How Speaking Gains Respect

In one of my recent sessions with a client who is the CEO of a large corporation, he shared with me an interesting perspective on what he had learned so far. He said that even though he had always been able to be "quick on his feet" in various business situations, he found that running meetings and speaking to his employees required a slightly different skill set. He said that it has been extremely beneficial to have an expert like myself to consult with for such meetings. He has found it helpful to learn how to keep things on track, keep the focus on his listeners and not himself, and to have an outside perspective on how what he says could be interpreted. 

More importantly he said, "At first I didn't know how beneficial this would be. But after hearing your feedback on certain areas I can see how crafting what I say and working on how I say it can make a big difference. I've been able to carry this over into our company's website and brochures. I see now that it's important to work on speaking skills because it makes me a better leader."

You Don't Need a Prescription for Stage Fright

Not too long ago at my Toastmasters club a fellow member gave an interesting speech about her daughter. Apparently her daughter has horrible stage fright and hates to speak in front of any size group. The only problem is...she's a lawyer! She has to speak in front of judges, juries, clients, and her partners. Her mother has been trying for years to get her to go to a Toastmasters meeting to help overcome her fear, but the daughter replies, "Don't worry. I have a pill for that." Apparently she shared her fear with her doctor and he gave her a prescription for a moderate tranquilizer. On the bottle it reads, "take one pill one hour before public speaking".

When I heard this, I was shocked. The fact that this poor woman's stage fright is so bad that she will take a sedative be speaking is sad. (And my I say I'm ashamed of the doctor who gave her the prescription.) Stage fright is curable, and it doesn't take a pill to cure it. There are many methods to overcome the panic that people feel before speaking. Feel free to read my articles on breathing and relaxation before a speech. Every case might be slightly different. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them on the blog or e-mail me personally. I look forward to hearing your stories.

Think Like an NFL Legend

Earlier today I watched "NFL Legends" on ABC. The program highlighted the careers of top quarterbacks Payton Manning, Brett Favre, and Tom Brady. It was very interesting to learn how each of them developed their skills and work ethic to lead their teams to multiple Super Bowl Championships. At the very end, Tom Brady said, "People always ask me which ring is my favorite, and I always answer 'the next one'".

That statement, "the next one", is powerful. This is how professional speakers should view their business. Your favorite speech should be the next one. This mentality means that you're hungry to be successful. You can't wait to share your message with the next audience. This mentality propels you into a forward motion. There's no need to beat yourself up about a speech that went bad, and there's no reason to sit and reminisce about that perfect speech to the perfect audience because you're too busy thinking about your next speech to your next audience. 

This "next one" mentality will speak volumes about your work ethic. Once you've enjoyed giving a great speech, you're right back to work (training, so to speak) for the next great speech. You will never be standing still waiting for the speech to come to you. You will consistently be on the top of your game. 

So if you're a professional speaker, are you focused on "the next one"?

Will You Ever Be Happy with Your Speech?

A few weeks back I attended the speech of one of my clients. We had been working on a 15 minute speech, everything from the content development to the delivery. Once he finished his speech, he came to me and asked, "So, how was it?" I could tell he was nervous about my response. He obviously was thinking about when he stumbled over his words for a brief moment, and when he moved too far away from the mic, and many other little things that went wrong. I told him he did great. Sure there may have been a few problems here and there, but he got a great audience response and right after a speech is no time to dissect the problems.

When you give your speech, you should immediately treat yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back, go out and get some ice cream, anything! But do not think about all the things that went wrong. No speech is perfect and you will never be 100% happy with your speech. You may get close, but something always could have been just a little bit better. Give yourself the time to be happy with your accomplishment. You can review it and do a postmortem the next day. 

Speeches are meant to be a work in progress. Timing can be perfected. Physicality can be improved upon. But the point is you did it! You were successful! No matter how many mistakes happen, if you get a positive audience reaction, you did a great job. Take joy in it. Then improve it tomorrow.

Who Should Be Your Best Friend

As a speaker, professional or not, there is one person that you want to make you best friend at any event you speak at. The tech people. Now, some of the audio and video technicians don't like the term "tech people/person/etc." Please know that I mean no disrespect in using this term. There are just so many titles that can be applies to this group of people: engineers, managers, specialists, support staff, etc. I use the term "tech" with all respect. 

