I had two interesting experiences last week.  One was watching the aspirants for a top position in a Chamber of Commerce go head-to-head for the votes of the members by giving talks about why they should be elected.  I love attending these types of events because as an instructor of public speaking; I know there are always a lot of life and business lessons about to be revealed.  They had five minutes each, which is quite long actually.  With that amount of leeway, there is a tremendous...

In Australian politics, they call it a “Dorothy Dixer”.  This is when one of your confederates from your own political party ask a ruling Minister a real soft ball question in the parliament during Question Time, to allow for a fully pre-prepared answer. Dorothy Dix was an American newspaper advice columnist who would answer reader’s questions, and some say she sometimes would create her own questions to answer. At political rallies, there has been a similar set up where a stooge or a plant...

There are 6 elements we should check when putting our visuals together.  Review this checklist before you start building the slide deck and your presentation will be much more impactful and successful. 1.        Make sure you are boss of the visuals and not the other way around Often, the speaker is overshadowed by the visuals and everyone’s attention is directed toward the screen.  We must remember that the screen has limited persuasion power compared to using our facial expressions. We...

It's been a while since I attended a highly technical talk by serious experts. The audience, however, was not as expert, so the two speakers knew they were addressing a less specialized group. Complex topics require special handling.Piling a lot of data onto one slide is a big no-no, but that didn’t stop our intrepid, geeky speakers. One of them, a retired professor, you’d think would be better at this given he taught it at a university. Perhaps I’m too optimistic about academics and...

As a vigorous networker, constantly in motion, always looking for new clients, I attend a lot of events.  Usually there are speakers or panel discussions or sometimes both.  In this regard, I probably see over 100 people a year presenting in Japan. One consistent theme across all of these presentations is the lack of understanding of the “ba” (場) when speaking. This “ba” in Japanese means the physical locale or place or occasion, in this context. What I notice is that the speakers are...

This seems a ridiculous construct – of course we when we are presenting in business we shouldn’t lie. However, look at what is happening in the rest of the world.  Kellyanne Conway introduced “alternative facts” into the American political debate to explain lies.  Donald Trump rails against the fake media and fake news. It would appear that many people, including leading Republicans, think he lies a lot, and yet half of the American electorate support him.  Are we now in a free fall where...

It was a big affair.  The entire Shinsei Bank retail staff were assembled for a series of updates from the Division Heads on what each Division was doing and where they were going.  One of my erstwhile lifelong banker colleague Division Head gave his presentation.  It was dull, monotone, low energy and not engaging in the least.  Unfortunately for him, it was my turn next.  By this time, thanks to my previous work as a Senior Trade Commissioner and Consul-General for Australia,  I had given...

Recently I was teaching a class of technical experts to have more impact when they spoke.  Like many specialists, their areas of expertise required great detailed knowledge and experience and they have to interact with other non-expert parts of the organisation.  In their case, they have to report to senior management and they also had to deal with the sales team.  The brief from HR was that the senior leaders didn’t take sufficient note of their reporting and advice because of the way they...

Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Tennessee, was regarded by many as certain to be Kamala Harris’s pick for the role of Vice President, as part of her campaign to defeat Donald Trump. Ultimately, she chose Tim Walz.  The six-minute speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention then, was a good opportunity for Shapiro to position his own future credentials for a run for the Presidency. Barack Obama used his 2004 keynote spot to catapult himself into the limelight, as a relatively unknown...

Watching the avalanche of speakers to the Democratic National Convention has been interesting.  Some really hit the mark and others not so much.  What makes the difference?  From what I could see they were all using teleprompters, so effectively they are reading what they wrote to us.  Some I felt were just reading back to us what they wordsmithed and others connected with us.  How did they do that? Comfort with the medium is a big differentiator.  There is also the issue of which...

In my observation, American politics continues to descend into a morass of nastiness topped up with a lot of name calling and rabid criticism of the other side.  In my native country of Australia, politicians won’t publicly call their opponents “stupid” or “weird”, because they know the voting public won’t accept that type of behaviour.  In our national Parliament during the policy debates, the language is carefully monitored by the Speaker and always kept within the bounds of propriety.  As...

Most business speeches are very definitive.  We did this, and it worked for us and you could do the same and also get similar results. Usually, we are asked to speak because we have had good results and have rich experience in our industry. The hosts believe that others will be interested in hearing what we did, so that they can take lessons from it and they will be able to pull a crowd.  The problem is today we are in the Age Of Distraction and the Era of Cynicism. If what we are offering...

