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By Steve Gilliland
Humor is one of the most powerful tools in both professional and non-professional settings. It brings people together, helps relieve stress, and simply makes you feel good. Some professional public speakers use humor as a motivation tool to drive listeners toward success. Here are some reasons why humor is a common motivational tool that’s used in the workplace: 1. PERSUASIVENESS One of the greatest benefits of using humor as a motivational tool is that it encourages a flow of new and innovative ideas. Let’s say you have a plan for a business, you deliver your speech, but everyone looks uninterested. Beginning your speech with light humor can attract their attention and keep them engaged throughout. Humor isn’t only for entertainment purposes but also helps you highlight your ideas and plans. Not many know this, but humor also builds rapport and can be used to build trust. In this manner, humor can help lead you on the road to constant growth and success. 2. HUMOR DIFFUSES CONFLICT Humor has always been regarded as an equalizer and is used to bridge the gap while facilitating conversations. For example, if you need to discuss a schedule with your peers, you can always include some humor in your conversation to maintain the level of understanding and mutual agreement between the two. The minute things begin to heat up, a carefully thought-out humorous sentence can help diffuse the conflict. 3. HUMOR ENCOURAGES TEAMWORK When you laugh together with your co-workers, you’ll immediately feel closer to them. According to research, social laughter is considered “grooming from a distance.” This means laughter is the way we humans maintain social relationships. When you spend time with your employees laughing at jokes or sharing humor, it encourages social bonds, which ultimately promote teamwork. You’ll be more comfortable working with someone with whom you can connect, and this will result in work success. 4. HUMOR IS LINKED TO CREATIVITY Humor opens the mind and encourages risk-taking as it develops a safe space for trying new things and being open to making mistakes. It promotes a happy, light, energetic and fun mood, which is great for problem solving and creative thinking. Humor helps you think out of the box and moves you away from the “black and white” view. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
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By Laurie Guest
Not long ago I had a speaking engagement in Destin, FL. The resort was located on a beautiful beach. The morning of my speech I skinnied-up sideways into an already full elevator for the journey down to the main level. Clearly everyone on board—3 adults and 6 small kids—were headed out for a day of fun in the sun. Meanwhile, I am dressed in business casual and clearly NOT going outside. I smiled at the oldest boy and said, “Looks like you are headed for some place more fun than me.” He blinks but does not speak (you know, “stranger danger” and all). But his father replies, reacting to my laptop bag in tow instead of a beach bag, and says, “Yeah, it really sucks when they have meetings at a gorgeous place like this and you have to go listen to some dumb speakers all day.” Ouch! He had no idea! To which I reply, “I know what you mean. What makes it even worse is I am the speaker!” The whole elevator broke out in laughter as the doors open and we went our separate ways. From several paces away I heard the kid say, “Way to go dad. You’re the dumb one!” That family might think I was offended, but instead they handed me a great opening story for that audience and that audience only. The story won’t be funny next month, it is only funny in that moment. Many people ask me where we, as speakers, get our material. We will all tell you the same thing – we look for it daily in the scenes around us and the conversations we have. If we stay aware, the good stuff will find us. And the same is true for you. What is it you seek in life? Are you literally looking for it, actually EXPECTING it to present itself? Set your intention out loud and then actively look for it. I promise, it’s there waiting. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Mary Kelly
Staying calm and focused during times of stress, challenge, and change People who have not spent much time on boats or ships are often surprised to learn that the boat’s anchor does not hold it in place. The anchor is not tied to the bottom of the ocean. The anchor is dropped and positioned, and the weight of the chain is what keeps the boat from drifting away. Boat anchors are checked and repositioned when the tides, winds, and drifting causes the boat to move. Sometimes the anchor gets snagged on coral or debris, and when trying to pull up the anchor, it can get stuck. The boat must be repositioned to release the anchor from the unseen hazard. What is normally a tool of stability, and a valuable part of the ship becomes challenging, so the anchor gets repositioned. Sometimes we need to evaluate our sense of stability and reposition where we are, like a boat repositioning its anchor. Practicing repositioning allows us to decrease stress, increase focus, and ignore irritations. Here are some ways to stay grounded and focused, regardless of the situation. 1. Breathe! During times of stress or irritation, it is natural to take breathes that are shallow. To anchor in the moment, pay attention to your breathing. Make a conscious effort to breathe in slowly and deeply, following the path of your breath with your mind. Feel the air move through your body. Then breathe out slowly and gently, again paying attention to the movement of your body as air passes through it. Concentrate on feeling a subtle energy shift of calm. 2. Check in with your five senses If you are finding it a little tricky to access your inner peace or you are distracted, try the five senses check-in. Make a conscious decision to disconnect from distractions and focus your awareness, one sense at a time, on what you can see, feel, hear, smell and taste in that moment. This grounds you in the present moment by becoming more aware of what is impacting your space. This can be especially helpful when you feel stressed or harried. 