Great Speaking Coach

Authentic Leadership Speaking

"You'll know it when you see it" is a common sentiment when you're trying to describe something that is not clearly defined or concrete. You have a sense of what "it" is and you certainly know when you're not seeing it.

That's what authenticity is--something you know when you see it. You intuit authenticity from a person's body language as well as their spoken words. You see it in their eyes, gestures and voice. Authenticity makes you believe and generates confidence in the person. You just know that what they are saying is true.

Authenticity is the most important ingredient is business speaking and presenting. You can have serious facts, numbers and logical reasoning and still not be perceived as authentic.  Your business-speak and strings of multi-syllable words that no one uses in ordinary conversation are not authentic. The slide show in center stage that turns out to be nothing more than some graphic and marketing departments' work is not authentic.

Authenticity is the heart to go with the head. 

Tell well-crafted storiesthat are selected to perfectly lead to your key points. Show your audience how you've overcome challenges and crises or mistakes and bad decisions through well-told springboard stories. Communicate your values and brand promises through stories about experiences you had that made you slap yourself upside the head with sudden and stark understanding. Inspire your audience with a future story that transports them from their seats to high and desirable goals.

Speakonomics! Four Little Words You Must Know to Make More Money

Listen to the

• 3 Sales Presentations Traps to Avoid
• 7 Quick Tips to Prevent Death by Power Point
• 4 Powerful Leading Materials

in my interview with Comcast's Rebecca Lamperski. It's 17 minutes of proven sales presentations tips you can use in your very next sales call.

Speakonomics_Sales Drive

Add your favorite tips for great sales presentations through our comment link.

Speaking--Starting Your Speech

CEOs, managers, sales speakers and technology experts agree that getting started is the most challenging part of preparing for a business speech or presentation. "What do I say first?" is the most frequently asked question when I begin coaching a client.

The answer is quite simple: put the word "you" (as in the audience) in the first sentence. The only exception is the phrase "thank you for having me here." That is not about the audience.

Some suggested opening lines:

• Have you ever imagined...?
• What happened when you...?
• What would happen if you...?
• You should have been there when...

What follows one of these is related to the audiences' need or interest or goal or desire. Show them with your words and your body language that you are there for them. Doing this immediately answers their unspoken but ever-present question "what's in it for me?"

A client recently commented that after years of following what he had thought were absolute rules, he realized that they were customs and habits--not actually hard and fast rules that had to be followed. And that was a huge relief to him! He was now free to be creative and interesting, and to focus on his connection with the audience. He discovered that speaking was a joyful and fulfilling opportunity rather than a boring duty.

How are you going to free yourself from customs that force you to struggle with your opening lines? Share your ideas through our comment link.

Avoid Being Leader in Name Only

One guy is in charge. That means he gathered the individuals on the team, organized the schedule and lobbied the executive suite for a reasonable budget. Yet three weeks into the project there is little actual progress towards the goal of a proposal and presentation that will win the contract. Why?

The guy in charge is not leading, he is doing. He wrote 36 slides from a vision that exists only in his head. Then he used up three hours to show us the slides and tell us his thought processes. A week later he sent a revised deck that still had most of the slides we all disliked--and that we agreed to ditch.

Leadership starts with setting out a clear path for the group and facilitating a conversation about the way to reach the goal. It is big picture discussions that may take a while--which is time and money well spent. Then the leader passes the plan to expert "do-ers"--in this case, people with expertise taking concepts and ideas and creating visuals that reflect those ideas.

Leadership is more about letting others do the work than anything else. The leader serves as a resource for the implementers. The leader is a sounding board, a devil's advocate, a guardian of the eventual goal. When leaders get into the doing, they lose the big picture and vision and then have no way to provide leadership.

The next time you're offered or assigned a leadership role, be sure you understand what it means and that others also understand it exactly the same way. Leaders who do become ineffective at leading, and the group or team loses its way, often at great expense and disappointment.

How do you define leadership? Share your ideas through our comment link.

Leadership-What's Your Mission?

