Once people understand their roles they next need to know how they interact with other people. Everyone needs to be clear about the lines of communication and decision-making authority. Authority, accountability, reporting and other leadership and management functions all need to be reflected in the organisational structure.

The structure of a team, organisation or company can take many forms. For example, ‘flat’, ‘hierarchical’, or ‘matrix’ are all descriptions of structures. But, there is no single correct structure for every team or circumstance.  The type of structure that a team should employ depends on the nature of the task and the nature of the people within the team.

Take a fresh look at what organisational structure you need

You may need to start with a blank piece of paper. Ask some questions related to your task, team and the individuals in that team. For example:

• Who needs to communicate with whom to make effective decisions?
• Which people have to work closely together to fulfil their responsibilities?
• How are individuals kept accountable for what they are doing?
• Who needs to be empowered to make decisions?
• Who is responsible for their management and supporting their personal development?
• What things need to happen for your team to be able to achieve its goal?
• Does your present structure support that aim?

The larger the organisation the harder it is to answer all these questions in one go. So, you can start by looking at the individual team level first. Work out how they need to function, and then look at how each team needs to operate and interact.

It might be helpful to do this graphically. One method I find helpful is using names on post-it notes, arranged on a whiteboard so that I can experiment. In this way, you can see how people are best grouped. You can add the different decision and communication lines that are needed in coloured pens and see what works. Get the team involved in the process too. They are likely to have the most detail about how they need to work effectively. It can be a lively team-building exercise in itself!

Leadership Development: Master the Top Leadership and Life Skills

Better lead in life and work to maximise your success. Sign up and access materials for free!

Form should follow function

A structure should support communication and decision-making in the most effective way possible. You need to be organised so that you can achieve the specific goal your team is pursuing. This means that the structure is likely to need to change over time.  Organisational growth, replacement staff, new goals or different stages within a project can all spell a need for a change in structure.  Don’t shy away from moving things around. But there is a delicate balance to achieve. Too much change can cause instability and will make team members anxious. Too little change, on the other hand, will hamper your progress. In my experience, small businesses and start-ups have to watch out more for the former, while large institutions have to be aware of the latter.

On some tasks, it may be that the roles within a team need to change within the course of a day.  That is particularly true within smaller organisations where people have to share more responsibilities. If people are comfortable with their roles, and the responsibilities of others, then they can deal with this change. Very strict, traditional, hierarchical structures can make this sort of fluidity a lot harder.

Most teams won’t have to deal with this speed of change all the time. But the lesson is – as with every other tool in planning – to remain flexible.  And remember, the structure is not the end in itself: it is just a tool to achieve our end. Achieving our dream or mission is the most important thing. So, if our structure is hindering us then we need to adapt it and improve it.

There is lots of advice on writing and examples of writing processes available, but they are not always easy to remember. POWER UP is a helpful acronym to remember the advice and steps of the writing process.

This is the process I use which has helped me write regularly for publications such as Better Humans, Start it up, Mind Café, The Ascent and more besides. It has led to 80% of my writing getting accepted for publications and wider distribution over the past two months.

POWER UP stands for:

• Plan
• Organise
• Write
• Edit
• Review
• Up-load
• Publish

Therefore the ‘POWER’ part of the mnemonic is important to any sort of writing and the ‘UP’ is relevant to writing for online publications such as Medium.

How to POWER UP your writing

Here are the stages in turn with the questions you need to be asking yourself within each step:

Plan

The first step is deciding why you want to write. Before you go any further be sure of your motivation. That could be to share knowledge, make money or just get better at writing but be honest with yourself at the beginning as it will shape the whole of the creative process, the product you create and how you view it afterwards.

Once you have answered this question you can start planning when you will write. Time is the most critical aspect (as time is the only truly finite resource) so the most important question to ask yourself at this stage is:

“How long do I have (or want to spend) on writing this piece?”

Once I have worked out how long I am going to give myself, I then plan when I am going to write. I always book the time into my diary to keep myself accountable for my goals and to stop conflicting activities. The morning is my favourite and most productive time to write so I generally plan my time in then.

Organise

After you have planned in your time you can organise your thoughts, notes and research. This will help you to decide exactly what you will write about. Keep in mind the question:

“What is the central idea I want to communicate?”

I tend to keep a long list of article ideas on my phone and then, in this phase, I choose which idea I think is the best post to develop at that given time. Then I decide on a working title for the article and set about adding to my notes and researching the topic in more depth.

Write

With your thoughts, research and notes organised you can now smash out your first draft. As you are doing this you need to keep the following question in mind:

“Who am I writing for and what do they need to know?”

You may just be writing for yourself. If the writing process is primarily just a cathartic process, then that is fine. A lot of blogs follow this approach. But if you are writing for another audience or want to share your wisdom with a specific group of people then they need to be front and centre in your mind as you write. This will help you develop a good first draft and minimise the work in the next two steps.

Edit

The next stage is to make your article good copy. You need to ask yourself:

“What do I need to change?”

I am not great at spotting typos and grammatical errors and therefore even within this phase I use a three-step approach. I write in Microsoft Word first, then paste into my WordPress platform, and then use Grammarly. At each step the inbuilt spelling and grammar software help to tighten my wording.

Leadership Development: Master the Top Leadership and Life Skills

Better lead in life and work to maximise your success. Sign up and access materials for free!

Review

The review phase is effectively the 3rd iteration of your draft. At this stage you need to ask:

“What do I need to cut?”

You need to hone the writing to ensure clarity and impact as well as legibility. The key here is to remember back to the previous questions: what is the key message you are trying to convey and who are you writing for?

I try to leave a day between the edit and the review. This helps me to engage with the piece afresh. If I try to review an article too close to the drafting and editing stage my brain sees what it wants to see rather than what is actually written. I often read the article out loud too to see how it flows. I will get a second opinion of my draft when possible at this stage too.

Giving some time after writing the initial draft (and another opinion) allows the distance you need to be ruthless.

“In writing you need to kill all your darlings.”

William Faulkner

There may be some beautifully crafted sentences or well researched paragraphs but if they don’t add to the clarity and impact of the post then you have to put them to the sword. It is painful but necessary.

Upload

The next step, of uploading your article is easy in theory, but rushing this stage can affect the success of your writing. You need to ask:

“How will people find my writing?”

You may have written your ‘bestest ever’ piece, but you also need to craft the right SEO summary, select the write tags, and adding the ‘Alt text’ on your photos. These little things are like sending presents to the algorithms. The algorithms will learn to love you for it.

Now you can see which publications are the most suitable for your work (once again, do your research) and submit your article.

Publish

Once you or the publication has published your work the next stage is to help the process of people finding it. So, the question here is:

“How can I now best share my writing?”

Propagate the channels where people can find your work. Share on social media and create a conversation about your topic. Make sure you respond to comments.

I use my accounts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to share my posts and I will also write related posts on my website (therightquestions.co). As I gain traction on any of these platforms, I seek to build a conversation with the people who are engaging with the writing.

This last part is often overlooked but is important for two reasons. Firstly, it really helps to expand your potential readership. Second, it is really rewarding. I have found that the feedback I get from people engaging with what I write really inspires me to write more.

Some people do this part really well and I have learned a lot for writers such as Jordan Gross, who is excellent at building conversations about his work and supporting the writing of others. I have also benefitted from other people’s encouragement. The kind words I have received from other writers such as Max Klein, Darren Matthews, Terrie Schweitzer, Tim Rees, Paul Ryburn and others (thank you all!) has inspired me to keep writing on Medium and start drafting a book.

The key element of the POWER UP process

In my experience, it is the triple iteration of the writing process (the initial draft, edit and review), that is the most powerful part of this approach. This refining process really helps to craft the article. Therefore, if you really want to improve the quality as well as the productivity of your writing, I highly recommend you embrace an iterative approach to developing your articles.

More POWER to you all!

Do you get nervous at the thought of public speaking?

If you do you are in good company. A study by the National Institute of Mental Health indicated that over 40 % of people could be considered to have glossophobia (a fear of public speaking). Another well-cited statistic from various academic surveys is that most people fear public speaking more than death!

I am a professional facilitator, coach, and communicator. I have given talks to crowds of hundreds of people and presentations to board members, politicians, senior military, and even royalty. People are therefore somewhat surprised that historically my most significant hurdle to public speaking was confidence.

This is not the case now and, due to my work, people assume I am extroverted. But in terms of character, I am actually introverted. Although I enjoy social interactions, I find them draining and I must harness my energy to be outgoing, upbeat and take centre stage. It doesn’t come naturally.

What’s more, since childhood, I have harboured unhelpful assumptions and fears of looking foolish in front of people and an overactive imagination that provides me with hundreds of ways that I could be shamed if I were foolish enough to try to stand up and talk to a crowd, especially to a bunch of strangers!

So, what changed?

An experience that challenged my assumptions about public speaking

I used to think some people were born confident. I used to believe some folks were just natural public speakers. One personal experience helped to change these assumptions.

It happened at a time when I was working backstage during a large event. It was taking place in a theatre in London’s West End. The theatre could seat over a thousand people, and it was packed. I was running all the back-stage operations which included helping presenters with any technical support.

The speaker that day was well-known and very highly regarded. I had seen him many times, on various stages, speaking to audiences of hundreds, sometimes thousands, much as he was about to do now. I had watched in awe as he strode about, effortlessly unpacking intellectual themes and making them understandable to us mere mortals.

It was seconds before he was due to go on stage, the music was queuing up ready for his entrance. In the dark wings of the theatre, between props and backdrops, I stepped up to him to do a final check on his microphone. As I drew close, I could hear him whispering to himself, head down, hands fluttering about. He glanced up, catching my eye and faltering for a moment. I did not know whether he was doing vocal exercises, practising part of his talk or reciting some positive affirmations, but I could see that he was nervous. I was shocked; I literally couldn’t believe it. Him? Nervous?

One way or another it certainly did not seem to impact him. I finished with the microphone, and he stood up straight, faced the stage and walked into the blinding lights to loud applause. Seconds later the audience was silent and hanging onto every word conveyed by his steady voice. And all I could do was stand dumbfounded backstage thinking, hang on, that guy had stage fright moments ago! This giant of public speaking! And you know what? It was one of the most liberating of little moments I have had the privilege to witness.

Ok, what did I learn?

Confidence is a frame of mind that you can develop

You don’t have to be born confident to be a good public speaker. In fact, research shows that you don’t need to have innate self-belief, it can be developed. Neuroscientist Dr Ian Robertson, author of How Confidence Works, has identified that confidence comes down to two core beliefs. He calls these ‘can do’ and ‘can happen’. In other words, you need both the belief that you can do something coupled with the idea that an action can happen and affect the external world.

In this context, you can build both beliefs. For example, have you ever had a conversation with more than one other person at the same time? Most likely you have, even if just around the dinner table. Well done, you have just proven to yourself that you can speak to groups of people.

Another thought. Have you ever said something that someone has found interesting or changed the way someone has thought or behaved? If so, then you also have proof that your communication does have an impact. It can happen. What you say matters to people; you just need to find your audience.

The more instances you can think of to reinforce both the can do and can happen the better. These will strengthen your self-belief. Then build on this confidence; start small and build up. For example, talk to a small group of people you know, just for a few minutes. It could just be a joke or a short story. By doing this you build experience and confidence to increase the size of the audience and length of what you are going to say.

Leadership Development: Master the Top Leadership and Life Skills

Better lead in life and work to maximise your success. Sign up and access materials for free!

Courage is a decision, not an innate quality

Similarly, with confidence, people often assume that courage is innate, something some people are born with. But this is also a false assumption. As Winston Churchill said:

“Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”

Winston Churchill

We all feel fear. It is a natural psychological reaction to certain situations. This is the in-built fight, flight or freeze response which primarily helps us when we face physical danger. The problem is, the mind has the same response to perceived social danger, as we experience during public speaking.

This can lead to amygdala hijack, the situation where more primal parts of the brain override our more rational brain. This leads to several things but notably that we cannot think straight, and our body is flooded with adrenaline. Therefore, in the case of public speaking, we are likely to forget what we want to say (because we can’t access the pre-frontal cortex), our hearts beat faster, and we start to sweat.

And what is the best way to deal with this? Breathe. Breathing exercises, such as the 5:5:5 technique (breathe in for a count of 5, hold for 5 and out for 5) are proven ways to help manage stress responses.

The other thing is to change your mindset. As comedian Deborah Frances-White points out in her excellent (and highly entertaining) TED talk, you need to stop thinking like prey when you get on stage and take the attitude of the predator. You need to own the space; boldly stalk around the stage while maintaining eye contact with your audience. Do not shrink behind the lectern or hide at the back of the stage.

And fake it until you make it because, as Amy Cuddy tells us, our physiology impacts our psychology. In other words, even if you don’t feel self-assured, forcing your body into a confident posture (e.g. standing tall, maintaining eye contact and not crossing your arms) will actually change your mindset. You will start to feel more confident.

Communication happens when we connect with people

The final thing to help your confidence and courage is to remember that audience is just made up of people like you. As Brené Brown (author of Dare to Lead) says:

“People, people, people are just people, people, people.” 

It doesn’t matter what title they hold, or how rich or famous they are, they are all just human. Many of our assumptions, like those I had of the speaker in my story, are wrong.

Brené Brown also points out why we feel nervous when public speaking; because we make ourselves vulnerable. But that is an opportunity. Vulnerability gives us an opportunity to be authentic. And guess what, other normal humans also feel afraid at times, so these shared feelings can help create empathy. Acknowledging our fear can even help build rapport with an audience.

So, when you look at the audience remember they are like you. If it helps, picture them as school kids, but no matter what, remember that they certainly were all school kids before they were whatever they are now. People are just people.

The positive psychology of public speaking

Do I still get nervous? Yes. Can I effectively manage those feelings and be a successful public speaker? Yes. Can you too? Again, yes.

Mark Twain is accredited with saying:

“There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars”.

So don’t worry about being worried. You can build confidence. If you choose, you can be courageous. You can use your feelings to build a deeper connection with your audience.

But you do need to practice. So, think of an opportunity where you can stretch yourself a little and develop your speaking. Is nothing specific coming up? Then think of an anecdote, an experience from your life. Pick something fun! Take a few minutes to craft that story, maybe write it down and then say it out loud to yourself. Look at your body language; force yourself to look and sound assured. By doing so you are programming your brain; pre-wiring synapses and setting the conditions of confidence. Then hold onto the story and wait for an opportunity to share it with others.

And if you would like to read more about public speaking do take a look at:

How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

How to Overcome Your Fear and Learn to Love Public Speaking

Awesome Work Presentations in Seven Simple Steps