Be useful, not perfect

The moment you take your focus off of your audience, you lose. Our entire reason for being there, for having the microphone, for standing in front, is to educate and elevate our audience. We need to keep all of our energy there, on them. As soon as we start worrying about ourselves we are no longer focused on the audience.

Sure, you messed up your open. Yep, you probably misspelled something on the PowerPoint. And certainly you forgot a section you'd planned. So what? We aren't there to be perfect, we are there to be of use. To be important to those people in the audience.

Be useful, not perfect

Speaking Success is Business Success

Speaking success is business success. Think about it, we almost never see a successful business leader who isn't also an accomplished speaker. From Steve Jobs to Sir Richard Branson, Elon Musk to Sheryl Sandberg, the great leaders, the ones we enthusiastically follow, are almost all great speakers.

In 2004 at the Democratic National Convention a young man spoke for seventeen minutes, some 2200 words, and he changed the world. The day before almost no one had ever heard of Barak Obama, but the day after no one would ever stop talking about him.

Sheryl Sandberg told Harvard Business School class, “ . . . more than anything else, you’re going to need the ability to communicate authentically, to speak so that you inspire the people around you."

But this isn't about Obama. Or politics. This is about you. You and your ability communicate your ideas, inspire others, and change the world. Powerful leadership comes from knowing what matters to you. Powerful presentations come from expressing this effectively. It’s important to develop both. In the book, Leadership, a Communication Perspective, the researchers contend that a fundamental skill that every leader must possess is the ability to speak and inspire their teams. 

If you walk into Warren Buffett's office you'll see one certificate on the wall and that's his graduation from the Dale Carnegie public speaking course. Warren Buffett says taking that class in public speaking that was probably his best investment ever.

A number of years ago the Carnegie Institute of Technology came out with a study that showed 85% of your success in the next five years has to do with your ability to speak and communicate your ideas. 85%! That's means speaking is more important than your degree. More important than your contacts. More important than your title of your years in the business.

You'd be excused if you said, "That's not fair!" After all, you've worked hard to get your degree. You are proud of your title. And you think your contacts and years in the business are critical. And then someone has the audacity to come along and suggest public speaking and communicating ideas is more important than all of that! Ridiculous, right?

The Product Economy

Ah, but the world has changed. At one time we had an economy based on products. Remember growing up and all of the Tide and Drano commercials? What mattered was creating an okay product and endlessly advertising it to okay masses of okay people. If enough of these mediocre people bought your mediocre product that you manufactured cheaply enough you would win.

The Consumer Economy

Then we had a consumer economy, and the way to win in a consumer economy was to know and understand your consumer better than anyone and create products tailored to exactly their needs and desires. Now we weren't making and marketing to everyone, we were making and marketing to a precise segment. This led to an endless versioning of every product to more and more narrow segments. Think of Clinique for men.

The Connection Economy

Now we have an endless supply of highly differentiated products made for and marketed directly to us. Now what? In a sea of also-ran products from everyone-is-the-same manufacturers, we desire connections.

On October 17th, 1961 at the Danforth Train station east of London an 18-year-old Mick Jagger stood waiting for the train when 17-year-old Keith Richards approached him carrying a guitar. In Jagger's hands were two blues record, Muddy Waters and Chucky Berry. They realized they were both budding musicians and they both loved American Blues music. They formed a connection that led to the Rolling Stones which led to the blues being transformed into rock and roll music which led to the British Rock Invasion.

That's the way connections happen. You say, "I believe American Blues music is the greatest music in the history of the world," and I tell you I agree. We become connected through this shared belief. Or it may be books, or movies, or religion. When you start a conversation with, "I believe..." other people who share that belief become connected to you.

The Connection Economy for Businesses
Roy Spence, an advertising leader and author of, It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For, Spence explains the unique beliefs behind many of the one-of-a-kind organizations he has studied or worked with over the years, from BMW to Whole Foods Market to Southwest Airlines. Sure, these and other organizations are built around strong business models, stellar products and services, and (of course) clever advertising. But Spence is adamant that behind every great company is an authentic sense of purpose — “a definitive statement about the difference you are trying to make in the world” — and a workplace with the “energy and vitality” to bring that purpose to life.

Start with your WHY

It is your belief. Your purpose. Your "Why". Apple says they believe that anyone should have access to beautiful, easy-to-use tools to create music or movies or photography, or whatever they want. Southwest Airlines believes in 'democratization of air travel.' Harley-Davidson believes we all have a bit of an outlaw in all of us and they build the tools for us to express it.

What we are talking about is your Why. Author and speaker Simon Sinek has one of the most watched Ted Talks where he talks about finding your Why. 

Speaking Success is Business Success

Clarity Matters

As I was working with a doctor on his presentation to a national audience, he suddenly stopped. "Not to be critical, but this process seems like we are dumbing the content down. I am a skilled physician." Of course, he's right. Not only is he a doctor, he owns two successful businesses and he has an engineering degree. Nonetheless, I persisted in reducing the language to simpler terms and the sentences to less complex straightforward forms. Clarity matters even for the wisest of us. 

