I need a discussion done for my wk 10 Business Comm Class and a respond to 1 other student

JWI505_WK10_LectureNotes_1194.pdf

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JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Lecture Notes

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WEEK 10: EXECUTIVE PRESENCE (Part II)

Executive Presence: Connect When You Communicate You are sitting in a business meeting. The company’s upper management has decided on an unconventional strategy for solving a problem. Two business teams will work in parallel to create a groundbreaking new prosthetic device for people who have lost limbs. The teams will compete to produce different designs, the best of which will be chosen by upper management upon completion of the task. The leaders of these teams will not choose their members. Instead, employees will be asked to choose between managers Natalie North and Edgar East.

Natalie North takes the floor first. She explains that in her last position, her team excelled. She says she has a proven track record, and she has slides to prove it. She explains how her leadership has led to higher earnings in past positions. She has consistently brought her projects in under budget. She is clearly the most capable leader, she explains, and it is likely team members working with her will see their careers boosted by proximity to her success. When it is Edgar East’s turn, he greets the assembled meeting-goers and thanks them for their attention. He explains that he has a sister who was born paraplegic. The prosthetic design that the company is advancing is of personal significance to him, because he has seen what his sister went through for years without the full use of her limbs. The prosthetic project is one that will not just help Mr. East’s sister, but will help countless other people afflicted with similar problems. This is very exciting for Mr. East, and he looks forward to the day he can tell his sister that his work has produced meaningful advances for her and others like her. As he is speaking, Mr. East looks up at the clock. He asks the attendees if they have any questions. The length of Ms. North’s presentation has left the meeting-goers pressed for time, but Mr. East does not mention this. Instead, he thanks Ms. North for being so thorough, and explains that he would be happy to work on Ms. North's team if he was not leading a team of his own. Mr. East then opts to shorten his presentation and leave it at that, provided no one needs anything specific from him. He also takes the time to ask the meeting attendees if anyone has any input they would like to share. When Mr. East concludes his presentation, upper management thanks both executives for their time and then hands out sign-up sheets.

Which executive’s team do you choose?

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Lecture Notes

The Four Supporting Factors of Effective Communication You chose Edgar East, didn’t you? There’s a good reason for this. Edgar East made four moves while presenting his case to the meeting that Natalie North did not. These four are the supporting factors of effective communication. Edgar East:

1. Established a personal connection with his audience by explaining why the project was so dear to him, in a way that was relatable to anyone with family members

2. Demonstrated flexibility in his presentation, adjusting it to avoid boring his audience or taking up too much time

3. Handled his personal fears to give such a candid talk about his personal values 4. Eliminated blame, focusing on positivity and benefit to the organization

Establishing a Personal Connection When Edgar East explained to you that he wanted to help his sister, and that the project was of personal significance to him, he immediately humanized his message. It was authentic. It spoke to you and engaged you because it was present. Being present helps you connect to others. Colleagues, subordinates, and superiors respond best to us when we show we are focused and attentive. If, instead, we are somewhere else, focused on something other than the person in front of us, we appear inauthentic. We, therefore, do not make the personal connection important to effective communication. The immediate, in the moment, fully expressed and fully present self is what resonates with other people. Connecting with One Person Connecting with one person is relatively easy. You have to employ open body language, showing that you are attentive and listening. Acknowledge what someone is saying to you. Look them in the eye. Ask polite, probing questions, but do not interrupt. Don’t wait to talk or formulate your answer. Instead, listen and process before responding. Make eye contact. In other words, be present. How much does it annoy you when you are speaking to someone, and they look down to casually check their text messages while you are talking? You feel they aren’t paying attention, don’t you? An effective

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Lecture Notes

business leader – an effective business communicator – cannot afford to make their audience, be it one person or an entire room of people, feel they are not completely focused on them. Director Woody Allen once said that 90% of success is showing up. In reality, success is much more about how we act, how we engage, and how present we are when we do show up. It is our presence that brings us success. When you engage with others, when you show that you are curious about what they think, that you value their contributions and that you are actively listening to them, you are establishing a personal connection. This demonstrates interest and trust. It also indirectly demonstrates truth and integrity; people are much more likely to perceive you as honest when you show an interest in them. Nothing resonates with other people so much as showing interest in them and listening to them when they communicate with us.

