What are the traditional definitions of leadership? Or, rather, what are the skills and characteristics associated with successful leaders? Of course, these may vary depending on the role, but many people would discuss a leader’s ability to be decisive, dictate strategy and motivate those around them. Regardless of which is deemed to be most important, one thing we can be certain of is that Mental Toughness will have a direct impact.
Despite this, until now the concept of Mental Toughness has largely been overlooked or even misunderstood, with those interested often using the wrong definition as an inspiration or point of reference. However, as we come to learn more about it and its key components, its importance as an aspect of leadership is increasingly clear.
Developing Mental Toughness as a leader can have many positive benefits for yourself and your team. In addition to an improvement in your response to challenges, you can gain the trust of those around you while empowering your team to work at their best, seeing their belief in their own abilities grow alongside your own.
What is Mental Toughness?
We can start with something of a definition. Mental Toughness is a personality trait which determines and explains, in part, how we respond mentally to stress, pressure, challenge and opportunity – irrespective of circumstance.
Albeit increasingly less so than in the past, some will still look at the term “toughness” and assume that it is somehow related to being aggressive, macho and even masculine. It is none of these. Toughness has many meanings. We are discussing it in the sense of the word that relates to resilience and positivity, and research shows that Mental Toughness patterns are largely similar irrespective of gender.
For the most part, people’s understanding of personality is confined to behavioural aspects; for example, describing and assessing how we act when things happen to us and around us. Mental Toughness is focused on how we think when events occur.
There is a key phrase in our definition of which we must take note, though: “in part”. This means that, while Mental Toughness is a big part of the solution for performance and wellbeing, it’s not the silver bullet. It is, however, a personality trait which it is possible to develop in order to improve one’s leadership mindset.
The 4 Cs of Mental Toughness
The term “Mental Toughness” was coined by Jim Loehr, the legendary sports psychologist, who understood the importance of developing an athlete’s mental skills, as well as their technical and physical skills.
In 2002, following eight years of working with colleagues, Professor Peter Clough was able to describe for the first time the components of Mental Toughness in what is called the 4 Cs model, now the most widely accepted and best evidenced explanation. The 4 Cs are Control, Commitment, Challenge and Confidence. By 2020, we knew that our mental approach to events was influenced by eight factors. These are described briefly below:
MENTAL TOUGHNESS
What this means … the eight factors
CONTROL
Life Control – I really believe I can do it Emotional Control – I can manage my emotions and the emotions of others
COMMITMENT
Goal Orientation – I think in terms of goals, I visualise what needs to be done Achievement Orientation– I am minded to do what it takes to achieve important goals
CHALLENGE
Risk Orientation – I see opportunity where others see threat Learning Orientation – I reflect – I learn from all that happens – including setbacks
CONFIDENCE
Confidencein Abilities – I believe I have the ability to do it – or can acquire the ability Interpersonal Confidence – I believe I can influence and engage with others
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Why is Mental Toughness important for business leaders?
Now we have a definition of Mental Toughness and an explanation of the 4 Cs, it becomes easier to see how it is applied in a leadership environment.
Before we begin, it is important to realise that it is not useful to think in terms of strengths and weaknesses here. Generally, a mentally tough leader will have an advantage in many settings, but not always. It is perfectly possible for a mentally tough leader to struggle. It is equally possible for a mentally sensitive leader to prosper.
Demonstrating leadership often requires maintaining poise in the face of difficulty, keeping focus on what is truly important, being bold to see opportunity when others see threat and having belief in one’s own capability to deal with whatever arises.
Stress, pressure, challenge and opportunity are consistent features of everyone’s lives. Those who aspire to provide leadership have a heightened sense of the stressors and pressures of work and life; to succeed in providing leadership, we still need to bring mental toughness to bear on what we need to do.
As Henry Ford once put it: “If we think we can, we can. If we think we can’t, we are probably right”.
Indeed, we have always known this to be important. Plato spoke about fortitude, the Romans spoke about stoicism, others talked about resilience. However, until recently it was too difficult to describe in such a way so that every person could grasp it, develop self-awareness and ultimately use this to be the best version of themselves that they could be.
Developing this self-awareness is crucial for any aspiring leaders, and there are two factors to be considered.
Firstly, what is my mental toughness profile and what does it mean for me in striving to deal with the world around me? Which factors can hold me back and which factors are an asset? That is contributing to my leadership capability.
Secondly, and of equal importance in leadership, what does my Mental Toughness profile mean for the way I engage with other people? Does my understanding of Mental Toughness enable me to understand why others respond the way they do when asked to do something?
Here we present the eight factors listed earlier, but this time indicating their significant implication on leadership.
Assessing your own Mental Toughness
An important by-product of developing the concept of Mental Toughness concept has been forming a reliable and valid psychometric measure – the MTQPlus. This helps users to assess one’s levels across overall mental toughness, the 4 Cs and the eight factors.
Like many psychometric instruments, the MTQPlus uses what is called a Sten Scale to indicate the level of mental toughness. The MTQPlus is also a normative measure.
This means that the level of an individual’s mental toughness is shown on a scale of 1–10, compared to the average score achieved by a normal person. An example can be seen below.
The “norm” for an average or typical person would be 5.5 on each scale. The scores often associated with mental sensitivity are those in the 1–3 range. Scores achieved by the mentally tough tend to fall in the 8–10 range. Sixteen per cent of most populations fall into these categories. Around two thirds of us score in the 4–7 range and can therefore consider ourselves to be reasonably mentally tough.
However, the important thing here is that we are all different. Our profiles may vary even if our overall level of mental toughness is the same.
How to build Mental Toughness
As explained above, it is possible to build Mental Toughness.
When training Mental Toughness, the essence is to create self-awareness of our current level. From that we can decide whether we need to develop aspects of our Mental Toughness or stay as we are and, instead, learn coping strategies for those times when it might create an issue for us.
The concept and the measure have become increasingly frequent components of leadership development programmes.
As with any development activity it will progress through key stages:
Self-awareness, reflection and diagnosis
The above example of a test output is real. The individual had many advantages in dealing with a very challenging leadership role. However, we can see that there is indication of mental sensitivity around two factors – Emotional Control and Learning Orientation.
Initially the individual agreed that they didn’t stop to think about things that didn’t go to plan. They disagreed that they were less able at managing their emotions. In fact, they saw revealing their emotions as an example of their passion for their role.
2. Deciding to take action
Feedback and discussion led to an awareness that this perhaps wasn’t always an advantage. The leader acknowledged that this was an issue and concluded that this was a priority for development because it was affecting their own and others’ performance and wellbeing.
3. Action
The individual was introduced to techniques for managing emotional responses and committed to practice these. Guided imagery was a particularly effective intervention.
The result: restoration of wellbeing and performance.
Mental toughness is in one sense invisible. It is describing what goes on in one’s head. Unlike behaviour, we can’t see it. But it has a big impact on leadership effectiveness. The concept and the measure enable us to access this.
In the words of one user: “It’s making the invisible, visible”.
Doug Strycharczyk, Peter Clough and John Perry are co-authors of ‘Developing Mental Toughness: Strategies to Improve Performance, Resilience and Wellbeing in Individuals and Organizations’, which is available in hardback, paperback or as an ebook here. Use code HAYS20 for a 20% discount.
Most leaders will be familiar with giving presentations to their peers, team members, customers and clients. However, presenting to the C-suite brings its own unique challenges and can be a daunting prospect.
Today I’ll be chatting with keynote speaker and presentation skills coach Jay Surti, author of The Presentation Book For Senior Managers: An Essential Step by Step Guide to Structuring and Delivering Effective Speeches. We’ll be discussing the best practices involved in delivering a presentation to the c-suite and the ways in which you can effectively engage with this unique audience.
1. Could you introduce yourself to our listeners and tell them a little bit about who you are, and what you do?
(1:10) I’m an author and speaker on the topic of presentation skills. But before that, I was a lawyer who became fascinated with public speaking, and that Fascination came out of necessity because for a very long time I had a debilitating fear of public speaking so I wanted to find a solution to be able to cope with that. And through that, I just became really interested in all things presentation. Now, I help other people create an impact with their speaking.
2. A key role of leaders is to inspire change, how do you think a really strong set of presentation skills can help them do that?
(2:05) Well, inspiring others requires effective communication skills, but most importantly understanding other people’s perspectives. You can have one message but you actually need to adapt it for every member of your team or every person in your audience, whatever that might be. When you work on your presentation skills or holding your presentation skills, you have to plan for that. You have to think about your audience very carefully and adapt. And so, by doing that, I think it makes you a much better leader, a much more effective communicator. And then that, then translate into being more inspiring and being able to motivate people in your team. The key things are understanding that you have a variety of people in your audience and to have some kind of empathy and then be able to tailor your message is really important.
