Keep your words short, please

Delivering speeches is not about showing off your extensive vocabulary. There's no need to try to impress audiences with the length of words that you know. Consider the following paragraph from Richard Dowis, author of "The Lost Art of the Great Speech"; 

"Short words can make us feel good. They can run and jump and dance and soar high in the clouds. They can kill the chill of a cold night and help keep us cool on a hot day. They fill our hearts with joy, but can bring tears to our eyes as well. Small words of love can move us, charm us, lull us to sleep. Short words give us light and hope and peace and love and health - and a lot more good things. A small word can be as sweet as the taste of a ripe pear, or tart like plum jam."

 

Each word in that paragraph is just one syllable, yet they still have the power to evoke powerful feelings and strong emotions. Speechwriters know that short, simple words are often the most powerful elements of great speeches, and brilliant speakers know that too. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson : "An orator is never successful until they learn to make their words smaller than their ideas"

 

When you prepare a speech, look at the words you are using. Could they be simpler? Is there a way of expressing your ideas in shorter words? You may well find that the impact is more powerful when you trim it down.

TeamGB medallists offered speaking boost

The following press release is being sent out today on behalf of the Professional Speaking Association, of which I am proud to be a board member. Feel free to share it widely through your networks:


TeamGB Olympic medallists offered speaking boost

Every TeamGB medallist at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics is being offered one-year complimentary membership of the Professional Speaking Association (PSA), including the opportunity to attend all conferences and regional events. PSA President Derek Arden said “We are aware that some medallists will wish to move from sport to speaking. As the professional body for speakers in the UK, we are offering them help to make that career transition easier”.

PSA member and three times Olympic medallist Kriss Akabusi said “When I retired from sport I wanted to capitalize on my success by joining the speaking circuit. Being a member of the PSA, with all the incredible advice and support, has helped my speaking career enormously. I hope to see some of our great competitors become great speakers by joining Team PSA”

TeamGB medallists from both the Olympic and Paralympic games are invited to contact the PSA to receive their complimentary associate memberships by emailing admin@professionalspeaking.biz, or phoning 0845 3700 504

Practice your dismount

The gymnasts at the Olympics have performed some extraordinary routines, and it's quite beyond me to judge how well they are performing. However, along with you, there's one part of the routine that I can make an assessment of, and that's the dismount. It's clear that their landing has to be as solid as possible, without a step forward or back, and especially without falling over. 



The end of a media interview is a bit like that. It's something that everyone listening and watching can take a view on. If you're hesitant, or mix up your words, people will notice, and form an opinion accordingly. No matter how well you perform in the rest of the interview, if you mess up the ending, much of the impact will be lost. 

Practice of course is the key. You need to have an exit line that you can deliver powerfully without hesitation. You may have only a few seconds, so your message needs to be short and punchy. It also needs to resonate with the audience, so should be a repetition of the main point of the interview.

Land your dismount well, and the interview will be a success. 

Raise your Twitter game

Here are a few tips to boost your game on Twitter: 

1) Make your replies more visible. When you reply to someone on Twitter, your tweet is automatically preceded with their name and the "@" symbol. Twitter is now setup so that only people following both sides of the conversation see that tweet. To make it visible to all your followers, simply precede it by a full stop, like this ".@mediacoach". The reply will still get to the recipient, but it will also be visible to everyone else, who may also join the conversation. 

2) 140 is too many. Though the Twitter limit of 140 characters seems tight, train yourself to use around 120 instead. That makes your tweets re-tweetable, since the extra characters are needed for your name and any comment by the re-tweeter. Make it as easy as possible for people to share your tweets by sticking to a lower limit. 

3) Tell the whole story. Remember that your followers may not see the entire conversation, so may not understand what you are referring to. Ensure that you include the context in your tweets to get more engagement.

4) Include a link. If you want your tweet to be passed on, including a link to an article, picture or video increases the chances. Aim to include at least some tweets with links in your conversations.

Sir Steve Redgrave in the MediaCoach Radio Show

This week's show features the usual mix of media, speaking and social media tips, plus music from Lisbee Stainton and an interview with Sir Steve Redgrave.

Speaking Tip: Pace yourself

Winners aren't the ones who set off at a hundred miles an hour and then run out of steam. Nor are they people who start very slowly and then work like mad at the end. They are people who know how to pace themselves steadily through an event, so that they finish with a flourish, but are always in the race. 

One of the most common faults that I notice in inexperienced speakers is the tendency to speak too quickly. That may be due to nerves, or to a wish to get the speech over as quickly as possible. The trouble is, you may be speaking faster than your audience is thinking, which means that your message will not get across. 

You need to consider the pace at which you deliver your words. Here are a few tips:

• Always rehearse your speech out loud before delivery
• Include enough material to take up 80% of your allocated time - live speaking always "expands"
• If you finish a few minutes early, no-one will mind
• If you stumble over words or phrases, you're going too fast
• Vary your pace to maintain interest
• Build in gaps, such as images or short videos
• If your audience looks confused, go back and explain. You have time
• If you look likely to run out of time, drop something, don't speed up
• Never rush through slides. Learn how to skip them.
• Finish slowly and clearly

Stephen Covey interview

This week's show features an interview recorded a couple of years ago with Stephen Covey, plus reminiscences from his one-time assistant, Julie Hillyard, speaking just after Stephen's death last week.

