Posts in Article
4 Things that Go Wrong with One-on-One  Check-ins (and How to Avoid Them)
4 Things that Go Wrong with One-on-One  Check-ins (and How to Avoid Them)

Manager check-ins, one-on-ones, touchpoints… Whatever you may call them, they are the foundation of a strong manager-employee relationship and the lynchpin for supporting your employees in many ways. This 30-minute-or-so recurring meeting between manager and employee seems so simple that it’s often taken for granted and therefore underutilized. They are used as opportunities to get project updates or chat about anything, when they could be so much more supportive of the employee’s professional growth and development. More often than not, we hear about employees or managers who simply put them off, postpone them indefinitely, or end up using the time as status report opportunities rather than truly leveraging their power. 

It’s time to go back to the basics. Here are 4 things that go wrong with your manager check-ins and how to avoid them.

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ArticleStephanie Juddmeetings, leadership, alignment, engagementComment
Capitalizing on Your Conference: What to do next
Capitalizing on Your Conference: What to do next

Fall is conference season. For many professionals, at some point in the fall, they’ll pack their bags, head to a hotel and mix with industry peers. There’s a lot to gain at conferences—knowledge, skills, relationships—but it can be hard to capitalize on all that conferences have to offer in the moment. Here’s a step by step approach to maximize the conference value when you’re back at your desk the following Monday and have a chance to take a breath.

Process Conversations are great opportunities for leaders to inspire others, generate buy-in, and drive engagement. AND they’re an access point through which to engage and inspire UP the chain of command as well.

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ArticleKara Davidsonmeetings, leadership, conference, conferences, keynote, presentation, speakerComment
Three Common Mistakes When Developing a Learning Experience
Three Common Mistakes When Developing a Learning Experience

Just as not every individual contributor will be a fantastic manager, not every leader will be a fantastic teacher. Fortunately, these are skills that can be developed and there are rules of thumb that can be applied to ensure that content experts can jump into the role of inspiring and engaging a new generation of folks in their area of expertise. 

Here are a few of the common mistakes we see leaders fall into when creating learning experiences.

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ArticleStephanie Juddpresentation, meetings, learning and development, learning designComment
How to Add Stories to Your Next Presentation
How to Add Stories to Your Next Presentation

A key point relevant to stories and presentations is that stories must follow story structure while a presentation doesn’t have to. In fact, presentations often have a very different narrative structure. That being said, because human beings respond so well to stories, it can be helpful to embed short stories that follow this structure into a broader presentation narrative.

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ArticleStephanie Juddstorytelling, presentation, coachingComment
Transforming Your Presentation into an Interactive Workshop Part 2: Making Your Workshop Effective
Transforming Your Presentation into an Interactive Workshop Part 2: Making Your Workshop Effective

The best workshops put the learning into the hands of the participants at every stage of the learning process, but sometimes the timeline—both for development of the workshop or the runtime of the experience itself—can result in more of a hybrid experience that contains both presentation-style and interactive moments. When we work with clients transforming their presentations into workshops, this is how we typically break it down.

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ArticleKara Davidsonstorytelling, presentation, coachingComment
Transforming Your Presentation into an Interactive Workshop Part 1: Know When a Workshop is the Right Call
Transforming Your Presentation into an Interactive Workshop Part 1: Know When a Workshop is the Right Call

We help leaders engage and inspire others. A lot of the time, that ends up meaning that we help leaders be better storytellers and presenters, but once in a while, we have a client that’s truly interested in taking engagement to the next level, and they’re looking for help transforming what was going to be be a presentation into an interactive, engaging, and compelling workshop.

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ArticleKara Davidsonstorytelling, conference, presentation, coachingComment
The Making of a Conference Theme
The Making of a Conference Theme

As Story and Presentation Coaches, we partner with organizations planning conferences. Conferences have always been a way for people to gather outside of their day-to-day routine, share insights, learn, and grow. In a time when fewer of us are gathering in person, it’s even more important than ever to ensure those conferences are thoughtful and productive experiences for attendees.

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ArticleKara Davidsonstorytelling, conference, presentation, coachingComment
Presentations that Pop: How to “Invite Curiosity” with Your Presentation
Presentations that Pop: How to “Invite Curiosity” with Your Presentation

When we teach influential storytelling, we share four ways to level up the influence power of your story. One of these is what we call Invite Curiosity. The concept behind this strategy is that by activating an intellectual or cerebral experience for the audience—getting them to think for themselves—helps them to be engaged in your story AND causes them to have a mental stake in its outcome.

