How to Make A Magnificent Acceptance Speech
You want to promote your business or organisation, so that you can be more successful. A genius idea pops up amongst the brain trust over a few drinks after work – why don’t we enter the Business Awards? Someone has to win don’t they, so the odds are fair. Anyway, there is no downside is there? True but there can be, if you don’t fully think this through. I don’t mean the requirement for polishing the application or assembling the data in support of the claims being made. I am talking about seizing defeat from the jaws of victory on the winner’s dais.
When you win, you are invited up on to stage. The cameras are rolling, the lights are flooding the arena and the music is pumping. You are pumping too baby. It quickly occurs to you that hammering the booze on the table to instill some bonhomie amongst the troops was a good idea at the time, but now you need to pull yourself together. Back slapping, hand shakes, high fives propel you to the stage, as you make your way through the labyrinth of round tables.
Before you know it, you and the team have assembled on stage to receive the ovation from the crowd. In a moment, the MC announces you are about to be handed the cool looking trophy from the key VIP guest of the evening. The crowd goes quiet as you draw up to the stand microphone of the stage grasping the prize in your hand. A thousand eyes are fixed on you, awaiting your acceptance speech. You fluff it.
A ragged series of ums and ahs are punctuated by disoriented rambling highlighting no cohesion of thoughts, concepts or ideas. You are now sweating bullets. Multiple beads of perspiration start to run down your face, your pulse is surging, you realize this is a disaster and mentally start looking for the exit. The tuxedoed dandies have had their Colosseum bread and circuses moment. Having seen the lions dispose of their victims, they return to their table chatter. You are not forgotten though. You are now publically outed as an incompetent, who can’t string three words together. Your reputation is shredded and the trophy somehow feels less magnificent in your grasp.
You recall have seen this before haven’t you. Underprepared speakers making a complete hash of it. Don’t try and wing it. Think ahead and be properly tooled up. Under no circumstances mention you are nervous, even if you worry you are about to faint. Fall flat on your face out cold, but don’t apologise for your lack of preparation for this speech or your totally bereft skill set in giving speeches. Don’t make jokes to release the tension of the moment, you are not funny.
Begin where you need to. Thank the chief VIP, the Chamber or Business Association and the judges for awarding you this magnificent trophy and great honour. Congratulate your vanquished opponents with great generosity extolling their virtues and achievements. Next take this opportunity to promote your company or organisation. That is why you applied in the first place isn’t it? Give them your thoroughly rehearsed and well constructed elevator pitch on why what you do is vital to mankind and the future of the universe. This needs to be tight, taut, with no fluff.
When you thank the people who have made this happen in the team, make a short personal remark about each. Taro who stayed late so many nights, catching the last train home to get the project completed on time. Megumi for her total dedication to the care of the clients. Daisuke for his rousing leadership of the sales team when things looked grim. Mari and her team of angels in the back office who somehow managed to hold the whole thing together through thick and thin.
Finally, thank your family and friends who have supported you. If you become emotional at this point, don’t worry, whip out your hanky wipe your eyes and just keep going. We will love you for it.
Wrap it all up with a rousing call to action for the crowd. Encourage them to play a bigger game and maximise their potential here in this wonderful, exciting special country of Japan. Thank the organisers again, wave the trophy and move away from the microphone stand, to signal you have finished. Now quietly call the team together to join you and the VIP, as you all pose for the photographers with the trophy. Then get off the stage, you are done!
Think through the award component of the evening, prepare thoroughly what you want to say, rehearse it many times, time it to make sure it isn’t too long and stay off the booze until you actually win. Good luck!
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.
Do Your Homework
I was at a speech recently, given by a very prominent person, an extremely experienced speaker, to a very prestigious audience. It should have been a triumph, but it was a fizzer. There were two particular problems with the speech. One was it was set for 25 minutes but the speaker finished in 8 minutes. The second problem was that the most interesting part of the speech was not readily accessible for the audience. Both issues stemmed from a lack of homework before giving the speech. Given the experience of the speaker, I found this rather surprising, but it highlights that no matter how comfortable you are or how experienced you are, always do your homework before giving the talk.
Japan is a very formal country. If a speech is scheduled for 25 minutes, it has to last that long or otherwise it upsets the timetable. It creates a gap and organisers here in Japan are not renown for their flexibility and capacity to ad lib. It also sends a subtle negative message to the audience, that they are not worth preparing a 25 minute speech for. It comes off as being disrespectful and flippant.
