Learn a Flexible Management Style

Ever struggle with how to manage someone?
Ever discover your style isn’t perfect?!

Well, ever tried ’round penning’ a horse?  This exercise helped a sales manager evaluate her management style.

An EAL (Equine Assisted Learning) participant’s job during this exercise is to get a horse to circle the perimeter of the pen, following their guidance. Sounds easy, right?

There are a few challenges that present themselves when round penning. Firstly, a participant is alone during this task. This can prove intimidating for people who are new with large animals. Secondly, each horse has unique behavioural quirks that can help or hinder the person guiding them, depending on their personality. Some horses are hard to move forward, others are hard to slow down. In all cases, the goal of this exercise is to reach a point where the horse walks at a person’s shoulder, at mirror paces.

While this exercise is completed, facilitators offer their guidance as needed. Some participants require more encouragement to get their horses moving. Some are naturals out of the gate, and are left to their own devices

One day, during the recap session of this exercise, a confident sales manager was the first to speak. She said she learned something that amazed her and would change her management style going forward.  She mentioned that her approach to leadership in the work place is typically hiring people and allowing them to do their jobs. Since she hires capable people, she had thus far assumed that her input was not necessary.

She was both amazed and inspired at the instructor’s selective involvement with their participants.

The leadership style that the sales manager embodied is known as laissez-faire, while the style embodied by the facilitators is referred to as participative. There are three generally cited styles of leadership, the third being autocratic. While each style has its own advantages and disadvantages, participative leadership (also known as “democratic” leadership) is generally thought to be the most effective at creating a healthy work environment.

Here’s why.

First, let’s start off with the manager’s style of instruction: laissez-faire. A laissez-faire leader lacks direct supervision of employees. While highly experienced employees can thrive under this type of leadership, new comers and young workers may find themselves struggling. A lack of regular feedback can ultimately lead to poor production and a lack of control over a work environment. Visit original source...


Contact Details:
Mustang PPD
13-4211 Millcroft Park Dr,
Burlington, Ontario
Zip Code: L7M 3Y9
Business Phone: 416-220-9671
Business E-mail: aileenmcnabb@mustangppd.com

Trump and Spicer: How to Misuse Presentation Props

Props are a great presentation tool.

Both Donald Trump and Sean Spicer recently used props in presentations. Donald Trump’s prop was probably effective, at least among his supporters.  But in my opinion it was misleading and therefore not honest.  We don’t want to be dishonest in our presentations, or sales processes even unintentionally.

I believe Sean Spicer’s use of a prop was both misleading and ineffective.  It’s unlikely he intended either of those results.

Props can help a presentation in several ways:

1.They can make a point concrete.
2.They can have an emotional impact.
3.They can be effective metaphors.
4.They can inject humour into a presentation.
5.They focus the audience’s attention and interest.
6.They are memorable.


My favourite presentation skills vendor is Corporate Visions.  In their list of top five selling techniques that work, here’s number 5:

  5.Using 3D Props (Corporate Visions)

There are many ways to tell a story. But one extremely effective – and underutilized – technique is to use 3D props. Props break the pattern of what’s expected – and can make the prospect sit up and pay attention. Props make a metaphor or analogy tangible. Props create a physical reminder and can continue selling even when you’ve left the room.

Mr. Trump

In President Trump’s speech to congress on February 28, he effectively used a powerful 3D prop – People.

Four of Mr. Trump’s guests were family members of people who, authorities said, were killed by immigrants living in the United States illegally.

Regardless of the fact that immigrants are statistically less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans (Pérez-Peña, 2017), no families of people killed by Americans were guests.  If they had been, their numbers would have been proportionately much greater than Mr. and Mrs. Trump’s chosen guests.  Now this can be taken as a political opinion; but here it’s meant as an evaluation of a powerful presentation tool – props.

When you use props in your presentations, you will naturally use those that are likely to be most effective.  That just makes sense.  And from Trump’s perspective, his props (guests) probably did just that.  But I believe it gave an inaccurate visual to the audience.

Was Mr. Trump’s use of a prop inaccurate to the point of misleading?  And how dangerous can that be?

Well, there’s the possibility of hate being generated against immigrants.  Fear is a powerful motivator, as is a ‘common enemy’.  The presentation of these guests as props could contribute to a view of immigrants as the enemy, and potentially even hate crimes.  Mr. Trump would not have intended that.

Even if a prop is accidentally inaccurate, the results can be significant.  The poor use of a 2D visual aid, or prop may have had a significant causal effect on the Challenger disaster.  Information designer Edward Tufte has claimed that the Challenger accident is an example of the problems that can occur from the lack of clarity in the presentation of information.

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger (OV-099) (mission STS-51-L) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight,
leading to the deaths of its seven crew members, which included five NASA astronauts and two Payload Specialists. (from Wikipedia).

From Tog on Software Design

The Challenger: An Information Disaster:

Why did the space shuttle Challenger explode? Many people assume it was because of poorly-functioning O rings on the booster rocket. However, those O rings didn’t send that ship up on a cold winter’s morn. Continue reading here...


Contact Details:
Mustang PPD
13-4211 Millcroft Park Dr,
Burlington, Ontario
Zip Code: L7M 3Y9
Business Phone: 416-220-9671
Business E-mail: aileenmcnabb@mustangppd.com