michael jordan
Success Tweet 119: Disciplined Preparation is the Key to Presentation — and Career — Success
Sep 30th
I’m continuing my series of blog posts that further explain the career advice in Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less, my latest career success coach book. I’m going to be sorry when this series is finished. I hope you’re enjoying reading it as much as I’m enjoying writing it.
Success Tweets has gone into its third printing. That really pleases me. It has become a greater success than I thought it would be. I really appreciate your support. You can pick up a copy at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download it for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 119…
Discipline yourself to prepare for presentations. Practice out loud until you are totally in sync with that you’re going to say.
Many people fear making presentations. That’s why they’re not very good at them. I subscribe to James Malinchak’s ezine. It’s always full of interesting anecdotes. A couple of years ago, James told a very interesting story about a conversation he had with Michael Jordan. He posed the following scenario to Michael…
It’s Game 7 of the NBA Finals and your team is playing on the road at your opponents place. There’s 00:01 second left on the clock and your team is losing by 1 point. You’re at the free-throw line to shoot two shots. This is literally win or lose time, and the ball is in your hands. If you make both free throws, your team wins their first ever championship. If you miss both, your team loses the championship. How would you feel?”
Michael Jordan’s reponse…
That’s easy! That situation wouldn’t bother me because I would have already disciplined myself to make sure I had already prepared for success in that, or any other situation!
James went on to say…
Not the answer I was expecting, but it’s very profound when you think about those two words that most would rather simply skim over: 1) Disciplined; and 2) Prepared. The more I thought about those two words, the more I began to realize just how important they are for becoming a succsessful speaker, author, trainer or coach. Most people are not disciplined to prepare themselves for success.
James is on to something here. Disciplined preparation is great career advce. It is the key to not only becoming a dynamic communicator and great presenter. it is the key to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.
In the post on Success Tweet 118, I shared the five step model of presentation success that I teach my career success coach clients. The fifth point is “practice, practice, practice.”
I suggest not just practicine your talk, but practicing it out loud using your visuals. Do this as many times as it takes to become 100% comfortable with what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. Pay attention here. This is important career success advice.
When I say this to my career success coach clients, I am often met with frowns and a lot of excuses about not having the time to do the kind of preparation I suggest.
And that’s why many people suck at presenting. In Michael Jordan and James Malinchak’s words, they don’t have the personal discipline to prepare for a successful presentation. Without disciplined preparation it’s basically impossible to do a good presentation. If you can’t good presentations, you’ll never create the life and career success you want.
Cathy and I were in Florida last year to celebrate our niece’s wedding. Cathy was hosting a bridesmaid luncheon. The night before the luncheon, she practiced the welcoming talk she was going to give at the luncheon at least five times.
And you know what? It got better every time she practiced it. She practiced one more time the morning of the luncheon, and she had it down cold. She disciplined herself to prepare for her talk. She was ready to do it. And she gave a killer talk. Good for her.
Cathy often accompanies me when I travel. If I am doing a talk the next day, she knows my ritual before going to bed. I will practice my talk – out loud – at least twice, or as many times as it takes for me to feel that I have it perfected. It takes a little bit of time to practice like this, but the audience applause and, more important, my feeling of satisfaction after delivering a great talk are worth it.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are dynamic communicators. Dynamic communicators are good presenters. They follow the career advice in Tweet 119 in Success Tweets. “Discipline yourself to prepare for presentations. Practice out loud until you are totally in sync with that you’re going to say.” As Michael Jordan and James Malinchak point out, disciplined preparation is a key to success in any endeavor – from basketball to business. Disciplined preparation is especially important to becoming a great presenter. If you want to become a great presenter discipline yourself to prepare for your talks by practicing – out loud and with your visuals – until you are totally in sync with what you are going to say and how you are going to say it.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 119 and on disciplined preparation and becoming a great presenter. What’s yours? Please leave a comment. Share your presentation victories and horror stories with us. We can all learn from, and help, one another. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 96: Good is the Enemy of Great
Aug 30th
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 96…
Good truly is the enemy of great. Don’t settle for good performance. Today, good performance is mediocre. Become a great performer.
In his book Good to Great Jim Collins hit the nail on the head when he began with the idea that good is the enemy of great. He’s right, good is the enemy of great. There are lots of good performers, but only a few great ones. To achieve the life and career success you want and deserve, you need to become a great performer – not just a good one.
Good is seductive. For many of us it’s not too difficult to be good. And good has a nice feeling attached to it. On the other hand, good performance won’t get you to the top of the promotion list and keep you off of the layoff list. Great performance will.
But great performance comes with a price. You have to work at it. In The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame quotes several great performers on paying the price…
“If people know how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.” Michelangelo
“When I played with Michael Jordan on the Olympic team, there was a huge gap between his ability and the ability of the other great players on that team. But what impressed me was that he was always, the first one on the floor and the last one to leave.” Steve Alford, Head Basketball Coach, University of New Mexico.
“If I miss a day of practice, I know it. If I miss two days, my manager knows it. If I miss three days, my audience knows it.” Andre Previn, Pianist, Conductor and Composer.
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” Stephen King, Bestselling Novelist
Here are four people — an artist, a basketball player, a pianist and a writer – all saying the same thing: good is the enemy of great.
Your natural talent might allow you to be good. Great, however, requires determination and persistence.
Here are some interesting ideas about the difference between good and great when it comes to sales. They come from a study done by Herbert True at Notre Dame University.
- 44% of all salespeople quit trying to sell their prospect after the first call.
- 24% quit after the second call.
- 14% quit after the third call.
- 12% quit trying after the fourth call.
Great sales people make the fifth and sixth calls. According my Mr. True 60 % of all sales are made after the fourth call. And, according to his research, 94% of all salespeople give up after four calls to one prospect. The 14% and 12% of salespeople who give up after the third and fourth calls are probably pretty good salespeople. However, the great salespeople make the fifth and sixth calls – and make more sales.
Recently, I worked for about six months to close a large (for me at least) sale. At first, I seemed to be getting nowhere, but I believed in myself and knew that the services I was selling were valuable to the company to which I selling them. After six months and way more than six meetings with numerous people, all of whom had some input into the buying decision, I received a signed purchase order for $105,000. I was great – at least when it came to this sale.
My best career advice on going from good to great is to persist. Practice harder, prepare more, make the extra call, rewrite your proposal, rehearse your presentation and you will find yourself creating the career and life success you want and deserve.
Some of the best career advice on persistence that I’ve come across comes from Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States….
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are great performers. They follow the career advice in Tweet 96 in Success Tweets. “Good truly is the enemy of great. Don’t settle for good performance. Today, good is mediocre. Become a great performer.” Hard work and persistence are the best ways to become a great performer. If you practice longer, prepare more, make the extra call, rewrite your proposal, rehearse your presentation you will find yourself creating the life and career success you want and deserve.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 96. What’s yours? Please share your stories of going from good to great in a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
