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THE Presentations Japan Series by Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

THE Presentations Japan Series is powered by with great content from the accumulated wisdom of 100 plus years of Dale Carnegie Training. The show is hosted in Tokyo by Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and is for those highly motivated students of presentations, who want to be the best in their business field.
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THE Presentations Japan Series by Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
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Now displaying: March, 2017
Mar 27, 2017

The Presenter’s Mindset

 

Our mental approach to our activities determines our success.  We know this in sports and in business, but when it comes to speaking in public, we somehow manage to forget this vital point.

 

We know we have to make a presentation, so we get straight into the details and logistics, without spending even a moment on our proper mindset for the activity. Given we are putting our personal and professional brand out there for all to see, you would recognise this was a fairly important opportunity to get it right.

 

The mindset game is a critical one, especially if we are nervous about giving presentations.  Confidence is paired with credibility in the presentation game and we have to exude both.  We may be very unsure, nervous, even petrified but we must never show that side to our audience.  Hesitation kills the message delivery and therefore the impact.

 

Often we think that our wondrous content will carry the day, that we can be hopeless presenters, but somehow it won't matter.  There are few subjects where we are the font of all knowledge and therefore everyone else has to put up with our ineptitude.  

 

Normally, we are competing for the attention of our audience.  Social media has made a hell for presenters because within two seconds our audience can escape to any number of other more interesting worlds.  People are becoming used to multi-tasking, reading their Facebook feed, while they are doing something else like listening to us.

 

We need to have a powerful faculty to compete with the wonders of the Internet. A big part of our appeal is our message’s worth and the delivery of that worth. Both are required.  To get the right combination, we need to sell that we are confident in what we're saying and our content is valuable. This means we are able to deliver the talk without having to read the text.  We can talk to key points in front of us or up on the screen.  This is different from burying your head in text notes and not engaging your audience.  To have the confidence to work the room while speaking, means you have to know the content.   You created it or adjusted what someone else put together for you.  

 

Start with a powerful opening, including the key message captured in your conclusion. Isolate out 3-5 key points so make your argument and support them with evidence. Design both your first close and your second close for after the Q&A.

You have managed your schedule well, so that there has been ample opportunity to practice the delivery.  People who are spending all their time on the making the slides

forget they have to rehearse the delivery for an audience. They usually prefer to practice on their audiences, then wonder why the whole thing was very flat with no engagement of their audience.

 

In the weeks leading up to the talk we are the thinking about what we want to say and how we might say it, we are combing the media and books for juicy quotes and examples to back up what we are saying. We are playing it out in our mind's eye.  During this mental imagining, we see ourselves as very confident and successful - we are predicting our success by seeing it before we even do it.  We are seeing the audience nodding and agreeing with what we say.  We can see ourselves enjoying the moment and feel in full control.

 

When we have rehearsed, we know the timing, the cadence of the talk.  We know where to pause, which words to hit harder than other to emphasize our key points.  We are confident on the flow of our talk and with this knowledge we can now relax and enjoy the process rather than dreading it.

 

Action Steps

 

  1. Decide you will have the right mindset for your talk
  2. Understand your delivery is what makes your content work, not the other way around
  3. Don’t read the text – speak to your points or use the screen for your prompts
  4. Carefully design your opening, your key points (3 to 5) and your two closes
  5. Use mental imaging to see yourself being successful giving the talk
  6. Rehearse – don’t practice on your audience

 

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

 

If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.

 

 

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

 

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, THE Sales Japan Series and THE Presentations Japan Series, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

 

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

 

 

Mar 20, 2017

How To Prepare For Your Talk

 

Before jumping straight into the slides to build your presentation, identify your likely audience. It might be an internal meeting report to your team, a presentation to your immediate boss or to the senior executives of the firm. It might be a public talk. How knowledgeable are the attendees on the subject matter? Are you facing a room full of experts or are they amateurs or a mixture of both? What are the age ranges and the gender mix?

