It's a movement on the rise.It's no big deal...Just the future of humanity.
Why Girls?
"Adolescent girls are uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in the developing world. Girls are the most likely agents of change, but they are ofteninvisibleto their societies and to our media."
"When everyone-girls, parents, teachers, executives, artists, hairdressers, forest rangers, rock stars, presidents, investors, advertisers, skateboarders, truckers, cowboys, organizations, chefs, teenagers - knows about The Girl Effect, then real change can happen.The site is just the beginning.The end is nothing less than ending poverty."
What can we do?
First, simply watch this 2 minutes presentation, a few animated words dancing at the rythm of our thoughts. Learn how:
Short
Simple
Entertaining
Visual
Presentations can be highly effective and powerful
Then share, speak about it and contribute to the ripple effect.
Want the facts on the Power of Girls?
Go to The Girl Effect site and download the girl effect fact sheet. Very valuable information to discover and share with the world.
Why do I post such a video on a presentation skills blog?
I use my Generosity, Creativity and Passion to Boost Your Next Online Presentation !
And I really love to work with women from all generations, speaking all
languages or with men who believe in women's leadership and actively
support them!
The Girl Effect combines all these words, and want to be speaking about it!
Please share this post, go to the Girl Effect Site and make ripples!
When you reach the Top of the Top, "la Crème de la crème" of the most successful leaders of the world, and you're the only woman out of The 100 Best Performing CEOs in the World,the way you communicate and express yourself in public is certainly worth studying.
Hence, Meg Whitman makes the first of my series about women leaders and communication styles.
What makes her stand out?
How does she communicate?
How could she act as a role model for women in business?
Let's watch her first in this speech
What makes her stand out?
Ease, confidence and flexibility, combined with strong persuasion.
Leading eBay from 1998 to 2008, Meg Whitman helped the Company grow from 30
employees and a little over $ 4million in revenue to more than 15,000
employees and nearly $8 billion in revenue
Prior to eBay, she held various leadership positions with Procter&Gamble, Disney and Hasbro
She's now running for Governor of California
How does she communicate?
A charismatic leader, she uses influence rather than force.
She's flexible when persuasion is needed to convince others, yet fast-paced, swift at making decisions.
She's
famous for being excellent at expressing ideas and she has brought to eBay her
natural charisma and a strong desire to make a decisive impact.
How could she act as a role model for women in business?
Meg Whitman is The Symbol of Success in Corporate America:
"If you’re looking for a role model for your children or grandchildren,
look no further. Share the details of her past and simply focus your
attention to your newspaper, magazine, television or the internet to
see what she’s mastering at the moment. Her bio reads like a fairy
tale, and just when you think her career has peaked, she takes it to
another level." Harry K.Jones
She personifies Confidence which is what women crave for
She combines a preference for Self-Enhancement, rather masculine, with listening skills, boosted by a great enthusiasm and optimism.
Both women AND men can identify with her.
Here's what eBay's executives say about her :
Apart from the fact this is also a political campaign for California, and I don't support any political party here, what strikes me is the way these men speak about their ex CEO :
"Joyful, always having fun, huge smile. She's got a great laugh." (Henry Gomez, former Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, eBay.)
"She's your friend, she's the one who challenges you, she's the one who pushes you to new heights." (Bill Cobb,former President eBay North America.)
"With her laser light focus,she would get to the two or three things which really matters, knock them out and then move on to the next." (Rajiv Dutta, former President Marketplaces, Paypal and Skype, and CFO eBay.)
They're in adoration with the Goddess Meg!
That's why I called her the laser light with a big smile!
Persuaders have a strong personal drive to lead and guide others. They are likely to have developed a strong ability to convince others through a variety of communication skills, which can include communicating with a large audience, assertiveness and understanding the motivational drives of others.
Verbal and non-verbal communication : clear, direct but well-structured argument, free flowing body movements, vocally forceful without raising their voice.
If we take into account the cultural mapping of the SPM, this dimension is also very representative of the Anglo-Saxon culture, and especially the US.
I started with an emblematic personality for the United States, representing a model of assertivity, self-confidence and clear communication.
Meg Whitman is a charismatic woman in a men's world.
We'll see that there are other ways of expressing our voice, around the world, depending on our culture and our values.