3. Mind like water Take every opportunity that comes your way to practice being calm, especially during a crisis, when others are feeling frantic. Being calm puts us in the space where we control our mental and physical reactions during challenges moments. Some people find it helpful to picture the surface of a calm body of water and think, “mind like water.” Great times to practice this are where you might feel frustrated and impatient, like waiting in line or while you are stuck in traffic. Put a half-smile on your face and remind yourself that you are calm. 4. Use repositioning techniques to create thinking space No matter how busy you are, you can use repositioning techniques to build more space into your day. Before you send an email, take time to breathe, notice your breath, then decide if you want to send the email. Choose to ignore or switch off your devices. Schedule 5-minute breaks to reposition between activities or projects. Practice being present around other people. Give other people your full attention and respect, and you will have a more meaningful and productive conversation. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Chip Bell
She had the entire line of the check-out counter completely mesmerized. It was as if she was using us as her test audience for a comedy try-out. And she was funny and entirely unleashed. Yet, she never slowed her rhythmic action on the grocery story register and pushing groceries to the bagger on her left. “Do you think she is being sincere or is this just an act?” asked one patron to another just a few steps ahead of me in line. “Frankly,” the woman replied, “I am so tired of plain vanilla service at places like this, I am thoroughly enjoying her show.” The comment made me think about a new tree in the front yard at my river house in North Georgia. It is a Bloodgood Japanese Maple planted last year. It will ultimately reach 20-25 feet tall with a branch spread of 20 feet. But this is its very first Fall. When we walked out of the front door, my wife commented. “It’s showing off!” We stood for a while admiring its beauty, its command of its environment, and the compelling influence it seemed to have over any living creature in its visual path. My thoughts returned to the check-out clerk in the grocery store. What does it take to get associates to “show off?” Instead of hiding under a “don’t asked me anything” curtain of invisibility, what if they were attentive guides and enthusiastic helpers? What if they had special hosting talents which they were excited to share with customers? What if they took a keen interest in a small child in tow or an elderly parent under the watchful eye of a customer. What if they performed a unique heart-warming extra for customers? Encourage your employees to “show off” their best stuff. Let them “steal the show.” Your customers will demand an encore and return with the family, their friends, and their funds. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
A few years ago, I was invited to meet with the executive team of a healthcare system. The team included two CEOs – one led the hospitals and the other oversaw the medical practices. While waiting in the lobby prior to the meeting, I saw a beautiful display featuring their values. I was impressed that the values were so prominently displayed. To me, it implied that they were foundational to the organization. Respect and dignity were two of the values listed. When it was time for the meeting to begin, both CEOs were absent, and we were told to wait for them. One was 15 minutes late and the other was 20 minutes late. Only when they were both in the room, was I invited to begin my presentation. I was only five minutes into my presentation when I noticed that both CEOs were reading and responding to emails on their phones. Within minutes, several other executives followed suit. At one point, one of the CEOs took a phone call and stepped out of the meeting for a few minutes but told me to keep going with a dismissive hand gesture. VALUES START AT THE TOP The CEO’s behavior was appalling. What they modeled for the rest of the executive team was blatant disrespect. No wonder they all followed suit. Ironically, I was invited to speak with them about their culture which gave me a clear starting point. There was no way they were going to make significant culture change until they began living their values. The whole experience was awkward for me but gave me a great opportunity to re-introduce the CEOs to the values and how they are clearly not a driving force in their leadership. I called each of them separately to discuss my observations and point out that they had clearly breached two of their core values including respect and dignity. Both were apologetic and clearly taken aback that I would confront them. They both told me no one had ever called them out on their behavior before. The next day they asked the executive team to reconvene. They apologized for their behavior at the previous day’s meeting and committed to begin living the values consciously and consistently. Our discussion created a new beginning and over the next several months they made great strides in the culture. They took ownership and committed to making the values more than a display on the wall. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
