Life After PowerPoint!

Why Does Obama Use a Teleprompter?

As the president, Obama’s every word is studied and parsed. If he makes a mistake or “misspeaks himself,” he can get himself and the nation into trouble.

President Ford, for example, caused an international uproar that contributed to his own defeat when in a debate with Jimmy Carter he stated that Poland and Eastern Europe were not under the domination of the Soviet Union. And there are entire books and websites devoted to George W. Bush’s malapropisms.

Obama speaks so frequently on so many topics that he has to rely on other people to write his speeches.

As a result he cannot simply speak extemporaneously or from notes. Using a teleprompter allows him to read his speeches without looking down at his text on the podium.

You may want to fault Obama for how he uses the teleprompter or for what he says or for how often he speaks, but it’s unfair to blame him (or any president) for relying on a teleprompter.

What’s the Problem with Using a Teleprompter?

There is nothing wrong with a President (or anyone else) using a teleprompter, as long as it is used well. And the sign that a teleprompter is used well is that no one notices it is being used.

For all of his rhetorical expertise, Obama uses the teleprompter poorly.

• He has made mistakes using the teleprompter, including the time he and the Irish prime minister ended up reading from each other’s speeches.
• He has drawn attention to the fact that he is using a teleprompter, motioning for the operator to speed things up or speaking directly to the operator.
• But the worst thing he does – and he does it consistently — is to switch from one screen and to the other every four to five seconds, looking first left and then right. It looks like he’s watching a slow-motion tennis game.

People — and the media — have recently noticed how much Obama relies on a teleprompter. (It’s not a new occurrence. He’s been using a teleprompter poorly for a long time.) But it’s never a good thing when people call attention to a leader’s speaking deficiencies.

Obama, like any leader, wants people discussing his ideas and acting on his initiatives, not commenting on his delivery style and certainly not on his delivery problems.

What Can Obama Do?

Obama can learn to use the teleprompter more effectively. He needs to look not only at and through the two screens (which are slightly to the right and to the left), but also straight ahead and to the far right and far left. And he needs to shift his focus from one spot to another in relationship to what he is saying, holding his gaze steady for an entire phrase of maybe even a sentence. By doing so, he’ll make his audience feel more engaged, he’ll look and feel more authentic, and he’ll look and sound more commanding.

What’s the Takeaway for the Rest of Us?

We’re not the President of the United States. (And, at least in my case, that’s a good thing for everyone involved.) Most of us are responsible for preparing our own speeches. Most of the time audiences are not hanging on our every word. And few of us ever have to use a teleprompter. (If you do, you might want to buy The Teleprompter Manual by Laurie Brown.) So here are some suggestions:

• Avoid reading your speech word for word. Instead, create a simple and clear outline and speak from your notes.
• Speak only when you’re looking someone in the eye. It’s okay to look at your notes. Just don’t speak while you’re looking at them.
• Keep the focus on your audience and on your idea, not on you and your performance style.
• Rehearse what you’re going to say. Don’t say it word for word over and over again. Simply stand up and move around as you talk through your main ideas out loud.
• Let as few things — a podium, a teleprompter, your text — get between you and your audience.

Is there anything you’d add?

I’ve been asked lately in radio and print interviews how leaders should rally their troops in these difficult days.

Here are some of the ideas I’ve come up with, in no particular order:

1. Acknowledge people’s feelings without going into detail. Be sympathetic and compassionate without turning the event into a therapy session or a sob-fest.
2. Lead with the facts. Be as open and forthcoming as possible. Tell the truth and be able to back it up.
3. Interpret the facts. Facts, by themselves, don’t mean anything. They need to be placed in context and tied together into a coherent story. That’s your job as a leader.
4. Make hope sensible. The bad news is all around us and it’s sensible (i.e. “perceptible by the senses”) — people losing jobs, businesses going under, benefits being cut. You can’t counter those sensible losses with insubstantial reassurances. And the best way to make hope sensible is to tell stories.
5. Be action oriented. Tell the audience what you want them to do, and then show them how they will benefit from doing it.
6. Be the change you wish to see. Don’t ask people to do what you won’t do yourself.
7. Tell the truth. Don’t make promises that you may not be able to keep. Don’t give assurances about the future that may not play out.

There are lots of speeches in movies given by leaders rallying their troops before battle. Here’s a brief one from The Lord of the Rings. It’s known as Aragorn’s speech at the Black Gate:

By the way, rallying the troops is a metaphor. And metaphors are evocative approximations of the truth, not absolutes. Every time you say “something is or is like something else,” you also have to realize that there are ways in which it is not that other thing and it is not like that other thing. Business leaders, politicians, and preachers in these hard times may be like military leaders unifying and emboldening their troops before battle. But they are not military leaders, their followers are not troops marching to war, and the situation is not armed combat.

