The Articulate Executive Learn to Look, Act, and Sound Like a Leader Granville N. Toogood i CONTENTS A Word in Advance xi Acknowledgments xvi Everything You Will Ever Have to Know about Public Speaking xvii Part 1. The Speaking Game 1. The Speaking Game 3 2. How to Come Across as a Leader 9 3. Understanding Your Audience 16 Part 2. Organization, Writing, and Presentation 4. First Steps to Organizing Your Presentation 25 5. Designing the Perfect Presentation: The Power Formula 32 6. The Strong Beginning 34 7. Forging a Powerful Message 44 8. Talking with Pictures 46 ii 9. The Conversational Approach 49 10. The Strong Finish 55 11. Getting the Message Across 61 12. Write Like You Speak—10 Important Rules to Live by 68 13. The Six Most Common Language Mistakes 81 Part 3. Delivery 14. How to Beat Fear 87 15. Avoiding Dangerous Speaking Traps 90 16. The 18-Minute Wall: Audience Attention Span 93 17. How to Capture Your Audience 96 18. Keep the Momentum Going 101 19. The Power of Silence 107 20. Your Image: Body Language and How to Dress 110 21. How to Read a Prepared Text Like a Pro (and Not Look Like You're 119 Reading) 22. When to Use Visual Aids 130 23. The Correct Use of Slides and Overheads 137 iii 24. Going by the Book: How to Make a Strong Book Presentation 155 25. How to control your presentation 161 26. A Special Mention about Overheads, Flip Charts, and Conference Room 172 Wall Presentations—and a Final Word about Visual Aids 27. After the Speech: The Art of Q&A 178 28. Dealing with the Media 184 29. Handling Hecklers 189 30. Training Yourself 193 31. What's It All Worth to You? 195 Index 199 iv A WORD IN ADVANCE The original "City Slickers" movie starring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance had Jack, the last of the old cowboys, and Billy, playing a dude ranch guest, riding off on their horses together. Suddenly Jack, as Curly, sticks his finger up in the air and says something like, "The secret of life is just one thing!" A skeptical Billy replies: ''Oh, and what might that be?" and Curly says, "That's for you to find out!" That little scene struck me, because if there is one thing I have learned in my business over the years it is this one thing: Just five minutes in front of the right audience can be worth more than a whole year behind your desk. That's why we owe it to ourselves to understand the impact of all kinds of communications in our businesses—because today more and more often our business is communications. So why settle for less than enhanced profitability, measurable efficiencies, more effective strategic planning and added value when we speak to people—any more than when we perform our jobs? What I am saying is that the formula for success is not necessarily all competence. The formula for success, as we will see shortly, is part competence and the rest the ability to articulate that competence—in a way that is not average or even predictable. Excellence in communication should be as routine as excellence in business performance. That's why personal communications training is, for most of my clients, just another business expense. Anyone who v understands the changes sweeping the world, recognizes that trying to cope with those changes with anemic or nonexistent communications skills, is like trying to run a road race in cement shoes. Think of what's happening: Restructuring, downsizing, process reengineering, total quality, best practices, economic value added, partnering, integrated diversity, continuous improvement, speed, benchmarking, de-layering, just-in- time inventory, cross-functional teamwork, empowerment, boundarylessness, common vision, entrepreneurism, and globalization. Audiences include: Employees, shareholders, peers, team members, new business prospects, congregations, conventions, boards, meetings, symposia, academia, panels, and partners. The dizzying corporate revolution of the 1990s will affect almost everyone alive today—and their children, and children's children. No one can predict if the revolution will ever end, fed as it is by a new standard of constant change. To deal with change, you've got to communicate—and to communicate, you've got to think. It almost goes without saying that if you want to speak crisply and intelligently—and who doesn't—first, you've got to have something to say. Not only something to say, but in fact if you're smartsand who doesn't want to be smart? —you've got to have a whole new architecture. That's what this book is about. You can call it a technology if you like, but I prefer to call it a whole new architecture—to help you quickly plan and think your way with ease and confidence through any communication—no matter how challenging. Of course, this book also tries to unravel the mysterious, sometimes bewildering business of public speaking. But more importantly, it explores all that happens even before we open our mouths—the very guts of our thinking process, the flesh and bones of our mind's work. This book is about productivity. About saving time. About being a better communicator. About planning for results and vi getting them. About new comprehension and surprising performance. About a part of everybody's life—daily communications—that affects