Pitching Your Good Ideas

An under-appreciated leadership skill is the ability to persuade others – quickly and naturally – to support your ideas.

Leaders spend a huge amount of effort working to convince their supporters, staff and peers to provide money, staff and other types of resources to the areas and interests they deem most worthy.

Those who learn to frame their arguments most clearly and convincingly not only make good use of their own energy, but gain personal influence and get results.

The essence of this skill is the ability to refine your ideas down to a simple “pitch” that is easy for anyone to understand and everyone to appreciate. Pitching is most noticable when you’re “getting sold” something, but in day-to-day business it simply looks like conversations and presentations. Leaders who master the art of the pitch can turn any conversation into an opportunity to achieve greater impact.

Pitching is a skill, not an event. Some ideas will get shot down (and will deserve to), but over the course of your career you’ll have many opportunities and the better you get at it, the more of your ideas can make it.

Being good at pitching means practicing, and choosing people to practice with who don’t take pleasure in your failure, but build you up. No one’s really born with this skill, it takes some personal development.

But when you get good at it:

• You gain more influence.
• You get better results.
• You become known for your ideas.

Watch this short video for 4 tips to get your ideas heard.

 

Learn the art of the good pitch in a safe and supportive atmosphere. Sign up for 5 Common Mistakes We All Make Pitching Our Ideas - a complimentary webinar provided by my company, Inpower Consulting, this Thursday September 6, 2012 at Noon Eastern time. You'll learn the biggest mistakes we all make and some great ideas for putting your strongest pitches together. Submit in advance to get your idea reviewed in the webinar!  We look forward to seeing you there!