Would you wear a bikini to work?

We hope not. Not unless it was wear-a-bikini-to-work day and the money raised went to a very worthy cause.

As humans, we have an inbuilt awareness of what is and is not appropriate in certain situations. We can apply this to presentations. There is always a context in which you are presenting. But context is often overlooked.

We’ve made this mistake too. We were once invited to speak at a professional member organisation’s Christmas lunch. We launched into a perfect execution of our organizational storytelling presentation, and were met with stone-cold faces. They were there for the Christmas lunch, the biggest social event of the year. With free wine flowing, the audience was in high spirits all the way through, but sadly not on account of our insights. We did receive a fine bottle of champagne as thanks and it took all our self-control not to drink it on the spot!

So always answer the following questions to prepare you for the context of your presentation:

  1. Why is your audience there?
  2. What does the audience want or need to know from the speakers?
  3. What do you think their attention span is going to be?
  4. Will you be competing against anything or anyone?
  5. Who else is speaking and what are they going to be talking about?

Now we always contact the organisers to find out the context of the presentation and sometimes this means holding off the presentation to another, more appropriate time. It’s in their best interests, as well as yours.

There is a pivotal scene in the film Any Questions for Ben that shows how context can make or break your presentation. When Ben, a twenty-something up-and-coming marketing exec, is invited to his old school to speak at a careers event, his presentation comes straight after Alexis, an international human rights lawyer who works with the United Nations in Yemen. Alexis’ presentation is moving, engaging and she gives the impression, in a very humble, yet self deprecating and humorous way, that she is changing the world. The audience hangs on her every word.

In comparison, Ben’s work seems mundane and even grubby. Immediately after he speaks, the panel moderator asks “Any questions for Ben?” A set of hands goes up, but the first question asked is “I want to ask Alexis …” When the moderator says they’ll be questions for Alexis later and again asks if there are any questions for Ben, all the hands go down and a deathly silence ensues. This moment creates an existential crisis for Ben that makes him question both his work, and his life purpose.

Sure, it’s a movie so they have to exaggerate the consequences of not getting your context, your audience or your presentation right. But it serves as a lesson for all of us, to do our homework and never end up with the presentation equivalent of wearing a bikini to work.

You crack me up. How to use humour in business stories

We often get asked about humour in business stories.  People love stories and people love funny stories.  So humour definitely has its place in business storytelling and in business presentations and we encourage you to use it …you just need to use it purposefully and appropriately.

So lets look at two ways to use humour in your stories and two things to avoid.

Do use humour to break the ice

Humour has been scientifically proven to have physical benefits.  There is wisdom in the old adage that ‘laughter is the best medicine’.  Some of these benefits that are related to your storytelling include.

  • Laughter relaxes the whole body.
  • Laughter decreases stress hormones.
  • Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, which are the body’s natural feel-good hormones.

The one good thing about getting your audience to laugh and for you to laugh along, sooner rather than later is related to these three physical benefits.  It will relax you, which is great for to ensure your narrate your story in your natural style.  It will decrease your stress, which is important if you are feeling a bit anxious about your story and it will trigger those endorphins in your audience and get them feeling good towards you.  These same three rules apply for presentations, also.

We did some work with a group of four young graduates who had to present at their companies yearly conference. We brought the four grads together before hand to do a run through of their stories.  One of the grads Paul was really nervous, even at this practice session.  About half way through the story he had a humorous line in which we all laughed.  After that point he continued on with his story but in a more natural tone.  When everyone laughed and Paul himself also laughed, it relaxed him and it just seemed to flow better after that.

What we then did with Paul’s story is ascertain if that humorous line could be brought forward in the story and it could.  This helped Paul, who was still very nervous, relax into his story significantly earlier, making for a much more engaging story.

 

Do use humour to bring in humility

When you are sharing stories about yourself, you probably want to avoid telling stories about how great you are.  Even if the story does involve you doing great things you can use humour to bring in humility.

 

This does not mean you have to belittle your achievements but some self-depreciating humour never goes astray.  For example we heard someone share a story of when they won their club’s best and fairest and then added ‘I know you may find it hard to believe looking at me know.’

 

DON’T use humour for the sake of it

Humour for the sake of it is is self indulgent and will always distract from the purpose.  If you use humour without a purpose you have slipped in the Joker style of storytelling that we have explained in a previous post, What is Your Business  Storytelling Intelligence.

