Episode #116: Professional Women Presenters

Japan is a male dominated society, especially in business. If you are a female presenter in business, the chances are high there will be a majority of men in the audience.

I attend a lot of events in Tokyo and I have noticed a few commonalities amongst the most successful women presenters in this male dominated environment here in Japan. Here is what I have seen work well for businesswomen when speaking in public to male audiences.

Confidence is the overwhelming positive first impression. This is communicated in a number of ways. The voice is strong and clear. Even relatively soft female voices can become powerful enough, through using the microphone technology available today, so there is no excuse for letting a weak voice derail the presentation. They get there early and check the equipment, especially making sure the microphone is working properly. Speakers who tap the microphone and ask their audience if they can hear them at the back, come across as disorganised amateurs.

Eye contact is another useful tool. Looking at the audience allows us to connect with them. This might sound obvious, but sometimes looking at the many faces in the crowd peering wistfully back at us may suddenly trigger nervousness and self-doubt. The successful women I have seen in action pick out members of the audience, look straight at them and speak directly to them. They are constantly doing this throughout their entire talk. They are only holding the gaze for about 6 seconds, so it is neither too short nor too intrusive.

They are carefully watching the audience to ascertain whether they are buying what they are selling or not. Studying the audience member’s body language and faces helps us to read how they are doing with our audience. Are they following the speaker, are they bored, are they in rabid disagreement? Speakers need to know so they can adjust their delivery accordingly.

The successful women presenters want to use all of their body language to assist their communication, so they are not trapped behind the podium. They always arrive early to check the speaking stage environment. If they are going to use the podium and find it is too high, they ask for small platform to stand on, to give themselves some air space. They don’t apply a vice like grip to the podium, negating their ability to use gestures to emphasis key points they want to make.

They also know that standing apart from the podium, to the side or in front of it also works very well. Powerful female presenters don’t pace across the stage, backward and forward, showing possible nervousness. They usually stand to the left side of the screen, so that the audience will look at their face, listen to their voice and then read the screen left to right. They are communicating “look at me, now look at the screen”. In this way they dominate the screen, rather than the other way around.

What they put up on the screen follows the “less is more principle”. Think Zen temple garden here rather than baroque palace. They see the value in having more images than text. They have one graph per screen not four and they don’t go crazy with more than two colours. They make themselves the centerpiece of the presentation, not what is put up on the screen.

Persuasive women demonstrate their confidence by NEVER EVER apologizing for their state of health, degree of nervousness, lack of preparation or any other excuses. They know most men in the audience couldn’t care less about their health status. They don’t seek sympathy by telling us: “I am sorry, I have a cold today” or “I didn’t have enough time to put this together”, “I have just flown in overnight and feel jet lagged and exhausted”. Basically the majority of men don’t care all that much for that type of detail and there is no particular empathy for these types of excuses.

If these successful women presenters are ever feeling anxious, they make sure not to show it. Consequently, they are taken at face value by the men in the audience and get full credit for being a business expert in their area of expertise.

There are plenty of professional, competent female speakers in Japan, so ladies, please take note of what is working for them and join their ranks.