The Articulate CEO

Famous Speeches... Gregory Peck in 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The State has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. Now there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led, almost exclusively, with his left [hand]. And Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken "The Oath" with the only good hand he possesses -- his right.

I have nothing but pity in my heart for the Chief Witness for the State. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But, my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say "guilt," gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She's committed no crime. She has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But, what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did.

Now what did she do? She tempted a negro. She was white and she tempted a negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards.

The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Lincoln County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen -- to this Court -- in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted; confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption, the evil assumption, that all negroes lie; all negroes are basically immoral beings; all negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is in itself, gentlemen, a lie -- which I do not need to point out to you.

And so, a quiet, humble, respectable negro, who has had the unmitigated TEMERITY to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against two white peoples. The defendant is not guilty. But somebody in this courtroom is.

Now, gentlemen, in this country our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system. That's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality!

Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this man to his family.

In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, believe Tom Robinson.

 

The Golden Rules of the 'Elevator Pitch'

Elevator pitches remain as critical as they have ever been - perhaps even more so given the increasingly short attention span we all seem to have. Here then is some good advice on how to create your own elevator pitch from Toby Marshall at Lead Creation.

1. A great ‘Elevator’ provides just enough information to hook the listener in and spark a conversation. It is just the beginning, not the close; think lead generation not sales.

2. It should be short—10 to 20 seconds. Our attention spans have become shorter due to fast-paced city living and Social Media.

3. Practice it by speaking out loud and standing up—never just write it and read it to yourself. Say it again and again in front of a mirror; then with colleagues or friends. Say it 20 times and you’ll then know it enough to improvise and vary it so it comes alive and doesn’t sound stale.

4. An ‘Elevator’ is not just for sales people or business owners. It’s also for people who have jobs and want better ones—that’s most of the population!

5. A great rule of thumb is to only use your ‘Elevator’ when asked the question. If you walk up to someone and start talking about yourself it’s usually a big turn off; most people would say something like “so tell me about you.”

6. Sell yourself, not your product or business. The other person needs to be interested in you before they will buy anything from you. The old adage that ‘People buy from people they like’ still rings true for B2B marketing

7. Elevators are never about closing a sale, despite the name ‘pitching’. In this Social Networking age, blatantly selling is less and less acceptable. Even at Chamber of Commerce meetings—a pure business setting—I run a mile from people who are all about themselves. Life’s too short!

8. It’s NOT your cold calling script (if you are still foolish enough to be doing cold and not ‘very warm’ calling!)

9. Use pauses to emphasize; it is not a race to get the words out. Vary your tone as speaking in a monotone bores people—it’s very common though, possibly because they themselves know the words are boring!

10. If you are in a business setting, think about how you can help the prospect achieve their goals. That may be the breakthrough you are looking for with your lead generation—thinking about the implications for them?

Note that there is nothing in the above about providing a case study. In my experience they will ask me if they are interested, once they have heard my ‘Elevator’. Also, including studies that are meaningful makes it too long, and you are likely to see their eyes start to glaze over! Just have a couple ready to go in case they ask, though.

The above rules will help you see much better results with your lead generation in all types of social and business settings; learning to change the pitch depending on who you are speaking to, and where you are speaking to them, is a huge advantage to you and your business.

The Dying Art of Conversation

It is often said that the art of conversation is being lost and that we are the poorer for it. Many would blame the advent of technology and social media but the truth is far more disturbing and goes right to the heart of who we are as people and as a society.

Like many skills the ability to talk well can be cultivated but at its core the ability to be a good conversationalist is dependent on how interested we are in others.

Interest is the primary ingredient in good conversation - either in the subject or the person, but interest in the person is the more critical.

Sure it helps to know stuff. It's a good idea to conscientiously stock your mind with facts and information and then form opinions on the basis of that knowledge but a monologue is not a conversation. Masters of the art of conversation rarely give advice, and then, usually, only when requested. Even then it is given tentatively and without seeming to impose their wishes. Conversation is not an opportunity to prove your superiority or to wax lyrical on the subject of the day.

In fact, the real aim of one-on-one conversation is to:

            a) get to know the other person and

            b) reveal a bit about yourself

Those are not things we aim to do directly but they do hint at what is required to be a good conversationalist. If we are to get to know someone then we need to have an interest in them and an interest in the subject. If we are to reveal a little of ourselves at the same time then we need to be friendly, sincere, candid and helpful.