3. I think any presentation can present challenges, but what are the unique challenges that leaders face when presenting to really senior executive or C-suite audiences?
(3:15) They’re very busy people. Today, they tend to think strategically, so they may not be interested in the minute details. So when you are thinking about presenting or getting ready for it, think about key messages and the highlights rather than getting bogged down and being tempted into putting in too much content. Actually, that’s something that a lot of speakers fall into the trap of. But with a very senior audience, a C-suite audience is thinking about what your objective is. What is it that you want out of that interaction, but more importantly, what do you want them to do. So, being clear about your objective is the first place to start because it might be that you need them to make a decision or to give you something, whether that’s funding et cetera. So, being clear about your objective, understanding that they’re busy. The other thing is, you might well get interrupted, so you might have a plan for your presentation, and then somebody will jump in and divert you, so being prepared to go with the flow and make sure you have enough preparation is really important. And then the last thing, timing. So, just make sure that you have practised to stick to your time slot because you might not get a second chance, and if you don’t finish and get the result that you want, then all that effort doesn’t really go anywhere.
I think your point there on preparing for those interruptions is so interesting. I’ve seen it in world leaders, perhaps when they’re presenting on the news or being asked questions that they’re in this great flow, they know what they’re delivering, and then they’re really thrown by an interruption, and you lose the thread of your argument or of the point that you’re trying to make. It can be very disruptive and derailing.
(5:07) Yeah, it can be but it doesn’t have to be.
4. Is there anything else that they can do to really help them prepare well for a very important presentation?
(5:23) There are a number of things. The key thing is setting aside time to prepare because most professionals are busy themselves. One of the key things that I have found when working with lots of different people in various different industry sectors is the intention is there to prepare but other things dive in and take over your time. You might have good intentions, but you don’t prepare, and you absolutely need to. I think the only way to do that is to put some time in your diary, 15 minutes every other day. You’re doing something in terms of planning for your presentation, and that is researching your content and thinking about what you want to say. That can include, if possible, asking members of your audience, what are the key points that are relevant and how does the audience want to receive that information because that can really help you plan properly. So, researching content, planning your structure, those are really important aspects. You might have some visual aids and slides et cetera. So, you need to set aside time to be able to put that together or get them over to help you with it.
Another really important aspect is to make some time to rehearse. This is where people typically cut corners because they might spend all their time on content and slides, but not actually set aside time to rehearse. The benefit of rehearsing is you need to know how long you’re speaking for. If you have 10 minutes or 15 minutes, you need to know what that feels like. If you are really comfortable with your material and you’ve rehearsed it in chunks, then if you get interrupted and you get thrown off course, you can mentally adjust and come back in where you need to, and make sure that you at least finish with your strong conclusion or whatever that is. Taking time to make sure that you’ve planned properly, doing your research, and then rehearsing it is really, really important. And of course, focusing on your objective. Now, that’s the starting point actually. When you know what you want to get out of that interaction or what you want the audience to do with it, you can then reverse engineer your content to make sure it leads to that ultimate goal.
5. Do you think there’s a risk of seeming stale or over-rehearsed. Is that a really unlikely risk?
(7:57) It is really unlikely. It’s funny you say that because that’s the pushback that I get quite a lot, is that I don’t want to be over-rehearsed, I’m going to come across as really sort of stilted. The trap that people fall into is thinking that they need to memorise their presentation word for word. Actually, it’s the opposite. By practising and rehearsing you get to vocalise what it is that you’re saying because it looks very different to when it’s on paper, and I always suggest that people don’t write a script, you just have your key points and every time you rehearse it, it will come out slightly differently. But that’s okay, as long as you’ve got signposting.
The other key thing to remember is, in the moment, the audience are listening to your presentation for the very first time. You might have rehearsed it a hundred times, but you need to be mindful of the fact that your energy and your vocal variety or tonality needs to reflect that. For them, it’s their first and possibly only interaction with this particular presentation. So that’s what you need to focus on rather than worrying about learning it off by heart.
6. Would you recommend that the people go as far as to arrange meetings with key members of the audience prior to that presentation to ensure the messaging is relevant?
(9:31) Yeah, absolutely. Every time. Because it gives you that insight in terms of how people are thinking and you want to hit the right mark. I don’t think there’s any danger of spoiling the reveal because you’re bringing your personality into it, so it’s not necessarily just about the content. But at least you get an idea of who sat around that table, are there people that actually do want that detail because even though I’ve suggested earlier that you’re focusing on strategy and high level, you still need to be prepared to dive into that minor detail if somebody asks. So, having that knowledge in advance helps you to plan properly. Sometimes it’s not possible to actually speak to somebody who’s going to be in that audience. The next best thing is to research elsewhere and you could do it with mentors or other people in similar roles or situations outside of your organisation because that’s still very helpful.
7. Do you have any advice or tips on how our listeners can better present a really complicated topic in a clear and impactful way?
(10:46) Yeah, absolutely. Don’t make your audience work too hard, even though they’re a highly intelligent audience. There are several things that you can do to break down a complicated topic. The obvious places to start are thinking about quite often charts and data. Yes, it is necessary quite often to have that level of complex detail. But if you’re using visual aids whether that’s on a slide or handing out something, think about how you can break it down and take it in stages so that it’s easier to process and digest.
Other things that you can do, not only to make it easier to process information but to make it more interesting is to create hooks. So if you are explaining a point, can you put it next to something that’s much more familiar or can you put it next to a story example or case because that not only makes the content easier to process, but it makes it memorable, and that’s really what you’re going for is your interaction, your presentation. You want it to be sticky.
I can give you an example of comparison. A few years ago. I worked with somebody to find ways to cut waste, and the particular commodity that they were dealing with was a beverage. The volume of waste, coincidentally, was something that would fill an Olympic swimming pool, which is 2.5 million meters. So obviously, if you tell that to an audience, we all get a reference of what that is, but when you put it next to something that people can relate to, you get a visual image, you know mental image of an Olympic swimming pool, and that makes it much more memorable by comparing a figure or statistic to something else. It’s probably unrelated but that doesn’t matter. It just makes it easier to follow.
8. How important that you have a really strong start to your presentation, and do you have any examples of a good way to start?
(13:27) Yes, it’s always good to have a strong start, particularly with this audience. Attention spans can be even shorter, so you have a few seconds to grab their attention. I would say rather than spending too much time introducing because they probably know who you are or introducing the topic, dive straight into the presentation. There are a few ways in which you can do that in an interesting way. It could just be as simple as you’re setting the scene and explaining what the objective of the presentation is, but you could open with an interesting fact or statistic. You could open with a short story because that’s an unusual way to start, or you could ask a question. That example that I shared with the Olympic swimming pool, that speaker just to break the ice, introduced a quick pop quiz and just ask people in the audience to guess. What is the volume of an Olympic swimming pool, and then when they told them, they said, “That is how much we are wasting, so what are we going to do about it?” and then move into the presentation.
9. What advice do you have for those who do suffer really bad nerves or stage fright?
(15:11) I learned the hard way. Just by speaking to lots of speakers and watching, and then I became a bit of a geek. After all of that, I came to the realisation that actually, for me, it was two key things and they’re really simple. One was my level of preparation. I could take comfort in the fact that I had planned, and prepared, and rehearsed, and that would give me the confidence to know that I couldn’t get lost and I’d always be able to find my way back. There are no shortcuts with that route, but it’s absolutely necessary. So it was good for me and good for the audience because they would have a better experience.
The second realisation was that shifting the focus for me to the audience was really important. Because ultimately, the whole point of me being there is to create that experience for the audience, and presenting something for their benefit, to add value to get some kind of decision. So, preparation and shifting the focus from me to them really helped. Other things that can be useful, mindset is really important. It can be really easy to go down a negative mindset and start focusing on feeling less confident.
And by the way, it’s not just people that fear public speaking, sort of generally, it can happen to anybody at any time. You could be the most confident speaker, but because the stakes are high, this particular presentation is causing you some anxiety. So it’s just making sure that you focus on the positive because you get what you focus on. Thinking about how much preparation you’ve done, that you’re an expert in this particular area, all of those things. Choose to focus on things that you can control and other things, leave them to one side.
