You Need 400 Faces When Presenting

Can we be successful as a presenter if we don't connect with our audience?  Many presenters believe this simply is not needed.  This connecting lark is rather fluffy and irrelevant for them because the content is king.  The delivery is a sideshow, a trifle, a distraction from the main game.  Solid high value information, backed up with verifiable data is the mother lode.  Actually that is not true.

Solid, verifiable data delivered in a monotone, presented looking down to the reams of notes on the podium, in a disinterested manner is a communication killer.  No matter how good the "goods" are, it is not much help if no one if getting your message.  Why aren't they getting it?   They are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Line instead.  We cannot be so arrogant as to imagine our content can carry the day in this age of distraction.  The younger generation are going to be the future business audience from Hell. They are growing up totally distracted all the time, with the concentration span of a dazed gnat.  They have an addiction to being in touch with each other all the time and are unapologetically reaching for their escape vehicle - their phone - in a heartbeat.

If you are looking down at your note when speaking then the most valuable data is being withheld from you.  Watch your audience like a hawk.  If you see them disappear under the desk scrolling with their device, then you can kiss your message goodbye.  Look them right in the eye.  And do it for six seconds.  Why six?  Less is not giving us time enough to connect and any longer becomes intrusive - we start giving them sunburn from our intensity.

So the maths on that calculation are pretty simple.  Six seconds means ten people per minute.  A 40 minute speech means we are constantly using our eye contact to connect with 400 faces.  Some will be the same faces, depending on the size of the audience.  In a large audience, we may think we cannot connect with everyone but we can.  Those seated far from us will imagine we are looking at them.  The actual person we are looking at and the twenty people sitting around them, all believe we are talking directly to them.  Our object should be to speak one-on-one to every single person in that audience.

But Greg, in Japan, we don't make eye contact.  Not true.  In a typical business meeting, continuous eye contact will be burn out the retinas of our Japanese counterparts, so we have to learn how to turn the eye contact on and off.  A presentation is not the same thing though.  This is a different role for us and we need to play the bigger game of being persuasive. To do so means we have to bring our full armory to the cause, to battle listener distraction and escape attempts.

Divide the audience up into six sectors, depending on the size. A smaller audience might become just three sectors.  The point is to ensure we visually rove across the audience and speak to every single person, no matter where they are seated.  We are not looking at the projection screen, our laptop monitor, the back wall, the front row or only one side of the room.  We are circulating in a random fashion around the audience, trying to draw them into the web of our message.

We have in our mind those 400 faces we have to connect with, before our time is up.  When we do this, the members of the audience feel more closely connected to us.  They feel as if they are being spoken to directly and they feel flattered with the attention.

We can read their faces for reaction to what we are saying.  This allows us to respond by varying our delivery, by using voice tone, questions and silence to keep them in the room with us.

If we have their attention then we have a chance of getting our message across.  Even if they cannot remember all that we say, they will never forget us.  Getting both would be a wonderful result, getting one is better than being totally forgettable like most speakers.

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", 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.

Should I Memorise or Read My Presentation Content?

The content was really great and the way the words were put together was quite clever. Obviously a tremendous amount of work had gone into this piece. The speaker had a previous professional journalistic background and the careful selection of just the right vocabulary and the descriptive flourishes were excellent. The speech was a dud.

It failed miserably because it was a written speech, read to us. He could have emailed it to all of us and we could have read it for ourselves. If we read it for ourselves and struggled with some of the big clever journo style words, we could still break out our dictionaries and plumb the meaning.

The next speaker just spoke. He wasn’t such a fluent talker, sometimes stumbling over some of his words, occasionally stuttering, but he had everyone’s attention because he was authentic. He wasn’t reading to us, he was looking at us and connecting with us. He had a slide deck, but he just used this as his navigation, to help draw us into his story.

The issue here is how should we reproduce the content we have designed. Do we have to remember it exactly, memorise it so we can be faithful to our speech design and message? Speakers get very hung up on their content. They feel that they have to deliver the perfect coalition of words to get their message across.

Our first speaker couldn’t memorise his speech because it was too long. That is the case for all of us – usually the sheer effort required is not worth it. His speech content was far superior in the construction of the content, compared to the second speaker. But he failed as a communicator, because he read it to us. All of his effort went into the crafting the script and nothing into the delivery.

If it is a very short speech, you can try and memorise it, but these are usually very special occasions. Japan is a very formal country, so if you are asked to speak at a friend or subordinate’s wedding here, then there are established protocols and sentences you must use in Japanese. If you greet the Emperor of Japan, then there are set things you must say in Japanese, the specific content will depend on the occasion. Mick Jagger told me not to drop names, but I have done both and I did memorise the content. These were short pieces, so I could can manage them without getting myself into trouble.

