Every public speaking expert will tell you to get to know your audience ahead of time. But what do you do with that information? You need to adjust your presentation to meet their needs in several ways:
Management & Leadership
Make Decisions Simpler for Your Customers
When asked, consumers almost always say they want more options. But their purchasing behavior often indicates otherwise.
Manage a Diverse and Dispersed Team
Teams that come together across different units and time zones to do project-based work rarely have time to build the trust that has long been considered the foundation of good teamwork. Here’s how to manage a team working on the fly:
That’s Some Quirky Marketing Strategy: CEO Calls His Customers ‘Idiots’
Michael O’Leary, the CEO of the fee-happy European airline Ryanair, isn’t scared of a little controversy. In fact, he seems to actively welcome it, periodically making outrageous statements (“The best thing you can do with environmentalists is shoot them”) and announcing possible new money-makers for the airline such as in-flight porn …
Why Projects Work Better than Interviews
Can you really find out what you need to know about a job candidate in an hour-long interview? Probably not. No amount of interviewing, reference checking, and psychological testing is a substitute for actually working with a candidate on a real project. Next time you’re hiring, consider giving your top candidates a constrained project …
Decide If Travel Is Really Worth It
Do you often need to get on a plane to go to a meeting? Travel consumes a lot of time, and you shouldn’t show up in person just because that’s what you’ve always done. Here’s how to assess the real value of travel:
Make Your Big Idea Happen
You’ve landed on what you think is next big, groundbreaking idea. But how can you turn it into a reality? You need other people to adopt your idea. Start by creating a vision and sharing it with others.
Race, Gender and Careers: Why ‘Stuffing the Pipeline’ Is Not Enough
When Wharton operations and information management professor Katherine L. Milkman was earning her doctorate at Harvard University in business and computer science, it became clear that she would pursue a career as a professor. As …
Say No to Extra Work
If your boss continually piles work on your plate, even when it’s not related to your goals, learn to say no. Pushing back can be tricky, so handle the request carefully:
Build a Better Innovation Team
No matter how great your idea, your innovation effort will fall apart if the wrong team executes it. Here are three steps for hiring a team that will help you achieve breakthroughs:
Make a Critical Trade-Off
Most important business decisions require compromise: To do one thing, you have to give up another. Next time you need to decide between conflicting priorities, try doing these three things:
Get Clear Direction from a Boss Who Is Vague
If your boss routinely delegates projects without telling you how things should get done, and then picks apart your work and asks you to start over, you need to get proactive.