Social media oils the wheels, Face-to-face seals the deals

There's a lot said about online versus offline networking. Some prefer one over the other, and some, like me, see the benefits of both approaches. It's my observation, however, that getting face-to-face with someone, shaking their hand and looking into their eyes tells you far more about them than a Tweet or a Facebook message can ever do.

We all know that trust is the key to successful relationships, both in and out of business. Building trust online is time-consuming and fragile, but then so is building an offline relationship. What seems important is regular contact, constantly demonstrating that you are not only trustworthy but also loyal.

I often find that business relationships  that lead to paid work happen in one of two ways:

1) Starting with a real-world meeting, followed up by an email, and then kept going by regular social networking messages. A few more meetings follow, before a deal is agreed with a handshake.

2) Starting with an online connection, followed up over a matter of months with social networking messages, before a meeting or two, leading to the handshake on the deal.

Of course, some people conduct all their business online, and never meet their customers at all. That works for commodity-based businesses, but is much more tricky for professional services.  Skype is also of great value in relationship building, particularly with video. It bridges the gap between online and offline, and is almost (but not quite) as good as face-to-face.

So for me, and maybe for you too, social media oils the wheels, and face-to-face seals the deals.

Nick ...... Buckles

The writers of the brilliant TV show Twenty-Twelve couldn't have made up a character like Nick Buckles, or the level of fiasco caused by G4S. It's beyond parody.

Facing a panel of MPs, Mr Buckles looked ill-prepared and confused, which is exactly the image that his company G4S now has. He was asked by Labour MP David Winnick whether the problems of G4S represented a "humiliating shambles for the company", Mr Buckles responded: "I could not disagree with you." He also remarked that keeping track of the 100,000 job applicants had proved to be "a challenge". He admitted that he couldn't be sure how many of the 7,000 staff contracted to provide security at the games would turn up on the opening day. There have already been examples of huge shortfalls of security staff at several pre-games events, requiring either police or army personnel to fill the gap at very short notice.

Remarkably, Mr Buckles admitted that his company regarded security contract as a vanity project with little prospect of a profit. He's been proved right on that one. He also said "We did it to boost our reputation". Wrong there, then. However, he feels that G4S is entitled to keep their £57 million management fee. Hands up who agrees. No-one at all, then.

This won't be an end to the matter. It beggars belief that it took until a few weeks before the games until someone in the Government learned that there was a problem. As it happens, the influx of army and police personnel may strengthen, rather than weaken security, and there are some who argue this was always the desired outcome. I'm not so sure. It seems to me that someone knew a lot more than they have so far admitted. Heads will most certainly roll. I suspect that several government ministers seated in the Olympic stadium in the next few weeks will spend more time looking over their shoulders than watching the athletes.

Lastly, apparently no-one thought of asking Mr Buckles about the rumour that the G4S staff party, due to be held in a local brewery, has had to be cancelled due to lack of bar staff.

Anti-social networking

With all the attention paid to social networking, there's been little focus on its related discipline, anti-social networking. Here are a few tips to make sure that you know how to be busy online for no gain and little profit (I first published a few tips several years ago - this is an expanded list):


1) Promote yourself relentlessly, at all times. Make sure that every message is a selling one, so that your friends and followers understand what you are really about.


2) Never offer help. Why give away something that people should pay you for?


3) Re-send messages from experts, to give the impression that you have the same thoughts. Occasionally "forget" to mention their name to reinforce this impression.


4) Hide your identity behind a silly name or jumble of letters. You don't want to end up on a spammers list, do you?


5) Try to get as many people to follow you as possible, but ignore them completely. They are just your potential customers, so they have nothing to offer you.


6) Cut and paste articles and pretend that you wrote them (or at least hint at it by making it hard to spot the name of the original author).


7) Automate everything so that you never have to be at your computer, There are better things to do than listen to the dull conversations in social networks.


8) Constantly promote money-making schemes that you don't use yourself (because they don't work). You can make loads of money selling these as an affiliate.


9) Insult and abuse others, to damage their reputations and reduce their chance of getting work.


10) Never miss an opportunity to tell people that they are doing it wrong, and you are doing it right. They will get the message eventually, and give up, leaving you the winner.


There you go. If you follow these rules on a daily basis, your business will change dramatically. However, it will get worse rather than better, so why not do the opposite of all these tips instead?

John Terry - innocent of racism, guilty of sarcasm

So John Terry was guilty after all, but only of sarcasm. At Westminster Magistrates' Court this afternoon, he was found not guilty of a racially-aggravated public order offence by allegedly making a racist remark to Anton Ferdinand in a Premiership game last year.

