Who Likes Presentations?

Most of us hate giving them.  Many of us can't stand receiving them.  Some of us would rather have a colonoscopy than do either.

What's the solution for the presenter?

I've coached almost 3000 men and women in major global companies.  When they present, they're OK. When they talk; they rock.  What really drives their (and our) success as communicators is when we sound conversational, not presentational.

OK, but how do I do that if I'm giving a presentation and not into Q&A yet? 

You simply insert into your presentation a few rhetorical questions like ("why go down this road?") and reframing statements like ("the critical event happended in July  - let me tell you why"). All of a sudden, you're back on your home court as a communicator telling the audience a story. You sound better - your body relaxes - and we see and hear your authentic personality versus your presentation personality.

If you think it's too simple, consider this:

A veteran Wall Street research analyst talks about a U.S. company he covers.  In the morning, he presents from a research note (that he wrote) to a few hundred people "live" in a trading room.  That afternoon, he talks to a Bloomberg or CNBC reporter about the very same research (without a note) to a few million people "live" on TV from the same trading room.  As a communicator in the morning - he's not so good. Afternoon - he rocks. 

Same analyst.  What's the big difference? 

In the morning, he presented.  In the afternoon, he talked.  Don't wait for a reporter to show up and ask questions in the auditorium or room or office you're presenting in.

Create the conversation!  Talking wins. Presentation loses.

P.S.  See the five questions and one reframing statement in this blog post.  How conversatioal could you sound presenting this?

Women Rise Up

When we all saw Ann Romney and Michelle Obama and so many other successful women take the stage to speak at this year’s political conventions, it made me hopeful for my daughter in college.  Women are the majority gender in this country but have often taken a place backstage at these quadrennial party gatherings, rather than taking center stage as the headliners.

It wasn’t just the GOP candidate’s wife and the First Lady though.  We saw women cabinet secretaries (past and current), senators, representatives, governors, mayors and mothers and daughters.  All were as eloquent as their male counterparts – some even wiped the floor with their male colleagues in terms of speaking skill.  I don’t say that with surprise.  I say it in a sense of “what took us so long to see it?”

In my job, I have the privilege of coaching successful business people across title, culture, geography and gender.  For male and female clients, their speaking success is about projecting poise, presence and power on whatever stage they occupy. It’s all about connecting with their audiences intellectually, physically and emotionally.  It’s being an “all-in” speaker – communicating from your head, your heart and your gut.

We saw a lot of that “all-in” speaking at both conventions – even from women whose only official title is “mother”.  None did it better than Michelle Obama.  Here’s some of what I saw her do:

She used self-disclosure to bring us into her world
She wrapped her thoughts in shared human experience
She dressed her ideas in the audience’s everyday reality
She spoke with controlled passion in a conversational way
She stood up straight and projected physical strength
She built a human bridge to her audience’s heart

Whether their preferred role model is Ann Romney or Michelle Obama or Susana Martinez or Tammy Duckworth, young women and girls had a lot of great public examples to emulate on these nights.  They can start though by emulating their mother/heroes, as many of these women did.  Those mothers struggled, in their own way, to crack the glass ceiling of prejudice.

As a man and a father, I offer one piece of advice to all those daughters. Don’t keep cracking your head against the glass ceiling.  I'm told it hurts.

Save your heads – kick the door down instead.

Soon it will be two men up on stage at their party conventions – praising their dad/heroes – and their candidate/wives – and their brave daughters.

Private Equity Personality

Sunday January 22, David Rubinstein, the head of Carlyle Group was on Fareed Zakaria’s show Global Public Square on CNN. The Carlyle Group is one of the biggest private equity firms in the world.

The subject was private equity, in the context of the recent flogging of Mitt Romney over his salad days at Bain Capital. Whether you love or hate private equity – understand it or think it’s a mystery – Mr. Rubinstein presented a very cogent argument for why private equity makes sense as a business and even helps middle class people who co-invest alongside Mr. Rubinstein and his partners. Middle class people like teachers, policeman, and other union members can and do co-invest in private equity funds through their own pension funds. They seek the same superior returns that the Carlyle Group is seeking.

