The Presentations Japan Series

Um, Um, Um, Er, I, Um, Ah, Um...

My former colleague was a notorious "ummer" and "ahher". "Um, I, um, would, um, like to um, say um, thank you, um, for um, this um, opportunity". Listening to him was seriously, seriously painful. Time seemed to freeze over, as it took forever for him to get to the point, which was mostly lost due to dreadful syntax. Your brain basically goes into meltdown mode and you miss the content because you have switched off. The ability to stand before others and express oneself clearly is a basic skill that sadly, is still lacking in many people.

Rambling, mumbling, zero focus on the audience, no power of persuasion, and "I Am the Brand" suicide continue to stunt careers. This is bad enough but some people decide to take it to extremes and really wipe out their career prospects. When we ladle in constant ums and ahs to our sentences, we have a recipe for disaster on our hands.

My colleague was a world champion, winning the gold medal in this oral hesitation department. I wasn't as bad, but I wasn't a clean skin either. I found that it was a habit that I didn't need and which didn't help me as a professional. The problem for most people is they don't know what to do about it. I found a way out of this mess. I will now share with you a guaranteed formula to end this reign of verbal terror you have potentially been raining down on audiences your entire life.

Experience tells us that off-the-cuff remarks are more likely to produce hesitancy in speech than a prepared presentation. Makes complete sense doesn't it. It forces speakers to think on their feet, which triggers the dreaded filler words to bridge the gap between getting the brain in gear and cogent words emerging from the mouth. It seems that for those hard-core ummers and ahhers, it makes little difference whether it is a prepared piece or something spontaneous. Reading a prepared speech should be easier, because what you have to say is written down there and all you have to do is follow the lines and read it, without having to first think what it is you want to say. Even so, some people make this another form of torture for an audience, by relentlessly umming and ahhing all the time. This should be avoided at all cost. No wonder people rate public speaking higher than death in surveys about their worst fears.

These filler words like um and ah give us time to think, but why do we need them? If we know what we want to say, we should just be able to get right into it. The problem is the way we prepare for speaking in front of others. Usually, readying a presentation means working on PowerPoint slides for 99.9% of us. Herein lies the first mistake. Slaves to PowerPoint will never become effective communicators, because the focus is on the data, rather than the messenger. We know from research that how we say something is more important than what we say. Please absorb that sentence again, as I am sure for many people that sounds ridiculous, outrageous, bogus, outlandish and total rubbish.

You may think, "Surely content is king and people will pay more attention to the message than smoke and mirrors used for the presentation". But this is not the case. When a presentation's content and delivery are incongruent, only 7% of the message is heard and 93% is lost due to distraction, caused by how we look and sound. Professor Mehrabian's famous study came to this conclusion and in this age of distraction, it is more true now than ever before. How we say it includes how we use our facial expression, voice modulation, eye contact, gestures, posture, pauses etc. No wonder presenters who devote 99.9% of their time to PowerPoint content, at the expense of rehearsing their delivery, are dull, dull, dull. If listeners are only getting 7% of what we are saying, that does not constitute very effective communication. PowerPoint is not a substitute for good communication — it is merely an aid.

It is not only the dreaded slide deck. The president of a firm, who at their public presentation immediately launches into a corporate video, joins the ranks of "presentation scoundrels". This happens more often than it should. The PR or marketing department, have been coopted to rescue the big boss from actually having to speak much to their audience. Videos should never take the place of strong communication for key messages. Like PowerPoint, they are just for support, so use them sparingly and make your face the key communication tool, followed by your voice, gestures, pauses and posture as noted. Using notes, either on paper or through the mechanism of the order of the slides, is perfectly acceptable. Reading those notes is not. Especially if you insist on reading them from the screen to us and doing so with your back toward the audience.

I attended a presentation where the speaker was well dressed, well groomed, the whole package — until she proceeded to read entirely from her notes. You could hear the entire air of her credibility being sucked out of the room, the moment she started reading. If you know your stuff, unless it is incredibly detailed and technical, you can get by without having to read notes. It was obvious she had not been trained and was not knowledgeable about public speaking. Don't be relegated to the dustbin of totally forgettable speakers like her.

We should allow our notes to spark the messages we wish to convey. Prior to delivery, practice, practice, practice! No one expects perfection, so incorrect pronunciation or pauses to consider subsequent remarks are natural and acceptable.

On top of these issues, we make things even worse when the speech delivery is so annoying and therefore distracting, because of all the ums and ahs. The use of filler words is permissible a few times in a presentation, but the higher the frequency, the tighter the hangman's noose is being tied around the speaker's own reputation and personal brand.

Here is the Dr. Greg Story's rule on avoiding filler words: Practice before you deliver in front of your audience. Here is how you need to practice. Decide the first word of each sentence and hit that word hard. Allow no other noise to escape your mouth, before continuing with the next word in the sentence. Once you get to the end of that sentence, SHUT UP. It is very, very important to purse your lips together at the end of that sentence, so that no sound can escape. Keep repeating this process and there is no possibility of filler words ever being uttered. It takes hours of practice, of course, but I guarantee you this works.

I wasn't quite in the league of the erstwhile colleague I referred to at the beginning, but I did give him a run for his money at different times. We all do these ums and ahs, because we are trying to fill the vocal vacuum, while we think. We can think in silence. We do this during pauses between the points we are making. Pauses are a natural thing and a better alternative to our ums and ahs. Like me, everyone I have taught this method to has eliminated filler words almost entirely. They followed this simple technique until it became habit — a positive habit. Pursing, pausing and practicing are the keys to success.