Connecting with Groups When you are delivering a monologue, connections aren’t as easy to build. How do you establish a personal connection with an entire group of people at once? It is much harder than in direct interpersonal communication. You cannot look your entire audience in the eye individually, nor can you listen to them individually. You can read their collective body language, but multiple people will react differently to the same speech. Connecting with a group, therefore, means you must make a connection through your words and your demeanor. You must demonstrate authenticity and exemplify truth, trust, and integrity in your speech – and how your actions support your speech. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., in his famous I Have a Dream speech, established that personal connection. It’s rare, and difficult to do, but it does happen. The I Have a Dream speech establishes that connection because it speaks to an almost universal human longing for equality and freedom, in which people are judged on their merits. The most important part of connecting with a group is humanizing yourself. Your audience must see you as a person. They must be able to relate to that person. What Reverend King did with the universal longing for peace and equality, Edgar East did by explaining his relationship with his sister and his desire to help her. These are emotions – human emotions we all share – to which the audience can immediately relate. And the act of sharing your inner dreams and longings with an audience also helps them to trust you because the vulnerability you show in sharing something of yourself is taken as a sign of forthright sincerity and respect. You are essentially building a personal relationship with the entire audience. Forming personal relationships helps you develop and grow valuable relationships. Jack talked about the need to get every brain in the game. He told a story of an employee who said to him, earlier in his career, “You’ve been paying for my arms and legs. You could have had my brain for nothing.”

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Lecture Notes

In other words, in a large organization, the employees who are closest to the work are the ones who have the best answers. Edgar East asked the meeting attendees for their input because he assumed he did not have all the answers himself. He made it clear that he was ready to listen to his team members for that reason. Getting every brain in the game means drawing on the inherent, systematic knowledge employees have developed over years of work. In other words, these are the very people who might be best positioned to help you solve your problems and meet your organization’s goals. Failing to probe, question, and listen to this resource – failure to build collaborative relationships with your coworkers – is not the mark of an effective business leader. Instead, it flags an executive as arrogant, insecure, or afraid of being seen as someone other than the boss, rather than someone who wants to further the organization’s goals. Connecting with groups of employees as a business leader brings more perspectives, a greater set of collaborative possibilities, and more right answers to the table. This is something every organization wants.

Flexibility Being present may require us to be flexible. Circumstances may change in ways we have not anticipated. Speaking from a prepared script is not always possible when that happens. Operating from a preconceived game plan might likewise be inadvisable when situations are fluid. Have you ever watched a presentation – or given one yourself – in which you could sense that the audience was already sold, but the presenter insisted on plowing through the rest of their prepared presentation anyway? This is called selling past the close. Sometimes, it’s better to disregard your game plan if you sense, in the moment, that you’ve already accomplished your goal. In the context of a public speaking engagement, if your goal is to persuade a group and you’ve already done so, selling past the close risks boring them or alienating them. “Always leave them wanting more” is good advice. Never saturate your audience with more you than they want, or they’ll express their fatigue in ways that aren’t going to help you. Being really present enables us to be responsive and engaged with others while communicating. Let’s say you’re back in that presentation before a large group. When the inevitable question from the CEO, shareholder, or customer interrupts our train of thought, it’s much easier to adapt and offer earnest, authentic answers when you’re focused on being in the moment, rather than regurgitating your preplanned talking points. This helps validate the other party and also sells your authenticity to them. They know you are not merely offering practiced ideas or answers, but are genuinely present and listening to their concerns and questions.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Lecture Notes

Interestingly, another very significant factor that detracts from our ability to be authentic and present is our own fears, which undermine those efforts.