Blah, blah, blah--that's my reaction to most of the corporate mission statements I read or hear. They are typically a carefully parsed set of words that you cannot sink your teeth into. Really, what does this mean: "Saving people money so they can live better"(WalMart)? Or this one: "Help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential"(Microsoft)?

These mission statements are so broad and vague that they give no specific direction and no particular goal to strive towards. What should an employee at Wal Mart do every day to help people live better? Smile, stack clothing more neatly, force vendors to lower their prices?

What event or occurrence would show a Microsoft employee that he or she has helped a person or business realize their full potential?

Fast Company columnist Nancy Lublin writes that mission statements should articulate real targets. "Here is my challenge: Write a mission statement with a goal that's an action, not a sentiment; that is quantifiable, not nebulous."

When you as leader (CEO, key exec, manager or business owner) need to inspire and motivate people, how do you do it? Do you repeat these fuzzy mission statements? Or do you encourage people by showing them ways to make a concrete goal come true? Amazon's mission statement for Kindle is: "Every book ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds." Each person knows how to contribute to achieving the mission--identify new books, new languages and all the support required to make those books available in less than 60 seconds.

Great stories of intrepid researchers, all-nighters spent finalizing translations, time-zone obstacles overcome; statistics comparing Kindle's library to the greatest book libraries in the world;the triumph of getting permission from a desired source--of these contribute to inspiring the staff to work towards the goal.

What mission statement do you speak about and how meaningful is it? Share your best and worst mission statements through our comment link.

Speaking of Customer Service

Customer service is always a high priority, right? What company would consciously make an effort to be known for poor customer service?

You know as well as I that customer service is often lip service. The actual representatives you deal with go through the motions--their scripts for handling questions, complaints and requests. It's as if there is "no there there." And when things get sticky they fall back "I am sorry I can't do more but this is our policy."

Of course it is, and it's not the fault of the customer service rep, who most likely has faced the stick of enforcement--that's what "recording for quality purposes" is all about.

I had a most unusual customer experience this week from a most unexpected source and it's made me think about leadership's role in customer service.

I stopped at the cashier's booth at the airport and the cashier read my license plate. It reads "LVJOEY." She asked me if my name is Joey, and I told her that is my horse's name and that LV stand for love. She smiled and asked me if I live on a farm. When I said Joey lives on a farm but I live in town she asked me who takes care of him. I told her briefly about my trainer who owns the farm and helps Joey and I learn to compete.

With a huge smile she said "have a good evening dear."

How many of you have exchanged more than two words with a cashier? And how many have shared just a tiny bit of your humanity with a cashier? And just in case you think this is a waste of time, I can tell you that this conversation took place in just the minute or less than it took for her machine to process my credit card, for me to sign it, and for her to open the gate.

I know that this woman stepped out of her invisible role and we connected. Maybe she learned this from customer service training and maybe that's just her--curious and conversational to alleviate the tedium of processing parking fees all day.

What if more customer service training emphasized becoming more visible? You as a leader could insist upon this, and serve as a role model by inviting your customer service reps and other "invisible" people to speak with you.

Leadership roles are powerful--everyone models themselves after you whether or not you tell them too. Be a welcoming leader and speak with the typically invisible people in your company. Your company's clients will enjoy the difference and you're likely to have fewer problems and make more money.

Leadership-Learning in the Job

I've been learning that being proud of my leadership style can be counter-productive. I also learned that effective leadership includes not letting pride stand in the way of making changes.

The board of directors of my National Speakers Association Chapter (NSA-DC) is comprised of volunteers (I am also a volunteer). They are all busy keeping their businesses growing. So when they or others step forward to fill a need I assume that they will do as they say they will do.

If some time goes by and there's no movement, I will gently ask again. After some additional time I will considerately remind them again. When I have to remind them the third time, I will be more forceful. And then I will suggest that it would be better if I found a replacement.

By this time, several months could have gone by and the organization has been without this service.