Naomi Osaka's Public Speaking Lessons

Congratulations to tennis star Naomi Osaka for winning the Australian open and rising to Number One ranking globally. Japan loves to see Japanese athletes doing well, so this new ranking is a first for Japanese tennis and a big deal here. I looked at her press conference and her acceptance speech and what a contrast. In the press conference she was asked totally ridiculous, moronic questions from some of the journalists, starting from the first one (!) and it didn't phase her in the slightest. She was very comfortable with herself and who she is, so she sailed through those rough waters extremely well. What a contrast though to Naomi on the podium. There she was obviously uncomfortable, umming and ahhing, struggling to get through it. She mentioned in the press conference that she was panicking up there on stage. What does this mean for the rest of us?

We can think of what Naomi is doing with what we are doing in our work. Her life is filled up with technical work. These consist of the various shots required in a tennis match and hours a day are poured into perfecting these shots. However when she is required to receive the trophy and say a few words, she admits herself she has received no training for this component of the work and she is panicking as a result. This win isn't the first time I have seen her mentioning that she isn't very skilled at public speaking.

We might be doing the same. The technical skills we are working on don't include tennis groundstrokes etc., but will include law, medicine, engineering, IT, accounting, etc. Technical people are also prone to neglect to get public speaking training and similarly are thrust into the limelight, when they have to represent their expertise, section, division, firm, industry etc., at some event. Like Naomi, they have been concentrating on the technical aspects of their work and have not prepared for this foray into the world of giving presentations and consequently have come up short.

Usually we don't have such greatness thrust upon us at the tender age of 21 like Naomi, but it will come. Maybe in our late twenties or in our thirties we will have to stand up and speak in front of others. She has the luxury of many years ahead of her to get comfortable with public speaking as a tennis star but the rest of us are a bit older and the need is more pressing. What are we doing about it?

Public speaking training has so many benefits, such as taking the stress out of the occasion. That is one of the key benefits Naomi would enjoy because clearly she is feeling the stress. It diminishes her capacity to enjoy her big moment when they hand her the massive trophy. The game itself and the joy of the win have all fled from her mind. All she is focused on is how fast can she get out of this situation, so that she can feel more at ease.

For the rest of us it is the same. If you have to present in front of others, it can be stressful, uncomfortable and a burden. Looking at all those beady eyes staring back at you is disconcerting. You are not enjoying any of this and mentally are looking for the nearest exit. If you know what you are doing however, it can be extremely enjoyable and a pleasure. Once you get to that stage you want more opportunities to speak. The first time I experienced a crowd lean into to me when I was speaking was a tremendous feeling. Wow, I have this audience in the palm of my hand. It was exhilarating. I cannot imagine how rock stars calm down after hours of fans screaming at them and pushing out so much energy toward the performers. Anyway, the times I have tasted just a small sample of that "lean in" energy, it has been unforgettable. It is like a drug – you want more.

Technical knowledge is no suit of armour against audiences when speaking, so we need to be forearmed by accessing training. We need to know our subject matter competently and well, but we also need to access a professional capacity to present it to an audience. Our personal brand is tightly linked to how well we can do this. Naomi is a superstar because she is number one in the world, yet she is leaving so much opportunity on the table, because she doesn't know yet how to build an even bigger support base, through her ability to get her message across clearly and confidently.

We are doing the same, if we just rely on our expertise in our subject area and we don't go and get training on how to present properly. Imagine you need some engineering work done. You go to a presentation on a technical subject and there are two engineers speaking. One is bumbling and spluttering, while the other is professional and articulate. You will go the one most capable on stage, when you want engineering work done. This is the same for all professions and yet so many professionals deny themselves this opportunity to get an advantage over their rivals. The key is to get trained and add this professional capability to your existing areas of expertise. The best time to do this was yesterday, and the second best time is to day.

How To Handle Killer Questions From Your Audience

We have probably all been on the receiving end of it or have been a witness to it. The presentation is completed, after which come the questions; some are fact finding, some seek clarification, while some are just plain really nasty. Perhaps the questioner is not trying to be mean, but the result is the same. All eyes in the room burn a hole into you as everyone waits to see how you are going to handle this incoming missile, that is thinly disguised as a question.

Some presenters splutter, nervousness sapping intellectual and verbal powers, while some give such a pathetic response we can see their credibility sail right out the window as they speak. Some get angry, assuring everyone there that they are not fit for higher responsibilities, because they clearly can't control their emotions.

Do these questions come up? Yes, so there is no point imagining that we won't have to face the meeting room moment of truth. It could be from an ambitious colleague, elbows out, trying to push past you to get the top job. It could be from a member of the board, totally underwhelmed by what you have said, or from a member of the audience, who takes umbrage at your line of thinking.

Do we usually prepare beforehand, in the event that someone might decide to go after us? In 99% of cases the answer is "no". The missile catches us off guard and we simply flounder. Trying to think on your feet, when your brain is on fire from nervousness is very hard. We put ourselves in harms way unnecessarily.

This is an embarrassment that can be easily fixed. Below are a few steps that will trounce your rivals, diminish your adversaries, and show everyone what a true professional you are.

