allowing the smell of warm cherries to escape.  As I took my first bite, each smooth, plump cherry exploded with intense sweet flavor.  I smiled as I enjoyed the reward I had given myself for achieving my goal.”   The best mental picture engages all 5 senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.
4. Use variety in tone and movement – Vary the tone, pitch, speed and volume of your voice to engage your listeners. Research shows that using gestures that help your listeners “see” your experience also helps them remember it.  Keep in mind, variety of both tone and movement grab attention and add energy to your story.
5. Tie your story down – A tie down is a tool for reiterating a point and is critical when telling stories.  Make sure you clearly tell your listeners the point of the story.  Too often we mistakenly think the point is so clear no one will miss it. That simply isn’t the case.  Many people tell a great story and then lose the impact in the end because they didn’t tie it down.  You are telling the story for a reason.  Make sure that reason is crystal clear to each listener.  For example, “Just as I used that pie as a reward for achieving my personal goal, we all need to come up with ways to celebrate our successes, even the small ones.”

Storytelling is an invaluable tool for anyone whose personal or professional success depends on the ability to influence. Adhering to these 5 keys is a great start to adding story as a tool for your success.

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Dr. Heather Johnson is a nationally recognized speaker with extensive experience developing leaders.  With a doctorate in Psychology and over 20 years of business experience, she works with leaders to quickly identify individual and team performance obstacles and develops customized solutions that lead to rapid change and lasting results. Heather facilitates public and in-house workshops that deliver personalized, practical, and immediate results.  Some of her most requested topics are: Influence, Emotional Intelligence, Team Building, Communication, and Strategic Planning. For more information call contact us here or call 651-210-6021.