the presentation better had you worked harder

Employee Appreciation , Employee Engagement , Employee Recognition , Relationships , Workplace

103 examples of workplace recognition to boost employee engagement.

HR Managers and Directors understand employee recognition is one of the most important areas to keep up with in the workplace. Employee recognition can help with many companies’ greatest concerns such as diversity and inclusion and employee motivation . Most of all, employee recognition feeds employee engagement, which leads to increased happiness.

Employee Recognition Ideas To Boost Workplace Engagement

Despite the essential nature of recognition, it tends to get forgotten during busy or otherwise stressful times. That’s why we created this guide with over 100 employee recognition examples! Browse our list broken up by topic area to learn how to appreciate your employees for various reasons such as a successful presentation, stellar performance, and more. Get inspired, go forth, and share some of these employee recognition ideas with others in your company!

Table of Contents: Recognition by Topic Area

• Achievements
• Presentations

Recognition for Hard Work

Let industrious employees know how much you appreciate them. Use one of these 22 examples to reward employees with recognition. We outline different things you can say to recognize employees for their work. Simple comments like these can improve employee morale significantly! 

• Your results speak for themselves. You put in the hard work, and you succeeded as a result.
• The pride you take in your work inspires us all to work harder and do better.
• Your dedication to seeing everything through to the finish is incomparable and made the difference in getting us to the finish line.
• You bring energy to even the most mundane of projects and tasks. The whole group benefits as a result of your passion.
• I never cease to be impressed by your work and your work ethic. Thank you for the leadership you provide within the team through your example.
• The work you have done so far has been amazing. Keep pushing forward. We are almost there!
• You always make my job easy. I never have to be concerned about the quality of work you complete. It’s always excellent the first time, every time.
• I’ve given you a tremendous amount of work these past few weeks and you have come through as I knew you would. You have proved, yet again, that my faith in your abilities is not misplaced.
• I both recognize and appreciate your incredibly dedicated efforts on the project. We are making great progress because of your dedication.
• It’s amazing how you find ways to overcome any obstacle on your path to success. You simply find a way to work harder and you overcome challenges as a result.
• Thank you for volunteering and taking on more work when your plate was already full. You never stray away from responsibility or hard work.
• The amount of positive feedback I get on your performance is amazing –– you guide the way for us all.
• Thanks so much for being there when I needed the help –– the project wouldn’t have come together had you not provided that missing piece.
• You have a true commitment to quality that shines through everything you do. I know it does not happen without hard work and I am grateful for it.
• Your self-motivation and dedication to the quality and integrity of our work inspires us all to do more.
• Keep up the great work. What you are doing is really paying off!
• Wow! What’s your secret? You get done more in a day than most do in a week!
• I’m not sure how this place ever functioned without you! I’m so glad to have you on the team!
• We couldn’t have completed that project without your ingenuity and industrious spirit.  I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have you on our team and can’t wait for the next project we can crush together!
• Thank you for your initiative on the project. Your dedication to not only get it going but see it through to the end made the whole effort an unqualified success.
• You always find a way to get it done and done well! I always know it will go well if we have you as part of the mix.
• I’ve decided I don’t think there is anything you can’t do. It certainly doesn’t matter what we throw at you –– you come through!

These employee recognition examples are a great jumping off point for complimenting your employees on their work. Don’t let hard work go unnoticed!

Recognition for Achievements

Employees in your workplace with stellar performance? Maybe they completed their degree program or finished a major project. Trust us when we say they will appreciate the employee recognition more than you realize. Recognize them with one of these 16 ideas to promote employee engagement in your workplace. 

• You are a winner and I love being along for the ride! I knew that you could do it. A big congratulations on graduating. I can’t wait to see what you’ll do next!
• I knew you would get the certification! I know a lot of work went into making it look easy.
• Congratulations on passing –– and the first time too! You inspire me and the whole department with your dedication to improving yourself.
• I saw you putting in the extra hours and now they have paid off with this promotion. You showed that getting to the top is not done in an elevator but by climbing all the steps.
• Congratulations for being recognized by management!
• Thanks for the extra effort with that client –– your work made the whole company look good. I know we would not have retained the client without you.
• Way to make it happen! Your efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.
• Your preparation on the project made all the difference in the world. Coming in on time and on budget was not luck but the result of your careful planning.
• This latest release is OUTSTANDING! Congratulations for getting to the finish line. The design is gorgeous and intuitive.
• The new model you built is incredible. I know that an enormous amount of thought went into putting it together, and the whole firm will benefit as a result.
• Congratulations on your work anniversary. When I look around the company I see your fingerprints everywhere, and we are all the better for it.
• The new website is amazing! We all love it and it really shows off our brand just as we wanted it to. I know there were a lot of moving parts to get us to where we are, and I’m impressed it all went so well.
• Great work on the company retreat. So many details had to be attended to and the whole thing went off without a hitch. We all learned so much and had a good time.
• Congratulations on a successful conversion of our healthcare plan. I know that it required countless hours of effort and an enormous attention to detail. I want you to know that we all greatly appreciate the fact that you look after us so well.
• I can’t believe we survived the conversion! New systems are daunting but you took on the project and ensured we were all prepared, and I am grateful that we had you running it all. Well done!
• Our latest campaign is fun and inspiring and makes me proud to talk to friends, family and colleagues about our company. Your creative designs and clever messaging really take us to the next level!

Achievements deserve recognition, especially when hard work is put into them. Show your employees you see their efforts with these employee recognition ideas. 

Recognition for Presentations

Presentations can be nerve-wracking! Not everyone likes to speak in front of a crowd. Not to mention, presentations typically take hours of work to put together. Use one of these 8 employee recognition examples to praise employee presenters. 

• The presentation was spot-on! The client loved it and your work really made the whole company look good. Thank you for the hard work that went into not just the content but rehearsing to ensure that the delivery was perfect.
• You totally crushed it! The presentation was an unqualified success. I know you put in the hours and it shows.
• You burned the midnight oil to pull that presentation together and the results speak for themselves.
• You have more than earned this opportunity and you demonstrated it in the meeting. You utterly commanded that room. I felt proud to be part of your team!
• You put in the two things that this presentation needed to succeed –– time and attention to detail. Then you went in front of a less-than-friendly crowd and nailed it. Way to go!
• You take creativity to a new whole new level. The presentation and all the materials were super engaging.
• Your presentation to the company got us excited to be part of this great organization all over again! Thanks for allowing us to come out of our everyday work to be inspired by what we do.
• You brought that whole room together with your inspiring story and passionate words. I was grateful to be part of the audience.

Use these employee recognition examples for after their presentation to show your genuine appreciation . Your employee will feel proud of their success and use the confidence to continue producing high-quality work.

Recognition for Sales

Have a sales team in need of some appreciation? Sales are what drive any company. Don’t forget to recognize hard working employees in the sales department. Here are 10 awesome employee engagement ideas to jumpstart their motivation . 

• You have a unique ability to identify and capitalize on opportunity. Congrats on the sale!
• Congratulations on blasting through your numbers for the quarter. I’m not surprised, but I have to admit, I’m still impressed!
• Nice job landing the account! I know you’ve been working on it for months, and your hard work and perseverance paid off. The client loves you and it shows.
• Your numbers inspire us all! Keep up the great work.
• Your insight was spot on and the client obviously agreed. Thanks for sealing the deal.
• When others were ready to admit defeat, you refused to fail which led to our ultimate success. We are fortunate to have someone who not only perseveres but is creative and innovative in sales.
• You turn even the most unlikely of prospects into a fantastic client! Way to make it happen when no one else thought it could be done.
• Whoa! Those numbers are incredible. I know there is a tremendous amount of hard work both inside and outside the office that went into them. Way to bring the company up a notch! You are setting a new standard for us all.
• Congratulations on your first sale! I’m sure this is just the first of many!
• I’m completely blown away by your performance at the sales conference this month. 

These 10 employee recognition examples for the sales team can be used to boost employee morale and engagement . In fact, according to employee engagement statistics found on HubSpot, 69% of employees say that they would work harder if their bosses appreciated their efforts more.

Recognition for Teamwork

Looking to keep your team’s morale up with employee recognition ? Try one of these 15 examples of positive employee feedback to appreciate the teamwork being shown at your company. 

• Your ability to work well with absolutely everyone is a very rare quality, and I am grateful that you chose to work with us and bring that to the company. 
• I can’t believe how fortunate I am to work with you. I always know that you will have my back and any part of the job you handle will be a success.
• Way to make an impression on the team with your incredible work ethic and ability to bring them all together!
• Having you on the team makes a huge difference. We all know we can get there with your support.
• It’s amazing how you are always available to get others and especially new employees up to speed.
• I’m always impressed how you treat everyone with the same respect and positive attitude. You genuinely embody the company’s spirit and our core values in everything you do and you inspire us all to do the same!
• No matter the task or the project, you see it through from beginning to end, and you make sure everyone does their part.
• Our success is due in no small part to your contributions.
• Your winner’s attitude is contagious, and the whole team is benefiting from it.
• Your efforts to lead and strengthen our culture do not go unnoticed! It is not easy to approach each day with the positive attitude you bring.
• Thanks for leading the charge for good vibes within the team and the company.
• I can count on you to ensure the team is working together well.
• Not a day goes by that I am not grateful to have you and your consistent quality on our team.
• Not only did you step in to help when your coworker was out, you did it without a fuss and things ran incredibly smoothly. I know you only made it look easy. 
• Taking on any new task at work is always daunting, but I have confidence when I know you are on my team.
• Thanks for being there for me today. You’re the best teammate a person could hope for!

Promote employee retention with these simple employee recognition examples. A little effort to appreciate others goes a long way in the workplace. According to The Muse, highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their place of work, compared to disengaged employees.

Recognition for Kindness

Trying to grow your workplace friendships ? Connect with one of these 12 employee recognition ideas. Kindness often goes unrecognized in the workplace, but its effects are monumental. Appreciate employees who go above and beyond to show kindness to others.

