What Are You Doing While In The Waiting Room?

By: Shona M. Dennis M.Div

People in waiting rooms are queued up based on various methods in different types of waiting rooms. In hospital emergency department waiting areas, patients are triaged by a nurse, and they are seen by the doctor depending on the severity of their medical condition. In the waiting rooms of clinics, hospitals, emergency departments and urgent care clinics, humanity comes together as equals.

And for every minute that one waits, one also stops engaging in anything but the wait. Having a health issue, whatever it is, even if there is no issue, brings us to the basic truth that we are each human, vulnerable to wear and tear in need of CARE. That our differences have been reduced and we are on the same plane of assistance.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE WAITING ROOM OF LIFE?

Each one of has been born into trouble (Job :14), drama, and trauma and continues to experience it on a daily basis. Like the waiting room in the hospital, some sit and wait, some play games, write in a journal, catch up on reading, listen to a podcast, and some sleep.

The truth common to us all is that no-one wants to be there. The seats are uncomfortable regardless of design, there are feelings of distress, stress, and fear. The waiting is part of the moment, treatment, and an insult in the process. There isn’t much privacy and confidentiality. Life has us all in some form of waiting room. WHAT ARE YOUR ISSUES, SICKNESS, PROBLEMS, AND CONDITIONS, that need to be seen or heard by professional hands? These issues are holding you back in some way?

Many of us don’t realize that we have a purpose in life, God has a plan for our life and we must continue moving forward. There will be times when the storms come, the wind blows, and the weight of life gets heavy. What will you do? How do you cope?

What happens when your situation is on the bottom of the triage list? Everyone else is moving ahead of your pain and problems.

What happens when you hear the virtual message everyone hates to hear “we know that your time is valuable please continue to HOLD?

Has anyone wondered how do we design the waiting room experience to minimize stress, anticipation, expectation, and fear of surprise? How do we design our life for a better experience in dealing, coping with, and waiting for our NEXT STEPS in any situation?

The bible tells us if we have to wait:

• Wait on the lord, meaning in prayer, seeking, and standing firm on what God has spoken to you. (Ps27:14) while moving forward

• Cast all our cares and anxiety upon the Lord (1 Pt5:7)

• The lord is a present help in times of trouble (Ps:46)

• You’ve been at this mountain long enough (Deut 1:6/John 5:3-6)

• God Almighty neither sleeps nor slumbers (Ps:121)

While in the waiting room of life, there is no time to sit, soak, and sour. It is time to always have an awareness, be awakened, and have accountability to our life on a holistic level. There is no earthly problem that heaven can’t hear about or heal. www.meetatthewellnetwork.com continued from page 14

He has given us the passion, and indeed the command, to make disciples in all nations; disciples of transformation, disciples who grow to become nation-builders. I am also motivated by several African women who have accomplished great things. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Miriam Makeba, Winnie Mandela, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, and many more. I believe in the African woman and just want the honor of assisting her in finding her voice and realizing her full potential.

With your goal to transform and raise African women leaders, what challenges have you been confronted with and how are you able to surmount them?

To be candid, I won’t even call them challenges. I’ve had more blessings and miracles than obstacles. Things are moving at a breakneck pace that I hope we can keep up with. We have received a great deal of support and interest from African countries. Over 100 ladies applied to serve for free during our previous outreach. People from other African countries have actually begged me to cooperate with them. I’m sometimes terrified to open Whatsapp. So my goal is to construct a winning team that will bring this vision to life, as well as to effectively harness the numerous opportunities that are opening up for us. My challenge is to figure out how to design an efficient framework. And thankfully, we have started work on that.

How can women better position themselves for leadership opportunities?

First, you need to have a heart to serve. Service is the bedrock upon which leadership is built. You should not seek leadership only to be dubbed a boss. You also don’t need a position to serve, so start by making an effect even if you don’t have one. Second, you must build capacity. The C in WWWA’s EPIC values stands for capacity. You simply must be capable of producing excellent results for your town, state, country, or company. Allow your exceptional works to be unmistakable. Then we must demand and accept a seat at the leadership table. You’ll be on the menu if you’re not at the table. Finally, let us be true helpmates for the males. I think that many women are still perplexed by the complexities of that responsibility. continued on page 28 continued from page 9

Luckily, this is easily avoided through practice and by confirming the correct pronunciation with the speaker well before the presentation. (Don’t wait until you are delivering the introduction to ask them — this looks amateurish.)

“A sure way to undermine your own credibility and that of the speaker is to mispronounce their name, the title of their presentation, or any other key terms.”

7. Be accurate.

Being accurate is as important as correct pronunciation, perhaps more so. Make sure you know the precise years, facts, or details.

If you make factual errors, many speakers will feel an irresistible compulsion to correct you. This is a lousy way for them to begin their speech, and will almost certainly kill their momentum.

