Episode #395: A Tale Of Three Speakers In Tokyo

What an interesting panel discussion we had. Georg Loer, an old friend of mine, after 17 years running NRW Global which stands for North Rhine Westphalia, was handing over the reins to Carolina Kawakubo. The guest panellist was Jesper Koll, a very well-known economist here in Tokyo. All three have been guests on my podcast Japan’s Top Business Interviews with Carolina #19, Georg #83 and Jesper #87. An interesting contrast in presentation styles on display that evening.

Jesper is a very accomplished speaker. He has developed his own style and is quite distinct. He brings a lot of energy, wit and solid data to his talks. Normally, his talks are a walk through his slide deck where he has assembled very interesting data on what is happening in Japan and he always brings some fresh insights to the statistics. On this occasion, there were no slides supporting what he was saying, so I was interested to see how he would approach it.

This is important, because as a speaker, if we are too reliant on the visuals for the navigation and the IP, then we can get into trouble if there is a tech glitch or we aren’t able to marshal our argument without the deck. Tech problems are always a possibility, so I suggest you just print them out and bring them with you. If the slides can’t be seen, you at least can see what you would have shown and can talk to the points. The audience can’t see them and please do not hold them up, as I have seen one memorably bad speaker do. You can grasp the main point of the slide and then just talk to that point.

Jesper, always the consummate professional, just listed the numbers off from his prodigious memory. He could paint word pictures for us, without needing to reference any screen. Now if you are like me and can’t even spell “prodigious” let alone claim such a memory, you can just note down some key numbers on notes. Don’t read the notes to us, but certainly consult them. No one in the audience is going to jump to their feet and denounce you as a charlatan and fraud for having to consult your notes.

Jesper has also come up with an aggressive technique with his audiences using rhetorical questions. He will wander over to some poor unsuspecting member of the audience seated there in front of him, and towering over them, ask them a very detailed specific question. The trick with a rhetorical question is the person on the receiving end can’t know if this is an actual question they need to answer or whether it is a question, the speaker is about to answer on their own. The panic which ensues with the audience members ensures everyone stays awake and alert when Jesper is speaking. He always rescues the audience member and supplies the answer to their massive relief.

Georg was very avuncular that evening. He has a quiet, calm manner anyway, and he was clearly giving the stage and baton to Carolina as his successor. He even dressed down, with just trousers, a white, short-sleeved shirt and casual shoes. No suit, no tie – very informal and a clever visual signal that the stage belongs to Carolina now. He spoke with that quiet confidence of having done every aspect of this investment and trade promotion work for nearly two decades and having nothing to prove and no need to impress. He knows his stuff and applied a very intimate conversational tone for that assembly of friends and supporters that evening. This very personal approach brings his audience to him as he is projecting we are all one big team here, you and I.

Carolina was such a contrast with some senior executives I spoke about recently in episode #393. They were vying with each other for selection and had two minutes to introduce themselves and sell their advocacy to the voting audience. One of them couldn’t manage that much and had to read his introduction to us.

By contrast, she was so professional. She was dressed for the occasion in a dark suit to add credibility to her talk. No notes, of course and speaking with great confidence. It is no easy thing to follow on from someone who has been in that same position for 17 years and who everyone in the audience knows intimately. Confidence is such an important element for the speaker. That sound in our voice that we know what we are doing and who we are is transmitted straight to the audience and they receive our signal. She did a great job, said the right things and said them in the right way. She was totally congruent with her talk.

So three contrasting styles with the bombastic Jesper, the calm Georg and the aspirant Carolina. They were different approaches, but they all worked for the speakers. It is a very broad church and there is plenty of scope for all of us to develop our own style as a speaker.