The Articulate CEO

Authenticity - The Key To Communication And Everything Else

Authenticity lies at the heart of success in communication and, arguably, at the heart of success in anything. We all achieved whatever success we have by being us.  Sure you may have honed your skills, gathered experience, even stolen some ideas along the way but you have remained the person you were from the start.  No one becomes successful by being someone other than who we are because we can’t maintain the charade long enough.

You are who you are.

And success doesn’t change you either.  It simply highlights whatever traits existed in the first place and allows them to flourish.  For example we often hear people say that money has changed someone and turned them into an asshole.  Not true - they were an asshole in the first place!  Money just allowed you to notice.

The most successful people in the world are those who have the strongest grip on who they are.  They are acutely aware of their values and they are not afraid to articulate them to anyone who will listen.  Consequently they gather like-minded people around them and that collective power breeds success for as long as those values have currency.  Those values are not always popular to begin with or they may not be popular towards the end but the person who believes in them, sticks with them, and we remember them for that reason.  If you want an individual example of this then look no further than Nelson Mandela.

Mandela's words, "The struggle is my life," are not to be taken lightly.

Nelson Mandela personifies struggle.  He continued to lead the fight against apartheid with extraordinary vigor and resilience after spending nearly three decades of his life behind bars.  In prison Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners.  

He sacrificed his private life and his youth for his people, and remains South Africa's best known and loved hero.  He stands for something.  It is the stand that people rally to not the man.

It is the same in business.  To be truly successful you and your business have to stand for something.  There have to be guiding principles and values that people can identify with and rally to.  There has to be a way for people to determine if you are like them and if they can trust you to fulfill your promises.  The way is simple.

Tell people what you are like. 

Tell people what they can expect from you in their business dealings.

Tell people what they can rely upon to be a part of every transaction.

Live up to it.

How To Find Your Confidence - Tips From Toastmasters International

Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and even beneficial, but too much nervousness can be detrimental. Here are some proven tips from Toastmasters International on how to control your butterflies and give better presentations:

1. Know your material. Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more about it than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say.
   
   
2. Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words; Practice, pause and breathe. Practice with a timer and allow time for the unexpected.
   
   
3. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.
   
   
4. Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.
   
   
5. Relax. Begin by addressing the audience. It buys you time and calms your nerves. Pause, smile and count to three before saying anything. ("One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. Pause. Begin.) Transform nervous energy into enthusiasm.
   
   
6. Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear and confident. Visualize the audience clapping – it will boost your confidence.
   
   
7. Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative and entertaining. They’re rooting for you.
   
   
8. Don’t apologize for any nervousness or problem – the audience probably never noticed it.
   
   
9. Concentrate on the message – not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties and concentrate on your message and your audience.
   
   
10. Gain experience. Mainly, your speech should represent you — as an authority and as a person. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience you need in a safe and friendly environment.

Visit a Toastmasters meeting!
Toastmasters groups meet in the morning, at noon, or in the evening in communities and corporations all over the world. No matter where you live, work or travel, you’ll likely find a group nearby.

Not A Hero - Lest We Forget

 

The ANZAC Day march was over - the old Digger had done his best.
His body ached from marching - it was time to sit and rest. 
He made his way to a park bench and sat with lowered head.
A young boy passing saw him - approached and politely said,
"Please sir do you mind if I ask you what the medals you wear are for?
Did you get them for being a hero, when fighting in a war?"

Startled, the old Digger moved over and beckoned the boy to sit.
Eagerly the lad accepted - he had not expected this!
"First of all I was not a hero," said the old Digger in solemn tone,
"But I served with many heroes, the ones that never came home.
So when you talk of heroes, it's important to understand,
The greatest of all heroes gave their lives defending this land.

