“How to Wow an Audience - Every Time”

Martha Burgess, 51, is the cofounder of Theatre Techniques for Business People Inc.

The men and women in her classes don't want to become actors. They want to borrow some of acting's best practices so they can inject more energy and flair into their professional lives. It's a worthwhile goal: In an economy of more - more ads, more email, more meetings - the only scarce commodity is attention. If you want to get people's attention, whether during a formal presentation, a casual conversation, or a chance meeting on an airplane, you have to offer a compelling performance.

"If you want to be persuasive," argues Martha Burgess, "you have to generate a high level of energy, without all the anxiety. It's energy that makes you visible, that gives you presence. I call it 'performance energy,' and it's the basis of dynamic leadership." 

"We teach you how to call up the best you for a specific situation," says Burgess. "There is nothing artificial about it. Performance energy is an authentic part of who you are. You just have to access it."

To do that, Burgess uses a trigger exercise. First, choose an image, such as a mountain- top or a rising thermometer, as a trigger - your personal stimulus. Then, five times a day for six weeks, physically raise your energy level by, for example, running in place until you're breathing heavily. At that point, stop abruptly, shut your eyes, and focus on your trigger. After six weeks, Burgess promises that this response will be so ingrained that you'll be able to energize yourself by simply focusing on the trigger image.

Want to learn more about Burgess's techniques?  To read the entire article, click here. 

“Surprising Health Tips for Women” 

Although the readership of Leadership Matters includes both men and women, here are some health mistakes more often made by those of us persons of the female gender.  Men, feel free to share this information with the important women in your life. 

“When you have your health, you have everything.” (author unknown)

According to the authors of the October 2005 issue of First Draft, smart women might be jeopardizing their health by:

• Always ordering salad.  It sounds healthy when you order it and it makes you feel good that you’ve avoided ordering a high-fat burger and opted instead for something that is supposedly better for you – but that’s not necessarily true.  Lots of salads in restaurants are loaded with more fat than those notorious fat-laden fast-food sandwiches.  You think that at least you’re getting your fiber, right?  Well, maybe not, according to dietitians.  They say that many salads offered at restaurants contain very little fiber.  If you’re eating iceberg lettuce with a token amount of carrots and red cabbage, you’re not getting the amount of fiber that you need.  Many salads also contain high levels of sodium.  Recommendations: choose salads that contain lots of vegetables, and go easy on the cheese.  Ask for low- or nonfat dressing because the dressing can be the fat culprit.  Salads can be healthy, if you make the right choices.

• Never stepping on a scale.  This belongs to the “if I don’t see it I won’t believe it” category.  Many women have anxiety about their weight, and they’d rather just not know than suffer the guilt they feel when they see the actual number in front of them.  But that kind of avoidance can keep the information out of your head and allow you to live in denial – and being overweight can affect your body in many negative ways.  Recommendation: step on the scale and face up to whatever the reading tells you.  Then do something about it if your weight makes you unhappy.

• “Forgetting” to floss.  It doesn’t take long to floss your teeth, but most women probably do not understand how important flossing is to their overall health.  The reality is that 23 percent of women between the ages of 30 and 54 have severe gum disease and 44 percent of women over 55 have it, according to the American Academy of Periodontology.  What most people don’t know is that gum disease is a serious bacterial infection.  It’s the No. 1 cause of tooth loss in the United States, but it can cause even more serious problems.  When the bacteria enter your bloodstream, they can cause chronic inflammation of organs.  Researchers now suspect that gum disease is causing some case of heart disease, stroke, cancer and premature births.  Recommendation: floss your teeth once a day.

• Avoid training with weights.  Many women don’t work out with weights because they don’t want to build up their muscles “too much.”  But the truth is that most women don’t have the physical capability of bulking up too much, because they don’t have enough testosterone in their bodies – and they don’t have time to spend working out enough to make that happen.  Lifting weights helps increase bone mass and reduce belly far – reducing your risk for developing osteoporosis, diabetes and heart disease.  Recommendation:  add weight training to your exercise routine.

• Ignoring aches and pains.  Lots of women just keep going on because, well, they just have too much to do.  They ignore symptoms, sometimes for weeks or months, that are indicative of heart attacks, strokes or cancer because they don’t have time to “coddle” themselves.  Recommendation:  make it a priority to have regular medical checkups and contact your physician if you have any symptoms that might indicate a change in your body. 

• Not getting enough sleep.  Sleep deprivation can cause all types of problems.  For instance, irregular sleep can add to weight problems or cause anxiety.  And tired people have more accidents.  Recommendation: try to get that amount of sleep that enables you to function well. 

These health tips were adapted from “Six Stupid Health Mistakes” by Amanda Spake and Stacey Schulz, on Prevention.com

I’m going to jump on the scale and do a little weight lifting as I held out for a healthy salad, after which I’ll floss my teeth and take a siesta.  I’ve already had my yearly check-up with my doctor, and I’m symptom-free, so I’m good to go. 

However, the most important thing that I’m going to do today is to make a financial contribution to a well known organization on behalf of the victims of hurricane Katrina.  I hope you’ll all do the same.

By: Jane Storm