Err on the Side of Brevity

“No one ever complains about a speech being too short!”    – Ira Hayes

There are lots of quotes that convey the same sentiment – e.g. “always leave them wanting more” – and for good reason. You can never really be too brief, but you surely can be too long-winded.

So the tip of the month is to err on the side of brevity. Even the best speakers can lose their audiences when they overstay their welcome.

You’ll never be criticized for being brief; you’ll probably be thanked for allowing the audience time to ask for the detail they’re interested in hearing! 

It is, after all, all about them!

What to Do When Your Topic is You

Unless you’re a motivational speaker or a celebrity, it’s not often that you’ll be invited to address a large audience to talk about yourself – your career, your experiences and your path to where you are now. But it could happen, you never know. It recently happened to me, and I will admit, it stopped me dead in my tracks.

Whether you are asked to introduce yourself at an event (as in, “tell us a little bit about yourself,” or the dreaded, “let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves”), or you are asked to share a little bit about your background and experience in a meeting or capabilities presentation, you may have been stopped dead in your tracks too.

I’m about to give you some ideas, because, for those of you who have been SmartMouth followers for even a little bit of time, you know that my Rule #1, the ultimate speaker guideline, the holy grail of an effective talk is … drumroll, please … “it’s all about them, it’s not about you!” So, what to do when the topic is you yet it needs to be all about them?

Here are 3 tips:

        1. Start with something valuable you want to leave with them.

Don’t begin with life data points; i.e. don’t start with your birthplace, and avoid chronology whenever possible. Try and begin with today and work backwards. Or try and start with your biggest accomplishment or most important lesson learned, where and how you it happened, and then you can weave in bits of chronology that way.

Here’s an example of what that would look like as an opening statement: You’ve asked me to share a little bit about myself and my career, so I’d like to do that by talking about my biggest career mistake – what the situation was, how I’ve learned from it and where I am today because of it.

2      2. Have a message about yourself or your work. An interesting one-sentence message.

If you have an elevator pitch for yourself, that’s great, but even just one quick message point about yourself is helpful.

I’ll give you an example: I have a friend named Janet. Janet is bright and curious and always the first to try something new. Case in point: she was one of the first adults I knew to go on Facebook when it was just venturing out of the college-student-only arena. Janet’s message about herself is, “I’m an explorer.” As marketing director for a large organization, “explorer” is obviously not on her business card, but it’s her message. It’s a quick statement that distinguishes her, it’s a grabber and gets people to pay attention.

3      3. Really think about your audience and decide what it is about you that will be most relevant or valuable for them to hear.

If you do have to be the topic, then be sure to pick what it is about your topic that might benefit your audience, and leave the rest out! We all have talents, accomplishments, and lessons that could benefit others, so identify those and see which might be most useful to your particular audience. Any other info or detail then becomes cutting room floor material. Less is always more anyway!

Even if it’s about you, it’s still all about them!

Ain't that the truth!?

“There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.”

- Dale Carnegie

At the End of the Day …

At the end of the day, you want people to like you. If you’re in sales, you know the likeability factor is huge in making the sale. If you’re in management, the same is true for motivating staff. If you’re a keynote speaker, delivering an address to hundreds, you are still hoping they’ll like you and be moved by your message.

When communicating to others, whether in a formal or informal presentation, we’re striving to connect, to reach people, to engage, and to propel them into action of some kind.

But first they have to like us. It’s that basic, that simple.

I turned to an old classic for guidance on the likeability issue. Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends & Influence People” has been in print for more than 75 years. In it, he identifies “Six Ways to Make People Like You” and here they are:

• 1.     Become genuinely interested in other people.
• 2.     Smile.
• 3.     Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
• 4.     Be a good listener.
• 5.     Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
• 6.     Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.
• 
  

Rocket science? Nope. Basic, good common sense? Yup.

If I were to get scientific, though, and look for some trending patterns in his list, two items stand out:

First, it’s all about them, it’s not about you! This is SmartMouth’s Rule #1. And I’m pleased (and relieved!) to see that I’m in total alignment on that with Dale Carnegie. People, audiences full of people, an audience of one, all want to know that you have thought about them, that you have considered their interests, that you care about them. They want to be noticed, appreciated, understood.

So even when you are invited to speak because you’re a subject matter expert, or even when you’re at the front of the room because you’re the boss, or even when you’re making a sales call and you’re selling exactly what the customer wants or needs, it’s still all about them. Your challenge is to present your material and incorporate acknowledgements of them, their background, accomplishments, interests, and needs. It’s always all about them.