 

DON’T use humour that can be interpreted as sexist, racist or politcal 

OK we may be stating the bleeding obvious here but the key word in this tip is ‘interpreted’.  We have seen many people over step this mark without realising it.  We had one client tell a story about going to buy a computer for his wife and then proceeded to go on about how technically illiterate she was and how he had to do everything when it came to technology.  So in itself not overly sexist as he was just talking about his wife but it would be fair to say that he lost 50% of his audience that were women, right there.

 

These are some basic do’s and dont’s and if you stick to them you will be well on your way to using humour in business stories appropriately.

 

Bitter with baggage seeks same AKA How to fulfill your audience’s needs

One of the most popular personal ads (yes this is going back to the olden days when people placed personal ads) in the New York times simply read ‘Bitter with baggage seeks same’.  The ad struck a chord and brought a huge response from people all  across the world, not just those who were reading the ads to find love.  Whoever placed the ad, understood that most people looking in the personals were over duplicity and deceit, that personal ads were notorious for.

What a perfect place to start when crafting your messages to start by considering your audience’s needs and what really motivates them.

The most significant piece of work in this area  is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  What I have found interesting though is Tony Robbins take on Maslow in his TED Talk titled ‘Why we do what we do‘.

Robbins say people need first of all certainty, certainty that they can avoid pain or at least be comfortable.  But you can almost see what is coming next!  Humans are contrary so our second need is for uncertainty, variety indeed surprise.  Our third human need is for significance, to feel special, unique, different.  Our fourth need is connection and love but as Robbins says ‘Most people will settle for connection’.

As communicators we have to ask how does our communication satisfy these needs?    None of us need help with certainty, in fact most of our communication has so much certainty that it is rendered predictable and boring.

Our challenge  is how can we harness the power of the other needs like uncertainty, significance & connection?  Is that even possible in one piece of communication?  This is how one of our clients did it.  Her organisation was notorious for leaders who always said they wanted more development, but when any development day was organised would claim they were too time poor to attend.  She had a look at the communication that went out inviting leaders to training days.  Predictably it was of the most ‘certain’, boring variety.  The subject headings alone would be enough to entice most people to hit the delete key.

This is how she communicated the next invitation to leaders:

Subject heading: A man was …

…struggling in the woods to saw down a tree. An old farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see?” the man impatiently replied, “I’m sawing down this tree.”

“You look exhausted,” said the farmer. “How long have you been at it?”

“Over five hours, and I’m beat,” replied the man.“This is hard work.”

“That saw looks pretty dull,” said the farmer. “Why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen it? I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”

“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”

Are you ready to sharpen your saw?  Here are the details of our next session:

And the email went on to provide details of the training as well as the attribution for the story (Dr Stephen Covey ’7 Habits of highly effective people”).  Our client had a 100% attendance at the next training program.  No leader could say they didn’t have the time to sharpen their saw.  The communication had surprise, significance (your development is important) and created a connection.    How are you going to cater to these needs to create your Bitter with baggage communication success story?

 

 

How to get lucky in your next presentation?

It was Samuel Goldwyn, of the movie company MGM, who said “The harder I work, the luckier I get”.   So how does one get lucky with presentations?  I often think of a presentation as living on a timeline.  There are things to do before the presentation, things to do during and things to do after that set us up for luck, for success.  These are some things we do.

In our ‘before phase’ we spend a lot of time thinking about the audience – who are they, what are they thinking etc. and then establishing our 3 key messages. This is before we have even opened up PowerPoint. This sounds really straightforward so far.  No surprises.  Once we have our audience and content right we then practice.  This comes as a real surprise to most people including some of our clients. The famous golfer Gary Player said something similar to Goldwyn’s quote, “The more I practice, the luckier I get”.  There is simply no escaping the hard yards; it’s practice, practice and more practice.  Everyone has his or her favorite way of practising.  Mine is to record myself into my phone and hear it back, or loud in the car.  People are afraid they will seem too contrived if they practice.  Believe me you won’t, as it’s your material, you will own it.  I rather take the risk of seeming too polished than coming across as poorly prepared.

Our mentor Peter Cook says right on the day the most important thing is your mindset.  Do you see the presentation as a bore, something you have to do, or do you want to give it your best shot? On ‘The Voice’ channel 9’s reality TV show, Seal gave each of his team members a folded sheet of paper to prepare them for their battle ahead.  When they opened it, the paper simply said ‘There is nothing else there”.  He wanted them to approach this as if there was nothing else there.  Imagine approaching your next presentation with this mindset.