Most preparation prior to any presentation generally focuses on the content and not the delivery. Taking questions, by the way, is part of the delivery and not something tacked on to the main proceedings. When preparing a speech or presentation, we are in control of the direction. However, once the questions start raining down, sadly, we are no longer in command of the situation. We have to recognise that reality.

The first step before the meeting is to imagine what trouble may lie ahead. Who will be in the room? Who has a vested interest in seeing you go down in flames? Who are the potential troublemakers and their acolytes, possibly beavering away at creating problems for you? What have been some of the historical issues between your section and other parts of the organisation? Will there be someone in the room still smarting over you getting his or her's money for last year's project? What are some of the current burning issues that have a lot of money or prestige attached to them that would invite someone to slice you up in front of the assembled masses? Is your topic likely to engage strong opinions opposed to what you have to say?

Having identified the issues that are likely to become "hot" during the questioning period, let's design some positive messages. Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State, gave a great piece of advice once when announcing at a press conference, "Who has questions for the answers I have ready for you?" It is an amusing display of raw honesty from a speaker, but also very smart. Rather than moving straight into damage control, which can often appear weak, squeamish, shifty and dishonest, be ready to go on to the front foot. Be ready to put forward a strong positive message about the benefits of what you are proposing. Have at least two or three of these up your sleeve, for each issue that you have designated as potential trouble. As a side note, be aware of your body language when doing this. Albert Mehrabian's book, Silent Messages, has become well known for noting the disconnection between what we say and how we say it. If the two don't match up, your message (your actual words) get lost, while 93% of everyone's attention is focused on how you look and the style of your voice. Thus, a positive message needs positive body language, facial expression, tone of voice, and strength to back it up—preferably with a steely eye that glints with confidence. Even if you don't possess one of those, try to fake it until you make it, because no one in the audience will be aware of how you really feel.

Focus on preparing four response options that will help to provide a strategy when questions come assailing you. • Immediately deny what others say when it is factually incorrect, misinformation, rumour, hearsay, or when you have been misinterpreted. Be strong, brief and have clear evidence to support your denial. • Admit you are wrong when there has been a misunderstanding or mistake. This is disarming and leaves the questioner with nowhere to go. The wind has been drained from their sails; you look honest and reliable. • Reverse negative perceptions by turning them into positives. For example, when dealing with competing priorities within the organisation, you might say: "I understand that going through this reorganisation is costing us a lot of time right now. The fact that we are dedicating this time now to the issue should save us all time later by having a more efficient structure". • Explain in more detail by providing further background and facts. The reason behind a decision or position is often news to the other party who may not have the same grasp of the details as you. Give them more context of why you believe what you believe. Now here is a vital piece of the puzzle about how we start the process of dealing with nasty questions. The distance between our ear and our mouth is way too short! We blurt out the first thing that comes into our mind when we encounter trouble. We need a verbal cushion to slow down the response process. Our first response is rarely our best one, so delay our full response slightly.

We can do this by paraphrasing, into neutral terms, what someone else has just said. This has a double benefit because you are now in control of the language of the question and you have given yourself some thinking time. The question might be: "Is it true that the company is going to start firing people next month?" Your paraphrase might be: "The question was about future staffing". This takes the bite out of the incoming missile.

Other cushions might include phrases such as: "Many people we have talked to have expressed similar concerns"; "That is an important issue, let's focus on that for a moment", and "Thank you for bringing that up so we can address it now".

Our brains work very fast, so we only need three or four seconds interregnum to get to a second response option, which will always outshine and outperform the first bluster that comes out of our mouths. Calm, considered, pre-planned responses, cushioned for effect, and delivering positive messages in a confident manner, will disarm any nasty boardroom big bosses, enemy colleagues, wannabees, riff raff and general hoi polloi pirates who are trying to scuttle you.

Be Fearless. Become A Considered Self Promoter To Grow Your Business

I am infamous in Tokyo. I always ask the first question of the speaker at an event. "Oh Greg, you always ask the first question", people say, as if it was a bad thing. They don't get it. In my case, I have found that having an interesting question is one thing, but having the chance to get it answered is another. In the past I would be there with my hand dangling in the air to ask a question and the organizer would suddenly say, "We have no more time for further questions, please join me in thanking our speaker". That was most annoying. I decided going first was a known thing, whereas who will be last was not, so to improve my odds, I decided I would try to go first.

Later I found there was another good reason for doing it. I attend a lot of presentations as part of my networking activities here in Japan and you see what works and what doesn't over time. Before you start your question, the organisers always request you state your name and affiliation. Now I say my name and my company name slowly, precisely and clearly. So what?

Well reflect on your own experience. I think you will find that 99.9% of questioners you hear at events just rapidly mumble their own name and their company's name. No one can understand the content of what they have just said, let alone remember who they were. Now, how about when it is your turn? Can people easily catch your name in that same situation or are you sxhyf xqtelpbqfrom vzqithmsfplcompany? I am guessing the latter!

As one way to promote myself and my business, I decided that there was an opening in the market here for considered self promotion (for a good cause though!). I decided I want to have the names " Greg Story " and " Dale Carnegie Training " penetrating the minds of all those in the audience at the event, as a form of subtle advertising. I can't always be the speaker and lift my profile that way, but I can be a questioner at other people's events and there are a lot more of those available to me.

