The Presentations Japan Series

How Not To Use Your Hands When Presenting

We think of speaking as an activity where we use our voice. That is true but we use a lot more than that. We use our face, eyes, legs, body and our hands. When we are speaking while seated it is different to when we are standing. We need to master all situations for when we are called upon to speak in front of others. One of our problem areas is what to do with our hands when we speak. Judging by most of the presentation I see in Japan, few speakers have worked this out yet.

Here are some common habits we can improve upon to make ourselves much more persuasive and professional.

1. Hands in front of the body. This for men will usually means wrapping the right fist by the left hand and holding both in front of the groin. For women, Japan has a specific requirements such as cupping the fingers of each hand so they interlock like the yin yang symbol and holding them at waist height or sliding the fingers together at the thumb and first finger intersection, so the arms are outstretched and all the fingers are pointing to the ground. This is usually a set and is combined with the foot positioning, so that one foot is forward of the other and the front toe of the rear shoe touches the back heel of the front shoe.

These elaborate rituals are a product of trying to standardise the form and to kill uncontrolled hand movements. It also kills the ability to use gestures to support and strengthen our words. The arms and hands when held in front of the body also create a subliminal barrier between the audience and the speaker. It is saying "I don't trust you, I am scared of you and I need to protect my most vial organs from you, in case of sudden attack". As a speaker, we want to be as inclusive as possible, so we need to eliminate all physical barriers (podiums, reams of notes, ipads, arms) between ourselves and our audience. We also want to show we are totally confident and have a welcoming attitude to our audience.

1. Arms behind the back, clasped together. This is another anchor technique used when the speaker has no idea what to do with their hands. The hands are also invisible to the audience, so the speaker feels they can forget about what to do with them or how they are placed or situated. That is true, but there are a few issues with this pose. Since cave dweller days, we have learnt not to trust people whose hands are not visible to us. They may have been concealing a weapon. The thigh bone of a major animal, a sturdy, gnarled tree branch or a sharp, flinty rock with which to bash us on the head and steal out fire, food or loved ones. In more advanced and sophisticated times, the fear is they will suddenly whip out a deadly blade and plunge it deep into our soft intestines and kill us.

The palms open and facing forward gesture is a universal and timeless indicator of "I am not a threat to you, because, as you see I have no hidden weapon". This when associated with certain words and phrases says "you can trust what I am saying". Not a bad thing for a speaker to achieve with an audience, especially to a gathering of card carrying skeptics.

1. Arms folded across the chest or one hand touching one elbow while the other hand is held near the face. Like number one, these are defensive postures specifically designed to keep your audience away from your vital spots. By the way, I do recommend the latter posture, if you are ever standing close and talking with someone you are suspicious of. My karate background recommends that position, because from there it is very quick to parry a sudden "king hit" style blow to either your face or your body, but I digress.

In speaking term though, these postures send all the wrong messages. We want to be trusted as a speaker and to do so, we have to show we are open to our audience. Holding our hands by our sides is a natural position and from here it is easy to raise our hands when needed, to inject a powerful gesture with which to back up our words.

1. Hands in the pockets. This is a particular favourite of male executives who have no idea of what to do with their hands when speaking. The really confused thrust both hands into their respective trouser pockets achieving a sort of stereo effect. It presents the hands where they can be seen from the front, but it denies us the opportunity to use gestures during out talk.

1. Holding something in our hands. When we are teaching public speaking, our participants often want to hold their speaking notes in their hands when they do the pair practice role plays. I notice they actually never look at them, but they feel comforted that should they get into trouble, help is close by, if there is a possible brain white out.

Sheets of paper however tend to become a distraction as we tend to wave them around. The pages quiver and shake if we are nervous and this is visible to our audience. We are sending the wrong message to them. We want to convey belief and confidence in our message.

If we are looking down, be it at the notes page or an iPad, we break off eye contact with our audience. Instead, we need to be watching our audience like a hawk, constantly gauging their reaction to what we are saying. We also want to employ our eye power to engage with them directly and sell them on our key messages. We want to remove all distractions from what we are communicating and we want to free up our hands so we can employ our gestures to bolster our argument.