I did get myself into trouble though, trying to memorise a longer speech. I was the Dean of the Kansai Consular Corps at the time and was asked to speak at the farewell party for China’s Consul General Li, before he left Osaka for America. I had studied Chinese at University and although pretty rusty, thought I could pull off a short speech. Because I am not a fluent speaker of Chinese, having lived here in Japan for thirty years, I had to memorise the content. The plan was to memorise the first part in Chinese and then switch to Japanese, which is much easier for me.

As the Australian Consul General in Osaka at that time, I thought this would be a pretty deft piece of national branding, emphasising Australia’s commitment to Asia. It seemed like a good idea at the time!

This is where memorisation can get us into trouble, and this includes trying to do it in your native tongue. Well I wasn’t doing this in English, so it was a high risk strategy. I was doing fine actually, until I got to a quote from the famous poem by Mao Zedong called “Reascending Jinggangshan”. All of the Chinese guests in the audience immediately recognised it and started applauding enthusistically. At this juncture I made a fatal error.

After having an internal debate with myself, I decided to wait for the applause to die down and then resume. Because it was a memorised speech and not natural conversation, it was a forced exercise to remember the words. Suddenly my mind went completely blank, a total whiteout.

I could not recall what came next. If you are ever up on a big stage, facing thousands of expectant faces and your mind goes blank, you will find that a solitary microphone stand is not much cover behind which to hide your embarrassment. After about 20 seconds of stone motherless silence, which felt like an eternity, I was somehow miraculously able to pick up the next part and complete the speech, before switching into Japanese. Probably wiser to avoid memorising your speech.

Please don’t read it to us either, if you can avoid it. If it is a highly technical speech, something with gargantuan legal implications if you get it wrong, a life or death statement to the media or on behalf of your absent big boss, then you may have no choice. If so, then please use as much eye contact with your audience as possible. You can study the text, such that you really know the content.   You can read the first part of the sentence, then voice the last section while looking at your audience and still remain perfectly faithful to the sacred text.

You can read the words and add in gestures, to emphasis the message. You can stand straight and tall and project confidence, reliability, credibility and trust rather than hunching down over the microphone stand. You can have pauses, to allow the audience to digest the key points. You can hit key words for emphasis and can use voice modulation to bring the text alive. Do not have your head down, eyes glued to the text and cut yourself off from your audience.

Even better, read your audience not your text. Observe if they are buying what you are saying, see if they are understanding the point. You don’t have to memorise your talk or read it to us or read the slides to us. You can have speaking points and talk to those points.

For the vast majority of speeches, a conversational tone of talking to key points will work extremely well. If it is severely formal and you have either memorise it or read it, well go ahead. However if you don’t have that type of caveat, then look at us, talk to us and engage with us. We will forgive any sins of grammar, pronunciation or lack of speaking fluency in the delivery.

We will connect with you and we will receive your message and we will regard you highly as an authentic person who spoke from their heart. And we will remember you in a positive vein.

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", 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.

How To Present Technical Subjects To Non Experts

Technical experts love their specialty. Usually, they have studied hard and long to get into their profession and there is also substantial on-going professional development required to stay current. They are analytical types who thrive on the detail. When they present technical subjects to business people who are not experts they can run into trouble.

The slide deck will be vast and detailed. There is a lot of information to get through and so the slides can be dense. The subject matter, being technical, is a serious business and that is how they approach their delivery. Somber, low energy, no gestures, monotone delivery are all de rigeur for our self assured,

serious experts. The pace is slow, large numbers of the slides are read to the audience. The entire atmosphere is funereal.

Is there a contradiction between the subject matter and presentation delivery skills.? If the matter is technical shouldn’t the material speak for itself. Isn’t the presenter just a simple conduit of information? Yes, you could do it that way, if you want to be completely forgettable, have no interest in establishing a powerful personal brand and become the go to person on the subject. For many technical people that would be just fine, because they don’t enjoy the limelight, they don’t really want to meet new people and would rather be immersed in their specialty.

If the firm is happy for them to be nobodies in a crowded field of similar experts all vying for the same client business, then that monk like approach is a good outcome. If however, you want your firm to stand out above the din, to become famous for the quality of your team and for your professional bedside manner with non-specialists, then a re-think is in order.

Lets start with the deck, because this is the holy grail for specialists and this is where all the time is sucked up, with iteration after iteration. Slides can be printed out and distributed after the presentation. Why not during? Yes, you can do that but the chances are that you will be on slide 5 and your audience will be on slide 45 and you have lost control of their attention. Better to mention at the start that the materials will be distributed after the presentation. There may be one or two sheets where the detail is so dense, say numbers on spread sheets, that it is impossible to read on screen and these could be handed out at the start.