Everyone understands the importance of the mantra: "know, like, trust" in order to grow your business. The "know" part can cost a lot of money to cement in the minds of potential clients. Being "top of mind" is what we all want in business so that they call us first, if they need something. We all spend huge amounts of effort and money trying to achieve that. We are hosting responsive websites, buying ad words, doing retargeting, posting content on social media, advertising and trying to bolster our SEO. Why?

We want to be top of mind for when the buyer is looking for our solution. At events, we have a golden opportunity to position ourselves as top of mind for no additional cost to the price of the ticket. All we have to do is raise our hand. Human psychology being what it is, most people are hesitant to go first in front of others, so we can usually get to ask the first question.

The other thing people say to me is , "Greg, that was a really good question", as if that were a random accident. Folks, this is my personal brand out there, so the question has to be a really, really good one. While the event is underway, I am thinking about the question I want to ask and how I will ask it. It is being silently distilled in my mind during the proceedings, so that when I get up to speak, it sounds as fluent and smart as I can possibly make it. I want to impress.

We all know in advance who the speaker is going to be, so it doesn't take a lot to research them a little, to be able to ask a more pointed question than what usually emerges from the hoi polloi. For example, the new President of All Nippon Airlines (ANA) was a speaker at the American Chamber in Tokyo. As usual, I had the first question.

I made the comment about how poorly people's mistakes are handled by management in Japan and how this is an inhibitor to the messy process of innovation. I asked about the culture of dealing with mistakes at ANA? I then specifically noted that when he was the Head of Sales at ANA, his idea of providing first class passengers with individually ordered meals had become a big problem. The service had to be stopped, yet he made it to become President. So ANA must have a good way of encouraging innovation, without punishing people for mistakes in the process. Could he tell us about that? You could have heard a pin drop in the room after I laid that little baby out. By the way, he was delighted with the question, because he could brag about how great the culture at ANA was etc., etc.

People came up to me later, saying they were amazed by my question. Now all of this was readily available public information. They could all have asked the same question, if they had spent a few minutes searching out the background of the speaker. I relate this little episode just to demonstrate how you can enhance your personal brand by approaching mundane things like the Q&A, from a fresh angle.

It does take guts though to be the first questioner and to put yourself out there in front of everyone. If your question is not so good or not so well articulated, then that doesn't add to your personal brand status and possibly drops it down quite a few notches. You also have to have a thick hide, because some people will take umbrage with you for having the gall to always ask the first question. Jealousy is a curse.

I usually find a strong correlation here with one aspect of these types of jealous people. They usually have zero personal brand power. I always think to myself, "It's a free country, if you want to ask the first question, knock yourself out". The point is, there is always a vacuum when the Master of Ceremony calls for questions. The majority of people are shy to put themselves forward in front of a big crowd of their peers. If you have the guts, seize the day, seize the moment!

And you don't have to always ask the first question. I do it because I want to promote my company, I want to have "Dale Carnegie Training Japan" top of mind, relative to my competitors. Ironically, if for some reason I don't ask any questions, people will complain to me after the event. "What happened, you didn't any questions today. I always like your questions". So you can't win either way. You may as well go for it!

Action steps

1. Ask your question, be it first or otherwise, but first state your name and company name slowly and clearly
2. Make it an intelligent question that will reflect well on your brand
3. Do some simple research on the speaker before the event
4. Ignore critics because they are stupid and the smart people will get it
5. Never apologise for doing your best for promoting your business
6. By the way, don't expect a good answer to you excellent question! That rarely ever happens.

The Impromptu Talk

If you are called upon at an internal meeting with the big bosses, or during an external public event, to suddenly speak on a topic do you say, "whoopee, here is my time to shine" or do you find you are suffering from instant whiteout of the brain? Not being prepared at any time is bad. What about when all those beady eyes are focused on you and you are panicking? You don't know what to say and here comes humiliation. You make a mess of it and your personal and professional brands just got sunk mid-ships.

Knowing your subject is one thing, being able to get up on your feet and speak about it with no warning is a completely different thing. "Oh, this would never happen to me", you say. Big bosses can be very nasty people sometimes and they can rudely seek your opinion on the project or the idea. "Um, um, um, ah, ah, I, er, er, um,…" is not a brilliant response.

It could be at a public event, it might be a panel discussion and you are safely ensconced in your seat down the back, away from harm's way. The moderator decides to call upon you for a comment, given you are an expert in your field. Some helpful functionary thrusts the hand microphone into your sweaty palm, you reluctantly stand up and offer "Um, um, um, ah, ah, I, er, er, um,…." Not a brilliant response.

Obviously the degree of difficulty of this type of talk is a lot harder than when the day has been set in advance, the notices have gone out, you are fully prepared and ready to go for your formal presentation. What can we do when impromptu speaker Armageddon beckons?

If you are an expert in an area under discussion, you can always mentally assume that you will called upon to speak. You are never caught cold in this case. You have ruminated a little on what you could say, were you forced to do so. That unwarranted jab with the hand microphone looks a lot less threatening when you have composed yourself beforehand.

One good practice is to always have a question ready for the speaker. Even if you don't actually ask it, think of a very good question you could ask. If you are called upon to make a comment, you can then talk about a question you had and then answer it yourself. "Thank you for asking me to say a few words. A question I have been asking myself is…. Now, as far as I understand it, it seems that….". This shows that you are tuned into the topic and that you have your own views on the subject. The answer doesn't need to become your own full blown speech displacing the actual speaker, but it will allow you to make some well thought through comments. The audience will be impressed that you actually have expertise in this area and your personal brand gets elevated.

