The Essence of Good Presentation Skills

We’ve all sat through those meetings. Meetings that make us wonder “how much longer is this going to last”, “is this meeting really necessary” or sometimes even, “Is this job really worth it”! The truth of the matter is that it may not necessarily be the content that gets us bored out of our skulls but rather the way it is being presented. Good presentation skills can make even the dullest of content sound invigorating and interesting. While there is a ton of material out there that has plenty of advice for what presenters should do to churn out a good presentation, there are also some key things that they must avoid to not jeopardize their presentation. In this article we will look at three such aspects:

Insufficient Preparation

It happens even to the seasoned presenters. Life along with all its challenges and urgencies can get busy and cut into preparing for a presentation. But presentations require hard work and foresight. They require thinking ahead of the listeners to understand what they’re expecting from the presentation. A poorly prepared presentation usually shows in the scrambled manner of output or the lack of flow in the content. And listeners are usually perceptive enough to pick up on it.

Information Overload

Once in a while the presenter can do quite the opposite of underprepare and fire-hose his listeners with too much information and data. During preparation tis can seem like a good idea because one tends to think that they’re giving the listeners whatever they can and that’s a good thing. But sometimes this can be so overwhelming on the receiving end that listeners may walk away without catching the majority of what was said instead clearly understanding a few things said efficiently. Just as we do better attempting to catch one ball instead of five coming at us, the brain handles few pockets of data better instead of large volumes of it.

Lackluster Delivery

It is a sad but true fact – some presenters can be just boring. It may be one or many factors that contribute to the dullness. Presenters must not make the mistake of assuming that interesting content will carry over just as interestingly regardless of the delivery style. Body language, voice modulation, eye contact, hand gestures and enthusiasm all play a vital role in communicating the message. But it goes deeper than this too. If listeners don’t see an underlying conviction or passion in the presentation, they’re not going to be inclined to ‘buy’ a message that the presenter himself doesn’t seem to have bought into.

Presentation Skills Training is an important aspect of training that companies want to invest in for the sake of their employees. This equips them to communicate the vision and agenda of the company in an effective manner.

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

Eliminating Obstacles to Training the Trainers

Management and administrative structures, just like machinery, need to be constantly assessed, monitored and maintained in order for it to run smoothly without setbacks and last long. Companies know this and realize that even their own trainers need to be updated on the latest trends in the market, adaptive changes that need to be made to keep up with the changes and ultimately sharpening their own skills in order to achieve all that. Unfortunately most companies find that they are not able to pull valuable staff off the floor in order to invest a couple of hours to train the trainers. And their reasons are generally the common three – Time (it takes too much time / there is not enough time), money (it costs too much / doesn’t fit within the budget) and people (cannot free up people to participate). In this article we will examine some trouble-shooting tips to dealing with these objections:

Time

This is the most common complaint. There is just not enough time in a working day to set aside couple of hours for multiple trainers to be attending training. But there is a way around this. While 2-4 hours on a given day might not be practically possible, that training time can be broken down into smaller chunks of 45 minutes spread over the week. This allows trainers to not be gone for extended periods of time while still giving them the frequency and continuity of training.

Money

This can manifest in two forms – either there is simply no allowance for such training in the budget or the program is just not considered worth spending that kind of money. In the former situation, and depending on the type of business, departments could partner with each other to allot a part of their budget to accomplish the training. Other creative ways could be explored to partner with local agencies or programs to minimize the cost of training. In the second situation, a clear and cogent case needs to be made to show the cost-benefit value of such training and how it can improve efficiency and reduce costs for the future.

People

People are emotional beings and an appeal must be made to show the long-term benefits of such training, especially in the realm of making their lives easier in the future. A direct correlation between the training benefits and improvement in the quality of their jobs (and life) will provide adequate incentive to motivate them to participate in the program.

Train the Trainer is an important program that companies must invest in to keep their trainers sharp with their skills and up to date on the changing landscape of the corporate world.

MMM Training Solutions conducts communication skills training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad. 

