9 Presentation Sins and How to Avoid Them

Sin #1: Wasting time — – start on time and finish on time.

Sin #2: Boring your audience — – give them key points that they can digest. Don’t read your speech.  Package the information with your voice, body language, and style that makes it interesting.

Sin #3: Lacking passion — – leave a message and let your audience know how much you believe in it. Passion is captivating, contagious, and more convincing than logic.

Sin #4: Confusing your audience — – keep your message clear. Eliminate unnecessary information and conflicting messages. Use words that they understand. Repeat your message three times.

Sin #5: Insulting your audience — – talk to them and with them — but not down to them.  Don’t make jokes about the audience. Don’t assume that you know what they think, know, or have done.

Sin #6: Unclear purpose/message — – ask yourself why you are giving a speech. Be able to state your message in one short clear phrase, then build your presentation around that.  If you can’t — don’t.

Sin #7:  Information overload. Give them what they need to know to do what you want them to do.  Don’t overload them with too much information.

Sin #8: Stuck in a rut of delivery — un-able to flex to the audience — – be prepared to alter your presentation to reach your audience in a way that is best for them.  It is not about you.  You must reach them with your message.

Sin #9: Using slides that are boring, irrelevant or confusing — – use only visual aids that reinforce your message.  PowerPoint will never rescue you from poor presentation skills.  You are your best messenger.

DEVOTIONS PART 2.

How do I have quiet time?

• meet God—still your heart, ask for His presence. Concentrate. You may wish to praise Him with a psalm. Take a psalm and look for things in it for which to praise Him.
• listen to God by reading a passage from His Word.  Don’t choose more than a chapter.  Read it carefully, reverently, intelligently, and read it more than once….is there a promise to claim, a sin to confess, a command to obey, an example to follow, or an error to avoid?

• talk to God through prayer. Praise and thanksgiving… be specific.  Search your life in your mind for things. Thank and praise Him for them.   Requests for self and others…be specific. Confession… search your life for sins committed and asked for cleansing, then thank Him for His full forgiveness through Christ’s blood.

How do I get started?

• make a contract right now to begin a daily quiet time.  Be consistent in the time and place… start with 20 minutes. It should be unhurried and quiet. Morning is ideal.
• use a notebook.  Expect dry periods.. that’s no excuse for stopping.  Change your format or the book of the Bible you are reading… avoid stagnation. 
• share what you are learning in a quiet time with other Christians.  Get a hold of a good quiet time guide that will give you good ideas to include your time with God.

Use the ABC method

• first pray, second  read, third, study
• A…. Analyze… get just the basic facts
• B…Best verse… choose a verse that convicts you, inspires you, or enlightens you the most… meditate on it… look at it from different angles
• C…Contract…. apply the teaching by asking, Is there a new thought, promise, command, or pattern to follow? What is God telling me about this?…. and write out a specific plan for obeying the truth.
• Choose your best verse of the week and memorize it…

Devotions/God Time

What is a quiet time?

A quiet time is a time of direct contact between your mind and God’s, using the Bible and prayer as a time of dedication, cleansing, instruction, strengthening, and delight.

Bible study and prayer are not simply for our sake. God deeply desires our fellowship and worship– and it gives Him joy and pleasure.

Communication with God must be daily.  To know God, not just know about God, is the goal. How we pray, delight, and think on God is the only true measure of whether our relationship with Him is alive.

The maintaining of a daily quiet time is perhaps the most consistently difficult duty of the Christian life.  Its difficulty is a humbling reminder of our lack of commitment to Him.  It is an unalterable principle, however, that a quiet time is necessary for Christian growth and obedience.

What are the goals of a quiet time?

• worship… to get to know Him, to be humbled by His Holiness, comforted by His love, and strengthened by His presence.
• change… to root out sin and establish Biblical attitudes and actions for your life
• to hear God… to be open to listening for God’s still, small voice.  To be a listener, not just a talker.  God gave us two ears, but only one mouth.

