Who are these bad presenters?

In one of the thousands of books on Public Speaking, the author stated that 90% of all presentations, speeches, and meetings being held every day in North America are bad.  I don’t know about the accuracy of such a statistic; however, it might not be that far off. I know I have sat through hundreds of bad presentations.

The majority of Speakers (maybe 90%) think they are excellent speakers!  Clearly, there is a disconnect if most speakers think they are good and most audiences think the speaker is bad. Are you one of those?  How do you know?

I watch 2-3 speeches a day on the Internet and attend 10-15 per month.  I analyze every one through the eyes of an audience member, the speaker, and in context of the occasion.  There are many of excellent speakers out there; unfortunately, there are a lot of bad ones too.  I am not critical of the bad ones because as someone much smarter than me pointed out, all good speakers were bad speakers at one point.  The danger is being bad and thinking you are good. 

If so, how can you ever get better? In my observations, the disconnect is rooted in the following: often the speaker thinks that if he/she entertained, then he/she is good. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Just because the audience likes you doesn’t mean you communicated your message.  Maybe your style is entertaining; however, does the audience walk out of there knowing what you intended them to know?

Are you approaching Public Speaking as a Communication Event or a Performance? What does the occasion require?  If you didn’t ask those questions, you may be one of the bad presenters. The good news is you can be an excellent presenter, and not only in your own mind—really.

Focus on the Wood, not the fire

Are you looking to improve your public speaking skills? Public speaking is more than simply trying to look good in front of a live audience.  We approach it as a science in making the audience look good.

The principle is counter intuitive to many people and our competitors.  Many say they are audience focused; however, then they tell you how to “look good” and how they will “improve your performance.”  Using the metaphor of building a fire to warm yourself.  Do you put wood on the fire to make it bigger or do you hope and wait for the fire to get bigger, then throw more wood on it?

Focusing exclusively on the audience is throwing wood on the fire to make it bigger, focusing on your performance is looking for a big fire to throw wood on.

Even though there are tens of thousands of excellent presenters, most presentations are poor in terms of communicating a clear message.  I sit through hundreds of presentations a year and ask people around me about the presentation. 

I ask questions like, “Did you enjoy the presentation?”  

He or she mostly responds, “Yes, it was excellent and the presenter was excellent and fun to listen to.”  

I follow up with, “What single idea was most important to you, or what point will you take from this presentation and use in your work or private life?” 

This person almost always replies, “Oh, lots of things.  She was great, I’m glad I came here.”

 I press on, “Can you recall any one specific thing?”  

Commonly, they respond, “Oh there are so many things it’s hard to pick just one.

” 

I always back off at this point.  Clearly, the speaker entertained and left a nice impression, but, did not communicate his/her message.

Do I just find people who “don’t get it”?  I think not, it has happened too many time, thus I suspect the speaker. The point I am making is that most speakers, although great performers and very likable, do not start out with a clear message and thus the audience loves the speaker, yet did not benefit from a clear message or call for action. 

Could this be you?

Is it worth it to stay at a job you hate?

I was dining with a friend at a higher priced restaurant the other night; it was a celebratory birthday dinner.  We had reservations and were seated promptly.  The restaurant was jam packed, so when our waitress arrived at our table, she was obviously harried.  She proceeded to tell us that none of the other patrons had reservations, thus only 2 servers were working that night.  So, “they better be prepared to wait.” 

As soon as she walked away, my friend commented, “Now there is someone who needs a new job.”  Of course we all have those days, and having worked in retail for many years, I’ve had a few of them pop up myself.  But, it started an interesting conversation: how many people are hanging on to jobs they hate?  Do we need to be miserable in order to collect a paycheck, even in a slow economy?

Let’s be grateful

As I mentioned earlier, good manners and true professionalism seem to be occurring less and less.  However, upon further introspection, it came to mind just how many fantastic experiences I’ve had with customer service representatives. 

I often take my 90 year old mother grocery shopping.  She likes to go to a “bargain outlet” type store, where the prices are more affordable.  However, part of the “bargain” is that we bag our own groceries.  On this particular occasion it was raining cats and dogs, so I hurried outside to bring the car closer.  I ran back in, fully intending to bag her groceries, and much to my surprise, the checker had already bagged them!

She could have left them to pile up, but she didn’t.  She had no obligation to do this, but what a help she was!  My mom was so appreciate, and let it be known to the checker and thanked her for her kindness.  The checker glowed with her gracious treatment, and I could see how much a little bit of thankfulness meant to her.

It brings to mind the number of times that salespeople and customer service representatives go the extra mile without even a smile, much less a “thank you.”

As a few readers of our blog pointed out, often a checker is ignored altogether while the customer chats on the cell phone.  Sometimes the representative from the bank receives a good, old fashioned tongue lashing for something that is beyond his/her responsibilities, yet they handle the problem with no complaints. 

Many thanks should be given, but are not.  We might take a moment to thank all of the unsung heroes  who do stellar jobs and perhaps don’t hear words of gratitude frequently enough. 

Where have the manners gone?

Recently, I was at the grocery store and was unable to locate their preferred “savings” card.  I only had a few items, and asked the clerk if she’d mind using her number for this transaction.  She brusquely replied that it is impossible for her to do that.  I had actually been in the store 2 weeks prior, and another clerk used her number with a smile and a “no problem” attitude.  Now I was in a situation here- do I call her out on the lie?  Do I just buck up and not get the savings since I was one who misplaced my card?

The incident made me wonder what has been happening to professionalism & good manners lately.  A colleague of mine gave a workshop last month, and he was dissatisfied with his performance.  Now, his quality was still incredibly high, but not to his standards, so he graciously offered the company a refund, in the hopes that good relations be maintained.  Yet, to my astonishment, the decision maker took him to task by verbally, rudely, and angrily bashing him, his company, and his skill level before collecting any facts-an unwarranted emotional outburst.  The lack of professionalism & disrespect he received was unacceptable in my book.

So, let’s all take a deep breath, look our customer in the eye, and smile.  Yes, the smile can even be heard over the phone.  I’m certainly not suggesting that a firm answer & even sometimes a stern tone isn’t warranted.  I’m not even suggesting that the customer is always right. However, let’s get our point across while maintaining a modicum of civility & decency.  Bashing someone only reflects poorly on the one doing it. 

Are personality inventories valuable?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® (MBTI^®) instrument is a questionnaire designed to make Carl Jung’s ideas about psychological type useful in everyday life. It identifies a person’s four basic type preferences that combine into one of 16 different personality types. These results help you understand normal differences in the way people think, communicate, and interact—differences that can be the source of much misunderstanding.

On the MBTI notion, it is unethical to use the MBTI for the selection process or in promotion interviews and considerations.  It is unethical to make those type of judgments based on the instrument.  The MBTI is only used to help people understand the different communication/personality styles.  It does not tell people their type.  Everyone can be any type they want.  One of the best things is its assumption that all 16 types are good.  The types are strictly defined as "preferences." 

Many "mainstream" psychologists find faults with the instrument; however, they are the same ones promoting other instruments.  One of the knocks I have on the MBTI is in the area of Reliability and Validity.  Thousands of research projects give the instrument excellent standing on these two important aspects; however, I noticed most are done by the Publisher of the test, or someone the publisher financed, or the Association on Personality Type.  So, it could be a valid concern.  However, critics have not done studies with findings one way or the other, they simply point out the flaws.

Besides, if people can pick their type and it makes them feel good, what is really wrong with that?  I don't agree with some of the pop psychology out there today; however, if it makes people feel good, and they change their lives for the better, who am I to be critical?