Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive coaching

tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want to be perceived.

I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking

about keeping repeated material fresh. Richard, head of engineering for a consumer products company, had to inform offices from Singapore

to Siberia about new processes and procedures.

Being fairly introverted, he felt robotic and awkward after just three presentations.

The fourth time out, he gave an uncomfortable performance that left his audience more glazed

than a day old donut, and he still had half the world to go.

Ellie is an exuberant trainer for a leisure service company.

Every week she delivers the new employee orientation and a time management course.

Recently after a break, she couldn't remember which material she was delivering.

Her slides answered that question for her, but she couldn't remember if she'd already covered the slide that was up,

or if that was the one she should begin with after the break. She had been on autopilot in front of a

group of living-breathing participants, and it freaked her out.

Alan is a dynamic salesperson for a global software company.

He loves his job.

But recently he felt he delivered the same slides in the same way for so long.

He couldn't tell any more if he was any good.

He got so self-conscious about his performance, he became anxious, something he hadn't experienced in a dozen years.

His anxiety began to spiral out of control to the point where he began dreading, presenting.

Each of these three smart high-performing professionals had to deliver the same material over and over,

and they didn't know how to turn it to their advantage.

...