Do you have a fear of public speaking? I would guess that if you are reading this, you probably do. For the longest time, I had the same fear. It's actually not that uncommon. In fact, various studies have shown that the fear of speaking in public is ranked higher than the fear of death. In other words, some people would rather die than have to speak in public. This may sound a bit extreme to many of you but if you get nervous, shaky, and sweat like crazy just at the taught of speaking in front of a group of people, then you can probably see that it's somewhat understandable, at least at the moment.
I remember I used to be deathly afraid of public speaking. My legs would get weak as I made my way in front of the audience. My mouth would tremble as I would begin to utter the first few words. I would sway back and forth or do some awkward things with my hands. I would avoid eye contact at all cost unless I find someone with a smiling face, then I would just stare at that person for the whole speech.
Have you experienced these things? It's not exactly the best experience to have is it? Fortunately, there is a way to overcome fear of public speaking. Just to give you my experience, I went from what I described above to one day being able to confidently get up in front of an audience. I'm sure there are plenty of ways of overcoming the fear of public speaking but what I will describe is what worked for me. Now for people with a severe fear of public speaking phobia, professional help may be needed.
How to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking
1. Understanding the cause of the fear.
The first step in getting rid of your fear of speaking in public is to find out why it's a fear in the first place. The main reason is the fear of being embarrassed. This includes being laughed at, messing up, or doing anything foolish and having the audience judge you. Do you get nervous when you are in a room by yourself? Probably not. It's only when there are other people, people who might judge you or think badly of you, that causes you to get nervous usually.
Knowing why you have this fear of being in front of an audience will help you figure out what to do to overcome the fear. Once the fear is revealed, it can be conquered. It could also be that you had a bad experience in the past that triggers feeling of fear. Either way, for most people, it comes down to the fear of what others might think of them.
2. Change your mindset.
In order to overcome the fear of public speaking, you need to be able to change your mindset. When you can go from thinking about yourself and what the audience might think of you to thinking about the audience and how you can best deliver your message across, you will be able to conquer this fear.
3. Practice.
Although you may still get nervous even if you have done dozens of speeches, the more you do it, the easier it will get. When you practice, it's best to do it in front of a supporting group of people. This will not only make public speaking easier but it will also help you gain confidence. You can do things like join your local Toast Masters Club where you will get the chance to practice speaking in front of people who are all there to help you become a confident, well spoken speaker.
The way I was able to defeat my fear of speaking came in two phases. The first phase was the "I Don't Care" phase. In high school, in order to get an A in my speech class (we were required to take it), I had to join the speech and debate team. Since grades were really important to me at the time, I reluctantly joined even though at the time, I was still afraid of speaking in public.
Since my sole purpose was to get an A in the class, I didn't care about winning any debates or speech contests. Because of this attitude, when I got up in front of people to speak, I wasn't nervous. Even when I messed up and forgot what to say, I still didn't get nervous because I really didn't care since just joining the team was a guaranteed A for me.
Is this the best way, not care? Of course not but it helped me. This was the first phase. The next phase took place during my sales career as a trainer. I went from not caring to focusing on delivering my message across. My job was to motivate people. It's hard to do that if you focus on what people will think of you. So gradually, my focus went from thinking about myself, to not caring, and finally to thinking about my audience.
Instead of thinking, "What if I mess up?" I thought, "How can I best impact the people in my audience?" Those are two completely different questions. One question will put you in the mindset of fear while the other will put you in the mindset of power.
So overcoming fear of public speaking comes down to having the right mindset and practicing. Start practicing in front of supportive people. You can do this by joining Toast Masters. From there, as you get more comfortable, your focus will shift from you to the audience. Once your focus is on creating value for them, your fear of public speaking will be gone. Good luck.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Motivation in the Workplace
So how important is it to create motivation in the workplace? Well, if you care about your bottom line, then it's very important. The fact is that when people are motivated, they will do more. When they are unmotivated, they will be less productive. So what causes some employees to be motivated to do their work than others? This article will give you some tips to help you increase employee motivation and in turn increase workplace productivity.
The first thing you will have to realize is that most people don't like their jobs. It's just the reality. The best thing to do is to hire the right people for the right job. It's not about hiring the most capable person for the job though, at least not always. It's about hiring the person who will love the job. People will tend to be more motivated to do their work when they love what they do, or at the very least don't hate what they do. Since it's hard to gauge whether someone will love their job during an interview since everyone puts on their best face, most of the time you will have to take a different approach.
The first thing you will want to do increase employee motivation in the workplace is to find out if it's an environment thing or just an individual thing. If it's an environment thing then you can do different things to make the workplace a bit more fun. If you don't think people can have fun and be productive at the same time, you may want to take a look at Google.
If it's an individual thing then you will need to find out what motivates them and use that knowledge to get them to be more enthusiastic about work. Different people are motivated differently. For some people, all you need to do is pay them more money. For others, money won't do a thing, but recognition will. Still for others, it's all about feeling appreciated for what they do. The lack of motivation in the workplace can be a combination of many different things. It could be both the environment, people having the wrong jobs, and not getting what they want out of a career.
So as an employer, it's a tough situation to have to deal with. One thing you can do is to have a talk with the employees that aren't very motivated with their work and find out what it will take to get them going again. There are companies that can help you set up a program that will deal with this problem.
Now if you are an employee who has a lack of motivation at your job, then one thing you can do is figure out whether or not you should keep working there. Life really is too short to waste your life doing something you don't like. If it's something that is just temporary that will help you get to where you really want to go, then stick with it. Otherwise, you may want to think about what is truly important in your life.
If you are a sales manager, then the importance of motivation in the workplace is especially important. What you can do is to feed your sales team with constant inspiration. Some people are self motivated but don't slack off in trying to give your team pep talks. If anything, it will be a refreshing message after having to constantly taking rejections from customers all day.
