Sessions on gaining confidence and credibility - how to boost your inner and outer confidence, give great presentations, think creatively and a talk from local award winning entrepreneur about her business and success –a day full of tips to help you have it all!Today's event was a fantastic experience, allowing me to gain so much valuable information and effective skills that can be put to practice in many aspects of business and general everyday life. Huge variety of people attended the event, ranging from students of Bucks New Uni to women that are already in the workplace but were interested in the topics being covered by the fantastic range of guest speakers. It was a great situation for networking and discovering what others were getting out of the sessions too.
Penny Sloane and Katie Demain - Impact Management
How to project yourself with confidence and credibility. This workshop examines ways to promote and enhance personal credibility through impression and non verbal communication. This session involved theory and group interaction which was a great way to get us all relaxed and help us get to know each other. A challenging task we were asked to complete involved groups of 8 people, and within our own group we were to sum up each person using one word relating to our first impression of that person. I certainly found it amazing that the way people see me as an individual differs greatly from how I see myself. A video included in the presentation really hit home to us all relating to how quickly someone can make a judgement of you within the first 3-5 seconds. The situation involved was a job interview involving three candidates with a completely different image. On a scale we could see how the impressions made during the initial stages of the interview were in fact the final decision and overall impression of that candidate. Although it only takes between 3 and 5 seconds to make a first impression, it takes at least 12 further exposures to that person to alter the first impression.
Susan Lock - Powering Up Your Presentations
The fear of Public Speaking tops the fear of death! Do you dread introducing yourself at meetings? Do you suffer from dry mouth, sweaty palms, palpitations? Does the dentist’s chair suddenly seem an enticing place to be? If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions then Sue Lock’s taster session on how to present yourself and speak with confidence and conviction will help you...and it certainly did!Susan Lock is the founder of HR and Training Consultancy, Key Consultants, based in Radnage, Buckinghamshire. She has extensive experience in the delivery of presentation skills and she really has changed my view of performing a presentation, from going through each stage of a presentation addressing the key aspects in order to succeed and maintain the engagement of the audience right from the start. By using certain anecdotes, quotations, questions or humour right at the start, as long as they relate to the topic to be discussed.
“A presentation is like a mini-skirt: it has to be short enough to get the attention, but long enough to cover the essentials."
The right body language is key to performing a successful speech. The following statistics show how important body language can be in the overall impact of a presentation: just 7% relates to the words themselves, 38% is in voice projection and tone and 55% comes from messages portrayed through body language and movement and images that you make whether they may be casual, professional or approachable. When planning a speech, it is important to think about the beginning thoroughly as it is the key to a good or bad speech linking back to first impressions. Have an ABCD structure with Attention - making sure it is achieved straight away, Benefits - what is in it for the audience, Credentials - why should they listen to you as the speaker? Why should they believe you? Direction - where will the presentation topic lead? Announce a question and answer section before closure.
Your visual image is increasingly important in creating a professional first impression. Key elements of the image include relaxation, whether this may be achieved through deep breaths or loosening shoulders; upright, position, thinking about he position of the head; movement - avoid pacing as this can detract too much attention away from the presentation; and gesture making sure you make it relevant to you and the image you intend to portray. Finish the presentation in the position and area where you said positive points as the audience are more likely to adopt a positive image of the performance in comparison to standing in a spot where negatives issues were discussed.
The main body of the presentation is where the main ideas come across. As the brain has a preference for working in three's, have three key ideas to build on. Create stories to allow audience to paint a picture, involving audience interaction and visual imagery and communication through the eyes. This will encourage the highest absorption of information making the speech memorable for all involved. Examples in advertising where the use of 3 key points includes Heinz with the slogan "Beanz Meanz Heinz" and "A Mars a Day Helps you Work, Rest and Play."
Believe it or not, the ending is where most presenters fail. Many tend to rush the end in the view that they are finished although they audience are likely to take home the last images. In the preparation, it is important to decide what you want the audience to remember, using a decisive, confident high note to deliver this successfully.
Amanda Graham - Creative Thinking - Beyond the Brainstorm
Many people think that "being creative", having the ability to come up with new ideas and approaches in business is a gift you either have, or don't have. This is a taster session which will give you visibility of two creative thinking techniques which will hopefully convince you that this can be learned and that you will be able to use straight away to "think differently and better."
This session gave me an insight into various methods of creative thinking techniques including: brainstorming, reverse brainstorming, SCAMPER: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Reverse/Rearrange, and random word processing.
Caroline Kinsey 2008 Bucks Entrepreneur of the Year - Womenomics - The Rise and Rise of the Business Woman
Women are playing a more active role than ever in the economy, workplace and in political life. How are they achieving their success? By embracing their femininity rather than feeling under pressure to adopt male traits. As 2008 Bucks entrepreneur of the Year, Caroline Kinsey shares her views and personal experience of building an award-winning PR agency, Cirkle PR , and her new business: Trojan Training achieved through more right brain thinking, with which women are associated, such as creativity, collaboration, communication, teamwork and democratisation.
PR is: “Getting the right message to the right market in the right media at the right moment..."
"...with ongoing momentum
I found this talk so inspiring, full of so much useful information. I esp
ecially found the information on the office culture and working environment fascintating, with the use of imagery including the Red Bus used as a less formal way of defining an employee's level of work within the business. The emphasis on staff well being is fantastic, it shows that the staff are at the centre of the business because at the end of the day, if the staff are happy more work is liekly to be produced and to a much higher standard.
ecially found the information on the office culture and working environment fascintating, with the use of imagery including the Red Bus used as a less formal way of defining an employee's level of work within the business. The emphasis on staff well being is fantastic, it shows that the staff are at the centre of the business because at the end of the day, if the staff are happy more work is liekly to be produced and to a much higher standard.Caroline explained the key points involved in unlocking a successful business, these include:
- Recruitment
- Retention
- Training
- Culture
- Communication
- Feedback
- Reputation
- Finances
A form of training and developing an employees skills has been identified through the use of Insights Colours which is similar to the Myers-Brigg Personality Type Indicator explained below.
"Work on your business, not in your business."
Karen Taylor and Ann Mullard – Improve Your Options Discover Your Natural Skills – a brief interactive session introducing Myers Briggs Type Indicator.
The Myers-Briggs test indicates the differences in people by where they prefer to focus their attention, the way they prefer to take in information, the way they prefer to make decisions and the kind of lifestyle they adopt. It helps to explain why all individuals are interested in different things, why they are good at different kinds of work, why they often find it hard to communicate with each other and how they use these differences constructively.
No comments:
Post a Comment