Professional Development

Leaders, supervisors, managers, etc., have been doling out information via slide presentations for eons.

And the majority of these presentations have been bad.

I’m talking “pull your hair out” bad!

I was always under the impression you want your audience to pay attention to your presentation and absorb the knowledge you’re imparting, but I’ve seen so many slide presentation mistakes that I guess I was wrong!

So if you want to join the masses and make your audiences wish they were deaf and blind, here’s exactly what you need to do.

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Everybody hates buzzwords. Or at least they say they do.

But virtually everyone uses them.

Even me. And I wrote “The Buzzword Dictionary” back in 2006 to poke fun at them.

People use them for a variety of reasons:

• convey a thought quickly
• be vague or oblique
• make others think they’re smart or hip
• because they’re lazy
• don’t possess an adequate vocabulary

The problem is, buzzwords or buzz phrases often don’t really mean what you think they do.

Here are 15 common buzzwords used in business today – and what they really mean when you dig beneath the surface:

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There’s one course that every company should make mandatory for all its employees: How not to be annoying in a meeting!

We’ve all been in meetings with annoying and obnoxious people who seem oblivious to the niceties of meeting etiquette.

In fact, as soon as you read that sentence, I’m sure a number of people popped into your head.

But in case you’re patient as a saint and have no idea what I’m talking about, let me point out some of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to annoying business meeting behaviors:

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Perhaps the one thing in the universe that travels faster than light … is bad news.

And the one thing that can be worse than hearing bad news is delivering bad news.

Every manager has to do it at some point.

And doing it badly not only reflects poorly on you and your role as a leader, but also your organization.

Having the right blend of genuine empathy and finesse transforms good managers into strong leaders.

No matter how many times you’ve done it, delivering bad news always takes some forethought and practice.

Here are five mistakes that are sure to make your message backfire.

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Let’s get real, you can bet that even “Honest Abe” Lincoln told his fair share of little white lies.

Simply, no one is perfect.

Even the NFL believes the Patriots’ Tom Brady is lied about DeflateGate.

So are your employees, bosses, job applicants and customers always honest with you?

Not likely!

Their lies may not be as big as Richard Nixon’s, Bernie Madoff’s or Lance Armstrong’s, but more than likely you’re hearing a few tall tales.

“On any given day you may be lied to anywhere from 10 to 200 times,” says Pamela Meyer, author of “Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception.”

“And strangers lie three times in the first 10 minutes of meeting each other – remember that the next time you’re interviewing potential employees.”

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The only things Mick and I disagree about is the band, the music and what we do. – Keith Richards

Ha! So how is it, with all that dissent, that the Rolling Stones became one of the most popular and longest-surviving acts in rock music?

Disagreements are at the heart of destruction. But good people, and apparently even Keith Richards, know the value of handling disagreements favorably.

It’s true that people can disagree without being disagreeable.

With the intense turmoil on the national political landscape, this is a great time to review some of the most effective soft skills when it comes to handling real-life  workplace disagreements.

But first, just a reminder that soft skills aren’t always about being soft.

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Few skills are more important in this age of info-overload than delivering a knock-out elevator speech – on demand.

You have got to have one. You have 30 seconds. Go!

Summing up the unique aspects of what it is that you do – in a way that excites others – is a fundamental skill, whether you are raising funds for the local soup kitchen, speculative capital for a risky start-up, or just selling yourself.

You can have a jaw-dropping logo, the perfect slogan, the most dazzling brochure and hottest Web site … even a great smile. But if your elevator pitch is out of date, you’ll swing and miss.

The tried-and-true elevator speech takes upfront practice to get it right, and ongoing work to keep it sharp.

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