Meet with God, talk with God, listen to God, and obey the things He impresses on your heart and you will grow in your walk with God…

What God Means to Me

What God means to me…

• a father who daily oversees my struggles, needs, flaws and life and still enables and helps me to be more and more like his son Jesus
• a friend who speaks to my weaknesses, depression, and tribulations with a word of hope and encouragement and a trust for a future with Him
• a Savior who I can trust to forgive all my sins— past, present, and future, and remove my guilt and condemnation as I walk with Him
• a provider who always has my back when times are tough, people are mean, situations are dire, and circumstances don’t add up

God is all this and more to me.  My challenge and my privilege is to walk with Him daily, listen for His still, small voice, and obey the Word in every situation to the best of my ability.
It is then, I find, that God shows up, and I see His fingerprints all over my life.
"We know that God works all things together for good to those who love Him, for those call by His name"

Business Etiquette #3

Professional image and business etiquette…

"Always do right; you will please some people and astonish the rest"
Mark Twain

There are key aspects to professional presence, your business etiquette, and your professional image.
It’s more than knowing which rules apply; it’s having them so that they are second nature to allow you to be gracious, respectful, courteous, and make others feel comfortable.

1. Business events

• always be on time
• be prepared
• powerful positive first impressions last  Include:
  • great handshakes
  • introductions of yourself and others
  • good nonverbal language– eye contact, smiling
  • good use of business cards
  • creating a pulled together, polished, professional appearance and demeanor that will give you confidence and others a great and lasting impression

1. The art of conversation includes

• active listening and artful questioning
• safe and effective topics to get conversation going
• graceful exits
• knowing how to "schmooze"

1.   Office communication

• telephones and voicemail
• e-mail
• cell phones
• commitments and appointments all must be done decently and in order

2.   Dress appropriately

• according to your industry, company culture, individual job profile
• according to your area of the country
• according to your specific business occasion or client
• according to the message you want to convey and the business look you want to communicate
• simple, neat, and ironed
• dressing for the position to which you aspire
• enhancing your personal body shape and skin and hair coloring appropriately
• quality can be affordable

3.   Personal items

• have simple, cleaned and neat grooming
• be attentive to your hands and nails
• be appropriate with makeup, perfume, cologne
• have an appropriate hairstyle that hits you

4.   Body language

• use good posture
• convey that you’re positive and confident
• use appropriate facial expressions
• use appropriate gestures
• make sure you are giving the non-verbals you intend to

HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS

The following are some characteristics of a high-performance teams.
Teamwork is essential to a society grounded in individual accomplishment:

TASK

• share responsibility for results
• ask for what is needed to achieve the team’s purpose
• members have the duty, authority and skills to identify and resolve difficulties
• everyone is engaged in an ongoing feedback, development, and learning process
• recognition of successful task accomplishment and of individual as well as team contributions
• sense of enthusiasm and satisfaction with the work

PURPOSE

• clarity and excitement about team purpose. Including understanding of how purpose supports the goals of the organization
• achieve the results in spite of difficulties
• do the work is important to the success of the organization or community

Process

• clear roles and responsibilities
• everyone contributes and each team member makes a unique contribution to team functioning
• clarity in agreement about how work gets done
• meetings are used to deal with important collective issues
• shared responsibility for team effectiveness
• have self-correcting mechanisms. Members are willing to examine processes and take corrective action

Relationships

• members feel they have a duty, authority and skills to confront each other without rank when issues arise
• members value and enjoy teamwork and interdependencies
• members interact, consult, persuade and confront each other—including the leader—with trust and without fear of repercussions
• members strive for trust and understanding
• members effectively manage differences. Conflict is related to issues rather than personalities

VISION STATEMENT

Managers create vision statements that best reflect the challenges to be faced and the skills to be emphasized in their own areas.

Each local market is a unique commercial environment; no two are identical.

Here are some basics, and some elements with some common threads for a local vision statement…

Atmosphere

• we treat each other with respect
• we enjoy a fun workplace
• we celebrate our successes
• we work as a team to solve problems
• we stay positive
• we have a good work ethic
• we constantly strive to educate and improve ourselves
• when a mistake is made, we work together to solve the problem
• we viewed errors as opportunities to learn and grow

Professionalism

• we are honest and trustworthy
• we don’t make promises we can’t keep
• we keep every promise we make
• we will represent the company well
• we are committed to good service
• we are dependable, organized, and motivated
• we are on time
• we dress and act professionally every day
• we are successful

Competence

• we genuinely care about our clients’ businesses
• we are innovative
• we exercise good judgment
• we aggressively seek new business
• we can find answers to any question
• we use our tools to learn more about our client’s business
• we are detail oriented and accurate

These are just a few of the elements which one can use to begin to forge a vision or mission statement.
One key is to make them customer centered. What is in it for your customer?

10 THINGS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY $$

Remember, there are many things in life that are far more important than the size of your investment portfolio or the size of your latest paycheck.

Too often in our capitalistic society, we place too much emphasis on financial achievement and too little on the importance of living a purpose driven life.

