Winning Emotional Engagement to Personal Development with 360o feedback.

Corporate Alchemy has seen unprecedented client interest in 3600 degree feedback tools during the past 12 months. Clients enquire about the 3600 technique for a variety of reasons, including
1. Clarifying for managers how their management style is helping or hindering their work and their teams’ progress
2. Evaluating progress in a culture change initiative
3. Identifying development needs prior to leadership development initiatives or executive coaching programme.

The following case study outlines how 3600 feedback added value to an ongoing typical project.

Our Client provides complex technical services to their demanding high profile engineering customers. It is a very customer focussed environment, where the initiative and skills of the staff are vital to the success of the business, but where less time and effort tends to be given to leading the team than to technical competence. Though managers readily admitted that they would benefit from leadership training, there was no impetus and trigger for them to change their managerial behaviours or priorities on a day to day basis.

We designed a 3600 questionnaire based upon the managerial competencies and behaviours that were already valued and measured in the business, ensuring that the feedback was pertinent to their business. We also designed several training modules to enhance the individual’s development of these same competencies.

Prior to the first module each senior manager invited feedback from 8 people and then completed 3600 questionnaires via the on-line, web-based Corporate Alchemy assessment system.

Participant evaluations all highlighted the value that the 3600 feedback had brought to their self-awareness. Whilst many were not surprised by their ‘3600’ scores; getting feedback on the impact of their behaviours created much more emotional engagement and commitment to their development as Leaders and the priority they needed to give to people management.

Intellectually it’s very easy for us to rationalise and excuse our behaviours and priorities; objective 3600 feedback from others creates the trigger for real behaviour change. And in the case of our client, it meant managers were keen, interested, motivated and committed to their own development beyond the training room, translating into learning being practised and integrated into their behaviours and relationships with their staff.

Author: Corporate Alchemy’s Carolyn Clarke has 18 years experience in designing and delivering leadership and management level training programmes and performing psychometric assessments. Carolyn conducts many team building workshops for our clients.

Have you sat through presentations, wondering at the end, ‘what was it all about’? Ever become lost soon after the start of a speech? Or been bored within the first 5 minutes? You may have simply been attending the wrong session ….. or it was most likely that the presenter didn’t start with their presentation’s KEY MESSAGE or didn’t even have one.

What is the key message? It’s the statement delivered to your audience that encapsulates the core essence of your topic. It is the first, primary ‘must have’. Include it, for your credit and accomplishment ….. leave it out at your peril! It’s be a tightly worded and accurately written statement of the specific purpose of your talk.

Your presentation MUST have a key message. Leave your audience in absolutely no doubt, what you came to tell them. Don’t gently lead them towards your messages, they won’t last the course. Strike them directly and boldly between the eyes with your message up front. You should broadcast your key message within the first 15 seconds of your talk. Research shows that if you don’t, you’ll risk losing the audience’s attention …. Once gone never to be regained!

Composing your key message is the most difficult, ‘pains-taking’, time consuming, part of your speech’s preparation. If you don’t spend sufficient time clearly thinking through your key message, you will be wasting your time and your audience’s.

Your Key Message must include:
• The imperative outcome or action or behavioural change you need your audience to take, as a result of listening to you
• Talking to the audience as individuals (words or phrases such as – you, you’ll be, you will want to, you can do …)
• Reference to an example that you’ll elaborate upon in your presentation’s body

An example of an effective Key Message:
“Because you are all training & HR managers, I’m convinced that by the end of this talk you’ll resolutely want to use our new training and coaching framework package that gives you access to the latest professional development tools and techniques in a flash. In fact I’m sure you’ll be so impressed that you’ll want a copy within 30 minutes of us finishing.”

This Key Message example clearly states:

•  WHO the presentation is for – Training and HR managers

•  WHAT the attendees will do - use the new training and coaching      framework

•  WHY they will need to do it - gaining access to the latest developmental tools and techniques

•  WHEN they will do it – within 30 minutes of the presentation        finishing

This message is just 63 words, meaning you can say it in 25 seconds or less. If attendees don’t want to listen to you after your opening statement, they will still know what you came to tell them. The remainder of your presentation would be supporting detail - but your message will strike home without the details.
A good key message with a ‘call to action’ like the example (you’ll want the framework within 30 minutes of the presentation ending) ensures that your audience will be eager to engage and continue listening, because you will have told them “what’s in it for them”.
Ensure the audience has understood this message, repeat it in the concluding statements. This also ensures that late arrivals know what your key message was.

Guarantee audience engagement at the start of your presentations. Begin your talk with a well crafted, crucial Key Message!

To obtain the full version of the ‘Key Message’ explanation, please send an email request to connexions@corpalc.com

Article by Corporate Alchemy’s William Wallace, an executive & business coach.  He also designs training programmes and  conducts courses including presentation, communication and influencing skills.

Corporate Alchemy Ltd
PO Box 253, Welwyn Garden City Hertfordshire, AL8 7WD

Tel: +44 (0)1707 322500  Fax: +44 (0) 1707 338826
Email: penny@corpalc.com   www.corpalc.com

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