Need Help Making Presentations? This Article will Help!

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employee assistance, know the stories, net results, Power Point, presentations, speakers, THINK method, trainer

One of the biggest misconceptions in the professional world – regardless if it’s employee assistance, supported employment, or any other field – is that if you are an expert on a certain topic, then you can be a trainer.

However, understanding a given subject does not necessarily translate into knowing how to help others learn the topic. In truth, the secret to successful training is to train the trainer FIRST… before they can train others.

Presentations needn’t be a chore when you, as a speaker THINK first. The letters “T’, “H’ and “I” in this method were explained in earlier posts. The letters “N” and “K” appear below in the final installment in this series.

Net results make you valuable

Always ask yourself this question, “What do I want my audience to think, feel, and do as a result of this presentation?” It may help to send an advance email to the participants at your next meeting, asking the group about their work, their current challenges, and what they hope to learn during your time with them. This will give you a clear sense of direction that meets the audience where they are psychologically, and where they want to be professionally. Net results are what your boss and clients care about.

Know the stories and examples that make your presentation memorable

Watch the presenters at your next meeting just minutes before they start. Too many of them are likely fiddling with their slides. There comes a time, however, when professional presenters will stow away their slides and note what stories and examples they will use to accompany each visual. This change in focus will have a dramatic change on how the audience perceives the speaker. When you personalize the content with real-life stories, your audience sees you as a peer – not as a lecturer.

While PowerPoint can be a great tool for visually representing data, many speakers rely too heavily on it. To force yourself to re-focus your attention on your message, use a flip chart for your next presentation. As you draw and write you will focus on what the audience needs to know. Remember, some of the most intimate connections with an audience can be made without visual aids! Your audience will forget the slides, but they’ll remember the stories!

Friday is Deadline to Submit Proposals for World EAP Conference

The deadline to submit proposals in response to the “Call for Proposals” for EAPA’s 2014 Annual World EAP Conference in Orlando, Fla., is Friday, Feb. 21. The conference will be held Sept. 28-Oct. 2 at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista Hotel, located in the Walt Disney World® Resort.

Attendees from more than 40 countries spanning the globe are expected to participate. Appropriately for this year’s unique location, the conference theme is “Imagine….” is meant to stimulate and expand thinking about the possibilities for growth, improvement of services, value-based pricing and innovation now emerging within the EA scope of practice.

For more information, log on to:     http://www.eapassn.org.

 

There’s ‘Snow’ Excuse for Slacking: Work Tips for Bad Weather Days

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snow day, snow storm, winter storm, work from home

Don’t use winter weather as an excuse for poor performance (or worse, no performance!) – say Brian Bedford and Julie Miller.

But rather than using weather as an excuse to slack off, they suggest using it as an opportunity to set yourself up for success.

“Traffic may come to a stop when it snows, but business doesn’t,” says Bedford, co-author along with Julie Miller of Culture Without Accountability—WTF? What’s the Fix? (Criffel Publishing, 2013, ISBN: 978-0-989-84692-9, $13.99, http://www.millerbedford.com). “It’s an accepted fact that most people can work from home these days. Out of sight doesn’t mean out of commission…or out of mind.”

Show that you’re accountable for your commitments come hell or high water (or snow and ice) and you’ll demonstrate that you can be counted on. Miller and Bedford offer a few tips on how to differentiate yourself from the pack when bad weather strikes.

• Plan for a “hybrid” day. Let’s address the big white snowy elephant in the room first: When you’re snowed in at home, you likely won’t keep your nose to the grindstone the entire day. There might be power outages. There might be kids demanding your attention. There might be impromptu neighborhood sled parties. That’s okay. Work intensively when you can—and on the high-payoff projects—and your “snow breaks” won’t be a big deal.

“Accountable people know they control their own destiny,” says Bedford. “They’re not clock punchers. They know as long as the work gets done it doesn’t matter when or how they do it. They seize opportunities to work…and opportunities to play.”