• Thanks so much for making me feel better today. You’re a great coworker (and cheerleader.)
• You consistently go the extra mile for not just work but your co-workers. It’s impressive and inspiring.
• I count myself lucky to work in an office with such a caring person. You’re simply the best!
• Thanks so much for covering for me when my wife had surgery. It meant the world to me to be there for her while not worrying about what was going on back at work.
• Thanks for letting them know what I did for the project. You didn’t have to share the credit, but you generously did and I am very grateful for it.
• I wanted to say thank you for all you did to help me get promoted. Your spirit of fair play and teamwork makes this company great.
• I’m very grateful for the role you play in supporting me to be my best; it is genuinely appreciated.
• I love all of the projects I’ve been getting to work on with you. Thanks for your invaluable input and for always pushing me to be the best I can be.
• Thanks so much for taking over my projects and my clients while I was out. I can’t believe how well everything is going. I really owe you one!
• Thank you for getting my computer back up and running so quickly! You are a total life saver.
• Your ability to connect with people is something that can’t be taught. Thanks for finding a way to connect with each and every new hire so they can feel instantly comfortable and start bringing their best to the table right away.
• Thanks for the pep talk! I feel so much better about our next steps and how I can move forward and make it all work. I’m fortunate to have your guidance.

Show kindness to those who have shown it to you by applying these employee appreciation ideas in your office.

Recognition for a Mentor

Want to recognize your boss or other work mentors? Mentors play very important roles in the development of other employees. Show your appreciation with these 20 employee recognition ideas for mentors.

• Thank you for creating a positive environment within our department. 
• I’m always impressed how you treat the team with such high respect. This makes us all rise to the occasion because we know we are valued, so we want to bring our very best.
• Your healthy perspective on what is truly important inspires all of us.
• You don’t just support us in work ––  you make us feel like we matter. It’s hard to find that quality in anyone, let alone a manager!
• As a leader you make us all feel secure, but as a person, you make us all feel understood. The combination makes you a truly exceptional leader.
• You have set the bar incredibly high for any boss or supervisor I may have in the future. I always know I can bring any situation to you and you will take the time to help me find the best solution.
• You’re an inspiration to this team. Your leadership and vision are rare, and I always trust that you’ll guide us in the right direction.
• I feel privileged to have the opportunity to work with and learn from you every day.
• Your personal commitment to excellence inspires others to fulfill a greater potential than they even knew they had.  
• Thank you for reminding us all to stop and enjoy the little things –– even while we push hard to meet our goals.
• Your ability to listen creates an environment where people feel respected and are empowered to help each other.
• We always know that your motivations are entirely to achieve what is best for us and for the company. That is a rare quality.
• Your approach to exemplary work is second to none. Much of our success is due to your dedication, skill, and hard work. I appreciate your time and all the things you do to keep everything running smoothly. 
• Your support of our lives outside of the office makes this company a different place to work than any other I know.
• Thank you for turning your unique perspective into a vision that we can all support and work toward. I’m so proud to be part of this journey with you!
• When others rush into new ventures, your careful assessment of the whole situation makes our work superior.
• As Simon Sinek says, “A boss has the title, a leader has the people.” Thanks for being our leader.
• I’ve grown so much over the past year and much is thanks to you and your efforts to get me there. I can’t wait to see where the next year will take me. Thanks for being such a great leader and a great boss.
• I’m grateful for you pushing me to do more because I would not be where I am today in my career without it.
• You have my immense thanks for all of the support you’ve given me. Your guidance and encouragement have helped me get to where I am today. Working with you is truly a pleasure.

Recognize mentors’ work in growing co-workers by giving them verbal appreciation. Everyone loves the feeling they get when a superior compliments them on their efforts at work –– mentors included.

Improving Employee Engagement – outside of Recognition

Workplace recognition is valuable, no matter how it is executed. Taking time to share your appreciation for a colleague can make a strong impact on improving workplace relationships, and will help you to work better together in the future.

If your team is struggling with employee engagement (as so many remote and hybrid companies are today), there are other strategies you can try to solve for this disconnect. Start with your daily virtual meetings, and the platform you’re using. Chances are, your virtual meetings are often filled with a sea of silent gray boxes. Who knows what your employees are doing back there, or what they’re paying attention to?

Scoot is a new kind of virtual meeting platform designed to help remote and hybrid teams build stronger relationships. Attendees can move around the virtual room, from one conversation to the next, just like you would in real life. This social agency adds movement and mingling to the virtual world, which helps to keep employees engaged, so they can build better relationships.

If your team is suffering from Zoom fatigue, and you would like to break out of the static, silent black boxes for your next meeting, check out the Scoot platform . Or contact us to schedule a demo.

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The Hawthorne effect: How the process of being watched affects our performance

• The Hawthorne effect says that increased observation equals increased productivity.
• This theory explains why we might perform better when our boss is in the room or when we’re working out with others.
• This effect was first observed during a series of experiments, which intended to understand how different factors at work might affect worker performance.
• These researchers altered elements in the work environment like lighting, breaktime, and work hours—and in every case, it resulted in increased productivity.
• They concluded that increased levels of productivity resulted from increased attention, rather than changes in the work environment.
• While current studies fail to reach the same definitive conclusion, many still use this term to describe the effects of observation on our level of performance.

Just recently, I made an interesting discovery at the gym. I’m one of those gymgoers who sticks to what they know they like—I like to run, so I’m basically shackled to a treadmill as soon as I walk in. But, of course, some days are better than others. Some days I can run 4 miles without any breaks in between, while on others I just can’t find the motivation. I began to wonder what contributed to my increase and decrease in motivation: Was it my diet? Did it have to do with my energy levels? Were my muscles tired or sore on the bad days?

Finally, I reached a revelation. One day, I was jogging leisurely when someone started running on the treadmill next to me. As they increased their speed, I did too. And I didn’t let myself stop until they stopped first. Looking at my stats, I saw that I ran my 4 miles and faster than I ever had before. It dawned on me that when other people were nearby, I performed better.

Have you ever had a similar experience? Say, you worked harder at the gym when other people were around, or you were more productive at work when the CEO popped into your office. You can thank the Hawthorne effect for this.

What Is the Hawthorne Effect?

The Hawthorne effect essentially says that we do better when other people are watching us. This was observed during a series of experiments conducted during the 1920s and 1930s at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works electric company. The purpose was to understand how different elements of the work environment—lighting, breaks, and hours spent at work—might affect productivity.

In one experiment, the researchers changed the lighting to see how it affected workers. They found that any change—brightening or dimming of the lights—resulted in increased productivity. Similarly, when the researchers cut out breaks and extended the workday, productivity also increased. Surprised by these results, the researchers finally concluded that the increased levels of productivity resulted from increased attention, rather than the changes made to their environment. The Hawthorne effect now describes improved performance due to one’s being observed.

Does This Theory Hold Up Today?

While we still use this term today to describe increased productivity levels due to our being observed, more recent studies have failed to reach the same conclusion. For example, in looking at the data from this original series of experiments, researchers from the University of Chicago found that other influences played a greater role in productivity levels than the original researchers reported. Furthermore, additional studies have concluded that increased feedback (rather than an increased attention) resulted in greater worker productivity.

That said, psychologists agree that the term “Hawthorne effect” is a generally fair explanation for why we might perform better in the presence of others. And I, for one, have observed this phenomenon in my own life—when I run at the gym, go to work, or even sing in the car with friends!

Published Feb 8, 2019

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Our clinical and medical experts , ranging from licensed therapists and counselors to psychiatric nurse practitioners, author our content, in partnership with our editorial team. In addition, we only use authoritative, trusted, and current sources. This ensures we provide valuable resources to our readers. Read our editorial policy for more information.

Thriveworks was established in 2008, with the ultimate goal of helping people live happy and successful lives. We are clinician-founded and clinician-led. In addition to providing exceptional clinical care and customer service, we accomplish our mission by offering important information about mental health and self-improvement.

We are dedicated to providing you with valuable resources that educate and empower you to live better. First, our content is authored by the experts — our editorial team co-writes our content with mental health professionals at Thriveworks, including therapists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, and more.

We also enforce a tiered review process in which at least three individuals — two or more being licensed clinical experts — review, edit, and approve each piece of content before it is published. Finally, we frequently update old content to reflect the most up-to-date information.

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Conditional

conditional type 3

Intermediate

In a  conditional type 3 sentence, the tense in the 'if' clause is the past perfect, and the tense in the main clause is the perfect conditional or the perfect continuous conditional.

As in all conditional sentences, the order of the clauses is not fixed. You may have to rearrange the pronouns and adjust punctuation when you change the order of the clauses, but the meaning is identical.

• If it had rained, you would have gotten wet.
• You would have gotten wet if it had rained.
• You would have passed your exam if you had worked harder.
• If you had worked harder, you would have passed your exam.
• I would have believed you if you hadn't lied to me before.
• If you hadn't lied to me before, I would have believed you.

The type 3 conditional refers to an impossible condition in the past and its probable result in the past. These sentences are truly hypothetical and unreal, because it is now too late for the condition or its result to exist. There is always some implication of regret with type 3 conditional sentences. The reality is the opposite of, or contrary to, what the sentence expresses. In type 3 conditional sentences, the time is the  past  and the situation is  hypothetical .

• If I had worked harder I would have passed the exam. (But I didn't work hard, and I didn't pass the exam.)
• If I had known you were coming I would have baked a cake. (But I didn't know and I didn't bake a cake.)
• I would have been happy if you had called me on my birthday. (But you didn't call me and I am not happy.)

In type 3 conditional sentences, you can also use modals in the main clause instead of "would" to express the degree of certainty, permission, or a recommendation about the outcome.