1. Family… your spouse, your parents, and her kids should come first. Just simply providing for them does not make your family, your number one priority. There is far more you can do for them with quality and quantity time. Love is spelled…. TIME.
2. Friends… the older some of us get, the less time we have for our friends. Some people get too busy climbing the success ladder and may not even make time for friends. Big mistake. So many things in our society are disposable, and sadly, friends too often fall into that category. Take time to invest in your friendships, both old and new. How hard is it to schedule a Starbucks coffee, pick up the phone, or write an e-mail?
3. Your health… stress, poor diet, lack of exercise, poor relationships with you and your family… all of these can adversely affect your health. Getting caught up in your career and working endless hours can also lead to neglect of one’s health. Workaholism can be deadly. The lack of discipline in making exercise, sleep, a good diet, and a healthy lifestyle can be dangerous if not deadly as well. You get one body, take care of it and treat it with the respect it deserves.
4. Kids… investing in your kids is absolutely one of the best investments you can make. Understanding how to relate to, love, care for, and communicate with your kids is vital to becoming a more fulfilled and complete person. Our future is our children. What kind of legacy are you leaving behind? Relationships that are fully orbed or just a fat portfolio?
5. Education… being a lifelong learner is a lifelong process. It’s not about being enrolled in the school or a fancy college or receiving a piece of paper. It is, however, about being someone who is hungry to learn, willing to change, and ready to embrace new ways of looking at life and the universe. As long as you have your mental capacities, you can keep learning and building on what you already know. Your mind is a terrible thing to waste.
6. Having fun… people get so caught up in society’s money game that wealth becomes an addiction, an obsession, and the purpose for their existence. How many wealthy people aren’t healthy people who spend far too much time and energy chasing promotions, money, and possessions. We can end up with lots of toys and turn out to be pretty unhappy people… big mistake.
7. Solving social problems… how can you be a voice in society for those who do not have the ability to speak for themselves? Whether it’s poverty, divorce, suicide, teenage pregnancy, name your issue… you can have a voice and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Your community is full of opportunities for you to volunteer, donate time or money, and get involved.
8. Your neighbors… give the neighbors a chance. Don’t write them off because they aren’t the same age, race, or occupation as you. What’s the sense of neglecting neighbors, since they can be sources of friendship, if given a chance? Part of our connection to the greater society is defined by our neighborhoods, which are full of neighbors— who could be friends we haven’t met yet.
9. Appreciating/valuing what you have… right now make a list of 10 things that you really appreciate. What is on your list? Despite our overall affluence, we still lament material things we lack rather than appreciating and valuing the material and nonmaterial things we do have. Don’t forget relationships.
10. Your reputation… a good name is to be had above riches. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, but only moments to lose it. We chase after many things in life, and we often de-value and under-invest in relationships which should have our focus and priority. How many men have thrown it all away in a quick but twisted attempt at some forbidden fruit?

PROFESSIONAL IMAGE

Do…

• …Dress attractively, clean, simple, and neat for the position to which you aspire
• … consider what is appropriate attire for the occasion, client, region, and industry
• … keep your nails manicured (men and women), and your make up simple and professional( women)
• … have a hairstyle that is stylish, flattering, clean and neat, which enhances your image
• … be aware of nonverbal communication: how you stand, smile, gesture, hold your body etc.
• …make sure your breath is not an issue
• … make sure you smell great, but not too much cologne, perfume, or aftershave

Don’t…

• …Dress for mis-perception (tight fitting clothes, revealing blouses, low necklines,etc.)
• …looked unkempt (wrinkled clothing, shirttail hanging out, bra strap or slip showing)
• …dress too casually or trendy (jeans, no socks, current fads)…. even on casual Fridays
• … neglect your hair(no comb-overs, dirty or unkempt hair, bad dye jobs) or nails
• … use too much or too little makeup, or too much perfume or cologne
• … forget to check yourself in a mirror or before meeting with people

These are just a few ideas and basics

Get it?

Here are some cool gems of wisdom:

• Get knowledge, but don’t depend on your knowledge
• Seek to be wise, but don’t rely on your wisdom
• Work hard, but don’t trust in your hard work
• Work smart, but don’t stick everything on your own cleverness and efficiency
• Make plans, but don’t hope in your plans. Save money, but don’t trust your savings
• Value people, but don’t depend on people
• It’s better to deserve honors and not have them, than to have them and not deserve them

Perhaps some of these principles, rooted in the wisdom of Scripture, will encourage you and your pursuit of godly living today and strengthen your walk with God.

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