8. Don’t alter the speech title.

Many speakers craft their presentation title very carefully, and the words matter to them. The title may be a phrase they want the audience to remember, it may reflect language used on accompanying slides, or it may be a humorous play on words.

Don’t change it under any circumstances. (And, of course, know how to pronounce it.)

9. Should you attempt humor?

In most circumstances, no. Your objective is to get the audience excited about the topic and the speaker, and this is not the time to tell humorous anecdotes about the speaker. Save those for a roast!

There are exceptions (as there are to all public speaking advice), and you’ll have to use your judgment. If this speech is part of a longer event, and the preceding talk has been particularly sad or low on energy, then it may help to lift the spirits of the audience. If you need to do this, do it early in your introduction, and then move on to the more thought-provoking content leading to your climax.

10. Don’t give an outline of the speech. Avoid undermining the speaker by giving too many details about the speech, telling anecdotes from their speech, or making promises about details in their presentation. It is the speaker’s job to decide how and when they reveal their outline. Keep your introduction at a high level, unless they have specifically asked you to do otherwise.

11. Stick to relevant expertise of the speaker. One very common mistake is to recite a lengthy list of biographical details (education, awards, former job titles, publications, etc.) which may or may not be relevant to the topic being presented. This is especially common at academic conferences.

For example, avoid introductions such as:

Our speaker grew up in Cleveland and graduated at the top of her mechanical engineering class at Carnegie Mellon University. She went on to earn a Master’s Degree from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard.

She is a member of the Automotive Engineers Association, and a twotime recipient of the Stone Award for Distinguished Linguistics Research. She was previously the Director of Research at Hasbro, and is currently the CEO for the Miami Dolphins.

Her talk today is entitled “How to Build Authentic Shaker Furniture.”

A much better introduction would touch on how many years the speaker had been building shaker furniture, whether she had been trained or selftaught, and that she had written a book on this topic.

Okay, maybe that example was a bit extreme. But, even if the speaker has a lengthy list of biographical details that are related to her talk, there’s no need to recite them all. Pick a small number (about three) that are most relevant — usually the most recent details.

12. Don’t overdo it.

Long introductions filled with biographical details are bad for two main reasons:

• Long introductions are boring. Nobody attends an event to listen to the introducer go on and on.

• Long introductions are pompous. Reciting dozens of professional accolades gives the impression that the speaker cares only about himself and his ego.

Keep your introduction just long enough to accomplish your goals: [1] what’s the topic, [2] why does it matter, and [3] why is the speaker credible?

I’m a big fan of short introductions in just about all situations. Sixty or ninety seconds is usually ample time. For really long presentations (e.g. keynote addresses lasting an hour or more), then two or three minutes may be warranted.

The opinions expressed here by Next Generation Speakers Magazine columnists are their own, not those of the magazine itself.

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PRESCRIPTION FOR EXCELLENCE

With Dr. James J. Williams

Help mate does not imply inferiority or insignificance; rather, it implies that males on their own are incapable of providing transformational leadership. We are the salt that adds flavor to their lives. It’s not a competition, but rather a collaboration, and we can persuade males that they need us at the table. In Africa, it may take some time, but it is occurring. Rwanda is a case in point. It is the first country in the world to have a female majority in parliament, with 61.3% in the Lower House and 38.5% in the Upper House today.

We are in a political era, what role are you playing to increase and empower women?

For the time being, we are primarily concerned with advocacy and enlightenment in Nigeria and throughout Africa. We intend to launch an online campaign for the Nigerian elections soon. We are not stopping there, but are also establishing additional structures to support female political actors. The elections in Kenya and Angola are also scheduled for August of this year; maybe, we will be able to empower more women before then.

How can we get more women to become successful and rise to the top as you have done? What tips do you have for younger women?

There are numerous suggestions I could make. But let me just link them to WWWA’s EPIC Values. If you want to be an EPIC Woman, you must first become ENLIGHTENED. Ignorance is a disease that must be eradicated at all costs. Learn about what’s going on inside and outside of you, in politics, the economy, your organization, and so on. Second, you should GET INVOLVED. Don’t just sit in the audience; take a seat at the leadership table. Seeking service-based leadership is admirable. Then create IMPACT. Every day, get out of bed with the goal to make a difference in someone’s life. Finally, keep increasing CAPACITY. Learn new skills and strive to be the best at what you do.

How are you able to combine you many portfolios as a speaker, author, trainer, life coach, and family woman and still be at your best?

As I previously stated, God has provided me with a supportive family. It hasn’t been easy. I respect my husband because he provides me with support that I could only dream of. If I had my way, I’d probably be relaxing at home and saving myself all these headaches, but I dare not with him. My children also provide me with a lot of strength. Fortunately for me, they’ve grown up and it’s no longer as demanding as it once was. But at the end of the day, all I want to do is go home and relax with them over a nice cuisine.