Paula Pace, M.S. – Professional trainer, speaker, consultant, and author

Improve company communication with the help of a professional trainer and author. Paula Pace, distinguished speaker and author, offers hands-on training workshops.

The New Face of Presentation Skills

Posted on | October 7, 2009 | 3 Comments

Some of you may have had this experience: You are standing back stage at your association’s annual conference ready to walk out and deliver the opening speech to the general assembly. You get your cue and you walk out to face 1,200 people waiting to be entertained, informed and inspired. But not to worry, you’ve had plenty of training in the art of giving good speeches; so you smile at the audience and begin …

But more likely, you have had this experience: You’re walking down the hall on your way to a meeting and your boss stops you long enough to tell you that the Board of Directors is meeting next week to consider the new building proposal. Since you are one of the leads in this project, you’ll need to prepare and give a presentation to the Board.

Gone are the days when the need for good presentation skills applies only to the person standing in front of 1,200 people; rather, good presentation skills are required of the 1,200 people in the audience.

Consider the following:

Team Meetings: Your team can meet as a group only once week and it is your job to make sure the most relevant information is delivered in the most effective manner in the time you have to deliver it. Sure, you will meet with individuals and groups during the week, but this is your only chance to meet with the team together, and what you say and how you say it has to be good.

It’s all about presentation skills.

Conferences: Your company holds a yearly conference. Keynotes are given by the executive staff and break out sessions are led by key employees. It’s the one opportunity a year to connect face to face with customers and all sessions must be good.

It’s all about presentation skills.

Meetings: You are a project lead and you serve at the will of the Joint Committee. At any time you can be called in to give a project report. You have only ten minutes to report on a project to which you and a staff of five devote their entire time. After (and usually during) the report, which is nearly impossible to deliver in ten minutes, you are peppered with questions.

It’s all about presentation skills.

Professional Organizations: As a community volunteer you have been involved with the city’s very expensive and very impressive park development and beautification project. Several professional organizations in the city are interested in this project and have asked you to present at their monthly meetings.

It’s all about presentation skills.

In the situations described above, some people will be great, some will be good and yet others will muddle their way through. But why muddle when you can be good; and why be just good when you could be great? And is it really important to be a great presenter or speaker? What are the benefits of being great?

First, the ability to present or speak well creates an effective work group. People understand the information and direction and work gets done. Good presentation is directly related to accomplishment.

Second, good presentation saves time. When people understand information and direction, time is saved and thus created for additional accomplishment. You get more done in the time you have to do it.

The need for good presentation is everywhere; learn to present well, use it and benefit from it.

Category: Resources
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Polished! Create Your Professional Image

Posted on | October 2, 2009 | 1 Comment

The best laid plans – college, graduate school or MBA can smack into a brick wall at the first corporate social event. 

All the technology certifications you can cram onto your resume can fall off the page when you walk through your client’s door. 

You realize your GPA really doesn’t matter when the interview process includes a reception – an opportunity for you to meet the big wigs. 

What matters are your social skills; how you interact on a social level with those who will play an important part in your career success. 

Take for example the bank president who wanted to get John, his new loan officer, in front of clients as soon as possible.  John’s first test was a business lunch with one of the bank’s good customers.  It was a solo event for the new hire and he failed it miserably.  The report from the customer:  “Your new hire spent more time studying the food on his plate than he did engaging me in conversation”.  Final analysis:  your new hire needs help in the social department. 

Take for example the new salesperson at her first company-sponsored reception.  Engaged in a battle of nerves, she reluctantly visited the food table but took only a token of food.  The three olives on her plate fell off after only three steps; one positioned itself directly in line with the CFO’s shoe.  The CFO did step on it, did notice it, looked up and did make eye contact with her.  Final analysis:  “your new salesperson needs help in the social department.” 

Obtaining a degree, a certification or a coveted job is just the first step in surviving the work world.  You quickly add experience.  You take chances, you get it right, you learn from your mistakes and the experience builds.  It is a system that works.  Yet when we commit a social gaff – we blow the luncheon or drop an olive – it is remembered in the form of an office joke, an office mantra or if it is serious enough, job loss. 