But this isn’t a post about private equity. It’s about connecting with people. Mitt Romney can’t do it. David Rubinstein can – but he didn’t – at least not on this show.

Mr. Rubinstein presented a collection of facts that assembled his argument for private equity as a good thing. It was rational, logical and well spoken but in my view it didn’t connect with his audience as well as it could have. It would have been great for a business school audience but that wasn’t who he was speaking to – he was speaking to the world.

He could have connected much better if he had woven his private equity story around his dad, a postal service worker in Baltimore who never made over $8,000 a year. He could have said that his father, a middle class worker, might have been one of his unseen partners at the Carlyle Group through a public worker pension fund. He mentioned his dad toward the end of the interview but too late to help much.

I’ve never met David Rubinstein but he’s a terrific talker. Go on You Tube and watch him talk to business school students at University of Maryland last year. He has a quick wit, great stories and owns his stage. He connects with people, regaling them with family stories about growing up middle class in Baltimore, the only child of two parents who never graduated high school. Humble roots for #139 on the Forbes 400 list.

He could have done that on CNN with Fareed and everyday people might have connected with his point and his person. Instead he came off a bit stiff and a touch Romney-like, delivering facts without feelings. He left his personality home.

Bottom line – when talking to real people about real things, be the real you.

Lead with Dad!

Try Stuff Out

Politicians like Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann and all the way back to JFK, Nixon, Truman, Lincoln and Washington had what is called a Stump Speech.

It’s a series of talks they give over and over on the road in a campaign. They adjust them as they go in all of the primaries and the election – a little tweak in Iowa; a subtle nuance in New Hampshire; a new flourish in Florida; and an extra pinch of passion in California – but it’s basically the same speech.

They even find signature lines along the way. Romney’s “opportunity society” or Obama’s “pass this bill”.

Try that as a leader. Pick small gatherings and try stuff out. Build your own library of repeatable messages about your company. It makes your life easier, not harder.

Politicians are run ragged on the road – so are you. Don’t be creative. Find messages that work and use them over and over and over.

Listen for Lunch

If you’re the Big Boss at your place, your HR team is likely to arrange small employee roundtables entitled Lunch with Larry or Dinner with Diana. Big Bosses often go to these occasions prepped to empty their gas tank of platitudes, pronouncements, progress and pitfalls for their business.

Switch things around.

Ask participants to come with their one best idea for the business, the company or the culture. Go round the table and ask each person to articulate their idea. Facilitate discussion. Weave the threads. Only talk if you follow up on something they said.

Ask one of them to recap the meeting. Then tell them what you think. If you can, pick out one or two ideas to go after in earnest. Enlist participants in giving their ideas life. If someone's idea doesn't get picked up this time, urge them to keep thinking.

It may be the best Big Boss roundtable they (and you) ever had.

Smooth the Seams

Watch the best conversationalists in your life or business. Can you see and hear the seams of their conversations or does it flow smoothly based on a mutual sharing of information with their counterparty? Usually they make it look effortless. It's not based on inborn ability. It's based on years of practice.

Too many times in business meetings we ask a question and respond immediately and abruptly with our next point. We either don’t follow up with a question to find out more or we don’t share our side of a similar story, observation, conclusion or experience. It’s like watching ping pong being played on the wrong kind of table.

Smooth the seams by drawing the other person out and then giving back. Follow your own curiosity until you reach a point of more natural transition. Relationships in life and business are built on sharing experiences. It helps us connect with people.

The Tuck Rule

Justin Tuck is a great defensive end for the New York Giants pro football team who has played with a variety of injuries all season. Before a victory against their rivals, the Jets, a sportswriter speculated that Tuck’s coach may have pulled him aside for a talk to remind him to watch his body language. As a leader, he could bring his teammates down if they see him slumping and looking defeated on the sidelines, no matter how he was feeling.

Justin came out with a different look and energy against the Jets and played a key role in leading his team to a much-needed win. I'm sure part of his success was a result of the improvement in his assorted injuries but part of the team's success was a result of getting their leader back.

Leaders are required to be actors at times. Followers feed off their positive or negative energy, especially in times of crisis. As a great salesman said, “people hear what they see”. Make sure your people see (and hear) what you want them to, especially in the big "must win" games in business.