• If I had worked harder I might have passed the exam.
• You could have been on time if you had caught the bus.
• If he called you, you could go.
• If you bought my school supplies for me, I might be able to go to the park.

CONTRACTIONS

Both  would  and  had  can be contracted to  'd , which can be confusing if you are not confident with type 3 conditional sentences. Remember 2 rules: 1.  would  never appears in the if-clause  so if  'd  appears in the if clause, it must be abbreviating  had . 2.  had  never appears before  have  so if  'd  appears on a pronoun just before  have , it must be abbreviating  would .

• If  I'd  known you were in hospital,  I'd  have visited you.
• If  I had  known you were in hospital,  I would  have visited you.
• I'd  have bought you a present if  I'd  known it was your birthday.
• I would  have bought you a present if  I had  known it was your birthday.
• If  you'd  given me your e-mail,  I'd  have written to you.
• If  you had  given me your e-mail,  I would  have written to you.

THE PERFECT CONDITIONAL TENSE

The perfect conditional of any verb is composed of three elements: would + have + past participle Have  followed by the past participle is used in other constructions as well. it is called the "perfect infinitive".

TO GO: PERFECT CONDITIONAL

Course curriculum.

• Zero Conditional 20 mins
• Conditional type 1 20 mins
• Conditional type 2 20 mins
• conditional type 3 20 mins
• Mixed Conditionals 20 mins

21 Ways To Improve Your Presentation Skills

Published: April 07, 2023

You know the feeling of sitting through a boring presentation. A text distracts you. A noise outside pulls your gaze. Your dog begs for attention. By the time the presentation ends, you question why you needed to sit and listen in the first place.

Effective presentation skills can stop you from boring an audience to oblivion. Delivering strong presentations can help you stand out as a leader, showcase your expertise, and build confidence.

Table of contents:

• Presentation skills definition
• Importance of presentation skills
• How to improve presentation skills
• Effective presentation skills
• Presentation skills for executives

Presentation Skills Definition

Presentation skills include anything you need to create and deliver clear, effective presentations to an audience. This includes creating a compelling set of slides , ensuring the information flows, and keeping your audience engaged.

Speakers with strong presentation skills can perform the following tasks:

• Bring together different sources of information to form a compelling narrative
• Hook audiences with a strong beginning and end
• Ensure audiences engage with their content through questions or surveys
• Understand what their audience wants and needs from their presentation

Importance of Presentation Skills

At some point in your career, you will present something. You might pitch a startup to a group of investors or show your research findings to your manager at work. Those in leading or executive roles often deliver presentations on a weekly or monthly basis.

Improving your presentation skills betters different aspects of your working life, including the following:

Communication: Improving your presentation skills can make you a better communicator with your co-workers and friends.

Confidence: 75% of people fear public speaking. By working on your presentation skills, you can gain confidence when speaking in front of a crowd.

Creativity: You learn to understand how to use imagery and examples to engage an audience.

Management: Presentations involve pulling together information to form a succinct summary, helping you build project and time management skills.

How To Improve Presentation Skills

1. create an outline.

Before designing slides and writing a script, outline your presentation. Start with your introduction, segue into key points you want to make, and finish with a conclusion.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice

Almost 8 in 10 professionals practice their presentations for at least an hour. So, practice your presentation in the mirror or to a close friend.

3. Start With a Hook

When presenting, grab your audience with a hook. Consider starting with a surprising statistic or a thoughtful question before diving into the core information.

4. Stay Focused on Your Topic

You might want to cover everything under the sun, but information overload can overwhelm your audience. Instead, stay focused on what you want to cover. Aim for key points and avoid including unnecessary details.

5. Remember To Introduce Yourself

At the beginning of the presentation, introduce yourself. Kill any tension in the room by mentioning your name, your role, and any other helpful details. You could even mention a fun fact about yourself, putting the audience at ease.

6. Work on Your Body Language

55% of people look to nonverbal communication when judging a presentation. Straighten your back, minimize unnecessary gestures, and keep your voice confident and calm. Remember to work on these aspects when practicing.

7. Memorize Structure, Not Words

You might feel better knowing exactly what you want to say. But skip the script and stick to memorizing the key points of your presentation. For example, consider picking three to four phrases or insights you want to mention for each part of your presentation rather than line-by-line memorization.

8. Learn Your Audience

Before crafting a killer outline and slide deck, research your audience. Find out what they likely already know, such as industry jargon, and where they might need additional information. Remember: You're presenting for them, not you.

9. Reframe Your Anxiety as Excitement

A study conducted by Harvard Business School demonstrates that reframing your anxiety as excitement can improve performance. For example, by saying simple phrases out loud, such as “I’m excited,” you then adopt an opportunity-oriented mentality.

10. Get Comfortable With the Setting

If you plan to present in person, explore the room. Find where you’re going to stand and deliver your presentation. Practice looking into the seats. By decreasing the number of unknowns, you can clear your head and focus on the job.

11. Get Familiar With Technology

Presenting online has unique challenges, such as microphone problems and background noise. Before a Zoom presentation, ensure your microphone works, clean up your background, test your slides, and consider any background noise.

12. Think Positively

Optimistic workers enjoy faster promotions and happier lives. By reminding yourself of the positives — for example, your manager found your last presentation impressive — you can shake off nerves and find joy in the process.

13. Tell a Story

To engage your audience, weave storytelling into your presentation — more than 5 in 10 people believe stories hold their focus during a presentation. Consider ways to connect different parts of your slides into a compelling narrative.

14. Prepare for Questions

At the end of your presentation, your audience will likely have questions. Brainstorm different questions and potential answers so you’re prepared.

15. Maintain Eye Contact

Eye contact signals honesty. When possible, maintain eye contact with your audience. For in-person presentations, pay attention to each audience member. For online ones, stare at your camera lens as you deliver.

16. Condense Your Presentation

After you finish the first draft of your outline, think about ways to condense it. Short and sweet often keeps people interested instead of checking their phones.

17. Use Videos

Keep your audience’s attention by incorporating video clips when relevant. For example, videos can help demonstrate examples or explain difficult concepts.

18. Engage With Your Audience

Almost 8 in 10 professionals view presentations as boring. Turn the tide by engaging with your audience. Encourage audience participation by asking questions or conducting a live survey.

19. Present Slowly and Pause Frequently

When you get nervous, you talk faster. To combat this, remember to slow yourself down when practicing. Place deep pauses throughout your presentation, especially when transitioning between slides, as it gives you time to breathe and your audience time to absorb.

20. Start and End With a Summary

A summary at the start of a presentation can pique your audience’s interest. One at the end brings everything together, highlighting key points your audience should take with them.

21. Ask for Feedback

You will never deliver the perfect presentation, so ask for feedback. Talk to your managers about where you could improve. Consider surveying your audience for an unbiased look into your presentation skills.

Effective Presentation Skills

Effective presentation skills include communicating clearly, presenting with structure, and engaging with the audience.

As an example, say a content manager is presenting a quarterly review to their team. They start off with a summary. Their introduction mentions an unprecedented 233% growth in organic traffic — numbers their team has not seen in years. Immediately, the presenter grabs their team’s attention. Now, everyone wants to know how they achieved that in one quarter.

Alternatively, think of an entrepreneur delivering their pitch to a group of investors. They start with a question: How many of you struggle to stay awake at work? They then segue into an exciting product designed to improve the sleep quality of working professionals. Their presentation includes videos demonstrating the science behind sleep and surprising statistics about the demand for their product.

Both examples demonstrate effective presentation skills. They incorporate strong attention grabbers, summaries, and attempts to engage the audience.

Think back to strong presentations you viewed as an audience member. Ask yourself: What made them so memorable, and how can I incorporate those elements into my presentations?

Presentation Skills for Executives

Presentations take up a significant portion of an executive’s workload. Executives regularly showcase key company initiatives, team changes, quarterly and annual reviews, and more. Improving your presentation skills as a leader can help with different parts of your job, such as:

Trust: Delivering great, effective presentations can build trust between you and your team.

Confidence: Most people dread presentations — so a strong presenter projects the confidence needed by a leader.

Emotional intelligence: A great presentation taps into the audience’s perspectives, helping executives improve their emotional intelligence .

Expertise: Presentations help executives display their subject-matter expertise, making employees safe in their hands.

Delegation: At times, executives might need to pull information from different sources for a presentation — improving their ability to delegate as managers.

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Past perfect simple ( I had worked )

Past perfect simple: form.

We use had + the -ed form of the verb.

Verbs: basic forms

Regular verbs

Irregular verbs

Past perfect simple: uses

Time up to then.

The past perfect refers to time up to a point in the past (time up to then), just as the present perfect refers to something that happened in the time up to the moment of speaking (time up to now):

I ’d seen all of Elvis Presley’s movies by the time I was 20!

Present perfect simple ( I have worked )

Reported clauses

We commonly use the past perfect in reported clauses where the reporting verb (underlined) is in the past:

“Mr Hammond drove through a red light.”

The policeman said Mr Hammond had driven through a red light.

No one told me that the shop had closed .

I phoned Katie and she said the kids had had a day off school so she ’d taken them ice skating.

We also use the past perfect when the reporting verb is a verb of perception and is in the past tense:

My Dad was really angry because he heard I hadn’t come home until 3 am!

I saw she ’d bought the DVD so I asked if I could borrow it.

The doctor felt my mother had got worse since last week.

Talking about changed states

We often use the past perfect to refer to situations which have changed. In speaking, had is often stressed:

A: Are you going anywhere today? B: I had planned to go to the beach but look at the rain! ( had is stressed; the meaning is ‘I have now changed my mind’)

I’m very happy working as an engineer but I had wanted to be an actor when I was younger.

The past perfect in conditional clauses

We must use the past perfect when we imagine a different past in a clause with if :

I would have helped to paint the house if you ’d asked me. (You didn’t ask me.)

Sarah couldn’t come with us to the cinema. She would have loved it if she had been there. (She wasn’t there.)

