They get so caught up in searching for the “right” words, and “building up” to their point, that their actual idea, their point, totally gets lost.
Trying hard can make you positively incoherent.
Coaching, Presentations
Ingrid Gudenas
David leads a large group in an organization that has over 80,000 people. They’ve been getting hammered in the news for months now, trying to recover from mistakes made by the then-CEO five years ago. Unfortunately, they’ve just had to announce layoffs. There’s a tremendous amount of unsettling re-organization and re-shuffling going on. Where people will land is up in the air. The future of the organization is uncertain and morale is at an all-time low.
David’s group is the only inspired group in the whole organization. They’re engaged, focused, forward-looking. And helping the new CEO turn the whole organization around. That wasn’t always true.
They’re inspired not because conditions are better for them, but because David changed the story he was telling them.
When David first came for Beyond Persuasion, his attempts to “inspire” his team were falling flat. He was saying all the right things: the new vision, the plan, the priorities, the outcomes, the call to action. All good, but none of it was working.
Coaching, Presentations
Ingrid Gudenas
Most people begin presentations unsure how the audience will react. It’s the not-knowing that undermines self-confidence. They look for the first response to regain their footing. And when the reaction isn’t what they expected, confidence drops again.
Prediction vanquishes fear, even when the starting point looks dismal. You’re not needing. You’re not guessing. You’re not hoping or wishing. You’re able to predict. With certainty. Prediction becomes possible when …
Coaching, Presentations
Ingrid Gudenas
Most leaders assume communication transmits reality, that if the words are clear enough, they will see it.
But communication doesn’t transmit reality. It creates it.
That’s a subtle but seismic shift.
And that means every time you speak, especially at a senior level, you are not just sharing ideas. You are shaping how reality is experienced in the room.
Coaching, Presentations
Ingrid Gudenas
Most people don’t know how to create instant acceptance. It’s rare to see someone who does. When the stakes are high, most think they’re being “logical” when they’re actually relying on a kind of logic that generates too many words. They talk a lot, present too much detail and explanation, believing it’s essential to creating understanding and agreement. Audiences don’t work like that.
Especially at the executive and senior levels. They have their own logic.
To be successful you have to master a different logic. Audience Logic. Audience Logic decides the outcome.
Here are the rules of Audience Logic (especially senior level audiences):
Coaching, Presentations
Ingrid Gudenas
Laura: “You weren’t watching me!”
Me: “No, I could hear you. I knew what you were doing. I was watching the audience to see what change you produced in them.”
Laura had asked me to be there when she presented at an industry conference with hundreds of potential customers. The revenue potential was enormous if she was successful with her presentation. I spent several days coaching her to get her messaging, and the way she delivered it, just right.
The big day came. I was watching the audience like a hawk. I wanted to see the audience reactions from the moment she said “Hello”, all the way through exactly how they looked as she walked off the stage. Were they looking at her with admiration as they applauded? Or shuffling around and checking their phones?
I started watching the audience before Laura even walked on. They were on their phones or talking to the person next to them. Laura entered the room. I could feel something change in the room as they watched her walk. It was the way she was walking. They could see she carried herself differently.
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