Pilots are required to invest hundreds of hours in simulated flight scenarios before taking command of a live aircraft. Race car simulators help drivers prepare for the unexpected, so that they’ll be fully ready for unforeseen circumstances. Astronauts first experience weightlessness in a simulation chamber so they can become accustomed to a gravity-free environment. Simulations are used by top performing surgeons, symphony conductors, and professional athletes. Attorneys hone their skills in mock trials while boxers spend hours sparring in the ring before the big fight. Closely mimicking a high-stakes experience before it actually happens invariably leads to better performance. Now think for a moment about the work that matters most to you. The importance of interviewing a new job candidate, holding that mission-critical team meeting, or giving an impactful performance review of your team member. Or maybe you’ve got a big upcoming pitch – to an investor, new client, or key partner. Your products and services may be high stakes as well, whether you organize mountain climbing excursions, produce luxury hand-finished furniture, or run a retail shop in a busy shopping mall. How you perform determines how well you’ll serve your customers, family, and community. With such important outcomes on the line, have you first bothered to do a dry run? In the business world, we’re just supposed to know what we’re doing: 50+ hours a week of performance with virtually no time for training and preparation. The idea of an NFL player running zero practice drills before the Super Bowl or a Broadway performer never bothering to rehearse for opening night sounds crazy. Yet isn’t that exactly what we do in our professional lives? If we truly care about performing at the highest level, we must follow the lead of the greats in other professions by embracing a series of simulations before game day. In business, this can often be accomplished through role-playing. For example, if you have a big sales presentation coming up, don’t do the pitch for the first time in front of your prospective client. Instead, gather two colleagues and present to one while the other takes notes and records key points of feedback. Next, rotate and have one of your colleagues pitch you while the other plays the observer role. A few rotations a day, and you’ll start to build powerful muscle memory, which will allow you to optimize performance when it really matters. This small investment in simulation can become a game-changer when it comes to results. I have no interest in flying on a plane with a pilot who’s never bothered to practice in a simulated setting. And you should have the same discomfort when performing critical business tasks without the requisite pre-game training. If you run the drills in advance, your odds of success skyrocket. Use simulations to stimulate optimal performance. To perfect your craft. To drive better outcomes. And when you do, your victory will be anything but simulated. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By LeAnn Thieman. This was originally published on LeAnn's blog.
A recent study by the International Council of Nurses found that burnout rates in nursing were 40 percent before the pandemic, and now the figure has grown to 70 percent. I believe nurses are not burned out but drained out. I’ve seen the absolute devastation of burned land in the Colorado fires — land that will never be recovered the same. With the proper care, however, nurses and caregivers can recover. We can refill their wells by offering programs to give them specific tools to care for themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. This will rebuild their resiliency because people want to work for people who care for them. Forward-thinking, honorable companies establish cultures of caring to prevent burnout before it exhausts their staff. They make it that part of their mission statements, vision statements, and strategic plans. They don’t just tell employees to take care of themselves, they offer time-tested evidence-based programs to do so. Over and over I hear from drained-out healthcare workers, “I really want to take care of myself, but I don’t know where to begin.” Hospitals and healthcare organizations must make caring for their staff a top priority. After all, it is the best recruitment and retention tool. New recruits have a choice between numerous companies these days, and they will gravitate toward the ones that have programs and a commitment to care for them, mind, body, and spirit. Companies with cultures of caring have happier, healthier, more productive workers. And, as one CNO said, “Besides, it’s the right thing to do.” Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
We just released our annual customer service research where we surveyed more than 1,000 consumers and asked what customer service experiences are most likely to cause you to come back. The top answers belong together: helpful and friendly. That seems pretty simple. All a typical customer wants is for someone to be nice to them, with a willingness to take care of them. How hard can that be? It seems like it’s just common sense, right? Yet we all have the customer service horror stories that are the exact opposite of people being helpful and friendly. Please keep reading, even though this is basic information. I emphasize the word basic because it is foundational to the success of your customer service program. That means it’s really, really important. You have to work on the basics before you can move to something more advanced. Customers want the basics before anything else. Let’s approach this from another angle. While, in general, helpful and friendly interactions get customers to come back, here’s another statistic from something more specific, which focuses on complaints. We asked, “When you have a problem or issue with a company or brand, which solutions do you prefer to help you solve your problem?” 89% of customers want employees who are kind and helpful. So, whether it’s a general interaction with employees or a problem or complaint you want resolved, those two words, friendly and helpful, are right at the top of why customers come back. So, what makes customers want to stop doing business and switch to another company? The opposite of helpful and friendly, which it turns out is rudeness and apathy. 75% of customers would switch companies or leave a brand after experiencing rudeness and apathy. When working with our clients on their customer service and customer experience initiatives, I always preach the basics have to be in place. Sure, we get into very advanced discussions about how to create the best processes, self-service solutions, the proper way to use data, implement artificial intelligence programs, and more. But none of that will mean anything if the customer ends up interacting with one of your employees and experiences anything less than friendly and helpful. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kenneth Kaufman