5 Habits of Healthy Leaders

What is leadership?

Leadership is a role riddled with responsibility and those who were or are currently in it understand its weight. Leadership skills have multi-dimensional aspects to it and its complexities are as diverse as the personalities of leaders themselves. Successful leaders however do things a certain way but also do it consistently. It is this drive and conviction that makes them excel at what they do. In this article we will look at five habits that make leaders successful at what they do:

Expectations are well communicated

Good leaders are clear about what they expect from their subordinates or employees. They avoid ambiguous instructions or directions and balance the line well between communicating exactly what they want and enabling the employee to achieve it. This equips the team to focus but also helps them to stay on track because they know what terms, conditions, goals and parameters are expected of them in order for the project to succeed.

It’s all about growth

People-oriented leaders know that there are things that are significantly more important than simply getting things done or accomplishing goals. And that is to equip and enable people to become better persons in every aspect of life alongside helping them succeed in their endeavors. Such leaders are quick to identify hidden skills and talents and create opportunities for these to shine. Sharp leaders also don’t allow their team to get into a comfortable or complacent spot.

Create Accountability

Leaders realize that accountability is a key factor in maintaining a culture of duty and responsibility that is laden with initiative. They strive to push members of the team to think for themselves and be independent and interdependent, without being co-dependent on each other. This fosters a sense of teamwork but also fosters unity and harmony within the team, which helps to keep each other in line with their individual responsibilities.

Feeling the morale of the team

Perceptive leaders know that monitoring the progress or growth of an individual or team is vital to understanding the health and morale of the team. Good leaders don’t shy away from identifying problematic areas and weak spots but are also quick to affirm and encourage growth and development with positive feedback.

Teachability

Good leaders understand that every individual member of the team is a contributing member and may have something valuable and important to offer for the benefit of the whole team. These leaders don’t pretend to know all the answers and will often make room to ask their subordinates for helpful ideas or opinions.

Leadership Training  Programs seek to create good opportunities for their potential leaders, where they can develop and enhance their skills in multiple areas and be the kind of leader that the company needs them to be

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

Email Etiquette And Its Impact on Business

An email says a lot about the person writing it. Business Email writing is an art. Sometimes friendships get forged through emails. I clearly remember when I was in HR in my previous organisation, I had to write mails to various stakeholders. One of them was from the Overseas Operations Cell. I always used to receive very courteous mails from one particular individual in the OOC. Every email used to start with a greeting and end with warm wishes. Email etiquette was followed to the T.I used to look forward to writing to her. Most of the mails which I received were curt one liners so this mail really stood out. I started looking forward to meeting the writer of these emails. One day I got an opportunity when I had to go to Bangalore to meet a client. I walked into the OOC office at Bangalore curious and eager to meet the writer of the emails and asked for Aparna, the person who had been writing those courteous emails to me. I was pleasantly surprised to meet her and we connected within a few minutes of our meeting. Her emails had already created a positive impression about her in my mind so forging a friendship with her did not take much time. She is one of my closest friends till date.

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart!”  William Wordsworth

Most of us do not have the time or the bandwidth to write courteous emails. We often write curt one liners that do not get us a response most of the times. Based on my experiences I would like to share a few pointers to effective email writing-

1.      A strong subject line is an essential part of business email writing. It gives an insight into what the email is all about and peeks the curiosity of the reader.
2.      Always start the email with some kind of greeting. This creates greater connect with the reader.
3.      Reflect on the content of the mail by asking yourself these questions, “What do I intend to accomplish through this email”, “Who is my audience?”, “ How can my message have the intended result and what do I need to do to achieve that?”
4.      Be sure to provide the context clearly while writing the email. Do not assume that the reader knows.
5.      Be as crisp and concise as possible while writing the content

Email Etiquette training can help you learn the globally accepted etiquette and methods of email writing. With most people in business getting over 300 emails a day, learning how to get your emails read is an invaluable skill.