We don’t use the past perfect in the main clause of a conditional sentence. It is only used in the conditional clause:

[conditional clause] If we had seen you walking , [main clause] we would have stopped to give you a lift .

Not: If we had seen you walking, we had stopped …

Conditionals

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Home » The Tony Robbins Blog » Career & Business » What motivates people to work

What motivates people to work

Discover what motivates people and how to inspire them.

Have you ever thought about what motivates you to work hard ? For most of us, the answer goes beyond money or material gains. Asking what motivates people to work – what inspires them to show up each day and truly give their all ultimately gets at a deeper question: What motivates people in the grand scheme of life? People are complex creatures whose behaviors are shaped by their values, beliefs, feelings and experiences as well as basic human needs like growth and connection.

Thankfully, people like Daniel Pink, best-selling business and human behavior author, do think about these things – a lot. And the people at the Royal Society for Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce turned his lecture on things that motivate people into a great animated short.

The theory and science behind what motivates people

Studying what motivates people to work leads to some unbelievably interesting conclusions. Science points to several realities that go against conventional beliefs. For example, as workers (and consumers), we are actually not as easily given to manipulations as “pop” behavioral economics might have us believe.

The research is clear that passion and creativity work together to produce drive . A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience demonstrated that the more inspired participants felt during a given activity, the more activated their amygdala (the emotional center of the brain) became. People are ultimately guided by their own values – not by other people’s attempts to control their behavior or even by external circumstances. This applies whether you want to know what motivates you to work hard , achieve certain goals or change anything about yourself.

So what are people motivated by ? We’re all driven by deep needs and desires that we don’t always understand. Motivations can be categorized in two ways: push vs. pull and pain vs. pleasure. Once you understand the factors that fall into each category, you can learn how to inspire people – and yourself.

Push vs. pull

“There’s an art to mastering life. It’s the art of fulfillment. Success without fulfillment is failure.” – Tony Robbins

Push motivations are our obligations in life: We need money for rent or the mortgage. We need to buy groceries. Pull motivations are more compelling – they’re “something so exciting, so attractive, something you want so bad that it can get you up early and keep you up late,” says Tony. They are what motivates people to join the Peace Corps, build a successful business and find true fulfillment.

Pain vs. pleasure

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you.” – Tony Robbins

We would live in an amazing world if the things that motivate people were all positive, empowering push motivations. But to fully answer the question “ What are people motivated by? ” we cannot ignore pain versus pleasure. The truth is that people are much more motivated to avoid pain than they are to gain pleasure. Instead of responding to punishment s ystems to (de)incentivize various behaviors, humans respond better to reward systems that incentivize them for engaging their creativity and natural abilities.

13 things that motivate people

As long as a worker is obtaining sufficient compensation to find fulfillment , there are plenty of non-monetary drivers that keep workers working hard .

1. Autonomy

In order to feel like a contributing member of the workforce, employees need to feel they are both skillful and trusted on the job. Therefore, empowering a reasonable level of autonomy in the workplace is one of the most effective things that motivate people .

Whether you are the owner of a small business or an employee of a growing firm, a feeling of mastery on the job is an important part of what motivates people to work. To effectively learn how to inspire people, make sure everyone has the tools and information they need to excel on the job.

What motivates you to work hard? For almost all of us, the best incentive is one of Tony Robbins’ pivotal business growth concepts: purpose in the workplace. It is not money that ultimately keeps people working hard. What drives people is the sense of purpose and contribution they feel on the job. Invest in employee retention and morale, and you’ll understand not only what motivates people in life but also what creates happy, dedicated employees.

What are people motivated by? You often don’t have to look any further than fear – but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Fear of embarrassment could lead you to practice a presentation until it’s pitch perfect. Fear of letting others down could lead you to work even harder. Just be sure you’re not being ruled by your fears .

5. Opposition

We all know this personality type: you tell them they can’t do something, and they go out and excel at it. Opposition is just the thing that motivates people like this. They don’t want to experience the pain of proving you right. Barbara Corcoran’s ex told her she’d never succeed without him. Then she built a multi-million-dollar real estate empire.

6. Competition

Opposition is proving to yourself that you can do something when others doubt you. Competition is proving that you’re the best, period. They often go hand in hand. People with competitive spirits want to avoid the pain of losing. Bill Gates and Richard Branson are famously competitive – and we’d say it’s worked out for them.

7. Necessity

People have physical needs. We need a roof over our heads. We need food and water. We need to avoid the discomfort that’s caused when we don’t have these things. Often what motivates people is the fear of losing these things. Unlike the factors above, necessity probably isn’t inspiring people to greatness, but if you’re an employer, you can still use it to motivate your team.

8. Certainty

We all need certainty to feel safe and secure and to have people we can depend on. But like necessity, certainty can be what motivates people to achieve less, not more. When you feel secure in your job, you don’t want to take a chance on a more fulfilling role. When you feel safe in your relationship, it’s easier to ignore that you don’t feel fulfilled. Things that motivate people aren’t always positive.

Your vision determines the quality of your life. That’s why it’s one of the strongest things that motivate people . But it’s not always easy to create a vision . It takes introspection, self-awareness and honesty to truly determine what it is that you want so bad, it pulls you toward it.

10. Passion

Without passion, life is boring. We need passion in relationships and passion for our work, family and giving back. It’s what gives us boundless energy. It’s the reason Tony can do six-day, 12-hour events, no problem. He’s pulled to it by his passion.

11. Significance

Things that motivate people can often be traced back to the Six Human Needs . Significance is one of these. In terms of what motivates people , the need for significance manifests in a need for recognition. When people feel validated and valued, they’re inspired to work harder.

The human need for growth is hard-wired into all of us, but some find it more motivating than others. When people are driven by growth, they desire career development and advancement. They want to learn new skills, reach their physical best and discover their peak state .

13. Contribution

Another human need that’s a big factor in what motivates people is contribution . Millennials are often motivated by workplaces that give back. Many tech startups would list “making the world a better place” in their vision statement. Contribution is one of the strongest things that motivate people .

How to motivate others

How would these factors break down for a leader who wants to inspire their team? How can you take massive action to put strategies into place that improve productivity and happiness? Here are few specific things that motivate people , according to science:

• Host a “hackathon.” In the video, Daniel talks about one company that gives its developers one day per quarter during which they can work on anything they want. That one day of autonomy has led to fixes, new products and strategic innovation on a massive scale.
• Provide professional development . Numerous studies have found that employees want professional development opportunities and will leave a job if they’re not provided. Give your employees time to get certifications, go to conferences, take classes and improve their mastery.
• Create a challenge . People who are driven by mastery are often goal-oriented , enjoy completing tasks and appreciate a good challenge as a way to improve their skills. Be sure you’re creating growth plans with SMART goals that are achievable, yet challenging enough to improve mastery.
• Communicate your vision . To capitalize on purpose as one of the things that motivate people, make sure you’re communicating yours. A solid company vision with its eye on a greater prize – creating positive change and making the world better – will help you attract and retain talented employees .
• Give back . No matter what motivates you to work hard , giving back universally makes people feel good because it fulfills many of our deepest human needs. Provide opportunities for your employees to work on pro bono projects. Donate your services to those in need. Organize volunteer days. You’ll connect your employees with a purpose – and keep them around.

What motivates people to change?

It’s one matter to be driven in your career and quite another to leverage what motivates you to work hard in order to work on your personal growth . Changing a personality trait or habit can be so daunting that many people resist self-improvement to avoid the challenge. People tend to stick to old, familiar habits unless they have a powerful reason to change. 

What does the research have to say about what motivates people to change? Psychology Today reports that behavioral change occurs along two dimensions : internal/external and positive/negative. These dimensions combine in four distinct ways, each producing a different effect on drive. 

• When someone is inspired to change by internal factors (their passions) and positive results (like fulfilled dreams or goals), they are likely to succeed at changing themselves.
• When someone is driven by external factors (circumstances) and positive results, they are likely to succeed at changing themselves at least partially.
• When someone is inspired to change by internal factors and negative results (like the threat of failure or loss), they might succeed at changing somewhat but risk relapse into undesired behavior.
• When someone is inspired to change by external factors and negative results, they are unlikely to succeed at any level of personal change. 

What motivates you to work hard may differ from the specific things that motivate others, but ultimately, what drives people can be traced back to the three main factors: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Great leaders will use their creativity, emotional intelligence and the power of deep listening to uncover what matters most to their team – then enact powerful strategies to get the results they desire.

Team Tony cultivates, curates and shares Tony Robbins’ stories and core principles, to help others achieve an extraordinary life.

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.css-1qrtm5m{display:block;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5714285714285714;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.35px;letter-spacing:-0.35px;font-weight:300;color:#606F7B;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-1qrtm5m{font-size:16px;line-height:1.625;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.5px;letter-spacing:-0.5px;}} Best Practices Become a better presenter -- with a little help from your friends

by TED Masterclass Team • May 12, 2020

Getting useful feedback can be a critical step in developing an effective presentation - it can also be harder to find than you might expect. Honest feedback calls on you to be vulnerable, and forces your feedback partner to sometimes deliver difficult constructive criticism. The good news is that this type of deep and authentic feedback can encourage personal growth and a willingness to take creative risks.

Get high-quality feedback that elevates your presentation skills by putting in a little extra preparation and focus.

First, decide who to ask for feedback

Feedback can feel personally risky if it’s coming from a close friend or colleague. Because these relationships are so important to us, honest feedback can end up feeling critical. In these situations, it can become tempting to give non-critical feedback, but that’s not helpful.

The person you work with to give you feedback should be someone:

• You want to learn from, who pushes you to think creatively
• With a different perspective - it can help to look beyond the people you spend a lot of time with personally or professionally
• Who shares your enthusiasm for acquiring new skills and is excited for you to become a better presenter

Then, prepare to receive feedback

Just as important as deciding who will be giving you feedback, is creating an environment and mindset where giving and receiving constructive feedback is easy.