So why do we take social savvy for granted?  Toys don’t come with batteries, so why do we think employees come with social skills?  Just as batteries complete the toy, social skills complete today’s professional. 

“It’s the little things” 

Lots of little thing make up the social experience.  Consider these statements: 

“I had to introduce my manager to the VP of Tech Support for a customer I was courting.  I didn’t know where to start, plus my manager is female and I wondered if that factored into the introduction.  I mumbled through it, but it wasn’t very impressive.” 

“I took a potential customer to a new gourmet burger restaurant.  When our food came, I knew I would never get my mouth around the sandwich.  I looked across the table and knew my potential customer was thinking the same thing.  It was awkward; I didn’t make the sale.” 

“I stirred sugar into my tea, but didn’t know what to do with the sugar packets.  Then I put my spoon down on the white table cloth and watched in horror as a huge brown stain spread out in a circle around it.  I wanted to add lemon but I was afraid I’d squirt someone in the eye.  In an instant, I’d forgotten what we were talking about”. 

We all have horror stories about delicate situations and many books and articles have been written about how to avoid them or how to handle them.  Knowing how to act in social situations is a necessary skill for all professionals.  But before we talk about how to acquire these skills, we need to identify the guidelines for dealing with the situations above. 

First, How to Deal with the Above Dilemmas: 

Introductions:  Introductions are based on deference so first determine to whom you will show deference. In this example it is the customer.  Also note that during the business day, gender is not an issue, so again we defer to the customer.  Use the following language:

 “Gene, I’d like you to meet Anne Smith, our Technical Support Manager.  Anne, this is Gene Brown, Vice President of Technical Support at BigCompany, Inc.” 

The Burger Restaurant:  Take your customer to a restaurant with which you are familiar; one that will be comfortable for all involved and that will be a good reflection on you and your company.  

Sugar and the Tea:  Put your tea spoon on the service plate, or if there is no service plate, on your bread or entrée plate.  Once a piece of flatware leaves the tablecloth, it never returns.  Why?  Big tea stains!  Do the same with the empty sugar packets and if you want lemon, either cup your hand around the lemon as you squeeze or if the lemon is on a plate, pierce it with a fork before you squeeze to help to contain the juice. 

Finally, what about the lunch where conversation was hard to come by?  First, stay current with the news.  I don’t care if you read the paper, watch TV or rely on internet technology, but stay current.  Second, as much as possible know your client.  Know his or her interests, concerns and needs.  In this way you will be able to carry the conversation during lunch, on the golf course or at the United Way volunteer reception. 

 As for the three olives . . .  that one was just too good to tamper with.  

Second, The Question Needs to be Asked

How much time do you spend training new hires on products and services and ignore the intricacies of interacting with the client on a personal or a social level? 

Everyone knows someone who can enter a room and command attention just by being there.  She can engage anyone in conversation.  He can tell the best stories to make people laugh and feel comfortable.  We may think she or he was born with this ability, but the truth is that they probably had to work hard to perfect this side of their professional skills.  

So what are the steps to improving the social side of your sales skills? 

1. Identify someone in your office (or outside your office) who has good social skills and watch them.  Study their entire sales process and note the social skills they use in their success. 

2.  Provide Social Leadership training for anyone in your office who interacts with the public.  Or, buy a good Social Leadership or Business Protocol book.  Then read it.  

3.  I’ll be writing more tips on Social Leadership; watch for them.

 Finally, customers want the complete package; they want your knowledge and they want you.  Give it to them.

Category: Business Protocol, Paula Pace, leadership
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From Etiquette to Protocol to Social Leadership: A Must Have

Posted on | August 14, 2009 | No Comments

Bill is a master when it comes to project planning; but he’s a disaster when the project is put aside for the day and everyone goes out to dinner.  Susan knows everything there is to know about how her product works, but she fails miserably when she has to make small talk at a corporate event.  Bill and Susan aren’t the only people who suffer in social situations in the business world.  

