Yesterday, I completed Robert McKee’s Story Seminar. It’s a story boot camp of sorts – 32 hours of teaching in four days… including a 6 hour, scene by scene screening of Casablanca! The audience consisted of about 200 writers for screen, stage and page, along with several film and TV producers.
As leaders, we’re often asked to speak to groups, large and small. We invest many hours over the course of a year preparing for those presentations. As a frequent speaker, I’ve noticed a growing trend – introductions that leave me and the audience scratching our head.
Last week at our annual meeting, we had more than 30 speakers. As I listened to these men and women, I was reminded of something one of my speech coaches challenged me on years ago. If you want to connect with an audience, you need more than great content, you need some color, too.
I leave today for our annual meeting. It’s an event I’ve had the privilege to work on for many years. It’s a small, intimate gathering with about 4,000 members of the Chick-fil-A organization. How do you prepare for big events? Here are some of the keys I’ve found helpful over the years.
One of the never-ending responsibilities of a leader is to remind people what we’re trying to accomplish and why it matters. This is the essence of vision casting. Unfortunately, most leaders under communicate their preferred picture of the future.
Last week I shared the story of my plate spinning illustration to drive home a point of increasing complexity. Today, I want to talk about some less elaborate examples and share a few tips for making props work for your next presentation.
As leaders, virtually every time we make a presentation, to a large audience or small, we have the opportunity to reinforce critical strategic priorities. The choice is ours. Is our message clear? Are we consistent? Is our message compelling? Is it memorable?
Each week, I respond to a question submitted by a leader from somewhere in the world. Some of the questions are unique and others are more universal. Today, a question I believe many leaders have struggled with: How do I delegate without guilt?
If the research is correct, we learn as much as 70% of what we know from what we see. That’s why one of the most powerful skills a leader can develop is the ability to make your ideas visible. Countless times, it’s been a picture, not the words I spoke that enabled me to effectively communicate an idea or concept.
Last year, I wrote a post entitled 5 Things I Love About TED. I’m writing this post while attending TED 2013. Between yesterday’s pre-conference presentations and today’s sessions, I’ve already heard from 55 speakers! We’ll probably hear from 100 more before we’re finished. I thought about doing a quick re-cap but decided not to go there. For now, here are five more things I love about TED… and a question for you.