 

Next, consider what is the purpose of the speech? Are you there to pass on relevant information, to inform your audience of some facts and figures? Are you there to entertain them, to make people laugh, to boost morale? Is persuasion your objective, to sell them on your vision, idea, product or proposition? Are you trying to motivate them to take action, to rally behind your flag?

 

How long do we have to speak? Many may think that a short speech is easier than a longer one. Depending on the objective, the degree of difficulty may be higher with the shorter speech. Trying to persuade others or to motivate others, usually requires solid evidence to bring the audience around to our way of thinking. In a shorter speech there is less opportunity to pour on the evidence.

 

What time of the day will we speak. After lunch and after dinner are two tough slots. Consuming meals and alcohol will sap the audience’s energy and attention. If it is an evening affair, where everyone is standing around and your speech is all that separates the masses from the food and drink, expect they will be distracted. In Japan, in such cases, audiences are usually merciless about chit chatting right through your speech. There is that low roar of an ascending passenger jet coming from the back of the room.

 

How will you dress for success? All eyes will be on you. Given we absorb a good deal of your message through body language, how you present yourself makes a big difference. In Japan, it is rare to be overdressed for the occasion. Usually it is better to be more formal in dress than casual. Be careful that your tie, pocketchief or scarf does not compete with your face for the attention of the audience.

 

Where will you stand or will you sit down? If you are using a screen, stand to the “audience left” of the screen. We want the audience to look at our face and then look at the screen. We read left to right, so your face first, then the screen is the natural order.

 

Japan loves to have the speaker sit down at a table with a microphone stand, so you can drone on and on, like all the other speakers. This is partially regard for hierarchy, because standing above others and looking down on everyone else, implies you are superior to the audience. It is felt better to be seated on the same level.

 

You will often hear Japanese speakers mount a rostrum and say, “Excuse me for speaking from this elevated position”. It is also regard for the speaker on the basis that you will get tired having to stand and so please be comfortable and sit down.

 

It is better if you can stand, simply because you are more easily seen by your audience, especially those seated at the rear. You can use all of your body language to bolster the points you are making. If, you are forced to sit then sit forward, as high as possible in the seat and use voice modulation, gestures and facial expressions to help convey your message.

 

What will you do to control your nerves before you speak? You will be somewhere in a holding position either seated in the same room, behind a curtain or to the side of the room. While waiting your pulse will start to race, you will likely begin to perspire and the “fight or flight” chemical cocktail in your body will now start to kick in.

 

If you have some space where you cannot be seen, then striding around burning off that nervousness will harmonise your energy control. Following this, deep, slow, breaths from your lower diaphragm will help reduce your pulse rate.

 

In the hours prior to you speech, try to drink water to get fluids into your system. Also make sure there is some room temperature water, without ice, prepared for you during the talk. Iced water constricts the throat, so we don’t want that when talking.

 

Select a title for the talk that creates curiosity. Isolate out the key points you want to make in the talk, between three and five points. Think of a strong opening that will grab everyone’s attention. People are easily distracted, so you have to break through with a grabber start.

 

Come up with two closes for your speech. One for the end of your talk and a second one for after the Q&A. We don’t want the randomness of the last question to define the final impression of our talk. We want to end on a strong message for our audience, which we control.

 

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

 

If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.

 

 

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

 

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, THE Sales Japan Series and THE Presentations Japan Series, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people:

 

Mar 13, 2017

Showtime - Are You Ready?

 

 

The hush has now swept across the room. All eyes are fixed on the MC, breaths are being held, awaiting the announcement of this year’s winner. Amazingly, it registers that it is your name they are calling to the stage. Emotion wells up. Your team join you for handshaking, shoulder hugs, high fives and backslapping. The prize is now firmly ensconced in your hand and you are beckoned to the microphone. What happens next?

 

Do you find your mind is experiencing whiteout and goes blank. Do your nerves suddenly kick in when facing a sea of faces with thousands of eyes boring into yours? Do your knees mysteriously seem to have been drained of all their sinuous strength? Do you launch forth into a raging torrent of Ums and Ahs, followed by indiscriminate rambling, punctuated with pathetic apologies for your inability to string two words together?

