I spent the weekend working with a good friend of mine, helping her to prepare for an interview. As part of the interview process for a graduate trainee role she had to give a three minute presentation on why she would be suitable for the role. We worked together to write the presentation, rehearsed it, timed it, re-wrote, re-timed and over 4 days maintained that practice until we were happy with it. She agve the presentation to the interview panel, on a buzzer timer and ended the presentation with "Thank you for listening, the buzzer will sound in three, two, one.....BUZZ". The audience apparently loved it, collapsing in gales of laughter, commenting that she had obviously been practicing. In fact they loved it so much that they offered her the job within 24 hours and even changed their plans of wanting someone to start immediately to allow her time to hand in her notice and take a holiday.
I like this because it highlights one of the crucial aspects of business that is often overlooked. There is a terribly trite saying, "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail" but as with many trite saying there is some truth in it. Being prepared, knowing what is expected of you and how to deal with it, understanding the situation and the implications of each action or in-action, being clear about your goals and objectives and so on all put you in a stronger position with a better chance of success. There is no such thing as being over-prepared, although as a small caveat, there is such as thing as being over-confident, being cocky and obnoxious. Confidence through preparedness is a positive thing but it must be tempered with humility and a quiet self-assurance.
get it right, and it can be a wonderful thing.....
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