I was sitting in audience the listening to the proceedings audience and was surprised to hear the speaker wrapping things up. Looking at my watch, I realised we were barely out of the blocks. Another audience member caught my eye, as we both realised this was coming to an abrupt and rather shocking end. He gave me a quizzical look that said “is this speaker serious?”. It certainly didn’t leave the right impression with the audience. They felt cheated and that they had not being respected enough, given how self important they are. This was the right crowd to win over too, so a real opportunity gone begging.
I have often been asked to speak to Japanese groups from 4.00-6.00pm. It is late in the day, when people are already tired from the morning and early afternoon sessions. The length of a two hour speech is taxing for an audience to stay connected with the subject and with the speaker. I wondered why they would want to put the audience through that ordeal? I asked, “Can’t we just make it an hour, tops?”. I was told, “Oh no, Dr. Story, it has to be two hours”. Listening to a foreigner speaking Japanese for such a long period is also tiring because of the extra concentration needed.
After doing a number of these long speeches, I eventually realised that I was the filler, between the end of their own programme and the party. The food and drinks were ready for a 6.00pm start and I needed to keep tap dancing until that time. If I had quit after an hour, the organisers would lose face, because people would be lost with what to do for that single unscheduled hour. If they were Aussies, they would just start the party earlier!
So before you speak, carefully check on how long they want you to occupy this part of the programme. The organisers usually have very little interest in the quality end of the experience. They just need the slot filled and you need to understand that is your role sunshine. Knowing this will help you in your preparation. You can structure the presentation to make it interesting over a two hour period. One way to do that is by employing visuals. I don’t mean detailed, heavy duty graphs and tables of statistics, like a lot of Japanese presenters seem to love. I mean photos with no words on them, which you then proceed to talk about.
Now our big name speaker in my example, actually had some really intriguing photos with him, but he hadn’t thought to put them on slides and show them to everyone. He just waved them in the air effortlessly and ineffectively.
It is not hard to ask the organisers if there is an opportunity to use a screen and a projector. Most venues in Japan have these types of equipment. Why that relatively simple task wasn’t checked on before the speech was a complete mystery to me. He could have really wowed his audience because the content of the photos was really dynamite. Waving the actual photos around from the podium isn’t quite as exciting, as projecting them up on a huge screen and then telling everyone the back story.
The point here is do your homework in Japan before you speak. Check on the logistics, the reasoning behind the schedule, the equipment availability at that venue for what you need. Who will be in my audience, what are they interested in, what is their knowledge of the subject, how can I impress them, will there be consecutive or simultaneous translation going on if you are doing it in English? No one prepares to fail, but we do fail to prepare, don’t we.
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.
Nerves Are Not Needed
Speaking in front of others makes many people tongue tied and nervous. They struggle to get through a simple presentation, internally, in front of their colleagues. A public audience is something they would flee from, screaming and waving their hands in the air. Why is that? We all learn how to talk. The presentation is just a talk, so what is the big deal? Yet, it is a barrier to many people who have to navigate this impediment to move up through their careers. If you are in front of the big bosses and you can’t make a competent presentation, kiss your career aspirations goodbye baby. There is very little chance they are going to put you in charge of others. So, if you like what you are doing today, that will be just fine, because you will stay where you are right now for a long, long time.
If it is just talking, why do we have such tremor at the prospect. Most of us can talk to our friends, family and colleagues without any problem. In a presentation though the stakes are raised. We are on show, we are singled out for attention, scrutiny and investigation. We become very internally focused. We are oblivious to our audience because all of our attention is on ourselves. All of the pressure is on us too and it is coming from within ourselves. Our self-talk is bad. Our self-regard goes negative. We become plagued with self-doubt, memories of failures, shortcomings, inadequacies and derision.
Our playbook is drawing on our failures from the past, not from our potential or even small successes we have had. We go to scale immediately on the negative and obliterate the good bits from our memory. We recall that school play when we forgot our lines and everyone laughed at us. The time at University when our class presentation of our research paper was scoffed at and belittled by some of our classmates. That time in the results meeting, when the big boss berated us for our presentation skill deficit.
We are operating from a sense of scarcity of ability, rather than an abundance of opportunity. We have to switch these ideas around. “Fine buddy boy, but if I could do that, I would have done it already”. That is too true and the reason you haven’t done anything better to date is because you don’t have any worthwhile information on what you can an should be doing. When we don’t know how to do something we tend to shy away from it. We do this to protect our public image and our ego.
So we have placed ourselves in an internal contradiction where our fear drives our behaviour to never end the fear. We need to recognise that cycle and to determine to break it. The brilliant thing today is that we are awash with so much information on how to give presentations. Shelves groan under the weight of worthy tomes on the subject. YouTube is bursting to seams with instructional videoes. Podcasts aplenty provide hints and tips. TED talks are readily available to see what others are doing and at a high level. Once upon a time, you had to be in the room or specially connected to see the best in action, but today you are a few clicks away from free access.