• Create a distraction-free time and space for getting feedback. Ideally both of you should be present, focused, and open. If we’re feeling stressed or pressed for time, it’s hard to be a good feedback partner. That’s why it’s wise to tune in to how you’re feeling before you schedule a session.
• Remind the person that you’re looking for honest feedback to be the best presenter you can be.
• Before getting started, tell the person if there are any specific aspects of your idea or talk that you’d like them to focus feedback on.

Finally, ask the right questions

Giving feedback can be overwhelming for your partner if they don’t know what they should be focusing on. Decide on these areas ahead of time, and let your partner know. Then follow up with questions that will help them hone in on the most helpful feedback points for you.

Get overall feedback using these three questions:

• What works?
• What needs work?
• What’s a suggestion for one thing I might try?

Get specific feedback using these questions:

• Delivery: How is it landing for you overall? Are there places where your attention is wandering? What’s distracting?
• Content: Do you get this - will the audience? What questions do you have? Where are you engaged? Surprised? Moved? Is there a clear takeaway for the audience? Do you have any clarifying questions?

Good feedback is a gift that can really elevate your presentation skills. Make the most of your feedback opportunities with a little preparation.

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

6 Things That Will Make You Work Harder

The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question: How do you keep your team motivated? is written by ‎Ian Weingarten, SVP of corporate development and partnerships at Yahoo .

Employees are critical to the success of any business and business leader, so it’s important that you are a continual source of motivation for your team. This means not only aligning talent with the right scope of work, but also creating a challenging, supportive, and inspiring environment. But, how do you motivate a team particularly when the individuals have unique backgrounds, motivations, and strengths?

Set up your team for success Prioritize objectives and present your team with challenging opportunities in the areas that will have the most impact. For those objectives, you must continuously think ahead as to whether the current tasks at hand are leading your team from point A to B and achieving the desired outcome. Positioning your team members well, both within your organization and externally, can also go a long way to ensuring their success.

See also: Why Setting Goals Is Overrated

Pave the way for your team to accomplish their goals When meeting with my team, I often ask them, “How can I be helpful?” Removing obstacles is critical. For instance, if there are sensitive underlying issues that need to be addressed within your organization, acknowledge the elephant in the room and bring difficult issues to a head with colleagues. Alternatively, you can proactively help your team by opening doors for them and/or helping them craft the right messages to colleagues, customers, or partners. When you help your team members achieve their goals, it becomes a great motivator.

Celebrate success When your team has put “points on the board”, it’s important to give them credit and recognition when necessary, and celebrate those wins broadly within the organization. It is not only a great motivator, but it also reflects favorably on you as a manager.

Lead by example As a leader, the work ethic you display can be a motivator for others. Be willing to roll up your sleeves. For me, this can translate into reading the entirety of an important agreement or locking myself in a room for a few days with my team to close a strategic deal or acquisition. It could also mean working closely with the team to collaboratively improve a presentation page by page. Hard work is a key motivator and so is thinking bigger, bolder, and more creatively, challenging your team to do the same. Lastly, take ownership and accountability — it shows depth of confidence and maturity. If you make a mistake, fall on the sword.

Be transparent All organizations and teams face challenges and at times, you may feel the need to shield your team from difficult news. Instead, embrace the reality and talk through both the positives and negatives — don’t “sugar coat” the truth. Being open with your team allows them to be driven by a clear purpose and vision, and it fosters trust.

Be open and accessible While this may sound simple, it’s not trivial — say hello when you pass people in the hallway, and write a personal email when someone knocks it out of the park. Have an open door policy and take the time to mentor and advise your team.

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• 12 Ways to Give an Outstanding Presentation

Learning how to give a presentation well is a significant life skill.

It’s valuable at school, where you may often be called upon to give presentations on something you’ve been learning about. The same is true at university. And almost any office job requires giving presentations, whether that’s to pitch to prospective clients or partners, or simply to keep your colleagues up-to-date with what’s going on it your team. Giving a presentation is frequently part of job applications as well, because it demonstrates a transferable skill without requiring you to know more of the ins and outs of the job itself than might be reasonably expected. For all these reasons, it’s worth learning how to give a really good presentation – not just one that conveys all the necessary information, but one that keeps your audience engaged, rather than counting down the minutes until lunch. Unfortunately, the number of people giving bad presentations far outnumber the good ones – though this does give you an opportunity to shine if you hone your skills. Here are our top tips.

1. Check the technology

There’s nothing worse than showing up for a 15-minute presentation where the speaker takes ten minutes to get the projector working. Similarly, having great slides is pointless if the projector is so out of focus that everything is unreadable. No matter how confident you are in the technology you’ve got available, it’s best to have backup options just in case. That might mean bringing your own projector, or at the very least having your presentation on a memory stick in case your own laptop won’t connect to the projector. You might even want to have a printed copy of your slides available for everyone in the audience just in case, especially if the presentation is for a job interview – while it’ll be disappointing not to have the proper presentation available, they’ll be impressed by your resourcefulness. If none of these options are possible, then try to show up early so that you’re not setting up in front of your audience and you’ll have time to call for IT support if needed.

2. Focus on what the audience needs to know

In a school context, thinking about what the audience needs to know can be tricky. Chances are you’ve been assigned certain topics that your presentation has to cover, and you’ll need to include all of them even if you know that the people watching won’t care, or might have covered the same material in their presentations too. However, where it is possible, do try to select content based on what your audience needs to know and will find interesting. Hopefully these two things will overlap to a certain extent. Why are they there watching you? What are they hoping to find out? Do your best to answer any questions that you expect they might have, and do so clearly, to be rewarded with a more engaged and attentive audience.

3. Choose slides that complement what you’re saying

The biggest mistake that people make when giving presentations is creating slides that either distract from what they’re saying, or that simply repeat it. Your audience shouldn’t be sitting there wondering how on earth the photo on the slide is going to be connected to what you’re saying. They also shouldn’t be getting bored of hearing you talk because you’re just repeating the same things that they’ve already read from the screen in front of them. So what does it mean for a slide to complement what you’re saying? It could be that while you’re talking through some statistics, your slide shows a graph to present the same thing in visual form. It could be that if you’re talking about a product, or a location, your slides include photos. If what you’re talking about involves names that are hard to spell, include those details on your slides. The key thing that all of these ideas have in common is that they are useful to your audience to have available and they make what you’re saying clearer

4. Use the ‘notes’ section if you have to provide slides

The above might seem difficult if you’ve also been required to provide slides that are fully informative for anyone who couldn’t be there. This requirement defeats the point of giving a presentation – if you just wanted people to read off a page, you should be writing a report instead – but nonetheless it’s often stipulated both at school and in the workplace. The solution is to make full use of the ‘notes’ section in your presentation software. This is where you should put the text of what you’re saying in conjunction with that slide, which can then be provided as a handout or emailed to people who couldn’t attend. They can read it, without you needing to produced over-detailed slides in order to take them into account.

5. Concentrate on the key message

However much you might hope, the chances of everyone in your audience remembering every detail of your presentation is remote – especially if it’s only one of half a dozen that they’re going to be watching that day. But at a minimum, you do want them to remember something about what you said, and ideally not something irrelevant, such as the odd way that you pronounced a particular word, or that one of your shirt buttons was undone. The way to ensure that the audience remembers the message that you want is to focus on it ruthlessly. Whatever that message is, come back to it several times over the course of the presentation, spelling out how the rest of what you’re saying ties in to it; don’t leave too much for your audience for work out themselves if you can’t be sure they’re paying attention.

6. Use the 10/20/30 rule

Guy Kawasaki has had a distinguished career in business, but his 10/20/30 rule might be his best-known idea. This is the rule that a PowerPoint should have no more than 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes and contain no font size smaller than 30pt. Of course, if you’re giving a presentation in a school context, you may not have any choice – you might be required to produce 20 or more slides, or talk for half an hour. But you might at least be able to honour the rule about font sizes, ensuring that your slides won’t be crammed full of excessive text. And if you do have any choice over how long you’re speaking for, then the rest of the 10/20/30 rule is worth heeding too. It keeps you from speaking longer than your audience’s concentration will last, and trying to boil down your message to 10 slides or fewer (and there’s no rule against using fewer) obliges you to be concise and think about what really matters in what you have to say. If this feels restrictive, remember that your audience is likely only to remember 10 of your slides anyway – even if you have 50.

7. Tell stories

Facts, figures and statistics are a necessary part of most presentations, but they’re also not usually very interesting – especially if they amount to things going as usual. What can make a dull presentation more interesting is finding a story to tell. In some areas, this will be much easier than in others. If you’re in a history class, for instance, it’s easy to see how you could draw on the story of a single individual in your time period and use that to make the necessary but dull parts of your presentation more interesting. It’s rather harder if your presentation is on sales figures, but even then you might be able to say something about a customer that you’ve worked with to provide a human angle on the data. Anything that provides a break from graphs and tables can make a huge difference to your audience’s attention levels.

8. Use your voice

The illusionist Derren Brown gives the advice that if you notice that your audience isn’t paying attention – for instance, if you notice lots of fidgeting and coughing – one way to make them pay more attention is not to shout over their noise, but instead to speak more quietly. They’ll automatically become more engaged if they’re putting in the effort to hear you. Pulling off this particular technique without considerable skills in showmanship is hard work. But it does illustrate the broader point that the way we use our voices can make a big difference to how much people listen to us. A monotone will always be soporific, even if the information conveyed is fascinating, so make sure to vary the way you speak, changing speed, volume and pitch as appropriate. You might feel silly doing it, but your audience will be more engaged.

