Some meetings actually work better virtually - as long as you follow a few clear, simple guidelines.
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About a year ago my training partner and I were speaking with a client who told us that another trainer they worked with was frustrated because her RFP’s were consistently being rejected. She felt she was being treated unfairly and had filed a formal complaint; this was exacerbated when she found out we were being offered repeat work, without having to go through the RFP process at all. What she did not know (nor was she told, which is a whole other blog post), was that her trainings were deeply ineffective,
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A couple of weeks ago a speaker asked for my feedback on a speech she was working on with another coach, for a large event. We scheduled a phone session, and she had her coach on the line so we’d all be on the same page. When she was done with the read-through of her speech, it was pretty clear that she was way off the mark. Her speech lacked a clear purpose
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When I was a teenager, I struggled to communicate my ideas and opinions with people who disagreed with me, or heck, even those who did. I knew I had strong feelings about things, but I didn’t know how to articulate them well.
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That’s where I came in: using strategies I’d employed as an educator, I was able to teach the clients about their project. It lead to higher success rates in signing new clients, and clients that were happier with the work because they understood what we were doing. Since then I’ve mostly transitioned into my own work as a coach and trainer, but every so often I still attend meetings with my husband to help him educate his clients about their projects.
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This past spring my husband started working with a coach – a poker coach. That’s right, he’s working with someone to improve his poker-playing skills. At first I was skeptical; after all, I come from a world where you only hire a coach for high-level professional development like public speaking and leadership.
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A decade ago I spent two weeks participating (as a learner) in a corporate training for the education company that I worked for at the time. I had high hopes, as we were an organization focused on teaching kids how to learn effectively; unfortunately, that philosophy didn’t carry over into training for the employees. We spent the entirety of the two weeks listening to droning lectures,
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Beforehand, all of the facilitators were asked to attend a training session because we came from various professional backgrounds, and they wanted to make sure we were all on the same page as to what our goals and responsibilities were. Most importantly, because many of us were coaches and trainers (and used to being in the spotlight!) we needed to understand the clear difference between being a facilitator versus being a trainer.
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In only 15 minutes she would need to both educate the audience about the problematic nature of the current American bail system, as well as detail her solution and why we should support it. Steinberg had to manage what every speaker navigates while planning a presentation: How much information does your audience need in order for them to understand what you’re speaking about?
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A friend of mine recently worked with a new speaker coach to get her ready for a big work presentation in front of a room of over 500 people. She was disappointed after the first session because she didn’t feel like she’d gotten what she needed. She noticed her coach struggled to translate his skills as a wonderful speaker into helping her with her presentation. “He didn’t seem to understand I was giving a corporate presentation, not a motivational speech.” She lamented. “And he’s such a great speaker, so I thought he’d be a great coach!”
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Pop quiz: What’s the best way to lose your place during your presentation?
Answer: Look down at your notes.
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The only problem? No one had read the book. In fact, they didn’t even know they were supposed to have read it; furthermore, many had only received their book the day before!
Our entire plan hinged on the participants having read the book.
So there we were, in front of a room of complete strangers at 8:00am, with no viable plan to fill the next 4 hours.
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The first time I was called on to give an impromptu speech in front of my colleagues, I was so nervous and unprepared that I rambled incoherently for 30 seconds, then spoke as fast as I could through my key points. Later someone told me I should’ve been an auctioneer instead of a professor. Does this sound familiar to you?
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