Photo Credits: Wsobchak

During my daily 45-minute commute to and from work, I normally use the down time to listen to business-related CD books. I am currently listening to Warren Buffet Speaks, an entertaining collection of notes and quotes from the world’s greatest investor, and the following passage (paraphrasing) really struck a chord:

Every other year, Buffett and some old friends go to Pebble Beach to play golf. In the 1980s, Jack Byrne, who had taken over GEICO, proposed a side bet among the players. If someone put up $10, then made a hole-in-one during that weekend, Byrne would pay that person $10,000. Everyone else put up the $10. Buffett thought it over for a few seconds and decided he wouldn’t fork over the $10. The odds were just not good enough and he didn’t want to make a foolish investment.

Now, most people would put up the $10 bucks just for fun, and not make a big deal if they lost them. On the other hand Buffett, a multi-billionaire, understands the value of discipline and consistency: making that seemingly innocuous bet would have flown in the face of his convictions and believes.

Just as past behavior is the best predictor of future performance, the small habits we develop, and how we handle the little things are powerful indicators of how we’ll handle larger, more important situations. For example:

• The executive who leaves the lights of his office on at the end of the day probably won’t be a good steward of the company’s $1M marketing budget.
• The employee who consistently comes in 30 minutes late every day probably can’t be trusted to turn in that important project on time.
• The middle manager who sucks up to the boss but mistreats the intern will most likely be a terrible manager of people.

Little habits matter. Pay attention.

Posted via email from Mario Sanchez Carrion | Posterous

A few years ago, my wife and I visited the Croatian island of Korcula. We arrived on a Sunday night. The plan was to do some sightseeing on Monday, and return to Dubrovnik on Tuesday so we could take the flight back to Miami Wednesday morning. Early on Monday, we walked to the bus station to get our ticket, only to have the attendant tell us: “sorry, it is not possible”. The bus schedule had changed, and instead of the usual daily buses to Dubrovnik, there was only one bus per week, on Sundays.

Our first reaction was to laugh, not at the situation, mind you, but at the expression: “Sorry, it is not possible”. We’d already heard it many times during our trip, after asking questions like: may we have a late check-out? or, may I substitute fries for the salad? As Americans, we don’t like to be told that something is not possible (“Just Do It”, remember?) so we immediately started looking for options:

• Boat or ferry? Sorry, not possible. Winter schedule: next ferry leaves on Wednesday.
• Plane? Sorry, not possible. No planes.
• Rental car? Sorry, not possible. All booked.

Then we thought, what about a taxi? Now, you don’t usually take a taxi for a 200 km trip, but when you’re running out of options and you must absolutely, positively find a solution or else… you can get very creative very quickly. We decided to talk to the hostel operator about this option, and fortunately for us, her best friend happened to be a taxi driver. She offered to take us for $200, more or less what she made in a full day’s work.

Granted, $200 was more than the bus would have cost us, but the bus option didn’t exist any more. On the other hand, a hundred bucks per person may sound expensive, but only if you see it as a taxi ride. If you look at it as a half day excursion in a comfortable car, driven by a helpful local who can show you all the small towns along the way, and take you to the best spots to eat and take pictures, it starts sounding like a bargain. By changing our frame of reference from “taxi ride” to “excursion” we were able to find a creative solution to our problem.

Changing our frame of reference is a great way to come up with creative solutions and innovative brand ideas:

• A 4-door coupe? Impossible? Not really. It just took a few good questions and a different way of looking at things for auto makers to notice that what people want in a coupe is not necessarily two doors, but streamlined styling.
  
• A successful mobile restaurant that spends $0 on advertising and relies just on Twitter word of mouth to bring people in? Impossible? Not at all… Just ask the folks at Kogi BBQ and Latin Burger.  By changing their frame of reference from “fast food operator” to “exclusive club (Twitter followers)” they were able to build a thriving business model.
  
• $20 for flip flops? Impossible? Try possible. The brand managers at Havaianas can probably tell you how changing their frame of reference from “basic footwear” to “fashion accessory” made charging such a premium price possible.
  

Sometimes all it takes to solve a problem or come up with a good idea is to step out of our little mental ghettos and look at things from a different perspective.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaimann/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A few weeks ago I took my car to the dealer for an oil change and the clerk promised it would be ready in about 1 ½ hours. Once the car was ready, he presented me with a questionnaire which asked, among other things, if the car was delivered within the promised time frame. The answer was yes, or course, but the promised time frame was 1 ½ hours, or about 1 hour more than it should really take. Sandbaggers.

Four years ago, after hurricane Wilma hit South Florida, FPL advised us that full restoration of power could take four weeks. Eighteen days later (ahead of schedule, of course) full power was restored. Sandbaggers.