Whether you are representing your company at an important national event in New York or having lunch with a major client in your home city, you want to make a positive and lasting impression.  Research tells us that only 15% of your career success is attributed to technical skills; the remaining 85% is credited to people skills and the image you project.  If you project an unprofessional image or unintentionally offend your customers, they will likely choose to do business elsewhere, and you would probably never know the reason why. 

Even if your work does not take you to distant places or does not require that you nurture major client relations, your social skills impact your everyday work life.  Greeting clients, making introductions and holding conversation can be daunting.  Knowing if you should or should not stand when someone enters the room is often puzzling.  And probably the biggest challenge men and women have on a daily basis is who enters the elevator first?  A social leader who can handle all these etiquette situations is free to place his or her focus on providing good work while building relationships. 

This message is too short to cover the wide array of social leadership skills required in the workplace.  Instead, its purpose is to help you recognize the need for these skills.  For now I’ll give two pieces of advice:  1. Slow down!  Give yourself time to think through the social situation in front of you.  2. Learn more about Social Leadership (Business Protocol or Etiquette).  Read articles, buy a good book and observe those you deem to have good social leadershhip skills. 

Today’s dynamic business leaders are also social leaders.  They know how to finesse the business lunch, they work a room to their advantage, and they stand out in social situations as people others want to know.  Often we say these people are “naturals.”  We think their ability to move so effectively in business and social situations comes easily.  But chances are, these dynamic leaders have had to work hard to become accomplished.  They’ve mastered skills in conversation, dining, introductions and networking.  They have developed their social leadership skills.

Category: Business Protocol
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The First Conversation

Posted on | August 11, 2009 | 1 Comment

The First Conversation

By Paula Pace 

David said “I dropped six months (easy) off my learning curve when I came to . . . !  My boss knew exactly how to put me on the fast track for a leadership position.” 

Wow!  Who wouldn’t want to jump on the fast track to leadership?  I met David several years ago when I was consulting with a major insurance company in Des Moines, Iowa.  I was leading a group of high-potential leaders through an exercise designed to help them open communication with new team members.    

The exercise is simple in that it consists of a conversation.  Just a conversation.  Something so simple, yet often overlooked by both the leader and the new team member in their frenzy to get started, catch up or be done with a project.  Here are a few of the statements both the leader and new team member use to open their minds in communicating:  

  • What I think you need to know about working with me is . . .
  • I see my greatest contribution to this team as . . .
  • When I’m knee-deep in work and I feel like I’ll never catch up I . . . 

David came up to me after the exercise and told me about how his boss took him aside on his first day in the office.  She produced a list of talking points, similar to those in the exercise our group had just experienced.  He said that knowing how his boss worked and how she reacted to certain situations prepared him for a fast start.  

Talking doesn’t always constitute conversation; your effort to understand another person often requires forethought and it might require taking a chance to ask the tough, delicate or detailed questions.  If you can do it, your reward is learning how to work together more efficiently and more quickly.

 People react to this exercise with surprise at its simplicity, and appreciation for its effectiveness.  Theytake it back to their teams. 

When leaders tell me their teams needs to communicate more effectively, I ask them to go back to the first conversation; I believe it’s never too late.

Category: leadership
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GPS for Success

Posted on | August 6, 2009 | 4 Comments

Paula Pace joins Stephen Covey, Les Brown, & Dr. John Gray in a new book,

GPS for Success!

Goals & Proven Strategies from the Industry’s Leading ExpertsPaula_Pace

SEVIERVILLE, TENNESSEE— Paula Pace, keynote speaker and author, has been selected from a nationwide search to be featured in GPS for Success; a highly successful book series from Tennessee based Insight Publishing. The book features best-selling authors Stephen R. Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), Dr. John Gray (Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus), and Les Brown (The Power of Purpose).  Paula Pace, Covey, Gray, and Brown, are joined by other well known authors and speakers, each offering time-tested strategies for success in frank and intimate interviews.

Paula is an award winning speaker, trainer and consultant who has trained extensively across the US and Canada. She uses stories, examples and humor to engage and invite her audience into the learning experience.

For more information on Paula Pace and to order your copy of GPS for Success, contact:

Paula Pace

402-466-2559

paula@paulapace.com

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