TJ’s Insights

When you are looking for good speaking role models, it pays to listen to your friends. If you have colleagues and friends sending you a link to a video on youtube.com (the largest video file sharing site on the internet where you can watch TV clips for free), you should pay close attention to what was sent.

For many people, the job interview is the ultimate form of nerve-wracking “formal” presentation.

Here are some pointers.

Do:

• Show up a few minutes early.

• Finish your grooming before you enter the interview room

• Research the company’s web site thoroughly

• Ask intelligent questions that show your familiarity with the company and industry

• Give ideas on how you can make the company more money

• Give several interesting case studies that demonstrate your abilities.

• Give a sincere and specific compliment on one of the company’s products or services

All of my presentation training clients want control over their speeches. That’s understandable. I want control too; that’s a perfectly understandable desire.

The question comes down to this: what is the best way to get control?

For most people, the conclusion is to write out the speech word-for-word and then read it. This way, so the logic goes, every word can be just right, there will be no mistakes, the problem of blanking out is gone, and perfect control has been achieved.

Oh… if only that were the case.

Here are the problems with reading a speech for most people:

Love him or hate him, Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz is a leader in the world of law because of his outspokenness. While generally a liberal on most issues, Dershowitz isn’t afraid to publicly attack anyone who disagrees with him. This willingness to attack gets him lots of media attention. Now I’m not suggesting that simply attacking people randomly makes someone a leader. But real leaders are not afraid of offending people when standing up for their principles.

In September 2006 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised a book written by MIT Professor Noam Chomsky. This put Chomsky’s left-wing critique of US foreign policy on page one of the New York Times.

What do you do when a reporter asks you a tough question? And you are on live national TV?

This is a nightmare that keeps many people from ever going on TV. The solution is not to be a genius or to necessarily “think on your feet” better than others. The real solution for media masters is to re-write the question and turn it into an easy question. This is not the same thing as dodging a question.

For example, former President Bill Clinton appeared on “The Daily Show” in September 2006. Host Jon Stewart has a hot seat segment where guests know they must answer a really tough question or two.

Nothing feels as awkward as when someone turns to you at a meeting or conference and says “Jim, why don’t you standup and introduce yourself?” OK, one thing is worse; when you know in advance you will be expected to introduce yourself to an audience that doesn’t know anything about you.

Here are some 7 tips to keep in mind when you are introducing yourself to an audience that doesn’t know who you are:

1. Don’t give them your full bio—they don’t care about your life history.

Every speech or presentation needs a conclusion. If you are the speaker and you have a relatively short and well-defined time period for speaking, then you obviously need to do the conclusion yourself. However, if you are conducting a longer meeting with colleagues or doing any sort of training, workshop or seminar, you may want to consider NOT doing a conclusion yourself.

Whether it is “Queer eye for the Straight Guy” or a celebrity stylist show segment on “Oprah,” makeovers are popular these days. Everywhere in the media you see examples of people re-doing their image.

In my own presentation consulting business I often advise people on how to improve and re-do their image. The most dangerous of all image mWhether it is “Queer eye for the Straight Guy” or a celebrity stylist show segment on “Oprah,” makeovers are popular these days. Everywhere in the media you see examples of people re-doing their image.

The problem most executives have when it comes to writing their speeches isn’t that they don’t spend enough time writing and planning their speech. The real difficulty is that they wait until the last minute and then they try to write the speech from beginning to end—typically the night before the speech has to be delivered.

Many of these executives spend five or more hours on writing the speech—that’s a lot of time. The problem is that most people aren’t good at writing under pressure that way.

A September poll reported by MSNBC asked men and women what personal qualities had the greatest impact on career success. Of the top five qualities, men and women differed on the relative importance of intelligence, ability and looks. But the sexes were in total agreement on what they believed is the number one factor in determining personal career success: self-confidence.

I would contend that there are two faces to self-confidence, and both are tightly interlinked. One side of self-confidence is in the inner world: how do you really feel about yourself and your talents. I will leave it to psychologists, Dr. Phil and other self-help gurus to help people conquer their demons in this arena.