Other techniques that are really helpful are visualisation, which is used quite a lot in sports psychology. Imagining your presentation or pitch or whatever the interaction is going exactly the way that you want it to, and using all of your senses to make it really rich and sensory can help because unconsciously, you’ve gone through that process, so when you deliver your presentation, it is not for the first time. And simple things like breathing that deep breathing exercises before you present can be really helpful during your presentation because we have an adrenaline rush. And that’s a good thing because it just means that you’re ready for action, but because of that sometimes breathing can get faster, and then that can come through in your voice and you can come across as less confident. So remembering to stop at places, take a pause, and breathe will help to regulate any nerves that there are. That also gives your audience an opportunity to process what you’ve just shared. It’s quite a good technique to build in places where you can stop and pause.
Lastly, having some kind of ritual and to get you in the right zone before. The right frame of mind before you get up to present, and that could be as simple as listening to a piece of music that puts you in a really good mood. I’m sure most people have a favorite track that takes them to a particular place where they felt good and confident.
An often touted but perhaps controversial piece of advice about visualising your audience in their underwear, but clearly not, visualising a successful presentation, that makes a lot of sense.
(19:43) That’s a myth, isn’t it? A lot of people talk about it. It doesn’t work for me, but everybody’s different and it’s just finding your thing isn’t it, so whatever helps you to feel calmer or ready to present, then don’t have to tell anyone you have to share it with anybody.
Also, I think you said something really fascinating there about the adrenaline, the nerves, they can actually be a good thing if you keep them under control. It can increase the power of your delivery, your energy.
(20:18) Exactly. That’s the reframe, isn’t it? It’s thinking about it as actually a positive thing, not a negative thing because it shows that you care and you’re interested in the outcome and the interaction. So definitely a good thing but there are things you can do to control it.
10. Are there any body language and tone of voice considerations that our listeners should be mindful of when presenting to that executive audience?
(20:47) Yes. I’m a big fan of natural delivery, and I always recommend that people adopt a conversational tone of voice because that’s your personality coming through. It’s what you see is what you get, and sometimes it can be really difficult to emulate that because you’re thinking about so many different things. So, ironically, need to practice that through rehearsal. The tone of voice from that perspective, having it conversational and natural is important, but also at the same time, your voice box is a really important tool and it’s one that people don’t often use that well. You can use it to your advantage to change the pace, change the volume, all those things at different points in your presentation to add some colour to your presentation. What is less good is if you talk too fast or you become breathless and you forget that the audience is there, just be mindful of that.
Other nonverbal things that could play a part in your presentation are unconscious fidgeting, moving about because I like to have a sort of natural style. I think it’s okay to have some kind of mannerisms, some people talk with their hands. What the test is though is, is it going to be distracting for your audience? and the only way that you can find that out is either get somebody to give you feedback or better still, record yourself on video. You don’t have to share it with anybody else, at least at that point, you can see and hear what your audience will, and you then have the choice to make some adaptations to iron it out. So in a nutshell, is it going to be distracting for the audience, and then you can do something about it. So that way you’re coming across as confident, and natural, and much more engaging.
I’m sure that some people would disagree with me and advocate that there is really only one way to be when you’re presenting. I disagree with that. I think we’re human beings and we all have our unique personalities. So, much better to do that than to have a sort of robotic persona.
11. I’ve heard an awful lot about the potential of power poses. If I’m presenting to a C-suite, a really senior audience that I want to sway, should I be putting my hands on my hips, and trying to adopt something like a Superman pose or is that a bit nonsensical because it’s not very natural for me?
(23:51) Maybe. That concept comes from Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk, and in a nutshell, that’s about our mind-body connection. So, when you adopt a powerful pose for 2 minutes that helps you feel more confident, so it’s definitely a good thing. However, it’s something that you do in private. I talked earlier about rituals and listening to music. So, adopting a power pose whether that’s hands on your hips, or arms in the air, or a fist pump, whatever works for you, if you do that in a separate room or in the bathroom before you go into the meeting space, that will work really well. But in the actual presentation room, you can do something similar and that is just to have open body language. So rather than hands on hips, it’s just making sure that you have good posture, you maintain good eye contact, and you have open body language because that, unconsciously, conveys confidence. So, rather than looking ridiculous, you can do those things in private, but just remember that when you’re actually in front of an audience, you still need to be aware of how you’re coming across with your body language.
12. Do you have any advice specifically for how to deliver a really impactful presentation when you’re just talking to a screen, and maybe you can’t even see your audience?
(25:49) Yes, that does pose a challenge. It’s about reminding yourself that you do have actual people on the other side of your camera lens and trying to bring that in-person experience through the medium of technology. A lot of it will be, again, your tone of voice and being as natural as possible. The other challenge with delivering through a camera, there are some tech issues to be aware of. So even if you can’t see all of your audience, you might be able to see some of your audience, they can probably see you and it’s making sure that you are emulating the feeling of eye contact because you would connect with a live audience by looking at people.
So to do that, do it through the camera lens and it’s making sure you have your laptop or device camera at your eye level and you might need to put your device on a pile of books or on a stand so that you can do that. And when you speak, it’s really tempting to look at your screen because if you can see other people’s faces it’s almost as if you’re talking to them, but actually, you’re not, you want to look through the camera. So there’s that, but also on the flip side because your audience are in their own spaces, they can switch their cameras off and they can multitask, and you won’t necessarily know that they’re engaging with you. So, you can do the best you can with your delivery and be engaging, but make sure that you keep your audience with you. There are things you could try like using the chat box or functionality, introducing some polls or just literally just pausing at certain points in your presentation and just opening up for a bit of a debate or a Q&A session, so that you’re bringing people back in and having that engagement because you’re trying to create that connectedness that you would if you’re in the room with people.
13. What signs can someone look out for the C-suite audience is engaged with what they’re saying, perhaps, when they are in the room or failing that when cameras are turned on, what should they be looking out for?
(28:25) In a way that is quite intuitive. I think most of us know when people are listening to us or not, and you can tell that through body language and eye contact. So, people are looking in your direction and nodding along, that seems quite obvious. But that’s not to say that if they’re not looking at you or that they’re writing something on the device that they’re not listening, they can be. So, don’t be tempted thinking you’ve lost people in the audience. Focus on what you can control, and that is having a really good presentation. You being enthusiastic and engaging for the audience. If you think you’re losing people, break the pattern.
There are a few things that you can do, and that could be that you just pause. If you just pause for what might seem like an eternity for two or three seconds, people think I don’t know if I missed something, and they’ll just sit up and listen. You could throw some questions out to the audience, and they could just be rhetorical questions, getting to just pause and think, or inviting a response from the audience. You can use your voice to change it up or down because that will wake people up.
There are things you can try, but ultimately, if some of those don’t work and there are still people in the audience that look like they’re disengaged, that’s okay, too. You don’t know what’s going on in their mind, they might have something that is bothering them. Sometimes you just won’t get a hundred percent of the audience. You could have delivered that same presentation yesterday, knocked it out of the park and had everybody engaged, and yet, that same presentation with a different audience today might not necessarily resonate with everybody. So what I’m saying is do what you can, control the things that you can control, and take the pressure off yourself because sometimes you won’t get a hundred percent of the audience, and rather than focus your energy on the one person who’s not engaging, divide your attention with the rest of the audience who are engaged. So it’s about balance.
It’s amazing how powerful something as simple as a pause can be. Because I think it can be tempting to always fill all of the space, all of the time with words, but as you say, I would look up for even from the most fervent note-taking if the speaker had paused talking, thinking what have I missed or what’s happening here, and it would possibly help recapture my attention if I had been distracted by a pressing email or other concern not related to that presentation.
14. Assuming the presentation has gone brilliantly, there is so often an opportunity for a bit of a Q&A session. Can you share any tips for our listeners to help deal with inevitable tough questions that can come either at the end of the presentation or sometimes during it?
(31:29) People worry about the Q&A session even more than the presentation itself because one of the common fears is, am I going to be asked a question that I don’t know the answer to, and I’m not going to look as professional as I could. There are things that you can do to combat that and prepare. So, when you are preparing for your presentation, your brainstorming content, at that point, or when you’re interviewing members of the audience, think about questions that could come up. Think about all the possible curveballs, put yourself in their shoes. You’ve got some content that you want to share, but obviously, you can’t cover everything that you know about that topic.
So there’s going to be things that you leave out. Taking all of that information, list a handful of questions that could come up, and practice your answers in the same way that you would for the actual presentation. That will take the sting out, a lot of it. Genuinely, there will be times when you just can’t answer the question, either because you have a brain freeze or you hadn’t thought about it. So at that point, you can also rehearse your version of, “I don’t know,” or “It’s something I hadn’t thought about,” and if possible, “Can I come back to you later?” if the scenario lets you do that. It’s about how you deal with it. So if you can confidently convey, “Actually, you know what? I don’t know. I’m okay with that” or even ask other people in the audience if that’s a possibility, “I don’t come across that. Does anybody else in the audience have an opinion?” So it’s just finding ways that you can cope because it is absolutely okay not to know the answer and rather than being a rabbit in headlights. You just own it and say that you don’t know and move on from that.
[(33:20)] Host: That’s so interesting. From my own experience, I would always rather someone admit that they don’t know or they need to go away and check that or come back to me than have someone make up an answer that wasn’t either factual or right. I respect their expertise and their credibility much more if they were honest. That’s not something that we’ve considered or I’d need to check to ensure that I give you an accurate answer to that, but we can feel all the pressure that we should have answers to absolutely everything at our fingertips, and be able to deliver them at a moment’s notice.
(33:57) Yeah, and if it helps, I always suggest that buy yourself some time, ask the question to be repeated, or even jot it down, so that you have some time to think, and you’ve got in front of you what it is that you need to answer rather than panicking in the moment to give a response. That’s not the right one.
15. If there is one key piece of advice for our listeners, what would it be?
(34:36) Develop your personal brand. And by that, I mean personal brand is what people think about you. It’s your visibility. It’s your profile and that is online and offline. Focusing on offline because obviously, I’m passionate about presentations is finding more opportunities to speak, whether it’s chairing a team meeting, contributing to a team meeting, giving a seminar, all of these things help to add to your personal brand bank account. So, proactively develop that.
16. If our listeners would like to find out more about you and the work you do, are you on social channels, do you have a website they could check out?
(35:31): Best place to find me is on LinkedIn.
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To succeed at work, the ability to deliver strong presentations will always be important. Whether you’re a novice, or a seasoned public speaker, it’s always a good idea to brush up on our presenting skills.
That’s why today I’m lucky to be joined by Jay Surti, keynote speaker and author of several books including Ultimate Presentations: Master the Art of Giving Fantastic Presentations and Wowing Employers. Jay will be discussing the dos and don’ts of giving presentations at work, as well as how best to tackle any fears or difficult scenarios.
1. Before we dive into the questions, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself for our listeners?
(1:11) I’m an author and a speaker on the topic of presentation skills. But before that, I was a lawyer who became fascinated with public speaking. And that fascination actually came out of necessity because for many years, I had a debilitating fear of public speaking. And so, I was really determined to find a solution. And now, I help other people create an impact through their speaking.
2. Today, we’re going to be talking about how to perfect your presentation skills. What do you think the common habits are of a strong presenter?
(1:49) Well, essential things are, and some of these will sound obvious, but good preparation, having a natural delivery style, because this is an opportunity to showcase your personality and for people to see what it would be like to work with you, so a very conversational style. And it’s really important to tailor your content for your audience because you want them to engage with you. So those are the ingredients for a really good presenter.
3. I suppose the opposite to that, which might still be really useful: what do you commonly see poor presenters doing?
(2:31) And that is quite a common thing actually. And it’s when people obviously don’t prepare and they wing it. That becomes quite obvious because quite often the presentation is rushed. It could create an experience of talking at the audience. So then it’s obvious that the content hasn’t been tailored with the audience in mind. There’s very little engagement and the pace can be quite fast as well. But the real issue that comes up quite a lot, I’m sure many of you will be familiar with the phrase “Death by PowerPoint”. There’s a temptation to rely a lot on slides and put a lot of text into the slide. And quite often, we’d often say, those are the key things to avoid.
4. And when it comes to presenting, how important is a strong start? I mean, not only for your own confidence obviously, but in terms of engaging your audience from the outset.
(3:29) For your own confidence. That’s one key aspect of making sure you have a strong start because it sets the scene and then you can go on from there. But the other more important thing is that you only have a few seconds to grab the attention of your audience. So you want to make it impactful and probably what’s going through their mind is, what’s in it for me. Why should I sit here and listen to you? And as a speaker or presenter, you need to be able to answer that. So you have a few seconds to be able to frame your presentation and grab their attention. In a way, the whole presentation is important, but quite often I would suggest that the beginning is probably more important because that’s where you set off.
5. You mentioned Death by PowerPoint where there’s too much information. I imagine that communicating verbally is only one aspect of a good presentation, still. Do you recommend that people use visual aids as well, such as a slide deck? And if so, how can they make them as powerful as possible?
(4:47) First of all, I think it’s important to just highlight that it is possible to deliver a fantastic presentation without any visual aids. And you can do that through bringing your enthusiasm and energy in your delivery using stories and things like that, which we’ll probably come on to in a little bit. But if you are going to use visual aids, then remember this, you’re the presentation and any visual aids that you introduce in your talk or speech are there for the benefit of the audience. And so, if it enhances your message then think about incorporating them. And quite often, it does help the audience if there’s something visual for them to be able to process what you’re sharing. So, slides are the most common visual aspect. But don’t forget, depending on the size of the audience, you can use things like flip charts or props, for example, a product or a model. But because slides are the most common visual aids that people think about, you’re right, too much text in the slide can be something that detracts from your presentation because anything that you put up on a slide will direct your audience’s attention towards that. So if they can read what you’re also talking about, you might as well just give them a handout. So, I always suggest thinking about your slides and making them more visual, use images rather than text or graphics or some kind of flow chart that enhances or supports what you’re sharing rather than putting in bullet points and text. So the two of you work together, your slides support you.
6. There might be people listening to the podcast thinking, “It’s all well and good saying that you need to engage and get people’s interest from the beginning, but might consider their topic dull or boring.” So, how can a person make a boring topic interesting when presenting?
(6:52) So a lot of that comes down to your delivery. But your energy and enthusiasm has to carry through because your audience will pick up on that. So, that’s a key part of it. And the other is how you position them, the key points on messages. And so, to make your content more interesting, you can create hooks and put the points next to something like a story, an example, or a case study. So that your content not only is more interesting, but it’s more memorable as well. So you’re creating a much better experience for your audience. And you can borrow those examples and stories from anywhere in the public domain. So, I quite often will read books or articles or blogs and all, see something interesting and I will bookmark that because at some point it will come in useful for me to put into one of my presentations and I have that ready for whenever I do have to put together a presentation. And I’d like to recommend things like titles and there’s one in particular that I always refer people to, because it’s a really good example of how you can introduce very short, simple examples or stories to put next to a very serious or important point. And that title is Ken Robinson, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”, and it’s a really good video to watch to give you an idea of how you can quite easily introduce short stories or examples, because it doesn’t have to be a difficult thing to do.
That’s great, thank you. I’ll make sure that I check out that video and urge all our listeners to do the same as well.
7. Over the course of the pandemic there’s been some big big changes to the world of work, and one of those changes is remote and hybrid working and it’s very much the norm now, and virtual presentations have become more and more common as a result. Do you have any tips to our listeners to help them feel more prepared and ultimately give a good presentation when doing so remotely?
(9:05) Yeah, absolutely. The first thing to remember is that we’re still engaging with other people. It might be through the lens of a camera or a device. But it’s a good idea to try and focus on the fact that you are presenting to other people, other human beings, and to remember to bring that into the tone of your voice and making it very conversational and imagining that you’ve got other people on the other side of the camera, and then some techie stuff, so the audience may or may not be able to see you. And with all the platforms that we’re using, quite often you’ll only see a few faces on your screen. But regardless, position your camera at your eye level so whether they can see or not, you are trying to create that eye contact that you would if you have people in the room in front of you, and it might be that you need to put the laptop on a pile of books or a laptop stand. So at least you’ve got that experience, and sometimes it can also help to put a sticker behind your laptop where the camera is to remind you to keep looking up because it’s really tempting to look at the screen when you’re seeing other people. The other challenge that you have is that it’s really easy when you’re presenting to people virtually for the audience to turn the cameras off or to multitask, and you’re not necessarily going to know if they’re engaged with you. And so, in your presentation, if you can have breaks where you interrupt the flow by getting them involved, you can use the chat facility, introduce some polls, pause because sometimes they’re doing something else and there’s a little bit of silence, it might bring them back and, ” Hang on. Have I missed something important?”, or even just pause for questions. So those are things that I would recommend that you do to keep your audience engaged. And remember, they’re a live audience.
Some fantastic advice there. I really like the idea of putting a sticker behind the camera because I’m guilty of that. I always look down at my screen. And also about including the audience as well. With the technology that we have through these platforms, we can do polls, there are chat functions. So some really really good advice there.
8. Now, it’s not uncommon to have a fear or certainly a dislike of public speaking. How would you recommend someone overcome that fear?
(11:35) It isn’t uncommon that some very senior people that I’ve worked with have this, but it’s often embarrassing to be able to admit to that, and it happens to us all. Even if you’re the most confident person, outgoing, it just depends on context. So if it’s a presentation that’s important to you, we can have those nerves. But there are things you can control. And so, two things that worked for me, firstly, adequate preparation. If I felt comfortable with the content and I’d had enough time to practice, I could rely on that and that will give me confidence to know that however lost I might get, I could always come back to where I was in a presentation and carry on. There’s no shortcuts to that but it always helps. And the other key thing for me was remembering that it’s always about the audience experience. So shifting my focus for me to creating a good experience for the audience would really help.
Mindset is a very important thing, and it can be quite easy to go down that rabbit hole of thinking, “I actually don’t feel very confident. I don’t feel that prepared.” And it’s about habit, “Did you get what you focus on?” You can choose to focus on how small it is, but something that’s positive, how much preparation you’ve done or how good you are at a particular bit of content or expertise. So that comes with practice, but it is definitely something that you can do. Another couple of techniques on visualisation which is used quite a lot in sports psychology and imagining your presentation going exactly the way that you wanted to and making it really rich using all of your senses, that can be a very powerful technique, as well as, this seems obvious and really simple, but your breathing. When we feel fearful or there’s that adrenaline rush, your breathing can quicken and then that comes through your voice and then you come across as less confident. So breathing deeply before you begin your presentation is quite good practice. But actually, throughout the presentation, putting in points where you remind yourself to stop, and that could be at the end of a section or a point and pausing, will not only help calm you down but it also gives the audience time to process what you’ve just shared. So all of those techniques or just that finding something a ritual that helps you because it will be different for everybody and it could be something like having a really great piece of music that always takes you to a good place and just listening to that, before you start your presentation, quietly in a room by yourself can help. So there are lots of different ways but it’s just mainly focusing on what you can control and choosing something that works for you.
Again, that’s some great advice. I’d never thought about the effects that listening to music beforehand could help as well. I already know what song I would pick. So I’m going to use that next time I do a presentation.
9. Do you have any advice to help our listeners tackle any tricky questions that they may be asked during the presentation?
(15:12) Yeah. Quite often the question and answer section worries people, as much as, if not more, than delivering the presentation itself because a common fear is, “Am I going to be standing there and not know the answer?” You might have a brain freeze. And that’s completely normal, it happens to us all. So, there are definitely things that you can do to set yourself up for success. And one of those is, when you’re preparing for your presentation, at that point when you’re brainstorming what content you want to include, think about your audience and think about possible curveball questions that are going to come up and then prepare for that. You can rehearse in answering questions in the same way as you can rehearse for your presentation. So that will give you a lot of confidence, having thought through and planned for questions. Of course, there will be situations where you can’t answer the question in that moment, either because you do have a brain freeze or you just genuinely don’t know. And we can’t know everything all the time or plan for every eventuality, but that’s okay. What’s important is dealing with it in a confident way and practicing your version of, “I don’t know.” I don’t know right now or if it’s something I hadn’t thought about. And if it’s an opportunity for you to be able to come back to that audience, then say, “Can I come back to you? Or can we pick this up later?” And again, depending on the circumstance, you could throw it out to the audience and say, “That’s not something I’ve come across. Does anybody else have an opinion on this?” But that depends on how well prepared you are, what your audience is, and how confident you feel. But there are lots of different things that you can do. And the two things are mainly to prepare and rehearse your version of, “I don’t know.”, so that you feel comfortable in being able to say that and it’s okay to do that.
10. It can often be part of an interview process where you have to give a presentation, that can obviously be a unique challenge. Could you share any particular advice that you would give our listeners who are in that situation?
(17:31) Interview presentations are a unique set of circumstances because what you’re being tested on is much more than your presentation skills. So typically, what prospective employers are looking for is your ability to think on your feet, cope under pressure, whether you can be confident in that moment, whether you could tackle questions that are unexpected, and timing. And all of these things you can prepare for. So, there might be a couple of different scenarios where, one, you might be giving your topic in advance, which is great because you can research and plan and prepare in advance. Always rehearse. Do it in front of other people, and then get them to heckle you or to ask you questions, so you have that experience of being interrupted. And the benefit of rehearsal is that you get to practice timing. Because the last thing you want is to be cut off. You’ll have a set amount of time to deliver your presentation and you don’t want to be cut short before your strong conclusion. If you don’t have the topic in advance, this is quite common, you might turn out to us an assessment center and just be given a limited amount of time to prepare, then you need to plan properly. And rather than try and memorise what you want to say, my recommendation is pick three key points and then focus on a really strong opening and a conclusion. If you need notes, that’s okay. Just make sure that you have them written down so it’s really easy for you, in that moment, to be able to refer to them. So they’re there to give you some comfort. And if you want to use them, I don’t think anybody is going to think less of you. And then, leave time so that you can rehearse out loud, even if you find a quiet room, just to be able to speak it out loud so you can time yourself and you can get a feel for the flow of the content. So that is really important. It doesn’t matter how much or how little time you have, setting aside some time to actually say your presentation out loud will make a big difference.
11. If you had one piece of advice to help our listeners navigate their careers throughout the pandemic and beyond, what would that be?
(20:16) Without a doubt, develop your personal brand. I wish somebody had given me that advice when I was getting started out. Your personal brand is what other people think about you. It’s your profile, and it’s your visibility. And so, think about how proactive you are online and offline. So if it’s online, how often are you sharing interesting content or opinions, but also how much you’re contributing to other people’s posts. Because by doing that in a thoughtful way, you’re increasing your visibility and your profile. And offline, the obvious thing is finding ways to be visible through speaking and finding opportunities to do that. And that could be just contributing to the next team meeting, volunteering to chair a meeting, taking opportunities to speak at seminars. All of that increases your personal brand and visibility.
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Relocating from one country to another is challenging enough in the best of times. From finding a job in a foreign country to negotiating visa processes, there’s no doubt that it’s a mammoth task. Often, timing is key. That’s why, at first glance, it may seem almost impossible to consider relocating for work in the middle of a global pandemic.
But actually, there are countries that have bounced back from the pandemic quickly and would certainly be a good place to relocate to right now. Namely, Australia. Their economic recovery is stronger than anyone anticipated. Fiscal stimulus and control of the spread of COVID-19 has helped to create a strong jobs market. In fact, our Hays Australia and New Zealand Salary Guide FY21/22 shows that unemployment has continued its downward trend.
Skills shortages result in job opportunities in Australia
Today, almost three-quarters of employers in Australia and New Zealand say permanent staffing levels are either above or equal to their pre-COVID-19 level. Perhaps most importantly, 63 per cent have returned to growth or rapid growth, and 72 per cent say business activity will increase over the next 12 months. Furthermore, almost one-half (47 per cent) of employers intend to increase permanent staff levels in the next 12 months, while 15 per cent will increase their use of temporary or contract staff. This shows just how great the opportunity for jobseekers is; employers are looking for new employees – inside and outside of Australia.
But while employers hold positive hiring intentions for the year ahead, acquiring top talent with the right skills won’t be as easy as it first seems. An old challenge has reared its head once more: skills shortages. In fact, almost two-thirds of employers say skills shortages will impact the effective operation of their organisation or department in the next 12 months.
So, what does that mean for jobseekers?
Australian employers are looking for overseas talent
Earlier this year, Australia’s treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveiled measures to make it easier for businesses to attract talent from overseas. As part of Australia’s 2021-22 Budget, the Government is introducing “a new Global Talent visa and Temporary Activity visa and will modernise the framework for individual tax residency, to encourage highly skilled individuals to relocate to Australia”. That means that where previously it was challenging to gain visa rights to move to Australia, there is a much greater opportunity for those looking to move.
Furthermore, the treasurer told ABC News: “While other countries struggle to contain the virus and are moving to increase taxes, our focus is on driving an even stronger recovery and attracting the best and brightest to help set Australia up for the future.” This demonstrates exactly why jobseekers should consider relocating to Australia; they are at a much more advanced stage of COVID recovery than many other countries across the world.
At Hays Globalink, we are focused on helping individuals with their career transitions to Australia and New Zealand. In addition to returning Aussies and Kiwis, this includes a pool of talent ranging from Britons achieving sponsorship with highly sought-after skills to those looking for a working holiday. Today, despite the global pandemic, we continue to work with our colleagues in Australia and New Zealand to fill jobs in areas where local talent is in short supply. The Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) of 19 critically sought skills, which is still in use, makes it possible to relocate people with the skills needed to Australia.
Martin’s story
One professional whom we recently recruited into an Australian role is Martin. A UK Citizen, Martin possesses unique skills that are listed on the PMSOL and are highly sought-after for key defence roles in South Australia. With a local skills shortage, our Hays office in Adelaide cast the net wide to source suitable candidates from overseas for these roles. We worked with candidates here in Britain and with our colleagues in Adelaide and were thrilled to recruit Martin into one of these roles.
Having successfully relocated to Australia with his partner Charlotte (who had never previously set foot in Australia), we asked Martin a few questions about his recent experience:
What made you consider relocating to Australia during a pandemic?
Martin: My job in the UK was good, but Diane from Hays Globalink approached me about this great new opportunity that offered more money and a better lifestyle – it’s that simple. This job offered my partner Charlotte and I the chance to save for a mortgage and achieve a better work-life balance.
Did the pandemic discourage you?
Martin: In a way, the pandemic encouraged us as Australia has dealt with it so much better than many other countries. So, we felt safer and confident in our move over here.
How did you find the remote interview process?
Martin: It was very straightforward. I found it very easy to get onto Zoom and I had plenty of help from the Hays team and my now employer. For me, the interview nerves aren’t as bad when you’re talking through a screen, although it’s difficult to read body language and get a feel for what your interviewer is thinking when you’re not in the room. All in all, the entire process was painless and straightforward.
How was the visa process?
Martin: The application was stressful. While gathering all the information didn’t take long, there was a lot of paperwork and a lot of details were required. Once the application was submitted, we had to then wait for a response, which can cause some anxiety. However, Charlotte and I were lucky as we worked with an immigration officer, Karen, who made the whole process so much easier. From receiving the job offer in September, our visas were approved at the end of November and we landed in Australia for our two-weeks quarantine on the 2nd of February. COVID-19 did not delay the visa, but our January flights were delayed and so our plans were pushed back by one month. We had already quit our jobs by that stage but, luckily, we were able to live at Charlotte’s dad’s house until we left for Australia.
What was the most challenging aspect of relocating?
Martin: The most challenging part was leaving family and friends behind. Due to the pandemic, I doubt we will see them for a while. This has made it tough on both of us. We also decided not to ship any of our belongings. Instead, we relocated with just two large suitcases! From there, we found what we needed and we’re now living in a great house that has everything we need and has plenty of room.
What are your top tips for others looking to relocate?
Martin: Firstly, save as much money as you can before you leave the UK. It will make your life so much easier. We arrived here with $10,000 and while it didn’t last us long, it helped us settle in enormously. Find a nice area to live in as this makes all the difference. Charlotte did a lot of research, which is essential. Two weeks in quarantine can be tough, so bring plenty of things with you to occupy yourself. I’d also advise people to get their bank account sorted while in the UK. In addition, you need an Australian driver license to get finance on a car here. Finally, relax and take some time to have a break. You don’t realise it at the time but relocating does take a lot out of you. All in all, it’s been a great experience. Once you’re here and all set up, you will not look back – here’s a photo as evidence!
Martin and Charlotte loving life in Australia!
About Hays Globalink
Hays Globalink was established over 15 years ago. Since then, we’ve recruited thousands of UK-based professionals into jobs in Australia and New Zealand. Even today during a pandemic, our role remains to assist individuals with their career transition to those countries. As Martin and Charlotte’s story shows, relocating still offers enormous benefits and their success story makes our job worthwhile.
If you’re based in the UK/Ireland and interested in opportunities in Australia or New Zealand, please reach out to the team on 0203 465 0158 or [email protected].
As leaders continually adapt to the ever-changing world of work, emotional intelligence has become an increasingly important trait to possess to effectively build trust and confidence with their teams.
So today, we’re joined by Shannon Houde, Founder and Managing Director of Walk of Life Coaching, Certified Executive Coach, and Author of the book, Good Work. Shannon is here today to share her expert advice to help leaders develop their emotional intelligence.
1. To begin with, please could you introduce yourself to our listeners?
(01:00) Absolutely, thank you for hosting today, this is one of my favourite topics, emotional intelligence for leaders, so thank you for having me.
I have been running a coaching business now for more than a decade to help leaders unleash their own potential of being able to create impact both for our planet and the people they work with, as well as the bottom line profit numbers.
2. What are some of the main challenges your clients are facing at the moment?
(01:38) In terms of emotional intelligence, I think a lot of us are challenged by coming out of the pandemic and rebalancing our lives in terms of mental health, also in terms of the pace of change and pace of the lives we had before the pandemic.
So, what I’m seeing is a great increase in people, leaders, managers, emerging colleagues trying to get a grip on their lives. Figure out what is their purpose? What is driving them? What gets them out of bed in the morning? How can they recalibrate their lives a bit post-pandemic to stay more in balance, and to really make a difference to start doing more than just making an income? That’s the umbrella that I work within the sustainability, environmental, and charity sectors.
I think that’s the benefit that’s come off the back of this pandemic. We’ve had more time to reflect on who we are, and how we are all part of a solidarity movement together as a global culture.
3. Can you explain what we mean by the term emotional intelligence?
(02:58) Absolutely, it’s quite all-encompassing and quite complex in some ways because it covers so many different areas. Basically, it’s our ability to understand ourselves, manage our own response, listen, understand others, and then be able to manage those relationships. So, it’s this holistic ability to navigate our interactions with ourselves and others.
4. Why do you think it’s become more important for leaders to be emotionally intelligent?
(03:37) I think it goes back to that same issue of pace, right? We’re in this fast-paced digital world, with lots of pressures, dual-income families, lots of economic challenges that we’re all experiencing personally as well as professionally. To be able to have the insights about our self to best be able to respond to life challenges, and to continue to influence and grow with others in our context, both personally and professionally.
5. What are the benefits that the emotional intelligence of a leader can have, not just for them but on the team and ultimately the wider organisation?
(04:25) There are about six main themes when I think about the benefits of having high EQ (Emotional Quotient) or EI (Emotional Intelligence) as we can also call it.
One is the ability to strive to meet or exceed high standards. So, you increase your ability to deliver results in a softer way rather than plunging forward, thinking only about goals and results. You do that in a softer way, and you end up being able to reach a higher standard.
You’re also able to adapt to change and help make change happen. As we know, the pace of change now in business is so rapid and innovation, staying ahead of the market, and being agile and responsive to global effects on our businesses is important for leaders.
They’re also able to maintain their effectiveness under stress, look for ways to overcome obstacles, show empathy and insights in their relationships, and resolve conflict, lead others, and cooperate. All of this allows an emotionally intelligent leader to be able to better influence, coach, and develop others, and bring out the best in themselves and others.
6. What do you think are some of the tell-tale signs that people can use to spot when they’re working with an emotionally intelligent leader?
(05:56) Well, there’s a model that I’ve been trained on and I’m a coach for, which is Daniel Goleman’s Coaching Programme that he runs. He’s the father of emotional intelligence whom rebranded it back in the 1990s, has written many books on this and he now has a coaching programme to help coaches like myself bring this more into business, and line-up with leadership development.
And the framework that he uses is a very simple, four-quadrant framework where we look at; Are you self-aware? Are you able to listen and understand yourself? Are you able to feel emotion and recognise how your body is responding to stress or a challenge?
The second quadrant is then being able to self-manage that. How do you respond to that? How do you manage and adapt for yourself for your own response to those external challenges? How are you able to monitor and be mindful in your actions off the back of those insights you have about your own self-awareness?
And then, the third quadrant is social awareness. Are you aware of others? Are you able to listen and understand others? And then are you able to manage those relationships effectively?
Now, the cross-cutting skill that sits across all four of those quadrants, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management is empathy. And empathy is a word that some of us don’t really understand, or we think it’s a little too soft but, it’s actually the key skill. Simply put, I think what empathy really means is listening without responding. It means really sitting with someone else and hearing what they are saying, to try to seek to understand where they’re coming from.
What that offers a leader is an ability to really be able to position whatever their own agenda is through the lens of the other person. That allows leaders to lead change as well as shift mindsets, gain buy-in, and build morale that is actually not forcing things on others but rather having them feel that they’re leading that journey.
So empathy, really is that key tell-tale sign of an emotionally intelligent leader. They don’t always have all the answers, they don’t feel they need to have all the answers, but they’re going to engage, enable, and empower others on the journey through good listening and empathy skills.
7. It’s an interesting model you’ve just talked us through there and the first element you mentioned was self-awareness. Just how important is it for leaders to recognise their own emotions, perhaps when they’re excited or frustrated, and the impact this can have on their teams?
(09:05) Again, I think we rush through life in a way, right? We rush through meetings, we go from meeting to meeting, we go from goal, target or KPI to the next one. And being able to just actually sit and feel what’s happening in our bodies, and being mindful of that gives us this mini-break, almost 30 seconds of mindfulness that allows us to take the time to process what’s happening internally, so that we can choose how we want to respond to others.
And what that impact, insight or emotional intelligence around self-awareness brings is that we then become less reactive, forceful, or contentious because we actually are giving ourselves this little mini pause where we’re just tapping into what’s really going on for us. What am I really thinking? How am I really feeling about that? What was said or what just happened? And this allows us to then proactively respond in a way that considers the audience and the other person in that conversation. It really brings people along with you rather than it being a top-down approach for a leader.
8. I know that our listeners in this podcast are leading teams, departments, and entire organisations. Do you have any tips that you can share on how these leaders can develop and improve their self-awareness?
(10:40) Well, that’s a journey. I think that’s a lifetime journey, to be honest. Those of us that have been on it, you’re never done. But if you’d like to get started in terms of building your own self-awareness, I definitely think there are things you can do on your own like reading certain books by the likes of Daniel Goleman around emotional intelligence. There are also books by Stephen Covey that I think are extremely helpful, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. So, if you want to self-study, you could do some of that. There’s also a book called “The Chimp Paradox” by Steve Peters, who I think is really a life changer.
But it’s about developing new habits. The first step is wanting to change or develop that self-awareness. If you have that, the rest is going to be easy because you’re already motivated. You can either do it by reading books and trying to do it on your own. You can join a mindfulness-based stress reduction or mindfulness course. You can download apps like Insight Timer where you can be self-trained about how to develop mindfulness.
But really, mindfulness is about pausing, sitting still, and listening to self. That’s what self-awareness really is. It’s about being able to hear what’s really going on for you, and how you are processing the externalities coming in at such a fast pace. So, it starts with the motivation to want to develop that self-awareness skill or self-regulation skill, and then it’s about what is your learning style to get there.
The second aspect of the model you talked us through is self-regulation. I can certainly, in myself, sometimes be aware of my emotions or my mood is fluctuating. I think the thing that I struggle more with is then regulating those emotions.
9. What can leaders do to improve their ability to self-regulate?
(12:37) Great question because this is the action piece. You can sit, think, reflect, and gain insight, but then what are you going to do with that information? So, it’s about developing your own self-control around your emotional response. Again, it’s about taking that millisecond of a pause between what you’re hearing come to you, what your externality or your input is that you’re getting from someone else, and then giving yourself permission to pause before responding.
If you think about impactful thought leaders, public speakers, or politicians even, they’re very intentional about how they’re responding and what they’re saying. So, I think slowing down and taking a pause is the most important simple task you can do to start self-regulating better. It’s really shifting from reacting in a knee-jerk response to responding in an intentional mindful way to whatever that situation or conversation is that you’re in.
10. And I’d imagine that this self-regulation and accountability, will also help leaders to develop trust within their teams?
(13:58) Absolutely, if you think about your personal or professional relationships, trust is always the bedrock. It’s easily destroyed and it’s harder to build. So, this is a very solid way to start building that because people feel heard. They feel listened to, valued, empowered, and all those things are what builds positive morale and culture.
11. How can leaders understand their own teams drive to succeed? And why does it matter to identify this?
(14:40) Well, that’s probably the main reason, right? We all have different learning styles. We all have different motivations. Those motivations can change over time, but if we really want to shift behaviours, or we want to shift mindsets, or we want to gain buy-in, build morale, or whatever it is we’re trying to do that’s interacting with another human or a group of humans in a team. It’s back to that empathy piece where we really need to be able to understand the other person, to understand the audience of who we’re working with, and who we’re trying to collaborate with so that we can meet them halfway.
I think where we see this challenged is when we’ve got very top-down authoritarian leadership styles which can work, can get the results, but you lose the people along the way. So, I think that’s the big shift and being able to be a team leader is bringing the people on the journey with you in a way that they feel they’re almost leading it.
12. When you are in a leadership role and you do want to bring your team along with you, or role model your own motivation and commitment to an organisation’s ambitions, how do you go about doing that? How do you bring people with you?
(16:03) We say a lot of it, building buy-in, right? Again, it’s using your techniques of empathy, listening, and enabling others to feel that it’s their journey, it’s their agenda. You’re not pushing something on them but you’re walking alongside them. And this is a universal human thing, it doesn’t really matter what your personal motivation is, but that alone will motivate people to act, be loyal and build that trust. Those are the key pillars that allow us to really be able to shift behaviours, mindsets and bring people along with us.
13. I wanted to talk about empathy which I’ve thought about in terms of my personal relationships and charitable giving, but it’s also the fourth competency in the model you mentioned. What can leaders do and what should they be doing to demonstrate empathy towards their teams?
(17:05) Yes, it’s the cross-cutting piece of the model, we‘ve got the four quadrants: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, and what cross cuts all four of those quadrants to be a successful emotionally intelligent leader, empathy sits in the middle. So, it’s basically the cross-cutting skill that holds all those four quadrants together.
And in order to implement that or to use that to your advantage as an emotionally intelligent leader and bring the teams along with you, there’s four things I always say to do as a way to do empathy, if there’s such a thing, and to convert your emotional intelligence to be more empathetic.
The first is to stop and pay attention. Look at the verbal cues of your team. What words are they using? What is their body language? And starting to process those non-direct cues in communications. We do a lot of communicating that’s non-verbal, and I think it gets lost. So, being more aware of that, processing that, and then being able to respond differently based on what kinds of non-verbal cues you’re getting. That’s the first one.
The second one is to let yourself feel their emotions. You’re not just imagining what they’re feeling, and you’re not being sympathetic. You’re really letting yourself step into their shoes. I call it “crossing the bridge”. You’re on the other side of the bridge, you’ve let go of your own agenda, you’ve let go of your own story’s in your head. And you’re truly allowing yourself to see and feel something from that other person’s perspective.
The third one is to listen and accept their interpretation. Listening is the second most powerful way to create a connection. But listening without being judgemental and without trying to change their mind so that they agree with you is the first most powerful way. So, it’s about listening and accepting their interpretation or their world view without being judgemental.
And the fourth and last is to pause between stimulus and response to consider your outcome. So, you’re in control of managing those emotions and how you respond influences how others are going to respond back to you. That’s that pause piece, it’s a millisecond. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, but it’s that processing just before you respond, or you speak that really allows you to improve that connection with others.
Absolutely brilliant advice there. Some of which I think, just from my own experience, is really, useful but also really challenging to apply, and also to apply consistently as well.
(19:57) Well, that’s the thing. We think, “Oh, we can’t really teach an old dog new tricks.” But we now have neuroscience proof that if you start practising this, and sometimes that does take a coaching relationship or something a bit more structured to shift your own behaviours. But we have proof now through neuroscience that it is possible to retrain our brains, to retrain the way that we respond. It takes time and as we know breaking habits or starting new ones takes hundreds of days, but it’s possible and that scientific backing on that is really motivating.
14. The final competency that you mentioned was social skills. Just how important is both verbal communication and body language in emotional intelligence when leaders are communicating with their team, whether that’s delivering a new policy or in the day-to-day interactions that they have?
(21:03) Communication really is probably the most important skill any of us have. At the centre of everything we do, no matter what, our jobs are people, right? What do we do with people? We communicate whether that’s through a text, email, verbal, or non-verbal. We are all communicating all day every day with other humans.
So, if you think about the amount of time we’re using and flexing that skill set, it’s probably the most important. Underpin your communication skills with that empathy, you’re going to improve on your ability again to bring others along and help others to see your perspective because you’re actually prioritising their perspective.
The verbal versus body language is also really interesting. I think we’re very focused on verbal communication, whether that’s written or verbal. In fact, body language tells us so much. So, starting with yourself, again, being aware of how your body is reacting to a certain situation, comment, challenge, or stress is as important as being able to watch others’ body language and response. They’re communicating to you not just through their words but through their body. Having a new radar up for that is going to give you new intelligence, new insights into what’s really going on for that other person.
I’ve seen it so many times more recently on video calls than in face-to-face meetings. Someone is delivering one message verbally and their body language is saying perhaps the complete opposite. That I’m not excited about this idea or engaged with this because my body language is really shut down, and it undermines or can undermine what’s being said verbally.
(23:01) Yes, exactly. If you’re just a little bit more attuned to that, you’ll be able to then process it and integrate it into how you’re going to respond to them. One thing we do in coaching is we often say, “I’ve noticed that your energy shifted when you said that.” So, we then explore. Why is their energy shifting? What has happened to them? What story in their head did that trigger? That’s the work you would be doing for yourself, and then helping to translate what others are giving you in terms of those feedback loops.
15. Is there anything else that leaders can do or skills that they need to possess outside of what we’ve already discussed, to help them develop and grow their emotional intelligence?
