by Beth Levine | Oct 4, 2015 | preparing for a presentation, public speaking
Time for some hands-on learning!
The learning is in your hands today, and the lesson is transparency. If you choose to read on, you’ll pick up a few tips about being a transparent communicator and then you’ll get a chance to practice what you learn.
But first, what do I mean by transparency anyway? It’s kind of a buzzword, right? Well, transparency in communications comes in two forms—informational and emotional. It’s about being open and real with news and information as well as with feelings and reactions.
Here are 3 tips for being a more transparent communicator:
1. Let your audiences know what they can expect or what they’re going to get from you. Spell out your “win” – or your desired outcome – in the opening seconds of your meetings and presentations. Tell your audiences what you want them to think, or know or do by the end.
2. Pay attention to crises and criticisms, but don’t necessarily run from them or fight back. There may be some important truths you want to stand by or back up. Be open to owning the situation, whether bad or good. It scores big reputational points for credibility and trust.
3. Audiences are smart. Scrutiny and skepticism can be harsh. Be as open, honest, and forthright as you can. Your audiences will see through you no matter what. So be real. It’s easier on you and always much appreciated by them.
Now I turn it over to you!
Choose one of the following two exercises and see how it feels to try a more transparent approach:
[Excerpted in part from Jock Talk: 5 Communication Principles for Leaders as Exemplified by Legends of the Sports World, www.jocktalkbook.com]
by Beth Levine | Sep 15, 2015 | Just Mouthing Off, preparing for a presentation
I have it all set up. The camera guy is looking through the lens of his TV studio camera, which is set on a tripod and fixed on the two chairs that face each other. The big-screen monitor for watching instant replays is next to the two chairs. The young NBA player walks into the room after practice. He has showered and dressed in his team sweats, and while everyone else has gone home for the afternoon, he has agreed to submit to some one-on-one media training in advance of what promises to be a busy season on the floor. He’s barely a man in chronological age, but he’s physically huge, at just under seven feet tall. We shake hands; he sits down. I ask him if he’s ready to begin. He says he is.
The camera is rolling. I hand him an ordinary toothbrush. He looks at me, perplexed, clearly thinking, This is not what I agreed to do for the next two hours.
I ask him only a few questions about the toothbrush: What is that? What do you do with it? Do you like it? How often do you use it? What do you like about it?
He answers haltingly and offers simple, one-word responses.
Then we’re done with the exercise. We watch the instant replay of his “toothbrush interview,” and finally I explain the method behind my madness.
I do the toothbrush exercise with many of my clients, both athletes and executives. It is a defining and memorable exercise, and it is always totally unexpected . . . but not always well received, at least initially. After all, what does a toothbrush have to do with sports or, for that matter, with communicating?
Nothing. But it has everything to do with being able to think about your audience, be yourself, be nice, get to the point, and be prepared for all of the above.
The lesson of the toothbrush exercise is that no matter how mundane, obvious, or self-explanatory the questions or issues are, you need to be prepared at all times to address your audience in a positive, sincere, and robust manner. And there’s nothing more mundane, obvious, or self-explanatory to have to talk about than a toothbrush.
[Excerpted in part from Jock Talk: 5 Communication Principles for Leaders as Exemplified by Legends of the Sports World, www.jocktalkbook.com]
by Beth Levine | Sep 1, 2015 | Just Mouthing Off, preparing for a presentation, public speaking
I view communication as the everyday currency of business; it’s how we get things done. Our success is ultimately determined by interactions with employees, customers, communities, suppliers, shareholders, regulators, and other stakeholders. And while most organizations and executives have a mission statement, and many articulate a set of core values—for how they conduct their business or treat each other and their customers—most overlook standards, goals, or guidelines for communicating. Communication is actually the channel for executing a company’s mission, its values, and its expectations for excellence, accountability y, productivity and efficiency. How else could these be realized?
A recent study in the Journal of Marketing Communications finds a causal link between communication effectiveness and economic performance. “Companies that align communication with the corporate mission and strategy score significantly better not only on ‘soft’ measures such as image and awareness but also on ‘hard’ economic measures, especially on relative market success in the industry.” In sum, the more effective a company is at communicating—internally and externally—the greater the company’s general performance. Perhaps most telling, the Journal found that companies whose executives support improving communication, and recognize its economic value, performed better than companies without supportive leadership.
Similarly, Cheryl Snapp Conner, @CherylSnapp, recently wrote in Forbes about a new study that finds a connection between a CEO’s presentation skills and the pricing of an IPO. Executives that have a confident and commanding presence actually increase the value of their companies’ IPOs.
A lot of people, including Cheryl Connor, found this pretty amazing – myself included. But it confirmed for me what I have been saying for a long time: that a focus on communication adds value to a company. And I do not mean just some amorphous value of customer and employee goodwill, but actual performance value. Like these two studies show, companies and executives that value and are skilled at communication perform better financially.
[Excerpted in part from Jock Talk: 5 Communication Principles for Leaders as Exemplified by Legends of the Sports World, www.jocktalkbook.com]
by Beth Levine | Aug 18, 2015 | preparing for a presentation, public speaking
Most ambitious, achieving professionals already have a measure of confidence, charisma, and presence that got them to where they are and that will carry them through a trip to the podium. Nonetheless, how you comport and present yourself at the podium is pretty critical.
Here are 4 simple best practices tips that can enhance your delivery:
- Use your voice.
Modulate your tone as a way of changing things up for the audience. Attention spans are short and demand regular stimulus changes. Try to speak louder, softer, faster, or slower as appropriate for different portions of your presentation. And pause. Pauses are good; your audience needs time to digest your ideas.
- Use the room.
If there’s a podium, try to get out from behind it. And, if possible, move around the room. That, too, will stimulate attention, changing the scene a bit and keeping the audience alert. However . . .
- Don’t pace, and be aware of any fidgety habits.
Remember what your third-grade teacher told you
the first time you stood up to give a book report: Stand up straight. Don’t jingle or play with things in your pockets. Don’t fuss with your hair. We all want to hear what you have to say.
- Make eye contact.
That’s huge. And not just with one friendly face. Try to cover as many faces and as much of the room as you can. Do not be put off (and I hear this all the time) by that “one guy in the front who was glaring at me the whole time.” One man’s glare is another man’s look of concentration. You never know, so don’t be distracted by one face. Just keep on looking at everyone.
[Excerpted from Jock Talk: 5 Communication Principles for Leaders as Exemplified by Legends of the Sports World, www.jocktalkbook.com]
by Beth Levine | Aug 5, 2015 | Just Mouthing Off, public speaking, quote
When Pat Williams @OrlandoMagicPat – a long-time legend in the NBA, most recently as co-founder and SVP of the Orlando Magic – interviewed me about Jock Talk for his radio show on WORL in Orlando, “Inside the Game,” I didn’t know that he too had written a book on public speaking from the vantage point of sports figures.
He told me after the interview that he wanted to send me something. What he sent was his book. As I read through it, I came across a lot of values and concepts he and I held in common.
Because of my work with professional and world-class athletes – and most recently with a medal-winning Olympian – one passage in particular caught my attention:
“There are many retired athletes from various sports who have a lot to offer on the convention and corporate lecture circuit. They could command five-figure speaking fees, but what are they doing? They’re earning a fraction of that, signing autographs at sports memorabilia shows. Nothing wrong with that, but why not take their game to the next level? Why not share the real wisdom that they have to offer? Why not organize their stories and ideas into a presentation that would change lives – including their own?
It’s essentially a matter of organization, planning, and preparation. The only confident, influential speaker is a prepared speaker. Organization and preparation are vital to your success as a communicator.“
Pat has it right. Many retired athletes do miss a great opportunity to tell their story and offer concrete value to corporate audiences.
For any speaker, it can seem daunting to figure out what that value is, but, with a little organization, planning and preparation, it’s definitely doable. Even if you’re not a gold-medal Olympian – but you’re an engineer or a scientist or an entrepreneur – you will still benefit from taking the time and focus to identify your valuable lesson(s) before you speak.
To find your valuable lesson(s), it might help to imagine a Venn diagram: The first circle represents you, your knowledge and expertise, and the second represents your audience and their interests. You have to figure out what’s in the shaded area where the circles intersect. For you, it is an insight or lesson you can offer. For your audience, it is what they want or need. The third circle of the Venn diagram makes it more challenging – it represents what other experts or speakers have to offer.
If you really want to stand out as a speaker, you will spend some time fine-tuning the area of the diagram where you intersect with the audience but other speakers don’t. In other words, given your expertise, what can you talk about that is of interest to your audience that no one else can offer?
For retired athletes, this exercise should be a layup, so to speak. For the rest of us, admittedly it’s more challenging … but it’s well within reach and very worthwhile.
