Category Archives: Leadership

Mar 02 2012
Leadership, Presentations, Tools, Uncategorized

Please speak into the microphone

At a seminar this week, in a conference room crammed with thirty of my ‘Type A’ peers, a presenter stood up and said “I’m not going to use the microphone, can everyone hear me okay?”

He encountered an immediate and emphatic chorus of “no!”s, relented, and used the microphone.  The presentation continued without incident and everyone understood him.

There’s a kickoff meeting for the sports teams at my local high school every athletic season.  The gym is filled with parents and athletes and without fail, the Athletic Director stands up for his presentation and says, “I’m not going to use the microphone, can everyone hear me okay?”

The audience fails to respond* and he continues without the microphone.  The presentation continues without incident, nobody understands him, and everyone’s time is wasted.

Who’s to blame?

*Except me. When I say “No” those near me turned around to hammer down the nail that stuck up.

Tagged
Feb 28 2012
Creativity, Leadership, Learning, Tools

A Voracious Appetite for Learning

One of the fundamental requirements* of the Pre-Sales role is learning.

There are always new products, new industries, new technologies and new approaches.  There’s so much learning to be done that sometimes it’s hard to find time for doing.  But then again, you can get so caught up in the doing, we don’t make time for learning.

Try to learn, think, and create in the morning when your mind is fresh.  Do it before you check your distractions: email, calls, and Twitter. Use your brain in the morning and save the afternoon for the tasks at hand.

Learning isn’t something that happens to you.  You happen to it.  Happen to it in the style that works best for you.  Do you read?  Do you need to see something?  Hear someone explain? Do diagrams make the most sense to you?  Are you driven by examples? Do you have to be physically active, taking notes and interacting with the materials?

Books, blogs, videos, podcasts, forums, presentations, documentation, sample data, sandboxes, and mentors can be found, and found at the speed of an internet search.

*Requirement is such a harsh term. Learning is one of the fundamental joys of the Pre-Sales role.

Tagged ,
Feb 24 2012
Creativity, Leadership, Solutions, Tools

Fifteen good minutes

Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.

Thomas Edison

Which comes first?  In the line of Pre-Sales, I’ve found inspiration takes the form of fifteen good minutes of quality thinking, usually occurring somewhere towards the middle or end of the perspiration.

Help the inspiration come along.

My catalysts for thought involve physical action- pacing, juggling, playing a musical instrument.  My best feedback comes from the trees along the trails near my home.  My Uncle Jim referred to his dogs Rufus and Schmaeser, companions on his long walks, as his ‘financial advisors.’

When the inspiration comes, catch it.

Writing is the taking down of ideas.  My penmanship deteriorates with the increased pace of fleeting ideas.  Essay writing and bullet points can be linear, constricting.  Open up your thinking processes with mind-mapping diagrams, Post-It notes, or note cards.  They make it easy to let your mind go, and you can (literally) organize your thoughts later.  Voice recording applications are available for our smart-phones. Plug in your headset and start talking your ideas into existence.

Digital equivalents exist for most of these tools, with the added benefit of ease of sharing, persistence and re-use.  Consider FreeMind for mind mapping and LinoIt for Post-it® note style thinking.

When those 15 minutes come, will you be ready?

Tagged ,
Feb 21 2012
2 Comments
Leadership, Positioning, Presentations

They don’t remember the details

They remember their impression of the details.

They remember your analogies.

They remember that you understood their vision.*

They remember you.

You.

*If a leader in the room has a vision you can articulate, it almost doesn’t matter what your product can do.  When you can help someone achieve their vision, you’re the most valuable person in the room.

Tagged , ,
Feb 20 2012
Leadership, Solutions

Group Project

Work (and in our case, dynamic sales team engagements) is like a group project in school: only one or two members of the team actually do the work.

The rest busy themselves with making coffee or doing the typing or putting together binders.

The ones who lead the project will eventually succeed.  If a team member can’t show up and contribute, that’s their problem.  Move on without them.  That’s leadership — moving forward and pulling others with you by setting the example.

Let the followers do what they’re good at.  Following.

Tagged
Newer posts →