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Truly memorable disasters don’t just happen. They require a special blend of misunderstanding and misguided effort. Here are three ways to guarantee a disaster in your next presentation, and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1: Believe in Magic

Show up hoping that a coherent, eloquent, useful presentation will magically appear once you start speaking. Avoid any type of preparation. Just wing it.

> What Happens
Everyone is amazed by the presentation because they expected more. They are also bored and disappointed. They may even become upset because an unprepared presentation insults the audience by wasting their time. Unprepared presentations sound like, well, unprepared presentations.

> Instead
Prepare. Identify the goal for your talk. Design a presentation that achieves that goal. Talk with key members of the audience about their expectations. Rehearse.

Mistake #2: Memorize your speech

Spend untold hours committing every precious word to memory so that you can recite it even if awakened in the middle of the night.

> What Happens
You sound like a machine. And if you stumble on a word, you can become stuck–speechless. I’ve seen this happen, and it’s painful.

> Instead
Learn your presentation. Yes, write a script. Memorize the first and last sentences and then practice giving the presentation without looking at the script. Practice many times. Eventually, you will learn how to convey the key ideas in a natural, normal way.

Mistake #3: Talk About Yourself

Focus entirely on yourself. Tell about your background, your credentials, and your history. Tell your story. Just talk about yourself. Make the presentation all about you, yourself, and your life.

> What Happens
They listen politely. If you manage to be entertaining enough, they may actually pay attention. Otherwise, the audience reacts by thinking, “So what?”

> Instead
Talk about the audience. That is, talk about what they need and how they can achieve it.

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The DYMO brandname is synonymous with labelling solutions for small/medium/large organizations – from work-at-home-moms, up to Fortune 500 companies. Dymo label machines have been available for over 30 years and constant innovations keep leading Dymo to release more useful and solution-orientated labelling products. Just like the ‘jewel in the crown’ Dymo LabelWriter Twin Turbo. This little marvel is unlike any other label printer ever released by Dymo. That’s because it is not just a label printer… it is in fact two label printers sharing the same body, it solves a big problem (see below) and does this at a very affordbale price.

When the Dymo LabelWriter Twin Turbo was finally released it was, as expected, an instant hit. But to understand why it has been so successful, it is important to first get a bit of an understanding of label printers in general…..

Almost every label printer that has ever been sold on the open market has only had a single printhead and the capacity to hold just a single roll of labels. This doesn’t sound too odd because label printers are simple purpose-built machines for doing nothing other than ‘printing labels’. You type a label, you print a label…. fast and simple. But when a user needs to print to a different label ‘size’ or ‘shape’, a problem exists. You either need to change out the roll of labels that is in the printer, or just have another printer with the other size/shape labels in it.

Hence the calling for the Dymo LabelWriter Twin Turbo !!

Dymo listened very closely to feedback from existing customers, many of whom typically had 2 label sizes that they printed constantly, and were annoyed at having to keep changing the rolls out. So the idea of having 2 rolls in the one machine seemed like the obvious solution, and it has proven to be.

Along the way, Dymo stumbled across another advantage of having the 2-roll capacity. Suppose you only had one label size that you printed on. Most would think that the Twin Turbo would not suit them, but Dymo added a feature where, in the case the first roll of labels ran out, the printer would automatically switch to the second roll of labels and continue to print….. pure genius !

The Dymo LabelWriter is normally priced at $155 from Labelcity.com, but there is a full $30 instant discount being offered, dragging the price down to $125… which takes it to 52% off MSRP. The deal is valid from April 20-30, 2006 (inclusive) and is available only from Labelcity.com

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Today’s fast-moving business environment demands that the effective manager be both a well-organized administrator and highly adept in understanding people’s basic needs and behaviour in the workplace. Gaining commitment, nurturing talent, and ensuring employee motivation and productivity require open communication and trust between managers and staff.

1. Understand their behaviour

People at work naturally tend to adopt instinctive modes of behaviour that are self-protective rather than open and collaborative. This explains why emotion is a strong force in the workplace and why management often reacts violently to criticisms and usually seeks to control rather than take risks. So, in order to eliminate this kind of perspective and to increase employee motivation, it is best that you influence behaviour rather than to change personalities. Insisting what you expect from your employees will only worsen the situation.

2. Be sure that people’s lower-level needs are met.

People have various kinds of needs. Examples of lower-level needs are salary, job security, and working conditions. In order to increase employee motivation, you have to meet these basic needs. Consequently, failures with basic needs nearly always explain dissatisfaction among staff. Satisfaction, on the other hand, springs from meeting higher-level needs, such as responsibility progress, and personal growth. When satisfaction is met, chances are employee motivation is at hand.

3. Encourage pride

People need to feel that their contribution is valued and unique. If you are a manager, seek to exploit this pride in others, and be proud of your own ability to handle staff with positive results. This, in turn, will encourage employee motivation among your people.

4. Listen carefully

In many areas of a manager’s job, from meetings and appraisals to telephone calls, listening plays a key role. Listening encourages employee motivation and, therefore, benefits both you and your staff. So make an effort to understand people’s attitudes by careful listening and questioning and by giving them the opportunity to express themselves.

5. Build confidence

Most people suffer from insecurity at some time. The many kinds of anxiety that affect people in organizations can feed such insecurity, and insecurity impedes employee motivation. Your antidote, therefore, is to build confidence by giving recognition, high-level tasks, and full information. In doing so, you only not refurbish employee motivation but boost productivity as well.

6. Encourage contact

Many managers like to hide away behind closed office doors, keeping contact to a minimum. That makes it easy for an administrator, but hard to be a leader. It is far better to keep your office door open and to encourage people to visit you when the door is open. Go out of your way to chat to staff on an informal basis. Keep in mind that building rapport with your staff will effectively increase employee motivation.

7. Use the strategic thinking of all employees.

It is very important to inform people about strategic plans and their own part in achieving the strategies. Take trouble to improve their understanding and to win their approval, as this will have a highly positive influence on performance and increasing employee motivation as well.

8. Develop trust

The quality and style of leadership are major factors in gaining employee motivation and trust. Clear decision making should be coupled with a collaborative, collegiate approach. This entails taking people into your confidence and explicitly and openly valuing their contributions. By simply giving your staff the opportunity to show that you can trust them is enough to increase employee motivation among them.

9. Delegate decisions

Pushing the power of decision-making downward reduces pressure on senior management. It motivates people on the lower levels because it gives them a vote of confidence. Also, because the decision is taken nearer to the point of action, it is more likely to be correct. Consequently, by encouraging them to choose their own working methods, make decisions, and giving them responsibility for meeting the agreed goal will encourage employee motivation among your staff.

10. Appraising to motivate

When choosing methods of assessing your staff’s performance, always make sure that the end result has a positive effect on employee motivation and increases people’s sense of self-worth. Realistic targets, positive feedback, and listening are key factors.

If you follow these simple steps in increasing employee motivation, rest assured you will have a good working relationship with your staff at the same time boost you company’s productivity. Just bear in mind that people are employed to get good results for the company. Their rates of success are intrinsically linked to how they are directed, reviewed, rewarded, trusted, and motivated by the management.