It's the 31 st of January, and my first of 12 posts about women leaders.Thanks to your enthusiastic comments , tweets and emails, I'm starting to collect plenty of new names, different personalities I would never have thought before.
Thank YOU!
I also decided to write in collaboration with Ann Perschell, who is as passionate as I am about empowering women.
With Dorothy Dalton, "it's never too late to start up", or to speak up, we're co-creating a workshop to empower European Women in Bruxelles.
In addition to this series, I intend to conduct interviews of women I met thanks to twitter, who have found their Voice and learned to express it, with more or less assertivity or confidence, but always with integrity and passion. They will tell their stories and share their successes, their failures and their hopes, their role models and also their tips.
If you want to be part of this adventure, leave me a comment now!
The only thing I knew from Scott Berkun until now, from France, was the huge success of his latest book with the provocative and teasing tittle "Confessions of a Public Speaker".
I read somewhere on Twitter that this guy reminded someone of Tom Cruise 's character in Magnolia.Not a big fan of Tom Cruise, let alone of The Preacher ' style, so I didn't investigate further.
This guy looked a little like dynamite for me, red and dangerous!
By mistake, I picked up one extract in Spanish, but actually, since I don't understand Spanish, it's less insulting to watch!(sorry the Spanish speakers, the content might be very rude). Just check the first minute and the body language gives you enough clues to understand what's going on...
Then I read "How to be Passionate" (when you open your mouth) and stopped to watch Scott Berkun for the first time. I made my own judgement. Make yours!
Scott Berkun 's 4 "lessons" :
My life is at stake.
I believe what I say.
I’ve extended my range.
I have great respect for anyone who voluntarily listens to me.
Here's what I wrote on his blog:
"Now I understand why people talk so much about you and why you make such an impact.
It’s the first time I’m watching a video of you, and frankly, I
expected you to come across much more excited and “like a preacher on
cocaine”. Instead, I see simplicity, honesty and humility wrapped into pure dynamite, “ignited” by100% PRESENCE."
Triggered 3 ideas :
1) In business presentations too,the most essential is to believe and care about what you say and why you say it.
No wonder we, as presentation coaches and trainers, find it so
hard for corporate clients to express themselves with Passion. Do they
believe in what they say? Do they actually feel that put their life at
stake when they present? Do they respect those who listen to them?…
Our role is to remind them of the fire which is burning inside of them.Why do they CARE?
Taking them back in touch with their inner child is one way.Telling their story is another.
2) There’s a cultural dimension when you’re
speaking in public.
I agree with Olivia Mitchell's comment that there’s a cultural dimension when you’re
speaking in public. We each need to find what is the most comfortable
with our personality and our culture and pay attention to the
audience’s culture. But point 4 (respecting anyone who’s listening
to me) should take care of that! More on cultural dimensions with my blog series on 12 Women Speakers, 12 Communication Styles , based on the SPM approach.
3) There are other kinds of energy.
Scott Berkun talks about volume, about gestures, postures, facial
expressions.Smiling and making eye contact are also potential
“dynamites”.Using my background and training as a theater actress, I’ve
discovered other sources of energy. It comes from within, from your
desire to share. It can be turned off or full watts, just like a light
bulb.You hardly need to speak very loud or gesticulate when you find
it. Actually you could very much stay still and silent and be intensely
present.
Tap into your desire to share and contact this energy.
What does it look like? How does it feel? How does it sound like? How could you make it grow in intensity? How could you translate it so that people around you get it and act on it directly?
I started writing this post last Friday. Meanwhile I gave two days of training in Stress Management that ended just yesterday evening.
Stress is like the fire burning inside of us which ignites the energy and the passion Scott Berkun is talking about. Too little and you're invisible or boring, too much and you're burning yourself and others!
I spent two days helping managers to "play with this fire" and learn how to handle it with great respect and courage in order to share it with honesty, simplicity and effectiveness.
Having read Scott Berkun's 4 presentation lessons helped me give this talk.I made sure that each of the participants recognized the powerful energy there was inside of them and learned how to channel it and spread it,respecting their personal rythms and differences, according to the cultural environment they were into.
I hope it will help you, too!
What sort of reactions does it trigger, for you?
How do you connect with this fire? Does it look, feel, sound like dynamite or like camp fire?
They created "Marketing to Women quick facts" a short animated film presenting the growing power of women in the economy today.