If conversation is a dying art then perhaps it is an indication that we are becoming more insular in our daily lives. Increasingly, we seem to see people who are less inclined to enrich their own knowledge and less interested in learning about others. We seem happy to tell everyone what we are doing and what we think (no matter how trivial) but not so happy to hear what others are doing or think. When we do come across others whose opinions and experiences may differ from our own there appears to be a tendency to ridicule those people rather than explore their ideas.

And what is the common element to all of these conversation killers? Put simply, it is tact or rather the lack of tact.  No quality is so conducive to pleasure in conversation as tact. The product of alertness, sympathy and resourcefulness, tact has become society's rarest commodity. Without tact a person, however witty, learned or sincere, is a menace to themselves and others whenever they engage in conversation. Without tact, conversation itself has become endangered.

 

 

 

Begin With The End In Mind

If there is one thing everyone needs to understand before they start their presentation it’s the ending. Begin with the end in mind. As Oscar-winning movie director Andrew Stanton explains, “Storytelling is joke telling. It’s knowing your punch line, your ending. Knowing that everything you’re saying from the first sentence to the last is leading to a singular goal.”

 Ask yourself: when’s the last time that you built your presentation, meeting agenda or sales pitch on a punch line? Did you begin with the end in mind? Did you pre-plan the one thing you wanted everyone in the room to leave with? It’s absurd not to plan a punch line - even the worst joke tellers have one in mind. So, if you have never done it then it’s time to start.

It’s the big idea, the lead of your story, and most importantly, the phrase that signifies the biggest change in how you want your listener to think or act about your topic.

Your punch line should not be “buy my product” because that is a message focused entirely on you. It needs to be a message that is framed with the listener in mind. How and why should your listener think or act differently about technology, an issue or their priorities. What problem are you trying to solve?

It is the most important thing you want to impart to your listener and the whole reason you are speaking to them in the first place. Therefore, not only do we need to be ruthless in prioritizing our most important message but we also have to frame it in a way that matters to them.

The fact is that most communication does not begin with the end in mind and, as a consequence, quickly becomes convoluted and confused. However, if you spend the time beginning at the end then it will lead the way. It will frame everything you do and all of the supporting content, claims and evidence that you need to gain buy-in will come easy.

Why Incompetent Presenters Remain Blissfully Ignorant

There are many incompetent people in the world and I worry that I might be one of them. I worry about this because, according to research conducted at Cornell University, most incompetent people do not know that they are incompetent.

On the contrary, people who do things badly are usually supremely confident of their abilities. They are actually more confident, in fact, than people who do things well. But then they would be wouldn't they? After all the skills required for competence are often the same skills necessary to recognize incompetence. It's little wonder that so many bad speakers are so blissfully self-assured.

Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it!

This deficiency in 'self-monitoring skills' helps explain the tendency of the humor-impaired to persist in telling jokes that are not funny, the amateur chefs who are convinced that their latest cullinary disaster is actually delicious and the awful business presenters who insist that they have this whole speaking thing down pat.

I guess the research findings support Thomas Jefferson's assertion that 'he who knows best knows how little he knows.'

And the research meshes neatly with other work indicating that overconfidence is common; studies have found, for example, that the vast majority of people rate themselves as 'above average' on a wide array of abilities -- though such an abundance of talent would be impossible in statistical terms. What's more the studies indicate that this overestimation is more likely for tasks that are difficult than for those that are easy. Maybe that is why it seems to be such a common problem in public speaking.

Of course the inherent power relationships in business probably don't help. In various business presentation situations, feedback is absent, or at least ambiguous; even a humorless joke, for example, is likely to be met with polite laughter. And faced with incompetence, social norms and career preservation prevent most people from blurting out ``You suck!'' -- truthful though this assessment may be. Maybe the incompetent don't know how bad they are because no one is willing to tell them. Unfortunately, in my experience it is far more likely that they are simply not listening.

So if you are one of the many confident, articulate speakers out there currently boring their audience to tears maybe, just maybe, it's time to start worrying if you are the one who is incompetent.

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.

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.

Smart Writing is Simple Writing

At the C-suite level presentation skills are almost always at least adequate. In other words the CEO is confident enough to get up in front of a group of people, speak clearly and string a sentence together. Presentation skills are practically never the reason that their communication fails to be effective - the communication fails because they cannot write.