1. Gripping the podium, the microphone stand or holding the hand microphone with both hands. The double hand, vice like grip of the podium gives the speaker the feeling of stability. It also removes the "what do I do with my hands" conundrum. What it says about you though is, "I am nervous and lacking in confidence". It can make us appear quite strained as we apply muscle power to the upper arms and raise our shoulders, as we ensure the podium does not make a sudden attempt to scarper. Best to not even touch the podium at all and just feel free to raise your hands for gestures. Holding the microphone or it's stand with both hands, precludes us from gesturing during our talk. Don't touch the microphone stand at all. Restrict the hand microphone usage to one hand only, so the other is free and readily available for emphasis.

Having said that, if you find your arms and hands are shaking almost uncontrollably, because the adrenaline is coursing though your body, then by all means hold the microphone with both hands and gather it to your chest, so no one can see how petrified you are. The shaking won't be visible anymore and you can feel more confident when you are talking.

1. Hands under the table. If we are seated during our presentation, we don't want to hide our hands under the table. This is the same trust issue as the hands behind the back in number two. Place the hands on top of the table, resting comfortably together where they can be seen. From there, pick them up and use them for gestures.

1. Over employing or holding on to the same gesture, all of the time. We need to use a variety of gestures otherwise, we become too predictable and boring for our audience. We also need to turn gestures on and off, like the faucet of a tap. Don't let the water run too long, remember to switch it off for a while. The break between usage and non-usage, gives the gesture more force with our audience. If we hold the same hand position for longer than 15 seconds, all the power of that gesture dies and it just becomes an annoyance to our audience.

1. Pointing our finger at people, making a fist like we want to fight, making slapping sounds and waving our hands around like a drowning person when speaking. Thrusting our single finger at someone is an aggressive action, as is brandishing our fist. We associate these gestures with an invitation to argument or combat. Neither should be our intention when engaging with our audience. Slapping or hands together or slapping our legs is an unnecessary distraction and we should avoid doing so. Waving our hands around becomes another distraction from the message we want to convey and can look like we are out of control.

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

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

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

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

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

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

Presentation Advice for Japanese Politicians

Vince Staples, American Hip Hop Rapper, was recently quoted in a Financial Times interview, "You have to paint the picture because everyone doesn't come from the same background". Even a humble Long Beach rapper gets the point of engaging our audience with stories when we are the speaker. Japanese politicians have to do a lot of public speaking, but they are rarely engaging. They are generally speaking at their audiences rather than to them. I previously attended the Japan Summit at the Okura Hotel Ball Room run by the Economist. Sitting there listening to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, then Minister for National Strategic Zones Shigeru Ishiba and then Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Akira Amari, I was struck by the lack of picture painting and storytelling in their presentations.

By the way, if you have seen Prime Minister Abe of late, he has improved quite a bit. Whether it was some coaching before the Olympic bid or thereafter, the man is much better. More animated, using bigger gestures, more eye contact, using those see through teleprompters to help engage the audience rather than looking down at a page of notes. He had humour, pauses for clarity and some voice modulation. Hey Japan, take note, it is possible to become better at public speaking!

I can't give a similar praiseworthy account for his other colleagues. They are generally a dull bunch. I flash back to Abe's arch rival Shigeru Ishiba, who also spoke that day at the Summit. Sprawled in his seat, eyes looking up and away in the distance at some obscure spot of the upper reaches of the Grand Ballroom wall, he spoke in a voice dripping in disinterest, leavened with lethargy and boredom. He absolutely proved Professor Albert Mehrabian's rule that when what you say (content) is incongruent with the way you say it (delivery), then 93% of the message is missed.

Here is the scary part. I closed my eyes and tried to just concentrate on the words and actually the content was pretty good and well considered. If we took the transcript and showed it to people, I am sure they would be impressed with how he was analyzing the situtaion. But he totally murdered his message.

I doubt anyone in the room got many of the points he was making. Why was that? He could have made a few adjustments and the message worth and delivery could have coincided to be very powerful and build his brand with his audience. This mediocre effort is typical of the political and business worlds in Japan. They are simply not making enough effort to become effective communicators. Sometimes you feel you are stuck in time and we are back in the 1950s here.

Minister Amari was polite, nice, but boring. He was boring because like Abe and Ishiba, he was dancing the two step data dump of information. This is a problem in corporates as well, as the leader gets up and drills the audience with detail, detail and more detail. The idea that the purity or the quality of my information is superior and sufficient, is so grossly outdated and incorrect, you wonder how it could survive in this 24/7, totally connected, information overloaded world.