"The medals are worn in their honour, as a symbol of respect.
All diggers wear them on ANZAC Day - it shows they don't forget."
The old digger then climbed to his feet and asked the boy to stand.
Carefully he removed the medals and placed them in his hand.
He told him he could keep them - to treasure throughout his life,
A legacy of a kind - left behind - paid for in sacrifice.

Overwhelmed the young boy was speechless - he couldn’t find words to say.
It was there the old Digger left him - going quietly on his way.
In the distance the young boy glimpsed him - saw him turn and wave goodbye.
Saddened he sat alone on the bench - tears welled in his eyes.
He never again saw him ever - but still remembers with pride,
When the old Digger told him of Heroes and a young boy sat and cried.

 

Clyde Hamilton

 

Lost In Translation - Dealing With A Multicultural Workforce

Communication is always tough but it's even tougher when your workers don't speak your language.  With an increasingly diversified workforce, organizations have to recognize that English as a second language is a potential problem. Many of our employees have very important skills, but they don't necessarily communicate in English well. Whatsmore, managing workers who don't speak English as their first language is tricky. Don't deal with it properly, and you risk problems ranging from poor customer service to diminished productivity to poor morale.

Many CEO's see themselves as an accessible, available, good communicator but that belief is often delusional when it comes to the language barrier. If you only speak English but half your workforce hail from China, Malaysia, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq or Serbia then pretty much none of what you have relied on in the past for your communication is likely to work. 

If you have a multicultural workforce then it is important to find members of that workforce who can fulfill management posts. The truth is no matter how much you think talking more slowly and loudly helps it doesn't and you are going to need translators. It is not enough to understand the language you have to understand the cultural barriers that come with it. People from within your workforce are best placed to do that and can give you valuable feedback on how to approach communication issues.

The favoured Western communication method of large, open meetings is not a good idea with multicultural workforces either. If you ask if everyone understands the information, they will all nod out of politeness. If you ask for questions, you won't get any for fear of embarrassment given the differing levels of English practised within the room.

Instead, have meetings with small groups of workers who have similar English skills so that nobody feels intimidated about asking questions. Have your translators at every meeting, and ask those managers of yours to check in daily.

The result will be much more detailed feedback from your employees on everything from policy changes to individual career goals. Plus, the new language sensitivity will be a massive boost for company morale.

It's The Way I Tell 'em!

Just for fun here are the two Ronnies showing us all just how easy it is for communication to go wrong. Enjoy!

 

The Concept of Attention Economics

The story goes that in the 1920’s the great Ernest Hemingway sat around a table of fellow writers and bet them that he could write a story in just six words. Laughing at his audacity they hastened to take his bet. Hemingway quickly wrote six words on a napkin and passed it around the table. The words were: “For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn.”

Hemingway’s story was complete. It had a beginning, middle and an end. Needless to say, he won the bet.

Whether it happened or not we will never know but the Hemingway story makes an important point - you do not need pages of writing to tell a story.

But does it matter?

You can argue that brevity has always mattered and that getting and holding someones attention has always been vital to getting your message across. In the modern world, however, it is even more vital. The attention spans of people are becoming shorter and shorter as they have to juggle, sort and process the overabundance of information that characterises the modern world. Now, more than ever, if your message is too long and too hard, you will lose people.

In 1971 Herbert Simon, a professor from Carnegie Mellon University was one of the first to articulate the concept of attention economics when he wrote:

“…in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it”

Next time you write a message, whether it is for web content, marketing collateral or an email, remember that in order to gain someone’s interest, you first need to gain their attention. If they like what you have to say, they will trade their attention for your information. You may even be surprised by how much it can play on their minds...

'For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn.'

How To Use Email Effectively

If we are honest then we have to admit we have all decided to send an email to deal with an uncomfortable or upsetting issue rather than have a direct conversation. We would also have to admit that those emails didn't actually help resolve the issues or confusion more quickly and effectively. The fact is we were just using email as a way of hiding and, in turn, creating a situation of rising tensions and escalating problems. Thus, email wars erupt, clutter mailboxes, eat up time and thwart collaboration, morale and productivity.

