Note: This is a post in the brand new Remarkable Leadership Book blog. I post it here to whet your appetite for some of the things you will find there in the future . . .

This week in my Unleash Your Potential newsletter, I wrote an article titled, Preparing a More Powerful Presentation. (This article by the way will be available to readers of the book as a Bonus Byte - one of over 50 additional resources available online to supplement and add value to the reader's experience and use of the book). As a response to the article a colleague of mine, Marc Shiman, sent a note suggesting these questions to use in preparation for any presentation. I loved them and thought they meshed well with what I had written, so here they are for your use:

• Ask yourself the question "What is their (your audience) pain?" This is obviously the problem you are trying to help them solve.


• Now look at your first few slides. Do they address your audience's pain or are they about you?


• We also talk about OUR goals when we make a presentation. What about our audience's goals?

All three of these questions help us get to the heart of communication which we often forget in preparing for a presentation - that our purpose is first and foremost about our audience and helping them.

If you want to communicate more powerfully in any situation, focus on the audience and their needs first.

Also posted in Leadership.

Labels: communication, preparation, presentation skills, Remarkable Leadership

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After writing and editing the book, working out the look of the cover, and all of the other details for my new book Remarkable Leadership, we have finally released the website.

You will want to check out the website now because you can receive a sample chapter from the book as a preview what what the book contains. There is also a blog specifically related to the book's progress and to ideas to further your path towards remarkable leadership.

There are some other very cool features coming soon to the website - which I will announce here when they are ready.

If after you've had a look, send me an email if you have any comments or questions about the book.

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training.

Labels: Remarkable Leadership

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I've asked myself that question in the past, and wondered what other people thought. So I took note of my personal list and had a member of my team (Thanks Erica!) scour the web for more to consider. After review and discussion, we landed on the following ten as our contenders, as of June 2007, for the Best Leadership Blog (in the galaxy?).

Labels: leadership, leadership blogs

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At yesterday morning's keynote at ASTD in Atlanta, Jim Collins of Built to Last and Good to Great talked about the research his team is doing now. Based on what he said, my guess is the title of his next book will be Great to Good to Great.

In his engaging and thought provoking keynote he talked about companies that are going very well (or Great) and what his research says are the reasons why they fall - and then, for the good news, how they can turn that around again. Here are a couple of key bullets from the many in my notes.

- Greatness is not a function of circumstance, it is a function of conscious choice and discipline. (He highlighted this as his key idea in the talk).
- Almost all decline is self inflicted.
- The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.
- Every Great to good example had a problematic leadership transition.

There was much more, but those four nuggets should give you plenty to think about.

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training.

Labels: ASTD

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