Handling Your Fears Fear is what bubbles up when we are not comfortable. When we feel vulnerable, when we are not confident in our abilities, we are afraid. This happens often in our work if we are pushing ourselves to do new and important tasks, or where there is a lot at stake. We rightly fear the consequences of a mistake. A little discomfort – a measured amount of fear – keeps us on our toes. It keeps us present and nicely anticipatory, if we permit it and work with it. Too much fear, however, can paralyze us. Too much fear, with too much judgment involved, can make us unable to seize opportunities or even identify them. If we freeze, if we concede to the fight or flight reflex, we lose the ability to be present. This is the equivalent of walking out to a podium in front of an auditorium full of guests – and bolting from the stage, running out of the building, and hiding in the car. A big part of conquering your fears is learning to eliminate blame from your thinking.

Blame Your Inner Critic Blame comes in one or both of two forms:

• Externally-directed – blaming others

• Self-directed – our inner critic Now, if something goes wrong in business – or in life – it may be the case that someone is to blame. We’ll get to that. The inner critic is what we want to deal with first. Your inner critic generally does not help you solve problems or improve your business position. When you are listening to your inner critic, you can’t listen to productive conversations or input. The inner critic therefore makes constructive solutions more difficult to find. It saps your confidence, takes you off your game, and makes you doubt yourself. It also fuels your fears, which makes you less present, less flexible, and, therefore, less able to capitalize on opportunities or embrace unconventional solutions to your problems.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Lecture Notes

Recognizing our inner critic and knowing what triggers it helps us to suppress it. We don’t want to eliminate it entirely; some amount of doubt is necessary for proper decision-making because, with no self-doubt at all, you would quickly become arrogant and overconfident. What we can do, however, is note when it appears and then replace it with more productive thoughts. That brings us back to blame directed at other people.

Eliminating Blame Blaming others is not productive. It doesn’t just limit you. It puts your assessments of others’ limits, which are often arbitrary, on the people who might be best positioned to help you solve your problems. Blame, therefore, hinders effective business communication. When we blame others, we adopt a victim mindset. This makes us feel less in control of our actions, which, in turn, makes us less present and less able to take the necessary measures to improve our position. It effectively shuts down our belief that we can make a difference. Even when we don’t place blame on others verbally, we may indicate it non-verbally. A CEO who glares at the IT manager when the network crashes is sending a message that they lack confidence in the IT manager’s ability to do their job. They are also almost certainly placing blame where it does no productive good. An effective business leader might instead engage with the IT manager, ask them what resources they need to fix the problem, and express confidence in the IT manager’s ability to get the work done. This inspires the business leader’s colleagues and empowers those working for them. Refusing to place blame, and instead focusing on productive solutions, builds better business relationships and makes us more effective leaders. Would you rather be right or effective? The less you blame, the more possibilities and options you have. Dismissing others by blaming them typically removes any input or assistance they might otherwise offer. When we refuse to blame others and instead empower them to help us, we open the door to a win-win scenario.

Effective Business Leaders Connect with Others When we support and respect others, when we establish a personal connection with them and refuse to blame them, we build more powerful relationships. This supports the values of truth, trust, and integrity because it shows that we expect the best, while coaching and supporting, not blaming and demeaning.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Lecture Notes

Moving from a win-lose mentality to a win-win mentality – what Jack refers to as the generosity gene – encourages us to believe not just in ourselves, but in our colleagues. This builds a collaborative connection with our coworkers. It establishes strong relationships, which enable any business to meet the challenges it faces. To connect with others, to ask them to trust us and work with us, also assumes that we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity. When we are generous with our attention, when we are encouraging rather than demeaning, we are acting from abundance. This is the belief that opportunities always exist. When we act from an abundance of opportunities, not from fear or blame, we get more from our connections and we engage better. This better positions us, and our business organizations, to win.