every other part. It's about realizing a part of you that you may not have known was even there, and about reaching a potential you may not have imagined. When people call me, it's usually to help them speak. But in fact, I actually wind up also helping them think. In a sense, I help them design, build, furnish, and decorate an entire house. How we construct this "house" determines to a large extent how other people see us. The moment we open our mouths we begin to reveal our "house" and everything in it. The irony lies in the fact that most people don't realize we carry this "house" around with us everywhere we go. Most of us suffer from this forgivable naiveté. Yet throughout our lives, people form an opinion of us—almost from the moment we learn to speak. So it is in all of our interests to discover the house and all that comes with it. Everything you read in this book is intended to provide ammunition against the tyranny of terrrible talk that permeates every level of our corporate and civic lives. Those who master the speaking game will always have a much better shot at winning the battle of ascendancy. To that end, you can expect to get from this book simple, straightforward, and easy ways to make any speaking assignment more successful. Even though I am a consultant to major corporations, and many of the examples in this book are aimed at the business person, these new techniques are easy to use and remarkably effective for anyone who does public speaking and makes presentations. These include: Politicians, government bureaucrats, community activists, volunteers, fund-raisers, church speakers, or members of any social or civil organization. You should be able to spend less time planning, have more productive time talking, and know that your audience will get vii your message right the first time, every time. More than that, people will not only hear what you're saying, but actually leave the room and do what you want them to do. I am talking about a brand new way of looking at how you think and how you say what you are thinking. What, after all, does presentation mean? It means present information to people who want to be informed. It means seeing trends and changes and vital signs, then talking about them in such a way that people hear and remember what you say, and can take appropriate action, if necessary. Anything less would be a waste of time for speaker and listener alike. Tiny Tim, the uke-playing media darling in the 1970s, once said that you are what you eat. I would like to add to Tiny's wisdom by suggesting that you are what you say. You define your place in society by how you talk. We gain or lose status based on what we say and how we say it. Yet, we live in a world where our abilities to talk intelligently to one another seem to be declining. In a sense, we have almost decided to let our machines do our talking for us. Computers talk to us and to themselves. Faxes talk to faxes and where earlier in this century we used to talk, now we watch TV. Today, people who can speak on their feet, be crisp in meetings, or just engage in good conversation have a clear advantage. People in business and politics who can best promote their ideas also best promote themselves—whether they acutally intend to or not. For what good does it do us to be good managers, competent engineers, smart lawyers, and productive workers of any kind if we are unable to express ourselves in our own language? I predict that technology will never take the place of plain conversation—whether that conversation is two people talking, a group of people meeting, or just one person talking to hundreds, or maybe even millions of others. People see the articulate voice as the voice of reason and wisdom. He who talks well will more than likely do well. He who has good ideas and talks well will lead. viii Wonderful things happen when people talk face to face. Deals are made. Decisions are made. Obstacles are cast aside. Whatever the job, the job gets done face to face. A phone call can be more compelling than a letter, and a face to face meeting is always more compelling than a phone call—provided, in both cases, that you know how to marshal your thoughts and speak intelligently. Business leaders meeting face to face can cut a transaction in two minutes, where the same transaction might take a committee two years. I once shared an elevator with two CEOs of chemical companies who hadn't seen each other for a number of years. By the time they reached the 30th floor, they had agreed in principle to merge their corporations. Statesmen meet and things happen. History takes a sharp turn. Things happen. Read on. GRANVILLE N. TOOGOOD ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My sincere thanks to Bryan Mattimore, Jacques de Spoelberch, Jerry Gross, and Betsy Brown for their tireless editing contributions, and to Simon Johnson and John Oppanshaw of Stage Screen Productions for their help preparing visual aids graphics. Also to Fran Williams, who suffered through endless hours of typing and retyping, and my friend and associate, James Humes, for his uncommon wisdom, piercing intelligence, and unfailing sense of humor. x
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