How to get what you want. Not what you don’t want.

I’m driving home on an ordinary country road. It’s late afternoon, dry and bright, with no traffic. Then about 150 metres ahead I see a small kerbstone that’s broken loose lying about 18 inches into the road. 
 
I could safely cross to the other carriageway to avoid the stone but now I’m focused on the stone thinking “better not run over that – that could make a mess of my wheel”. Suddenly to my amazement – bang – I’ve driven over it. Luckily the tyre doesn’t blow so the car keeps going, but I learn later it’s cracked the wheel. The final cost is £250. It’s embarrassing for me to speak about it now.
 
I’ve known for a long time that we get what we focus on but I’ve never had such a powerful personal example.
 
And with business presentations, my long experience is that it’s easy to approach them with a negative view. For example, that we’re not well-enough prepared or that the slides aren’t very good or that the audience won’t like us. 
 
What we’re doing is focussing on what we don’t want, i.e. watching the stone in the road, not looking beyond it to a successful outcome.
 
So if one of your team has a presentation coming up, get them to focus on a successful outcome rather than the things that could go wrong. That doesn’t mean of course ignoring good preparation but it does invite a more positive approach to the whole thing.  Get them to picture themselves finishing the presentation to warm applause or to the prospect saying “yes – how soon can we get going on this?”. It could make a major difference to them, to you and to your business.
 
And if they need more help and encouragement then ask them to have a chat with me, it won’t cost anything and it could also make a significant difference to them and their careers, as well as the business.
 
Email me here, or call me on +44 (0) 7889 167486.