 

Are you having an out of body experience watching yourself have a public meltdown of stupendous scale. Seeing yourself trash your company and personal brands simultaneously, because you are demonstrating to all that you are a total dud as a professional?

 

How could it come to this, to have capitulation snatched from the jaws of triumph?

 

Simple really. You didn’t prepare properly. You didn’t think through the consequences of filling out that pile of boring and tedious application documents, all those many moons ago. There you were cheerfully getting stuck into the booze at your table with your colleagues, full of bonhomie and good spirits, unsuspecting of the ordeal about to descend upon you.

 

The harsh stage lights shine on the harsh reality that you are woefully unprepared for the win. At the podium, emotion wrestles with the brain to pull it altogether, but you fail. Remember we judge every company by the people we meet. If they are smart, we think everyone is smart. If you are a shambles, we pin that crime on the entire team.

 

What would have been a better approach? Expecting to win is a good place to start. From that thought flows a stream of things that must be done, just in case lightening does strike, unlikely as that may have seemed at application time. What will be the content, how will you start, how will you end?

 

Here is how to do it with aplomb, so that the audience mentally genuflects, “Wow, I wish I could be like that”. Firstly, find out how much time you will have available. How would you know that – ask the organisers. How many minutes do they give the speaker who wins, when it comes their time to address the crowd? Usually, you can imagine two minutes tops. In that space of time, what would be the content you want to cover.

You will want to thank the judging panel for selecting you and the organisers for putting on the event. That is polite and a set piece. “Ladies and gentlemen, let me say thank you to the judging panel for selecting us. I am sure it was a very demanding job for you and the organisers of today’s competition. On behalf of all the candidates, allow me to say thank you one and all for your efforts”.

 

You will have others you want to recognise, such as colleagues, clients and family. You could just say a simple thank you to these groups, but that is a bit pedestrian. Here is your chance to really shine, so why not grab it with both hands. Think of a short story for each group, that connects their support with this win. Story telling is powerful, because it creates context and draws your audience into the mental picture you are drawing.

 

If it was a colleague for example, you might say: “Inside our company, Taro and his team regularly took the last train home in the coldest, darkest depths of winter and were back early the next day, bright eyed and bushy tailed, to get the Z project completed. Thank you all for going the extra mile, for your loyalty, commitment and perseverance, when so many doubted we could do it” .

 

For clients, you might select an episode of some consequence. “We would not be standing up here tonight, if it wasn’t for Tanaka san at XYZ company. She gave us a chance to demonstrate we could deliver on schedule, on budget and at the right quality. I know that she had to weather some particularly tough internal meetings with her Directors last fall, but she went to bat for us. So we all say a very big “Thank you” to her and we are delighted she can be with us tonight”.

 

For family, you could note, “As we all know, we often spend more hours working with our colleagues than we spend with our own family. When we get home, exhausted, we unburden ourselves and share our concerns and worries. We need to set the ledger right and also share in the good times and tonight is just that occasion. I would like to thank my own family for their total support, which keeps me going.

 

I would also like to recognise all the families of our team members who equally are giving their support. We know it is a sacrifice and we appreciate that you make that on the company’s behalf. So this prize tonight goes to all the angels at home who keep us going and make it all worthwhile”.

 

How do you wrap it up. This is the time to sell your company’s services or products. You could say, “Finally, I would like to say how proud I am of our widget. We are committed to making the lives of our clients and their clients easier and more effective. We are on a mission to serve as many people as we can, because we know we are bringing value and growth to their businesses. Entwined inside their growth and success is our success and that thought drives us each and every day to do our best. Thank you!”

 

This is just the planning component completed. The other thing is the speech delivery practice. There will no supporting slides to serve as a prompt for what you cover next. There will be possibly be a mike stand and no more, so no place for notes and you don’t want to be reading them anyway.

 

Better to have your eyes on your audience and connect with the room. Mentally, divide the room into six sections and give some attention to each sliver. Think of a baseball diamond. Left, center and right field plus inner and outer field. Make eye contact with someone in each section and speak to that person for about six seconds before moving to another section. Do it at random, so the audience can’t mentally escape, because they can predict where you will make eye contact next.

