SEARCH

Search

Explore

Blog
Podcast
Free Live Event
Self-Assessment
Manifesto
Book

Work with me

Connect

SUBSCRIBE

Search
Close this search box.

How cool is that?

“How cool is that? I can speak about my idea for 30 minutes and everyone’s going to listen? Wow! This is great. Let’s get to work. I want to make sure that this is going to be the best presentation we ever did.”

Well, sadly, this was a rather unusual way of looking at things. More realistically, reactions are often more like this:

“What? Thursday? Impossible! I still have to write that report plus a bunch of meetings. How long did you say? 30 minutes? Phew. Martin, you did a similar presentation the other day. Can you send it to me? Let’s see whether I can just wing it from there. Yes, Wednesday is fine. I won’t have time to prepare, anyway.”

Crazy, isn’t it? And yet, it’s the typical reaction.

But honestly: Where else do you get 30 minutes of exclusive attention from an entire audience other than with a presentation?

So, what are you going to do with it the next time this opportunity opens up for you?

Why people feel uncomfortable in public speaking

The most common reason for people to feel uncomfortable with their way of communicating is that they use words they don’t believe in.

For all sorts of reasons.

Some speak to professionally designed slides that look beautiful but are out of touch with their personality. The agency just didn’t get them and so it’s out of sync with what they really want to convey.

Others don’t really trust that their story resonates. They are unsure what really matters to their audience. Which translates to their body language so that their audience can’t find trust in their words, either.

Some tend to use an overly formal way of speaking because that’s supposed to be the professional way. It leads to stiff language that’s out of sync with how they feel.

Others lack a feeling of clarity so that they are unsure that their audience gets their point. The least sign of misunderstanding on someone’s face leads them to become even more nervous.

When you don’t really trust in the words you use to have the impact you seek, it shows. Training for better body language is one way to deal with it. But a very tedious one. (And often in vain.)

A much better approach is to take one step back and work on your story. Improve clarity. Work hard to find empathy. Find your own voice. And Brief your partners accordingly.

Finding a story that you trust in yourself so that you speak words you believe in about the things you deeply care about is the best way to feel more comfortable with the way you communicate.

So, the next time you feel uncomfortable speaking up, ask yourself whether you’re about to use words that you truly believe in. If not, work on the words first.

Embracing weaknesses

In school we learn that it’s best to have no weak spots.

In real life, however, it turns out that acknowledging our weak spots allow us to really let our strengths shine.

Here’s a great example from Transfer Wise (now know as Wise), an international money transfer service, who once published this customer experience on their site (emphasis mine):

“Great exchange rates, much better than the competition. The transfer could be a bit faster. For me it took five business days to get my funds.“

Being razor sharp about the fact that “fast” is a weak spot, Wise gains two things:

Simplified decision making. By focusing on one priority rather than juggling two (or more) priorities, they avoid the struggle to decide which of the two is the real priority for any given situation. “Cheap” is their top priority, not “fast”. Always. Whenever they face a choice between two services, one of which is quicker while the other is cheaper, the decision makes itself.

Clear positioning. By being upfront about their priority they filter their customers. If you care for fast, they might not be for you, but if you care for cheap, they clearly are.

Even more: By surfacing their weak spot, they reinforce their strong spot. They will compromise everything else for being the cheapest and they have no problem telling you so.

It’s about time to ditch the school approach to weaknesses.

Nobody’s perfect in a wider range of areas. Nobody can be.

Pretending to be is lying (in the worst case, even to yourself).

Acknowledging our weaknesses, even embracing them, allows us to let our strengths shine. When we can’t have it all, then setting a priority, doing it consciously, and being upfront about it, is – in my experience – a much healthier approach than trying to hide our weaknesses.

(And while we’re at it, why not stop associating “weaknesses” with failures.)

Inciting action

The beauty of books is that you can live other people’s lives. The beauty of dreams is that you can live a different version of your own life.

None is the life you actually live.

If you want to change that, you’ll have to take action.

This is the point where great stories deliver more than good stories.

They encourage – if not require – us to take action. Great stories don’t stop at just showing us a different life. They lead us to a point of no return. A point where we can’t unsee what the story made us see. A point where the desire to live that different life has grown tremendously – to a degree that it creates tension. Tension that can only be relieved if we take action.

I would love to hear which stories did that for you.

In the moment

The best camera is the one you have with you. For most of us that’s our phone, nowadays. I’m glad that these cameras are at a level that allows me to capture beautiful scenes like the ones below from our family trip. We took a few days off to relax, go for some walks, and enjoy just being in the moment.

Here are some impressions from that trip.

Let’s meet for a doing

Meetings are corporate hell. Let’s switch to doings instead. What’s the difference?

Meetings have an agenda, doings have a goal.

Meetings are about conversations, doings about results.

In a meeting, we commit to what we want to do. In a doing we commit to what we do.

When a meeting is over, the work starts. When a doing is over, the work is done.

There is tremendous value in bringing people together in a room, on- or offline, and have them co-create solutions for our problems. Trouble starts when we stop short of creating something. When we meet just for the sake of it … because we always meet on that day … and it’s all words and no result.

When scheduling your next meeting, I suggest that rather than starting with “What will we talk about?” you start by asking “What will we do?”.

The “pocket” is underappreciated

When marketers rave about one of the greatest ad slogans of all time, they tend to overlook the most important piece.

I’m speaking of the iPod ad: A thousand songs in your pocket.

A lot has been said about how brilliant it was to translate 3GB into 1000 songs. Because what’s 3GB, right? It can’t be overstated how much better 1000 songs is than the default tech slogan of “The 3GB MP3 player”.

And yet, the “pocket” is way underappreciated.

If the slogan ran like this: “The MP3 player that carries a thousand songs.” … it would still be better than “The 3GB MP3 player” … but not even close to Apple’s version.

What the “pocket” does is that it translates the slogan into a story. With this device, you can carry your whole music library (back then) in your pocket. It’s not about the device at all, neither 3GB nor MP3 (or AAC, for that matter).

It’s about you! You are going to have your entire music library with you. How cool is that?

Now, how does your product transform your customers life? Don’t stop at translating the numbers. Translate it into a story that relates to our life.

What do you mean?

Imagine you meet a good friend of yours for a beer. You tell them about your newest idea.

As they respond with a blank stare, you try a different way of explaining the idea because it’s like Google just for screws. (Or whatever it is in your case.)

In a 1:1 conversation we’re brilliant at coming up with analogies like that. We naturally find simple words to explain complex things. We use examples from our partner’s domain so they can easily translate what we mean.

Back in the meeting room, we forget everything about that. We stick with abstract language and generic, eloquent sounding words – because, well, that’s the professional thing to do.

I don’t think that’s true. I feel like the professional thing to do is to speak with clarity. Using words our audience can relate to and easily understand.

Private conversations are a great way to practice that. Taking what we learn there back into our professional world often leads to way clearer language than the alleged professional language we’re used to in meeting rooms.

How did you brighten someone’s day today?

Did you say a word of appreciation to someone who needed to hear it?

Did you give to someone more than you needed to give?

Did you smile when they entered the room?

Did you call someone who missed you?

Did you encourage someone to say “no” to something that deeply troubled him?

Did you encourage someone to say “yes” to something she couldn’t find the courage to agree to herself?

When was the last time that this someone was you?

Settling with second best

A lot of doors open up when you are willing to settle with second best. Many of these doors never get within reach when you are unwilling to settle with anything less than perfect.

The art, of course, is in deciding what the areas are that you are never going to compromise.

When you have clarity about that, it’s a lot easier to see where second best is actually better than never opening the door.

Spread the Word

Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz