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Giving Feedback – When and How to Do it

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We all have worked with smart colleagues that have development areas we see.  As humans, we naturally have tendencies to want to help others.   It’s important to know when and how to give them feedback that can help them further succeed.

Question – How to Give Feedback to a Co-worker?

What is the best way to tell a valuable coworker that he/she is talking too much?  This person is smart, dedicated and responsible, but often goes into too much detail about stuff you don’t find important or interesting. He/she lacks skill to make distinction on what is really relevant to say and feels insecure or awkward when there is even a short silence. How to approach this person without hurting her feelings? ...  read more

How to Give Great Presentations – 4 Tips During Presentation

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giving presentation

Now that you have a good storyline and invested significant time preparing a great presentation, it’s time where the rubber meets the road.  A lot can still happen during a presentation that can distract the audience.  Here are 4 tips to use during your presentation to make sure all your hard work pays off and you deliver a great presentation. ...  read more

How to Give Great Presentations – Story is Key

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key to a great presentation

You do NOT need to know Powerpoint well to give great presentations.   Many people spend too much time making good looking slides and miss out on the larger picture.  There are three things that would make a presentation great.

  1. Your audience is listening intently to what you have to say
  2. Your audience understands what you are communicating and are following your reasoning
  3. Your audience plans to take action based on what you presented

Notice, I never mentioned that your audience is impressed by your slides.  The whole point of a great presentation is for the audience to listen and then take actions that you hope they would take.  I learned how to give great presentations at McKinsey.  When I first joined McKinsey out of college, I would see my manager spend a day or two writing a draft storyline for a client presentation.  The storyline is written in Microsoft Word and would only be 1 -2 pages long.  I thought how strange – how can something so short take so long.  The team would be working on individual slides for weeks, but the manager focuses mainly on this storyline.  I used to think my manager was just slacking off until I tried to write one myself on my 4th project.  I couldn’t do it well even after 3 days. ...  read more

How to Develop Effective Presentations – Step by Step Instructions

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step by step instructions

The following is a step by step instruction on how to develop an effective, practical presentation.  This process keeps in mind your audience and builds informal buy-in prior to the presentation.

Effective presentations are the bread and butter of consultants as we are paid handsomely by major corporations sometimes just for recommendations delivered in a presentation format.  I wrote these step by step instructions for my own use while working in consulting and wanted to share them with you.  They are based on my experiences at McKinsey and Deloitte and were used by myself and other managers/senior managers at Deloitte to build effective presentations. ...  read more

Inner Excellence and Career Success

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inner excellence

I just returned to work 3 months ago after having a second baby.  While I haven’t been away from work too long, I was surprised to find myself insecure – Do I still know how to work? Are my analytical, leadership, and communication skills up to par? Can I still deal with difficult personalities and office politics?  Ultimately, am I still as good as I used to be? ...  read more

How to Handle Negative Feedback – 4 Tips

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negative feedback

Negative feedback is a fact of life. Sometimes it’s fair, constructive, and expected, but sometimes it can be completely out of the blue.   You cannot easily change your boss’s perceptions or motives for giving you negative feedback.  What you can control, however, is how you respond to it.  So learn how to handle negative feedback early in your career. ...  read more

Let Them Pee on the Tree

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deal with boss

When I worked at Deloitte, I had to write a lot of proposals (documents to sell consulting work).  I remember one time my team and I worked hard for a week to pull together a kick-a** proposal for a high tech company.  We worked late and came in early to create a good draft.  On Thursday evening, I finally had a chance to review the proposal with the Partner and Senior Manager. ...  read more