With your move from in-person business meetings to on-camera platforms, your adjustment is similar to the adjustment that Broadway actors make when moving from stage work to working on camera for TV and film: how to be convincing in a very different medium.
You know, for example, that every actor and spokesperson on a TV commercial has to project the qualities that are needed to sell ideas, products, and services through a television screen. And these are the same qualities that YOU need to project during your on-camera platforms during this time of business disruption.
Now, as a business leader, you’re on TV! So you need to LOOK the part and SOUND the part.
During this time of business disruption and working remotely, one of the most critical factors for successful leadership is the use of emotional intelligence. On-camera meetings require much more EQ than IQ. And that means projecting qualities that Increase Trust On Camera: confidence, clarity, candor, empathy, and openness.
You probably excel at projecting these qualities in person, but how do you project these qualities when people are looking at your image on a computer screen or mobile device?
Now, more than ever, business leaders need to remember what actors have known for decades: the camera never lies! It picks up every subtle nuance of your being.
It’s important to understand that working on camera is an unnatural experience for two reasons: (1) It’s a small medium, visually; highly focused and concentrated, and (2) It robs us of the advantage of human, kinetic energy that’s so important during in-person communication.
On camera, we need to compensate for the fact that we’ve lost the KINETIC factor.
As a business leader, you’ll want to do everything possible to help your viewers feel your personal, positive, and compelling energy — while they’re looking at you on a small screen!
When you use PowerPoint, are you actually diminishing your image as an expert – or even helping your audiences tune you out? If your answer may be YES, you need PowerPoint Presentation Tips for real speaking power.
Today’s VideoBlog gives you the solutions: PowerPoint Presentation Tips, Part 3. In previous blogs, I presented Tips #1 through 6.
Tip #7: At any point in your presentation where you plan to move close to your audience for dramatic effect, help focus audience attention by placing a black slide in your deck.
Tip #8: When you want to focus attention on yourself for a longer period of time, allow the screen to go completely dark. Use the “B” key for this.
Tip #9: Always make your final slide an image slide: this image should illustrate the inspirational closing that you will speak.
Finally, Tip #10: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Don’t make PowerPoint your higher power. Allow PowerPoint to support you, and not the other way around.
When you use these strategies with PowerPoint, you’ll project your own unique power. You’ll enhance your image as an expert and your listeners will quickly realize that they cannot afford to tune you out. You’ll have them on the edge of their seats!
Would you like to grab your business audience’s attention and keep them riveted to your presentations? Do what actors do: take stage! Inhabit the space with a “do or die” purpose and an attitude of complete belonging.
Your physical demeanor speaks volumes about you, and your business audience is sizing you up before you even say a word. Here are three basic strategies, to make your physical demeanor enhance your presence:
Whether you’re seated or standing, begin speaking with both feet planted firmly on the ground. Imagine that your legs are tree trunks and your feet are roots extending deep into the ground. This initial grounding helps you claim the space as your own and helps give weight to your subsequent movements. It helps you project confidence and authority.
If you’re standing, stand away from furniture and resist any temptation to lean for support. If someone offers you a podium, politely decline it, if you can. Whenever possible, you want to eliminate any physical barriers that could come between you and your audience. If you must use a podium, stand tall and don’t lean on it!
Whenever possible, give any handouts you may have after your presentation has ended, not before or during the presentation. When you give people material to read during your talk, you are inviting them to focus on a piece of paper and inviting them to ignore you. Giving your audience material to read also suggests the idea that they could just as effectively have read your content, and that they didn’t need to come hear you live and in person!
When you apply these strategies, you’ll be well on your way to taking stage; you will make your physical demeanor enhance your presence, and you will get buy-in faster.
During business conversations and presentations, would you like to reduce your filler words, to sound more authoritative and get buy-in faster? You can do it with a technique that actors use when they are preparing to speak extemporaneously.
You already know that filler words (um, uh, so, well, like, you know) rarely add meaning and are usually just a distraction for your listeners. And that they jeapardize your ability to project confidence and commitment. Reducing your use of fillers will help you enhance your credibility and your leadership presence. Borrow this practice technique that actors use:
Set a timer for increasing time periods of time, two or three minutes to start, and record yourself as you speak in extended sentences on a topic of your choice. Choose a business topic that you know well, something you enjoy speaking about (but not your elevator speech or a sales pitch).