And finally the ‘After phase’.  Spending a minute or two evaluating how you went.  You can ask a trusted advisor in the audience and read the twitter feed.  Always ask yourself what you would keep and what you would do differently.  Evaluation is a dish best served hot!

All of this sounds simple but it’s having the discipline to do it every time for every presentation.  Way back in the first century, Seneca, a Roman philosopher who seems like a really cool guy nailed it when he said ‘Luck is where preparation meets opportunity’.  So see every presentation as an opportunity to shine and prepare like mad to get there.

What every presenter can learn from their teenager? And it’s not what you think!

Believe me it’s not necessarily words like epic, awesome or a grunt in response to a question…even though that might be exactly how you are feeling! But something I was unaware of until yesterday.

Just yesterday I was in my daughter’s school listening to yet another parenting expert.  The expert said that with teenagers there is the public discourse and a parallel private discourse that might run completely contrary.  For example when your teenager shouts and says ‘All my friends are going‘, ‘None of their parents are ringing to check‘, etc their private discourse is very much ‘Keep me safe, set me firm boundaries‘.  But it’s very hard for parents to remember the private discourse, when battling their teenager’s public war of words.  The private discourse is the hidden unspoken, yet important stuff.

I immediately thought how relevant & applicable this is for presenters. To be aware of both the public discourse and the private discourse that is happening for their  audience.  Sadly as we are all polite adults and not hormonal teenagers, our public discourse is the one that can be less than honest but polite and our private one not so much.  For example I was talking to the CEO of a large professional services company that had run a massive event for their clients last year.  At the end of the event which was ‘PowerPoint central’ they asked several members of the audience what they thought and received lots of polite positives. The CEO however confided in us saying ‘ We could detect a lack of sincerity in their voices!”.  Interestingly the anonymous online survey afterwards (the private discourse) showed that people were less than impressed with the event.  The CEO and his team did listen to the feedback and completely altered the event for this year and it turned out to be much more successful.

What if you are presenting and you can sense or are aware of the private discourse?  You can as the presenter choose to step into a moment of authenticity and create a deep connection with your audience.  One of our client’s Jack was presenting at a roadshow and he said that for employees while attendance was compulsory, they would all be thinking ‘Oh no not another road show’, though wouldn’t voice this publicly.  So Jack as a senior leader decided to step into the private discourse and opened his presentation by saying ‘I know a lot of you might be thinking the same ‘Not another bloody roadshow’!  This was both refreshing and unexpected. His audience immediately burst out laughing.  They had been ‘outed’ but here was a presenter who understood what they were thinking / feeling, so they were happy to listen to him.  As Covey said ‘Seek to understand, before being understood’.  Sometimes articulating the private discourse helps you show empathy for the audience and to show that you understand them.  What a wonderful place to begin a presentation from.

What if you can sense an undercurrent of a contrary private discourse but can’t quite put your figure on it?  This is a fork in the road for you as a presenter.  You can, bravely plug away at your messages, while pretending nothing is wrong.  While this might sound like a safe strategy, it’s actually most risky as unless you acknowledge what is happening in the room, you risk losing both your audience ‘s attention and  your credibility as a presenter.  Or you can speak to the truth of the moment by asking the audience what is happening.

Recently we were conducting a storytelling workshop with senior leaders where each leaders was sharing a story in turn.  After each story we ask for very simple feedback from the other leaders and also provide some feedback from us.  Unfortunatley there was hardly any feedback coming from the other leaders.  It was like drawing teeth.  We thought people were warming up to the idea, and just then one of the senior leaders stepped in and said ‘Why are we not providing feedback?  I thought were building a culture of openness and honesty so there is a real opportunity hear to demonstrate that.  What is stopping us?”.  She had stepped into the private discourse by asking a question that said something is happening here that’s not right, what is it and can we fix it?  There was a stunned silence but everyone was immediately jerked out of their reprieve.  One of the other leaders responded ‘We all are so busy worrying about our turn , we can’t really concentrate on the other’s stories‘.  Everyone felt sheepish but now that truth had surfaced and acknowledged it caused a shift in the room and in the behaviour.  People were much more forthcoming with their feedback, realising that this was the fair and right thing to do, not matter what the other stressors are.