So find out what motivates your employees and give them what they need. Giving them a sense of purpose for doing what they do will go a long way. If you are the employee, figure out what it is you want in life and focus on that. Every time you increase your productivity, you are getting closer to your goals.
The first thing you will have to realize is that most people don't like their jobs. It's just the reality. The best thing to do is to hire the right people for the right job. It's not about hiring the most capable person for the job though, at least not always. It's about hiring the person who will love the job. People will tend to be more motivated to do their work when they love what they do, or at the very least don't hate what they do. Since it's hard to gauge whether someone will love their job during an interview since everyone puts on their best face, most of the time you will have to take a different approach.
The first thing you will want to do increase employee motivation in the workplace is to find out if it's an environment thing or just an individual thing. If it's an environment thing then you can do different things to make the workplace a bit more fun. If you don't think people can have fun and be productive at the same time, you may want to take a look at Google.
If it's an individual thing then you will need to find out what motivates them and use that knowledge to get them to be more enthusiastic about work. Different people are motivated differently. For some people, all you need to do is pay them more money. For others, money won't do a thing, but recognition will. Still for others, it's all about feeling appreciated for what they do. The lack of motivation in the workplace can be a combination of many different things. It could be both the environment, people having the wrong jobs, and not getting what they want out of a career.
So as an employer, it's a tough situation to have to deal with. One thing you can do is to have a talk with the employees that aren't very motivated with their work and find out what it will take to get them going again. There are companies that can help you set up a program that will deal with this problem.
Now if you are an employee who has a lack of motivation at your job, then one thing you can do is figure out whether or not you should keep working there. Life really is too short to waste your life doing something you don't like. If it's something that is just temporary that will help you get to where you really want to go, then stick with it. Otherwise, you may want to think about what is truly important in your life.
If you are a sales manager, then the importance of motivation in the workplace is especially important. What you can do is to feed your sales team with constant inspiration. Some people are self motivated but don't slack off in trying to give your team pep talks. If anything, it will be a refreshing message after having to constantly taking rejections from customers all day.
So find out what motivates your employees and give them what they need. Giving them a sense of purpose for doing what they do will go a long way. If you are the employee, figure out what it is you want in life and focus on that. Every time you increase your productivity, you are getting closer to your goals.
Sales Motivation
Sales motivation is about being able to get yourself or your sales team to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. It's the ability to get yourself to take action whether you feel like it or not. In sales, one of the toughest aspect is having to deal with constant rejection. This is why most people fail to be a success in the field of sales. The stress that can be caused by this profession can be through the roof especially if it's 100% commission based.
Sales happens to be the number one highest paid profession in the world. Guess what the lowest paid profession in the world is? That's right, also sales. Anyone can get a job that pays on salary or by the hour and make a certain secure amount of money every month but it takes a certain type of person to be able to control the amount he or she earns each year. The profession of sales is not for the weak minded person.
Sales motivation is about the ability to have 99 people say, "No" to you and still be fully confident that the 100th person will say, "Yes." How many people do you think can go in and talk to that 100th potential client with the same enthusiasm and excitement that he or she had with their 1st prospect? Not many at all.
Sales is truly one of the few professions where a person with no educational background, with no talent or skills, can become one of the highest paid most respected people around. The skills needed to become a highly successful sales person is something that can be learned. What it really takes isn't brains, or a nice expensive suit, or even knowing the right people to begin with. What it takes to be highly successful in sales is a burning desire to be the best at it. It's that sales person who will not stop making cold calls until he/she gets the amount of appointments necessary to achieve his/her goal.
If you are in a leadership position, the whole concept of sales motivation comes down to having the ability to give your team a vision of who they can become and where they can go regardless of who or where they are right now. It's the ability to inspire confidence in your team and ignite that intense desire to succeed in each and every one of them that will make you a true leader.
There's no doubt about it. Sales can be a life changing profession. If you are in sales, then you can literally change your entire life around, from poverty and broke, to wealthy and fulfilled. If you are in a leadership position, realize that you have the opportunity to help change people's lives. Learn everything you can about sales motivation and there will be no limits to what you can achieve.
Sales happens to be the number one highest paid profession in the world. Guess what the lowest paid profession in the world is? That's right, also sales. Anyone can get a job that pays on salary or by the hour and make a certain secure amount of money every month but it takes a certain type of person to be able to control the amount he or she earns each year. The profession of sales is not for the weak minded person.
Sales motivation is about the ability to have 99 people say, "No" to you and still be fully confident that the 100th person will say, "Yes." How many people do you think can go in and talk to that 100th potential client with the same enthusiasm and excitement that he or she had with their 1st prospect? Not many at all.
Sales is truly one of the few professions where a person with no educational background, with no talent or skills, can become one of the highest paid most respected people around. The skills needed to become a highly successful sales person is something that can be learned. What it really takes isn't brains, or a nice expensive suit, or even knowing the right people to begin with. What it takes to be highly successful in sales is a burning desire to be the best at it. It's that sales person who will not stop making cold calls until he/she gets the amount of appointments necessary to achieve his/her goal.
If you are in a leadership position, the whole concept of sales motivation comes down to having the ability to give your team a vision of who they can become and where they can go regardless of who or where they are right now. It's the ability to inspire confidence in your team and ignite that intense desire to succeed in each and every one of them that will make you a true leader.
There's no doubt about it. Sales can be a life changing profession. If you are in sales, then you can literally change your entire life around, from poverty and broke, to wealthy and fulfilled. If you are in a leadership position, realize that you have the opportunity to help change people's lives. Learn everything you can about sales motivation and there will be no limits to what you can achieve.
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