(23:46) I think it’s really that motivation and commitment. If you want to make these changes, you want to be a better leader, you want to be more emotionally intelligent both for your teams, for your own professional development, but also your personal life, don’t forget that this is all extremely powerful in building a life of happiness. This won’t just affect you in your professional life, but it will affect you across all your relationships.
So, if you’re motivated to do that, you’ve got the neuroscience that proves you can do it, and that you can retrain your brain. It’s about deciding what you’re willing to invest. Do you want to do a coaching programme with a coach and do one-on-one? Do you want to join some courses to learn more about this? Do you want to set aside five minutes a day just to sit and do a mindfulness practice? What are you willing to commit to, and what is your learning style so that you can start to integrate some of these practices and learnings into your day-to-day?
16. I’d like to finish with a question that we ask all our podcast guests. Outside of emotional intelligence, what do you think are the three qualities that make a good leader? And crucially, do you think these qualities have changed because of the pandemic?
(25:06) Yes, I love that reflection of pre-pandemic and post-pandemic. Again, I think as a leader, it’s about being able to read your audience. You have lots of different audiences as a leader, you’ve got your board, your investors, your team, and lots of different stakeholders that you’re going to be interacting with daily. So it’s being able to, again, read their response, understand where they’re coming from, and leveraging that insight about the lens that you should be trying to reach them through, or the communication style that you need to reach them through, so that you can bring them along with you and build that credibility and trust. That’s the first one.
I think the second one is probably being able to motivate others. Again, we all have different ways to be motivated. Some with a salary raise, others just want to feel recognised, but being able to understand what motivates those stakeholders, especially your team. So, those are the two key qualities that make a good leader.
I think the third one is just to have your finger on the pulse around, where is everyone going together? What is the future looking like? How do you engage others on that journey so that they feel that they’re empowered and enabled to create change and live into their own personal purpose? We are all very motivated by purpose, and that’s not something that we’re often proactively conscious of. But that is how we create happy, balanced, and successful teams and employees. So as a leader, I think that’s one of your key jobs.
Then has this changed as a result of the pandemic? I think this whole work-from-home video interaction has really been a challenge for leaders, teams, and employees. We’re now interfacing through a box or through a screen and it does change how we’re able to connect. We don’t feel each other’s energy, we don’t just grab a quick coffee and have a chat about something that’s non-work related.
So, I think the one main thing I would probably just encourage all of us to think about is, how can we have an offline conversation with our colleagues like we would if we were in the office more? How can that really help us to build that trust and relationship beyond what is on the agenda for that Zoom meeting or call? Again, really looking at others as humans and as like-minded individuals that were all in this together. We’re collaborating for a common goal so let’s also have a personal side to things even though we’re trying to achieve objectives on behalf of the business.
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It’s probably happened to you at least once before… during your job search you’ve spotted the perfect job advertisement that you’d love to apply for, only to realise you don’t quite match all the stated job requirements.
Perhaps you feel you don’t have the specific experience the job description states is needed, or you lack a particular technical skill that is listed. The chances are that because of this, you counted yourself out, and didn’t apply for the role.
The next time this happens to you, don’t discount applying in the first instance. Instead, assess whether the skills or competencies you lack are fundamental key requirements for the job – if not, do you possess the other required skills to ensure you can do the job successfully?
Take a step back and look at the role in terms of how it plays to your true potential, rather than whether you tick every single box. Doing so will help you decide whether you should apply.
Three reasons why you should still apply for a job, even if you don’t meet all the requirements
Of course, if you see an attractive job advertisement and there are not just one, but several key requirements that you don’t meet – then it’s probably best to not apply.
But if there are only a few ‘desirable’ (as opposed to ‘essential’) things you lack from the stated list of requirements – for example, experience using a software package that isn’t of central importance to the job, or knowledge about the organisation or industry that you could learn– you should still apply.
Here are the reasons why:
1. It’s unlikely that the employer is looking for an exact match
Remember that when the hiring manager was writing this job description and listing the requirements for their desired applicant, they had their ‘dream’ new hire in the back of their mind. It’s therefore highly unlikely that any candidate will meet every single one of the criteria. For this reason, there can be a certain level of flexibility surrounding job descriptions. The hiring manager will most likely be open-minded when reviewing job seekers and applications, considering potential rather than looking for an exact match.
2. You’ll be able to learn certain skills ‘on the job’
Applying for a job that you don’t meet all the requirements for means this position would enable you to learn new skills and competencies. That may include particular technical skills, a program you’ve not used before, or even a soft skill you’ve not needed to exercise yet in your career.
As an added benefit, given that you’ll be upskilling in the role, you’re likely to remain longer term, since you’ll grow and develop over time. Some hiring managers therefore find candidates who can grow into the role very appealing prospects. At the minimum, such hiring managers will invite you for an interview so you can explain how exactly you’d fulfil the job requirements and what other value your transferable skills could bring to their organisation.
3. You can bring other qualities to the role
As mentioned, there will be other unique and relevant qualities you have that will differ from what the hiring manager was perhaps expecting. These might more than compensate for any skills, competencies or experience you lack on the basis of the job posting alone, especially if the hiring manager is looking to add diverse skills or more varied qualified candidates to their organisation. With diversity of thought a growing focus, your additional skills could be viewed as beneficial and a way to bring unique viewpoints to the team.
There’s no harm in applying
There is plenty of reason, then, not to shy away from a job opportunity that you don’t meet 100 per cent of the criteria for. Don’t allow imposter syndrome or a lack of self-confidence to discount you from applying for jobs you would almost certainly be able to do well.
And in any case, what’s the worst that could happen? As Bill Gardner, Forbes contributor and leadership coach, says: “What’s the harm in applying? If you don’t get it, you still get the application, and maybe interview experience.” With this experience, you are more prepared to continue your job search.
How to successfully apply for a role when you don’t meet all the job requirements
Rather than highlighting in your job application or cover letter that you don’t meet requirement x, y or z, focus your CV, cover letter and interview answers on what you can bring to the role.
Think about which relevant transferrable skills you have
If, for example, line-management experience is required, and you’ve not directly managed a team of your own, consider including any experiences you’ve had that could relate. Maybe you’ve supervised and led a team on a specific project, or you’ve managed projects which have meant you’ve enhanced your stakeholder management as a result? Even illustrating strong upwards management experience will help your application.
Demonstrate your willingness to learn
If you’re missing a particular skill or experience using a certain program, ensure you’ve researched what you would need to do in order to overcome this gap. Maybe, for example, you’re skilled in Excel but not in Access, but have already identified an online course that you could embark on to update your skills? What’s important here is that you make it clear to the hiring manager that you are committed to your own development and have a natural thirst for learning new things. You can also use your social media profile to showcase your continuous learning mindset – after all, expect hiring managers to review your social media profiles, too.
Use keywords from the job description in your CV and cover letter
As mentioned, not having all of the ‘required’ skills and experiences for a job doesn’t necessarily rule you out of the running. It does, though, place a greater onus on you making it as obvious as possible to the hiring manager how well-matched you are to the role. Mirroring the language used in the job description in your CV, supported by action verbs like “built”, “headed” and “enhanced”, will draw attention to your relevant results and achievements. If the employer is looking for a strong communicator, for instance, you should use that wording on your CV.
Provide examples of your work and demonstrate your expertise
Then, back up your resume claims with real-life evidence of your successes in previous roles to help the reader appreciate your potential, even if your existing skills don’t exactly match all of the requirements listed in the job advertisement.
Perhaps there is some experience you have that is not listed as required in the job specification, but you feel it makes you a more attractive prospect? For example, you may have worked in an industry that is similar or complementary to the one requested. Or you might possess skills in using a particular tool or software that could make you more effective in the role, despite the job description not mentioning it.
Demonstrate your passion for the industry and role
You can acquire skills, but not enthusiasm. You’re either genuinely excited about a role, or you aren’t. And who knows – if you don’t have all of the required skills or years of experience but apply anyway, the hiring manager may decide that your passion for the vacancy still makes it well worth considering you. Consider, too, what activities you’re already doing in your day-to-day professional life that indicate this passion. Do you regularly attend industry events like webinars? Are you always listening to the latest podcast to upskill in your particular field? Are you studying for additional qualifications?
Unfortunately, there won’t be much space on your CV to portray this passion – so make use of the cover letter to convey this information to illustrate your commitment and enthusiasm.
Connect the dots and prove your transferable skills
So, from now on, are you going to reach for your goals, realise your potential and apply for a job that you may think is out of your league? Remember, even if you don’t, at first glance, match 100% of the requirements set out in the job description, this should not necessarily stop you from applying if you possess most of them.
Prove how your transferable skills, experiences and potential make you a great fit for the role, as well as your willingness to learn more, and who knows – you might just get the job. Good luck!
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