Start by studying. Learn the basics by attending entry level presentation courses. Switch your thinking about how to prepare for talks, by focusing on your rehearsal and not just your materials preparation. Leave you ego at the door and volunteer at every opportunity to present. Repetition is needed and after doing just five presentations, you will feel a lot more comfortable than you did for the first. After twenty, you will be relaxed. After fifty, you will be enjoying it.
When you know how to properly structure your talk, you can relax and just help us navigate through it. You will have the slides to support you, which are visual markers as to what comes next. Don’t try to memorise the content or you will blow yourself up.
I saw this with a speaker visiting from the USA. She had a grand resume and was going quite well, but she made the fatal error of trying to remember what she wanted to say for each slide, rather than just talking us through what was the point of the slide. She lost control of her breathing because of her mounting, self imposed pressure and actually had to stop the presentation. She eventually completed the task, but she was a mess at the end.
Fear of public speaking is often a product of ignorance of what to do, fuelled by wishful thinking that you don’t need to do anything special, like studying the subject. When you get good information and apply it, then the fear fades and with practice comes skill. I avoided speaking for decades because of fear. I finished my first public speech in 1983 in 8 minutes. Unfortunately it was supposed to go for 25 minutes! Today, I have delivered over 500 public speeches and now teach people how to give presentations. The difference came about because I decided to study about how to do it, volunteered to give talks at every chance, got proper training from experts and put myself out there and had a go.
The nerves piece disappeared once I slipped my attention from myself, to my 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", 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.
Let’s Be Clear
Most talks and presentations we hear, we cannot recall. Why is that? We were there presumably because we had an interest. The presenter no doubt made an effort to share something of value with us. They probably spent hours on their presentation slides and were perhaps somewhat anxious about giving the presentation. So a lot of nervous energy was expended in the exercise, but with a zero result. If we can’t remember the content or the speaker, then it is hard to say it was a success, wouldn’t you say?
Part of the problem is the way people present their information in the first place. The slides are too dense and confusing. The delivery is done in a lethargic manner, devoid of passion, with zero body language backing up the key points. Sitting there listening, we catch that disease from the speaker very swiftly and suddenly we don’t have any passion for the exercise either. We hear a monotone voice droning on and on, like the humming white noise from your electrical appliances. The speaker may also be speaking too fast because they are nervous or may just be a serial mumbler, who is hard to catch.
The design of the talk may not flow well, so it is hard to make the mental move from understanding one point to understanding the next. The speaker may decide to improvise and sweep us all off on to a tangent, that has little to do with the main menu. We rarely make it back, because we have now lost interest in what they are saying and we are playing with our phone instead.
A recent presentation had elements of this. The speaker was quite a smart person, having built their business up from zero and is now winning large contracts from big players in Japan. The slides outlining the details of how the software worked were dismal. It was complex and disconnected. It was assaulted by numerous tangents of tangents, totally wrapped up in diversions. The delivery was lifeless and humdrum. There were no crescendos, no light and dark elements – no contrasts. It consisted mainly of a composite of calms and no storms and so didn’t spark as much interest as it should have.
If we want to elevate our good name above the rabble, we had better do a splendid job of being clear when presenting. Our slides should be in the ratio of one slide to one idea. The less on the screen the better. Let’s lead the charge for minimalism on screens. Let’s bring out our inner zen of nothingness. The screen and the slides are competitors with our face. We want people looking at us and glancing at the screen, not the other way around.
We want to use numbers. There are seven elements or five elements or three element of our main thesis, for example, and so we attach numbers to each. This is a simple, tried and true guidepost system to navigate the audience through the content. Don’t make the punters work hard to follow where we are going with this talk.
We should speak with passion, belief, commitment and enthusiasm about our subject. If you can’t do that, then please remain in the audience and don’t get up on a podium and try to talk to crowds. All you are doing is killing your personal brand and bringing no value to humanity. We want your energy, but we want it harnessed – it has to be controlled. We want some words being hit hard and some introduced gently – both are powerful mechanisms for emphasis. We want the energy, but we don’t want chaos, where all the words are jumbled together.
I was coaching an Indian businessman here on public speaking and in his initial speech, he spoke at breakneck speed for three minutes, with nary a pause nor a break and with a very heavy subcontinent accent. In fact, it was one massively long sentence, strung together without compunction or mercy and fully incomprehensible and forgettable. Introducing some concepts like having a clearer structure, slowing down, adding in pauses and highlighting some words over others for effect, had a miraculous impact on his final version. It was night and day.
