Monthly Archives: November 2014

Competition: We Can Learn A Lot From Kids

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Happy Thanksgiving, America. I think today’s a good day for a post that references a cooking show…

Are you familiar with MasterChef?  It’s one of the many cooking competitions on TV these days… they select home cooks from across the U.S.* to compete for the coveted title of “MasterChef.” The hosts are Gordon Ramsey, Joe Bastianich, and Graham Elliott. The latest season is called MasterChef Junior and features kids as the competitors.

If you haven’t tuned in yet, you really should. Yes, these kids can cook (they’re the f*cking balls actually).  But kitchen tips is not why you should check out MasterChef Junior.  Nope.  What we can learn from these kids has nothing to do with the cooking… It’s the way they compete. #refreshing

They are intense, to be sure. They have dreams. They’re serious and focused about their work… the cooking. But they are inspiring as a group of competitors. They are genuinely happy when the others do well. They’re supportive. They like each other. They want each other to do well. Yes, each of them wants to win. But, better than most adults I know, they seem to understand that they control their own performance. If they mess up, it’s on them. And when they mess up, they’re still happy when their “opponents” succeed.  Like I said, refreshing.

This is a stark contrast to watching grown-ups compete on reality shows where it’s all about the drama, politics, and one-upmanship. Dishonesty, suspicion and disrespect have become the norm… all disguised as “strategy.”

But if people are tuning in, I get why networks would keep producing new episodes. Is it me, though, or has reality-show behavior crept its way into everyday life? Are there not more cynics, con artists, liars, cheats, and assholes, around us every day, than ever before?

At what point in life do we become jaded?  “The world is unfair so I’m going to alter my game plan so I can win… regardless of the means or the consequences.” Unfortunate.

Yes, the nature of competing is to try to win. Absolutely. But there are rules and laws that guide our competitions and, one would hope, some degree of honor in the way we approach the competition and respect for the “game”. There are (and have always been) people of high integrity and those with lower levels of integrity. I don’t think the guy who cheats his way to success should be respected for his, what?, creativity. If someone beats me out for a new job, I’m pissed but it’s on me. When I see them, I will show genuine respect by shaking their hand and offering a sincere congratulations. And I will think to myself… “Sh*t, maybe I just suck.”

I think we’re born optimists… It’s how we’re wired … unless something happens that crushes the dream or dampens the spirit.  The challenge for all of us is to stay optimistic (or re-discover it) no matter how difficult … Optimism is infectious. Don’t believe me? Spend some time with grade-schoolers (hopefully, they’re not jaded themselves)…

We can learn a lot from Optimists, Dreamers, and Believers.  

We can learn a lot from kids.

The MasterChef Junior kids are a great example.

Refreshing.

Check it out: MasterChef Junior.

Well done Chefs Ramsey and Elliot, and renaissance man Bastianich.

The “score” for writing this post…

Everything Good is Bad – JJ Grey & Mofro

A Murder of One – Counting Crows

Stay (Faraway, so close) – U2

I Lived – OneRepublic

Miss Atomic Bomb – The Killers

All Apologies – Nirvana

Demons – Imagine Dragons

Colourblind – Glenn Morrison (feat. Andrew Cole)

Living for the City – Stevie Wonder

* MasterChef started in the UK on the BBC

 

Essential Workplace Skills Series: Presenting

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Today, I want to talk about that “oh so elusive” skill of presenting.

When was the last time you saw a great presentation?  I can tell you when it was for me… In September of this year, I went to the Inbound conference in Boston, hosted by Hubspot.  I saw so many great presentations, I can’t name them all.  Although the event featured amazing keynote speakers (Simon Sinek, Martha Stewart, Shiza Shahid, Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki), the highlight for me was in the Bold Talks track which were delivered via 12-minute presentations from 3 speakers per session.  Check these folks out… Dan Pallotta, Johnny Earle, Phil Black, Gerard Vroomen, Marc Ensign, Tamsen Webster, Mark Shaefer.  They know how to engage an audience.

In the workplace, the desire for information seems to have trumped the desire for good presentations.  Bullet-laden, micro-font slides have become the norm as workers jam as much on each slide as they can.  PowerPoint has become little more than vehicle for documenting, rather than presenting.

Often times, the main constraint placed on a presenter is … number of slides.  Ridiculous, yes, but that’s reality… I’ve been there many times.  “You’re presenting to the CFO on Friday… he doesn’t have an attention span for more than 5 slides so keep it under that.”

And that’s exactly what you do.

Let me let you in on a little secret… the CFO’s attention span has nothing to do with the number of slides… it has to do with (A) many competing topics in his mind space, (B) the interest in the topics being presented and (C) the strength of the presenter.  Hint: you can only control (C).  I say “presenter” and not “presentation” because a great presentation does not a great presenter make.  As the New Radicals said “You Get What You Give”.

So, how do you reverse this trend in your shop?  A big thing is for leaders to set the example and the expectation.  Don’t limit a presenter on the number of slides… limit them on time.  “You have 30 minutes… which is really only 15, so keep it to that.”  And encourage your team members to practice.  And leaders, please, become better a presenting yourselves.

Years ago, I was part of a consulting group in a large tech firm.  Every week, we held a “brown bag” session during which an individual (or team) presented something they were working on… sometimes it was an idea, other times it was a dry-run of a presentation they were going to deliver to a client.  The rest of the group provided feedback… very constructive, brutally honest feedback.  We were often presenting the results of analysis and consulting recommendations so a big part of the process was learning how to present data in an interesting and concise way.  It was a great, if not humbling, experience — and we all became better presenters. The only real limitation… was time.

And what can you do, as a worker, do become a better presenter yourself?  Definitely seek out great presenters and learn from them – it can be people you know, or people you find via TED Talks.  But the key is practice.

It won’t make you “perfect” but it will absolutely make you better.  And the next time you’re told you have 15 minutes with an executive, you’ll be ready to knock it out of the park, rather than hit a single… or worse … strike out.