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

The Social Aspect of Business Etiquette

One of the most interesting yet most socially inept characters we all know from popular fiction is Michael Scott, the branch manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, from the TV show ‘The Office’. Steve Carell, who plays the bumbling boss, acts the ‘politically incorrect’ role to the hilt. For the uninitiated, Michael Scott is a narcissistic yet naïve know-it-all. His publicity stunts always focus on himself while at the same time showing incredible unawareness toward the sensitivities of his fellow colleagues and clients he runs into. His penchant for attention, crave for adoration and extreme need for affirmation always manages to land him in the most awkward of situations that compromise his authority and/or integrity. Business Etiquette is not a term in Michael’s vocabulary.

We’ve all at some point in our personal or professional lives met a ‘Michael Scott’; people who seem strangely unaware of basic protocols of behavior at the workplace. And yet business etiquette is a crucially important dynamic to the harmonious functioning of a working environment. The way we interact with other people says a lot about us. Handshakes, eye contact and a warm smile creates a connection on a subconscious level that is friendly, non-hostile and completely professionally appropriate. It exudes a sense of confidence but also communicates a genuine interest in personal interactions with other people.

Introducing people also has a certain protocol to it – If one is introducing a high ranking individual to a group of people, it is appropriate to start from the lowest ranking executive to the top. Unwritten rules of conduct, hierarchy and protocol play an important role in associating with other colleagues form the workplace. Conversations are expected to be professionally related and personal topics of a sensitive and intimate nature are best left alone. Gossiping, even about fellow workers, is rude and offensive. Cell phone conversations are also expected to be kept at a minimum. Business etiquette seeks to meet the minimal standards of professional behavior in the workplace.

Business Etiquette Training programs are on the rise in businesses around the world as the importance of professionalism and protocol continue to increase in a pluralistic and globalizing corporate enterprise around the world. 

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

The 3 Fundamentals of Business Etiquette

I was once told, rather nonchalantly by a friend, “that manners and etiquette is fine if you are ‘Ms. Elizabeth’ or ‘Mr. Darcy’ but in the ‘real’ world, we keep things real”. I found it rather strange that basic foundational mannerisms was restricted to the Victorian world of Pride & Prejudice notwithstanding of course the fact that the statement itself smacked of pride and would be by matter of condescension, certainly prejudiced! But is this necessarily true? Should basic manners and etiquette be strictly within the realms of the stiff upper-lipped Brits? Isn’t there a universally agreeable set of behavioral codes, at least in the modern industrialized world? I am of course a reasonable person and certainly don’t expect the Bondo clan in tribal India to know which side of the plate the spoon and fork should sit on! Just like social etiquette however, there is also such a thing as business etiquette. In this article we will look at 3 basic aspects of business etiquette:

Personal Appearance

The old adage goes, “first impressions are lasting impressions”. This is certainly true even in the business world. While business fashion is certainly evolving in major metropolitan cities like New York or Los Angeles, the conventional well-groomed executive in business attire is still the model of corporate professionalism. Although some may debate this opinion, one’s attire and personal cleanliness speaks volumes of the person’s values and character with regard to his or her perspective on business or professionalism. Purple hair, unshaven beard and a bow tie just might not seal the deal!

Personal Interaction

While elevated to ‘levels of honor’ in Eastern cultures, it is still considered professional to stand up to greet someone if previously seated. The handshake is still the benchmark for an appropriate greeting regardless of culture or gender. And these are best portrayed when accompanied by a warm smile. This sets the ‘mood’ for the meeting even before getting into the details. No hugs or kisses please!

Personal Habits

Punctuality is the accepted currency in the world of corporate meetings. Arriving late is considered rude and unprofessional. There are also certain protocols to follow during and after a meeting. Didn’t your mother ever teach you to say, “please” or “thank you”? Well it doesn’t matter – these are basic staples to any civilized conversation; unless of course you just happen to belong to the Bondo tribe!

 Business Etiquette Training is an integral part of every company’s strategy to acclimatize their employees to maintaining a professionally healthy rapport with clients and peer companies. 