Impressive!
Watch!
This video makes an ideal transition with my last series about the Future of Presentations.
Have you noticed?
It's simple
It's short
it's interactive (we tweet about it and hopefully comment it , too!)
it's collaborative (shared on you Tube, on Blogs, etc...)
and it's fun!
If I chose to post this video to start twenty ten (ah, I don't care I'm French, so I can say twenty ten as much as I want!),with WOMEN, it's because I am writing a new series of 12 posts about women speakers.
Yes! Twelve Women for Twelve Months in Twenty Ten.
I like to give myself challenges!
Twelve women to illustrate 12 communication
styles :
Meg Whitman
Carly Fiorina
Andrea Jung
Arianna Huffington
Charlene Li
American but also...French, British, Spanish, Corean, Chinese ,Indian women, etc...
I believe women's voices need to be expressed and heard all around theworld, in very different styles of communication, according to various styles of leadership too.If you have examples of women in business who are remarquable speakers, you're invited to comment and leave me a short note, a name, a link to a video or an audio if you have.I'd be happy to write a post about it and help other women understand how they could improve their public speaking.Our voice is UNIQUE,just like our finger prints.
We need to express it, confidently and with enthusiasm!
Incredibly hard! I've been struggling with it for one week. Okay, there was Christmas in between, and a house still full of teenagers, their friends and a husband in holidays, all hungry all the time and wanting to be entertained...Still...I thought I'd have fun writing this last post of the year and "end in beauty" 2009.
What is Fun? Is putting a silly hat and making jokes fun? Mmmm, NO!
(By the way,the title of this picture is fun "overexcited nerd")
What is NOT Fun? Serious-Hard-Tedious-Soporific-Moralistic-Preaching-Self-centered-Righteous-Perfection-BORING!
Why is Fun so hard? It's because it's often unpredictible. If I tell you I'm going to write a post about fun , I find myself seriously paralyzed by the injunction I need to find funny stuff to say...
Why is it so powerful in presentation? It makes us human and alive! And we're craving for humanity in our virtual world...
What is Fun?Fun is the "E" in TED.Fun is Entertaining.Fun is humour.Fun is play. Fun is light. Fun is creative. Fun is joy. Fun is freedom. Fun is free!
Here are The TED Commendments - Rules that every speaker needs to know, thanks to Tim Longhurst.
Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick
Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before
Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion
Thou Shalt Tell a Story
Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy
Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods,
thy Writings, nor thy Desparate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast
Aside into Outer Darkness.
Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee
What is NOT fun?You would think statistics, graphs, data, figures are not fun.Or announcing the decline of Occident.Think again!Have you ever heard and watched Hans Roesling talk about statistics and the rise of Asia?
So you've got it. Anything can be fun, entertaining. Even the most boring business report.
Why is Fun so hard? Especially when we're speaking in public.
Hey,
we want to be taken seriously! We present our personal selves in front
of others, publicly...at work!
Work is supposed to be a serious place, (Working is for adults-Playing is for Children...)
We don't want to make a fool of ourselves!
We want to be in control and "masters" of the situation!
We're supposed to be the Experts...
We don't want to show the others that in fact...we don't know
We are afraid of humiliation in front of our peers
Why is fun so powerful in presentations? And especially online?
"Le rire est le propre de l'homme" RabelaisLaughter is unique to man said Rabelais(and not" laughter is the cleanser of man", like I found in Wikipedia!)...although laughter can clean the soul...
When we're funny and making people laugh, we are saying:
"Hey! I am a human being! Just like you!"
We make mistakes. We fail.We're authentic. REAL. VULNERABLE.ALIVE. Opposed to the remote and virtual perfect image on our desktops...
Fun has become part of our life, personally, socially and professionally.
Bonus! If you are a presenter and want to learn more about Making Presentation Fun, join Lisa Braithwaite's Ning Network at Speak Schmeak
You will find, among many others, Olivia Mitchell, Steve Cherches, Cliff Atkinson, Rich Hopkins,Tony Ramos sharing stories on what they have done to add fun to a presentation.
You can share your own stories right now, in the comment box just for you!
Thanks to one of Olivia Mitchell's tweets a few weeks ago, I read a provocative article in The Financial Times, by sarcastic Lucy Kellaway.
