Archive for the ‘Speaking Style’ Category
Winning over executives: what to expect
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
Getting ready to present to top line people? Are you doing the “usual” — amassing a large number of slides, back-up slides, and data points just in case you get asked a hard question? Okay, not bad, but please know this — you won’t get all the time you had expected AND you had better be concise. If they promised you 30 minutes to speak to the board, expect 10 to 15 at the most. Prepare for 2 minutes. Don’t laugh! If you expect to have no time at all and to have an impatient audience, you will be the most “ready” you have ever been in your life!
Posted in Career Advancement, Presentation Skills, Speaking Style | No Comments »
When “Smart” Isn’t Good Enough
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
College teaches technical professionals that being the smartest will take you far. They are finding that being smart is not good enough. The new rules of big business show two *social* requirements — be politically smart and be tough. Communications at even the glossiest Fortune 100 companies are brutally tough at almost all levels. Polite requests are replaced with terse email messages. Phone calls and face to face conversations have been replaced by instant messaging. Is it efficient? Of course, at least superficially. But does it make people feel attached to a company, manager, or team? Very very little. If you are a leader, don’t risk losing your “A” players due to failed communications. And you “A” players out there? Don’t depend on your high intelligence to guarantee an “A” (exceeds expectations) rating in your performance appraisal. Work your social intelligence as much as your technical intelligence. It’s not all that time-consuming or difficult. After all, haven’t you succeeded at everything you’ve tried?
Tags: beating competition for top spots, being smart, getting along at work, update methods
Posted in Career Advancement, Influencing, Speaking Style | No Comments »
The Q Factor: Angelina Jolie
Sunday, December 19th, 2010
Angelina Jolie has another movie out, and with her every movie, interview, and photo, she is mesmerizing. How? Why? Obviously, she is a beautiful woman. There are many beautiful women in the public eye, and yet she stands out. One reason might be what my associate and favorite colleague, Allan Carlsen, instructor in theater at the University of Delaware, calls the “Q factor.” In the performing arts, this factor means how simply interesting, appealing and watchable a person is. From our field, we might describe her Q factor as relating to Angelina’s additional ability to convey warmth, intelligence, and confidence as well as her ability to communicate clearly, diplomatically, and at a principled, philosophical level in a warm, low, resonant voice. That she is known for good works also helps. So beyond beautiful is the Q factor, and you don’t have to be beautiful to have it. Take a look at our course on Presence to get help finding your Q.
Tags: Presence, speech pattern, UK US differences in speaking style, voice
Posted in Interviewing Skills, Presence, Speaking Style, Speech and Voice | No Comments »
Great speaker = winner
Sunday, October 31st, 2010
The Financial Times published a letter that quotes Richard Critchfield in Among the English as saying, “This society has since Elizabethan times rewarded almost extravagantly the articulate, the eloquent, the witty, the masters of words, and repartee.” See www.ft.com. Still true? YES. Being “articulate” as become more than a compliment. It succeeds more than facts or logic.
Don’t give up on trying to be more articulate. Now here’s a surprise: to be more articulate, just try talking about 10% slower. This gives your brain a chance to find your best words and to edit your speech before you say something. Try it.
You may not need to be articulate to do your daily activities or to run for office, but it will let you win when interviewing for a job or persuading a customer to buy your service, right?
Speak to you later.
Tags: being articulate, interviewing, slowing down
Posted in Career Advancement, Interviewing Skills, Presence, Speaking Style, self-direction and control | No Comments »
Gen X, Y, Millenials, Boomers, etc.
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
I recently had yet another awkward moment in coaching: telling a very bright and accomplished twenty-something that she can’t talk that way and get ahead in a large company. Her Ph.D. coupled with clear insights in business couldn’t overcome her twenty-something speech pattern — voice going up at the ends of her sentences, casual language patterns, coy head tilt while explaining complex pharmacological data, among other things. To her manager she sounded unsure and immature, and that had to change because she speaks almost constantly with C-suite executives. The sound of her generation sure was different from her fifty-something boss’s and HR manager’s way of talking. Born in the 1980’s? Sounds like: questions at the ends of statements and a gravelly end as well. When that is the way your generation speaks, you just don’t hear it. The fifty-somethings speak in a more ponderously downward shifting way. Maybe in a few decades none of this will be important. For now, if you speak in ways your management respects, you can get ahead. Contact me for audio examples of speaking styles described in this blog.
Tags: Gen X, Gen Y, Millenials, speech pattern, voice
Posted in Speaking Style | No Comments »
Gotcha!
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Some people tell me that they like to analyze for gaps in others’ work. They’re great at finding “what’s missing” in data, quality, scope, reasoning, and alignment with current strategic goals. However, when they deliver their feedback on others’ gaps, for some reason people do not seem happy to receive the helpful criticism they offer.
Even if finding gaps is one of your key roles, consider that your feedback may cause someone else a great deal of pain and even shame. Worse, if you deliver your gap analysis with too much joy at finding errors, your listeners might pay much more attention to the thrill you evidence at finding fault rather than to the feedback itself.
Wouldn’t you also be upset if someone took pleasure in finding fault with you? My reason for posting this thought is to remind you that you can do great things by analyzing gaps, but make sure that how you deliver your gap analysis is considerate and diplomatic.
Tags: diplomacy, finding fault, gap analysis
Posted in Influencing, Speaking Style | No Comments »
UK US: Perfectly worded, but so what?
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
Beautiful language or wording is not something we think of the average American having any interest in using in everyday speech. However, people from the United Kingdom are raised to seek the most attractive wording they can, even for everyday speaking. This might seem like a nice-to-know, but if you are from the UK and are working in the US, your focus on finding the perfect wording might actually hurt your career. I see this pretty regularly, and it’s a shame, because I love to hear beautiful wording. This is especially a problem at senior executive levels, because most don’t have the patience to wait for beautiful wording.
Tags: talking effectively with senior executives, UK US differences in speaking style
Posted in Influencing, Speaking Style | No Comments »
If you REALLY want to annoy people…
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
If you really want to annoy people, take yourself too seriously. Just don’t be self-serious. What the heck is “self-serious.” I bet you know the sound of self-seriousness on someone else. You know: they enjoy giving their opinions or proclamations a little too much. A little too self-absorbed. A little too self-focused and insecure sounding at the same time. No humor to it, and it can even come across as comical. I get a kick out of this subject of self-seriousness, because it’s so subtlely obnoxious. And the thing that concerns me the most when I get a self-serious client is that they are so often quite nice people underneath it all. Not as arrogant as “one” might suspect.
Tags: Being Boring, Self-Seriousness, Technical Experts
Posted in Influencing, Presence, Speaking Style | No Comments »