Perhaps the ultimate sandbaggers are Wall Street guys, who insist they deserve bonuses in spite of piling up billions of dollars in losses (because if it weren’t for them the losses would be much greater, of course). Sandbaggers.

Setting low ball goals breeds a culture of complacency and underachievement. Setting two types of goals, regular (easy) and stretch (hard), is also counterproductive, because it allows us to claim victory even if the stretch goals are not achieved.

Every goal should be a stretch goal. Stretch goals should be hard, but achievable, and should require us to exercise creativity and effort above and beyond the call of duty. If you want to instill a culture of performance, always set stretch, ambitious goals and give people the guidance, tools and support to achieve them.

I don’t watch TV, but I do have the strong habit of watching web videos of great presentations. I can easily become glued to sites like TED the same way TV junkies get hooked to Lost or Dancing With the Stars.

Probably one of the greatest presentations I’ve seen lately is Oprah’s commencement address at Duke University, which took place last May.

After watching it for the first time, I felt compelled to watch it again, this time taking notes. Here are the reasons why I think Oprah’s delivery is so effective:

1. Show confidence

Seeing Oprah address a large group with confidence may seem natural, since we’ve always known her as a media superstar. However, to get to that level she’s had to work very hard. Confidence is perhaps the most important ingredient of any successful presentation. Knowing your stuff is a good way to start building the confidence you need.

2. Recognize others

Your presentations shouldn’t be about “you”, they should be about “them”. Just as Oprah takes time to recognize the mothers of the graduating class, take time to acknowledge those who helped you with a project, and thank your audience for giving you their most precious asset: their attention.

3. Use personal anecdotes

While you shouldn’t speak about yourself all the time (it gets boring fast) by all means do sprinkle personal anecdotes here and there to give credibility to what you’re saying. For example, show how you’ve solved a relevant problem in the past. Oprah draws upon a wealth of personal anecdotes to bring her speech to life.

4. Use compelling examples

Don’t be afraid to shock people to get your message across. Notice how, when speaking about overcoming obstacles, Oprah tells the story of a young woman who, after falling ill with a rare flesh eating infection, had to have her limbs amputated to save her life. You can bet that at that point Oprah had her audience’s undivided attention.

One good way to make your points effectively is to use images. If you’re talking about the devastation caused by a hurricane, show an aerial view of the disaster area instead of tables and pie charts. Similarly, instead of just displaying a bullet-pointed list telling how great your product is, show a picture of a satisfied customer using your product.

5. Tailor your examples to your audience

Always explain how your examples are relevant to your audience. Throughout her speech, Oprah clearly makes the connection between the experiences of the people she met on her show, and how the graduates can extrapolate those experiences and apply them to their own professional life.

6. Use repetition to drive home your main points

Just as you need to contact a prospect an average of seven times before you make a sale, repeating your main ideas often increases the probability that your audience will remember them. Notice how Oprah always repeats the following words after she makes a point: “If you [do this] you will be a huge success”.

7. Be real

One of the best parts of the speech comes when Oprah mentions how great it is to live in a big house and fly in a private jet (this at a time when CEOs were being chastised by the media for their propensity to travel in style). Even though afterward she recognizes that there are more important things, she doesn’t portray herself as hollier-than-thou by pretending she doesn’t like the finer things in life.

Similarly, in your presentations, don’t be afraid to expose weaknesses, to say things that may not be very popular, or to acknowledge that you don’t have all the answers. We tend to like and trust more those who sound human than those who sound like a carefully rehearsed sales pitch.

8. Follow your instincts

Oprah mentions the importance of following your gut, and gives examples of how sometimes she’s had to go against the recommendations of others. If you’re going to speak in front of a group, make sure that you believe in what you’re about to say.

When all the lights are on you, and you’re all alone holding the mike and the laser pointer, you become the spokesman and the endorser of whatever you’re about to say. Don’t compromise your credibility and integrity by talking about something you don’t believe in.

9. Always summarize your main takeaways

Notice how Oprah sums up her whole speech in one simple takeaway: “follow your gut”.  In this age of “death-by-PowerPoint”, information overload and short attention spans, take this extra step to make sure your main ideas sink in. Your audience will thank you for that.

Aside from these nine observations, we could add one more: practice, practice, practice. The fact that Oprah’s speech flows so naturally is because she is a pro. You can do the same if you remember these tips and consciously start to apply them in your presentations.

In summary, for a great presentation:

1. Be confident
2. Be thankful
3. Be personal
4. Be compelling
5. Be relevant
6. Be repetitive (of your main points)
7. Be real
8. Be convinced (of what you’re about to say)
9. Be concise
10. Practice, practice, practice

If you’ve read up to this point, please take the time to watch the speech or read it here.