Opening a Presentation

Most airplane difficulties occur at two critical points: take-off and landing. The same is often true of presentations. A strong opening will create additional confidence and is an opportunity to make an immediate positive first impression.

Key Points

• Get favourable attention quickly
• Lead naturally into your presentation
• Build goodwill
• Create points of agreement

Techniques

• Use an exhibit
• Dramatise your ideas
• Get participation
• Cite points of agreement or common ground

Avoid the apology. "How often we all have heard speakers begin by calling the attention of the audience to their lack of preparation or lack of ability. If you are not prepared, the audience will probably discover it without your assistance." -- Dale Carnegie

www.london.dalecarnegie.com

Sticking to your New Year's Resolutions

Statistically the 12th of January is the most common day of the year to give up on your New Year’s resolution. That’s the day of the year that most people give up …. !

So how did you do on yours? Have the running shoes gone back in the cupboard, was the draw of chocolate just too strong, is the pillow so comfortable that getting up half an hour earlier every day has already gone out the window.

What about those career goals …. Are you still making those extra sales calls? Are you taking the time to get to know colleagues and clients better? Are you still pushing forward with making your career what you want it to be in 2010?

I hope you are!

For anyone who’s already fallen off the wagon, don’t worry it’s never to late to get started again and for those still going, congratulations! I’d like to share a little secret with you to help you keep going on those goals. Our founder, Dale Carnegie, called it ‘The Little Known Secret of Success’ ….. it’s a magical thing called enthusiasm. It’s all well and good to talk about enthusiasm …. We’ve all heard about it but how do we find it? Well here are a few simple tips that I’ve seen people put into practice while training with us that will help keep you on track:

1.Focus all your energy on the outcome not the task.

2.Find one thing about your resolution that you like and focus on that.

3.If you don’t like anything about it pretend that you do ….. I’m serious it works! We can train our minds into liking something… try it!

4.If you have given up … put that in the past. Focus on how good it will feel once you get started again.

Enthusiasm is a powerful influence ….. We have a saying in our business ‘If you act enthusiastic, you’ll be enthusiastic.’ It’s cheesy but it works!

Give it a go …. What’s the worst that could happen?

I wish you every success in your goals for 2010.

David Anderson
Managing Director

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Oh no it's snowing again.......

Over the past couple of weeks we have had a lot of snow and the excitement we first experienced has started to wear off. The snow has caused no end of problems, whether it’s not being able to travel to work, being marooned in your home or losing control of your car on the ice. We have a love hate relationship with the snow, we love to play in it but it can also cause us a lot of stress and worry.

When it snows it snows and there is nothing you can do about it, so the trick is to overcome the worry it causes and just enjoy it:

• Live in “day-tight compartments” – don’t fret about whether it will snow tomorrow or not, just enjoy the day you are in. Deal with the snow tomorrow when and if it comes – you have no control over the weather.
• Ask yourself ‘What is the worst that can possibly happen?” – if your train is delayed by the snow don’t shout at the driver just accept it, the worst that can happen is that you will be late and a lot of other people will probably be in the same boat.
  
• Cooperate with the inevitable – The weather forecasters have predicted snow, so don’t moan about it but prepare yourself for it. Wrap up warm and get out your snow boots!

Remember that worrying and stressing about things too much can affect your health, think about how much anxiety the snow is really worth......I would say not much, it only comes around about once a year and just think that whatever it stops you doing one day you can always do the next. So next time it snows or something else happens that you begin to worry and stress about, just remember the principles above, overcome your worry and find something to be happy about, such as how beautiful the snow can look when it first falls!

Sophie Whittall
Markerting & Admin Co-ordinator

www.london.dalecarnegie.com

New Year, New Goal!

It's that time again when we start a fresh year full of resolutions - some of which we stick to and others....well....they seemed like such a good idea when you sat there and made them!!!

It's tradition to make a New Years resolution and common ones are going on a diet, promising ourselves to get fit, to visit relatives you haven't seen in ages, or maybe learn a new language.

However, why do we not always achieve or fulfil our resolutions? Do we start off well and then lose momentum? Well why not turn it into a goal and see how you do then. Goals can be immediate, intermediate and long-range. Achieving day-to-day goals (immediate goals) contribute to the achievement of intermediate and long range goals. So develop SMART goals:

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relevant
T - Time-specific

Don't forget to review your progress as you go along.....you will be amazed at how motivating it can be realising that you are half way to running that marathon, or to that dream dress you've had your eye on for ages.

