Personal Development

1.Notions of Happiness

Martin Seligman a pioneer of the Positive Psychology movement suggest the components of authentic happiness.

From his perspective we can experience 3 types of happiness:

1. A pleasant life: Pleasures, instant gratification,hedonism
2. A good life: Getting the things that you want or desire
3. A meaningful life :belonging to and serving in something larger and more worthwhile than just your own pleasures and desires

In this view authentic happiness combines all three lives and in this sense provides for a full life

Visit Martin Seligmans site for in depth information and a range of free self reflection questionnaires

2. Presentation skills - Insights on powerful presentations

Many presentations include too much unnecessary data, try to cover too much, and do little to make impact in the audience's mind.

Here are some ideas to putting together a presentation that is engaging, focused, relevant, and persuasive:

1. Understand the context for your presentation Why is this presentation happening?Who will be there? What do they need to know? What will engage them? What can they do with the information you share?
2. Be clear about your desired outcome and/or the real value to be delivered by your presentation with the general or specific audience in mind.
3. Establish a strong opening using a story,anecdote or question that grabs audience interest and provides a strong theme that can be returned to
4. At conclusion don't just summarise- leave your audience with something to think about or do relevant to the context for the presentation in order to cultivate and grow engagement/leave a lasting impression

3. NLP Insights

Effective communication insights - NLP and Rapport : 7 ways to sharpen rapport


A few insights to help build rapport and by no means an exhaustive list :

* Take a genuine interest in getting to know what is important to the other person. Start to understand them rather than expecting them to understand you first.
* Pick up on the key words,favourite phrases and way of speaking that someone uses and build some of these appropriately and subtly into your conversation
* Be aware of how someone likes to handle information. For example, do the like lots of fine detail or just the big picture. As you speak feedback information in this same portion size
* Keep looking out for the other person's intention-their underlying aim- rather than what the initially do or say. They may not always get it right,but expect their heart to be in the right place.
* Respect the other persons time,energy,interests,people - they will be important resources for them
* Adopt a similar stance in terms of body language, gestures,voice tone and speed
* Breathe in unison with them



Learning point:

It is worth reflecting on how you engage with other people and to what extent you set out to develop a strong rapport by linking into and understanding their agenda. Not in a way that you turn it on and off like a tap - but as part of a built in communication skill delivered with unconscious competence