9. Don’t try to answer every possible question

Whatever the topic is that your presentation is addressing – whether that’s the theme of revenge in Hamlet or why the sales figures this month are more optimistic than they seem – there will be a variety of possible questions that it could answer. It’s natural to try to cover every single thing that your audience might want to ask, because that’s why they’re giving you their time and attention, isn’t it? In fact, your presentation will be much better if you cover what you think is important, rather than trying to cover every last thing. If you feel like some of your slides could be captioned ‘and another thing…’, that’s a hint that you might be trying to cover too many bases, and that will distract from the all-important key message we mentioned above.

10. Have a strong opening

The way most people begin a presentation goes something like this: “Hi, I’m Jane, and I’m here to talk to you about the theme of revenge in Hamlet .” It’s perfectly reasonable, but if it’s a warm room and after lunch, there’s a good chance that by the time you’ve got to the end of that introduction, some of your audience will already have fallen asleep. Why not open with something more interesting? For instance, you could begin with a blank, black opening slide, and read, “Haste me to know ‘t, that I, with wings as swift/ As meditation or the thoughts of love,/ May sweep to my revenge.” Your audience will be much more inclined to listen to the rest of what you have to say if you interest them and grab their attention from the start.

11. Use your body and the space

Some of the most interesting and inspiring examples of presentations out there are TED talks . One thing you’ll notice about them is that they very rarely stick the speaker behind a podium so that they can’t move – instead, they give them a microphone and a stage that they can walk on. This gives them much more range to express themselves through movement and body language. You may not be so lucky with your presentation set-up, but do try to use the space as much as you can. You can walk forwards when you want the audience to pay more attention to you, and back when their focus should be primarily on your slides. Don’t be afraid to use big gestures, too – if the room is large, they might be the only thing that can be seen from the back.

12. Give your audience something to take home

You can give the best presentation imaginable, and there might still be some people in the audience who won’t take all of it in. Perhaps they’re tired or preoccupied with something else – or perhaps they found an early point of yours so fascinating that they failed to pay attention to anything you said later on in the presentation. You can have a second go at engaging with these people by giving them some kind of handout to take away with them. It’s best to hand this out only after your presentation if possible, so that the audience doesn’t focus on the handout instead of on you. It could be a printout of your slides and notes, or it could be a summary page that outlines your key messages again. Either way, it gives you another shot at engaging your audience – and if they really found it fascinating, they then have something they can pass on to friends who weren’t there, as well.

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By Colin Baker Leaders Staff

Colin Baker

Leadership and Business Writer

Colin Baker is a business writer for Leaders Media. He has a background in as a television journalism, working as...

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Mar 2, 2023

Reviewed by Hannah L. Miller

Hannah L. Miller

Senior Editor

Hannah L. Miller, MA, is the senior editor for Leaders Media. Since graduating with her Master of Arts in 2015,...

100 Hard Work Quotes to Inspire You When You’re Down

You’ve likely heard that hard work is one of the keys to success. When times are tough, it’s easy to question that line of thinking. Frustration will mount when your hard work goes unrecognized or ignored. Hard work doesn’t always pay off immediately, but it pays dividends in the future. 

Find inspiration from some of the most influential people in history with these hard work quotes from geniuses like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, mindset gurus like Bruce Lee and Confucius, and business titans like Henry Ford and Oprah Winfrey. If you need a little work motivation , let their words of wisdom written below lift you up.

100 Quotes on Hard Work

“Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.” —Kobe Bryant

“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.” —Booker T. Washington

“Work and you’ll get what you need; work harder and you’ll get what you want.” —Prabakaran Thirumalai

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” —Albert Einstein

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” —Tim Notke

“I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.” —Margaret Thatcher

“I think that my biggest attribute to any success that I have had is hard work. There really is no substitute for working hard.” —Maria Bartiromo

“Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.” —Malcolm Forbes

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” —Colin Powell

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” —Stephen King

“To succeed, work hard, never give up and above all, cherish a magnificent obsession.” —Walt Disney

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” —Frank Lloyd Wright

“When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option. It’s a necessity.” —Steve Pavlina

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” —Thomas Jefferson

“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” —Estée Lauder

“Sometimes there’s not a better way. Sometimes there’s only the hard way.” —Mary E. Pearson

“Sticking to good habits can be hard work, and mistakes are part of the process. Don’t declare failure simply because you messed up or because you’re having trouble reaching your goals. Instead, use your mistakes as opportunities to grow stronger and become better.” —Amy Morin

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” —Thomas Edison

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” —Abraham Lincoln

“Sometimes, you have to give up. Sometimes, knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn’t mean stopping. Don’t ever stop.” —Phil Knight

“If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard; you’ll be hard to beat.” —Hershel Walker

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” —Pelé

“Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.” —Helen Hanson

“I never took a day off in my 20s. Not one.” —Bill Gates

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” —Tommy Lasorda

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” —Thomas Paine

“Don’t work for recognition but do work worthy of recognition.” —H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” —Dwayne Johnson

“A sign of a hard worker is one who works without complaint.” —Sarah Price

“Entrepreneurship is a great leveler. The wonderful thing is that money is not the sole currency when it comes to starting a business; drive, determination, passion and hard work are all free and more valuable than a pot of cash.” —Richard Branson

“It’s not about money or connections—it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone.” —Mark Cuban

“Without hard work and discipline it is difficult to be a top professional.” —Jahangir Khan

“At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it’ll pay off. It could be in a year, it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off.” —Kevin Hart

“There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” —Calvin Coolidge

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” —Colin Powell

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life—and that is why I succeed.” —Michael Jordan

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.” —Sam Ewing

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” —Jacob Riis

“The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.” —Alexander Graham Bell

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” —Babe Ruth

“Every beautiful mind has great dreams, but rarely is anyone ever ready to work hard for their dreams.” —Terry Mark

“The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive, and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American dream.” —Tommy Hilfiger

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.” —Simon Sinek

“This is the real secret of life—to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” —Alan Watts

“You must earn what you get, and your rewards will always be a true indicator of the service you give.” —John Soforic

“Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people can’t stop you. Only you can stop you.” —Jeffrey Gitomer

“Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.” —Henry Ford

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” —Vince Lombardi

“I can say the willingness to get dirty has always defined us as a nation, and it’s a hallmark of hard work and a hallmark of fun, and dirt is not the enemy.” —Mike Rowe

“Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.” —Lou Holtz

“Go and get your things. Dreams mean work.” —Paolo Coelho

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.” —Henry Ford

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” —Newt Gingrich

“The average person puts only 25 percent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50 percent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100 percent.” —Andrew Carnegie

“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” —Dr. Mae Jemison

“If you’re in a job that you hate, don’t be scared of seeking out something that might be riskier. Anything can turn into something with passion and hard work.” —Whitney Wolfe

“What you don’t sweat out when you’re young will turn into tears when you’re old.” —Japanese Proverb

“I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go about it, and make trial after trial until it comes.” —Thomas Edison

“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” —Elon Musk

“There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.” —Michael Phelps

“The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!” —Marvin Phillips

“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.” —Malcolm Gladwell

“If you can’t excel with talent, triumph with effort.” —Dave Weinbaum

“I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is hard work—and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.” —Lucille Ball

“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.” —Confucius

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.” —Michelangelo

“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” —Oprah Winfrey

“Great companies are built in the office, with hard work put in by a team.” —Emily Chang

“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” —Zig Ziglar

“Men die of boredom, psychological conflict and disease. They do not die of hard work.” —David Ogilvy

“Believe in yourself, work hard, work smart and passionately present your best self to the world.” —Hill Harper

“There is simply no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success.” —Heather Bresch

“Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.” —Iain Duncan Smith

“Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They’re realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus and hard work. They happen a step at a time, manifested over years, not weeks.” —Elbert Hubbard

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.” —David Bly

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” —Buddha

“The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day.” —Wayne Gretzky

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” —Bruce Lee

“Stay positive and happy. Work hard and don’t give up hope. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm, and genuine people.” —Tena Desae

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” —Jimmy Johnson

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” —Stephen King

“Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.” —Virat Kohli

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald

“To achieve what 1 percent of the world’s population has, you must be willing to do what only 1 percent dares to do.” —Manoj Arora

“I don’t like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself not for others—what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.” —Joseph Conrad

“Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” —Robert Half

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” —Steve Jobs

“Work harder than you think you did yesterday.” —Alex Elle

“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” —Charles F. Kettering

“No one understands and appreciates the American Dream of hard work leading to material rewards better than a non-American.” —Anthony Bourdain

“My success was due to good luck, hard work, and support and advice from friends and mentors. But most importantly, it depended on me to keep trying after I had failed.” —Mark Warner

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” —Beverly Sills

“Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.” —Ben Carson

“I’m against retiring. The thing that keeps a man alive is having something to do” —Colonel Sanders

“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.” —Calvin Coolidge

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” —Thomas Edison

“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

“I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” —Larry Bird

Keep Doing Your Best Through Useful Habits

When reflecting on these hard work and success quotes, it’s natural to come across real barriers on your journey—barriers you can’t push through with sheer bursts of hard work. As important as it is to work hard, developing habits will become a compounding force in your life in the long run. A simple daily routine can make all the difference in reaching your goals. To learn more, check out, “ How to Be Successful: 6 Ways to Achieve Your Goals .”

And if you need more motivation to work with a team, look at these teamwork quotes .

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The Effectiveness of MS PowerPoint: Take Your Presentation to the Next Level

It’s safe to say that everyone has had to prepare an MS PowerPoint presentation at least once. Nowadays, proficiency in PowerPoint is considered a fundamental skill. This tool is especially useful when it comes to giving speeches in school or at work.

Whether this is your first experience with MS PowerPoint or you just want to learn more about creating a professional and engaging presentation – this article by IvyPanda.com is for you! Here, we will:

• cover the best way to structure your presentation;
• give best PowerPoint presentation tips for students;
• share 7 excellent free templates.
• 🤔 Why Is Structure Important?
• 💡 How to Structure a Presentation
• 📜 Presentation Text Length
• 🎨 Design Tips
• ✨ 7 Free Templates
• 😃 Bonus Presentation Tips

🔗 References

🤔 your presentation’s structure: why is it important.