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ArticleKara DavidsonPresentation, Curiousity, Storytelling, storytelling for businessComment
Public Speaking Tips for Non Native English Speakers
Public Speaking Tips for Non Native English Speakers

At a recent coaching session, Kara was asked, “Do you have any tips for non-native English speakers at an English speaking company? I’m worried about how I come across.” There are so many considerations when it comes to working, presenting and speaking in front of audiences that are linguistically or culturally different from you.

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ArticleKara Davidsonpresentation, presentations, storytelling, presentation designComment
Make People Feel Seen, Heard, and Understood - Part 2: Coaching Tips for Leaders
Make People Feel Seen, Heard, and Understood - Part 2: Coaching Tips for Leaders

Making people feel seen, heard, and understood is an important leadership skill. Here we offer tips from our executive coaching training that we think are particularly powerful ways to do just that: restate what you hear, ask powerful, future-oriented questions, trust your conversation partner has it in them to find the answers, and be mindful of your purpose.

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ArticleKara Davidsonpresentation, presentations, storytelling, presentation designComment
What to do When Your One-on-One Check-ins Feel Like a Waste of Time
What to do When Your One-on-One Check-ins Feel Like a Waste of Time

As a manager, you can create a predictable and safe environment for those conversations at your regular manager/employee check-ins. Many of us have had these meetings on our calendar but there’s a big difference between a well organized, predictable, thoughtful check-in and the rushed, distracted, “default” check-in. Scheduling the check-in and inviting your employee to meet with you is not enough.

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ArticleKara Davidsonmanager, leadership, check-ins, one-on-one, manager check-insComment
How to Navigate Power Dynamics
How to Navigate Power Dynamics

TOOL

Being influential is a challenge for many leaders, but particularly when in a team, organization or even just leading a meeting where you’re not the most experienced or lack formal power.

If you’re worried about your ability to influence within a group, there’s a lot you can do to understand the power dynamics and increase the likelihood you’ll feel and show up as powerful and influential.

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Resources, ArticleKara Davidsonpower, influence, map your power, influence conversations, navigate power dynamics, influence diagnosticComment
How to Gather Input from a Working Group
How to Gather Input from a Working Group

When organizing a working group meeting, you may decide that part of the reason for gathering is to collect input and expertise from your members. Remember that giving your participants something to DO is a powerful way to engage them and give them purpose, so don’t hold back. Then, focus on giving your conversation structure so that you can manage the loud voices and democratize the input.

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ArticleStephanie JuddMeetings, meeting design, working group, leadershipComment
Elevate Your Executive Presence With Intentional Storytelling
Elevate Your Executive Presence With Intentional Storytelling

In her book Executive Presence, Sylvia Ann Hewlett describes executive presence as resting on three pillars: gravitas, communication and appearance. As a storytelling and presentation skills coach, I work with clients on all three of these pillars. Here’s my tip: If you’re aiming to develop your executive presence, consider developing your storytelling skills as one way to do so. Here are a few reasons why becoming an intentional storyteller can help build your executive presence.

Stephanie Judd authored this article as a Forbes Council contribution.

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Media Mentions, ArticleStephanie JuddForbes, StorytellingComment
Clarifying Success for Your Working Group Meeting (with Downloadable Tool)
Clarifying Success for Your Working Group Meeting (with Downloadable Tool)

TOOL

Because working groups are often established to work through aspirational and shifting goals, and because participants are usually loosely organized, it’s critical that participants understand why they’re meeting, what they are expected to contribute, and what they can expect in return. Although you may already have a cursory idea of agenda topics for meetings, getting clear on your “why” will take your meeting from the typical boring event to a powerful gathering with better outcomes.

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ArticleKara Davidsonagenda template, agenda, meeting design, meeting design and facilitation, presentation, planningComment
Designing a Meeting for a Working Group
Designing a Meeting for a Working Group

Working groups are a particularly challenging group to organize and facilitate. Members typically participate in a working group as volunteers, or as an “add on” to their day-to-day jobs. They’re usually made up of members who are more experienced and senior than the person charged with spearheading the group, and the lack of power structure makes accountability to the group a bit thin.

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ArticleStephanie JuddMeetings, meeting design, working group, leadershipComment
How to Develop a Storytelling Culture at Your Organization
How to Develop a Storytelling Culture at Your Organization

Like many event-based learning, there’s always a risk that the skills, knowledge, energy and momentum developed in our workshops may get lost in the mess of daily worklife. We have pre- and post-event activities built into the Influential Storytelling program to help people integrate storytelling directly into their workflow, but there’s always more you can do to make storytelling part of your organizational culture.

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ArticleKara Davidsonstorytelling, storytelling culture, leadership, influential storytelling, executive storytelling, storytelling for businessComment