Second, be real about it. I love how he uses the words “genuinely” and “sincerely” – and he gives “smile” it’s own stand-alone billing. There’s a lot to be said for warmth and sincerity.

For sure, people are able to sniff out a phony in seconds (and I guess they’ve been able to do that for 75 years!). More important, though, people are drawn to warmth and sincerity. It’s just human nature.

It was so interesting to revisit these basics. And actually kind of inspiring. I plan to take these 6 principles to heart and look for ways to be more actively conscious of them in my work with 1:1 clients and with groups.

I hope you too will look at the list again and identify a few principles that will help step up your likeability … and, in turn, step up your effectiveness as a communicator!

Recipe: Message Sandwich

One of the most frequently asked questions I get at the beginning of a Presentation Skills Training workshop is “how can I make my point?”

I like to turn that around and suggest that we explore the question “how can I make my audience remember my point?” (Yes, I’m always suggesting a subtle mindset shift from egocentric thinking and communicating to audience-centric thinking and communicating.)

Enter the Message Sandwich!

First ingredient: the message. For every major idea you need to get across – it may be a section of your presentation or the material you’re sharing at a meeting – there’s an important statement to be made. That statement is a message.

And here’s how to find it …

If you are engaged in some form of persuasion (selling, motivating, influencing), the message will convey the significance or benefit or value of what you’re putting out there. If you are engaged in some form of education (informing, reviewing, updating), the message will be more of a capture statement that summarizes the material.

A shortcut to finding the message is by going straight to your conclusion. Ask yourself, how would I conclude? What would I say to wrap up? What is it about this chunk of material that I would want them to take away? Interestingly, we usually save the best for last.

Yet I’m saying, use the best for first and last.

Your message then becomes the top and the bottom slice of bread – i.e. the statement you use to open and close your point.

What’s in the middle of your sandwich? Information. Background, detail, supporting data and statistics, stories and anecdotes.

All too often we lead with information, tons of it. We build a case and then conclude with the message. So forget about evidence first, conclusion last. Go for the sandwich: conclusion-evidence–conclusion; message–info–message.

Reinforcement of your message is the only hope for your audience’s retention of it. Good luck!

New to C-Suite: CRO

Enter the CRO, Chief Reinforcement Officer, the person charged with reinforcing company messages over and over and over again.

I was with the management team of a heavy industrial company last week. The culture of this company is such that they are super responsible to the point of being obsessed about accountability and safety. And there are tons of examples of how they live their words of accountability and safety. Yet they face a lot of audiences that just don’t like the business they’re in and so they’re often faced with unfriendly interactions. Opposition. It happens. It’s not fun, but it happens.

So, in training some of this company’s top-level spokespeople, it came up that the General Manager calls himself the CRO, the Chief Reinforcement Officer. I laughed initially, but then I decided it was brilliant! Of course, a CRO! A CRO is absolutely necessary in any company – not just in a company that has a lot of critics. In fact, it should be a team; anyone who is a spokesperson for an organization should be on the CRO team.

Unless audiences hear a message over and over and over again, it will never stick. Reinforcement is the key. Actually, reinforcement is the only way. Saying the same word or phrase or sentence over and over and over again. Tedious for spokespeople perhaps, but effective in creating stickiness with audiences.

I think I’ll cover messaging sandwiches next time. Message – Info – Message. Yep, a perfect sandwich.

Smartphones in the Audience?

Have you ever been giving a talk and watched – insulted, helpless, and wondering what to do – as the smartphones start popping out in the audience? Pretty discouraging, isn’t it? Or is it? How can anyone be paying attention while they’re clicking away on their phone? Or can they?

The old school of thought was anything that wasn’t pen to paper on a lined pad with focused eye contact was a distracted audience. However, padfolios are giving way to smartphones and tablets; it’s inevitable, so embrace it. Worst case scenario, the smartphones are coming out because the audience member is checking messages, that’s the worst case. But what if they’re taking notes? Or tweeting the point you just made? It’s really no different from the pad and pen days. Maybe they were taking notes on the pad, or maybe they were drafting a memo they forgot to write the day before. You don’t know what people are doing with their smartphones and tablets, but you really never knew what they were doing with their pads and pens either.

Bottom line is don’t be insulted, don’t feel helpless and, most of all, don’t admonish your audience! Instead, use it to your advantage. The whole reason you are giving a talk is to propagate your ideas, right? So hash-tag it. Give them permission to take it beyond the boardroom or conference room; make them work for you. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. All of them allow you to spread your ideas. So embrace the devices that help do that. And welcome to the 21^st Century.