Every Monday in The Financial Times, Lucy Kellaway makes fun of management fads and jargon, describing with irony the office life in her management column.
This is what I mean by sarcastic: "While nearly all men are poor at public speaking, women are even worse.
This is partly because women cannot tell jokes, but also because we are
better at self-awareness and therefore know that our speech is average
and the audience would rather be doing something else – thoughts that
do little to enhance performance."
I'm absolutely not sure about "women cannot tell jokes" and Lucy Kellaway certainly makes me laugh,but the reality is that a majority of women are still lacking self confidence.
Women might then spend more time seeking for advice,reading self-help books( and eBooks) getting prepared, participating to training courses, getting personal coaching. In consequence, in the next years, women should improve dramatically their communication skills!
They will also be less likely to make a real fool of themselves, because "more self-aware"...
I thought it would make perfect sense then to bring an illustration to this point.
One of my favorites British TV series is The Office.It represents for me the animated version of Dilbert Cartoon...I have often found myself in situations very similar at work, during seminars, endless meetings, meaningless trainings where I wish I had someone like Ricky Gervais to laugh with me at the absurdity of the Office Life. When I watch The office, when I read Dilbert or when I read Lucy Kellaway's column, I smile and I feel less lonely.
Ricky Gervais plays David Brent, a pathetic self-centered office manager who pretends to know it all.
In this short episode, David Brent is pretending to give a motivational speech...
What you don't want to happen to you is this :
Getting caught unprepared
Growing from confident to arrogant
Telling bad jokes
Reading platitudes and inspirational quotes aloud
Worse: ignoring your audience and your colleagues
Look at the audience 's faces, they express interrogation, growing from bewilderment to agony.
Today's lesson: Bring your Personality when you speak!
It's Sunday afternoon and after a long and delicious traditional Sunday lunch, we're relaxing by the fireplace, reading and listening to Glenn Gould playing Goldberg Variations by Bach.
The snow is gently falling on the vineyards and orchards, kids are playing. It smells Christmas cookies and I am sending tweets about my life, because I care about the new connections I have made online, and I believe they care, too. I care about the precious information, links to articles they share with me. But not only.
I value the discovery of a kaleidoscope of different life styles, cultures, languages, humour, sensitivities, social backgrounds, educations, visions of the world. Different Personalities.
Next time you prepare your presentation,make it more personal, include a story involving you.
"It used to be that women thought they had to check their personalities
at the door. But the more you need to hide, the less fulfilled you'll
be. We need to bring more of ourselves into that door, into our
workspace, so we feel more at home. " Charlene Li (Co-author of Groundswell, thought leader on emerging technologies)
Why Personality matters?
When people start talking about what happens to them, they become real. You can identify and you feel connected, closer. I am not speaking about disclosing your private life and secret garden, but moving from strictly professional to "more of YOU" into your professional life.
Here are two examples of how to bring Personality into presentations.
If I tell you "Everyday Revolutionaries-Hot Mommas", don't you want to know more about them ?
Rather than "Emerging Executive Women Leaders from Fortunes's 500"...well, I do. Sounds a little less boring...
Watch also this excellent Presentation
where 40 extraordinary women tell their stories and how personality has
played a role in building their own successful careers and businesses. You may also recognize Kathy Korman Frey , Chief hot Momma from Hot Mommas Project ,the World's largest library of virtual mentors & role models.
Today's lesson: Learn To Speak Less. Speak Better.
Shorter
TED conferences last 18 minutes maximum. I love them, and posted a few
on this blog.I used to watch them entirely, now I switch to shorter
extracts, and wish they also offered "MicroTED".
Audience
attention spans have grown shorter and shorter, so unless you have
been assigned a talk of a specific length, make your talk as short as possible.About 10 minutes is
ideal for a "classical" presentation, unless you are an exceptional speaker.
If you want to create an online video presentation, (a pitch, a tutorial, etc...), aim for 3 minutes. That's the maximum of time we will give you :)
Recently, I had to answer a tender for a major European bank. It was in a very challenging and innovative way.I had been asked to include a short 3 minute video of myself, presenting my CV and why I was best suited to do the job. There was a very short notice to perform this exercise, and most of my colleagues, who also got the tender, had no clue on how to start with this video and eventually, missed the opportunity.
