Present like Steve Jobs by BNET

Everyone knows Steve Jobs of Apple Inc can hold and electriffy and wow an audience like nobody else in this world! Here are some tips from the above video by BNET.

1. Set the Theme - Be clear and consistent.

2. Provides an outline - Open and close each section for your presentation.

3. Use exciting words to share your enthusiasm - Wow your audience. Use words like : "incredible", "awesome" ,"extraordinary", "cool" etc. If you're not passionate about your offerings, why should your audience be?

4. Make numbers meaningful - Place numbers in context as they may not mean much alone.

5. Be easy on the eyes - Go visual and be interesting.

6. Treat your presentation like a show - Have a dramatic flair, have ebbs and flows and have videos and guest speakers if possible.

7. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse - The chances are we won't have the resources to have rockstars or great resources available as Jobs does but we have time. Use that time to rehearse your presentation inside out.

8. "And one more thing.." - Let you audience think you have given them an added bonus.

To sum up, a presentation does not have to be dull - it can be a show to entertain, educate and above all, an experience to remember for your audience. Your product/service will be appreciated all the much more thanks to that!

Manage your Business Better with Action Coach Jeevan - BFM Podcast available

Is your team soaring or bogged down by these issues?

This week on BFM's Raise Your Game - Action Coach, Jeevan Sahadevan was on BFM to discuss eight team issues that may affect your business. Here are some takeaways!

The first four were covered in this 22 minute podcast and the next four will be covered next week.

Find the podcast here.

The four issues which were highlighted by Jeevan in the podcast were:

1) Trust - Is your sales team really out there selling? When there is a lack of trust, comes office politics in your company.

2) Laziness - Lack of Motivation/problem with work attitude?

3) Fear of Conflict - Pretty common I say in Asian context as we tend to be more passive aggressive or run away from any conflicts rather than solve it.

4) Lack of Commitment - Your team doesn't buy into your company's ideas.

Sounds familiar?

Here are some key take-aways to help overcome these problems:

a) Communicate and Build Trust Keep the lines of communication open and get to know people personally. Establish this by doing what Jeevan does to ALL his clients - At every team meeting, have a "WHISTLE" which stands for WHAT I FEEL LIKE EXPRESSING where the team goes around the table and everyone can express anything on their mind. The only rule is to noone else can speak when one is expressing him/herself. This gives a chance for employees to praise, criticize or get something off their chest.

The boss always goes last giving a chance to control the meeting. Overall this can be a chance to share and get to know each others. Sounds a bit touchy feely or unrealistic?

Initially, this may not kick of well but after sometime, people tend to open up according to Jeevan. In his words, usually the "effects are spectacular" and you get to learn something about everyone.

b) Trust - Give trust first and benefit of the doubt to your team. Have faith in your team.

c) Laziness is down to attitude. Pay attention to their attitude rather than paper qualifications. Hire hungry people who have something to prove.

d) Have a Mission Statement and set targets/a report mechanism. This way your team will know what to work towards and buy into your company's objectives on the big picture level and also exactly what they need to achieve and how they can contribute to achieve that big objective.

e) Feedback on the a Job Well Done - We always talk about customer feedback but what about feedback to your team on the good stuff, ie: "Just yesterday our client was really happy with the product we sold/The client was really happy with the great service you gave!"

Such feedback to your team would let them know that their efforts are helping the company and affirming their behaviour. Sometimes we can be quick to criticise, why not be quick to praise a job well-done?

Great takeaways, yes? Watch out this coming week for Part 2!

- Gotta love BFM and their Enterprise Series on Weekdays!

Disclosure: Unsolicited Post. Just somewhat a BFM fan-boy.