When it comes to equity, healthcare organizations face three different and very difficult challenges: health disparities among patient populations, income inequality in the healthcare workforce, and of diversity in the C-suite and the boardroom. To get the job done, you have to tackle all three. And that takes an uncommon—even selfless—type of leadership. In his decision to retire from coaching, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians showed what that kind of leadership looks like. If you follow football, you know that Arians’ retirement announcement came as a surprise, if not a shock, to the NFL community. With a stellar 80-48-1 career win-loss record, a Super Bowl victory in 2021, and the recent return of superstar quarterback Tom Brady, Arians had good prospects of coaching the Bucs to another Super Bowl victory this year. That would have virtually assured his ascension to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But Arians had a different kind of legacy in mind. After assembling one of the most diverse staffs in football, Arians saw an opportunity to elevate defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, his handpicked successor, at a time when the Bucs were poised for success. Surely it was clear to Arians that no one is tackling the abysmal diversity hiring record in the NFL in a meaningful way despite the recent lawsuit alleging discriminatory hiring practices by the league. Of 500-plus head coaches in the NFL since its inception in 1920, just 24 were Black and most of those held interim positions. Bowles is one of only four Blacks who are currently working as a head coach. Arians saw an opportunity to be part of the solution and he seized it. He timed it when the team was well situated, knowing that Black head coaches rarely get the second chances with other teams that whites do when their teams don’t succeed. Solving equity—whether in football or in healthcare—requires having the right values, making the right decisions, and implementing those decisions. By his actions, Arians came through on all counts. He went a step further by recognizing that it’s not enough to give people from underrepresented groups a chance; they need and deserve a chance to succeed. The NFL was supposed to have a structural solution for diversity in the head coaching ranks. The Rooney Rule, established in 2003, required that any NFL team with a head coach opening must include at least one diverse candidate among its slate of interviewees. I think everyone would agree that the Rooney Rule has been a failure—that including a diverse candidate did not create a situation in which a minority candidate was actually hired and, when hired, was successful. In the absence of a structural solution for diversity among NFL head coaches, Arians substituted his own personal level of leadership. The NFL is not alone in this regard. No industry vertical has come up with that solution, including healthcare. While we continue to look for those structural solutions, the kind of strategic leadership shown by Arians appears to be the way forward. Healthcare leaders can take a page from Arians’ playbook to address all three types of equity challenges in healthcare. Health disparities. People in healthcare circles have been talking about the zip code effect for years. Zip code is a proxy for a series of health inequities that have plagued marginalized communities of color for decades, affecting a person’s health and life expectancy more than any other factor. Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic began, it became clear that Blacks and Latinos were being hospitalized and dying at much higher rates than whites. At that point, it became impossible to rationalize health disparities any longer. Income inequality. About 4.5 million people working in healthcare settings are considered low-wage workers, defined as the bottom 20% of wage earners. Deemed essential workers during the pandemic, they include nursing assistants and aides as well as environmental services, laundry and food service workers. These frontline workers, who are disproportionately female, Black and Latino, are not compensated at a level that they can effectively manage within our economy. The pathway to income equity for these workers remains unclear. Diversity in leadership. At the C-suite level, progress in improving diversity has been slow. An analysis of leadership diversity in 100 leading hospitals found that only 6% of CEOs were Black. Just 18% of hospitals had at least one Black leader in a common C-suite role. The highest percentage of Black leaders in a C-suite role was in diversity/equity. Women are also under-represented at the executive level. Although they hold three-quarters of healthcare jobs, only 15% of healthcare organization CEOs are female. If you want to move the needle on diversity, having the right values is the starting point. But unless you make decisions based on those values and implement those decisions strategically, as Bruce Arians did, we will be having the same conversations about healthcare equity in five years that we’re having now. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
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