It’s hard to be effective when people can’t understand what you’re trying to say. Clear and simple writing ensures that your message never gets lost between you and your audience.

Unfortunately, many CEO's think they need to “look smart” by using big words and complex sentence structures. The reality is that the simpler you write, the more intelligent you seem to others. A study done at Princeton University manipulated the complexity of the vocabulary and writing style of documents and gave them to students. Over and over again, the simpler versions were rated as coming from a more intelligent writer than the more complex drafts.

Smart writing is simple writing.

Clear and simple writing is actually quite difficult to do. It requires you to think hard about your topic, get at its core, and then put that core in terms that your audience can understand. Here are a few tips on writing and speaking with greater clarity:

• Write or speak so a 12 year old can understand. If a 12 year old can understand your speech or article, then chances are an adult of average education can too. If you ever get stuck with what to say to, grab a 12 year old and talk the issue through with them face to face. It’s amazing what keeping this rule in mind can do to help make you a clearer communicator.

• Use strong verbs. Avoid is, are, was, were, be, being, been. So instead of saying “Diane was killed by Jim,” say, “Jim killed Diane.” Shorter, clearer, and punchier.

• Keep average sentence length to about 20 words. Sentence length is one of the biggest factors in determining how easy it is to understand what you’re saying or writing. Ideas can get lost in long sentences. While you should avoid really long sentences as much as possible, you don’t want all your sentences to be just five words each either. That makes your writing and speaking sound choppy and rushed. Shoot for an average of about 20 words a sentence. And mix sentences of varying lengths together.

• Keep paragraphs short. Ideally, each paragraph should contain just one idea. This ensures that your reader doesn’t get lost in a jumble of different points. When you write long paragraphs, it’s easy for more than one idea to sneak in. Avoid this by keeping paragraphs short - say 5 or 6 sentences a paragraph.

• Don’t use a five dollar word when a fifty cent word would work just as well. If you have a choice between a fancy word and a plain word, go with the plain word.

'The Great Dictator' Delivers A Great Speech

'The Great Dictator' was Charlie Chaplin's most successful film and his first true talking picture. Released in October, 1940 it was the first film to bitterly satirize Naziism and Adolf Hitler at a time when the United States was still at peace with Germany.

At the very end of the film comes one of the great cinematic speeches - one that perfectly encapsulates Chaplin's disgust with greed, bloodshed and division. It is remarkable that Chaplin's speech of more than 70 years ago still retains so much relevance in the modern world and, perhaps, more than just a little sad. Here then, is the great master at work... Charlie Chaplin seeing the world for what it was and, in many ways, still is.

 

How To Deliver A Great Introduction

Introductions are so important that professional speakers usually provide their own. They know what it is like to be on the receiving end of a bad introduction - they spend the first ten minutes of their speech desperately trying to win their audience back.

The worst experiences are when you have provided an introduction but the MC (normally some bumbling employee because the organisation are yet to learn the value of a real MC) decides not to use it and instead provide their own moment of genius. It's a bit like watching a car crash - you know it isn't going to be pretty but you can't turn away so you have to resign yourself to the carnage ahead.

The problem of course is that people don't know how to introduce someone. So here are some quick tips on how to put together a great introduction.

If you’re writing an introduction, there are basically three questions that you need to answer for your audience:

• What is the speech about?
• Why are we discussing this topic?
• Why is this the person to talk about it?

Let's deal with the first question - what is the speech about? The key here is not to give away too much - you are providing the introduction, not the speech. Make sure you explain the subject matter succinctly and in a context that your audience can relate to.

In fact, that context is really what the second question is all about; why are we discussing this topic? Essentially we are answering the questions why here and why now. It is important to convey why this topic is of particular importance at this moment in time.

Thirdly, of course, why is this the person to talk about it? What are the credentials, experience or expertise this speaker has that gives him or her the authority to address this particular subject? Not all of their experience and credentials - just the ones that relate to this particular audience.

Your role in all of this is to set the tone for what is to come so don't oversell it and don't undersell it either. Keep it simple, get to the point and, above all, remain relevant to your audience.

Oh... and, by the way, the very last words out of your mouth should be the name of the speaker - that's who we are all here for!