When you start working with MS PowerPoint, the structure is the most crucial thing to consider . Information that is presented logically is easier for the viewer to understand. Besides, if you accompany your presentation with a speech, a good structure will help you feel confident, stay on topic, and avoid awkward silence.

💡 How to Structure Your Presentation

A good presentation always has a message to deliver or a story to tell. It is usually divided into 3 parts: introduction, body, and conclusion . Let’s look at each of these parts in more detail.

Introduction

The introduction is singularly the most important part of your presentation. It sets the tone for the entire performance and captures the audience’s attention. Although the introduction takes only about 10-15 % of your speaking time, it should still be informative and include the following parts:

Title & Cover Page

The cover page is your first slide. Its main goal is to present all the necessary information about the topic and the presenter. A good cover page can also pique the audience’s interest in your subject and grab their attention. For that reason, investing time in creating a visually pleasing and informative title page is never a bad idea.

Want to know the best way to create your first slide? Check out these simple steps:

• Come up with a suitable title. Try to keep your title short but straightforward and descriptive. If you struggle to summarize the main idea in a title, you can use a subtitle to give further detail.
• Add some information about the speaker. Identify the group or person who’s going to present. Sometimes you may also need to include your student ID, department, or company’s name and logo.
• Pay attention to your cover page’s tone and aesthetics. A well-designed first slide conveys a sense of professionalism and shows how well you are prepared. To create a visually pleasing cover page, you don’t need to be a professional designer: you can simply use an MS PowerPoint template.

Table of Contents

Although a table of contents is optional, it’s a must if you want your presentation to look professional. It shows the audience what the presentation will consist of. In addition, a well-made table of contents makes the structure clearer.

Tracking the progress of the presentation is even easier if you add hyperlinks to your slides . It will allow you to refer back to the required slide faster when questions arise.

When you create a presentation, there’s always an objective : a point you want to prove or an idea you want to convey. Make sure you state your goals in the first couple of slides. It will let your audience know what to expect from your presentation and what they will learn from it.

Definitions

Sometimes you need to explain certain words that are unknown to your audience. Creating a slide with the definitions of new terms makes it easier for the listeners to follow your ideas. Make your explanations as simple as possible.

The main body is the most informative part of your presentation . It covers all the necessary aspects of your work and determines if your ideas will persuade the audience. 

One of the things you want to do while delivering your presentation is to ensure the body is well-organized. A good strategy is to structure the points according to one specific criterion. Here are some suggestions:

And here are some additional tips to help you create a well-structured main body for your presentation:

• Limit yourself to 3-5 points. If you mention more than five ideas, your audience may get lost, and it will be harder for them to follow your presentation. 
• Include smooth and clear transitions between your points. Transitions are another factor that contributes to your presentation’s success. You can use them for an enumeration or count your ideas as steps:
• Make sure your facts are accurate and understandable. It’s essential to have enough detail that you cover the topic comprehensively. And, of course, all your information needs to be credible.

A summary’s main objective is to outline your presentation’s main points. In this part, you can also suggest sources that can give your audience more information on the topic. Just make sure not to include anything that hasn’t been mentioned before.

The conclusion is a section that ties all the parts of your presentation together . Similar to the introduction, it should be short, straight, and to the point. Here are the best strategies that will help you create a great conclusion:

📜 Presentation Text Length: Importance & Strategies

Now that we’ve discussed the structure of your presentation, let’s look at the visual component. It’s vital to present information in a way that’s easy for the audience to digest. If this sounds like a daunting task, don’t worry: our tips will help you ace it.

The first rule is to avoid adding too much text to your slides . There are several reasons why you shouldn’t do that:

• It’s hard for the audience to read and listen simultaneously. If there’s too much text, they will stop listening to what you are saying and focus on reading instead.
• The audience starts taking notes. When people come to a watch presentation, they want to learn new things. There are chances that your audience will begin writing down everything that is on the screen because they will assume that the information is essential. It will make them even more distracted.
• As a result, the audience can’t catch up. When the listeners start to make notes, they may fail to notice when you switch to the next slide. It becomes more challenging for them to concentrate on the message and hear everything you say.

Naturally, you want to avoid this kind of situation. We’re going to share some of the best strategies to help you with that: keep reading!

Use Less Text

Using less text is the best strategy for preventing your audience’s confusion. So, how do you do that? Well, there are several ways:

• Limit each slide to one idea. This will help you use fewer words and organize your presentation better.
• Use bullet points to cover the components of each idea.
• Keep each bullet point to 1-2 lines.
• Limit the number of bullet points per slide to 4-6.
• Use simple words to describe your ideas.
• Limit the number of words you put on a slide. We recommend you not to use more than 30 words per slide.

Include Images

One of the best ways to get rid of extra text is to use images. Of course, you can’t include pictures on every slide, but there are times when illustrations are just what you need to save the day. If you decide to have images in your presentation, ask yourself:

If you answered “yes” to these questions, then go ahead and use an image to convey your idea. But be careful not to overuse illustrations: they may distract the audience.

🎨 How to Boost Your PowerPoint Design: 12 Best Tips

Now it’s time to talk design. The look of your presentation is another crucial factor that determines how well the audience gets your message. In this section, we’ve collected the most helpful presentation tips for students that will help you create a visually engaging presentation.

Font Tips for Your Presentation

The font is an element that adds character to your slides. Choosing the right font ensures that your presentation looks pleasing and professional. Here we have a couple of suggestions on how to decide on a suitable font:

• Choose font style depending on the purpose of your presentation.  There are 4 popular font styles: serif, sans-serif, script, and decorative. Each of them has unique characteristics that are worth considering.

Serif fonts have a more classic feel. They might be the best option if you are going for something simple. Sans-serif fonts are perfect if you are going for a more modern and round-looking design. As for script and decorative fonts, they are unique and stylized. You may want to use them for special purpose presentations.

• Use easily readable fort styles. Popular examples include Arial, Tahoma, Veranda, Garamond, and Times New Roman.
• Standardize the font. Make sure it’s the same throughout the slides.
• Mind the font size. Use size 40 points for the headings and 32 points for the subheadings. Don’t use a font size smaller than 24 for the content text.

Color and Contrast Tips

The choice of color may seem inessential, but it’s definitely worth considering when working on your presentation. To choose the perfect color scheme for your slides, keep several things in mind:

• Use harmonious colors. If you want to make your presentation visually pleasing, you can pick complementary, triadic, or tetradic colors with the help of the color wheel.
• Use a high-contrast color scheme. Sometimes there’s not enough contrast between the shades chosen for the text and the background. To be on the safe side, choose lighter colors for the text if you have a darker background and vice-versa. 
• Keep it simple. Even though using a variety of shades may be tempting, it’s still best to keep things simple and choose only primary colors. 

Animation Tips for Your Presentation

Now let’s turn our attention to animation. Animated elements can make your presentation more engaging or serve as a distraction. So, be wise when incorporating animation into your work. Here are some suggestions:

• Use subtle animation. For instance, you can make the points appear on the screen one after the other. It will give the audience more time to read and digest the information. 
• Make objects disappear. Effects such as removing separate elements from the slide can make your presentation more exciting.
• Don’t shy away from simple animation. Sometimes even the most common effects like zoom or fade can help emphasize a certain point. Besides, they are less distracting compared to more showy effects.
• Avoid using too much animation. An overabundance of visual effects will make your presentation too hard on the eyes and distract the audience.
• Don’t go overboard. Stick to a couple of animation effects throughout the whole presentation. 

✨ 7 Best Free Templates

If you are new to PowerPoint or don’t have much time to work on a layout, you can always use free templates. We’ve compiled our favorites in the list below. These templates will help you organize your content and ideas in a way that suits you best:

• Group project presentation (Berlin themes, widescreen) This group project template is designed with teamwork in mind. It’s perfect for you if you’re planning to delegate the parts of your presentation for different team members to complete. With this template, each member gets a set of slides with a coordinating sample chart, a table in a 16:9 format, and SmartArt.
• Rainbow presentation This template is perfect for creating an outdoor-oriented presentation. It is already formatted, so all you need to do is start editing.
• General Purpose Thin Style PowerPoint Template This template will help you create a presentable company profile. It includes editable text areas, infographic icons, and high-resolution replaceable images. 
• E-Learning Presentation Deck This presentation template focuses on internet education. It contains 20 slides for online education. It will help you introduce courses, teaching plans, and methods. 
• Social Media Map Users Free PowerPoint Template and Keynote This template shows a world map and social media results. It can be used in your report to visually present information regarding your research question or the data you’re using. 
• Product Design Template This template is created specifically for startups who wish to present their project and company profile. It includes 20 blue-themed slides and features such as SWOT analysis diagrams, pie diagrams, sales analysis charts, etc. 
• Member Profile Slides These are team introduction templates that include placeholders for text, data reports, and photos. This template is perfect for introducing one person. 

😃 Bonus Tips for an Effective Presentation

Finally, we want to share with you some additional tips for creating an excellent presentation in PowerPoint for students:

Thanks for reading our article! We hope our tips and strategies will help you create fantastic presentations. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below.

• Parts of a Presentation: Oregon State University
• How to End Your PowerPoint Presentation with a Strong Close: Envato
• PowerPoint Presentation Guidelines: McGill University
• Part 2: Design Principles: Purdue Writing Lab
• Teaching with PowerPoint: Northern Illinois University
• Writing a PowerPoint Presentation: George Mason University
• PowerPoint Presentations: MIT Alumni Association
• Design Tips for PowerPoint: UNSW
• General Guidelines for PowerPoint Presentations: Virginia Tech
• Tips for Creative Effective PowerPoint Presentations: University of Nebraska–Lincoln
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How writing about difficult experiences can help you take back your power

By Sakinah Hofler on August 24, 2020 in News + Updates

I have a question for you. Have you ever seen something and you wish you could have said something — but you didn’t?