Stepping into the private discourse, can be both hard to do and challenging for us as presenters and possibly parents.  What is the private discourse and do we have the courage to address it?  And as Mark Twain famously said ‘Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, NOT absence of fear’.  Now just don’t share that with your teenager!

 

Fifty Shades of Smart, asking the ‘Smart’ questions

Just this morning, coming into work on the tram, the lady next to me was reading ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’.  Oh no not another person reading that book, it’s everywhere, everyone seems to be reading it. Fifty Shades of Grey has been recently topping bestseller book lists, and has won the honour of being the fastest selling adult novel of all time!  No matter what you think of the book (mummy porn, erotic fiction, Fifty Shades of Boring anyone?), there is something going on here that we can’t ignore, and we can actually learn from. Hats off to the author E.L.James for putting a spin on an old idea and coming up with a blockbuster.  Simply by asking the smart question. How do you rejuvenate the old romance novel for a new century?  Sex it up of course DOH!

Asking the right smart question can lead to the next smart idea.  So often we think innovation is coming up with a bright new idea, that no one else has thought of. That’s really hard to do, so instead imagine focusing on the next ‘smart idea’ (an idea that builds on existing ideas) that might be staring us right in the face.  Two questions to ask, to find that smart idea are:

1. What already exists that you can put a new spin on?
 “If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” wrote Isaac Newton in a letter to Robert Hooke in 1676. Newton tells us in this quote how science, indeed civilization advances in small steps – incremental advances each building on what came before it.  You can apply this ‘Standing on the shoulder of giants’ philosophy to even something as mundane as reality TV!  For example just when we thought the whole talent quest format was done and dusted with ‘Australia’s got Talent’, ‘X factor’, ‘Australian Idol’ along came ‘The Voice’ creating viewing history.

2. What problem am I solving? 
The other question to ask to find that next smart idea is what is something that frustrates you?  What is annoying and might be annoying to lots of other people too?  For example how often have you thought ‘I wish I could jump the queue and order my coffee’ and along comes an app or several that let you do just that.

Now our challenge in business is finding the next smart ideas, the next  ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ in our day to day work using these two questions.  It might be staring straight at you…perhaps in that cup of coffee on your desk.

 

 

Crisis Communication

It was devastating opening today’s papers and seeing that more job losses have been announced.  Whenever I read this I am reminded of an experience I had while working for an e commerce company in South Bank during the days of the dotcom boom and bust.  One morning we arrived at work and someone was passing around the daily newspaper  that announced  75 jobs were to be axed in our company.  It didn’t help that from 8.30 in the morning the entire leadership team and the CEO sat locked up in the board room.  No one did a smidgen of work that day, not even a pretence of a smidgen.

All day we were drinking cups of coffee, stressing, searching the internet to find more news and some people were polishing up their resumes and contacting recruiters.  At the end of the day at about 5 pm the leadership team came out of the boardroom with a few announcements (strategy I think, can’t even remember).  Till someone blurted out ‘What about this?” and pointed to the paper.  The CEO waved his hand and said much to everyone’s shock ‘That’s rubbish, surely you would all know that’.  NO, no one guessed that it wasn’t true.  It was in the papers and most people believe what they see in print. If only the leaders had taken 5 minutes at the start of the day to reassure us what a different experience we might have all had.  You could almost hear all credibility for the CEO and his leadership team crumbling.

I also had the exact opposite happen in one of my next jobs in a leading organisation in the city.  It felt like just like another day at work when suddenly we were all called in for an emergency meeting.  The entire board was there including the chairman who presented some shocking news.  They said  a string of people who worked in the building had been diagnosed with cancer and the building was suspected of being a cancer cluster.  Detailed information was provided on what this meant, what next steps the organisation would take and what people who needed support, advice or counselling would have available to them.  There was an extensive Q&A after, and the details of the next meeting made available.  The leadership team was both calm and caring.  That very evening this was big news on TV and we all felt a sense of relief that we had been informed first, it would have been agonising seeing it on TV first and wondering what it meant for us and our colleagues.

We were all sick with anxiety, imagine living with the worry that something at your workplace could be causing cancer.  The very next day (not a week later or a few weeks later) extensive testing of the building started.  During the entire period of the testing there were constant town hall meetings, staff meetings, emails and reassurances from all the senior leaders, daily and sometimes more frequently.

