Corey Hansen: Acting out the 4 As of communicating

Corey Hansen’s official self-proclaimed title is “energizer.” None of the attendees at the Freelance Exchange of Kansas City meeting could argue with that after experiencing his entertaining presentation on “Setting the Stage for Success.”

“Where is your stage,” Corey asked the FX of KC members, “and when are you on and when are you off?” Lively exchanges with the audience followed as he addressed the need for freelancers to step into the role of actor when meeting with clients – of course, in an authentic way.

Corey outlined the “4-A Way of Communicating” in successful presentations: Audience, Atmosphere, Actor and Action. Here are a few gems he shared:

Audience:

What do I want from my audience? They from me? What do I know/not know about my audience? The actor’s role is to observe the audience and adapt to them, but not to judge, and to help the audience get what they want.

The “ability to discover” and to “stay present” while in front of a live audience help the actor capture attention, adapt to the audience’s particular needs and win them over. 

Atmosphere:

What is the energy I want to create for this audience? What is the current dynamic? Do I leverage it, avoid it, transform it? The actor controls the overall energy level surrounding the presentation or interaction.

To gain a feeling of comfort before a presentation in front of a live audience, sit in the space the audience will occupy and look at the stage. Own your space and envision what the audience will see and hear.

Actor:

How is my energy in body and voice? What am I doing to help or hurt my message? Am I even aware of how I “come off”?

Authenticity and believability are the bottom lines in a successful presentation. Whether the presentation is in front of a live audience, over the phone or via electronic delivery, every image and word must support the intention.

Action:

What do I do to help my audience get what they want? How do I structure my story? But mostly, what am I actually doing to this audience to help us all get what we want?

Of course a presentation consists of three parts: beginning, middle and end. While most presenters spend most of their time in the middle, the presentations that get actionable results spend most of the time at the end. That’s your opportunity to change the audience and move them to action. 

Corey is the author of How to Act in Business, available at Amazon.com. To learn more about him, visit www.howtoactinbusiness.com.

Unleashing the power of social media for employee communications

The growing move toward social or 2.0 employee intranets is more than a fad fueled by employee habits outside of the workplace.

Increasingly, companies find it’s making solid business sense to enable and encourage management and employees to use social media to communicate at work, said Marjie Goodman, digital content and collaboration strategist with DEG, a Kansas City-based digital communications company.

A recent study conducted by McKinsey on social media in the workplace shows it can improve employee productivity by 20 to 25 percent. Social media has the potential to contribute $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in annual value for companies that do business in four commercial sectors – consumer packaged goods, retail financial services, advanced manufacturing and professional services, the McKinsey study reported.

Marjie discussed her experience with social media in the workplace at a meeting of the Kansas City IABC Independent Communicators special interest group.

With many options available, adding a social media tool to the suite of tools already available to employees sounds easy, but it’s not, Marjie cautioned. The reason so many companies have yet to make a serious move toward a more social way to communicate with employees is that it’s difficult and takes a strong commitment.

Here are some of the downsides Marjie addressed:

• ·      You can’t rely on an organic “provide and pray” approach to introducing social media across a company.
• ·      You need a solid business purpose for introducing social tools.
• ·      Employees’ needs and wants must be considered when selecting a social media tool.
• ·      A strong leader must champion the cause.
• ·      All supervisors and managers need to buy in, in order to spread it companywide.
• ·      It takes time before social media tools are integrated into everyday business practices.
• ·      It takes a budget – possibly a large one – to create and promote social media.

For companies that embrace new ways to communicate, the benefits of adding social media can be significant:

• ·      It’s an easy way for geographically dispersed employees to stay in touch.
• ·      Millennial employees, an increasing percentage in the workforce, grew up with social media.
• ·      Social media helps combat email overload.
• ·      Social media can replace time-consuming meetings where roundtable-style reporting is the norm.
• ·      It can be integrated into the workflow or the data from key applications the company uses.
• ·      Social media helps employees feel valued and engaged in the business, because they can contribute their ideas in a companywide forum.