Good luck and remember, you can make goals at any time of the year, it doesn't just have to be 1st Jan!

Today is a day in the only life you are ever going to have. Make the most of today. Get interested. Get busy. Reach a goal. Shake yourself awake. let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Make your business prosper today. - Dale Carnegie

Helen Mills
Financial Controller
www.london.dalecarnegie.com

Make it happen in the workplace...

We find one of the most effective methods of ensuring that participants maintain the skills they learn, is to ensure that they all have an opportunity to review what they have learnt with their colleagues or manager in the days and weeks after the training.

This can be done in various ways such as:

• ensuring all participants have an opportunity to present the benefit of the training either internally or externally
• organise regular meetings or conference calls and discuss real client examples
• send newsletters internally to share best practices and sucess stories

A simple approach... but highly effective!

Corina Balaneanu
Sales Consultant

www.london.dalecarnegie.com

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

During last week's first session of the 12 week Dale Carnegie Course our class members were asked 'what do you expect from the trainer and the team leaders?' A resounding Acceptance came back! They awakened in me that for human beings to pour out their creativity and their not yet used infinite capacities, and to achieve the business results and outcomes they desire, a sacred space of acceptance of who we are is at the core. Who we are is already complete and perfect; our Selves are waiting for us to let it out! And the Dale Carnegie Corporation has been providing this environment for nearly 100 years!

Today, please, turn to your colleague, your customer, your boss, your CEO, your vendor, your competitor, your friend, your lover, your best friend, your spouse, your child or a new person and do one thing today: listen from nothing. Listen to them with your heart and ask them what is it like being you? And listen. This is Acceptance :)

Lizzie Thomas

Trainer

www.london.dalecarnegie.com

What's Your Mountain?

As we got out of the tent soon after dawn it was obvious that the weather was going to be fine. It was one of those September days when summer is still with you.
Glencoe, which can be dark and forbidding, was today bright, clear and welcoming. Our objective was out of our direct view but on our journey through the Glen the previous day its full might was seen – albeit from the safety of our car. The Aonach Eagach ridge runs on the northern side of the glen and its reputation as a fine ridge walk was well known.
Do you ever have those days when everything is set fair and yet when you look back from the start never gave a clue of how things would end up? Doesn’t matter whether its work or leisure we all have them, don’t we.
The climb to the ridge is significant for me, the hill walker, over 1000 metres straight up from sea level at Glencoe village to the col below the Pap of Glencoe and then on up to the ridge itself.
Like any job we have to do we plan what needs to happen when and in what sequence. The guide book said the usual route is east to west – we decided to go the other way. There’s usually a good reason for given advice; doesn’t matter what the situation and you ignore it at your peril.
When pushing the limits – whether organisational or individual you often get so far and hit the proverbial brick wall. So it was, that just over half way along the ridge, the proverbial came true. This time it was not a brick wall but a very narrow arête stone, no more than 20 feet in length and narrow enough to sit astride.
So what, I hear you say. Either side, below my suspended boots were near vertical drops into the floor of the glens on either side. “This is not a place I want to be right now,” I said to my companion as I turned to see where we had just come from and the view back along the ridge was amazing – but laid out an alternative that even having completed it I did not relish renegotiating.
This journey to the metaphorical ‘brick wall’ was not one I wished to do in reverse. So, as in business, going back was not an option. This was on the edge stuff if you’ll excuse the pun, but we had come so far it was right to see it through.
You see we had the skill, the strength, will and desire to complete the plan. Back in the office its easy to give up – out there it’s not an option – its life threatening.
The were so many powerful lessons on that day that have a place in business life, not just hill walking and scrambling, but the one that will stick with me the longest is about pushing the boundaries mental and physical.
I saw the significance of this when after climbing the buttress at the end of the arête when three climbers came the other way complete with interlinking ropes and who were visibly staggered to see us in tee shirts, shorts and climbing boots.
No challenge in the business environment is too great, no situation too intimidating, no problem too difficult to overcome, providing you have the required knowledge, skill and above all – the right attitude.

What’s your mountain?

David Pickering
Sales Consultant and Trainer
www.london.dalecarnegie.com