The details can be presented on the slide because our audience can read it for themselves, which means we don’t have to cover every detail on every slide. We can show and tell. That is, show the slide in its full glory but only refer to a few key points. This allows us to speak without being trapped by the text on screen. We can speak to the points, elaborate and tell stories to bring the facts to life.

Storytelling is mainly absent from the repertoire of technical presenters but these are the things the audience will remember after the talk. They also make the detail more interesting because they are usually dealing with things at the application rather than the theoretical stage.

When speaking not every word needs to have the same value. This is the monotone delivery approach, which quickly puts everyone to sleep. Instead we can select out key words for additional emphasis and hit those words harder when we deliver them. We can bring energy to the fore when we make recommendations or issue warnings. These are simple voice modulation techniques which add validity to what we are saying.

We can use gestures to back up our words, again these bring energy to key points in a way that adds credibility to the content. Our passion for the subject should shine through. The specialist though often believes that their subject matter should be unemotional and delivered in a bland way, that is not controversial. We don’t have to be outrageous to make a connection with the audience. Regardless of the subject matter, it usually has ramifications for people and people are emotional. We can find how this topic relates to their businesses and their lives and make it real for the audience.

We don’t have to be dull. We can take highly technical subjects and humanize them, tell stories, inject situations and people into them to bring them to life. We just need to change our mindset about what we are actually doing here. Are we simply going through the motions or are we trying to communicate our key messages to our audience? That decision makes the path forward very clear.

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", 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.

Don’t Give Mystifying Presentations Please

The global chief’s private jet has landed. We are all assembled in a luxury hotel’s gorgeous function room. The big brand name, the resplendent silver mane, the speaker’s resume and abundant confidence all speak to a brilliant talk coming up. After the obligatory networking and chatting with tablemates over lunch, the main event gets underway. The keynote starts well but gradually we start to lose connection with the speaker’s message. The talk is full of supple subtleties. The main point becomes fuzzy, distant, unapproachable and impenetrable. We sit there wondering are we all stupid, because we can’t grasp the speaker’s nuanced argument or is the speaker simply rambling and incoherent?

Actually, it doesn’t matter which of us is stupid, because the talk has failed. The speaker has not been able to get the message across in a way that resounds with the audience. Being intellectually brilliant and speaking above your audience is not effective communication. We have to know who is in our audience, their level of understanding of the subject and their capacity to be challenged. We need to be able to communicate, which means the listeners can understand and follow what we are saying, rather than trying to impress with our own brilliance.

Structure helps to guide the audience through the proceedings. This speech, if it had a structure, it was obscure, vague and puzzling. Consequently the speaker lost the audience. A heavy mist rolled in on this speech after about the first ten minutes and engulfed us all in such a way, that we struggled to follow where this meandering was going. What was the point being made here? Where are we going with these stories? What is the key argument being made? These are all bad questions for an audience to be asking. They should never have to wonder because the speaker is clear, coherent and provides direction.

The use of slides on this occasion was minimal. In many cases this is a blessing, but not this one. We needed some more form to follow the speaker’s points. We were lost. We could have found a path, if there had been some visual guideposts for us. The slides roll out and pull us along the path of the argument. Other simple ploys like “there are three key issues” or “the five areas of urgent attention are…” helps to frame the content in a way where we can track it. These structures help us to relate the current point to those preceding it.

Maybe a fellow genius, if indeed our speaker was a genius, may have been simpatico with our speaker’s intent and understood the thesis. Alas we were just ordinary punters, turned out in the hope of a nice lunch and some enlightenment from this font of knowledge. Our font this day though was dry and not at all helpful because we couldn’t get the point.

As speakers we have to make it easy for our audience to understand us. If we are going to be clever and tangential, we run the risk of losing people. If we are fixated on subtlety, we can be too opaque for the troops and they just get lost. We were all crime scene witnesses to the merciless murder of a major brand that day. When the big cheese fails like that, we doubt the whole organisation. Our faith in the firm has completely subsided. Apart from the damage to the company, the individual’s personal brand is shredded, torn and tattered.

The stakes are high when you are a presenter, so mastering the ability to connect with your audience is critical. Don’t over complicate the exercise. Have a clear structure, be easy to follow as you navigate your way around your talk and pitch it at the right level for your audience. Do that and your personal and professional brands will be enhanced, appreciated and working for you, not against you.

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 podcast “THE Leadership 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.