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

Why Business Etiquette Really Matters

Business etiquette is an integral part of a cohesive and functioning model within a corporate culture. With increase in technology changing the way people and businesses communicate and interact with each other, different levels within management or other areas have come closer than ever before, raising the need for an appropriate mode or medium of communicating and doing business. Business etiquette can be as simple or complex as intercultural etiquette, where there may be profound differences in the way people dress, speak, listen, address or function with each other. This is important because it provides the fluidity for seamless and streamlined interaction in a professional and courteous manner, without the risk of jeopardizing relations by way of offending through ignorance or negligence.

Business Etiquette can encompass a wide variety of aspects. These may range from verbal or non-verbal communication, eye contact, body language, gestures, etc. With the globalizing nature of industries and markets, understanding these key elements are crucial to the harmonious and productive functioning of personnel between diverse racial or corporate cultures. Franchises that operate internationally are especially vulnerable to this and must be aware of local norms, customs and sentiments before venturing into the foreign market. Another group of executives who fall into this segment are sales people who, by virtue of their job needs, may end up meeting a diverse group of people requiring specific sensitivities and tact according to the situation.

But business etiquette is not reserved only for senior or higher level administration. As mentioned before, in today’s world of virtual interactions and social media, professional etiquette is an ever increasing need that requires business etiquette training to be administered across all levels and departments of a company or organization. Businesses must first gain a first hand understanding of existing standards and norms before these are incorporated into training their employees. 

Business Etiquette Training is an integral part of the smooth and professional functioning of corporate dynamics in this modern times and society. 

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

How Good Are Your Presentation Skills?

Nearly a year ago a 12 year old boy from Kenya by the name of Richard Turere got the attention of the TED team who were scouting for stories near his home town. Richard grew up on a farm that raised cattle and protecting them from lions was a time consuming pastime. He told the TED team how lighting torches didn’t keep the lions away but if he walked the perimeter with a torch they stayed away. TED found his story so compelling that they invited him to talk about it at the noteworthy TED conference. There was only one problem – Richard had zero presentation skills or public speaking experience. With a little coaching from the folks at TED and a little practice, Richard took to the stage at Long Beach, California and gave his talk, being the shy yet charismatic boy that he was. When he finished, the crowd gave him a standing ovation!

What constitutes good presentation skills? If a 12 year old boy from a Kenyan village could give a TED worthy lecture, is it possible that we might be able to pull of a good one ourselves? There is often the misconception that presentations have to be full of flair, bravado and sophistication in order to keep the listeners’ attention. But this is far from the truth. Presentation skills are more than that; it is about speaking from the heart, being genuine, straddling the line of data and narrative with finesse and poise. Obviously in order to give a presentation one must first have something to present. But we must also keep in mind that human beings love stories. And a major part of giving a captivating presentation is to take the audience on a journey – a journey of experience mixed with information and emotion mixed with intellect. A successful presentation can be measured by how differently the audience might see the world when you are done. On short, a good presentation must begin with the subject, why you as the speaker care about it deeply and must end with why the audience must care about it just as much as you do.

 Presentation Skills Training is an important program that companies invest in heavily to equip their employees with the right tools and resources to be able to communicate ideas and agendas confidently and efficiently.

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

Team Building Lessons From The Hare and The Tortoise

Let us take the age-old story of the story of the Hare and the Tortoise and look at what lessons it has to offer in the 21^st century mantra of ‘enhancing corporate team building’. I am a storyteller and I took some liberties to create situations other than the one that we are familiar with in this story to use analogy to remember some core team building principles.

After the Hare and the Tortoise had run the infamous race, the Hare did some introspection and realised that its overconfidence was the reason for its failure. It challenged the tortoise to another race. This time the Hare was very diligent and easily won the race.

The learning - while it is good to be slow and steady, in organisations it is the fast and steady who are successful.

The story does not end here….