I am not an American, so I cannot vote.  I always tread the line of neutrality when discussing what is happening in America, turning myself into the Switzerland of speech giving advice.  Previously, I have written about the presenting skills of both Biden and Trump.  Now I move on to the new Democratic candidate for the US Presidency.  Republican politicians and Fox pundits criticise Kamala Harris for only being coherent and capable when she is reading her lines off a teleprompter.  I have...

As an Aussie, I can’t vote in the American elections, so I am a casual observer of what is going on. I was watching a very recent interview with Donald Trump and he briefly made mention about his public speaking approach.  That got my attention, because I teach this stuff. Of late, I have been using Joe Biden as an hanmen kyoshi or teacher by negative example on public speaking, so let me now bring in Trump too.  You could make the argument that neither of them are relevant to those of us in...

Joe Biden gave a disastrous debate performance. His team floated the idea that he had a cold and that was why his voice sounded so weak and soft.  There was also talk that his prior busy international schedule had also taken a heavy toll on him. Should he have gone on with the debate?  Looking back, I am sure he regrets the decision to go forward with it, rather than rescheduling. What about for us in business? Dates for events are set well in advance, but a lot can happen in the interim. ...

American politics is a must watch for the rest of us.  Whoever becomes the next President will have major ramifications for every country on the planet.  I will not get into a political discussion about who should be the next leader, but I do want to pick up on some relevant aspects of the campaigns.  In particular, the way Joe Biden handled the recent debate and the subsequent massive criticisms of his public speaking ability. I wonder how many of the people concerned about his poor...

What an interesting panel discussion we had.  Georg Loer, an old friend of mine, after 17 years running NRW Global which stands for North Rhine Westphalia, was handing over the reins to Carolina Kawakubo.  The guest panellist was Jesper Koll, a very well-known economist here in Tokyo.  All three have been guests on my podcast Japan’s Top Business Interviews with Carolina #19, Georg #83 and Jesper #87.  An interesting contrast in presentation styles on display that evening. Jesper is a very...

The premise of tonight's theme is how we position ourselves for the client before we even meet them. With the advent of social media, people will know they are going to meet you and will check you out. That wasn't possible before, but it certainly is now. So, how do we put ourselves in the best light, in the best position before we meet the buyer or the client? That's what I'll be looking at tonight. A bit about Dale Carnegie: we're a very well-established company, 112 years old, originating...

It is not often that we get a front row seat to watch a group of very senior businesspeople compete with each other when presenting.   If you like blood sports, then this is right up your alley.  This is a zero-sum game for seizing the brass ring and even better, it is conducted in the full glare of the assembled masses.  This is an annual event, which, as a Master Trainer of presentations and public speaking, I always look forward to.  Being the eternal optimist, I always imagine that this...

Our presenter was vivacious, sparky, bright and engaging. She works in a cool area of business and has the opportunity to see what works and doesn’t work in many industries.  This enables her to pull together terrific insights and back these up with hard evidence based on numerous case studies and who doesn’t love a good case study.  A big crowd turned out to hear her talk, so the place was packed. Chatting before we started, she mentioned in passing that she had not planned the talk and was...

Foreign companies often want to appoint a Japanese person to be the head of their Japan operation.  This is done on the basis that they will know what is best for the business.  This proclivity has made many washed up, tremendously mediocre Japanese Presidents a lot of money and substantially extended their careers.  At some point the shareholders, or the Board, start to ask why there are no results in the Japan operation.  The local chief usually manages to fend off these “rude” enquiries...

The Lord Mayor of London covers the whole con-urban spread of greater London and the Lord Mayor of the City of London covers 1.12 square kilometres of the financial district with a population of nearly 11,000 people, so it is a bit confusing.  Alderman Lord Mayor Professor Michael Mainelli gave a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce recently.  I didn’t know anything about him, but sitting there listening to him, I immediately noticed how smooth his delivery was.  He had good pacing, good...

“Will It Blend” was a genius idea from Blendtec, kicked off with a $50 budget in 2006. The campaign saw Tom Dickson’s videos go viral and take a boring blender manufacturer into the pantheon of marketing presentations.  They have 187 videos on YouTube and 845,000 subscribers to their channel. So far, their YouTube channel has had 294 million views. Not bad for a blender maker duking it out in a red ocean of blender suppliers.  I suggested to a client of mine that they take a leaf out of...

We are usually asked to speak at events by some hosting organisation and these can be breakfast, lunches or evening occasions.  Each has its challenges.  Not that many people seem to be great in the early mornings and the energy level of the audience can be very low, as they are still sleepy.  This sleepiness is definitely a problem for after lunch presentations too.  Many are ready for a nap after hoeing down a big meal in the middle of the day.  In the evenings, people can be tired after a...