CFOs and other technical types, please take note – don't bore us with your data.

Tell us a story, pleeease! Bring the points being made to life by connecting them to some people and events you have encountered. Our minds are well trained to absorb stories, because they are the first educational structure we encounter as young children. The story should start with taking us to the place of the story, the location, the room, nominate the day, month or the season and introduce the people there, preferably people we already know, to make it real for us.

By getting straight into the story we can draw our audience in. We can now intertwine the context behind the point we want our audience to agree with. By providing the background logic, cloaked in a story which is vivid, we can see it in our mind's eye. We will have more success convincing others to follow us. Having set the scene, we finish by outlining our proposition or proposal and tie the ribbon on top, by pin pointing the major benefit of doing what we suggest. This is elegant and powerful.

Storytelling does suffer from misuse. American politicians lead the world in this regard. Like many things in America there is gross exaggeration. If a story is good, then ten stories must be better. That is why we hear politicians referencing various Joe Public individuals in their speeches, trying to connect with their audience. Usually it comes across as fake, duplicitous, over cooked and shady.

In business, we don't want any of that inference, so we should use storytelling sparingly yet powerfully. Less is more, but none is bad. Unite our disparate audience from multiple backgrounds by wrapping our key message in a story and if you do, what you say will be remembered, unlike almost all Japanese politicians. Let the story create your context, evidence and sizzle for your key message

Action Steps

1. Stop believing the quality or quantity of your information is enough
2. Don't try and pack too many stories into your presentation
3. Start the story by creating a vivid mind picture of the scene

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 [email protected]

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 Presentations Japan Series" and "The Sales 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.

Speaker Final Impressions

Final impressions at the end of a speech are what determine our memory of the person. Life is throwing so much information at us and at such a manic pace we are easily overwhelmed. We are unlikely to recall too much of the detail of the talk, because there are so many other details in business and life competing for our brain space. I remember reading that Albert Einstein didn't bother remembering his own phone number. He said he wanted to apply his available memory space for more higher order items. I like that excuse for why I can't remember a lot of stuff! Anyway, as an audience we may be similarly picky about what we choose to recall. Yet, we will retain an overall impression of the speaker, for good or otherwise, forever. We can let that be a random selection event or we can plan to have the final impression the one we have chosen in advance.

It is a bit like a restaurant we may visit. Unless you are like my wife, you are unlikely to remember every meal you have ever eaten, but you will come away with an impression of the quality and taste of the food, the service levels and the atmosphere. We will either record that as a place to revisit or we will determine to drop that one off the list of the many choices we have facing us. The same with speakers. If we are left with favourable impression, then we will look forward to spending time with them and hearing from them again.

I attended a recent presentation. The speaker was rather casually dressed for the occasion and frankly it didn't look promising. It was one of the best presentations I have attended in a long time. I can't remember every detail, but that speaker is right up there in my mind as someone I would look forward to hearing from again. The delivery was competent and the information was super well presented and highly relevant. Another speaker here in Tokyo always draws a huge capacity crowd whenever he speaks. He has a unique style, but he has combined his content and delivery faculties well and is now a go to guy to have speak. The final impression is "that was a very valuable use of my time to sit there and listen to him speak and I want to hear more from this guy".

Now your talk may not even get off to a brilliant start, but it better have a brilliant finish. The idea of recency is that we tend to remember more of what we heard last, than what we heard first. The details of the talk's key points and the evidence backing it up are lost, as the content quantity builds, each point overlaying the last. The speaker we remember yes, but the details no. We have to therefore really work on how we leave the audience. Will we have a call to action, a rallying cry to do something that will grip the audience's imagination and inspire them to make a change to what they have always been doing?

Will we leave them with a pithy quote that really gets them thinking about their view of the world and their place in it? Will the ending reheat the one key point we want them to remember? There are so any ways to end a talk, but the key is to plan it well from the very beginning.

The ending is where we should commence our design process. That sounds a bit counterintuitive doesn't it. Normally we think we should start at the start, that is the opening of the speech and then we flesh out what will be the key points and finally we design the wrap up at the end. That is the technique of the rank amateur. Actually the order is the other way around. We start with the end, then design the key points we will raise and finally we design how we will open it up.