This group of people can be your lifesaver in your next presentations. Durning my years in the theatre I know that the technical positions and duties can be the most difficult, frustrating, and very often overlooked. Trust me speakers, they hold much power in their hands. You want to be sure to get them on your good side, because if you treat them with respect, are friendly, and acknowledge the hard work and long hours they have put into creating a successful event, then they will bend over backwards to give you their absolute best and help you in any way they can if anything goes wrong. And trust me, something almost always goes wrong. 

Without them, the audience can't hear you. Without them, the audience can't see you. The technicians are the eyes and ears of the events. They know the in's and out's of the location, the event planners, and probably many of the speakers. Make them your best friend at any event. They can easily give you tips on "dead" areas of the stage (areas that make it difficult for the audience to hear you or see you). They can give you a heads up on if any of the other presenters tend to go over their time so you can make some last minute edits. They can give you added support that the event planner may not be able to. Your tech people can make your life much easier at your next event. Make them your best friend.

Educating the Jury

One of the most difficult challenges that a trial lawyer faces is having to educate the jury on a complicated issue without talking down to them. Trial lawyers know that the average education level of a jury is about high school. So if there are some complicated forensic issues or legal technicalities that pertinent to winning in the courtroom, you need to find a way to explain the issues and educate the jury with out talking down to them and insulting them. Because once they are insulted and don't like you, they share that opinion of the client and it's harder to get the verdict you're looking for. So how can you overcome this challenge? You need to be able to develop their CASE.

In your opening and closing statements (and you can even weave this into your cross examinations), you need to have at least one of these four elements: Comparison, Analogy, Story, and/or Example.

1.) See if you can compare the scenario to something similar. That way instead of thinking that the information is too complicated they'll have an easy comparison to which to reference.

2) An analogy will help when you don't have anything similar to use for the comparison. You may have to think a bit outside the box for this one, but an effective analogy can do wonders. Take the elements of you difficult subject (the source) and apply them to a to elements of a, seemingly, unrelated subject (the target). The relation between the source and target will stay in the jury's minds clearly and they won't be confused. When developing your analogy, be sure that you pick a target that have a sufficient amount of similarities and that the target is something fairly well known and understood.

3) A story can take you a long way. Please feel free to read the numerous blog entries on this site and articles I've written on effective storytelling at PresentingMatters.com. The techniques and skills can easily be applied in the courtroom.

4) Examples can be a mixture of comparisons and analogies. The term "for example" makes people pay attention. You can even pull different examples to make your point as well as find examples to use to show the contrast between your side and the opposition.

Developing a CASE is so often overlooked in the courtroom. Trial attorneys are inclined to simply pass on the facts, but the facts aren't good enough. If a subject is complicated and confusing to a jury, they need something to anchor it to so they can understand. When trial attorneys become effective communicators, then they are more likely to win over the jury and win their case (small pun intended).

Take a Note from the BIG Companies

We all know that stories are a crucial part to a successful speech or presentation. But have you ever thought about how stories could build morale, a sense of team, and camaraderie within your organization? 

Take a note from some big companies and see what their doing. One of my favorite companies is Dove. They, in the last year or so, have started the Campaign for Real Beauty (http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com). It is a wonderful program that helps promote good self-esteem in young women. In this campaign they ask women around the world for stories about women who helped them and were good role models. Insurance companies do this all the time in their commercials. They'll share a story about how they helped a person or family in a tough situation. Drug stores are now jumping on the bandwagon. Their commercials are filled with stories about how their employees go the extra mile to help their customers.

Each of these examples are about companies taking stories from their customers and using them to draw in new customers. What if you used a similar technique for your organization internally?

Ask for stories from your employees! They can be sent anonymously or not. But the possibilities and potential could be endless. 

• To promote good customer service, ask for stories on the topic and share successful customer service examples in meetings or in newsletters and memos. 
  
• For just a good laugh, ask for funny stories (company related or not) that could be put in the newsletter. What a great way to send the message that is a fun place to work.
• If you are trying to reach certain goals, ask for stories about accomplishing goals that you could use in your staff meetings.
• And you could even ask about general stories of success about the company that you could use for employee recruitment!

Use you imagination. These stories will make your employees feel like a part of a team. It doesn't matter is their the person on the front lines or the executive in the corner office, everyone could share stories. People could learn about each other, learn about the company, and learn about the standards you expect them to meet.  What a wonderful way to build morale and teamwork within your organization!