More on TMI

It seems I’m always railing against information and pushing instead for messages. It’s not that I don’t like information, or that I don’t appreciate its usefulness, it’s just that some people use too much of it. And too often they do that at the expense of their messages, which are the key points that provide the packaging for information.

Presentations that contain data dumps, brain dumps, or simply TMI are tedious, hard to follow, and certainly not memorable. But more important, consider this … information is so widely and quickly available these days that perhaps more focus should be placed on the message anyway. Creating context is more urgent. Conveying value is more urgent. Building connections and relationships are more urgent. Information alone is not urgent. It’s a commodity.

Information plays an important role in a presentation, but it’s a supporting role. If time runs out, your messages – or key points – have the starring role and can save the show!

Lessons from Carlos Danger

At a recent press conference, Anthony Weiner lost all control of reporters and resorted to begging them to listen to him. His 800-pound gorilla was off its leash and it started smashing everything in sight. Anthony just stood there helpless, losing complete control.

Running for mayor of New York, there is no doubt that Weiner has important issues he would like to talk about. Reform that would benefit the middle class, budgets, and maybe even new subway schedules, all were ignored. All because of a gorilla that has twice been national headlines and the butt of late night TV jokes.

Sure he had held a press conference to deal directly with the gorilla already, but like anyone who has poured cream into coffee, you can’t just separate things that easily once they’ve been mixed.

The press wanted to get comments on the more recent exploits of Carlos Danger, Weiner wanted to talk about the issues of his campaign. He was getting more and more agitated with every question, the press loved it. The more the press poked at the 800-pound gorilla, the crazier the whole scene became.

All Weiner had to do was acknowledge the gorilla, be willing to deal with it right up front, so he could then, and only then, redirect the reporters to what he wanted to talk about. Instead, Weiner tried to ignore the 800-pound gorilla, the reporters could see only the 800-pound gorilla, and, in the mess and frustration of all that, the 800-pound gorilla took center stage once again. Not exactly Anthony’s desired result.

If you have a distraction – a well-known issue, an obvious troubling situation, a persistent question – deal with it. First. Upfront. Right off the bat. If you don’t, the gorilla will get loose and destroy everything.

Every Second Counts

NPR recently did a study of how quickly people lose interest in a video if it takes more than a few seconds to load. “What we found was that people were pretty patient for up to two seconds,” said Ramesh Sitaraman, science professor at the University of Massachusetts.

The research showed that viewers begin to abandon video if it does not start up within two seconds. And, as if that weren’t bad enough, each additional second of delay resulted in a 5.8 percent increase in the abandonment rate. In other words, by 10 seconds, half of the viewers had already bolted.

So, what’s our takeaway from this? You’re not the latest season of “Arrested Development” or the music video someone needs to see from their favorite band. You have about two seconds to convince your audience that the content is going to be there.

Tell them right up front what’s coming and why they should pay attention. Let them know it’s going to be worth sitting tight for 15 minutes. Be incredibly clear and deliberate in your opening, and you will have your audience with you the whole time.          

The Black Screen

Ugh … PowerPoint. It isn’t my favorite presentation tool. Apart from the usual complaints about PowerPoint, it’s the use of technology that, for me, can bring with it too many risks. There is one thing that makes it better for me, though – a black screen.

We’ve all waited while a speaker or presenter boots up their PowerPoint right in front of us, right? And we stare at their desktop while we wait. Sometimes it’s a picture of family, or a car, or a random field in Iowa. Desktops can be a window into the soul. Or sometimes they’re just a window into the speaker’s dirty laundry … yuck.

My antidote? I color in an all-black slide and make it Slide #1 for my presentations. That way the projector can be on, the PowerPoint ready to go, but it looks like I haven’t plugged in or booted up yet. I was recently told this is a “brilliant idea” … by the very same woman who “did me a favor” and deleted my black slide.

The backstory is that I recently presented to a group in San Francisco and had sent them my slides ahead of time. However, when I arrived in the room, my logo slide – Slide #2 – was up, and Slide #1 was nowhere to be found. I was calm, but I worried about my slide deck because I knew it wasn’t what I sent over (the logo as an opening slide makes it look like it’s all about me – cardinal sin! – and I would never open that way). Long story short, the woman responsible for the event had assumed the black slide was some sort of mistake and she deleted it for me! We had a good laugh after I explained the method behind my madness …

Bottom line:  You have less than 10 seconds to grab an audience’s attention when you get up to speak or present. Yes, audiences decide in less than 10 seconds if you’re worth listening to, or if you’re going to be just the usual. Don’t squander those precious seconds by fiddling with technology!