Designing the ending is no small thing. To get a long argument of a 30-40 minute speech chunked down to a single sentence is hard work. This is the professional skill of the copywriter and few of us have that training or expertise. Yet we have to come up with the equivalent of a killer line that encompasses the entire talk and encapsulates the key message for the audience. A take away for the audience that resonates well after the lights had been turned out and the doors locked at the venue.

If we can do that, then the last impression will be positive. If we can inspire the audience to take action, then we will have made a real contribution to the business and they will thank us for it. If we changed their view or widened their vision of how they see the world, they will feel richer than when they arrived for the talk. We want the audience to mentally thank us for adding something to their business or their life. That exchange of their time for greater value is what raises our value in their minds. This should be our aim and how we finish the talk is the tool to deliver that outcome.

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 [email protected]

About The Author

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

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

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

Evidence Rich Presentations

There are a number of common structures for giving presentations and one of the most popular is the opening-key points/evidence-closing. We consider the length of the presentation, the audience, the purpose of our talk and then we pour the contents into this structure. Generally, in a 30 minute speech we can only have a few key points we can cover, so we select the most powerful and then look for the evidence which will persuade our audience. This is where a lot of presentations suddenly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The structure flow is a simple one, the analysis of the occasion is straightforward but at this next stage we can get confused about what we are trying to achieve. We might become so engrossed in the evidence assembly component that we forget the crucial "WHY" aspect of this effort. We are not here to produce mounds of statistics, battalions of bar charts or proffer reams of text on a screen. Technically oriented presenters love to bludgeon their audience with detail, usually in font or scale so small, it is barely visible on screen. Don't do that, you will be killing your message.

No, the WHY is all about persuading the audience of our conclusion or way of thinking. This is communication skill rather than archeological or archival skill. Line charts, pie charts, comparison tables are trotted out to do battle with the perceptions and biases of the audience. The errors though include a presentation style where the actual detail is unapproachable and so is not fully accepted. If you can't even read it how are we are supposed to be mesmirised by the power of the information. The tendency to imagine that this quality data will stand by itself and not require the presenter to do much, is another grave error. "I don't have to be a good speaker, because the quality of my information is so high", is a typical, if somewhat pathetic excuse. This excuse may have had some hint of relevance once upon a time but the internet has swept that excuse straight out the door. The exclusivity of information ownership has been replaced by a free for all provision of all the information you need accessed through search engines.

Another common error is to invest the vast majority of the time for the presentation preparation on the accompanying slides for the talk. Digging up the data, tweaking the detail, creating the charts, arranging the order. We become quite busy. So busy, in fact, that we forget to practice the delivery of the talk. We run out of time because w have dome a poor job of planning for the talk and properly allocating our precious time. Toyota does well as a manufacturer using its Just In Time methodology but this is not the model for the speaker. Don't leave it until the last moment. Be well organised and build in rehearsal time from the start. We can find ourselves presenting the content for the first time up at the podium, peering down at our audience. We are in fact practicing on our audience and this is not a best practice.

How should we fix this approach? Some examples of evidence are really powerful when they are numbers but instead of drowning our audience with too many numbers, we can select one and use a very big font to isolate out that one number on screen. We then talk to that number and explain what it means. If we want to use line charts or trend analysis then one chart per slide is a good rule. We don't split the visual concentration of our audience. We speak to the significance of the trend knowing that our audience can see the trend line for themselves.

To improve our communication effectiveness, we go one step further and we tell stories about these numbers. Who was involved, where, when and what happened. We recall stories more easily than masses of data. This helps to get us around to the WHY of our talk, the key point we want the audience to absorb. And we practice the delivery over and over until we are comfortable we have the cadence right. The application of knowledge is where the value lies and telling stories about both failures and successes brings the talk alive.

We recall Professor Albert Mehrabian's study about the importance of not just what we say, but how we say it. He found that when what we are saying isn't congruent with the way we are saying it, we can lose our audience. They get distracted by how we look and how we sound. Today, it is even worse because they have their phones and tablets handy to escape from us while we are speaking.

Emphasising particular words, adding gestures for strengthening key points, engaging our audience by using eye contact and facial expressions, allowing pauses so ideas can sink in and reducing distractions so our words are heard is how we need to be doing it. Yes, we should have great evidence and yes, we should impart that in the most effective means possible. If we have both content and delivery, then we are a force to be reckoned with!

