Do you really see reality or a Biased view?

So think about that next time you listen to a presenter and hear their position. Now check to see whether you are listening with an open mind. Ask — Is it the position and evidence the presenter is marshaling for their position that bothers you, or is it the biased assumptions you have made about the group you think they represent that upsets and filters your opinion. The question is can you separate the message from the messenger? 

So to get an answer I researched some studies from psychological literature.When the information seems to be coming from or favoring the other side, all bets are off.  Here is one study that points out our inability to listen with objectivity:  

In a famous 1950s psychology experiment, researchers showed students a film of a Dartmouth-Princeton football game in which officials made a series of obvious bone head calls against one team. Asked to make their own assessments of the calls, students who attended the offending team’s college reported seeing half as many illegal plays as did students from the college team that got the bad calls. Controversy  was generated over what actually took place during the game. Basically, there was disagreement between the two schools as to what had happened during the game. A questionnaire designed to get reactions to the game and to learn something of the climate of opinion was administered at each school and the same motion picture of the game was shown to a sample of undergraduate at each school, followed by another questionnaire. Results indicate that the “game” was actually many different games and that each version of the events that transpired was just as “real” to a particular person as other versions were to other people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

So if  you unpack the experiment it is saying that our perceptions of the same event our biased by our group affiliations. Now the question arises if the same phenomena happens when listening to and experiencing a presentation from a speaker who is identified with a group you don’t trust or see as credible? 

Part 1: How Negative Perceptions and Bias triggered Zimmerman to shoot?

The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”  Marcel Proust

One youth dead, neighborhood watch citizen goes free. Everyone wants to know how and why did this shooting happen? One reason maybe that Zimmerman’s past experiences and his negative perceptions of black youths as thugs and therefore automatically dangerous to him and his gated community neighbors. He never learned how to balance his negative filters that colored his  experiences with black youth. What if he saw black youths in a more bright, optimistic and flexible light.  Instead he focused on the dark, pessimistic and inflexible thinking that constantly reminded  him that black youths are people who were always causing trouble and needed to be feared. 

Almost every creature comes into world more wired for negativity than positivity or optimism. Why? Fight or flight response. Say you’re wandering through the woods and you fail to notice the pretty wildflowers under your feet. Inconvenient perhaps, but not catastrophic. Now imagine that the thing under your feet is a rattlesnake. Fail to notice this, and its good night, Mark. Which is why we give the bad things in our lives so much more attention than the good ones—a phenomenon known as a negativity bias. The more you defy your innate negativity bias, building from your strengths, finding relief by looking at things from a more positive frame, and embracing delight wherever you can, the more you become stronger in controlling your own way in life. The impact of optimism  of one person living in acceptance of good things happening in life are immense. Become that person, and you’ll find that in spite of everything, when their is positivity in your life you will experience more happiness and positive interpersonal relationships.  It won’t necessarily change the reality of the situation, but the positiviness has a strong ripple effect on anyone coming in touch with you.

Most research on perception and thinking show how your memory of the past helps you determine what to pay attention to in the present but does not lock you into forever thinking that way. Checkout the 10 irrational thoughts that cause people trouble by Dr Albert Ellis. Recognizing faces or race is a simple way to distinguish friends from strangers without a thorough background check each time you encounter someone. We all use this function in perceiving our environment so we are not overwhelmed with too much information. We use this discriminating perceptual process to distinguish different types of birds or poison berries from edible ones. This is a good use of this perceptual function but we also use it as a short-cut for identification and discrimination of people and this can be a bad way to us this function depending on the situation an ensuing action.

We unconsciously make unfortunate  emotional investment in things that have happened to us in the past creating a closed, inflexible mindset that all “black youths wearing baggy pants and a hoody” spell trouble. According to Malcolm Gladwell, in his popular book Blink, many of our life decisions and especially social interactions are based on little information that are generalized to specific situations almost in an automatic way.

Almost every creature comes into world more wired for negativity than positivity or optimism. Why? Fight or flight response. Say you’re wandering through the woods and you fail to notice the pretty wildflowers under your feet. Inconvenient perhaps, but not catastrophic. Now imagine that the thing under your feet is a rattlesnake. Fail to notice this, and its good night, Mark. Which is why we give the bad things in our lives so much more attention than the good ones—a phenomenon known as a negativity bias.