There was no doubt that he used the words f***ing black c**t in an on-pitch exchange. Even people like me who aren't professional lip-readers could see that. The question was the context. John Terry argued that he was repeating the phrase sarcastically in order to deny saying it, and the prosecution argued that he meant it as a racist insult. Mr Terry's argument was found to be the more credible.

So that's it then?  Everyone shakes hands and we move on? Well maybe. The level of insults that are exchanged between players has surprised some people, even though this kind of thing has been happening for decades, and not just in football. The issue is the example that this type of behaviour sets for millions of youngsters who idolise sporting heroes. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if copycat behaviour was happening in playgrounds around the country.

With dozens of cameras trained on every top-class sporting event, and instant analysis from experts of every incident, players need to be aware of the impact of their behaviour. Presumably the point of the insults is to upset an opponent and put them off their game. If everyone is doing it, the value seems to be limited. Perhaps in addition to goal-line technology, legislators could require every player to wear a wireless mike. Insults would stop immediately, though football matches might end up looking like a Steps reunion concert. It might be worth it (perhaps as an experiment it could be an extra requirement of Rangers re-admission to the third division of Scottish football).

Come on guys. We pay your wages. Show a little more respect.

You versus John Humphreys or Jeremy Paxman

What do you do when faced by combative journalists like Jeremy Paxman or John Humphreys? Here's some advice. 

Many interviews are straightforward conversations with a clear beginning, middle and end. However, there will be occasions when you could be caught out if you didn't keep your wits about you. Being aware of what might happen will ensure that you will never 
be ambushed. Here's what I mean: 

1) The silent assassin If there are two journalists in the studio (often a breakfast or drive-time show), only one will usually conduct the interview. The other may appear disinterested, looking at their notes, or listening to the producer in their earpiece. As you answer the last question and relax, the other journalist will spring to life, and say "just one more question on a different subject if I may". This is a favourite tactic of John Humphreys. You need to stay alert, otherwise you could fumble your answer. 

2) The sand-filled sock You may be hit with a sudden heavily-weighted question right at the end of your interview. For example, it could include an assumption or assertion that is untrue, leaving you only a few seconds to respond. You must make sure that you deny any untrue accusation, even by just using the words "That's untrue", before delivering your brief core message. 

3) The technical hitch You sail through the interview, deliver your message, and avoid any tricky questions. As you lean back to relax while the recording is being checked, you mention to the interviewer how glad you were not to be asked about THAT topic. A message comes through that the recording didn't work properly, and you need to do it all again. You can guess the first question. 

4) The repeated question Michael Howard was asked the same question twelve times by Jeremy Paxman. Mr Howard refused to give a direct answer, but became increasingly uneasy. What should you do in a similar position? Relax. Smile. Stick to your core message. Better still, respond with a question of your own - "What would you do if..."

5) The downright insult  Ignore it or swiftly dismiss it. Jeremy Paxman's final question to Chloe Smith, Treasury Minister, a few weeks ago was "Do you ever think you are incompetent?" She replied: "I think it is valuable to help real people in this way and I do think that is valued by people who drive.". Her answer should have been one word. "No".


The moral of all this, of course, is never to relax until you're safe at home. And get some training, of course.

O2, Oh dear.

O2's slogan "We're better connected" has a hollow ring (pun intended) for the tens of thousands of their frustrated customers who lost service yesterday, and are still unconnected. Of course, problems can happen, but the issue here, piling irony on irony, seems to be one of communication.

A spokesman for O2 said last night that he had no information on how many customers were affected, what was causing the outage or when it would be fixed. That's not exactly a helpful statement, even though it may be true. He added “We are currently seeing a problem on our network affecting some of our customers. Those customers affected will have difficulty making or receiving calls, sending texts or using data". That's a great example of non-communication, telling people what they already know.

We're seeing a common theme here with large and complex technology systems, from banks to phone companies. As more features are added to the systems, the likelihood of failure seems to increase, and the number of people who understand how to fix things decreases.

So what's to be done? Clearly, system testing is something that may have been undercooked. In terms of customer service, the performance of O2, Barclays and Nat West has simply not been good enough. Their CEOs should be taking responsibility by making a statement as soon as the problem is identified, reassuring customers that everything is being done to fix the problem, and offering to compensate them for any inconvenience.

Problems can, and will occur. They are made much worse by ignoring the concerns of customers.

Do one thing really, really well. That's it.

If you're a successful business, the temptation to broaden your appeal, by offering new goods and services, often becomes overwhelming. I remember the days when Boots was just a chemist, and Tesco just a supermarket. A strange affliction seems to come over people on social media too. They want to respond to every request, offer their services to anyone who asks, and continually add courses to their training portfolios. 

The thing is, people like simplicity. If they come to your Facebook page and can't figure out exactly what your business is, they will go somewhere else. That's why I am always amazed at sole traders (who often us the giveaway tag "....and associates") who offer a bewildering range of services, most of which they probably never deliver. 

If you want to run a different business, set up a different page and profile. It's easy and it's cheap. By all means link your pages together. Don't offer a smörgåsbord of products unless you're a Swedish delicatessen.