Archive for January 2010

Obama's Speech: State of the Union or Keynote?

Early in my career, I asked a well-known motivational keynoter a question that had puzzled me for sometime:  “I’ve noticed that many on the speaker circuit promote themselves as professional business speakers, while others call themselves  motivational keynoters. How would you explain the difference?”

“Well, your first clue is the term ‘keynote,’ she responded. ”Notice that it’s singular. One keynote. The keynote speaker has one key message or theme—not three or ten points. The second distinction is mood. The keynoter’s mission is to set the tone and mood—it’s not about specifics. The business speaker, on the other hand, is an expert. He or she provides substantive content. And the third difference:  With a keynoter, there’s never a handout;  nobody ever takes a note.”

By her definition, I’d say the President gave a motivational keynote tonight. His theme seemed to be this:  “I feel your pain in this lousy economy. You want jobs now so I’m going to move that item to the top of my agenda, but I’m forging ahead with the rest of my plans.”

Tone and Mood

His tone and mood aimed to motivate by celebrating the American spirit.  He opened on a patriotic note, recounting all the times throughout history that Americans had found themselves in a tough spot as a nation—yet they struggled through to become stronger than before. Then he closed 70 minutes later again focused on the individual character and spirit of Americans as compassionate, generous, strong, decent, charitable—as evidenced in their volunteerism at home and in Haiti.

The opening and closing tugged at the emotions—with its references to “letters and emails he reads every night.” Those from children asking him to help them keep their home. Those from parents struggling to send their kids to college. Those from the elderly giving of their meager savings to those in less fortunate circumstances. It’s time that people “get a government that matches their decency.”

Who could argue with that kind of opening—or reasoning?

Theme/Structure

The body of his speech focused on his keynote theme—jobs. ”Jobs will be my number one focus for 2010.” He folded all his other agenda items under that theme:

  • Strengthen financial systems—because that will stimulate small businesses, thus creating more jobs.
  • Pass my energy plan—which will, by the way, produce more jobs.
  • Export more of our goods—which will, of course, support keeping more jobs at home rather than transporting them overseas.
  • Invest in skills and the education of our people—which will ensure that they can get and keep a job no matter what happens in the future. Education is the best insurance against poverty.
  • Pass healthcare reform—which will lower costs for small businesses, thus providing more jobs and lower costs for all. 

So much for the keynote structure. 

So What About Delivery? 

Characteristically Obama, the candidate, without the happy face. 

 Strengths

Confident

— Articulate

— Off-the-cuff humor

— Gestures for emphasis

— Vocal variety (pace, pausing, emphasis, intensity)

— Sincere tone

— Teleprompter use (much improved from earlier mishaps!)

Areas for Improvement

Arrogant demeanor (uplifted chin, pointed finger, karate chops)

— Arrogant word choices (“Let me set the record straight.”  “I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.”  “If I have to enforce this discipline [fiscal discipline] by veto, I will.”)

— Lecturing/parental tone:  Both his statements, phrasing, and tone positioned himself as a Washington outsider as he scolded others about their lack of transparency, earmarks, special deals to states/groups behind closed doors, and lack of bipartisanship. He ended with my-poll-numbers-may-be-sagging-but-I’m-up-to-the-task-of-doing-the-hard-job-that-is-good-for-the-country-and-I’m-not-a-quitter statement. At that, I could hear my dad saying to me as a child, “I don’t care whether you want to stop playing and go to bed now or not. You’ll be tired for school for tomorrow. Lights out!” 

 

All things considered, it was definitely a keynote. It will be up to voters and Congress to determine how motivational it was.

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New Communication Tips Videos Posted on My YouTube Channel

Have five minutes to spare in exchange for quick, useful communication tips? I just posted five new videos

They might not have you rolling in the floor laughing, but I hope you find them worth your while!

 

 

To view speech clips, media interviews, and other videos, visit my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/diannabooher.

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Bureaucrats Aren't the Only Ones Using Buzzwords

In nearly every business writing workshop we teach, we hear stories—some humorous, some deadly, and many costly—about mistakes caused by unclear communication.

On Friday, engineering blogger Jon Ostrower posted “Page One of the Engineering to English Dictionary” proving that aerospace engineers share the general population’s tendency to convolute messages with buzzwords and industry-specific jargon.

Here are the top five from his list:

  1. A number of different approaches are being tried.
    We are still guessing at this point.
  2. Close project coordination.
    We sat down and had coffee together.
  3. An extensive report is being prepared on a fresh approach.
    We just hired three punk kids out of school.
  4. Major technological breakthrough!
    It works OK, but looks very hi-tech!
  5. Customer satisfaction is believed assured.
    We are so far behind schedule that the customer will take anything.