The more you defy your innate negativity bias, building from your strengths, finding relief, and embracing delight wherever you can, the more you become stronger in controlling your own way in life. The impact of optimism  of one person living in acceptance of good things happening in life are immense. Become that person, and you’ll find that in spite of everything, when their is positivity in your life you will experience more happiness and positive interpersonal relationships.  It won’t necessarily change the reality of the situation, but the positiviness has a strong ripple effect on anyone coming in touch with you.

My hypothesis is that Zimmerman, the shooter, may have used irrational beliefs based on past experiences in his encounter with Travon. When he saw Travon, on that raining night, he inaccurately identify someone as a “no good black youth up to no good” the hoody reinforced his suspicion and led to a self-fulfilling prophecy that this person was dangerous and something bad was going to happen any moment. With this expectation in mind he called 911 and began to actively pursue this dangerous person, even though he was told not to follow or pursue and wait for the police to arrive. He  expected to see danger or a possible attack, just as you do when you look at every plant expecting to see poison ivy or poison mushrooms. Past experience can set your filters up to see in either a positive, optimistic or negative, pessimistic light. Automatic filters are necessary, otherwise, your life would be bogged down in the need to resolve every minute doubt, prepare for every possible situation. But Zimmerman’s maladaptive thinking may have led him to belief that Travon, a young black man, signaled trouble and possible danger to him and his neighbors. These triggers led him to make a snap judgment based on past experiences. For example, when you listen to the 911 audiotapes of  Zimmerman with police authorities you hear his negative triggers and fears at work, he said something like these type of punks usually get away with breaking-in or doing harm and it wasn’t going to happen again on his watch. If in the past he had a positive past experiences with black youths his automatic “fight response” may not have been triggered and his snap judgment and action based on fear might have been stopped. Thus, averting the terrible shooting that left one person dead and the shooters life in shambles. If he had reacted in a more positive automatic filter or perception he might have seen the situation in a different light that would have made Travon’s and his life happier and help him to see the best in a person wearing a hoody and walking down the sidewalk in his gated community in a more neutral way as an ordinary citizen to be respect and treated with dignity.

So how do you in the moment of decision stop or block the negative triggers in your mind from putting you and other people in harm’s way and advert a dangerous encounter. By challenging your negative triggers and past experience which lead to negative stereotypes, poor decision-making and inappropriate actions. It is a thinking process I call the STOP. CHALLENGE. REFLECT. ACT. LEARN. REPEAT. learning cycle that gives you time to overcome your impulses and automatic behavior. I will cover how to STOP negative bias and impulsive actions more on my next post. Thanks and I hope this post provides some ideas on why this tragedy took place in Florida. We can all do better. Just STOP and Challenge our irrational thinking before acting.

Part 1–Art and Science of Presentology

” …the key question for Mastery: is the potential for mastery innate or just hard work ? …How  anyone can commit to 10,000 hours of deliberative practice… the difficulty is how anyone can motivate themselves for 10000 hours of grueling deliberative practice” ? Boscoh

Four Pillars of Presentology–Designing and Delivering Extraordinary Presentations

Successful Strategies for “Winning from Within”

1. Message

2. Methods

3. Mechanics

4. Mental

So what makes a Master Presenter? I didn’t create any kind of scientific ranking while making my choices, but did consider five criteria:

1. Does the individual’s message and ideas resonate to the audience—Relevance Factor?
2. Are the ideas presented in a way that connects with the participants needs and expectations? Unique Connect Factor?
3. In what ways can the message inspired me to take action or put the ideas to work immediately? Action Factor?
4. To what degree has the presentation affected me personally? Memorable Factor?
5. Know your strengths and “go with what you have” and make improvements from this starting point to reach your goals? Focus Factor?

For example, if you want to be more expressive and charismatic find out through feedback what you need to change and then use Ericsson’s Deliberative practice or a process like “Smart Steps” for personal change.Tell me what you think works or doesn’ t work with this Presentology framework.

Want to reduce Stress and Performance anxiety for next Presentation?

Deliberate practice, good preparation in knowing your topic,  and an authentic connection pays big dividends in reducing performance anxiety. Next time you need to   present to an audience, follow these four steps:

1.Keep audience focused and interested by capturing their attention in the first 8 seconds of the speech. You want them to lean in and be curious about what you have to say–Check-out my past blog on how to accomplish this in as little as 8 seconds. http://thewick.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/

2. Be confident in your topic. Your audience already believes that you’re the expert, so don’t try to bluff. If the people you’re presenting to feel you’re unsure of your material, they’ll lose interest in your presentation.