Another formula is using WHO, WHY, WHAT. The WHO refers to the people in the audience. If it is a business audience, we can say something like, "I was chatting with a few people before the talk and a common concern which surfaced was about XYZ. This is an important consideration and my own views on the subject are that…." Or we could say, "I guess one of the reasons we are all here today is to find out more about some of the key issues. One that interests me is about….".

The WHY are our comments on the importance of the topic. We can put the topic in context with the current situation in the industry or the economy more broadly. "FinTech is occupying the minds of a lot of people in the banking industry. This is the age of disruption, as we have seen in many big industries already and this FinTech area has all the potential to be a big disruptor to the way we do business. My own feeling is…".

The WHAT could be picking up something the speaker has said already and making a comment on that. "Our speaker mentioned that FinTech is only relevant in certain economies at the moment and I agree with that. What we have seen though with technologies like the mobile phone is certain nations have skipped the infrastructure investment in land lines stage and gone straight to mobile networks. FinTech could be a disrupter that puts access to credit into the hands of third world citizens, much faster than we currently think is possible".

The secret is to be ready to go if called upon. It happens. I was comfortably seated next to my wife at a pleasant Ikebana International event in Osaka. At that time I was representing my country as the Consul General for Australia. Suddenly without a "bye your leave", the speaker called me up to the stage to say a few words.

Naturally those few words would have to be in Japanese. The distance from my chair to the podium was about ten steps. I wasn't prepared to say anything. It wasn't an occasion I could ask the speaker a question, given the context and I had the distinct feeling my heart rate was racing at around 190 beats per minute.

I looked to my environment around me for salvation. What could I draw from that to say a few words. It had been raining earlier that day, so I tied that idea to the cut flowers coming into Osaka from Australia. I mentioned about these cut flowers arriving into the Osaka Flower Market earlier that morning, with the soil and water still in their stems from Australia. I told them how each flower was like an Ambassador to Japan from the land Downunder, bringing a little piece of Australian beauty to Osaka. I thanked everyone for supporting Australian flowers and got off that stage lickety-split.

That was a lucky escape. I realised I had dodged a bullet there and I had better be ready in future to be called upon to speak. So ever since then, I am always thinking of a question I can ask the speaker. I know I can either use it as a legitimate question or as a crutch, if I am called upon to say a few words. I also have the Who, Why, What formula at hand, ready to roll if need be. When its your turn will you be you ready to roll?

One Of Your Most Vital Presentations

Usually when we hear the term "presentation", we think of a public arena, a big crowd and a lot of formality. These public occasions are important because this is your personal and professional brand on show to the world. There are other presentations though, which are in the family bosom of the company, away from the bright lights and the fanfare. This is when you are addressing the troops, people who see you day in and day out. They know who you really are.

In these cases we may need to recognise people, perhaps hand out awards, celebrate a birthday or work anniversary. This is our crew but don't take them for granted. We can't be laid back about it and think it is not as important as a public soiree. We still have to prepare properly. This is inside the family, so the temptation is to see the stakes as being lower. Actually, these types of speeches are the hardest ones to give and we need to be at our best. Engagement and motivation are closely driven by how we make our people feel. How much attention we give them and how we treat them, are critical elements of our authentic leadership.

Typically though, we don't prepare, we just wing it and so end up with a pretty ordinary facsimile of a proper presentation. Wrong thinking! Well what we should we do? Here is a simple four part formula for these occasions. Firstly, explain why the award is being made. It may be for dedicated service, high quality job performance, a major sales achievement, etc. Probably everyone knows already, but we need to remind them and set the scene for the presentation. For example, "Mary has won the sales over $500,000 medal" which is pretty boring. Compare it to, "Mary beat out hundreds of other salespeople to make it into the very exclusive half a million dollars club of outstanding salespeople". We need to set the context for the award at the start.

Secondly, talk about the team member's role as part of the team. We need to connect them with the group and how they contribute. We might say, "Mary is a high performer and she is a fantastic team player. Her willingness to help the team win, shows the mark of a true professional. I know many of the people in this room today can attest to her openness and availability to assist wherever needed and share knowledge with others.

Thirdly, we talk about the award itself, why it is deserved and how we are all proud of the recognition this has given to our whole team effort in the organisation. We say, "Mary has been a model of persistence. She has done all the steps of the sales process, consistently and professionally. Her achievement today is also driven off the back of the number of referrals she got from clients which led to new business with other companies. We preach this referral idea and Mary is a model to remind us to make this succeed for all of us as well".

Fourthly, we congratulate the recipient on behalf of everyone. "Mary, I am very proud to make this sales award to you today. Congratulations from all of us, we want you to receive this recognition with our best wishes and hopes for even further success in the future".

The danger of these presentations is to go too frugal or too exaggerated. We do want to create some buzz around the award but at the same time, it has to be real. Exaggerating the importance of the award or the winner's achievements makes the whole thing sound like a parody, a fakery. Telling the audience "Mary is genius personified, a true legend in the business. She will stand in the hall of fame of salespeople in this organisation for time immemorial", is obvious overkill and creates serious doubts about the integrity of everyone involved in this award ceremony.

Japan is a country of institutionalised flattery so we have to tread carefully here. If you have ever been on the receiving end, then you know how embarrassing these types of effervescent comments can be. The remarks have to be sincere, true and tempered with reality.

If we over praise one person in the group, the danger is the others will become jealous and shun them. In some cases, it may be better to present this speech to Mary alone, without an audience. A nice lunch with the boss and the award presentation one-on-one may be better than gathering everyone together. Japanese people get nervous when they are singled out for too much recognition. They know the knives will be coming out straight afterwards. In this sense, Japan is a bit tricky and you really have to know the person involved and the group itself, to decide which is the best plan.

The point is to treat this as a major speech, that directly hits the team's motivation and commitment. When you think of it that way, then you give the talk the proper attention it warrants and you can make these occasions a great opportunity to engage the team even more successfully.

Firing Up An Audience

Whenever I am in the USA, I love watching the different television preachers in action. I am not looking for salvation particularly, but I am looking for hints on how to work an audience. Now obviously competing with their promises on how to get to heaven is going to be difficult, but we can see some things that work which we can use in business for ourselves.

They are master storytellers, usually using Bible incidents to make a point in the here and now. The parables in the Bible are all mini-episodes, which teach a point about success. As speakers, we have a topic to address, a key message we want communicate and the platform to do so. How can we add stories to our talk which will bolster the point we are making? The best stories are the ones people can see in their mind's eye. It is a bit like reading a novel, after you have seen the video series or the movie based on the book. You can easily picture the scenes, the situation, the characters, the backdrops, etc.

This is what we should be looking to create. Short descriptions of incidents that inform a certain course of action. There should be people involved, preferably people they know already. We want locations they can imagine. We weave our point into these stories and draw conclusions for the audience on what course they should take.

For example, if we wanted people to think about the importance of keeping key staff, we could tell a story like this one:

"The "top gun" sales guy gets the call from the big boss and is ushered into the plush Presidential office. There he encounters the spacious room's dark paneled walls, the impressive hardbound books on the shelves, the massive mahogany desk, the expensive paintings, the carefully coiffed secretary - all the accoutrements of power and success. Top gun had met his annual sales quota in just two weeks and was expecting the accolades deserving from such an achievement. The discussion however was on lowering his commission rate, because he was making more money than the President. Ross Perot left IBM and went on to create Electronic Data Systems and became a billionaire. We want to make sure we create reward systems that keep our top talent and we as leaders need to take our egos out of the equation".

Probably everyone has seen a movie scene with this type of décor or they could easily imagine it. Now I could have just suggested the punch line – "throttle back on our egos, amply reward our stars and keep our top talent" but the lead up sets the scene for the audience and makes it more powerful.

I could have ramped it up even more by engaging the audience with some showmanship by then saying, "Bosses in the room, if you don't want to lose your top talent, say "no way". Now I would say this, while cupping my hand to my ear, to draw out some responses. If it wasn't energetic enough, I could continue by saying, "Ah, I didn't catch that?" again, cupping my hand to my ear fishing for a response. After they answer "no way", I could say, "That's right! I am with you, I don't want to lose any of my key people either! Now let me give you some ideas on how we can achieve that",

So we put it all together: "The "top gun" sales guy gets the call from the big boss and is ushered into the plush Presidential office. There he encounters the spacious room's dark paneled walls, the impressive hardbound books on the shelves, the massive mahogany desk, the expensive paintings, the carefully coiffed secretary - all the accoutrements of power and success. Top gun had met his annual sales quota in just two weeks and was expecting the accolades deserving from such an achievement. The discussion however was on lowering his commission rate, because he was making more money than the President. Ross Perot left IBM and went on to create Electronic Data Systems and became a billionaire. We want to make sure we create reward systems that keep our top talent and we as leaders need to take our egos out of the equation. Bosses in the room, if you don't want to lose your top talent, say "no way". Ah, I didn't catch that? That's right! I am with you, I don't want to lose any of my key people either! Now let me give you some ideas on how we can achieve that".

This is a simple example of combining storytelling, with a bit of showmanship. We need to use this in moderation though or it can quickly feel manipulative. It will however lift the energy in the audience and grab their attention, as you download your key points. Try adding some stories into your next presentation and see where you can add in some showmanship as well, to engage with the audience members. Let's become more memorable as presenters, but in a good way!!!

The Japan Gap Between Speaker And Audience Is Still Vast

Lawyers in Japan are an elite group. Senior lawyers are the elite of the super elite. When I landed in Tokyo on April 1st, 1979, Tokyo was completely different city than what it is today. A low rise, rambling, conurbation maze of small streets and ugly grey buildings, long stained by air pollution. Like the city itself, many things were a surprise back then, including Japanese lawyers. In those days, the pass rate of the Japan bar exam was 1.4 percent and the average time it took after University graduation, to pass the bar exam was seven years. With the launch of many new law schools in Japan and changes to the system, the bar exam pass rate has now climbed to 29%. So if you meet a senior Japanese lawyer, they will be part of the older cohort of the super, super elite. I was expecting a lot from these super lawyers, yet in some respects I was severely disappointed.

I attended a legal symposium, involving these super elite Japanese lawyers and some invited international lawyers coming in from outside of Japan. The whole affair was conducted in English, and the level spoken by the Japanese attendees was very high. It was impressive. These are very smart people, often playing a key role in resolving international disputes and enabling international commerce. In the Japan group, all had their legal practices and also lectured at leading Japanese Universities, on different aspects of the law.