You might be thinking that given the seriousness of what was happening every leadership team would get their communication right.  Sadly this is not the case. In a strange twist this was also around the time that ABC studios in Brisbane was in the news for the same reason, suspected of being a cancer cluster.  The media coverage suggested that the leadership / management team was not as transparent with its communication and was pitted in a quite an adversarial way against the staff.

The reports from our building testing came back and our office building was declared to be all clear.  It was a testimony to everyone’s belief in the leadership team, to their honesty and our trust in them, that we moved back into the building and resumed work as normal.  The one thing that stood out for all of us, right through the crisis was that the leaders cared.  They cared about all of us, about our colleagues who were sick and did their best to share every piece of information they had through constant communication.  No one is perfect, and sometimes when they did not have the answers, they acknowledged  that and promised to come back to us when they did and then followed through.

Communication in organisations is always challenging, but with crisis communication, the best advice for leaders is do you care? And does your communication show you care?

Connect or you are dead! Killer communication tips

‘It’s all about connecting with your audience, nothing else matters, if you don’t connect you are dead’ says John Polson the founder of the immensely successful Tropfest short film festival.  This possibly applies to everything we do in business, presenting, communicating, selling, customer service and leading.

We probably all get connecting intuitively. Like when we say ‘I just connected with him’, but what does that actually mean? Can connecting be broken down into actual repeatable behaviours that you can use every time to connect with your customers, a stakeholder, your audience?  Well I’m going to try, but this is by no means a complete list.

The first thing that matters in building a connection is people like you.

Everyone has heard the first 30 seconds count, that first impression matters.  This is when what you say or do sets the tone for people to like you, or not, and don’t dismiss that, as people like to do business with people they like.

Recently I had the privilege of hearing Mark Stephenson speak.  When he was introduced, the MC did a short version of his bio.  He is among other things an expert in both prime number cryptography and computer aided design.  The intro went on for a couple of minutes and was packed with all his achievements, and to state it mildly, Mark is a super high achiever.  The audience was thinking ‘Wow, don’t think we could connect with him. He’s up there in the stratosphere and I hope I can even understand what he’s going to say’.

Mark stood up to speak and the first thing he said was ‘You probably think I’m an arse now!”  There was a brief second of silence before the whole auditorium exploded with laughter.  People were thinking ‘We like this guy!’.  Now you don’t have to swear but if you can tell people who you really are in the first moment that helps them know you and like you.

What happens in the next 30 seconds? Can you launch into your messages yet?  Absolutely not, it’s too early and you are still building that connection.

In the next 30 seconds, connecting is about being relatable and  your audience whether it’s a customer or a room full of people they need to feel  ’you get them’.

Did you see the first episode of Junior Master Chef on Sunday?  All eyes were on Anna Gare, the new judge.  When Anna was introduced to her young audience, all under 12,  she said ‘I started cooking when I was your age and I could barely see over the counter’. Her audience laughed and immediately connected with her, she was relating to them and understood what it felt like being a child cooking.

Connecting is also about seeing your interaction as a value exchange.  You might be giving your audience information, or a cool new tool, but they are giving you their time and attention.  Your audience needs to feel they are getting something of value from you, something they can take away instead of just being sold to.  This explains why there is so much free high value content on the internet.  The people who give away free high quality high value content, know by doing that they are setting in motion a high value exchange.  You initially engage with them, through the high value content (whether it’s downloading a free e book, or watching a video).  It’s almost like a taste test, and if you like what you see you will probably buy what they are selling.  They sold to you by connecting with you first through a value exchange.

These are some of the building blocks of connecting with other people. Of course the acid test of connecting is whether they would like to see you again?  I know I would love to see Mark Stephenson present again, and again.

Communication & The Curse of Knowledge

Having just reorganised the books on the bookshelf in my study on the weekend (will have to see how long the ‘new tidy’ lasts) I rediscovered  a favourite,  Dan and Chip Heath’s  ‘Made to Stick’ (highly recommended for all communicators).  This is where I first came across the Curse of Knowledge, and had one of my biggest ‘aha’ moments as a business communicator.

Business StorytellingThe ‘Curse of Knowledge’ is referenced through Elizabeth Newton’s, PhD research. Newton studied a simple game in which she put people into pairs and one was given the role of tapper and one of listener. The tappers received a list of twenty-five well know songs, such as Happy Birthday.  Each tapper chose a song and tapped it out to the listener.  The listener had to try and guess the song….simple!