And I have a second question. Has something ever happened to you and you never said anything about it — but you should have?

I’m interested in this idea of action — of the difference between seeing, which is the passive act of observing, and the actual act of bearing witness.

Bearing witness means writing down something you have seen, something you have heard, something you have experienced. The most important part of bearing witness is writing it down; it’s recording. Writing it down captures the memory. Writing it down acknowledges its existence.

One of the biggest examples we have in history of someone bearing witness is Anne Frank and her diary. She simply wrote down what was happening to her family and about her confinement and, in doing so, we have a very intimate record of this family during one of the worst periods of our world’s history.

You too can use creative writing to bear witness, and I’m going to walk you through an exercise that I do with a lot of my college students, who are future engineers, technicians, plumbers — basically, they’re not creative writers. We use these exercises to unsilence things we’ve been keeping silent. It’s a way of unburdening ourselves.

It’s 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Brainstorm and write it down

I give my students a prompt. The prompt is “The time when …” and I want them to fill in that prompt with times they might have experienced something, heard something or seen something and they could have said something or intervened but they didn’t. I have them write a list as quickly as possible.

I’ll give you example of some of the things I would write down:

- the time when a few months after 9/11 and two boys dared themselves to touch me and they did - the time when my sister and I were walking in a city and a guy spat at us and called us terrorists - the time way back when I went to a very odd middle school and girls a couple of
 years older than me were often married to men nearly double their age - the time when a friend pulled a gun on me - the time when I went to a going-away luncheon for a coworker and a big boss
 questioned my lineage for 45 minutes

There are times when I have seen something and I haven’t intervened. For example:

- the time when I was on a train and I witnessed a father beating his toddler son and I didn’t do anything - the many times when I’ve walked by someone who was homeless and in need and asking me for money and I walked around them and I did not acknowledge their humanity

The list could go on and on . Think of times when something might have happened sexually, times when you’ve been keeping things repressed, and times with our families. Because our families — we love them, but at the same time we don’t talk about things. So we don’t talk about the family member who has been using drugs or abusing alcohol; we don’t talk about the family member who might have severe mental illness. We’ll say something like, “Oh they’ve always been that way,” and we hope that in not talking about it and not acknowledging it, we can act like it doesn’t exist, that it will somehow fix itself.

Your goal is to write down at least 10 things, and once you have those 10 things, you’ve actually done part one, which is to bear witness. You have unsilenced something that you have been keeping silent.

Step 2: Narrow it down and focus

What I suggest is going back to your list of 10 and picking 3 things that are really tugging at you, three things that you feel strongly about. It doesn’t have to be the most traumatic things but it’s things that are like, “Ah, I have to write about this.” I suggest you sit down at a table with a pen and paper — that’s my preferred method for recording but you can also use a tablet, an iPad, a computer, just something that lets you write.

I suggest taking 30 minutes of uninterrupted time, meaning that you turn your phone off, put it on airplane mode, no email. If you have family or if you have children, give yourself 20 minutes or 5 minutes. The goal is just to give yourself time to write.

You’re going to focus on 3 things — you’re going to focus on the details, you’re going to focus on the order of events, you’re going to focus on how it made you feel. That last one is the most important part. I’m going to walk you through how I do it.

The first thing I feel very, very strongly about is that time when a couple of months after 9/11, these two boys dared themselves to touch me. I remember I was in a rural mall in North Carolina and I was just walking, minding my business.

I felt like people walking behind me were very, very close. I was like, “OK, that’s kind of weird, let me walk a little bit faster.” They walked a little bit faster too and I heard them going back and forth —  “No, you do it” “You do it” “No, you do it.” And then one of them pushes me and I almost fall to the ground.

I popped back up, expecting some type of apology and the weirdest thing was they did not run away. They actually stood right next to me and I remember there was a guy with blond hair and he had a bright red polo shirt and he was saying “Give me my money, I did it, man”, and the guy with the brown hair who had a choppy haircut gave him a $5 bill. I remember it was crumpled, and so I’m like, “Am I still standing here? This thing just happened. What just happened?”

And it was so weird to be someone’s dare and then also not exist at all. I remembered when I was younger and someone dared me to touch something nasty or disgusting. I felt like that nasty and disgusting thing.

The second thing I feel very, very strongly about is the time when a friend pulled a gun on me (I should say former friend). I remember there was a group of us outside, he had run up, and he had the stereotypical brown paper bag in his hand. I knew what it was. I’m a very mouthy person and I started going off. I was like, “What are you doing with that gun? You’re not gonna shoot anyone. You’re a coward. You don’t even know how to use it.”

I kept going on and on and on and he got angrier and angrier and angrier and he pulled the gun out and put it in my face. I remember every one of us got very, very quiet. I remember the tightness of his face. I remember the barrel of the gun and I felt like — and I’m pretty sure everyone around me who got quiet did too — felt like this is the moment I die.

The third thing I feel very, very strongly about is this going away luncheon and this big boss. I remember I was running late and I’m always late; it’s just a thing that happens with me. The whole table was filled except for the seat next to him. I didn’t know him well; I had seen him in the office. I didn’t know why the seat was empty; I found out later on why. So I sat down at the table and before he even asked me my name, the first thing he said was “What’s going on with all of this?” and he gestured at my head. I thought, “Do I have something on my face? What’s happening?”

Then he asked me with two hands this time “What’s going on with all of this?” And I realized he’s talking about my hijab. In my head I said, “Oh, not today.” But he’s a big boss — he’s like my boss’s boss’s boss. So for 45 minutes I put up with him asking me where I was from, where were my parents from, my grandparents. He asked me where I went to school, where I did my internships, he asked me who interviewed me for that job. And for 45 minutes, I tried to be very, very, very, very, very polite, trying to answer his questions.

But I remember I was making eyeball “Help!” signs at the people around the table, like “Someone say something, intervene”. It was a rectangular table, so there were people on both sides of us and no one said anything, even people who might be in the position to do so, bosses. No one said anything. I remember I felt so alone. I remember I felt like I didn’t deserve to be in his space. I remember I wanted to quit.

So these are my three things and you’ll have your list of three things. Once you have these three things, you have the details, you have the order of events, you have how it made you feel, you’re ready to actually use creative writing to bear witness.

Step 3: Pick one and tell your story

You don’t have to write a memoir; you don’t have to be a creative writer. I know sometimes storytelling can be daunting for some people but we are human, we are natural storytellers. If someone asks “How is your day going?”, we have a beginning, a middle and an end. That is a narrative.

Our memory exists and subsists through the act of storytelling. You just have to find the form that works for you. You can write a letter to your younger self, you can write a story to your younger self, you can write a story to your five-year-old child, you can write a parody, a song, a song as parody. You can write a play, you can write a nursery rhyme, you can write it in the form of a Wikipedia article.

If it’s one of those situations where you saw something and you didn’t intervene, perhaps write it from that person’s perspective. So if I go back to the boy on the train who I saw being beaten, What was it like to be in his shoes? What was it like to see all these people who watched it happen and did nothing? Or I could put myself in the position of someone who was homeless and just try to figure out how they got there in the first place. Perhaps it would help me change some of my actions, perhaps it will help me be more proactive about certain things.

By telling your story, you’re keeping it alive so you don’t have to do anything; you don’t have to show anyone any of these steps. But even if you’re telling it to yourself, you’re saying this thing happened, this weird thing did happen. It’s not in my head. It actually happened and by doing that maybe you’ll take a little bit of power back that has been taken away.

The last thing I’m going to do is I’m going to tell you my story.  The one I’ve picked is about this big boss and I picked that one because I feel like I’m not the only one who has been in a position where someone has been above me and been talked down to. I feel like all of us might have been in positions where we felt like we could not say anything because this person has our livelihood, our paychecks, our jobs in their hands and times we might have seen someone who has power talking down to someone and we should have or could have intervened.

By telling this story, I’m taking back a little bit of power that was taken away from me. I have changed the names, and it happened a decade ago. It doesn’t have any happy ending, because it’s just me writing down what happened that day.

This is how I use creative writing to bear witness.

At Lisa’s Going Away Luncheon

I want to ask my boss’s boss’s boss if he’s stupid

or just plain dumb after he takes one look at my hijab

and asks me where I’m from in Southeast Asia.

I tell him that it’s New Jersey, actually,

and he asks where are my parents from,

and my grandparents and my great-grandparents

and their parents and their parents’ parents

as if searching for some Other blood,

as if searching for some reason why some Black

Muslim girl from Newark wound up seated next to him

at this restaurant of tablecloths

and laminated menus.

I want to say “Slavery, jerk,”

but I’ve got a car note and rent and insurances

and insurances and insurances and credit

cards and credit debt and a loan and a bad tooth

and a penchant for sushi so I drop

the jerk but keep the truth.

Tell me, he says,

“Why don’t Sunnis and Shiites get along?”

“Tell me,” he says, “What’s going on in Iraq?”

“Tell me,” he says, “What’s up with Saudi and Syria

and Iran?” “Tell me,” he says, “Why do Muslims

like bombs?” I want to shove an M1 up his behind

and confetti that pasty flesh and that tailored suit.

Instead I’m sipping my unsweetened iced tea

looking around at the table, at the co-workers

around me; none of whom, not one,

looks back at me. Rather they do the most

American things they can do:

They praise their Lord. They stuff their faces

And pretend they don’t hear him.

And pretend they don’t see me.

This post was adapted from a  TEDxUCincinnati  Talk. Watch it here:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sakinah Hofler  is an award-winning writer and a PhD student at the University of Cincinnati in the English Program. Formerly, she worked as a chemical and quality engineer for the United States Department of Defense. She’s an advocate for infusing the arts into our daily lives.

This post was originally published on  TED Ideas . It’s part of the “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community;  browse through  all the posts here.

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