Trump versus Clinton Debate One – Body language and speech analysis

What type of leaders are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – based on their spoken messages, style, look and body language? Is there anything they need to do to win over voters?AdobeStock_71024322(1) (Large)

When voters make judgements on whom to vote for, they ask themselves questions such as: ‘Do I like the candidate?, Do I trust the candidate?,

Can I emotionally identify with the candidate?, Does the candidate have integrity?, Does the candidate have the bearing and the world view of a leader of state?, Will the candidate be competent?’Continue reading

Wind, Passenger, Anchor metaphor – which one are you?

“Thinking for yourself means finding yourself, finding your own reality. Here’s the other problem with Facebook and Twitter and even The New York Times. 

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When you expose yourself to those things, especially in the constant way that people do now—older people as well as younger people—you are continuously bombarding yourself with a stream of other people’s thoughts.

You are marinating yourself in the conventional wisdom. Continue reading

A true story about deep knowledge versus ‘chauffer knowledge’

“After receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918, Max Planck went on tour across Germany. Wherever he was invited, he delivered the same lecture on new quantum mechanics. Over time, his chauffeur grew to know it by heart.AdobeStock_79283356 (Small)

“It has to be boring giving the same speech each time, Professor Planck. How about I do it for you in Munich? You can sit in the front row and wear my chauffeur’s cap. That’d give us both a bit of variety.”

Continue reading

Is a bias for taking action costing you?

“In a penalty situation in soccer, the ball takes less than o.3 seconds from the player who kicked the ball to the goal. There is not enough time for the goalkeeper to watch the ball’s trajectory. AdobeStock_51384973 (WinCE) He(she) must make a decision before the ball is kicked. Soccer players who take penalty kicks shoot one third of the time at the middle of the goal, one third of the time at the left, and one third of the time at the right.Continue reading

Specific ways to confidently close a 1:1 meeting

In a workshop I conducted for the CEO Institute a year or two ago, one of the CEOs commented that he had been in the audience where a conference speaker started his presentation very well,  grabbing the attention of everyone, but then trailed off – in effect abusing the attention of the audience.AdobeStock_53455407 (WinCE)Continue reading

My best technique to not day dream

Bored White Collar Worker Throwing Paper Airplane In OfficeIn 1998 Linda Stone, former Vice President of Microsoft, coined the term continuous partial attention. Stone is quoted in, Your Brain at Work David Rock’s book, as saying that: 

“To pay continuous partial attention is to keep a top-level item in focus, and constantly scan the periphery in case something more important emerges”.

I acknowledge that in some situations it is important to have CPA (continuous partial attention). However, CPA can have damaging consequences.

Here’s why. If you have continual partial attention during your working day and during your interactions, it will be difficult for you to shift from CPA to giving full attention to an event or interaction.

That is, the cumulative impact of CPA will undermine you when, for example, you want to give full attention to an ‘A’ class customer or prospect. You may be perceived by the other person as not fully there and you’ll also miss out on subtle voice and body language signals that the other person displays.

Rather than CPA, aim to be fully present at a task or during an interaction. Even for short periods of time this can be done (approach it as a behavioural skill that can be developed).

For example, if someone asks for 30 seconds of your time, aim to be fully present during that 30 seconds.

In a meeting, one way to cue yourself to be fully present is to write DBAE (Don’t Be Anywhere Else) in the right hand corner of your meeting notepad/agenda. You can also imagine the DBAE letters on the forehead of the person you’re interacting with.

With repeated practice of DBAE in your interactions, you’ll develop that habit of full attention. You’ll be able to switch between various types of interactions, chance encounters, meetings and sales presentations and be fully present.

Sometimes, though, you might know in advance that you won’t be able to fully attend in an interaction because there are numerous things on your mind. Knowing this, (for example in a chance encounter) you might tell a person you don’t have 30 seconds.

You might say, “Finbar – I can’t give you my full attention now – catch me later in the day, say after 3:00pm. ok?”

Your CALL to action/HOW to apply for this post: In the next seven days, in your meetings, write DBAE in the top right hand corner of your meeting pad/agenda to cue you to maintain full attention.

Check out more speaking advice from radio luminary Angela Catterns