The tortoise did some introspection and realised that it would never be able to win the race in the way it is now designed. So it challenged the hare to a different type of race. The hare agreed. In this race the Hare sped over the Tortoise on land but as the second part of the race it had to cross a river to reach the goal post. The Hare was not able to do so and the Tortoise ended up winning the race.

The learning - we all have our core competencies and we have to create opportunities that help us capitalise our core competencies.

The story does not end here…

The Hare and the Tortoise had become good friends by now and they introspected on ways to create a win-win situation. As per the new plan, the hare carried the tortoise over land and while crossing the river the tortoise carried the Hare on its back. Both the Hare and the Tortoise won the race!

The learning - they realised that though they may have their own competencies, it is the ability to leverage off of various competencies that create powerful teamwork.

"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." --Helen Keller

Team Building Training, which focuses on activities to download learning, has been shown to have great impact on the performance of teams. All leaders will uniformly agree that teambuilding gets the greatest attention in business today.

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

Leadership Lessons From Hanuman

Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Ramayana. Hanuman was known as an ardent follower of Lord Rama. The qualities he displayed reveal that he was a great leader himself. Through the many vicissitudes of life he displayed his leadership qualities with great alacrity.

In the epic, Hanuman was entrusted with the task of travelling to Lanka and finding Sita. The Gods and the Gandharvas who wanted to test his intelligence, courage and integrity put him through a lot of challenging situations. The Ramayana enlists numerous obstacles that Hanuman faced in this journey.One such situation occurred with the serpent Goddess Surasa when Hanuman was flying to Lanka. The Gods approached Surasa, the mother of the Snakes, and asked her to assume the form of a terrible demoness in order to test Hanuman. Surasa agreed and waylaid Hanuman in his journey and informed him that the only way he could reach Lanka was go through her mouth and be expelled on the other side. Hanuman knew that this was impossible as Surasa would close her mouth as soon as he entered and devour him. Hanuman pleaded to with her to let him go; however, she did not agree. Left with no other choice, Hanuman challenged her to open her mouth wide enough to devour him. She started expanding her jaws to the maximum extent possible. In the meantime Hanuman expanded his form too as he had decided to overwhelm her with his massive form. But he realized that his insecurity caused him to rely on his ego. He took a step back and re-examined the situation and changed course! He assumed a tiny form, the size of a thumb and zoomed out at the other end before Surasa had time to close her mouth. His ability to abandon ego and think of the higher good with his quick thinking earned Surasa’s blessing!

Many leadership lessons can be harvested from Indian Mythology. Different heroes had different styles of leadership; however, one thing that stood out is that they were all great personalities who displayed leadership qualities that others desired to emulate.  Leadership training that uses the learning from the lives of people, who have left an undeniable impact on generations, is an excellent way to learn desirable leadership skills.

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

The Invaluable Significance Of Soft Skills To Company

Sometimes we can spend our whole lives studying, preparing and equipping ourselves for the rigors of a competitive work environment and the comforts of a good life. And the pursuit of hard work in academics certainly plays a significant role in accomplishing that. But time and time again, experience tends to show us that all the education and intellectual credentials in the world don’t quite prepare us for dealing with a specific type of situation or a specific individual at a given moment. The nuances of education, string of degrees and depot of knowledge don’t seem to help in navigating through the challenging waters of dealing with people who are as complex as the patterns we see through a kaleidoscope.  And this is where relational or behavioral skills, popularly called ‘soft skills’ come into play. There are several types of soft skills that not only enable better relationships at the workplace but also simply make you a better person overall.

While there are numerous soft skill topics, knowing the fundamentals of how to meet and greet people, engage in a polite discussion with them, follow certain codes of conduct and simply carry oneself in a given social situation, all go a long ways in demonstrating one’s ‘personalization’ abilities but also one’s professionalism at the work place. There are certain fundamental modes of etiquette that are just considered polite, courteous, respectful and professional that makes an employee more personable with his fellow workers. These people are not only easy to work with but are also fun to be around in that their mannerisms are constantly engaged in the harmony and well-being of people around them.

