 | Posted by Bert Decker | August 28th, 2005 | Leave a Comment | Tweet This
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Today’s New York Times ran a feature story on Jay-Z – rapper turned President of Def Jam Recordings. And a big league president at that, as the story explains the opportunity, including how his girlfriend and superstar Beyonce Knowles just “hangs around” his office.
What I found fascinating, and sad in a way, is his self professed inability to articulate and communicate and manage – and here he is – with an opportunity that came unexpectedly. (They usually do.) As the NY Times says:
Jay-Z still finds addressing a staff a bit uncomfortable. “When you’re on stage it’s like” ‘What’s up, Cleveland? Wave your hands in the air, say ho.’
"But to stand in front of people and give a speech and talk about the things you’re trying to do, it’s not easy.”
Not easy, unless you learn it early. And it is so learnable. Why do people wait until it counts most to learn to communicate, and then often miss the opportunity of high leverage when it will have the greatest impact – just because they haven’t learned the important skill of communicating and presenting well – when the heat’s on.
Three things to do NOW if you want to be your best when the pressure is on:
- Have a Point Of View. Tell people the Big Idea of what you are talking about, then what you want them to do, and finally what’s in it for them. (Most managers tell their folks what they want them to do and the benefits for the company or for the manager, but what’s the benefit for THEM?)
- You are your message – be passionate and enthusiastic about what you are saying. This is conveyed through your movement, gestures and vocal energy as the primary communicators of physical energy. Energy equals enthusiasm.
- Get yourself on videotape. See how you come across to others. I’ve trained tens of thousands of people, and without exception we undermine ourselves. We are much better than we think we are, as we imagine in our minds that we come across with much less impact than we actually have. You’ve got to see it.
Of course Jay-Z didn’t know or care about presentation skills in his rapper career, but as he has moved up the ladder, he cares. Never too late to learn.
| Posted by Bert Decker | August 22nd, 2005 | 2 Comments | Tweet This
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Introducing someone? Remember W-E-B!
WEB: for Warmth, Expertise and Brevity. It’s all you need to remember when you are asked to introduce a speaker. Go heavy on the Warmth, moderate on the Expertise, tight on Brevity. Your job is to build enthusiasm and anticipations.
W – for Warmth: If you feel good about the speaker, the audience will. What is interesting about him/her? What is incredible, amusing, surprising or inspiring about her accomplishments? If you’ve never met him, what did he say in a telephone call you might make? Your experience of the speaker, warmly expressed, is vital to building the energy of friendly anticipation in the audience.
E – for Expertise: Enough to qualify the speaker to speak on his topic. Don’t rehash her whole resume or overstate her accomplishments – this is where most introductions fall flat. Weave her expertise into the topic of the speech, so the audience is primed to listen with interest.
B – for Brevity: From 30 seconds to 2 minutes, tops. This means you’ll have to begin highly energized, rehearse for time, and err on the side of short vs. long.
More Tips:
- Use the speaker’s name at least twice, fully pronouncing clearly.
- Always interview him/her ahead of time so your connection is personalized.
- If the speaker is “too important” to be personally interviewed, ask others who know him/her for interesting sidelights that make him come alive.
- Smile, really smile broadly, when you ask the audience to welcome ….! You yourself then warmly welcome the speaker to the lectern or spotlight area – never desert eh space before she gets there.
| Posted by Bert Decker | August 16th, 2005 | 1 Comment | Tweet This
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When you communicate, what’s your brand?
Many people into blogging are into branding too, so you may have your own perspective. This morning I got a different slant on branding that is worth considering – particularly since I believe that we always should project our own personal brand whenever we communicate with others. (That’s what “creating your communication experience” is all about.)
So I’m on the Advisory Board of The Salvation Army of San Francisco, and this morning saw the presentation of the new national branding campaign for the Army. It was created by a group hadn’t known before but you might have heard of, The Richards Group in Texas www.richards.com But you might have heard of some of their clients – Motel 6, for one, has been an ongoing campaign that is still going strong at 14 years.
Here’s their food for thought, along with a great communication addition to The Salvation Army :
What is a brand?
It is NOT a logo:
It is NOT a tagline: “Need Knows no Season”
It is NOT a slogan” “Heart to God, Hand to Man”
A brand is a promise. It should bring to mind certain attributes. We should be able to visualize a brand; it should suggest values. Think: Starbucks, Godiva, Southwest Airlines. The Salvation Army’s new brand promise is:
DOING THE MOST GOOD
| Posted by Bert Decker | August 12th, 2005 | Leave a Comment | Tweet This
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That may be high praise, but well deserved. Blink is not only immensely readable 
- with great research – it is APPLICABLE in your business as well as your personal life.
Malcolm Gladwell, the author of best selling Blink and the earlier Tipping Point hit a homerun by vividly demonstrating how our unconscious plays such a major role in our communications.
