Cool it, buddy
Several years ago I got involved in an initiative to try to stop a major development in our neighborhood. In preparation for our own presentations to the city commissioners, I attended a commission meeting to watch residents from another neighborhood as they made presentations to fight a similar project. Speaker after speaker came to the microphone and gave passionate talks about how the greedy developers were threatening the unique quality of their cherished way of life. Every single speaker was genuine, heartfelt, and passionate.
Then I looked over to the dais to see how the commissioners were reacting. With the exception of the mayor, who was forcing himself to act interested, they were all tuned out. They had heard so many of these before that they were just weathering the storm until the speakers were done so that they could get on with their decision. (They approved the development.) The strangest effect of all these passionate presentations was that I found myself starting to take the side of the developers!
As a result of that experience, I coached our presenters to tone down their emotions and focus on facts. We made it less about us and more about how the decision would impact the commissioners. We won.
I think of this incident when I read yet another blog post or tweet from presentations coaches telling you that passion is contagious; that passion trumps all else. They tell us that your passion is contagious—as if transfer of belief is dependent on emotional strength.
Passion definitely has its place, and emotional strength can be a tremendous motivating force. I’m not an emotionless robot, and I certainly can get passionate about many things. Yet I would like to show that in many cases it needs to be dialed back, contained, and even used strategically.
Passion is most effective when the audience is already on your side. If they support your idea but need an extra push to approve it or to take action, then let it all hang out. If you’re delivering a pre-game speech before a hockey game against the Russians, let it all hang out. Your passion can be the fuel that ignites theirs and drives action.
But if you’re making a strategic sales presentation or any business proposal to a committee of high level executives—especially if they’re neutral or skeptical—overt passion can push them in the opposite direction and blind you to legitimate objections and opposing points of view.
Passion can backfire because senior level decision makers pride themselves on analytical thinking and hard-headed business judgment. You can debate whether the reality matches the perception, but the point remains that important business decisions require at least the appearance of rationality. A speaker who comes across as too “emotional” will make them suspicious—they will react by looking for reasons to shoot you down; they may even see it as unprofessional. Passion is very one sided, but research has shown that audiences see two-sided arguments as more persuasive. It’s fine to express a deeply-held belief in your position, as long as you give a nod to alternative points of view. Your demonstration of open-mindedness is likely to be reciprocated.
Secondly, even before you get in front of your audience, your passion for your topic can cause you to violate the most important rule of persuasion: outside-in thinking. It can keep you from considering other perspectives, making it difficult to anticipate questions from your audience. What seems self-evident to you may be news to them.
None of this means that showing passion is always wrong during a strategic presentation, but you should always be strategic about it. Think about where to place it. If it’s too early in the talk you run the risk of shutting down listening. First, show that you’re a reasonable person that has considered everything, next make your logical arguments for why your idea is the best choice, then go ahead and let your passion show through in your closing arguments. Even then, frame your passion for the idea not so much in terms of why you care so much but why they should care as much as you do.
International travel and communication are so convenient nowadays that it’s easy to forget that people in other cultures think and communicate differently than Americans do. If you make sales presentations in other countries and cultures, you need to adapt your presentations to fit those differences.
I’m working on a project for a multi-national client that involves understanding what works best for presentations in different cultures. While you can find a lot of material about general cultural differences[1], Presenting Across Cultures: How to Adapt Your Business and Sales Presentations in Key Markets Around the World
In general, the book is outstanding. Having taught and made sales presentations in over 20 different countries, I thought I knew a lot about how to adapt my own presentations. Some of what I read in Hernandez’s book validated adjustments I made, but I also learned a lot of new information that makes me wish I could go back and re-do some of them. In particular, I would like to reprise some of the questions I have answered in Asian countries. What I took as straightforward requests for information may have been my questioners’ way of expressing flat-out disagreement.
