Remember, I also want to give you feedback! Video tape yourself at a meeting or giving a presentation and send it to me. Getting feedback is the most essential way to take your communication to the next level.

In the meantime, here’s some more off-the-cuff 1×1 feedback, this time for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a touchy interview on CBS5 last week.

Enjoy – and send your videos to me at blog@decker.com!

PS – Tune in early next week for more 1×1 feedback! According to the marketing department, I’ll be talking about Tiger Woods’ upcoming press conference (if it ever happens!). Can’t wait to see how he presents his point of view.

Now, of course, I LOVE the fact that he acknowledges communications as one of the #1 ways you can increase your human capital and value to your team, company, organization, and even family and friends, for that matter. (Of course, he should have  referenced Decker instead of the other guys.. Sorry, can’t help it.)

The best part though is that he’s a great model for effective communicating. He doesn’t just tell others to “do as I say, not as I do.” Here’s what he does well:

He’s incredibly likable. Guess what? You can be too! This is a skill that can be learned. He’s likable for three key reasons:

• “Lightness of face” — Notice how he has the slightest of grins throughout the clip. He’s not foolishly smiling from ear to ear, just enough. This goes a long way for communications. Smiling is the simplest, although not always the easiest way to increase your likability to your listener. For example, you could be that grim-faced kind of person (not to say that you’re grim, just grim-faced) who processes and communicates information very seriously, maybe with a furrowed brow for extra concentration. That facial expression doesn’t do anything to help you connect and build rapport with your listener. We don’t buy long term from someone we don’t like – it would be too painful! So, next time go on and give smiling a try.
• Conversational tone — It’s a town hall set up, so it should be that way. Not professorial, not a lecture – it feels like he’s just chatting with you.
• He’s vulnerable — The great Warren Buffett also needed communication TRAINING! To be successful, you also have to have a constant eye on improvement. A forward lean toward progress. When’s the last time you invested in these skills? Communications training is often overlooked as a soft skill – but it’s critical to your success. Make it a new year’s resolution.

On the content side, he knows his audience. He uses a flurry of numbers to illustrate his point. Now mind you, this would NOT work in all circumstances, but this is to a group of Columbia business school students who squeal with delight at the thought of alpha, beta, and r-squared statistics.  These are human-scale stats to this particular breed. Human-scale statistics allows the listener to bring their experience to bear (learn more about this in Decker Made To Stick).

Warren Buffett gets it: invest in yourself and reap the return.

I also want to give you feedback! Send me a video of you giving a presentation, doing Q&A, or rehearsing a speech (less than 10 mins please) and I’ll choose one to post about each week or so. Don’t worry – I’ll be very nice, but also honest so that my feedback can help.

In the video below, I’m giving some off-the-cuff 1×1 feedback for Carrie Prejean’s recent (and somewhat hostile) interview on the Today Show (1×1 feedback is a modified version of Decker’s 3×3 keepers and improvements because the video clip is so short.)

Enjoy – and send your videos to blog@decker.com!

Last week I coached two executives, neither of whom had used video feedback before.  In both of these sessions, we addressed the need to “get out of the weeds.”  Most often, when we’re in the weeds, we don’t realize it.  Having an outside perspective (such as coaching and video feedback) is important for this very reason.  When we are passionate and invested in a message, it’s our natural tendency to share as much as we can in as much detail as we can.  The material is so important, so brilliant and so valuable that we inadvertently create information overload in our fervor.

When you present your communications experience, are you in the weeds?  Consider these indicators:

• The verbal content of your message is cluttered with verbosity, technical jargon, industry lingo, and too much detail.
• The visuals presented are overkill (too many slides, too much text, little or no graphics).
• Your presentation lacks stories, anecdotes, and humor.
• Your intensity for the material blinds you from the need to connect with and engage your audience.

The answer?  Focus on two things and two things only.

1. Your point of view:  What is the core message you want to convey?
2. Your audience:  What’s in it for them?  What are they looking for in your message?  How can you focus on the aspects of your message that they’ll care about?
   

