One of the most e-mailed articles in the New York Times a few weeks ago was called “Driven to Worry, and to Procrastinate.” I suspect it was popular because many of us rarely have a work day without frequent interruptions or procrastination.

By Diane Bailey-Boulet
A client recently recommended Peter Bregman’s book 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done (Grand Central Publishing). It helped me recharge and plan to make this year one of my best yet—both professionally and personally.

By guest blogger Andrea MacLeod
It’s January and my favorite store’s e-marketing campaign is out of control. I succumbed to several of their “special offers” during the holidays, and now they are targeting my inbox relentlessly. In an attempt to clear the backlog of last season’s merchandise, they are jeopardizing future full-price sales.

A new book caught my eye; it’s by Suzanne Bates, a local colleague of mine who is a CEO coach and the bestselling author of Speak Like a CEO. The book, Discover Your CEO Brand: Secrets to Embracing and Maximizing Your Unique Value as a Leader, is an essential resource for any leader or emerging leader who “gets” the power of reputation.

• Avoid salesy verbiage. Get rid of words like excited, hot new product, free offer or special pricing.
• Avoid info on your company. No one is interested in your new product announcements or company updates except you.
• Avoid capital letters. Just the first word should be capped. Otherwise it seems like a headline, not a personal message.

• Use a referral. If someone has referred you to this person, put that in your subject line. They'll want to know why. For example, you might write: Terry Jones said to get in touch.
• Ask a quick question. If your prospect feels it's simple and relevant, they'll take a look. Your subject line might read: Quick question re: new client acquisition challenges.
• Tempt with ideas or information. My prospects are always interested in subject lines like this: Idea to reduce your sales cycle time or How XYZ company increased sales to Fortune 500 companies by 127%.
• Mention a trigger event. If something is happening within the company or in their greater business environment that's relevant to your offering, bring that up. For example, if you read about a recent merger, you might write: Impact of XYZ merger on (insert relevant business issue you address.)

By guest blogger Bob Cipriano, facilitator and movie critic

PowerPoint presentations can look a little like movies. Especially when you “vortex” your transitions from slide to slide and “boomerang” your bullet points. But your presentation isn’t a movie, Mr. Spielberg. Nobody showed up to view your animated pageantry or your fiery conclusion.
    
Presentations serve a purpose
Audiences gather for PowerPoint presentations to take something back with them—to be able to do something new or better, make a decision, or get energized. They get that from the words on screen and the words you speak. If PowerPoint presentations get raves, it’s because they’re about your point, your bottom line, and your inspiring words—not your provocative slide transitions.

But if you want to “go Hollywood” with your presentation, fine. Just do it right. Every movie begins with a script.

Writing your script
Step one:  focus on your audience
Ask yourself what you want your audience to do or take away from your presentation. Jot it down. Then ask yourself what those people need from you to be able to act on your words. (Acting requires some motivation. If you’re going to attract, hold, and motivate an audience, your script better relate directly to that audience.) Keep it simple: bullet points speak louder than paragraphs when you’re storyboarding your production.

Step two: sequence your information
Lay out your production in flashback. PowerPoint audiences need to know the ending up front. If not, they get restless.

Step three: transfer to PowerPoint
When you begin to transfer your notes to actual slides, remember that nobody comes to a presentation to read paragraphs. The bullet points you wrote while storyboarding might serve you well on screen. You can and should elaborate as the presenter. Otherwise, you’re just a glorified projectionist.

Step four: design your slides
After the writing comes the production. Build that production around your script, but be subtle. What if your majestic production highlights really do have people buzzing after the production? Is that good? If bulleted lists exploding like “Transformers, the PowerPoint Incident” linger in an audience’s collective consciousness, how will they ever recollect what the bullets actually said?

PowerPoint should enhance your message, not distract from it
Your message is the medium. PowerPoint is the tool. Leave your audience with a written offer they can’t refuse—not a slideshow version of “Apocalypse Now.” Phony action flops. Inspired action gets an extended run.

By guest blogger Navi Vernon

What’s the difference between good business writing and strategic business writing? Well… both are clear, concise, and error free, right? Yes. So, one might assume that a strategically written message adds something else to the mix? Yes, again! But what might that be…? Stumped? Maybe an example will help.

Business writing course graduates from an intact team contacted us recently to help set team standards for effective e-mail subject lines. Below are their questions.

We all have pet peeves—minor annoyances that consistently irritate us, even though others are unfazed. Many of my pet peeves involve writing, and high on my list is the incorrect use of the word “insure.” Unless your message refers to “compensation if a person dies or property is damaged” (www.oxforddictionaries.com), the word you should use is ensure. Two easy tricks will help you eliminate this particular grammatical faux pas:

We asked Srini Pillay, CEO of NeuroBusiness Group, about the intersection of neuroscience and business writing. He shared his insights on this new frontier of understanding below.