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 [email protected]

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

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

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

When Presenting You Gotta Have Rhythm

Usually a speech or presentation is somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour long. Obviously, the longer the talk, the harder it is to keep the audience's attention. Even worse, today, everyone has their internet connection to email, social media and apps in their hand, right there under the desk, while we are speaking. We have all become fervent multi-taskers, listening to someone speak while surreptitiously scrolling through our email feed, Facebook or LinkedIn or all three!

For the speaker to be persuasive there must be a transfer of passion and belief to the members of the audience. How does this work when we speakers are only getting the partial attention from those we wish to persuade? The irony is we have never had so many devices to aid our message communication and yet we are becoming less communicative thanks to our small screen obsession. Talking at others is not communication. Having our listener follow what we are saying, digest it and agree with it, must be the goal. Otherwise, why are we bothering? We could just send everyone the 10 key bullet points by email and we can all head off early to cocktails.

Words carry their weight through the delivery. I was reminded of this recently when some clever person put together a video of Donald Trump speaking, but dubbed him with a very polished Oxbridge style, British accent. The precise same words were there from the original speech by The Donald, but they were magically transformed into something that sounded more intelligent. How was that possible? The delivery is what made the difference and the dubbed speaker was very skilled and polished.

Many people imagine that the content of their talk will be sufficient to carry the day with their presentation and that emphasising delivery skills is simply dabbling in verbal voodoo. Such beliefs are often firmly held by technically oriented people, for whom proof, evidence, statistics and data are sacrosanct, solid and sacred. The weight of the evidence is all we need to persuade others. Not true!

"If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it matter?", is one of those cool, hipster questions some people like to throw around. Here is another version: "If your evidence was compelling, but nobody was paying close attention, would it matter?". The answer is obviously "Yes, it matters". The degree of difficulty in being heard in a cacophonous, blue back screen focused world is increasing everyday. We have to rise to the task.

Let's presume that the presentation's opening has been well designed and is successful in grabbing the attention of even the most distracted audience. Before we get to the wrap up and call for Q & A, we have our main points to present. This number will probably range between three and five points. If it is a 40 minute speech, then we have roughly 30 minutes for the main body and so around 5 to 10 minutes per section of the speech. There may be main points and sub-points in each section, depending on the density of the topic.

We can take a bracket of 5 to 6 minutes as our framework for the speech. Every bracket needs to have a change of pace to keep our audience's attention. Even within the same topic or sub-topic, we need to switch gears and vary the delivery. This is not something we leave to happenstance – we plan this from the very start.

We might introduce a powerful visual effect be it on screen or in the room using a prop. I used a rolled up Japanese scroll to great effect in a speech. I wanted to unfurl the scroll so it would drop quickly and reveal what was written there. I attached some small weights to the bottom of the scroll to have it make a slight snapping sound for even more dramatic effect.

On the scroll was written "DatsuO NyuA" (脱欧入亜), which was a play on words reversing a Meiji era slogan of Japan turning away from Asia and going toward European civilization. I was making the point that my country of Australia was moving away from Europe toward Asia. I could have just said so in words, but the scroll drop was much more powerful.

On another occasion, I was making the point about Australia being as safe a Japan, because of the similar strict gun control laws. Hidden in my suit jacket I had a plastic replica Magnum 38 handgun, which Clint Eastwood made so famous in his Dirty Harry movies. It has a very long barrel and is a physically big gun, so even when viewed at a distance, it has visual impact. I slowly pulled the gun out and held it in profile view to the audience, high above my head, saying "This is illegal in Australia, the same as in Japan", to make my argument about the safety of sending their children to study in Australia.

Now our speech cannot become littered with too many such devices every five minutes, because we will be exhausting our audience. However, there should be a change of pace at regular intervals to keep our audience with us. It might be a powerful quotation, a joke or a visual on a slide that grabs our attention. We are going for the mental equivalent of an audience stretch break every five minutes or so. The key is to plan the speech this way from the beginning, if we want our message to be heard.