Yet, the communication skills on offer were incongruent with their elite educations and high societal status. I can never resolve how intelligent people can manage to stand up in front of an audience and position themselves such that they fully ignore one third of their audience. We were seated in a theatre style arrangement with raised seating. A fairly wide room, it obviously functions as one of the main lecture theatres. As professional legal educators they are all are used to speaking to large groups of students and so could be expected to speak to the whole group, rather than just those seated to their right. This is not a tricky skill, but there was obviously no self-awareness, so you have to conclude this is how it is every time they give a lecture, be it in English or Japanese.

So here is a hint to ourselves. Whenever we are standing before an audience, always make sure we position our feet such that they are facing ninety degrees directly forward and just turn our necks and upper body, when we want to involve each side of the room in eye contact.

Actually there wasn't any real eye contact underway either. Speaking to everyone and nobody at the same time, is a common lack of professionalism in many speakers in Japan. In normal everyday conversations, making continuous direct eye contact can be too confronting for the normal societal standards of human interaction here. From a young age, Japanese people are taught to look at the throat, chin, and forehead of their interlocutor, rather than their eyes.

When we are speaking to an audience though, we are in a different role now and have different requirements. Winning the audience over to us, getting them to listen carefully to what we are saying and drawing them in to our point of view, are all aided when we use eye contact.

In the whole symposium, I don't think I saw anyone using eye contact properly. We don't want to bore a hole in the eyes of our audience though. That is why we seek to hold eye contact for around six seconds, before we move our gaze and make eye contact with another member of the audience. When we do this, we really engage our audience. Those on the receiving end of the eye contact feel as if we are talking directly to them, as if there was no one else in the room. This is a powerful connector.

In typical Japanese fashion, the main speakers were allotted a table to sit behind, decorated with a microphone stand. In this seated position, out came the sheets of the speech transcript to be read to us in a monotone voice. Extremely painful and ineffective. One guest speaker from overseas however was very modern, reading from his iPad. He even used voice intonation when reading, to stress certain words. The same scenario – same seat, same microphone, reading the speech, but what a difference this made. By spotlighting key words in each sentence, the speech came alive. We should be doing the same thing when it is our turn to speak.

Now as a native speaker of English and a truly senior international expert in the law, I wondered why this speaker had to read the speech at all? He could have stood and delivered that speech, without notes and in a more professional manner, fully utilising all the tools at his disposal. We should be more brave.

We must always keep in mind one key advantage we have over our audience. Only we know what we are going to say. If we forget something or if we deviate off topic slightly, well, only we know that. So whenever possible we should stand and deliver, no safety net, in full gaze of the audience without notes and use our eye contact to draw everyone in to our message.

The last part of the day was devoted to panel discussions. Notes don't work in these situations and everyone did a splendid job of speaking about complex legal matters in English off the cuff. A couple of things to keep in mind for ourselves, if ever we are engaged in a similar panel discussion. Learn how to use the microphone correctly, so we can be heard clearly. I notice, so many people don't speak across the mesh of the microphone properly, so they are not getting completely picked up by the audio technology.

Another thing to be careful of is eye contact. The speakers on these panels religiously devoted their looking lines to the panel members, ignoring their audience completely, as they answered questions or offered comments. No, no, no! When we receive the question or are asked to comment, we should be addressing the panel members as well as the audience. We should be using our eye contact to convince the audience of what we are projecting, by appealing directly to them.

What often happens though is the speaker will exclusively look back at the moderator who asked the question, instead of engaging as many people as possible in the room. This applies to any opportunity we may have for doing the Q&A. Look at the questioner initially for the first six seconds of the answer only. Then branch out and engage as many of the audience members as you can, with six seconds of eye contact, as you make your answer.

These are highly educated, super elite people in Japan and yet they make these fundamental presentation errors. So it tells us that being well educated and being in a prestigious job, does not automatically anoint us with the magic fairy dust of successful public speaking professionalism we all need. Remember, these are our personal and professional brands we are holding out there for all to see. To bolster your brand, get the training, because today is the age of persuasion power and we must master this skill if we want to be fully successful. Connecting with our audience is one of the key business skills we need to add to our repertoire when presenting.

If You Want Your Audience To Be Enthusiastic Act Enthusiastic Yourself

There is an old truism in sales, "sales is nothing more than the transfer of the enthusiasm of the seller for the product or service to the buyer". What are we doing when we are speaking? We are selling! "Hang on a minute there Greg. I am a professional, I am not a car or vacuum cleaner salesman", you might be saying to yourself. That sort of self talk is dated and dangerous. Make no mistake, we are all in sales, regardless of whether our business card has salesperson written on it or not.

When I speak with lawyers what are they complaining about? How important and how hard it is for them to gain new clients. They are out there selling themselves to clients to choose their firm rather than the rival company. The same with accountants, doctors, dentists, architects, engineers, etc. All of the professions are facing the same hurdle. How do they appeal to buyers and how do they differentiate themselves from everyone else, when they also have the same skill sets, experience and brainpower on offer.

So if we are up at the podium, out there on stage, standing up in the room to speak, we are selling. Firstly, we are selling our personal brand. Depending on how good a job we do, this will sell the company brand. We humans are a curious bunch really. If we hear a speaker and they are impressive, we carry that feeling across to the whole firm. Likewise, if they are a dud, we conclude they are all duds down there. So don't miss it - personal and professional brands matter.