Short, Sweet, Simple

Did you know that the Toyota car company was founded by a man with the last name of Toyoda? Why the change? Simplicity. They changed the name because it took fewer brush strokes to render the version that translates to the T.

People like simple things. Colloquialisms not jargon. Short is better than long. Business does better when supply lines are short and simple. Speeches do better when they are easy to understand and to the point.

That’s it, short and to the point.

Today’s Teacher: Comics

You're thinking, "How could comics teach me anything about making a presentation?"

Well, what are comics? I know, there’s a bit of a stigma attached. Kids’ stuff. Or socially awkward guys crowded into small, obscure shops in desolate strip malls. But there actually is a lot in those thin tomes. Comics are stories. They are images with limited text. And, almost magically, they are exactly what their audience wants.

Stories. People read comics because they tell a story that readers can relate to, laugh at, or just ponder. You can do the same thing by using a story; a short, simple, and to-the-point story speaks volumes. Think about how your story fits in with the bigger point or goal of your talk. Hmmm, sort of how one volume of a comic fits in the scheme of the series.

Images. A picture is worth a thousand words. Comics are full of pictures. The author can say less when you can see more. You can reinforce your message by showing them a picture; hand something out, draw on a white board ... PowerPoint if you're desperate.

Audience. This is the most important one. Some people like Spider-Man and his average Joe roots. Some prefer Batman for fighting on behalf of what he is not: average. There are as many reasons to read comics as there are volumes. But every one of those reasons is ultimately because they relate to their specific audience. Knowing your audience will help you tell the right story.

So maybe it is time to think about comics. How does your story drive the message? How do your visuals make your story come alive? And most importantly, who is your audience and what grabs them? 

New Year's Resolution 2013

Lists. 86 the lists. No one remembers all the items from a list. If I could make one New Year's resolution for all my clients for 2013, it would be No More Lists! 

Allow me to play armchair psychologist for a second ... You're dreading the preparation for your next presentation, aren't you? Perhaps you're feeling a bit insecure or defensive, like you need to demonstrate to your audience how knowledgeable or smart you are? Maybe time is running short, you're in a rush to prepare your presentation, and you need some filler that a list or two would provide? Or, you're feeling the urge that if only you could tell your audience absolutely everything you know about your topic, they would be more easily persuaded? Any of these sound familiar?

If you find yourself preparing to use lists, consider it a red flag of warning ... you may be entering a zone of TMI (too much information!). Check yourself. If it's absolutely necessary, use a list. If not, then ditch it, or prioritize so that you share only the most important items. Or, even better, think about the importance of your list and speak more fully to its significance, but not to the list itself!

And 2013 will be a happier year for you and your audiences! 

Quote of the Day

“Three things matter in a speech: who says it, how he says it, and what he says – and of the three, the last matters least.” 
– John Morley, British Politician

When it's Time, it's Time

Have you ever run out of time during your portion of a meeting, panel discussion, or during a presentation? And did you stop when your time was up, or did you keep talking because you had just one more really important point to make?

I had the most interesting experience watching more than 25 presentations in a row at a corporate retreat about a week ago. Even though there was a timekeeper, and presenters knew when they had reached their limit, more than a handful busted right through and kept on going. They had just one more point – or in some cases, several more points – to make. They even called themselves out and said, "I'm out of time, but I just need to tell you this one more thing ... " 

Ouch. Really? Who is that all about? Is it all about the audience? Or is that all about the speaker? You know the answer.

So, here's a reminder about Rule #1 ... It's all about them, the Audience! It's not all about you. You need to respect your audience's time and attention. You were lucky to have it in the first place, don't abuse it. If you build your presentation effectively and organize your content so that messages (e.g. summary statements, statements of significance) are well constructed and primary, and then information (e.g. background, supporting detail, data) is dispensable and secondary, you'll always be able to cut yourself off. Rarely is a speaker that special, or their material that compelling, that time limits don't matter.

Trust me on this, there are two things about audiences you should keep in mind:

1) when an audience wants to know more, they'll ask for it; and 

2) audiences never complain when a speaker finishes early or on time!

Facing Your Enemy

Well ...

One thing we haven’t discussed here is the belligerent, hostile, or grandstanding audience. You know, the audience you are compelled to present to, but the same one that’s also poised and ready to take you down?!? Ugh, no fun.