My lesson? While I pride myself on being understanding and respectful I've been perceived as too patient and tolerant--and even a bit weak. "Oh, Susan won't get mad at me" or "You know Susan, she's always willing to wait. I'll get to it or not and she won't really care."

The people who count you as their leader need to believe that respect and expectations go together. I can respectfully question someone's volunteering. I can respectfully question someone's lack of actions. I can respectfully replace one person with another who is going to get the job done.

How do you respond to the challenge of being a respectful yet forceful leader?

Values--Making the Tough and Correct Decision

How seriously have you been challenged to make decisions that reflect your company's values, rather than decisions that are convenient, expedient or in the best interests of the shareholders?

Bill Hawkins, CEO of Medtronics, tells his story and he serves as a powerful reminder of what true leadership is all about. Read it in Bill's own words: (Thanks to BNET.com)

"It’s important to understand the culture at Medtronic and how it influences how we think. Our founder wrote in 1960 that the purpose of our company is to “alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.” I am not being coy when I say that I take this very personally and that our company is strongly influenced by this sense of mission. During the course of our Fidelis discussions, not once did we talk about what might happen to the stock price or market share if we suspended distribution. The conversation was about our responsibility to do the right thing."

"On Monday we went live. I made the announcement, and then I flew straight to a board meeting. It was clear that this was going to have a dramatic impact. The board supported me. They told me that for a new CEO, there was no better way to show what you are about than a decision like this."

 

It’s been tough, but there is no question that we made the right decision. Even though we took a significant financial hit and lost four or five points of market share, people appreciate that we did the right thing, that we were transparent and responsible. It is not easy to give bad news, and I think people respect us for having the courage to share with them as we did. Honestly, I don’t think we would have done anything differently."

 

You can read the whole story at

http://www.bnet.com/2403-13058_23-348863.html

 

Bill Hawkins made this tough decision and it can be used for several different story types:

• Who I am as an individual
• Our company values
• a Springboard story

What difficult decisions have you made and how do use them in your speaking?

Leadership Speakers - Live Your Company Values

I've been thinking a lot about company values. Values are the bedrock, the foundation, the underlying commitments that your company lives by, day in and day out, no matter the economy, no matter the challenges, and no matter whether anyone will see if you violate them. They simply do not change as circumstances change.

I shined a laser-like beam on my own company values many years ago. My first thoughts in response to an unhappy customer was "we sell thousands of fantastic chicken salad sandwiches a year. Why are you making such a fuss over one that wasn't perfect?"

My second thought was "for this customer, the less-than-perfect chicken salad sandwich was the only sandwich that mattered to her."

So I articulated my bedrock company value, which is still the same, even though I sell services of an entirely different sort now: every speech, workshop, consulting, or coaching service I provide is the only one for that customer and it must be the very best. I do not take anything "off the shelf" for any client.

What is one of your company's values? Write it down, think about it at length, and then speak about it regularly. And above all, live it day in and day out, even when no one is watching.

If you want credibility as a leader, you will achieve it by speaking about and living your company's values.

Leadership Speaks--3 Tips to Make Them Listen

Leaders--all you CEOs, presidents, key execs, managers, supervisors, board members--are given some credibility by virtue of your title and position. Yet you can lose that credibility in just a few moments if you forget to consider the audience.

By considering the audience I mean that you must remember that everyone who is listening to you is a human being with the attributes of all human beings. Your position or title will not override these human attributes for very long.

These three tips will help you engage your audiences and enhance your credibility.

1. Put the word "you"--as in the audience--in your first sentence. "I" is too self-centered and immediately makes the listener ask "what about me?" or think "who cares about you?" The word "we" is wishy-washy and everyone believes it is actually a substitute for "I."
2. Use conversational language. Sentence after sentence of jargon or business-speak turns people off, rather than impressing them.
3. Deliberately incorporate ideas and thoughts that tap into the listeners' emotions. Human beings are not all logic, facts, statistics and processes. They crave emotional touches and will pay more attention to the "hard" stuff when they have regular doses of the "soft" stuff.

Leadership speaking will be powerful and meaningful if you remember the human traits of the people in your audiences.