• Think ahead before the snow starts. When bad weather is on its way, plan ahead for what you’ll do if you can’t get in to the office. Make sure your boss and co-workers know how they’ll be able to reach you and make sure you have their winter weather contact info too.

“Take home any files or other information you might need,” suggests Miller. “Tie up any loose ends that will be difficult for you to take care of while working from home and reschedule any conference calls or meetings. Most bosses will understand that a snow day isn’t going to run like a normal day. What’s important is that you show that you’re doing everything in your power to keep important projects moving forward as efficiently as possible.”

• Work late the night before. If you know it’s going to be difficult to get as much work done at home as you’d like to—you might be juggling child care duties alongside work duties, or there might be certain things you just can’t do from home—take care of any high-priority tasks the night before the snow rolls in. “Move some of the next day’s must-dos to today,” advises Bedford.

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock …. Deadline Extended to Friday!

Tags

APSE, National APSE Conference, National Awards

It’s the last call to nominate an APSE member for the 2014 National Awards. APSE would like to honor those who have excelled in the following categories:

*              Professional Award…Individual

*              Best Practices Award … Organization

*              Personal Achievement Award…Individual with a disability

*              Employer (Small) Award…Less than 29 employees

*              Employer (Medium) Award…29-249 employees

*              Employer (Large) Award…250 or more employees

*              Wendy M. Wood Award…Emerging leader

*              Dave Hammis Innovation Award…Individual or Organization

*              “Got Mike Fund” Educational Leadership Award (includes a $1,000 scholarship)

*              New Research Award…Individual

Nominations have been extended to February 14^th!

Download the award nomination packet at:

http://bit.ly/1nuDqIO.

Questions should be directed to Cindi Clark at cindi@apse.org  or (301) 279-0060.

Early registration reminder for this year’s National APSE Conference July 1-3 in Long Beach, CA.

Early registration ends on March 14, 2014  

Early Bird rates for members:

Professional:  $290.00

University student with ID:  $175.00

Advocate:  $165.00

To register, contact Jenny Levet at jenny@apse.org  or visit http://www.apse.org

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Office Dating this Valentine’s Day

Tags

lawsuits, no dating policies, office romance, Valentine's Day

By David Lewis

With the hours American workers spend at the office, it is no wonder that many romances today begin in the workplace. A recent CareerBuilder survey reported that 22% of all relationships begin at work, many of which end in marriage. While that statistic is promising for singles, sexual harassment, hostile work environments, and the resulting potential employee turnover are all hard-hitting matters that businesses need to be aware of when love blossoms at work. The following are some recommendations:

* Dating / fraternizing policies – Most companies have an employee handbook, yet many don’t include a policy on dating or fraternizing. While these policies are virtually impossible to enforce proactively they still serve as a great tool when reacting to the discovery of an office romance, especially those between manager and subordinate. A well-written professionally drafted policy will put an employer in a position of greater strength when faced with such a predicament.

* The minefield that is an office romance – Other employees will often find the romantic behavior distracting. Throw in in the fairly likely event that the parties involved break up and the distraction value grows. Add to the mix a bad break up and a scorned party seeking revenge in the form of a harassment claim and you have the imperfect storm.

* What’s a manager to do?– When a member of management becomes aware of an office romance they have only one good move – head straight for HR. Even HR is likely to call an  employment lawyer for advice. If there are 10 possible ways to handle this situation it is likely that 8 of them could get the business in trouble.

* What if I am talking about you? – Employees who find themselves in an office romance should expect trouble if co-workers discover the situation. If keeping the matter discreet is not in the cards then head to HR. Openly admitting the relationship exists will spare you and your employer the pain of an embarrassing investigation and possibly even a termination and instead lead to some mutually discussed options.

David Lewis is the President / CEO of Operations Inc. who has been featured in national publications such as The New York Times, Inc., Forbes and others.

