Five foolproof tips for speaking brilliantly
15 February 2008
Read by 3211 persons
A missed meeting is not only wasted time but also demotivated employees. The Company asked professionals to reveal their "tricks", the ones that are a hit.
To avoid inflicting on your audience a meeting as "boring" as the ones you have endured so many times, read the following. Communication pros have explained how to start a presentation with a bang. No more improvisation. An opening speech requires as much preparation as a one-man show before the curtain rises.
To succeed in launching a meeting, you only have two minutes: the first two. If the participants disconnect, it's over! This fateful moment must therefore convince them that they are about to experience an important, energizing, instructive, even fun and enjoyable moment.
Quite an art!
1. Build rapport with your audience
A logistics manager, keen to explain a complex situation to novices, started with this analogy: "You've been stuck in traffic on the highway before. You've probably wondered why it was blocked then became fluid and stopped again. What's happening in our warehouses today is the same thing." Nothing like a metaphor drawn from everyday life or a personal anecdote to reach everyone. "It's a golden rule for focusing attention," emphasizes Catherine Sorzana, a trainer specializing in oral communication. In the same vein, you can play the affinity card. Guaranteed success if you identify the right connection with your audience. "Who plays golf in this room?" asks Frédérick Lecoq, marketing director of LG, to an assembly of Koreans, with a club in his hand. A third of the fingers go up. He continues: "Who is good at golf?" Half lower their hand. "Every good golfer knows that the club's upswing is as important as the downswing. The same is true in marketing. The preparation beforehand determines the success of an operation as much as its execution."
Another approach: self-deprecation. But your legitimacy in the company must be well established enough to avoid being the laughingstock of everyone. "I had, as always, written my four-page speech down to the comma," begins a usually cold and rigid manager. "But I changed my mind last night. For once, I decided to go without a net." This admission earned him the benevolent attention of his audience, reports Nathalie Bouscass, management consultant at Cegos.
2. Use humor, but subtly
The British are experts in this area. It's in their genes. The preparation of their speech focuses on the introductory joke. But pay attention to your audience and cultural differences if you try this delicate exercise. An American projected a photograph of his couple in swimwear on the beach to a French audience... It was a flop, whereas his compatriots would have loved it.
Leave the corny jokes in the closet and be inspired by the subtlety of Thierry Breton. His metaphor for explaining to Sciences Po students what the immaterial economy is is a classic example. A wealthy American woman enters the Christian Dior boutique on 5th Avenue and asks to see the hat collection. Surprise, there are none left! Christian Dior, who happens to be there, approaches her with a piece of red fabric and hairpins and makes her a magnificent headband, artfully crafted and sophisticated.
"How much do I owe you?" asks the customer.
"1,500 dollars," replies the master.
"1,500 dollars for a piece of fabric and three pins?" The couturier, furious, takes it all off and hands his customer a hat box where he throws the material pell-mell.
"A gift from the house! Goodbye, madam!" "That's what the immaterial is," concludes Thierry Breton. The Sciences Po students no longer need a drawing...
3. Play the sensational, the unexpected, the provocative
"The director of a computer group always opened his meetings by announcing that his decision was already made!" recalls Patrice Stern, professor at ESCP-EAP. Such a statement may have intrigued the participants, but it implicitly prevented any discussion. Start your presentation with a sensational announcement such as: "This year, our sales have increased by 20%!" Such an opening will invigorate the audience, provided the figures are correct.
In a more literary style, use THE quote that matches the theme of the day. Luc Teyssier, from Pygmalion Communication, advises writing it on the paper board to read it aloud, then let everyone meditate and finally express themselves on it.
More original is the introduction by Marcel Ducellier, sales and key account director at Still, intended to convey the idea of differentiation: "I drew a blue orange, then I told the story of the school teacher addressing her students: 'Today, I'm going to promote one of you. Draw me an orange.' Of the 30 students, 29 draw an orange fruit and only one a blue orange. He is the winner." Since then, the blue orange has become the symbol of Still's commercial philosophy.
4. Organize and play a small staging
Incarnate James Bond for a meeting... you wouldn't have thought of it. A sales director tried it during a convention with his new sales force. He arrived in a tuxedo, escorted by the marketing director disguised as Lara Croft, with the soundtrack of the famous agent 007 in the background. This audacity earned him the applause of the room, conquered before he even spoke!
Another champion of the stage: Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. His appearances against a background of thunderous music are reminiscent of Madonna's concerts. "I have four words to tell you," he shouts: "I - love - this - company!"
Being the show is the concept proposed by Luc Teyssier during his corporate training sessions. He was inspired by his experience with actors and stage directors. "Taking pleasure is a good way to give it," he says. If you lack talent, call on professionals. The NRG France management committee thus hired an improvisation league team to stage its new CFO. An actor played the role of the applicant for the position, whose surrealist speech frightened the entire room before it realized the deception. Good news: this kind of performance remains affordable with an average budget starting at 2,000 euros.
5. Throw the audience off balance or manipulate them
François-Xavier Demaison, an international tax specialist turned comedian, offers us one of his artist's techniques that he would use to throw his audience off balance during a meeting: "I would start normally, starting from a plausible situation, to move towards increasingly absurd things. Always in the same serious tone, until the audience realizes the improbability of my words."
"A clever manipulator, the head of a large company used to hold his meetings without chairs in the room! Everyone stayed standing," says Patrice Stern, a management expert. A good way to keep people awake. "Another," he adds, "opened the windows wide in the middle of winter with a ban on closing them." A practice worthy of totalitarian methods. Without going that far, take some inspiration from it!