As you speak into the recorder, imagine that each word that comes from your mouth is connected to the next one, which is connected to the next one, and so on: the way pearls are connected on a string of pearls. When you feel the urge to use a filler
Stop yourself
Pause
Say the filler silently to yourself
When the timer rings, play back the recording and notice your fillers. Then repeat the exercise, with new topics of your choice.
As you become comfortable with this exercise, increase the setting on the timer, perhaps starting at five or seven minutes. Then, continue the practice until you can speak extemporaneously on new topics of your choice for fifteen or twenty minutes straight, without the use of fillers.
I guarantee: when you practice this on a regular basis, you will find that, over time, you are decreasing the number of fillers that you use. You will sound more confident and more authoritative. And you’ll increase your ability to influence!
When you speak with clients and prospects, would you like to build trust faster? You can do this by projecting warmth and a spirit of caring with a technique that actors have been using successfully for decades. It’s called “Endowment”.
The Endowment technique involves the process of endowing your conversation partners and business audiences with qualities that will help you treat them in a way that builds trust. Rehearse with the Endowment technique with the notes that you have for any business talk. This will help you feel and project warmth spontaneously, even with challenging prospects and clients.
Here are three steps for rehearsing with the Endowment Technique:
Step 1: Think of a person from your life in whose presence you feel cared for, trusted, admired, and respected. This person might be male, female; any age; alive or not.
Step 2: Use the power of imagination before you begin rehearsing aloud. Choose a spot on the wall to place your focus, and in your mind’s eye, “see” that person, right there in front of you. Most importantly, take time to become flooded with positive feelings that you have about this person.
Step 3: As you speak your content aloud, imagine that the person is right there with you, and speak as if you were talking directly to that individual.
Rehearsing with the Endowment technique will have a very positive effect on the tone of voice that you use. The more you practice it, the easier it will be for you to project warmth and spirit of caring. Rehearse with the Endowment technique, and build trust faster.
Have you ever made a mistake during a business meeting or conversation: a big mistake that was obvious to everyone? You don’t have to lose face in situations like these. Here is a tip that will help you save face.
At one point or another, in your professional life, you may at one time or another, have dropped the balls. You said the most inappropriate thing or your spoken mistake that everyone noticed was a serious one. These situations present two choices for you. You can
1: Pretend that it didn’t happen: this is never advisable when you are sure that everyone noticed your mistake!
2: Accept that you dropped the balls and demonstrate humility.
Humility might be an instant and sincere apology. It might be self-deprecating humor. It might be that you allow others to see you try with your heart and soul to correctly your mistake and maybe even fail to correct it! Humility means that we accept our right relationship with nature and allow people to see our human-ness. Because human beings make mistakes and are sometimes wrong — and most everyone we do business with can identify with that.
Humility is a very importance ingredient in successful business speaking. It’s not a weakness. It’s actually strategic. It’s a quality that makes us approachable, more likeable, and more attractive to do business with.
Would you like your clients and prospects to believe that you will be a true business partner for them? You can help make this happen by sharpening your active listening skills. Active listening helps you project a spirit of good will and project your most positive, professional image.
Very often, it’s wise to listen as your conversation partners express themselves fully, before you present your own thoughts, opinions, and perceptions. People are more likely to agree when they feel that they themselves have been heard!
Here are three steps that will help you listen actively:
Step 1: Blend
Blending is any behavior that helps reduce the differences between you and your conversation partners. The goal is to increase rapport. As we speak, listeners are often subconsciously wondering “Are you with me, or against me?” — so building rapport is very important. Blending will help you do it. This means that you will mirror – and not mimic – your conversation partner’s tone, pacing, volume, facial expressions and posture. Give receptive signals: “Oh, yes, I see, I understand”, and use a lot of head nodding.
Step 2: Backtrack
The goal of backtracking is to show that you are listening and want to understand. When you backtrack, you repeat verbatim your conversation partner’s words. It is important not to paraphrase; use the exact words. This is particularly useful during business conversations on the phone.
Step 3: Clarify
Ask clarifying questions. Your goal is to gather as much information as possible and delay giving your own responses. Clarifying questions begin with the words “why”, “how”, and “tell me about…” There are three main benefits to backtracking: it shows that you are patient and supportive, it helps an unreasonable conversation partner behave more reasonably, and it helps reveal any hidden agendas that your conversation partners may have.