 

Use your hands for gestures, rather than thrusting them into your pockets, stand up straight for maximum credibility and a professional look. You may be nervous and speaking quickly, so make sure to inject some pauses, to allow the audience to catch up with where you have been taking them. A pause allows you to check that your speaking speed isn’t getting too fast and frantic.

 

Stand up straight, don’t slouch with your weight split 70/30. Instead go for 50/50 weight displacement, so you look as tall and elegant as possible. This is no time for being casual. This is a formal occasion, so rise to the challenge and impress.

 

If the mike stand is too low, then adjust it, unhook the mike itself or pick the whole thing up (like a rock star!). Leaning over and down to speak into the mike, gives your audience an unwanted view of the top of your head. You want them looking at your face, not your pate. You need to have good posture throughout to have sufficient gravitas suitable for the evening’s affair.

 

Run through this acceptance speech at least twenty times, before you give it. Use your smart phone or tablet and video yourself, to get an idea of what the audience will be seeing. You may be puzzled to discover that you are scowling and looking unhappy on this magnificent occasion, because the concentration is killing you. Smile! It is easy to say, but under the pressure we may forget to smile and just look angry and unhappy to our audience.

 

You may find you are speaking in a dull as dishwater monotone voice, that is killing your audience and your reputation. The video will reveal all and help you rid yourself of bad habits, nervous ticks and outright errors.

 

What happens if you get the order wrong, get stuck or leave something out? Don’t worry. The only person in the room who knows what you are going to say is you. Therefore if you do mess it up, maintain your absolute best poker face and keep going. Make it appear as if everything is going according to your best laid plan.

 

So if we put it all together, it would go like this:

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, let me say thank you to the judging panel for selecting us. I am sure it was a very demanding job for you and the organisers of today’s competition. On behalf of all the candidates, allow me to say thank you one and all for your efforts.

 

Inside our company, Taro and his team regularly took the last train home in the coldest, darkest depths of winter and were back early the next day, bright eyed and bushy tailed, to get the Z project completed. Thank you all for going the extra mile, for your loyalty, commitment and perseverance, when so many doubted we could do it.

 

We would not be standing up here tonight, if it wasn’t for Tanaka san at XYZ company. She gave us a chance to demonstrate we could deliver on schedule, on budget and at the right quality. I know that she had to weather some particularly tough internal meetings with her Directors last fall, but she went to bat for us. So we all say a very big “Thank you” to her and we are delighted she can be with us tonight.

 

As we all know, we often spend more hours working with our colleagues than we spend with our own family. When we get home, exhausted, we unburden ourselves and share our concerns and worries. We need to set the ledger right and also share in the good times and tonight is just that occasion. I would like to thank my own family for their total support, which keeps me going.

 

I would also like to recognise all the families of our team members who equally are giving their support. We know it is a sacrifice and we appreciate that you make that on the company’s behalf. So this prize tonight goes to all the angels at home who keep us going and make it all worthwhile.

 

Finally, I would like to say how proud I am of our widget. We are committed to making the lives of our clients and their clients easier and more effective. We are on a mission to serve as many people as we can, because we know we are bringing value and growth to their businesses. Entwined inside their growth and success is our success and that thought drives us each and every day to do our best. Thank you!”

 

That is two minutes. We have managed to say a lot in two minutes and we will leave a very positive impression with the audience hearing that speech. Please take the structure provided and create your own stories that will attract the support of your audience. This is the time to differentiate your company and personal brand, so make the time and put in the effort. After people come up to and tell you what a great speech that was, you will realise all the preparation and effort was worthwhile.

 

What if you go to all this trouble and you don’t win. You have definitely improved your speech making skill and you have put yourself out of harm’s way. Both are major wins, even if the big prize eluded you this time. There is always next year, the next occasion and your speech is ready to rock. You have positioned yourself in a good place from every angle.

 

Good luck and break a leg!

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

 

If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.

 

 

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

 

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, THE Sales Japan Series and THE Presentations Japan Series, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

 

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

 

 

 

 

 

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