Read the complete list. (Click here for our own list of bureaucratic buzzwords that muddy messages, first mentioned in The Voice of Authority.)

Does your industry—or maybe even your office—have its own brand of muddied messages?

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Staff Review: Brainshark Online Presentation Software for Businesses

By Kari Gates, Marketing Director at Booher Consultants, Inc.

Are you looking for a cutting-edge tool to communicate your message to clients, colleagues, or staff? We think we found one.

It’s not often that we do product reviews, but we’ve recently examined Brainshark and like it so much we thought we’d share the insight with you.

Benefits

Usability: When I sat down to create our first presentation in the Brainshark platform, a company overview, I was struck by the ease of use—especially considering the breadth of possibilities available in the platform.

Creativity: Brainshark converts your presentation slides into Flash videos for viewing by end users anywhere at any time. You can even incorporate audio recordings, live web pages, surveys, and much, much more. Simply post, embed, or email the presentations, reaching wider audiences with your key messages.

Functionality: Brainshark even allows you to enable viewer guest books for follow-up communication after your presentation has been viewed. Translated for a non-tech audience, what that means is that anyone who wants to view your presentation enters their name and email address, letting you know they’ve viewed it.

Drawbacks

Before you can start creating presentations, Brainshark offers several training educational presentations you’ll want to complete before you’re up and running…a few hours worth, in fact. Also, it can be a little overwhelming to decide which options to use to make the most of your message. But then that’s where your creativity shines!

 

It’s exciting to discover a communication tool that allows us to incorporate Booher’s key communication concepts with the technology to deliver our message in a memorable way. We’d love to hear your experience with Brainshark or any similar platform. How are you using the tools?

By the way, check out my first Brainshark project and let me know what you think!

 

NOTE: In the interest of full-disclosure, Brainshark asked us to try out their platform, but it’s only because we found it really useful that we’re sharing our experience with you.

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Making the Big Presentation with Cotton-Mouth?

Don’t Let It Be a Calamity

During the four years I’ve been writing this blog, readers email me with questions from time to time about their specific problems in writing, presentations, or interpersonal skills issues. And I love offering practical tips or insights with those really tough challenges. But here’s an easy one that a reader asks today.

Cara writes:

Dianna,

I have been a fan of yours since our group attended a session at your Grapevine location many years ago.  My question is, how do I control a horrible (and embarrassing) “cotton mouth” feeling that I get when I start talking? It happens when I present and when I speak seriously one-on-one. It just derails me because I get all preoccupied about the impression I’m making.  I have to stop talking, take a breath, and swallow every time. 

What can I do to prevent it from happening, especially now that I’m returning to the job-seeking market.

Thank you.

 Cara

 My response?

Cara,

Cotton mouth is noticeable to you–but probably NOT to those around you. The best solution is just to sip water. Keep it with you and sip along unobtrusively as needed.  I don’t mean to sound like a bumper sticker here,… but politicians do it, speakers do it, entertainers do it, and singers do it. That’s natural. Simply build pauses into a presentation so you can take a sip. During a one-on-one conversation, sipping from a bottle of water is quite natural these days; people carry bottles with them all the time for health reasons.

Other solutions:  Suck on candy or a mint.

As you relax and realize that nobody notices the hydration issue but you, the problem will go away.

Dianna

 

Maybe you have secret that I haven’t heard of and that you’d like to pass it on to this reader as well. Feel free to leave her a comment here. 

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Do Your Executives Need Help in Communicating?

During times of underwear bombers, unemployment, and universal healthcare debates, ask employees what they think their executives need more coaching on, and you’d expect to hear answers like these:  strategic planning, visionary thinking, innovation.

But in response to a survey by ClearRock, a Boston-based outplacement and executive coaching firm, here’s what employees actually said when asked which skills their top leaders most needed to improve:

  • 67% leadership skills
  • 53% communications
  • 53% strategic thinking
  • 47% building teamwork
  • 47% vision
  • 46% motivating people
  • 42% engaging others
  • 38% managing others
  • 33% decisiveness
  • 32% interpersonal abilities
  • 24% creativity
  • 18% managing their own expectations

Take a second glance at the list.  Doesn’t teamwork, motivating people, engaging others, managing others, and interpersonal skills all encompass communication skills? 

With change happening almost as fast as tweets, the leader with ineffective communication skills—or the one who chooses, for whatever reason, not to communicate at all with staff—puts his or her team at odds with both the mission and management.

How do the senior leaders at your organization stack up?

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