Personal Impact at Work in a Week: Teach Yourself Ebook Epub

Teach Yourself

Christine Harvey

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781444180404
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

The ability to present yourself in such a way as to make an impact, is crucial to anyone who wants to advance their career.Written by Christine Harvey, a leading expert on business communication, this book quickly teaches you the insider secrets you need to know to in order to make a difference at work.The highly motivational 'in a week' structure of the book provides seven straightforward chapters explaining the key points, and at the end there are optional questions to ensure you have taken it all in. There are also cartoons and diagrams throughout, to help make this book a more enjoyable and effective learning experience.So what are you waiting for? Let this book put you on the fast track to success!

Anyone can address a group, providing they have the courage, but how many can grab and hold the attention of their listeners and have high impact? The answer is, not many.

More often than not, their openings are lacklustre. These include what we call the ‘housekeeping’ start, the ‘apology’ start, the ‘humble speaker’ start, and the ‘ho-hum’ start. These openings discourage your listeners, put them to sleep and make them wish they hadn’t come. Don’t let this happen to you. Instead, use dynamic openings and ways to grab attention immediately.

We must continue to hold attention throughout our presentations, whether in meetings at work, or in prestigious conferences of all sizes.

Today you’ll learn 13 ways to grab attention in the beginning and hold it throughout the beginning, middle and end. These include:

Power openings

The use of questions – with and without answers

Audience participation

Using objects to hold the attention

Creating suspense

Power closings

Social media applications

Power openings

How often have you gone to a meeting or conference with high expectations, only to have those expectations dashed by a long or boring kick-off?

Just yesterday I heard this conference opening: ‘I was just given this list 30 seconds ago by Jane, so don’t blame me if I come across unprepared!’ What a derogatory start! Firstly, it reflects badly on the speaker for not taking responsibility for preparing himself, and for blaming a colleague. Secondly, it reflects badly on Jane, his colleague. Thirdly, it reflects badly on his organization for not ensuring better preparation. And last but not least, it leaves the listeners totally discouraged and uninspired about what is to follow! This is a variation of the ‘apology opening’ which you’ll read about soon.

Openings are best without preamble. Our purpose as presenters is to grab the attention of the listener immediately. Personally, I want to be able to hear a pin drop within 10 seconds of my opening words. You should aim for the same, even as a beginning presenter.

How can you do this? Go straight into your story/incident as you learned in the previous chapter. Let’s say your subject is education. After thanking your introducer, you might say: ‘My first child had tremendous problems at school reading and consequently … ‘. By starting this way, you have grabbed your audience. They are now ready to hear more. Don’t make the mistake of starting with: ‘Tonight I want to speak about education, its advances, and its shortcomings. From the early part of the century …’. That shouts ‘boring, boring.’ Today’s audiences are used to quick-pace media and they want a quick start. If you feel it’s important to state your topic, say it briefly after your personal story, once you have grabbed their attention.

Don’t be guided by what is ‘average’ or ‘normal’ in other presentations you hear. Your purpose in reading this book is to be good or great, not average. And you can be great by going straight for the grabber opening, either with a personal incident or any one of the 13 ‘grab and hold’ attention techniques listed for you in the box that follows.

13 Ways to ‘grab and hold’ attention

Start your speech with something exciting. Start with something that engages the listener’s mind. A personal incident grabs their attention immediately. A question also gets their attention. There are many ways to start a presentation, whether it’s around a meeting table or a conference room. You can draw upon any of these methods in order to create dynamic openings:

The first seven you learned about in previous chapters

1 Incidents and stories

2 Statistics and numbers

3 Expert quotes

4 Refer to a well-known source – usually a person, company or organization

5 Refer to a credible journal or research source

6 A personal credibility point

7 Humour

The following are covered in this chapter

8 Power openings

9 Questions – with or without answers

10 Audience participation

11 Demonstrate or exhibit something

12 Create suspense

13 Power closings

These 13 can be use...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• About the Author
• Title
• Contents 
• Introduction
• Sunday Conquer Non-Verbal Power
• Monday Avoid Embarrassment and Discrediting Yourself
• Tuesday Structure your Presentation to Prove your Point Masterfully
• Wednesday Make your Point Stick using Incidents, Analogies, and Humour
• Thursday Grasp 13 Ways to ‘grab and hold’ Attention
• Friday Build your Fool-Proof ‘Presentation Planning Matrix’
• Saturday Put Icing on the Cake of Professionalism
• Surviving in Tough Times
• Answers
• Copyright