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Relevance beats elegance

If I can’t relate to a speaker’s words, it doesn’t matter how beautiful their slides are, how elaborate their body language is, or how creative their storytelling is.

It might be nice but it’s also pointless.

If, on the other hand, they manage to make it highly relevant, I will tolerate an ugly slide or two and a little nervousness.

In other words, work on your story’s relevance before you begin to work on the show.

The good news is that when it’s relevant, a great show will only amplify the impact.

How exciting is your pitch deck?

If you’re not excited by your pitch deck, chances are your audience won’t be, either.

It’s something that has always baffled me: how far some people will go to defend a mediocre presentation with rational arguments when there’s a very simple metric to decide whether you’ve nailed it:

Does it make you feel excited?

If it doesn’t, there’s no use in arguing that it contains all the facts. Or that it’s logically structured.

If all of that is true and it still doesn’t make you feel excited, it means that your story isn’t working.

Sometimes, it’s indeed because the facts aren’t right, but in my experience it’s much more often the words people use to speak about the facts that aren’t right.

How about your pitch? Are you excited by it?

Feels right

Some narratives just

won’t go away.
Why?

The data is clear.
Yet people believe the lie.
But why?

Because it feels right.
That’s why.

People aren’t good at feeling data.

That’s why it’s hard to compete on facts with a story that resonates on an emotional level.

If something feels right, we’re pretty good at coming up with good reasons for why it is right. If something just is right but feels wrong, that’s much harder.

Have you had that experience?
How did you deal with it?

Should you give that talk?

A single “yes” to one of these questions might be enough of a reason to go for it:

Will the ideas you share make a profound difference in your audience’s life?

Is your story inconvenient but your audience needs to hear it?

Can you grow personally by preparing for, showing up, or speaking up at this event?

Does the thought of standing on that stage make you feel excited?

Is there a reasonable chance your insights could spark meaningful conversations within the audience?

Are you providing a voice for those who cannot speak up in this context?

Will sharing your experiences or knowledge help others navigate their challenges more effectively?

What would you add?

Finding the right words matters so much

Great storytelling fuels influence.
Which is good, bad, and ugly … some thoughts on how to deal with bullshitters:

If you manage to tell a story that resonates well with many people, you can make a huge impact.

The good is that this power is available to everyone.

The bad is that “everyone” includes the bullshitters.

The ugly is that bullshitters often wield storytelling as a tool to manipulate or mislead, rather than to enlighten or entertain. They shamelessly ignore the truth. It’s just not a concept that matters to them.

The only question that matters to a bullshitter is:
Does the story work to their advantage?
When it works it’s just fine. True or not.

Now, this is important to understand: They are not exactly lying. In order to lie, they would need to care for the truth. Which they don’t. They are simply not interested in the truth. They are only interested in achieving their goals.

Here’s where people get it wrong: They assume that bullshitters would be similar to themselves. That deep inside even a bullshitter would care for the truth. That they just need to be convinced of the facts.

But that’s not how bullshitters roll.

They don’t care about the truth.
Therefore, they don’t care about facts.
Therefore, they can’t be convinced by facts, no matter how hard you try.

Bullshitters care about whether it works. Nothing else matters to them. Again: They couldn’t care less about whether they are right or wrong.

If a story resonates, they will tell it.
If a made-up story resonates better,
they will switch to that story.

You shouldn’t treat them as similar to you. They are not. Unlike yourself, they have no sympathy for the truth.

The only thing that can make make them stop what they’re doing is when their story stops working.

And that, essentially, means that you need to tell better stories.

You need to find a way to tell the truth in a way that resonates stronger than the bullshitter’s made-up story.

That, I think, is the only way.

And it’s why – in times like ours – finding the right words matters so much.

Telling stories is something that bullshitters really excel at. You need to become better at it.

For example … 

… when bullshitters are extraordinarily good at making their audience feel heard, you need to become even better at understanding people’s struggles and desires.

… when bullshitters promise the blue from the skies, you need to become even better at finding words that resonate strongly but that are grounded in the truth.

In other words, we need to shift our focus away from trying to convince the bullshitter (which is never going to work) and onto the people we want to resonate with.

The more empathy we have for them, the better our stories can become.

The better our stories become, the better they can spread.

