First published 1 April 2024 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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It's a short one, under nine minutes, because Nigel had something to get off his chest. He'd been unwell the week before, knew it, and still went ahead with a presentation he was booked to give. In his words, he sucked. The feedback was good anyway, which he puts down to the other speakers not being much cop (he was ruder than that).
His point was simple enough. If you're not feeling right, it shows. You don't bring the same energy, and that might be the only time those people ever see you. He reckons he should have had the courage to tell the client he wasn't on form and move it. It might have cost him money, or a bit of ego. And the rest of his day went the same way. By the time he got to his hotel in Manchester he was short with the staff, who'd done nothing wrong.
I brought in the idea that the gap between your potential and your performance is the interference. Anything that throws you off your game. I'd had a small dose of it myself at an event, when halfway through someone decided to cut the grass right outside the window on a sit-on mower. Everyone in the room could hear it. The event staff got it switched off, but for a minute nobody was listening to the people inside.
So I asked Nigel what the lesson was for anyone who isn't a speaker. Take a personal day if you need one. If there's a presentation or a report due, ask for 24 hours. Your mood spreads round an office too. But the bit that bothered him most was that he teaches this. If he'd been coaching someone who did what he did, he'd have asked them why they were doing it.
What I took from this one
- If you're wondering whether you can get away with it, you can't.
- When you're off form people can see it, and that might be the only time they ever see you.
- Moving a booking might cost you money or a bit of ego. Going ahead badly can cost you the next booking.
- Notice the tap on the shoulder early, before it knocks you over.
- A bad mood at work doesn't stay with you. It spreads to the people around you.
If you think, "I wonder if I can get away with it," the answer is you can't.
Nigel Risner
What is the difference between your potential and your performance? It's the interference that gets in the middle.
Neil Martin