Link to NBC Connecticut live interview: http://youtu.be/dTcD4XYIk1Q

Link to David’s bio: http://www.operationsinc.com/staff/david-lewis

Link to Press Page: http://www.operationsinc.com/media-coverage

More Presentation Tips for Busy Professionals

Tags

consultants, presentations, speakers, topics, trainers

One of the biggest misconceptions in the business world – regardless if it’s employee assistance, supported employment, or any other profession – is that if you are an expert on a certain topic, then you can be a trainer.

However, understanding a given subject does not necessarily translate into knowing how to help others learn the topic as well as you. In truth, the secret to successful training is to train the trainer FIRST… before they can train others.

Presentations needn’t be a chore when the speaker THINKS. In an earlier post, the letter “T’ in this method was explained. The letters “H” and “I” will appear below.

Hunt for the essence of your content.

When you simplify, you stand a greater chance of being a supreme educator. While coaching a sales representative from a Fortune 500 company, a consultant was told the rep feared that “dumbing things down” for his audience would reduce his credibility. The consultant encouraged the rep to speak with elegant simplicity, as that would engage customers into thinking of the meeting as a conversation. This allowed the sales rep to directly respond to the client’s most pressing questions. Imagine the difference that this rep saw when he began the conversation by sharing four quotes from consumers who had used the product, and explained the results they had experienced. Outcomes, after all, are the essence of why anyone tries new products or services.

Investigate the expertise present among your audience.

Facilitation does not mean “boring group work” because – when done effectively – it permits the attendees to meet and learn from one another. When you’re given a time frame in which to present, perhaps one hour, plan to speak for only one-third to half of the time. This allows for true interaction.

The final letters, “N” and “K” will be presented in the final post in this series. This article originally appeared in the December 2013 Employee Assistance Report. For more information, visit the “Employee Assistance Professionals” tab at http://www.impact-publications.com Additional information is available at http://www.kevinoc.com  and   http://www.jkhopkinsconsulting.com.

Top QBs of All Time

Tags

National Football League, Peyton Manning, quarterbacks, Super Bowl

This blog is normally reserved for useful information for employee assistance and supported employment professionals, but with it being Super Sunday, and all the banter about whether Peyton Manning will be considered the best quarterback ever should the Broncos win, I decided to deviate from the norm and come up with my own list of top quarterbacks of all time, which is  presented below.  The quarterbacks listed date back decades, not just more recent selections. Also, while there is no really solid criteria per se — championships heavily weighed into the ranking… the more a QB won, the higher he tended to be rated.. not always, but often the case.  Here goes:

1. 1.     Joe Montana
2. 2.     Johnny Unitas
3. 3.     Otto Graham
4. 4.     John Elway
5. 5.     Bart Starr
6. 6.     Peyton Manning
7. 7.     Brett Favre
8. 8.     Tom Brady
9. 9.     Dan Marino
10. 10.   Terry Bradshaw

11.                          Steve Young

12.                          Roger Staubach

13.                          Sammy Baugh

14.                          Troy Aikman

15.                          Fran Tarkenton

16.                          Sid Luckman

17.                          Sonny Jurgensen

18.                          Dan Fouts

19.                          Jim Kelly

20.                          Kurt Warner

21.  Bobby Layne

22. Warren Moon

23. Aaron Rodgers

24. Drew Brees

25. Norm Van Brocklin

26. Bob Griese

27. Ken Stabler

28. Bob Waterfield

29. Archie Manning

30. Y.A. Tittle

31.                          Eli Manning

32.                          Phil Simms

33.                          Len Dawson

34.                          Jim Plunkett

35.                          Joe Namath

36.                          Steve McNair

37.                          Randall Cunningham

38.                          Joe Theismann

39.                          David Krieg

40.                          Ken Anderson

41.  Bernie Kosar

42. John Hadl

43. Bert Jones

44. Boomer Esiason

45. Ben Roethlisberger

46. Doug Williams

47. Arnie Herber

48. Jim Hart

49. Roman Gabriel

50. Daryl Lamonica