And the big winner was…Fox News. I’ve watched every Presidential debate since 1976 and I don’t remember any one that was conducted as skillfully by the questioners as this one. Brit Hume, Chris Wallace and Wendell Goler were tough, thorough, probing, fair, funny, and light on their feet. Perfectly nuanced, they didn’t showboat but they did interrupt and politely point out when the politicians failed to answer questions.
Archive for May, 2007
Highlights from the Republican Presidential Debate
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007Are You Putting Your Audience to Sleep? Sam Donaldson says Barack Obama does!
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007On May 12, 2007, Senator Barack Obama gave a speech to 3,000 people in Kansas City. Unfortunately for Obama, 2 people out of the 3000 were sleeping through his speech and were caught on video. Of course Sam Donaldson had to make a big deal out of it the next day on ABC’s “This Week†news program.
Click Here to see a photo of the sleeping audience members, courtesy of the Drudge Report.com
Do the two sleeping members of the audience spell doom for Obama’s presidential prospects? Of course not. Obama might not become president, but he is often a great public speaker.
Test Your Public Speaking Skills
Monday, May 14th, 2007
Are you looking for a sure-fire way to test your speech for its effectiveness?
Conduct a movie test. Here’s how.
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1. Record your speech into an audio device.
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2. Play back the audio.
3. Write down every image that comes to mind as if you were a movie director blocking out scene after scene from a movie.
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4. After you are through listening to the speech, look at your paper. If you don’t have pages and pages of notes filled with images for scenes, you are in big trouble.
The number one problem all speakers have (after data-dumping) is that their speeches are too abstract and general. The problem with abstraction is not that audiences won’t understand you. The difficulty is that people don’t remember abstract ideas from speakers. The answer is to make your abstract messages concrete by giving examples, case studies, anecdotes and stories. When you provide these, your audience can provide the images to the movie in their own brain as you give your speech.
10 Presentation Tips to Keep Your Audience Awake
Friday, May 11th, 2007
In life, we all get in ruts from time to time. We coast; it’s only human nature. But too often speakers end up coasting through speeches and audiences end up coasting through their listening responsibilities during a speech.
Is your audience coasting? Do they have glazed looks in their eyes? Are they shifting in their seats? Are they expressionless? Are they craving an afternoon nap?
Sometimes you have to break the mode and get them out of their coasting. Here are ten specific tips:
Corporate Communication: Confronting Your Boss
Thursday, May 10th, 2007According to a survey of 1,500 retired British people (as reported by the May 2007 Men’s Health Magazine) 33% of people have a lifelong regret that they never stood up to their boss. Comparatively, only 21% of people regretted marrying the wrong person.
To me, that’s amazing! I would have thought more people would have regretted their martial choice. But what is truly bizarre is going through life wanting to standup to the boss and not doing so. I’m not talking about beating up the boss or throwing a computer through a glass conference room wall. To me, standing up to a boss simply means confidently and authoritatively stating your positions that are counter to your boss’s.
Speaking Skills: How to Make Your Employees Better Speakers
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
“Why is everyone a horrible presenter in my organization except for me?â€
That’s a question I get quite frequently from CEOs and bosses. My answer?
“It’s your own darn fault!â€
Here’s why. Many bosses intimidate their employees. Therefore the employees create data-filled PowerPoint slides cram-packed with numbers, facts and complex graphics. The employees’ sole objective is to avoid criticism for being “unprepared.†In order to cram as much data in the presentation as possible, the employee presenter removes all examples, anecdotes, stories and, for that matter, anything remotely interesting from the presentation.
Media Skills: How does the Media Identify You?
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
(Watch TJ’s appearance on The Fox News Channel)
The surest way to be disappointed by the news media is to give them your whole biography and then expect them to identify you the way you had hoped. Each type of media interview requires a special version of your bio.
For example, if you are going to be a guest on an hour long talk radio show or half hour public affairs TV show, you can create a 20-30 second bio for your interviewer to use. This is still short, but it can go a few sentences.
Rosenthal Study: The Speaking Power of Optimism
Monday, May 7th, 2007
I have often preached to clients about the power of positive speaking. I don’t mean that people should sugar-coat ideas or simply pander to audiences. But any subject, even war, needs to have positive solutions discussed. Otherwise you are just carping.
Now there is new research from the University of Pennsylvania to back this claim. A study led by Professor Andrew Rosenthal (as reporter in the May 1, 2007 New York Times) tracked the level of optimism among major US Presidential candidates who have run since 1900. The researchers analyzed numerous comments from major candidates and then rated their level of optimism in terms of how they characterized problems.
2007 Republican Presidential Debate Analysis
Friday, May 4th, 2007Here are my picks from best to worst.
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney won this debate by every objective standard of style and substance. First, the style: At 6’ 2†tall with perfect hair and
impeccable tailoring, Romney was Ronald Reagan incarnate. Romney was George Clooney/George Hamilton cool (complete with the tan) surrounded by a dorm-room full of average dudes. Whether it was Romany’s genial laugh, his upbeat persona, his non-arrogant confidence, or his complete mastery of head, body and hand motion, he couldn’t have been more at ease if he were attending a backyard family barbeque.
Media Skills: How to Take Bad News Off the Front Page
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007Governor Jon Corzine, the Democrat of New Jersey, was in a near fatal car accident in the spring of 2007 when his state car collided with another automobile on a New Jersey Highway. Corzine’s car was traveling 91 miles per hour and he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
So in addition to suffering the pain of having broken half the bones in his body and losing half of his blood, Corzine also faced the political pain of critics demanding that he be punished for speeding and not wearing a set belt. Here’s where Corzine operated smoothly. Instead of waiting for the pressure to mount from his critics, he beat them to the punch. On May 1, 2007 Corzine requested and received a citation and small fine for not wearing a seat belt.