These three steps for active listening will help you project a spirit of good will and caring. Next time, I will share the final two steps to help you listen actively and make it easier for your clients and prospects to believe that you’ll be a true business partner for them!
Here is a strategy that will help you deepen trust and rapport with your business conversation partners: acknowledge positive intent.
Positive intent is the good purpose meant to be served by any communication or behavior. Always look for positive intent within others; give people the benefit of the doubt in situations that are difficult or have not turned out well, and especially when your conversation partners have caused a problem.
Take the following three steps:
Look for things to thank people for.
Verbally express appreciation for things that people have done well.
Acknowledge any information that people may have lacked, and promise to keep them better informed in the future, even if it’s not your job to do so.
Then say: “Thank you for (xyz)”. This is the point when you will mention the person’s positive intent. For example, if a person has been excessive in some way or overly-detailed, or has made errors, you might first say something like, “Thank you for your attention to detail.”
In some situations, unfortunately, it may be challenging to identify someone’s positive intent! If you truly cannot identify positive intent, make something up that is plausible. When you mention a positive intent that is plausible, it’s very unlikely that your conversation partners will deny that this was their intent. Most people want to be seen in the best light and appreciate the opportunity to save face.
In the moment when you’re identifying positive intent, blend. Blending is any communication or behavior that minimizes the differences between you and another person. This means that you will mirror (and not mimic) your conversation partner’s tone, tempo, volume, energy level, and body language. Give receptive signals, such as “oh, yes, I see, I understand, etc., and use lots of head nodding.
Verbally acknowledging positive intent will help you build trust and rapport and increase your success in business conversations.
In my last few blogs, I have described the value of applying acting objectives when you prepare to speak for business. Here are some additional benefits that you will experience when you use this technique. Pursuing acting objectives
#1: gives you laser-beam focus and simplifies the process, because it gives you just one thing to think about: what you are doing with your words as you speak
#2: galvanizes your energy toward your listeners; it’s the quickest and most powerful way to project energy, commitment, passion, and poise.
#3: provides a completely organic way to make your voice and physical demeanor support your content. It turns your voice, body language, and content into one seamless, unified message.
When you are speaking in business conversation or making a presentation, this gives you maximum power and delivers to your listeners maximum impact.
Would you like your business listeners to trust you more? Would your business improve if you could convince prospects that you will be a true business partner for them? Would you like to generate more new business and keep more the business you already have?
If you’re answer is YES, you won’t want to miss my exciting program called “Enhance Your Leadership Presence with Acting Improvisation.” You’ll learn how to enhance your leadership presence by using acting improvisation, storytelling techniques, and the “yes and” mindset to transform your communication skills. You’ll learn how to generate business by deepening interpersonal connections, speaking with authenticity, building trust, and engaging your listeners. And you’ll learn how to address the changing needs of your existing clients by expanding your creativity and spontaneity.
I describe this work as “serious fun”. You’ll be engaged in playful, interactive activities: acting improvisation, theater and imagination games, and mind, body, and voice techniques that will help you project a spirit of collaboration and convince your prospects that you can (and will) help them solve their business problems.
Let me tell you how acting improvisation will enhance your leadership presence:
#1: Whenever you speak for business, your listeners have one over-riding concern: they want to know what’s in it for them. Acting improvisation addresses this concern. Early in their training, actors learn that the audience is always asking the question, “Why are you telling me this?” Acting improvisation teaches that you must answer this question, and answer it in a way that is compelling for your listeners. This is a skill that every business leader needs! If you’re not answering this question in a way that is compelling for your listeners, you’re losing business.
#2: To generate new business and keep the business you already have, you need to engage your listeners. Acting improvisation teaches what a message is made of, what needs to happen; it teaches you how to discern when the beginning should be over, when your listeners have had enough of the middle, when it’s time to move on to the ending, and how long that should last, etc. Leaders who use this knowledge and the timing that it develops become truly engaging: become masters of engagement. And they have a measurable competitive edge!
You, too, can become a master of engagement. Acting improvisation will teach you how! Don’t miss the opportunity to experience this innovative program: you’ll take away powerful techniques to transform your leadership presence.
Discover how play will enhance the way you work. And get ready for some serious fun! I look forward to working with you.
