PARAGON STRATEGIES

An Important Note on Presentation Skills: Self-Handicapping

Sometimes, due to circumstances beyond our control, we may feel that we cannot give our audience the best possible presentation that we can deliver. Thus, some of us are likely to open our speech with something like this:

    "Before I begin, I just want to point out that I've had a cold for the past few days so my head's a little cloudy.”

Or,    “Before I begin, let me say that I didn't get much sleep the last few nights, so I'm really tired. So if it's not the best thing in the world, please bear with me."

Or some other variation explaining why we can't deliver to the best of our capacity.

Psychologists call these sorts of statements, self-handicapping, which is essentially an excuse-making strategy designed to establish a no-lose situation. After all, how can someone expect you to succeed with all of those obstacles in your way? And should you succeed, then you would have proven how amazingly skilled you are in overcoming so much adversity.

However, research has shown that self-handicapping can actually influence our public performances negatively.   

 

Five things you should know about procrastination

Dr. Joseph Ferrari and Dr. Timothy Pychyl – two of the world’s leading experts on procrastination—share five things they have discovered about procrastination based on  years of psychological research:

 

1. Procrastinators like to tell lies to themselves. They often say, “I’ll feel more like doing this tomorrow,” or, “I work best under pressure.” However, research shows that more often than not, this is not the case. In fact, they do not get the urge to work better the next day, nor do they work best under pressure. In addition, procrastinators like to defend their sense of self by saying, “this isn’t important” and that time pressure makes them more creative.  Unfortunately, they do not turn out to be more creative—they only feel that way.

 

2. Procrastinators are made not born. Research shows that it is learned in the family milieu, but not directly. One popular stream of research suggests that procrastination is a response to an authoritarian parenting style. That is, having a harsh, controlling parental figure keeps children from developing the ability to regulate themselves – and procrastination is essentially an issue of self-regulation. This is why it comes as no surprise that among those people who drink, those who procrastinate tend to consume higher levels of alcohol than average – providing evidence that procrastinators generally have problems with their self-regulation.

 

3. Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don't take a lot of commitment on their part. Checking e-mail is almost perfect for this purpose. They distract themselves as a way of regulating their emotions such as fear of failure.

 

4. People procrastinate for different reasons, but Dr. Ferrari identifies three basic types of procrastinators:

·         Arousal types or thrill-seekers -- those who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.

·         Avoiders – these are the procrastinators who choose to delay because they fear failure. Interestingly, these people are also very concerned with what others think of them; in fact, they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.

·         Decisional procrastinators – these are procrastinators who cannot make a decision. By not making a decision, procrastinators absolve themselves of the responsibility for the outcome of events.

 

5. Procrastination is often associated with increased health risks. Research with college students show that those who procrastinate are more likely to have a weaker immune system: Just over the course of a single academic term, students who procrastinate tend to have more colds, flu and gastrointestinal problems than students who don’t procrastinate. Furthermore, college students who procrastinate often report having more incidents of insomnia compared to those who don’t.

2 Killer Mistakes To Avoid in Social Media Marketing

People are flocking to social media sites in droves, and for good reason.  Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook and Twitter are fast becoming a primary method of “prospecting” for customers for your business. 

 

Indeed, social media can be an extremely effective way to get more people to take a look at your business opportunity

 

But it must be done right.

There are 2 major mistakes that I see people doing repeatedly in Social Media:

Who's Using Facebook? Latest Demographic Analysis Shows Older People are Joining the Bandwagon.

In their most recent analysis of the Facebook demographic, iStrategyLab found that there has been a staggering increase in the number of 55+ users on facebook. There are now over 6 million users on facebook within the 55+ bracket, with total growth of 513.7% in the last six months alone.

 

The study also found that majority of Facebook users fall within the 35-54 age bracket, comprising 28.2% of the Facebook population.

 

As of today, there are 71.9 million users on Facebook, compared to 42.1 million as of 6 months ago. That’s 70.8% growth within the last six months. Atlanta, Los Angeles and Houston are the top three cities experiencing the fastest growth in terms of user subscription within the last six months.

 

Surprisingly, the report found that the number of high school and college users has dropped by 20%. It has been speculated that these users are being alienated by their parents joining the service, which could possibly explain the reduction in membership among this user group. However, some also speculate that these users are simply in transition – that is, they are no longer affiliated with the High School or College level because they have graduated. Taken from this perspective, the reduction in number does not represent true drops in volume, but rather the result of people updating their demographic information.

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Source:
Corbett, P. (2009). 2009 facebook demographics and statistics report: 513% growth in 55+ year old users/ college & high school drop 20%. Retrieved here.

 

 

Case Study: Using Twitter for Innovative Recruiting

Little more than nine months ago, at digital advertising agency Organic, we began to incorporate Twitter into our social media recruiting strategy. We held a “Twitter Twaining” with our recruiters, introducing them to capabilities of the network, along with helpful accompanying apps and instruction on how to search for key talent.

They ran with it, and in a short time, Twitter has become the anchor of Organic’s job posting strategy. In fact, today more than three-quarters of our jobs are placed solely on social media sites such as Twitter (along with LinkedIn, Facebook and, of course, the company Web site). Only a quarter of our postings are posted on traditional job boards such as Coroflot, Mediabistro, Monster and TalentZoo.

Why are we weaning ourselves from traditional job boards?

Simple: We get results from social networking tools with no expense. Every day we discover new and innovative ways to use social media for our recruiting efforts.