Aside from being astutely aware of whether the Q&A section of your presentation has turned into an opportunity for members of your audience to make their own speeches (ahem, grandstanding!), I’d like to encourage you to get in touch with and remember these core principles of a leader’s voice:

Be brief. No one has less time, patience, and tolerance than an unfriendly audience, or an audience waiting for their turn to pounce. At least win their respect – and possibly their support? – by being crisp, clear, and to the point. It’s much easier to get annoyed with a rambler than with someone who is succinct.

Be transparent. If you have to share bad or controversial news with an audience, be open about it. Tell them right upfront that this may be hard, or that not everyone will agree, but that you’re hoping at least they’ll be more informed. If there’s an element of discomfort and you’re the messenger, call it out; don’t try to downplay it or hope that it will go away on its own.

Be gracious. Despite the sometimes overwhelming temptation to push back with a corresponding level of hostility or even belligerent defensiveness, don’t … nothing good can come from that. Stay in your most gracious self.  The dictionary definition of gracious is: courteous, kind, pleasant. Try to remain gracious, it’s the high road, you’ll be the bigger person.

Be sincere. Honest, yes, of course. But also sincere as a professional, sincere in your commitment and dedication to your work or your professional standards. People may not like what you have to say, but if you are sincere in your intentions to do right or do well, it can help a lot.

Leave the coat of armor at home, try brevity, transparency, graciousness, and sincerity!

Raise Your Hands!

Did you know that using hand gestures gets your audience to pay attention better and also increases their ability to retain what they are hearing? Your hands provide the punctuation for your mouth. So interesting and so the opposite of what most speakers think is okay.

Here are some hand gesture tips:

Rubbing your palms together indicates the expectation of something positive.

Hands clenched together (with interlocking fingers) can indicate frustration, so be careful with that!

Making a steeple with your hands, fingers lightly pressed against each other, can look like thoughtfulness ... or it can be read as superiority, so be forewarned.

Holding up your hand with the thumb and index finger together, with the other fingers resting in the palm, is used for emphasis by politicians and others engaging in persuasion (but be careful not to rub the thumb and index finger together, as that begins to suggest money and not in a positive way!).

Hands clasped behind the back have an unfriendly authoritarian feel; they're not unlike crossed arms in terms of unfriendliness and should probably be avoided.

Arms open, palms open, arms and hands gesturing upward and toward the audience are all positive and engaging.

Height matters when it comes to your moving parts; keep your arms and hands at chest level or below to avoid blocking your face or being overly distracting.

In any case, big thumbs up on talking with your hands!

**Oh, and as a note, thumbs up or down are very powerful; they have been since Roman times when thumbs up or down meant life or death to a gladiator! Just sayin' ...

Dumb it Down

You've been asked to speak at an event. Or it's on your shoulders to make a big presentation for your company. You want to seem smart, you want to appear to be savvy and sophisticated, you want to make a good impression.

If that's the case, I have some great advice for you: play dumb. Yup, I think you should play dumb.

You know those high-brow talks you've heard with big picture concepts and even bigger vocabulary words? And you know those super fancy slides you've seen people present with, the ones that move and change and grow before your very eyes? Well, forget about all of it. More often than not, when the speaker and the visuals try to go too big, the audience takeaway is "huh?!"

Go for simplicity. Be willing to do the hard work for your audience. Make it simple for them, so they can understand and remember. Dumb it down. Even the most complex ideas, projects or transactions can be made simple. Use basic everyday words, think of metaphors or analogies that can help illustrate, make your sentences short and crisp, keep visuals clean and clear.

If you can simplify for your audience – and make your ideas accessible, understandable and memorable – then you're definitely the smartest person in the room!

Cut to the Chase

Ready for a good summer shortcut to being really effective in a meeting or presentation? Here it is:  Think like an audience member.

How, you ask? Well, here’s what your audience is thinking but not saying out loud: Cut to the chase, please! Spare me all that info, just tell me what you want me to know! Yep, that’s what they’re thinking. You’ve thought the very same thing when others are speaking or leading a meeting, so you can pretty much assume others will be thinking it when you’re speaking or leading a meeting.

So, given your topic or your purpose for the meeting, take a preemptive strike and imagine that someone in the audience told you to cut to the chase. What would you say? Once you’ve thought of that, jot it down, and clean it up a bit, and voilà, you have your opening and closing comments. In the middle you can offer up some background information your audience may need, but only as much as they have the appetite for, so be careful with that!

Bottom line? Just cut to the chase. Everyone will be happier. Everything will be clearer. And all will be well.