Don’t mumble. Record yourself in rehearsal and be prepared for a shock. Yes that tinny, reedy, nasal, mumbling voice is really you. The lack of a rehearsal is the big error to catching problems, before you destroy your public reputation. Rehearse. Listen to how you sound before anyone else has to. Rehearse.
Speak to your key points and don’t read us the manuscript please. We all have email by the way, so you can send it to us, rather than read it to us. When you run through it numerous times before you are unleashed on your audience, you discover the right cadence of how to express the ideas best,
One run through though is a joke. You need to be doing this preparation multiple times, so that all the vocal bugs and defects are completely eliminated before the curtain goes up. By the way, regardless of how your voice sounds to you, don’t worry about it. All those born with television announcer voices are on television or radio and the rest of us are out in the real world, shaking it up, as best we can. If what you say is being delivered in a way that we can easily understand and if the content is interesting and valuable, then we will forgive your total lack of a superstar bass DJ voice.
Being clear when speaking is not such a big deal. People worry about it, but don’t do any work on it before having to speak. They then wonder why the whole thing fell in a heap. A few simple measures will make it perfectly clear to the audience. They will hear you and then the quality of the content will either resonate with them or not. Your chance of being remembered will go right up, if you just do a few things before you unleash yourself 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", 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 Rehearse Your Presentation
Every performance is better when practiced beforehand and presenting is no different. We don’t do it for a multitude of “good” reasons, none of which abrogate the need to make the time and put in the effort. We have the time, we just need to allocate it. We are putting ourselves out there when we present, so don’t miss it, there is a lot on the line. We need to ensure we are a triumph rather than a joke. The way to do that is to practice beforehand. How do we do that, what are some best practices to help us?
We cannot start with the slides, which is what most people do when putting their presentation together. Instead, we need to design the whole presentation first. We need to start with the close. Yes, we need to plan how will we finish the talk. What is the one key message we want to get across to our listeners.
Getting the whole thing down to one key point is no easy task, but the mental effort to do so will pay big rewards when it comes to ensuring clarity and getting the talk’s structure correct. When we distill that one point, it becomes the beacon on the hill around which to arrange the preparation of the data and the flow of the talk.
We now design the sections of the talk. What are the key points we will make and what is the evidence we will marshal to sustain the argument in the time allotted to us. These should flow together nicely, like in a good novel. Each part leads seamlessly into the next.
We are also going to be introducing personal stories of our successes and failures and those from highly regarded experts, to flesh out the points we want to make. Stories are easy to understand and remember, so don’t make our audience work hard, give them the information in story form for maximum effect. So each section has some key point, supporting data, told in a story format.
Finally, we design the opening – how can we break through all the competition for the mind space of our audience. How can we grab their complete attention? How to get them away from those addictive mobile devices, hidden under the table? We need to design how we will us our voice at the start in particular. How much volume will we need to gain control of the room?
We should avoid reading the presentation. We are going to be aiming at talking to points on the slides or in bullets format in our text or recalled from memory. This is free form folks, no harness and no safety net, so it needs practice. What may sound great as text, can sound a bit stilted when spoken out loud. This is important, we must “voice” the presentation. We can’t just mentally run it through our mind, as a personal exercise.
Using a mirror, video camera or a coach are good ideas, to get feedback on how we are coming cross both visually and verbally. The coach may be a colleague, family member or a professional. If a colleague or a family member only ask for two pieces of feedback – “what am I doing that is good?” and “what can I do to make it better?”. Untrained coaches are quick to tell you everything that is wrong – in great mind numbing detail. They will kill your confidence early, so don’t allow that to happen, give them some guidance.
Every five minutes we need a change of tempo to keep our audience interested. We need to switch our energy or speed up or down. We need to hit or soften key words. These crescendos and lulls are not left to random chance, this is all preplanned for maximum effect. We need to hear it out aloud to understand how it will sound to our audience.
We can’t be too strong all the time or we will wear down our audience and lose them. Alternatively, if we are too soft, they are lured away by the internet and are soon gone from us.
There is no one there, but we must involve eye contact with all in our imaginary audience. We practice looking to the left, center or right, also close and far. We also need to practice the congruency of our gestures with our words. Match a powerful gesture with a point you want to drive home, to give it strength.
Expect to do a number of rehearsals, not just one. We need to a full rehearsal from start to finish, at least three times. Now if it is a thirty minute talk, the time soon adds up, so we have to plan for that. Separately, we also need to work particularly hard on just the opening and close. The first impression and last impression decide our impact.
Don’t forget to practice the Q&A. Remember, the audience can ask us anything, no matter how rude, off topic, irrelevant or impertinent, so we have to be ready to go. We can go from hero to zero quick smart, if we don’t practice answering difficult questions before we go live.
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.