Leadership and Football: Don't let your team get Deflated; Peyton Manning's best Leadership wisdom

Don't let your team get Deflated

In a recent blog post, leadership expert Kevin Eikenberry shares four things that leaders often do (both intentionally and not) that "deflates the spirit, energy and engagement of their team members."

Parents/Educators: These are actions/habits that can have a 'deflating' effect at home or in the classroom as well.

The four common  things that leaders do to 'deflate' their team are:

1. Giving no Positive Feedback
2. Giving all Negative Feedback
3. Not Trusting your Team (or kids, students, friends, etc...)
4. Not Caring

Take three minutes and scroll through the article to learn how to avoid these leadership mistakes and maintain an inflated (inspired and motivated) team! 

Peyton Manning's Leadership Wisdom

In the midst of all that is happening in the NFL regarding deflated balls, other, more worthwhile news seems to have fallen somewhat between the cracks.

This article, for example, titled "7 Winning Leadership Ideas from Peyton Manning's Playbook."

The article outlines what, according to Peyton Manning, are 7 key skills that leaders in any field need to be obtain and work to develop. The article also does an awesome job of connecting the on-field examples that Peyton Manning gives to practical, real-life examples that are key to leaders.

Most notable skills (in my opinion)

• Learning to thrive on being uncomfortable. Needless to say, expanding your comfort zone is a must-do if you are seeking any significant growth, professional or personal.

• Finding a new way to do the old job. AKA: Innovation. Being adaptable and your ability to innovate is something that is of vital importance in today's exponential world. Things are moving fast and constantly changing with new tech disrupting so many industries. If you stop innovating, you fall behind. 

• Aligning your personal goals with team goals. In 2013, Peyton Manning didn't set out to break records. He set goals that he knew would help his team score more points and thus win more games. He focused on pass completion percentage and number of touchdown passes. As the old saying goes, there's no "i" in "team", but there is no "i" in "goal" either. 

Here's the link to the article: http://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/peyton-manning-leadership.html 

Bonus Video

While looking for some funny photos criticizing deflategate, I found this hilarious video. Enjoy!

So what do you guys think of deflategate and the punishment handed out by the NFL? Leave your comments below! 

Monday Video: The Journey Across the High Wire

Start your week off with with some meaningful and thought-provoking stimulus.

Philippe Petit's Journey from card tricks to high-roping between the Twin Towers. 

     As early as the age of six, Philippe Petit was performing. He started off by learning card tricks. Not just any old card tricks however, Philippe found himself inspired to master the hardest card trick manipulation in the book (literally, it was the hardest trick in a book of card tricks he was given for Christmas). After years of practice, he was able to perform the trick perfectly, completely hiding the card in under one second. Philippe goes over the trick in minute 2:25 of the video below.

Long story short, after stints with street juggling and years of practice as a tight-rope walker, nobody would hire him. So what did he do? He starting putting tight ropes wherever he saw fit, walking across monuments such as Notre Dame and the Twin Towers, tightrope walking himself to international fame.

Set aside 20 minutes and watch the inspiring video below, where Philippe describes his journey and the aspects that drove him to success and happiness. (The aspects are highlighted below).

Original Video URL: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3zZVQPaKKQ&feature=iv&src_vid=xYemnKEKx0c&annotation_id=annotation_927634)

Aspects that drove Philippe to success and happiness, in his eyes:

Passion: "Passion is the motto of all my actions."

Tenacity: "How I kept at it against all odds."

Intuition: "A tool essential in my life...instead of listening to the teachers I am my own teacher."

Faith: "Faith is what replaces doubt in my dictionary."

Improvisation: "Improvisation is empowering because it welcomes the unknown."

Inspiration: "By inspiring ourselves we inspire others." 

Public Speaking: Avoiding common rookie mistakes, 12 foolproof ways to grab your audience, and what to do with your hands.

Avoiding the 10 most common mistakes in public speaking.

     At some point almost all of us are faced with having to give some form of presentation in front of an audience, be it co-workers or classmates, and I hope and assume that you want to keep your audience engaged and get your message across effectively. This article by Terry Gault will help you do just that by going over and helping you avoid the 10 most common rookie mistakes in Public Speaking. Some of them are common sense, but just in case you need a public speaking refresher. Here is a quick list of the mistakes, go to the article to find out more info on avoiding them. 

1. Using small scale movements and  gestures
2. Speaking with low energy
3. Not preparing enough
4. Not practicing enough
5. Data-Centric presentations
6. Playing it safe
7. Avoiding vulnerability
8. Taking oneself way too seriously
9. Presenting too much material
10. Rushing

Start Strong: 12 foolproof ways to grab your audience. 

"Hello, my uh name is Bob and I'm here to speak to you guys now about managing your um employee logistics and how to manage some HR systems. I'm gonna outline some new research in the field and will be explaining some new things for you guys. Okay so let's gets going." 

Are you bored to death or what? 

How you start a speech or presentation matters, and it matters more than you think. In just the first 30-60 seconds of a presentation, your audience has already figured out whether or not they are going to be genuinely engaged or sit back in their seats and go into mindless-sponge mode (passively absorbing information instead of being actively engaged and really learning). That's why a strong start to your speech or presentation matters so much. 

Here are 12 foolproof ways to start a speech according to this Genard Method blog post:

1. Question
2. Story
3. Quotation
4. A Strong Visual
5. Impactful/Disruptive Statistic 
6. Startling Statement
7. Personal anecdote (story) or experience
8. Humor
9. Expert Opinion
10. Sound Effect
11. Physical Object
12. Testimony or Success Story

I also recommend going to the blog post where the tips came from and scrolling down to see some examples of great starts to speeches. Click here to see the blog post.

What the heck do I do with my hands while speaking?!?

If you have ever been given a presentation and found yourself in the awkward position where you didn't know what to do with your hands then you are not alone. I believe that hand gestures can make or break an effective presentation. Maybe "break" is a little harsh, but a great speech can be denigrated with awkward or small hand gestures. Likewise, a less-compelling presentation can be boosted with effective use of hand gestures. 

Take a few minutes and check out some tips from this article on hand gestures during presentations.

Are there any other useful tips you know of for public speaking? Leave a tip in the comment section below.