Soft skills can go a long ways in improving the quality of not only the work but also the working environment at any given place. It sets the appropriate tone for working in a professional manner but also cultivates and fosters good habits and behaviors from everyone involved in working together as one cohesive unit. It is no wonder than that companies these days invests so heavily on such professional development training.

Soft skills Training is a crucially important edge that every employee must have in order to function harmoniously alongside their colleagues, While hard skills might enable an employee to get the job it is ultimately their soft skills that equip them to thrive in that job and work alongside their peers.

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

Leadership – The Ability to See Challenges as Opportunities

“Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated!” -Confucius

A brilliant quote, the efficacy of which I would like to demonstrate further by using two real-life business situations.

Situation 1: A famous cosmetics company in Japan received a complaint from one of its customers that the soapbox he purchased from there was an empty one. Immediately the authorities got together to discuss the origination of the issue. They realised that the problem was with the assembly line the work of which was to transport all the packaged soap boxes to the delivery department. The Management asked their highly qualified technical experts to solve the problem. They worked hard on it and came up with an expensive X ray machine with high resolution monitors. This machine was to be manned by 2 people who would watch all the soapboxes to ensure that none was empty.

At the same time, a small company faced a similar issue. The owner did not have the highly educated and paid engineers. Nor did he have the huge budgets. Faced with these constraints, he devised a simple solution. He bought a powerful industrial electric fan and showed it at the assembly line. All that the fan did was it simple blew the empty soap boxes out of the line.

Situation 2: There is another curious case that happened when NASA started launching astronauts into space. They found that the pens used by them wouldn't work at zero gravity because ink would not move down to the writing surface. To solve this problem, it took them almost a decade and an exorbitant amount. Ultimately they developed a pen that could work at zero gravity and that would write on any surface. However the Russians came up with a simple solution to this complicated problem -they used a pencil instead of a pen.

A key leadership quality of the 21^st century is to be able to see challenges as opportunities and not as constraints. The leadership skill of being able to think ‘out of a box’ is second to none in this fast-paced, competitive world in which the word ‘stagnancy’ is obsolete. 

Leadership Training programs that focus on developing these leadership competencies are greatly sought after by corporates. 

MMM Training Solutions conducts  Leadership Training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.

Communication Skills Of A Good Leader

Every employee has a story of working with someone who was just a poor communicator. I have my own story too. The person I worked under was, by all polite standards, a mystery. He wasn’t clear about his expectations, his feedback (whether positive or negative) was always vague and his instructions were very arbitrary to say the least. Simply put, he had terrible communication skills. This caused problems in many areas of his job – poor relationships with his subordinates, lack of camaraderie with his peers and animosity with his superiors. Surprisingly his job with the company somehow lasted longer than it should have. Truth eventually won the battle and he was terminated. But his departure left such a huge ‘crater’ of confusion that the entire company revamped its method, mode and policy for communication across the board. In the aftermath, the new communication policy was much clearer than before!

So what type of communication skills should a good leader have? What makes a good communicator? Leaders carry a great deal of responsibility on their shoulders with respect to their job responsibilities, manage production output and quality service, marshalling his or her personnel and resources and all the while keeping the whole process within the satisfactory limits of the company’s watchful gaze. 

Lets look at a few aspects of good communication that a leader should keep in mind: 

1. Leaders with good communication skills must make sure to be very clear about their goals, expectations and vision. 
2. They must give clear and consistent feedback through the whole process of execution so that the required demands of performance or quality are adhered to with minimum margin of error.
3. They communicate any progress or deficiency clearly to higher levels of authority so appropriate decisions can be made accordance with the needs.
4. Lastly, regardless of how the job plays out, they make sure to give ample motivation and inspiration to the team on a job done with excellence, inspiring a spirit of perfection for the next project.

Communication Skills Training is a vital component of enhancing correspondence within the organization regardless of their size or business. Such training programs equip the people that matter with the skills that matter even more. 

MMM Training Solutions conducts communication skills training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.