3. Be ready for questions.  Imagine questions people might ask. Construct answers before you give your speech. Either incorporate the answers into your presentation or be ready to provide them during Q&A.

4. Memorize the first minute of your presentation. You experience your greatest anxiety at the beginning of a speech. Knowing the opening of your presentation will give you a good start.

5. Start with audience interactive activity–like completing a one page inventory on the topic to be presented , such as Stress Management. Have audience members complete self-awareness and goal setting sheet. Then use the Pair-Share discussion tool where audience members share with a neighbor their reactions to the inventory and one change goal for the day. After 10 min you can introduce yourself and do a de-brief. Everyone gets engaged and you learn about the audience members level of understanding and needs.

Time management isn’t our problem–but our need to manage our energy is critical for success.

Quote: To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances they’re facing.

The lack of focused time and thus stress and burnout be an epidemic, but the problem isn’t in what we say. It’s what we do and how we set priorities and use a limited amount of our precious energy. For all the people writing about the importance of the “sustainable development” of our economy, how many are there worrying about the sustainability of our own body energy ? Research reports that a disciplined and focused lifestyle effectively helps in achieving more in less time. Don’t miss this excellent article by Tony Schwartz it provides a whole new perspective on how to manage and expand that valuable resource called energy. Take the self-assessment tool provide by Mr Schwartz to see if you are heading for a personal energy crisis. Good Luck and fun with this it will provide a reading on your ability to recovery and stay healthy in our fast-paced world. http://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time/ar/1

Daily Quote and Reflection: How is your Mental Toughness and Intrinsic motivation for achievement?

Quotes: “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory’. Bill Russell

Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles”. Alex Karras

Reflection: So what is mental toughness? It can be defined as the ability to access and maintain focus and determination to complete a course of action despite complexity, difficulties or unknown consequences. Some say it is the will to never give-up or quit. My blog on MT was one of the highest viewed and most popular pieces in 2011. If you missed it take a look at thewick and find out how you can learn to be more mentally tough no matter the situation you face.

Action Challenge: Identify in what situations or with whom you need to display more  mental toughness. After you readings and more understanding of MT –What are you committed to do to become more mentally tough?  

Daily Quote and Reflection: Empathic Culture Vs. Individualism

Just finished one of the most powerful books I have read in a long time by Jeremy Rifkin, entitled, The Empathic Civilization. His main point is that we are social animals and need to build on this inborn empathy to create a more positive and caring world. 

Quote: “Biologists and cognitive neuroscientists are discovering mirror-neurons—the so-called empathy neurons—that allow human beings and other species to feel and experience another’s situation as if it were one’s own. We are, it appears, the most social of animals and seek intimate participation and companionship with our fellows…If we can harness our empathic sensibility to establish a new global ethic that recognizes and acts to harmonize the many relationships that make up the life-sustaining forces of the planet, we will have moved beyond the detached, self-interested and utilitarian philosophical assumptions that accompanied national markets and nation-state governance and into a new era of biosphere consciousness.”

So how do we use our inborn ability to empathize and act on our innate desire to contribute to the common good for all? How can we take our genetic make-up —along with our values—and use it to move in a more positive direction of creating Common Ground and positivity, rather than negativity and out-dated philosophy of the “Individualism” or every man for themselves.

Reflection: Where do you come down on these two philosophies of life? What drives you to live one or the other

Seven Ways to Improve Mental Toughness

So what is mental toughness? It can be defined as the ability to access and maintain focus and determination to complete a course of action despite complexity, distractions, difficulties or unknown consequences. Some say it is the will to never give-up or quit. So the question is: Can “mental toughness” (MT) be taught or is innate? Let’s look at the sports world where MT is often used to describe super stars. Many athletes and coaches think, MT is an innate quality or talent that you are born with and they believe it can’t be taught or learned because it is a part of your DNA or it isn’t. According to this school of thought mental toughness is usually something you’re born with and is reinforced early in life by your parents and environment. These authorities believe it’s hard to take a sensitive “mommies boy” and make him “tough” no matter what you do. This obviously is the nature vs. nuture argument. The nurture position states that people can be shaped and learn from different experiences, modeling and teaching. ” Mental Toughness is a state of mind, not a fact. No matter how much or how little stress we feel before any public performance from speeches to shooting to hitting the winning foul shot we are always just doing what we’re doing, simply living this one moment of our lives to the best of our ability. So MT is the ability to use anxiety and fear to drive positive expectations, energy and action. ”  Dr. Mark W. Hardwick, Communications Coach  . Winning seems so easy and natural for the Nadal’s and Feder’s of the tennis world. And in other sports too. But the real secret seems to be mental preparedness and toughness.  The perception that winning is easy we know is false but it does look like their work is play. Many of us chalk it up to the person’s is naturally talent and short change mental rehearsal and practice. Applications for staying focused and being mentally tough in difficult performance situations or under stress: Practicing Mental Toughness techniques prior to your performance will help handling more stress during the performance. Below see some tools of how to create a mental set and rituals of   Mental Toughness state:

1. Be your own best supporter and critic. Shutout distractions and negative self-talk

2. Be clear, concise and committed to meeting your goal or target for the activity.

3. Believe fully in your ability and strength to execute effectively, so you can  naturally perform the task at hand.

4. Be prepared to relax and refocus on your goal when things go wrong during an interaction or performance. Learn to center yourself through deep breathing and use of relaxation tools.

5. Don’t try to hard to be accepted or worry about the outcome of your communication.

6. Learn to control your anxiety and nervousness by using a mental re-focus tool–When your self-critic pops up just say–STOP. The inner voice helps us to re-focus and exert self-control by enhancing our ability to restrain our negative impulses.  When we are in stressful situations like giving a speech we worry about the situation and it’s consequences. These worries are usually verbal in nature and are especially problematic for tasks that rely heavily on speaking and in the moment thinking and reasoning skills. So to be quick on your feet find a way to knock the fears away so that you can be mentally tough and perform at your best.

7. Be optimistic. Love the challenge of the moment and learn to accept whatever comes by focusing on process rather than techniques or fear of making mistakes. By learning to “look on the bright side,” of challenges and seeing stressful situations as opportunities for growth, you increase the likelihood of producing a positive mental and physical state.  This positive mental state leads to a chain of biochemical events that mobilize the brain and the body to cope more effectively with the situation.  A positive reaction to stress can then lead to what some have labeled  the challenge response, which counteracts the fear of failure and need to be perfect.

Case study on Creating a Vision, Purpose and Strategic Execution for an Organization

An inspiring vision is what motivates all of us. We want to know that we are working toward something that makes a difference and is meaningful. This organizational principle motivates and sustains  every  person within your organization, from the cleaning personnel to safety engineer and human resources staff and partners or CEO. That is the real job of an inspiring and effective leader — to offer a purpose, vision and execution plan that makes a difference. This alignment is not easy to achieve but it is the key difference between being a manager and a transformation and  empowering leader.  Organizations need selfless leaders who WALK  THE TALK about ethics, socially responsible business practices and humanistic values.

People also need to know that you, as a leader, are in touch with practical solutions and the reality of creating solutions to complex problems. One such organization over the last ten years under the direction of a transforming leader has been IBM. I recommend that you read about Sam Palmisano retired as CEO of IBM on Dec. 31, 2011. His tenure is a model of a pragmatic visionary who renewed  a floundering and stuck organization. Warren Buffett said one of the reasons he recently bought 10.7 billion of IBM stock is because Palamisano “delivers big time”.  See http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/18/sam-palmisano-ibm/

 

Gestures and other non-verbal communication tips to support and amplify “sticky” message

”What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” —Emerson

One of the most frequently asked question of presentation coaches is “What do I do with my hands or eyes” and How do I use gestures to connect or hurt my performance ? The worst thing you can do is to try to think about what you’re saying and figuring out at the same time how to gesture, move  use your hands, where you need to stand etc. One of the most important things to understand about presenting is that being yourself which includes aligning gestures with words and intent must be natural if you are going to be perceived as open, trustworthy and authentic.

My advice is to review a video of yourself presenting and you will quickly see how you come across to people. Any habit used to often in a presentation can become a distraction to the audience. For example, finger pointing or moving around the podium randomly will diminish your effectiveness and impact. Now let’s look at some Non-Verbal communication tools that support and amplify “sticky” message

 Handshake.  Firm and palm-to-palm contact is important for demonstrating confidence and sincerity. The fish shake with the tips of the fingers of the hand  signals insecurity and lack of confidence.  The handshake can leave either a good, poor or weak first impression and of course, comes into play to signal agreement or goodwill at the end of a meeting.