Newton asked the tappers what they thought their success rate would be and they estimated 50% but there actual result was only 2.5%!

But why is the tappers / listeners exercise so difficult?  It’s hard to be a tapper.  The problem is that tappers have been given knowledge (the song title) that makes it impossible for them to imagine what it’s like to lack that knowledge.  When you are a tapper you can’t imagine what it’s like for the listener to not know this knowledge…in your mind it is as clear as day.  Your knowledge curses you.

This Curse of Knowledge happens to us in all walks of life as leaders to their teams, teachers to students and parents to children.  So the first step is to recognise that as a communicator you, indeed we all, have the ‘Curse of Knowledge’ and the second step is to actively dodge this curse.  One way could be running what you are trying to communicate past someone who knows absolutely nothing about it.  In the 1993 film Philadelphia, Denzel Washington plays a lawyer who always says ‘Now, explain it to me like I’m a four-year-old’.  We could all take a leaf out of that book.  When you can successfully explain something to a 4 year old you have definitely dodged the curse of knowledge.  Of course you have to strike a balance and make sure you don’t dumb your messages right down or come across as condescending or patronising.

Newton concludes in her research that we all overestimate our ability as communicators – surely if we just tell them they will get it.  Sadly too much leadership communication continues to impale itself on the stakes  of overconfidence and the ‘Curse of Knowledge’.

John Stewart ex CEO of NAB nailed it when he said ‘Communicating complex messages in a way people understand is really hard, using jargon is easy.  It is not until you truly understand something that you then can communicate it in a way everyone understands……and only the very good leaders do that’.

Leadership lessons from Seal and ‘The Voice’…really!

I have a confession to make.  I am loving ‘The Voice’, Channel 9’s new reality TV show.  Feels good, got that off my chest.  I could pin the blame on my 13-year-old daughter, but have to take full responsibility for this one.  I thought I would watch a few minutes and was instantly hooked! Just when you thought that whole category was done and dusted (really Australian idol, Australia’s Got talent, X factor etc.) along comes ‘The Voice’ and changes the whole format, winning new audiences.

If you haven’t watched it already, 4 judges, Seal, Joel Madden, Delta Goodrem and Keith Urban sit in chairs with their back to the stage.  It’s a blind audition with singers being judged purely on their voice and if a judge / coach likes what they hear, they hit a red button that turns their chair around.  But what makes it compelling viewing is (apart from the quality of the singers) if more than one judge turns around, they have to persuade the contestant to join their team.  There is a shift in the power balance and you see both leadership and the art of influence in operation.  In one of the first episodes, Seal and Delta Godrem both went head to head to try and secure one of the contestants, Chris Sebastian.

Seal told Chris, ‘If you come on my team, I’m interested in one thing and one thing only, making you great’. Delta in response said ‘I understand your spirit and I understand this country. This is my country.  I love Australia.  We can make this happen together, and that will be a very easy ride for us”.

To which Seal retorted  “That is a very good pitch she’s making, but there’s one thing that doesn’t sit with me, she keeps using the word easy.  It’s not going to be easy brother”.

Chris thought about it for a moment and went with Seal and later he explained why saying  ‘When she said it will be easy with me – she lost me – the last thing I wanted people to think was I had taken the easy way out’.

There are classic communications lessons we could all draw from this.  Seal made his pitch all about the singer. Who can resist the opportunity to have someone coach you to greatness?  It’s irrestible and that’s why artists come on to shows like this, to be discovered.  Delta promised an easy ride thinking that would appeal.  Compare the promise of an easy ride versus the promise of greatness?  Which would you pick?  Seal also understood where this particular contestant was coming from, he wanted to carve out his own identity and not ride on the coat tails of his famous older brother Guy Sebastian.  So Seal immediately picked up on the word easy ride, understanding that this would be the last thing Chris would want. Also when Seal said it won’t be an easy ride, he knew this would not turn Chris off as he was also speaking to a universal truth. Everyone knows it’s hard to make it in the music business.

To persuade as a communicator, it has to be all about your audience, what they want not what you think they want. As Seal and Delta’s responses indicate there is a world of difference between what we might think someone wants versus what they actually want.  You have to understand your audience, and walk in their shoes to succeed, to influence and persuade.

I am loving watching and learning from Seal (and the other coaches), and now have a legitimate (cough, cough) academic reason to continue to couch surf and watch The Voice weekly.  And you have been warned, its highly addictive.

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