A Handy Guide to ‘Management Bullshit’
August 13, 2010 by Simon Oates (Admin)
Filed under Other
| “Going forward…” | This effortless phrase has given british management 2 extra seconds of thinking time since 2001, or even longer if one can over exagerate the vowels. |
| “Out of the box thinking” | Because just ‘thinking’ will never bring success. |
| “Lets touch base” | It’s an awkwardly personal sounding request that almost always results in a monologue email. |
| “Strategic Fit” | Managers uttering this phrase have clearly read their ‘Good Management’ manual and discovered that this is apparantly important for all projects. If only we knew how so. |
| “Synergy” | Is it possible that one keyword can increase the impact of a presentation by 77%? Yes, indeed there is. |
| “Value added” | Adding value is a common sense concept that has recently taken to the board room in force, reminding us that yes, some managers do understand how business works. |
| “Holistic approach” | It’s like saying nothing but at the same time, saying… nothing. |
| “Leverage” | Yes leverage was technically the reason why the banking crisis was so extreme, but I doubt managers would have time to reflect upon this fact, as they have meetings to attend you know! |
| “Knowledge Base” | Why have a razor when you can have a Mach 3 Turbo? In the same line of thought, its obviously why people don’t talk of simple ‘knowledge’ anymore. Where’s the macho? |
| “Proactive” | Easily the most overused word by candidates in job interviews, and mysteriously the most lacking characteristic in successful graduate recruits. |
| “Lets get a dialogue going” | Well, you can… do that. I’ll talk instead. |
| “Mission critical” | Were you one of the 99% minority who didn’t realise that their admin work was tremendously vital to ‘the mission’? You’ll soon be convinced otherwise with this solid reaffirmation. |
| “Networking” | Theory is; if you don’t know something, you’ll probably know at least one person who will provide you with a fantastic excuse for not knowing it. |
Some Terrible Real-Life Examples:
“Let’s connect ear-to-ear tomorrow to discuss how we can leverage our B2B synergies in a real-time customizable platform.”
“We’re operationalising the strategic infrastructure.”
“This year has seen significant negative growth” (they lost money).
“We need a holistic, cradle-to-grave approach. “
“I’m a one-stop nexus for your outsourcing mandate” (consultant pitching to a client).
“Our organisation has an end-to-end governance framework .”
Your Experiences:
Leadership Public Speaking
May 5, 2010 by Simon Oates (Admin)
Filed under Leadership
Leadership public speaking is seen as one of the great traits of the modern leader. While the great leaders of the past are known for their leadership public speaking ability, current leaders such as Barrack Obama in the USA, and Nick Clegg in the UK have shown that oratory is still as powerful as it ever has been.
When you open your mouth to speak, do others truely listen?
In recognising that public speaking can be an effective leadership skill, an aspiring leader will realise that they’re in luck – public speaking is a skill that can be steadily improved in response to a good public speaking course. Speaking skills can be technically learnt either from a book, or from a coach, but they will only be used to upgrade your ability when put into varied and frequent practise.
Taking Every Opportunity – Where To Practise Leadership Public Speaking
I find it is always best to practise public speaking in a ‘safe’ environment. A safe environment is one in which a mistake during speaking won’t run risk of damaging your career prospects. Practically all adventurous speaking opportunities outside of your workplace are perfect for this personal development. Here are some speaking ideas:
- In church
- In a school-room or college lecture hall
- To a club, group or society
- At a conference,
- Giving a presentation (such as on behalf of a charity)
- Even at family occassions.
Most people agree, that as long as you are speaking to more than 5 people, in a non-casual setting, this will bring all the challenges of public speaking, although with greater crowds or a more important audience will come a greater test.
Building Your Oratory Skills
I can provide a brief overview of tips you may wish to take on board to improve your leadership public speaking and presentation skills beyond what they currently are; all leaders could build further upon at least one of these areas.
1. Deliver an interesting tone of voice. Allow your voice to eb and flow as you would speak normally. Let your tone drift up at the end of questions, or remain mono tone over short, sharp point.
2. Use pauses effectively. Leadership public speaking is often as much about silence as it is about speaking, as leaving dramatic and characteristic pauses at the right moments really highlights a speakers skill. A short pause allows the listener to ponder a little more about what you’ve just said, and demonstrates that you are comfortable with the audience, and supremely confident in what you are saying.
3. Maintain eye contact with the audience. You may sometimes need to refer to your presentation for key statistics or cues, however the rest of the time, your eyes should be on the audience, and moving round the room.
4. Don’t forget to smile! People are listening, but they’re also watching your body language and they’re probably watching your face all the time, so make sure that what they see is a happy, enthuasiastic and bright individual. Smiling while talking does not come naturally, especially when one feels under the stress and pressure that public speaking can bring, however with practise you will realise that the more you smile – the better you will feel.
5. From Commentor Mitch: Be aware of your body motions. Many speakers make the mistake of unknowlingly moving in repetitive motions or in somewhat unnatural ways while presenting and speaking. Be aware of what your body is doing and keep any movement of arms and hands to be in line with the overall presentation. It is expected and can be quite comfortable to make generalized moves and to indicate specific important points with body empahsis. Practice in a mirror or video tape yourself giving a practice presentation to see if you develop any “movement habits” that need to be avoided during your presentation. Also, we aware of what signals you may send during the presentation to indicate your own views of the information presented. Crossing your arms may come across as disinterested in the topic you are speaking on. Also be aware of any unusual twitches that can develop in your face during presentations that can become distracting to your audience.
6. Also from Mitch: Breathe. Pure and simple, some presenters get very caught up in their speeches and can run out of breath mid-sentence. This can result in ill timed pauses mid-thought and can have the audience paying more attention to your breathing rhythm than to your topic. Keep breathing natural and relaxed so that your audience stays the same.
If you keep these leadership public speaking tips in mind while practising, I can promise that your presentation and oratory skills will improve dramatically. While learning however, it is best to focus on improving one aspect of speaking at a time, and gradually these tips will become natural habits, and public speaking will no longer cause the same dread it once did!
How To Gain The Most Comprehensive Knowledge On Public Speaking
As mentioned in the latest Leadership Expert e-Magazine, we have discovered a brilliant resource on public speaking for approximately £25. It’s delivered in digital format, which means you could be absorbing knowledge from it in just 3 minutes if you decide that you want to take a proactive step in building your presentation skills, public speaking skills or overall charisma. The resource is called Public Speaking Extraordinaire, and costs the price of a restaurant meal, for an in-depth course delivered by video, audio and text! We heavily recommend that you try it for yourself.
Please leave comments below if you would like to add more tips and tricks to this list, and I will work them into the article and credit them to you!
Simon Oates ~ Leadership Expert