Simplify your material.  Divorce the details that excite you but alienate your listeners.  Become a master of exclusion and a facilitator of a memorable message.  Take “you” out of the message.  Focus on your listeners, learn them and create an experience that leaves an impact on them.

Want to connect your message with your audience?  Get out your weed whacker!

Photo credit: gracieshoots

Last week I wrote on various aspects of eye communication. A couple of experiences prompt me to write again – on how eye communication impacts word of mouth marketing.

And how important is word of mouth marketing?

• 80% of reviews are positive…because people want to share things they enjoy. Known as the “J-Curve”
• 90% of people who write reviews do so to help other people.
• In 2007, “Trust in someone like me” tripled, which trust in companies dropped. (Think of what it is today!)

(For more stats, check out Bazaarvoice – the leader in WOMM)

Last week, I became a disgruntled customer at my local market because an order I had placed a week before had yet to be filled, and I was having friends over that night. I went there and the manager looked me directly in the eye throughout our conversation. As a result, I found myself calming down, seeking to work towards resolution. In the end, I left the establishment satisfied and eager once again to recommend the place to others.

Then recently I walked in to a store as a potential new customer, prepared to spend some good money to update a few home furnishings. Rather than engage me while discussing options in the store, the salesperson completely avoided eye contact, looking at my watch, my clothes, and pretty much anywhere else he could other than my eyes.

Combined with a generally unpleasant demeanor, this lack of eye contact cost this business not only a sale but also any positive word of mouth marketing. Being a small, specialty store in my neighborhood my negative experience leads me to give less-than-positive reviews to my friends in the community – bad WOMM.

As communicators, we have a toolbox of behavioral skills we enlist to communicate effectively; of all the skills in our toolbox, eye communication is the most important. As I wrote in You’ve Got to be Believed to be Heard:

“Eye communication ranks first because it has the greatest impact in both one-on-one communications and large group communications. It literally connects mind to mind, since your eyes are the only part of your central nervous system that is in direct contact with another human being. When your eyes meet the eyes of another person, you make a First-Brain-to-First-Brain connection. When you fail to make that connection, it matters very little what you say.”

My point?

With the growth of the Web 2.0 generation – focusing on branding and marketing through social media et al – the significance of powerful, effective interpersonal communication often gets lost in the shuffle.

WOMM reflects the reputation of a brand – a reputation built on communication experiences. Interpersonal communication is still the basis of a reputation. And the primary communication skill that can make or break a positive communication experience (and thus, a reputation) is eye communication.

Remember your eye communication next time you’re trying to make a sale, or just sell yourself; your WOMM is on the line.

“When I showed up after inauguration, they had left a big mess on the floor. So I got a mop, and I started cleaning up their mess. That’s okay, I don’t mind.  But you know — you know, it does bother me when they start saying, ‘You’re not mopping fast enough.’ ‘You’re not holding the mop the right way.’ My attitude is, why don’t you grab a mop?”

He used the concrete analogy of a mop instead of what most politicians and business leaders might have said (warning: this might sound all too familiar to you):

“After inauguration, it became even more apparent that our economy is in crisis. As we strive for bipartisanship, they continuously blockade our endeavors, impeding on our progress instead of joining the effort.”

But instead, he drew a picture. Simply. Right away, you can see that mess and that mop. Then, he tugs at the hardworking, roll-up-your-sleeves drive in all of us – calling us to action, instead of making our eyes glaze over.

This is a quick example of the power of being concrete to drive a message home. We thoroughly explore concreteness (and all Made To Stick SUCCESs principles) in our Decker Made To Stick Messaging workshop – and find that people walk away saying that it will change the impact of their messages immediately.

Think about this the next time you chime in at a meeting and want to get your point across. What could you do to remove abstractions and make your message resonate?

In true Decker form, we videotaped the entire Decker Made To Stick Messaging debut program so we could (what else?) give ourselves feedback!  Several participants gave us feedback, too, so we can continuously improve and evolve.  With all this video lying around, @MeredithGood put together a short testimonial (for kicks!) to give you a sense of what Decker Made To Stick Messaging is all about.

What are you waiting for? Get in on the action and register for December 2nd! Hope to see you soon.