Too much to summarize in one blog item, but more insights from Blink will be coming in future posts. Here’s a fascinating one – and where most of Blink correctly emphasizes the power of the visual and our unconscious, this shows the power of our vocal TONE in our impact.
Think of how often you are on your cell phone, and then consider this:
- Two groups of doctors were compared – one group had been sued for malpractice and the other group had not. There were no discernible differences in education or experience. There was a distinct difference in how long each group spent with their patients – those who were not sued spent a lot more time on the phone with their patients – that was the primary difference! Patients did not want to sue the doctors who communicated and cared.
- But read on – the phone calls were also recorded, and then all the content taken was scrambled so you could only hear the resonance and tone of the doctor’s voice. Test audiences could place the recorded voice with the right group of doctors almost every time. Just from listening to tone – no content.
Beware the monotone or uncaring voice in your next cell phone conversation. It may not make the difference in a lawsuit, but it sure will make the difference in persuasion and influence.
Positive thinking. Norman Vincent Peale had it right in his Power of Positive Thinking classic. Here is one way to communicate effectively.
Ask questions in a positive way. It’s not old fashioned – it works.
A soldier serving at the end of a chow line decided to test the power of positive thinking. He was serving, and asked the first 100 fellow soldiers:
“You don’t want a bowl of apricots do you?” 90% said NO.
The next 100 he changed his tactic, same question, different phrasing:
“Would you like a bowl of apricots?” 50% said YES.
Then, the clincher:
“Would you like one or two bowls of apricots?” 40% said 2, 50% said 1, and ONLY 10% SAID NO.
How positive do you want to be? Depends on how much you want.
| Posted by Bert Decker | August 5th, 2005 | 7 Comments | Tweet This
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Even strong speakers can undercut a whole presentation with three seconds of wobbly indecision at the end. Those last three seconds amount to the last important picture people remember of you. Watch your body language. Not even Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty…” line can bail you out if you act nervous, disgusted, insincere or hurried. For example:
- Don’t step back. If anything, take a half-step toward your listeners at the end. Don’t step back verbally, either, by softening your request to “I surely hope something…” or worse, “There seems to be a need…” Keep saying “we” and “you” to the end.
- Don’t look away. Some people harken back to the last visual-aid, as if for reinforcement. Some people look aside, unwilling to confront listeners head-on at the last words, the murmured “thank you,” or the instant of silence that follows. Stay with them.
- Don’t move on the last word. Hold still for a half-beat after the “you” in “thank you.” You don’t want to look anxious to get out of there. If anything, you want to let people know you’ve enjoyed being with them and are sorry you have to go. Don’t rush off.
- Don’t raise your hands. In our seminars, we recommend “clean and firm endings” to actually show people you’re finished. You must “let them go” visually. If you keep you hands up at waist level, you look as if you have something more to say. You’re still “holding them.” (You can see this same phenomenon in one-on-one seated conversations: the person whose hands are up still “holds the floor” and the listener will not begin talking until the hands themselves are finished.) In speaking, think of yourself as the gracious host or hostess as you drop your hands with an appreciative “thank you.” That image prompts you to be warm and natural.
- Don’t rush to collect your papers. Or visual aids, or displays. Stop and chat with people if the meeting is breaking up, then begin to tidy up in a calm, unhurried manner. Otherwise you might be contradicting your calm, confident demeanor as a presenter.
- Never blackball yourself with a critical grimace, a shake of the head, eyes rolled upward, a disgusted little sigh. So what if you’re displeased with yourself? Don’t insult your audience by letting them know you were awful; they probably thought you were pretty good. One lip curl in those last three seconds can wreck 30 minutes of credibility.
What could turn the winning percentage of a major league team from a low of 35% to the current 74% – in just two months? A great speech, that’s what.
The Oakland A’s were 12 ½ games back on June 1, and now at the beginning of August they are one game away from leading their division. The hottest team in baseball – and it all started with a speech.
“How A Speech Sparked The Surge” was the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle August 4. In early June after the sorry A’s had lost a three game series and were going downhill fast, third baseman Eric Chavez “took a stand. He delivered an emotional speech on the team bus as it left Washington’s RFK Stadium.” The rest is history, as the A’s have now won 37 out of 48.
Inspiration is personal, and it comes from passion, and comes from a person. Those who think motivational speeches and motivational speakers are all fluff and no content don’t know enough about the human mind. And emotions. Spirit drives action, and there is no better ‘spirit driver’ than a speaker inspiring the troops. The Oakland A’s just might get a championship out of it that fact.
Every CEO and business leader could learn from this. Effective executive speaking is an art, not a science. It does not include data dumps – so prevalent in business today. It does not include reading speeches either – not much emotion there. It does include passion, and action steps, and advocacy. Just like a young Eric Chavez showed us. He was probably so passionate at the time that he didn’t even need any speech training!
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