It also makes the point that some of the things that work best in US presentations, particularly to high level executives, may actually backfire in international settings. For example, I stress the importance of being clear, direct and concise in your presentation. That works in the US because we’re a low-context culture, and most of the meaning in our communications is contained in our words. In high-context cultures such as Asian countries, most of the meaning is contained between the lines, in their mannerisms, tone, and more importantly in what they don’t say. So, being too direct in those cultures will make you seem rude and make the audience uncomfortable.
As another example, it’s usually a good idea for American audiences to clarify and add impact to your points with examples and stories, but Germans interpret these expressions as talking down to them.
The best part of the book is the way Hernandez graphs 13 different dimensions along a line, and presents these visually for each of 16 countries/regions. If you’re planning a presentation overseas, you can turn to each of the countries listed and see differences at a glance, and then read the overall explanations plus a list of dos and don’ts for each.
My main quibble with the book is the small sample size that Hernandez used to calculate each dimension. He tells us that he interviewed 130 internationally-active business people. With 16 countries/regions listed, that works out to eight for each, so don’t get too wrapped up in precise differences between cultures. Still, that’s a bit like a blind man criticizing his guide for only having one eye. Until someone comes along with something that is more extensively researched and validated, this book sets the standard.
The book is arranged by culture, which works well. For my own purposes, I have found it useful to “pivot-table” the material, reorganizing it in a PowerPoint presentation by dimension, with the relevant values for each culture listed beneath.
For starters you will want to read the introductory material, get familiar with your own culture, and compare it to those of others you may present to. But the best use of Presenting across Cultures is as a reference guide that you should pack along with your passport if you have to go overseas to make a business presentation.
By the way, the book is just as valuable if you are a member of the audience. If you’re American, for example, you might judge a presenter harshly for spending too much time on background context, but they may just be doing exactly what seems right to them.
[1] Some good examples are: Figuring Foreigners Out, by Storti, Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands, by Morrison and Conaway and Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, by Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov.
Last weekend, I had an interesting conversation with a lawyer about the proper use of visuals in persuasive presentations. In the courtroom, lawyers have to sell—their buyers may be jurors or judges, but the elements of persuasive appeals are probably no different for them than they are for buyers.[1] We talked about Edward Tufte’s ideas, and he asked me for some suggestions for additional reading, which I thought I would share in this article.
There is no “best” book on persuasive visuals—it all depends on what you’re presenting, to whom, and how many are in the audience. I’ve selected a few of my favorites that cover the range of possible presentation scenarios. To make sense of the order in which these titles are presented, think of a continuum: at the left side is a page densely packed with information, a la Tufte, and at the right side is a ballroom presentation, such as Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone. (Hyperlinks will take you to my more detailed book review.)
Speaking PowerPoint, by Bruce Gabrielle. This excellent book shows that Tufte is wrong when he says that PowerPoint causes poor thinking. Gabrielle shows how to first organize your thoughts for credibility and clarity, and then put them on slides.
Getting in shape for the next meeting?
When I began my work life, I never anticipated that I would have to deliver presentations. In fact, I originally chose banking as a career partly because I thought it would enable me to comfortably indulge my introverted personality. I could crunch numbers all day without having to talk to too many people, and I definitely would never have to confront my greatest fear: having to stand and deliver a presentation to a room full of people.
Fortunately for me, my father, who came of age during WW2, was a great admirer of Winston Churchill and had always stressed the value of being able to speak. So, even though I was terrified at the prospect (or maybe because of it), I accepted a friend’s invitation to attend a Toastmasters meeting. What I learned there literally changed my life. I learned that fear could be overcome, and in fact could improve performance. I learned that speaking to many was as safe as speaking to one, and most of all I learned to enjoy the feeling of having an audience’s full attention, and the thought that my words could influence their thinking and even their behavior in some way.
Since I would come to work late on Friday mornings as a result of Toastmasters attendance, word got around that I could speak to groups, and I gradually got asked to do more and more presentations, both internally and to customers and the community. These opportunities in turn increased my visibility within the bank, to the point that it was perhaps a bit unfair that some of my peers who had the same banking skills and performance suffered by comparison.
Presenting and public speaking were never part of my job description, but the skill that I developed for personal reasons turned out to have a huge influence on my career trajectory.
