How to Read Between the Lines

I was commissioned to write something for the Daily Telegraph on communicating smartly at work. It is printed here - hope that you like it

I get a very small mention in the Brighton and Hove Argus!!

and when I said small….I meant small…

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/business/businessnewsbusiness/4680093.Firms_asked_to_offer_a_helping_hand/

More PowerPoint and Presentation Skills

I had a very enjoyable day today with the lovely people at Chichester Diocesan Family Support Work doing the second day of our Presentation Skills course. As promised I’m adding my PowerPoint Slides - presentation-skills-day-two1.

The step-by-step guide to beginning a PowerPoint presentation from scratch seemed to go well too and I’ll upload this here. using-powerpoint

I always find running Presentation Skills courses very emotional.  I really enjoy watching people really come out of their shells and start sharing their expertise and their personality. One participant was really interested in the quote by Marianne Williamson which is often wrongly attributed to Nelson Mandela which reflects this wonderful flowering which people experience when they build confidence in public speaking- here is the quote in full.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Negotiating and Influencing Skills

I ran an Introduction to Negotiating Skills course this week at East Sussex County Council. The group was great and worked hard throughout the day. I promised to let them have the PowerPoint slides for the day, so here they are negskillswithtemplate

 The day was very active and full of exercises and chances to reflect on matters which directly affected the group on the workplace. However, as one participant pointed out, it was a little light on theory.

 To make up for this, I’m posting some links here which I hope will help.

 As I mentioned my Observations, Requirement and Requests model was based on Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communications model of which more of here.

 The NLP rapport skills tips are well described here. A pretty thorough description of objectives-setting in negotiations can be found here, although you’ll note that we used different terms to denote what the author calls “most favoured position” and “limit”

 Hope that helps!

 Phil