Email is a great way to communicate if it is used correctly but unfortunately it often isn't. So here are a few tips for making the most of its efficiency while avoiding the worst of its failings:

1. Use email for its main purposes: communicate or receive information, as a form of documentation or for friendly correspondence
By all means use email to keep everyone informed of a project’s status, to verify what was discussed in a face-to-face or phone conversation, to ask a quick question, to say hello or send a compliment.

2. Do not use email to resolve emotional issues or arguments
In other words, if you are upset with someone or someone is upset with you, then you need to talk rather than send email. An email can never convey tone - no matter what emoticon you attach to it! It is just not a good way to communicate emotions or resolve difficulties.

3. State the purpose of your email immediately.
By stating the purpose in the subject heading or in the first sentence of your text, you minimize the possibility that the recipient will misinterpret your message or delete it before it is read.

4. Write email as you would a newspaper article.
The first sentences should contain the most pertinent information, with details following in subsequent sentences. People are busy and need the highlights. They may never finish the email and may miss important information if it is buried in the body of the text. If appropriate, have a quick summary sentence at the end.

5. If an email starts looking like a tennis game, pick up the phone.
If you email back and forth with someone more than two times about the same issue, it is time to pick up the phone and get clarification. When emails volley back and forth about the same issue, it is often a sign that something else is going on (someone is really upset, doesn’t understand, is being resistant, and so on).

6. If you don’t want an email published in a newspaper, don’t send it.
You never know what will happen with your email or to whom it will be forwarded once you press send and once it is out there it is out there for good. By definition email is public domain so treat it that way.

The bottom line is that is the information you want to convey is really impoirtant then you should be talking to someone not emailing them. Email can be a great tool but onl;y if used appropriately.

The Futility of 'Engagement' Surveys

'Engagement' is the latest buzzword used to describe an abstract emotion that we would like our employees to feel about their work. In the past it has been called empowerment or ownership or commitment and now we have 'engagement'. It is simply another attempt to describe an instinctive understanding that we have that our organisation tends to be better off when our workforce care about what they do. The reason that the word we use to describe this keeps changing is because we have not been able to discover what it is that we have to do to get it - mainly because it id actually different for most people. So, instead of admitting failure, we change the word and make it look as if we are looking for something different.

Most of us have still not found out what to do to allow our workforces to engage so when our bosses ask what we are doing about engagement we look for a survey to prove that they we are (at least) doing something. The people whose business it is to produce surveys are very happy to oblige our desperate need for affirmation.

The survey does not even have to measure engagement at all, just provide data that makes it look as if it does. Consequently, there is pretty much no correlation between 'engagement survey' results and performance. About the best anyone has managed to do at Gallup for example is about 0.19 (100% correlation would be 1.0). The fact is most engagement surveys are complete nonsense and usually pedalled by executives trying to justify their existance.

Imagine trying to measure a similar abstract emotion like happiness. No one in the business world would even contemplate it would they? You can't measure 'happy' - you just know if you are.

King Jigme of Bhutan declared when he ascended the throne that his major concern was the happiness of his people. If that had happened in the business world it would have led to an explosion of 'Happiness Consultants' and then cost a fortune while they benchmarked the nation’s current state of happiness using 'Happiness Surveys', and ran focus groups to find out what happiness was and perhaps what colour it should be. Instead, when asked what he was going to do, King Jigme replied that he was going to create the conditions that would allow his people to be happy and then they would choose to be happy for themselves.

'Engagement', like happiness, is the way that people feel about what they do. Trying to measure it is an extremely difficult and ultimately futile exercise. We would be better off, like King Jigme, creating the environment that will allow our workforces to engage. Then when they do we will know it. No survey needed... but then the survey is so much easier isn't it?

Intuitive or Intelligent - Which is More Valuable?