Among those who courageously took the challenge, they admitted the result was a poor reflect of what they expected.Anyway, it was an excellent experience which taught us to be ready, prepared for new way of presenting ourselves in the Corporate World as consultants and coaches.
I believe presenting with video in a limited amount of time requires a minimum of training, mentoring and coaching.
And practice, naturally...
If you really want to get attention, create micro presentations, lasting just a few seconds. Ridiculous? Not at all!
Do you know Ellen McGirt ? She's the Dean of a very special MBA The 30 Second MBA on Fast Company.
Yes. Thirty little seconds!
Yet, every week, Ellen McGirt and her team interview a very eclectic range of "30 Second Professors" who answer a question like "Leaders born or made
Look at what Andy Dunn , CEO of Bonobos, says:
For Twitter, you have Bubble Tweets. Bubble Tweet add Videos to your Twitter profile, called
bubble messages. They are 30 second video clips that appear on a side
when someone visits your profile.You may notice that I already have created mine, couldn't resist! It's at the top right of the blog navigation bar.
Still not convinced that we need to learn to make shorter and shorter presentations?
Have a look at what Robo.to .They aim for ...4 seconds!
"We have microblogging, so why not microvideoblogging. That's the idea behind Robo.to,
a website that lets you publish micro videos - or visual status updates
- that are no longer than 4 seconds in length. The videos can be
distributed on Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites."
Okay, I stop there!
How comfortable are you with watching a video of yourself?
Have you ever tried recording a video presentation of you in less than 3 minutes?
Why don't try, right now, from your office or from your home, with a flip cam, hand held or simply with your integrated video camera?
What added value would it bring you if you were be able to present yourself shortly and efficiently?
You know how to make me happy before Christmas? Join the discussion, and start right now by commenting, sharing YOUR stories of short (or too long!) presentations. Thank you! :)
We found out that presentations were going to look:
More simple
Shorter
More personal
More Interactive
Collaborative
More Fun
What does it mean for us, NOW?
More simple
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Leonardo da Vinci
We are looking for the core message. Go right to the essential.
Forget about complicated animated PowerPoints.
Forget about "looking the smartest"
Forget about "wanting to Impress "others
Don't try to say it all. You can't.
Look for authenticity and down-to-earth communication.
Find the flower of simplicity inside of you.
Nurture it. Make it grow. Share it.
Here's an illustration of the Flower of Simplicity and how it all started for Yoshi Arima, Interface Designer.
"The pivotal moment where the flower of simplicity manifested into reality was in preparing a presentation on simplicityfor the Interactive Project Lab in 2007 at The Banff Centre, Canada.
Yoshi
knew he had tapped into something very special when he presented it during that snowy, cold day in Banff."
Go "naked", be at ease with the few tools you are using.
Be "ZEN".
Be generous with your simplicity. Share it when you present to others :-)
He's getting prepared for his next presentation at TAT.
He checks himself in the mirror, and also looks at his own reflection in his mobile mirror, (which looks like an iPhone on steroids).
He selects which social networks he wants, including Twitter, Slideshare, Facebook, YouTube,etc...
As he clearly comes out of a very joyful and busy party night, he doesn't want it to show on his public profile. So he switches off face book and Twitter and morphs into more professional appearance, leaving only slideshare and contact infos (he could have added LinkedIn)
It's 9:30 am. The presentation has started.
Through their mobiles, people can now easily find and use Dan's information.
They can also rate Dan's presentation and comment ("Backchannel on Twitter"), and even chat while Dan's presenting.
So, imagine you're Dan.How do you get ready for the backchannel?
I received yesterday this link via Twitter " @cliffatkinson Free webinar Dec 18 "Getting Ready for the Backchannel – with guest @OliviaMitchell"
When I first watched this video on Michelle Martin's Blog, The Bamboo Project, I thought it belonged to Science fiction. Even now, I must admit it still scares me to "scan" people like a bar-coded product...
Images of Minority Report, George Orwell's 1984 and even excellent Wall-E rush to my mind (as you can see, my tastes are quiet soft, because that's the scariest it gets!)
Oh, and just when I'm writing this, on friday afternoon, I google "Augmented Reality" and discover an Article by Kit Eaton, from Fast Company, written today... Read more Exciting new examples of applications to travel and Art...
As he says "The mind boggles as to how this will get used."
Change is happening now. Let's understand it and be prepared.