The next thing we are selling is our message, the conclusion we have reached, the insight we have gained. We have prepared our talk with some points we believe are true and important and we are there to share them with the audience. One issue though is our level of commitment to the audience and the message.

I was at a talk once being given by a senior guy who was very well known around town, a long-timer in Tokyo, a published author and an accepted authority in his field. The expectation of something really great was in the mind of everyone in the audience. The speaker did give his talk, in the allotted time, on the designated subject. However he left his enthusiasm in a parcel on the bus seat by mistake. He spoke with no passion about his subject, no enthusiasm for his area of expertise and no interest in the punters who had made the effort to hear him. It was really shocking and I have totally doubted his supposed expertise ever since.

Of course, we have to a strong base in the subject matter. In fact we should be subject matter experts if we are going to get up in front of people and talk. There is another person I know here who is trying to develop a business as a coach, has a stylish stylist and is trying to get speaking spots on an area of certain expertise. The only problem is that he is not an expert at all on the subject he has chosen to speak about. This can only end in tears, however beautifully outfitted and coiffured he may be, but still tears, because there just isn't enough expert content there to back up what he is saying.

Given we have the expertise to speak on the subject and given that we realise we are selling ourselves, our company and our message to the audience, then we need to add the magic ingredient of enthusiasm. The way to be enthusiastic is to speak on a subject or an aspect of a subject, which lights your inner fire. Inside your profession there are bound to aspects which you feel very strongly about, so talk about those and your enthusiasm will naturally emerge.

Relive things that happened in your experience that has become a foundation of your belief in what you are telling the audience. Tell the story of what happened to you and how it impacted your views. Talk about the lessons, the trials, tribulations, the highs and the lows. Your feeling for these stages of the tale will shine through and the audience will be right there beside you. When you relive the whole journey, the good, the bad, the mediocre, the inner passion you have for what happened, will burn forth and captivate your audience.

In the retelling use all the resources at your disposal to bring that belief to the fore. Use your eye contact to engage the audience, voice modulation to add crescendos and lulls where appropriate, gestures to cut through audience distraction and grab their attention.

By combining our belief in our message, with an enthusiastic delivery, we will carry the audience with us, along the journey of belief that we have trod already based on our real world, hard won experiences. That combination is unbeatable.

Including Dialogue In Our Presentations

Normally when we give presentations, they tend to be pretty dry affairs. We marshal the facts, relate what happened, tell stories perhaps but in a one dimensional way. We are relating what happened, but are not making any attempt to bring it alive. However, what do we seek when we are looking for entertainment or education – we are looking for dialogue. Our television dramas, movies, novels, biographies are all using dialogue to good effect. We should include snippets of dialogue in our talks too.

Now we are not writing a screenplay, which is mainly dialogue, but that doesn't mean we can't drip a little bit in here or there in our talk to illustrate a point and bring it to life. We are taking the role of the narrator telling our audience what happened and then including the conversation we were hearing from the person we are featuring in the talk. We do this in normal conversation when we say, "she said that 'it was preposterous idea and I will never have it mentioned under my roof again for as long as I live'". We may even be telling this incident mimicking the style of the speech of the main protagonist, especially if they speak a dialect or with a heavy accent.

Why not do the same thing in our talks, to make our key point stronger? Let me give an example of something that happened to me in 2010 in Miami. I was attending my first Dale Carnegie International Convention and hardly knew anyone there. In the evenings there would be various parties to attend and on this particular occasion I had the honour of meeting Dale Carnegie's daughter Donna Dale Carnegie and she introduced me to Mike.

Now Mike stood out in that crowd of Dale Carnegie people, because he had a long ponytail and was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It turned out that Mike was the contractor who did all the stage audio sound etc., for the Convention and had been doing it for years.

"I always finish my year with the Dale Carnegie convention because you hold it in early December", he told me. He also got me attention when he said, "I really like your organisation". Being new to the Dale Carnegie world I was curious, so I asked him why he said that. He whispered to me in a conspiratorial fashion, "The things that people are saying out in front of stage and what they are doing behind the stage are the same".

I asked what he meant by that. He continued, "Well I do a lot of these same types of events and we are all hooked up on the mics, so we can hear what is going on behind stage, as well as out on stage. There are plenty of folks who say one thing to the audience, but carry on quite the opposite off stage. I found in years of dealing with Dale Carnegie people they are genuine and they live the principles they espouse and I like that".

In this example I have just modeled here, I am reproducing a conversation I had in Miami in 2010 and am using the point to say Dale Carnegie is great and the things we do are great, etc. This story is being used as evidence to get the listener to agree that Dale Carnegie is indeed great. I could say all of the same things and relate that story, just telling the details of what happened. However, when I include the dialogue, it brings the whole thing to life. People in the audience can picture a guy in a Hawaiian shirt, with a long ponytail, whispering this information to me. I can even cup my ear, as if I was listening to him, when he told me that secret part. They can hear his voice as I relate the story, which makes it more credible.

This requires a bit more work to do in the planning but not that much. After all, this is something that happened to you. It was an incident where you were told something by the main character in the story. All you have to do is tell what happened in their voice, rather than your own voice. If you do this you can take your storytelling to a much higher level. Let's give it a go and add another string to our bow of storytelling expertise.