In sports, there are two types of players: intuitive and intelligent. Intuitive players are naturally brilliant. Such athletes can do things on the field that make others stare in awe, all while hardly appearing to break a sweat. They’re fantastic to watch – people flock to sporting contests just to see the expression of this natural talent. They make it look so easy – because it is for them. But they can’t show you how to play like them, because they often don’t know how they do it. It’s instinctive.

The style of the intuitive player is largely based on confidence. They can’t play any other way – break down their confidence and you go a long way towards shutting them down.

The intelligent player, on the other hand, may not be as naturally gifted as the intuitive player, but they have the advantage of being able to adjust their game as the conditions or situation demand.

So it is with many other activities, public speaking included. Intuitive skill will get you a long way, but if you can’t adapt to different conditions – a range of audiences, lack of a lectern or a variety of presentation topics, just to name a few – you greatly reduce your chances of being effective.

It would be great to be blessed with natural talent, but most people will have to make do with the talents they’ve been given. Far better to be an intelligent player – someone who has developed the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. That is the challenge for anyone wanting to seriously improve their public speaking or anything else for matter.

How do you develop the ability to adapt? By learning as much as you can about the basic principles of the subject you wish to master. The deeper your undertsanding, the more likely you are to be able to recognise when something isn't working and a change is required. That is why I teach people the principles of communication rather than the mechanics of public speaking. The mechanics of public speaking is all about giving you confidence which is great... but will only ever take you so far.

Babies, Mozart, Neuroscience and the Media - The Perfect Storm

Imagine a world in which you simply played a tune for your baby and they automatically became more intelligent just by listening to it. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could just download a bit of Beethoven or Mozart from iTunes, plug in your ipod and get better test scores? It would be fantastic wouldn't it? That's why hundreds of thousands of parents around the world do exactly that with products like 'Baby Mozart'. They spend millions on these products and what is known as the Mozart Effect trying to give their kids every advantage in life. Unfortunately, genius though he may have been, Mozart can't make you smarter.

The Mozart Effect was introduced to the world in the form of an article from the journal 'Nature'. In this article, it was reported that "...college students who listened to about ten minutes of a Mozart piano sonata showed a significant improvement on spatial reasoning tasks compared with a group of students who listened to a relaxation tape." This 1993 study seemed to show that intelligence could be improved by simply listening to classical music. Though it was difficult to replicate by other researchers, and it never claimed to improve spatial reasoning over the long term, the Mozart Effect was utilized as justification for companies to sell Mozart CDs to families with infants.

Later research would suggest that short-term mental arousal could explain the Mozart Effect. This would explain why individuals listening to music that they themselves enjoy (whether it be Mozart or not) feel more alert versus those that are not listening to anything. Perhaps you feel more alert after reading a story that makes you feel excited or after watching a thrilling movie. Any such activities could potentially improve short-term spatial ability, though not your intelligence.

So, Mozart may well make you feel a bit smarter and can certainly make you a little more alert for a very short space of time (if you like that sort of thing) but, trust me, you are as dopey as you ever were. If you are a parent who has bought into the Mozart Effect you may even be slightly more dopey than you thought you were!

The Mozart effect is an example of how science and the media mix in our world. A suggestion in a few paragraphs in a scientific journal becomes a universal truth in a matter of months, eventually believed even by the scientists who initially recognized how their work had been distorted and exaggerated by the media. Others, smelling the money, jump on the bandwagon and play to the crowd, adding their own myths, questionable claims, and distortions to the mix. In this case, many uncritical supporters line up to defend the faith because at stake here is the future of our children. We then have books, tapes, CDs, institutes, government programs, etc. Soon the myth is believed by millions as a scientific fact. In this case, the process met with little critical resistance because we already know that music can affect feelings and moods, so why shouldn't it affect intelligence and health, even if only slightly and temporarily? It's just commonsense, right? Yes, and all the more reason to be skeptical.