The better they spread, the bigger their impact.

That flavor of impact starts with empathy, honesty, and the will to find the right words.

If you care for the truth and want it to have impact, you need to care for finding true stories that resonate strongly.

What’s your strategy of dealing with bullshit?

The other side of listening

Listening is mostly considered to be about filtering the most out of what’s being said. But there’s another side to it.

Being listened to.

It changes the conversation profoundly.

Try to think back to a situation where someone made you feel listened to?

How did you feel?
What changed for you?
In the way you opened up?
Which turn did the conversation take?

It feels very much like a gift, doesn’t it?

Great leaders often excel at it. They’re not only good listeners in the sense that they are aware of what’s being said. They’re also good at giving others that feeling of being listened to.

They truly give their full attention.

Who gave you that gift recently? What can you learn from them?

PS: One could even argue that you’re only really listening when it gives the speaker the feeling of being heard.

The WOW vs. AHA Matrix

We can all agree that you never want to be in the bottom left quadrant.

But surprisingly, there are strong proponents for the top left and bottom right quadrants.

The genius who refuses to make an impact sits in the top left. They have huge talent and brilliant ideas but they are wasting their talent because they can’t get people to pay attention to their ideas. Worse, they almost refuse to get bigger attention because they insist that

  • “this is how our customers expect it”,
  • “WOW” is a trickster skill of the show-offs,
  • “getting attention” equals “click bait”, and
  • “great work will prevail”.

They’ll never make it to the top right.

In the bottom right sits the show-off who dazzles the audience but lacks substance. They are brilliant at getting their audience’s attention but leave them short of a profound insight. Worse, they almost refuse to make an impact because they insist that

  • “this is how it’s done”,
  • “how you say it is more important than what you say”,
  • “people are bored by the details”, and
  • “we need more bang”.

They’ll never make it to the top right, either.

Here’s the thing:

Without attention, people won’t hear your story.
Without substance, your story won’t make an impact.

The point is that this is not either-or. You need both.

WOW opens the mind. AHA changes the mind.

Keep lighting the path and make a bigger impact!

Things your audience does during a presentation

Tick all boxes that apply:

□ listen carefully to every single word
□ look the speaker up on LinkedIn
□ catch up on this morning’s emails
□ surf Instagram
□ try to match what’s being said to own experience
□ sleep
□ prepare to ask a question
□ flirt
□ doodle/take notes
□ mentally rate the presentation on a scale from 0 to 10
□ imagine giving the presentation themselves and how they’d do it differently
□ make a photograph of a slide
□ make a selfie
□ fact check a claim the speaker made
□ …

The list goes on.

The important question is:

What do you want your audience to do during your next presentation?

And how do you create the conditions to make that happen?

Well done

How often do you personally hear “Well done!”?
It’s not something a leader hears very often, is it?

Leaders are supposed to be the ones giving team members recognition for their achievements.

But they are seldom on the receiving end.

Well, as the saying goes, if you need someone to praise you, you’re probably in the wrong place as a leader.

And yet.

That doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t feel good to hear a word of appreciation at times; not to feed your ego but as an acknowledgement that you – just as everyone else – thrives on being seen.

So.

When was the last time you gave some recognition to one of your peers in the leadership team?

When was the last time you said “Good job!” to one of them?

When was the last time you saw your peers and appreciated that they deal with struggles, challenges and opportunities all the time … and do it well.

Sure, that won’t put you on the receiving end. But it puts those in that spot who are likely to be in a similar situation.

It’s a gesture that costs little but can yield immense benefits in terms of morale, motivation, and the overall health of the organizational culture.

Culture might only change very slowly. But it starts with a first step.

Who will you reach out to today?

Swift action needed

It’s not that bad leaders are similar to good leaders, just less effective.

Bad leaders are much better thought of as the opposite of good leaders. They destroy the morale of a team and frustrate the members to a degree that leads to struggles and fights, greed and envy.

The same is true for a number of business related jobs.

A bad accountant isn’t slower, they make a mess of the books.

A bad marketer doesn’t spend a bigger budget, they burn the budget.

A bad speaker doesn’t need more time to explain things, they confuse the audience.

If you recognize any of this happening in your team, swift action is needed.

How do you deal with this?

Spread the Word

Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz