Episode #76 Your Own Leader Voice

The new Japanese financial year has already started now and I hope that last year’s results went well for you. The reason I do this show is to help as many people as possible improve in the areas of leadership, sales and persuasion power. I hope it is helping and if it is, then please leave me some comments. Today we are talking about how to be the authentic you when you give presentations. That doesn’t mean be the authentic disaster, because you are hopeless and just not professional. What we are going to cover today is a checklist for you to access, so that what people see when you present is the best possible you, the professional you. Build your personal and professional brands. Let’s find out how we do that!

Japanese firms operating in Asia see Vietnam as the most attractive investment destination in the region thanks to the country’s high economic growth as well as its strengthening position as a production hub and its large consumer market. Once forms establish themselves in Vietnam they consider expanding their operations in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. India was the next major interest. Attracted by its high growth potential. China was the third most popular investment spot . In other news, currently Japan hosts nearly two hundred and seventy thousand students from other countries, with ninety three percent coming from Asia. Forty percent from China, twenty three percent from Vietnam, eight percent from Nepal, and six percent from South Korea. In two thousand and seventeen, seventy nine thousand, five hundred and eighty Chinese students were studying the sciences at graduate schools in the USA compared to nine hundred and ninety Japanese students. Of those Japanese students four hundred and ten were studying social sciences. The number of Japanese students studying natural sciences in the USA at postgraduate level was a mere zero point eight percent of their Chinese counterparts. Uh oh!!

Finally, in January a scheme to divert funds sleeping in bank accounts for ten years or longer for use in initiatives in the public interest such as assistance to families in poverty has started. About seventy billion yen or six hundred million dollars is expected to be deemed dormant each year. These monies will be transferred to the management of the Deposit Insurance Corporation, an institution that deals with bank failures. Bye, bye your money folks!

Why are so few business leaders good communicators, given all the education they have received, starting at varsity and then later, through executive training they have received via their own organisations? Leaders – let’s stop kidding ourselves, the reality is, if we can’t talk to people, we can’t lead successfully. The TED talk phenomenon, which has spawned TEDxEverywhere, should be having a positive impact on leaders. It would appear though that not many of us are taking any note.

Leaders are often told they need to be authentic. That means to some, that it is fine to be dull, dense, distant, obtuse, monotone and forgettable. Dramatic oratorical flourishes are not required, but congruency is a must. For leaders this means matching the way we communicate with the content of our message.

When we speak using a monotone delivery, placing equal stress on each word, sadly, our audience just tunes us out. They start to look for other points of stimulation, such as how we are dressed, our body language, our voice quality – almost everything except the actual key message content. Authentic failure as a communicator is probably not what leaders have in mind as the desired outcome when they talk about being authentic.

Leaders need to match their vocal variation and facial expression to the message being delivered. Congruency means emphasising key words or phrases, through either adding or subtracting voice projection. Whispering is as powerful as yelling, as long as the message content is aligned with the delivery mechanism. Dialing up and down the energy and speed when speaking, creates the necessary vocal variation to keep the audience focused on what we are saying.

Leaders are often notable for speaking while exhibiting a “wooden face”, meaning they maintain the same facial expression throughout their talk. Passable, good, striking, awesome, even exceptional news is greeted with the same dour expression as announcing disaster, doom and gloom.

The simple rule is, if it is good news, let your face know and smile or show happiness. If it is bad news, look serious, worried, upset or fearful depending on the content and context. Get the face involved, because it is a million times more powerful as a communication tool, than whatever is up on the screen behind us.

Voice speed can be an indicator of confidence or terror. Most of us, when nervous, tend to speed up and our ideas can rapidly begin to trample over the top of each other. Pausing is needed to allow the audience to process what they have just heard. Getting through it in the time allotted by the organisers, does not equal getting our message across to the assembled audience. What can we do better?

We can also speak using our body. Our facial angle allows us to become inclusive and capture all of our audience, no matter where they are seated. The front, middle, back, the sides – the leader makes eye contact to engage with people in all parts of the room. Eye contact means actual engagement – looking an audience member in the eye and speaking to them for around 6 seconds. Less than that makes for a rather fleeting, perfunctory type of interaction – rather fake engagement. On the other hand, locking on to their gaze for much longer than six seconds starts to burn into their retina and becomes uncomfortable.

Our feet positioning, funnily enough, is important when speaking. Pointing them straight to the front and using only our neck to swivel our head and engage the audience is projecting confidence, credibility and solidity. Often times, speakers are unconsciously facing their feet such, that they are favouring only one side of the room. They subsequently only engage that half, leaving the remainder of the audience in supreme neglect.

Slouching, standing off balance, standing too wide at the base projecting arrogance or nervously striding about the stage, may not be projecting the professional image leader’s desire.

Our hands can be a dilemma too. We either overemploy them, so that like the monotone voice, everything gets the same unbroken level of emphasis or we don’t deploy them at all. Behind our back, resting on our hips, thrust deeply into trouser pockets, held protectively in front of our body are the usual suspects in the crime of neglect of our hand’s communication strength when speaking. Gestures are powerful tools to emphasise the key points we want our audience to remember.

Being a “good speaker” is not the goal. Being a good person, who can speak convincingly is the real goal. There are plenty of spivs, spinners, crooks, dodgy politicians, shifty CEOs etc., who are verbose and quoting that brilliant Aussie gem: “can talk under wet concrete with a mouth full of roofing nails”. Leaders need their own voice to fully reach their audience, to persuade, to inspire, to be credible and memorable. You are the brand and what you say and how you say it matters. Be congruent, authentic, be you, but be the best possible you.

Action Steps from today’s show

1. Always be congruent between our content and our delivery
2. Use vocal tone, facial expression, power and speed to vary the delivery
3. Keep our eyes fixed on our audience the whole time engaging them one by one
4. Work the whole room and not just one side
5.Remember – you are the brand