Eye contact. The eyes are the most powerful part of our body language, and can express everything from happiness, annoyance, interest, boredom and frustration. Consistent and frequent  eye contact using the technique of presenter communicating one thought to one person is a powerful way to build rapport and is usually perceived as the speaker being warm, honest and engaging. Darting eyes and looking over the heads of the audience is interpreted as nervousness, aloofness or disengagement by the audience.
Gestures:  Hands, Arms and legs position. Folded arms or crossed legs, perhaps turning away slightly, indicates a lack of interest and detachment. Later uncrossed arms and legs may be a sign of acceptance of your position or terms. An expressive presentation style will have toes pointed out and hands open when gesturing.   A less dynamic and shy presentation style  will point at members of the audience and keep their toes pointed in. None of these come through as positive gestures to the audience.
Posture and Movement. If you are trying to appear confident and authoritative, stand erect with shoulders back and legs about 12” apart with one leg further forward than the other . A slumped position usually indicates insecurity, nervousness and uneasiness.
Facial expression. A critical message delivered with a smiling face will have a totally different impact than one delivered with a stern or frowning face. In ability to smile or laugh sincerely makes you appear to be robitic or stiff as a presenter. Think here Al Gore or Mitt Romney who demonstrate that stiffness doesn’t work, because the warmth and sincerity is lost.

One last tip do not try to choreography or structure nonverbal behaviors. I’ve seen far too many presenters attempt to illustrate their narrative with specific gestures and wind up looking like buffoons. Instead, use your hands, arms and movements as you do naturally, to illustrate what you are saying. However, I do recommend one gesture: to extend your hand and arm periodically, bridging the gap between you and your audience  with your hand in handshake position or palms up signalling openness to comments and feedback

The Rick Perry —Senior Moment– Learn the Roman Room tip to save you from this type of Forgetfulness.

How did you feel when Presidential candidate, Rick Perry forgot to remember the three Government agencies he would eliminate as President? Embarrassed for him, thought he was pretty stupid, had empathy for this OOPS moment? Maybe you feel a mixture of feelings. What I felt as a presentation coach was the poor preparation or no preparation for this possibility of forgetting the list. If this had been identify before the debate his coach could have provide safe fail device known by presentation coaches as  an Advance Techniques to improve your memory–The Roman Room. Checkout the video tagged above to see how the this memory technique works and never again fear forgetting a list of important principles you want to share with your audience.

Learn to use the “Ripple Effect” for Unique connections

What is the “Ripple Effect” when it comes to communicating and presenting ideas or a proposal to others.  The Ripple Effect is a simple and practical way to spread an idea virus through your audience and their networks. The ripple effect explains the notion that from small acts we can create big changes In the the book Dragonfly, Andy Smith and Jennifer,  Draggonfly Effect, Part 1 provide a framework and compelling case studies to show readers how to harness social media for change, happiness and positive results.

Why the dragonfly? The dragonfly is the only insect able to propel itself in any direction when its four wings are working in harmony. It symbolizes the importance of integrated and insynch effect and is akin to the ripple effect—a term used in economics, sociology, and psychology to indicate how small acts can create big change.  The method relies on four essential skills, or wings: 1) focus: identify a single concrete and measurable goal; 2) grab attention: cut through the noise of social media with something authentic and memorable; 3) engage: create a personal connection, accessing emotions, empathy, and happiness; and 4) take action: invite and enable  others to take positive action to fulfill original goal or purpose.

The Ripple Effect depends on open and two-way communication to connect and convey information, ideas, experiences and knowledge.  To be effective and efficient the “Ripple Effect” in  interpersonal communications needs to be targeted to the right audience, with the right message by the right messenger and at the right moment when audiences are receptive and feel the message is relevant to their needs. Executing the “Ripple Effect” takes strategic thinking, exquisite planning and timing.

Learn to get what you really want by first giving of your time, your talent and your expertise. As you”’ discover, the ROI of selflessness is truly astounding. The Ripple Effect will teach you how to:

• Connect and create more meaningful relationships

• Use new social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to extend your connecting efforts

• Avoid common networking mistakes, both online and in person

• Leverage your network to open new doors and create new opportunities

• Establish connection lifelines that will bail you out when things get really tough

Painting a tantalizing picture of what business – and life can be once you decide to put other people first, The Ripple Effect is an indispensable resource not only for executives, sales managers, customer service representatives and entrepreneurs, but for anyone who wants to leave this world a better place than they found it.

A great read for the Thanksgiving Holiday–Free e-book by Heath Brothers.

Recently, I was reading The Myth of the Garage by Dan Heath and Chip Heath. This e-ibook is from Crown publishers and is free to the reader. The articles are the best of the Heath Brothers columns from Fast Magizine articles from 2007-2011. The stories range from Mutual Fund investing through customer service. The insights about business practices are mind stretching and not always what you expect, so if you want a great read and some AHA moments try reading this bag of business surprises. To access and download the articles in the Myth of the Garage log into the Heath Brothers Resource collection at  http://www.heathbrothers.com/resources/download/ 

Sticky Presentation factors–Connecting through the eyes “One thought to one Person” and Pause.

Want to connect with your audience and reduce nervousness–Deliver one thought to one person in the room. Think about the physiology of vision.  Light enters the front of the eyeball, hits the rods and cones at the back of the eye, and creates an electrical impulse that shoots around the optic nerve to the optic lobe at the back of the skill.  Your brain then takes the better part of a second to decipher this electrical Morse code.  While the act of turning the electrical impulses into light, color and contrast is an unconscious brain activity, putting the shapes into a comprehensible context is a conscious brain activity.

Problem Explored

Eye contact or shifting-this is where we create a problem for ourselves as speakers. It is perfectly natural to look rapidly around the room when first standing in front of an audience.  This rapid eye movement creates visual over-stimulation.  It forces our brain to process incoming visual stimuli on a conscious level.  When speaking to a group, we have another conscious activity that is trying to occur simultaneously . . . the delivery of our prepared topic!  Our brains do not do two things at once very well, on a conscious level.  This is why our mind will sometimes go blank during the delivery of our prepared topic — to allow our brain to catch up on the processing of visual stimuli.

Solution to “shifting eyes” problem

Speakers naturally solve this problem by looking at ceilings and floors, where there is usually a blank space with little visual stimuli to process.  This works!  It would also work to close your eyes, as a speaker, to limit incoming visual stimulus.  For obvious reasons, closing your eyes would not be a good choice.  The most productive way to limit visual stimuli is to stare at the eye of an audience member.  (If you’re far enough away from your audience, you can stare at both their eyes at once.)  There are three advantages to limiting visual stimulus this way.

The benefits of controlled eye contact:

First, you can “read” the response from your audience as you deliver a whole thought to one individual.  Second, direct eye contact conveys sincerity in all cultures across the world.  Third, as a speaker, you get the advantage of limiting visual stimuli so you can think more clearly and reduce your nervousness. It is always nice to find a friendly face to interact with during the first few moments of your speech..

When pauses are added to this controlled eye contact technique, you enhance your  effectiveness and authenticity.  The pause packages your words into one cohesive thought at a time for the audience.  It also adds emphasis to the key points you wish to convey as a speaker.  Also, when you can’t think of what to say next, this pause buys you thinking time without giving away to the audience that your mind has gone momentarily blank. The mastery of this controlled eye contact technique + pause is the foundation skill for successfully talking to a group of people.

Assignment

For your next speech get it video taped or have a colleague checkout your eye movement and provide feedback on its effectiveness. Using this principle will help you in both delivery and connection with the audience. Good Luck.

Summary Technique process–Remember the technique–One thought One person. Pause and then turn your body and deliver another complete thought to another person. Have that moment of unique contact. Eye contact used effectively helps you connect and the more you can use it the more momentum and the less resistance you will have from the audience to your message..

7 Principles for Applying Mental Toughness to Public Speaking and Presentations.

” Mental Toughness  is a state of mind, not a fact. No matter how much or how little stress we feel before a public speech we are about to give,  we’re always just doing what we’re doing, simply living this one moment of our lives to the best of our ability. So use that anxiety and fear to drive positive expectations and energy. ”  Dr. Mark W. Hardwick, Communication Coach  .

Winning seems so easy and natural for the Nadal’s and Feder’s of the tennis world. And in other sports too. But the real secret seems to be mental preparedness and toughness.  The perception that winning is easy we know is false but it does look like their work is play. Many of us chalk it up to the person is naturally talented and gifted.

In other world’s such as politics and business MT is also an important factor in being successful.

Obama seems to have it –calm and ”kool” under pressure yet lacking some toughness in regard to HCR, Oil Spill etc. Especially, if you are a progressive which we now know he is not.  This somewhat vague concept of MT could be the critical factor for identifying effective leadership in the 21st Century.

So what is mental toughness? It can be defined as the ability to access and maintain focus and determination to complete a course of action despite complexity, distractions, difficulties or unknown consequences. Some say it is the will to never give-up or quit.

So the question is: Can “mental toughness” (MT) be taught or is innate? Let’s look at the sports world where MT is often used to describe super stars. Many athletes and coaches think, MT is an innate quality or talent that you are born with and they believe it can’t be taught or learned because it is a part of your DNA or it isn’t. According to this school of thought mental toughness is usually something you’re born with and is reinforced early in life by your parents and environment. These authorities believe it’s hard to take a sensitive “mommies boy” and make him tough no matter what you do. This obviously is the nature vs. nuture argument. The nurture position states that people can be shaped and learn from different experiences, modeling and teaching.

 

Motivation and MT from Sports to Presentations

 

The root of mental toughness lies in motivation. Those who are deemed mentally tough typically exhibit what sports psychologists call “intrinsic achievement motivation.” A study featured in Psychology of Motor Behavior and Sport defines this as the desire to be self-determining. People who are intrinsically motivated are self- starters, willing to push themselves to the brink for the love of their sport or activity. They need little encouragement to give their best effort, and they often do well setting their own goals. For others, who are called “game players” they only begin to jell when the pressure of competition is on. They go through the motions in practice and drive coaches crazy. They only shine in the chance to compare themselves with others. These guys have what’s called “achievement motivation” and do their best only under the gun. You hear them say things like give me the ball I want to take the penalty kick or final shot when the BB game is on the line. They do not fear failure.  All things being equal between two competitors, whoever is higher in achievement motivation will be the better athlete, hands down.

Other researchers have said that motivation is important but brain chemistry can over ride desire/motivation if he player experiences anxiety. With too much anxiety detrimental changes in our brain and biochemical reactions take place. Stress research calls this the flight or fight response.  Now we have new brain research evidence reported by Dr. James Loehr, a famous performance psychologist, and Daniel Goleman, known for his work in Emotional Intelligence, that links negative thoughts and arousal with the stress hormone cortisol.  Cortisol is produced by the adrenal cortex.  Cortisol has been associated with feelings of anxiety, tension, helplessness, and loss of control.  Positive thoughts and pleasant experiences are linked to a positive trigger or rush of adrenaline, and an increase of epinephrine and norepinephrine. The positive jolts make for better performance.

Having an optimistic attitude can help increase the positive effects of epinephrine and norepinephrine.  Optimism, which produces these positive brain chemicals reduce many anxiety symptoms and can provide performers with the positive energy to focus and concentrate on the activity at hand.

By learning to “look on the bright side,” of challenges and seeing stressful situations as opportunities for growth, you increase the likelihood of producing a positive mental and arousal state.  This positive mental state leads to a chain of biochemical events that mobilize the brain and the body to cope more effectively with the situation.  A positive reaction to stress can then lead to what Dr. Loehr, calls the challenge response, which counteracts the negative effects of stress and improves your performance and enjoyment in presenting and speaking to groups. The challenge response helps leaders and high performance jocks to be more calm, relaxed, alert, energetic, inspired, and enthused. Mental Toughness, a phrased coined by internationally renowned peak performance guru Dr. Jim Loehr, has it roots in tennis, where Loehr first came to prominence. Applied to tennis, Mental Toughness training specifically targets physical rituals before and after points to help create focus and calm during a tennis competition.

Applications for staying focused and being mentally tough in making presentations

 

Practicing Mental Toughness techniques prior to your presentation will help you handle more stress during your performance. Below I will share the mental set and  rituals of Ideal Presentation and Mental Toughness principles:

1. Be your own best supporter and critic–slow down, take a breath and begin presenting with confidence

2. Be clear, concise and committed to meeting the needs of the audience and challenging them to rethink positions and take positive action for change.

3. Believe fully in your ability and strength to communicate effectively, so you can present openly, naturally and confidently to your audience.

4. Be prepared to present greatly by demonstrating your passion for the topic and message.

5. Present with an authenticity and believability that is sincere and resonates with the audience

6. Don’t try to hard to be accepted or worry about the outcome of your communication.

7. Love the challenge of communicating with whomever and connecting with others.