Posted on February 13, 2008
L’entreprise
To avoid inflicting on your audience a meeting as "boring" as the ones you have endured so many times, read the following. Communication pros have explained how to start a presentation with a bang. No more improvisation. An opening speech requires as much preparation as a one-man show before the curtain rises.
To succeed in launching a meeting, you only have two minutes: the first two. If the participants disconnect, it's over! This fateful moment must therefore convince them that they are about to experience an important, energizing, instructive, even fun and enjoyable moment.
Quite an art!
1. Build rapport with your audience
A logistics manager, keen to explain a complex situation to novices, started with this analogy: "You've been stuck in traffic on the highway before. You've probably wondered why it was blocked then became fluid and stopped again. What's happening in our warehouses today is the same thing." Nothing like a metaphor drawn from everyday life or a personal anecdote to reach everyone. "It's a golden rule for focusing attention," emphasizes Catherine Sorzana, a trainer specializing in oral communication. In the same vein, you can play the affinity card. Guaranteed success if you identify the right connection with your audience. "Who plays golf in this room?" asks Frédérick Lecoq, marketing director of LG, to an assembly of Koreans, with a club in his hand. A third of the fingers go up. He continues: "Who is good at golf?" Half lower their hand. "Every good golfer knows that the club's upswing is as important as the downswing. The same is true in marketing. The preparation beforehand determines the success of an operation as much as its execution."
Another approach: self-deprecation. But your legitimacy in the company must be well established enough to avoid being the laughingstock of everyone. "I had, as always, written my four-page speech down to the comma," begins a usually cold and rigid manager. "But I changed my mind last night. For once, I decided to go without a net." This admission earned him the benevolent attention of his audience, reports Nathalie Bouscass, management consultant at Cegos.
2. Use humor, but subtly
The British are experts in this area. It's in their genes. The preparation of their speech focuses on the introductory joke. But pay attention to your audience and cultural differences if you try this delicate exercise. An American projected a photograph of his couple in swimwear on the beach to a French audience... It was a flop, whereas his compatriots would have loved it.
Leave the corny jokes in the closet and be inspired by the subtlety of Thierry Breton. His metaphor for explaining to Sciences Po students what the immaterial economy is is a classic example. A wealthy American woman enters the Christian Dior boutique on 5th Avenue and asks to see the hat collection. Surprise, there are none left! Christian Dior, who happens to be there, approaches her with a piece of red fabric and hairpins and makes her a magnificent headband, artfully crafted and sophisticated.
"How much do I owe you?" asks the customer.
"1,500 dollars," replies the master.
"1,500 dollars for a piece of fabric and three pins?" The couturier, furious, takes it all off and hands his customer a hat box where he throws the material pell-mell.
"A gift from the house! Goodbye, madam!" "That's what the immaterial is," concludes Thierry Breton. The Sciences Po students no longer need a drawing...
3. Play the sensational, the unexpected, the provocative
"The director of a computer group always opened his meetings by announcing that his decision was already made!" recalls Patrice Stern, professor at ESCP-EAP. Such a statement may have intrigued the participants, but it implicitly prevented any discussion. Start your presentation with a sensational announcement such as: "This year, our sales have increased by 20%!" Such an opening will invigorate the audience, provided the figures are correct.
In a more literary style, use THE quote that matches the theme of the day. Luc Teyssier, from Pygmalion Communication, advises writing it on the paper board to read it aloud, then let everyone meditate and finally express themselves on it.
More original is the introduction by Marcel Ducellier, sales and key account director at Still, intended to convey the idea of differentiation: "I drew a blue orange, then I told the story of the school teacher addressing her students: 'Today, I'm going to promote one of you. Draw me an orange.' Of the 30 students, 29 draw an orange fruit and only one a blue orange. He is the winner." Since then, the blue orange has become the symbol of Still's commercial philosophy.
4. Organize and play a small staging
Incarnate James Bond for a meeting... you wouldn't have thought of it. A sales director tried it during a convention with his new sales force. He arrived in a tuxedo, escorted by the marketing director disguised as Lara Croft, with the soundtrack of the famous agent 007 in the background. This audacity earned him the applause of the room, conquered before he even spoke!
Another champion of the stage: Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. His appearances against a background of thunderous music are reminiscent of Madonna's concerts. "I have four words to tell you," he shouts: "I - love - this - company!"
Being the show is the concept proposed by Luc Teyssier during his corporate training sessions. He was inspired by his experience with actors and stage directors. "Taking pleasure is a good way to give it," he says. If you lack talent, call on professionals. The NRG France management committee thus hired an improvisation league team to stage its new CFO. An actor played the role of the applicant for the position, whose surrealist speech frightened the entire room before it realized the deception. Good news: this kind of performance remains affordable with an average budget starting at 2,000 euros.
5. Throw the audience off balance or manipulate them
François-Xavier Demaison, an international tax specialist turned comedian, offers us one of his artist's techniques that he would use to throw his audience off balance during a meeting: "I would start normally, starting from a plausible situation, to move towards increasingly absurd things. Always in the same serious tone, until the audience realizes the improbability of my words."
"A clever manipulator, the head of a large company used to hold his meetings without chairs in the room! Everyone stayed standing," says Patrice Stern, a management expert. A good way to keep people awake. "Another," he adds, "opened the windows wide in the middle of winter with a ban on closing them." A practice worthy of totalitarian methods. Without going that far, take some inspiration from it!
Posted on February 13, 2008
L’entreprise
