"Serve a Sizzling Steak, Not a Cold Potato
How to Make an Effective Presentation"

My son, Ben, turned five years old on May 30th. For his birthday he wanted a hermit crab. The reason I know he wanted a hermit crab is because everyday for the four months before his birthday, he would say, "Dad, for my birthday I want a hermit crab." I said, "Ben, if on the day of your birthday you still want a hermit crab, I will buy it for you." On the morning of his birthday, Ben climbed into bed with me. He said, "Dad, today is my birthday and I want a hermit crab." I said, "Ben, happy birthday. It is now 5 AM. At 10 AM I will you a hermit crab."

We walked into Petco as the door opened. I went up to the salesperson, and said, "Today is my son's birthday. He wants a hermit crab. What is a hermit crab?" She took us to a glass case and showed us a bunch of little shells. I said, "Where are the hermit crabs?" She said, "They're in the shells." Ben picked out his favorite shell, the salesperson lifted the shell up and showed us the legs dangling out of the bottom, we bought the hermit crab, and we headed home.

I thought when we got home the hermit crab would leave the shell and walk around during the day time, and then would go back into the shell at night time.

I thought wrong.

The hermit crab stays in the shell all day long and all night long. It never leaves the shell behind. That's what we do when we never talk about our strengths or our passions. We stay trapped inside our own shells.

One message I heard over and over growing up was to be humble. People would say to me, "Don't talk about your strengths. Don't talk about your successes. It makes other people uncomfortable. Be humble, and poke fun at yourself and it will make other people more comfortable."

Whoa, was that ever bad advice.

Until I was in my mid-thirties (I'm 43 right now), I would constantly put myself down in almost every situation. I almost did it subconsciously. Instead of talking about what I was good at, I would draw laughs by talking about my weaknesses and my failures. I would talk about how I always get lost and forget things and lose things and can't figure out technology and on and on and on. I thought that was better than actually talking about what I was good at.

Wow, now that was stupid.

If we're not comfortable talking about our strengths, then how do other people know what we're good at doing? If we're not comfortable sharing our past success stories, then pretty soon we might forget that we ever had past successes.

The starting point of personal acceleration, which is really the starting point of business acceleration, is knowing what you're good at and what you're passionate about doing. Once you know your strengths and passions then you can determine how you can apply those strengths and passions toward improving your organization's most important business outcomes and your customer's most important desired outcomes. That is the essence of career acceleration. Knowing what your good at and knowing what you're passionate about doing and applying those in ways that generate better sustainable results for your clients and your organization is where the magic begins.

In many of my seminars, I share with people my four strengths and my two passions in my professional life.

I listen well to my clients and I can connect things they've said over the previous year together in ways that help them understand themselves and their situations better and achieve better business results.

I can simplify the complicated. I can explain practical ways to accelerate the achievement of high priority business outcomes in ways that people in different industries and in different functions can understand them and put them into use right away.

I collaborate well with other people where together the two of us can develop an idea and a plan for implementing it that can generate better sustainable business results.

And I can be candid with other people regardless of their title. I always give my feedback behind closed doors in private sessions, but I can tell an executive when I think he or she has been rude or condescending or disorganized or unprepared.

My two professional passions are I love to learn what makes other people successful, and I love, love, love to work with other people to achieve whatever they want to achieve.

You may have noticed that there's nothing special about my strengths and passions. Lots of people have the same strengths and passions that I do. The reason they are enormously useful to me is because they are my strengths and passions.

What are you good at doing and passionate about doing? I can assure you that those are the most fundamental building blocks for accelerating the achievement of your most important business outcomes.

The next thing I do in my seminars is I ask people to write down their strengths and passions, and then share those with a person sitting next to them. Then I ask them to recall a past success story, and share that story with another person. When I get finished I ask people what those exercises were like for them. Usually people say they were energizing and refreshing and created a sense of freedom for them. They tell me that they never take the time to do these simple things, and they appreciated the opportunity to do it.

Recently I did those exercises in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When I asked the audience what the exercises were like for them, one woman raised her hand and said, "They were terribly hard to do." I was stunned. I asked her why that was so. She said, and I'll never forget this answer, "Women in the south are taught never to brag." Instantly I was reminded of that terrible advice I heard when I was young.

Folks, let go of that advice about not ever talking about your strengths and past successes. It's bad advice. You don't have to get into people's faces and scream about your strengths. Just be comfortable talking about what you're good at doing and what you're passionate about doing. If you don't talk about it, how will people ever find out? For that matter, how will you remember if you don't talk about it?

I'm not talking about being arrogant or a braggadocio, which is a French word that means "I am a boring person." Arrogant people think they have nothing left to learn. Boy, they're fun to be around. Constant braggers are people with ridiculously low self-esteem. They have to tell you all the time about every thing they achieved in the past week, and that their children have achieved. They are a delight to spend time with. Not.

Confident people, and that's what I'm really talking about in this issue, are comfortable talking about their strengths and their passions in conversational tones. They don't have to weave it into every conversation or throw it into another person's face, but when the moment is right they can step forward and share with others what they are good at and passionate about doing. They don't do it to intimidate people. They do it so other people know. In that way, other people can know how to gain value from those strengths and passions.

It may be more comfortable to just stay "humble" and put yourself down all the time, but there comes a point when other people start believing that you don't have any strengths or passions. Even worse, you start to believe it. That's the futility of humility. Trust me, don't go there anymore. Be comfortable with the strengths and passions you've been given. Those are the treasures and talents you have to make a difference in your business and in the world. Talk about them comfortably and apply them every day.

Accelerator Tip for July 2006

The intersection of acceleration occurs when you apply your strengths and your passions in a way that generates better sustainable results for your organization and for your customers. The starting point is to know your strengths and passions. Write them down. And then work to put them into practice in a way that generates better sustainable results for your organization and your customers. If you do that over and over again, you will have an extraordinary career.

Resource Recommendation

• The Greatest Miracle in the World by Og Mandino
• The Winner Within by Pat Riley
• Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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P.O. Box 1245 Fenton, Missouri 63026
Phone 636.825.6611 Fax 636.825.9831
E-mail info@thecoughlincompany.com