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 [email protected]

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

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

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

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

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

The "55% Of How We Communicate Is Visual" Myth

Professor Albert Mehrabian's 1967 study of communication concluded that 55% of the presenter's message was received visually, 38% from voice tone and only 7% through the words. As we all know a little bit of knowledge is dangerous and these numbers have been widely misinterpreted. As a result a number of gurus and pseudo experts have built businesses around emphasising the importance of how we look when we present. So, according to this misplaced logic, how we look accounts for over half of the impression of how we come across, so pay careful attention to dress etc.

Professor Mehrabian nearly 50 years ago, flagged an issue that has reached epidemic proportions today – audience distraction. In his day, he was worried about factors that might compete with the key point we were trying to get across. His research showed that this 55/38/7 split only applied under one very critical condition.

When what we are saying is not congruent with how we are saying it, the audience leaves us. They go off message and get distracted by our dress and appearance in 55% of the cases. Others are no longer listening to what we are saying, but to how we are saying it. So 38% are focused on how we sound, our voice qualities, our accent, our pronunciation, etc. When we are incongruent between what we are saying and the delivery, only 7% of the words are registering with our audience.

When we say "incongruent" what do we mean by this? In some societies, family members being interviewed by television reporters after losing loved ones in a tragedy, are smiling while talking to camera. This is a painful moment, yet they are smiling. In these cultures this is accepted as a polite way to not burden others with their personal, heartfelt grief. This for the rest of us is incongruent. What we would expect is a face contorted with sad feelings, tears rolling down cheeks and a voice barely audible and breaking up under the strain. In the same way, a happy event greeted with a long, sad face would not be congruent.

Mehrabian's work tells us that when we don't match what we say with how we say it, we lose our audience. It wouldn't matter how well dressed we were, we wouldn't be able to maintain attention to what we are saying. No matter how stentorian or lilting, pleasant and professional our speaking voice, the key message is still being lost.

Wooden faces, devoid of expression are precisely the target for Mehrabian's research results. These are often the experts in their fields who rely on their reputation and authority to carry the day. They are heavyweights and their faces are ever serious, never smiling. The problem is they are only able to manage one facial expression throughout their presentation, regardless of the content.

Not every sentence in a presentation is of such heavy weight seriousness. Consequently, the audience leaves their message and to add to that dilemma, it is so easy to escape the presenter today, thanks to powerful hand held devices allowing us to instant on-line access to the world.

We need to have highs and lows in our presentations. Serious and light moments, complex and simple components of the message. Each of these requires a face and voice of its own, that is in synch with the content. Of course we should be dressed appropriately for the occasion, but we need to make our face and voice do the work, not the suit, blouse, tie or shoes.

If the topic is serious, be serious but be prepared to ease off the pressure from the constant seriousness. It is exhausting for an audience, they need a break or we will lose them. If we are flippant and light all the time, we will not be providing enough variety for our audience at the other end of the scale. Telling jokes and repeating witticisms constantly for 40 minutes is not a substitute for a well designed presentation, unless you are a professional comedian and that is your trade.

If we focus on being congruent when we speak, then we will be more successful in getting our message across to our audience. That 7% number will flip to become close to 100% and that is what we want.

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 [email protected]

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

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

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

The Design Stage Of Presenting

Many people don't start out with a design for their talk. They launch straight into the details, especially working with the slides. The lack of design shows as the structure isn't tight enough, the points are nor clear enough and mostly the talk is totally forgettable. They feel happy however because the talk was completed and they can tick that box. This is often the case here in Japan where giving the speech well and just giving the speech are confused. Our objective is to provide value to our audience and build our personal and professional brand, not just give a speech. We judge companies based on who we meet. If the person speaking is really impressive, we extrapolate that ability and project it to the whole team. Conversely, if the speaker is a dud, then we assume nobody at that shop is much good.

Designing our presentation is a critical stage. We have identified our target audience for our key messages. We have selected the title to really engage our audience. We know the purpose of the exercise - inform, persuade, entertain, motivate to action.

Designing the conclusion is always a good place to start. The conclusion is really the summary of the key message we want to get across. The actual content delivery of the concluding message may vary from what we design at the beginning, but it is still a very good discipline to force us to focus on the one central thing we want our audience to take away from our speech.

Having boiled all of the various things we could say down to the one most important thing, we can now work backward and think about how we can get our audience to agree with our conclusion.

Covering too many points and our audience will have trouble following the thread of our argument. Too few points and the argument may not seem convincing for lack of depth and evidence.

