– By Andrew B Morris
It’s all very well wanting to do things differently. But it’s important to identify WHY you want to be different rather than trying to be different just for the sake of it.
Stand-up comedians love the challenge of improvisation, but few can really pull it off. When it works it can be mesmerising, but even the most talented tend to give into the safety of preparation and rehearsal.
As we hone our skills and our confidence grows, we can become lazy at preparation and opt instead for the high-wire adrenaline rush of spontaneity. We like winging it, responding off the cuff, using our wits and our senses. Spontaneous action is fun.
But more linear thinkers will adopt preparation as their default and stick to the script. This can appear stiff and inflexible and cannot adequately legislate for the curve ball we sometimes like to throw. We’re caught off guard and don’t have the ability to improvise. The secret is to strike the right balance between these two approaches.
Consider…
What impression do we want to create? How do we want to be perceived and play to this?
What outcome do we want to achieve? Ensure we know why we’re there and what we want to get out of it. It’s so frustrating to hit the street afterwards and think to ourselves, “why-oh-why did we forget to say that.”
If we are clear on these, then our preparation is complete and we can be as spontaneous as we like. Provided we keep this front of mind throughout we will come away having made the right impression and ready to move forward.
Andrew Morris is Chief Executive of the Academy for Chief Executives, helping businesses to accelerate growth through better leadership. Andrew describes himself as a creative businessman, who enjoys meeting people from all facets of life. His mantra is ‘take your job seriously, but not yourself.’ Andrew describes himself as a creative businessman, who enjoys meeting people from all facets of life. His mantra is ‘take your job seriously, but not yourself.’
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