After all, for an idea to catch fire it has to be simple. E=MC2. I have a dream. Give me liberty or give me death. Clear communication isn't optional just because you are smart. Spoken communication can be hard to follow. In written form,  we can follow run on sentences and less-than-perfect wording. After all, if we get lost we can just go back and re-read what we missed. But in a speech, we don't have that luxury. We either get it the first time or we get lost. And if your audience gets lost they are no longer engaged. Complex thoughts are hard to follow and even harder to recall later. Clarity matters. Simple, clear ideas have the potential to change the world. 

Clarity Matters

Parenthetical Praise

We've all been there. The speaker mounts the stage and begins with a litany of thanks. "Thank you to Jessica for putting this together. And Tom. Tom Masters is a whiz at events like these. Thanks, Tom. And of course your CEO Dan Gaithers. Dan has been a friend of mine for twenty years and he's one of the best."

What's wrong with that? Everything. Remember you have six seconds to grab the attention of the audience. If you spend the first four minutes thanking everyone in the country your audience rightly checks out and goes back to staring at their phones.

The first four minutes of your presentation must make clear:

1. You are focused on them, and..
2. You have specific and meaningful information they can use.

This is not the Academy Awards. You've been asked to speak presumably because people think you have information that will help the audience. Get to it. 

"But, Daniel," one CEO asked, "Don't I need to say something nice about the people who've invited me?" 

The short answer is no, at least not in the beginning. If you feel you must thank the people who invited you bury that praise inside your presentation, don't use it as the lead. 

In most of my presentations there is a natural place to praise the event organizer and another place to praise whoever is paying the bills. So I might be on a section about communication and comment how the event coordinator is superbly skilled as a communicator.  And speaking of leadership I might say, "Your CEO, Dan Gaithers, has long been admired in this industry for his leadership. I am proud to call him a friend and I'm humbled he has asked me to speak today." 

This is what Winston Churchill referred to ask "Parenthetical Praise." It seems more natural and less forced when it's embedded in the body of you text.

And besides, if every other person you see speak begins their presentation with four paragraphs of thanking everyone when you fail to do so you will stand out. There is no upside to trite, cliched, predictable speeches. Be brave. Be bold. Bury your thanks inside your presentation.

Parenthetical Praise

Be a "learn-it-all" student, not a "know-it-all" expert.

Referring to yourself as an 'expert' in any field assumes the position that you have reached your fullest potential. It implies you have attained a thrilling pinnacle in your career and that your thirst for knowledge in a particular subject has been quenched.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella suggests instead of a know-it-all expert, we should consider being a learn-it-all student. That involves rapid testing of hypothesis, trying out new things, keeping those that work and moving beyond those that don't.

The brightest people in the world keep the humility of the student mindset. They listen and deploy new ideas rapidly and quickly discard past ideas when they are no longer working.

Be a "learn-it-all" student, not a "know-it-all" expert.

Avoid industry terms and jargon

There it was again. That word; "peeds". This time however the good doctor looked up from her notes and surveyed the crowd. "I feel like I've lost you," she confessed. Twenty plus well dressed business men and women looked back at her. Finally a weak voice rose from the back, "I don't know what this word you keep saying is....peeds." For nearly 35 years the doctor had worked in pediatrics and the commonly used term inside the hospital is shortened to "peeds." This group of non-medical folks got lost when she used the term.

All of us have industry-specific terms we use...within that industry. But when we find ourselves trying to communicate to people from other walks of life our industry jargon can get in the way. My first day in television I was awash in TV slang, vo-sots, V.O. bites and nat sound. I spent the first week confused and certain I would never get it.

To avoid this inside jargon read your speech to someone outside of your industry. Ask them to make a note of anything they don't completely understand. In this case your spouse may not work inasmuch as they may have heard your industry jargon enough that they can follow along.

Rid your presentation of every word or phrase that won't be clear to absolutely everyone in the audience. But if you feel you must use a word or term, follow it up with the phrase, "...which means..." So, for instance you might say, "these foods are high on the glycemic index...which means....they will likely raise your blood sugar."

Avoid industry terms and jargon

The "High B Student Challenge"

The "High B Student Challenge" is named for my friend, Renee Akins. We finished a complex video series extending over several days and covering a wide series of topics. We were exhausted.

Sitting in the dining area enjoying a much-deserved glass of wine, Renee noted that she'd forgotten a significant chunk of content. How is that possible, I asked, did you rehearse that? No she said with a chuckle, I never rehearse anything.

Renee confessed that since she was a little girl she found she was bright enough that she'd get a high B easily without any effort. She knew she could get a solid A with effort, but the high B was so easy that is was hard for her to justify the extra effort.

I have two students right now who are at risk for being High B Students. Both are very good speakers and with little effort turn in a serviceable performance. My challenge is to get them engaged enough that they will put in the time to shine. Meanwhile another two students started off as terrible speakers. They lost their places, spoke too quietly and rarely made eye contact. But they are driven and over time they've dramatically improved their performance.

The "High B Student Challenge"