We may group similar ideas under the one umbrella idea and may include those together. We have the key points selected that we want to raise and now we have to construct the argument to support the ideas. This would include some evidence based around statistics, data, expert opinion and authority references.

Usually three key points is easy for an audience to follow, but if the subject matter is complex or if you have been given a longer time to speak then five may be needed. There are a number of structures for how you present the individual ideas. It could be a result/problem/ solution structure or you may switch the problem to the start and then outline the solution and the consequent result. The key is that the structure flows logically to make it as easy as possible to follow.

Having derived the key points we are going to make, we go back and design two closes. One is for the very end of the speech. This is to tie the whole presentation together. We might review what we said or we might focus on a particular key point.

Having designed that close, we now design a different one to follow the Q & A session. We need this second close, so that we can keep the whole proceedings on track. We have no control over what people will raise at the end by way of questions and so it often happens that an audience member will take the discussion off topic. If we just allow the event to finish at that point we have lost control of the messaging. We need to wrap it up in a way that the audience have our key point ringing in their ears as they leave the venue.

Finally we design the opening. This is a tricky one because it is wrapped tightly together with the first impression we will make with the audience. If we try a joke that is weak and falls flat, our initial impression is negative. If we start rambling, we lose the audience's attention. If we commence with something very boring we are going to have trouble breaking through the noise that is humming away between the ears of our audience. We need to break into their attention and capture them for the receipt of our key message.

Questions are very powerful. These should be asked rhetorically, in a way that the audience is not actually sure if it is a rhetorical question or something they actually have to answer. This creates a certain amount of tension that drives their attention to what the speaker is saying.

They are curious to find out what you meant.

Quoting some relevant expert on the subject is also good because it references the topic and gives the speaker additional authority to their message.

Statistics are powerful because they are hard evidence and tell the audience this is going to be a fact based presentation and not just opinion.

Something shocking is a good way to grab attention, so make a provocative statement and then explain what you mean.

We can always flag our conclusion at the start and then spend the rest of the time justifying our interpretation.

This is a standard ploy and it has it's own risks. Audiences are already distracted and anything that smacks of predictability sees them drifting away from us and straying into extraneous unrelated thoughts, completely off-topic.

The title of our talk is usually selected before we get down to the nitty gritty of the speech design. We may have been requested to speak on a certain subject, so our ability to use our title to intrigue may be contained. It is not such a problem because most people will have forgotten the exact title of your talk and unless there is a slide with the title listed, they will have trouble recalling it word for word.

The opening, therefore is the opportunity to break through all the audience noise - all their screaming monkeys running around inside their brains. This should be designed with great precision and delivered the same way. Don't digress or comment on something that has happened in the lead up, get straight into the opening and grab the audience.

Before the start of the event, get there early and mix with some of the participants. Get them talking about the topic, this is a good way to connect with the audience by referencing what a couple of them said in the moments before the speech started. The person referenced feels very special through the recognition and the imaginary boundary between the speaker and the audience disappears as the speaker becomes one with the group.

Only at this point in our preparation should we start playing around with the slides to support the presentation. Once you have designed it this way the need for a lot of text on the screen disappears. We know what we need to say and so we can start introducing pictures and diagrams, as well as text. Even the text can be just one word because we are able to talk to the key points covered by that word. This is very powerful because it keeps your eyes on the audience and off your text.

When we are designing the talk there will be key words that lend a lot of weight to our argument and these may be key words we want to emphasis on the screen, though a photo or a video or some image.

Everyone is used to seeing lots of text on the screen and when you present in a different way you remain memorable. The audience will not remember the details of your speech, but they will remember their impression of you, the speaker.

Japan may be the land of Zen but there is very little Zen influence going on when it comes to slides. Baroque with its ornate detail is more the flavor here with many competing colors and a screens packed with information, spread across an astonishing number of different fonts styles and sizes.

Japan has a love for detail, but we don't have to put it all up on the screen. Japan also has a love of the written word and what is written down carries a lot more weight that in Western countries. The point here is that Japan is still some way behind the rest of the world in this aspect of clear communication.

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 [email protected]

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

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

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

The Presenter's Mindset

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Action Steps

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

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

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

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

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

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

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

How To Prepare For Your Talk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

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

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

Showtime - Are You Ready?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good luck and break a leg!

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

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

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

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

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

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