What do you think? If you’re a leader or you’re advising a leader who needs to inspire others, what do you recommend?

The lively hosts of LifeTips at Odeon.com, Bryon White and Amanda Smith, interviewed me last week, February 26. As often happens in radio interviews, the conversation ranged over a number of topics. We stuck mostly to the area I’m most familiar with — presentations by leaders and by technical experts.

Bryon raised a question about something that was new to me: word cloud. It is, according to Wikipedia, “a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites.” The words that are used most frequently are represented in larger or more colorful fonts. Byron was interested in how you could use a word cloud to analyze a presentation. You could, say, enter the text for your speech — if it’s written — into a program and create a word cloud. The word cloud would, in turn, show you the words you use most frequently.

How often you use a word is important. (Repetition reinforces your message.) And you might be surprised by the words you use most frequently. But I’m more concerned with the type of words you use — with their clarity, concreteness, and power to evoke a response in people’s imaginations and emotions.

I went to Wordle where in about two minutes flat I created the word cloud you see here. It’s fun. Give it a try.

Have a listen to the interview and let me know what you think. (If it’s taking too long for the interview to begin, you can go directly to the site and listen there.)

Dale Carnegie started out teaching people how to give speeches. As a result of his teaching, he wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People, which may be the first self-help book ever published. (It’s still selling big time.) I just read a blog by Chris Brogan that made me think of Carnegie’s “Six Ways to Make People Like You.” They are:

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in the terms of the other person’s interest.
6. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.

I always like Carnegie’s advice, and I highly recommend his book to many of my clients. I just wish it didn’t sound so manipulative to me. “I’ll make you feel important,” it seems to say, “and I’ll do it sincerely so you’ll like me.”

Brogan’s posting echoes Carnegie’s rules 1, 4, and 5. Like Carnegie Brogan makes a point about focusing more on the other person in a conversation than on yourself. But he does it without sounding calculating, which I like.

In situations where you’re talking with others, do your best to talk more about them. Learn about them. Ask questions. The smartest people are those who plumb the depths of the other person, and come away knowing them deeply. We seem to fear, as humans, that the other person in a situation won’t hear us. We get worried that we’ll leave a conversation somehow unequally.

Strangely, the most “important” people (in at least the public business sense) I have ever met in my life have all asked me more about myself, and even with me trying hard to turn it around, they were gracious and interesting and still worked hard to know more about me than themselves.

chrisbrogan.com

The same advice applies to giving a speech. Which sounds strange I know, because a speech seems to be more like a monologue than a conversation.

But here’s what’s important to remember about giving a speech: It isn’t about you. It isn’t even about your expertise. It’s about your audience and how they can benefit from what you say.

As you prepare you speech, you have to listen to your audience, doing as much research as possible about them. Who are they? What do they already know and feel about your topic? What are their problems, concerns, interests, goals? What do they have in common? What makes them different? Why are they gathering? What do they want? It’s hard, in my opinion to find out too much about your audience.

Before your speech begins, talk with individuals in the audience. Don’t just stand off to the side of the room or sit quietly somewhere. Shake people’s hands as they come in. Introduce yourself. Ask them about themselves.

And as you’re speaking, listen to their body language. Invite their questions and really listen to them. (Don’t simply use their questions as a jumping off point for what you what you wanted to say anyway.)

Make your speech as much like a conversation as possible, listening as deeply and authentically as you can to the people you’re addressing, and I guarantee you’ll give a better speech.

The goal of a speech isn’t — or shouldn’t be — to make your audience marvel at what a great speaker you are. The goal of a great speech is to make them marvel at what they’re capable of.

Who are the speakers you admire most? Why?

Here I am showing off my book, Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint: How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas (Crown Business, 2009). I also sum it up in one sentence and describe some of the features of the book.

By the way, here’s my one sentence summation of the book: Leaders, aspiring leaders, and people who want their words to have more impact speak not to communicate information, but to influence and inspire their audiences, to shape the way they think and feel and act.

A leader talks about things that matter.

By leader I mean — broadly — anyone, regardless of title or position, who influences or directs others to accomplish something worthwhile.

In troubling times, such as the ones we are in now, there’s all the more need for leaders to speak in a way that provides a sense of hope, of belonging, and of direction.

And yet in times like these there’s always the temptation to cop out. To deny reality. To confirm everyone’s worst fears. Or to offer false hope.

During the depression in Italy, when people were even more shaken by the economy that we are today, movie studios produced a slew of escapist films. They got titled telefono bianco or white-telephone movies. (White telephones were status symbols, something that only the rich could afford.) A white-telephone movie is a film about shallow rich people who have plenty of leisure time, doing trivial things in swank settings.

I learned about white-telephone movies in a film-appreciation class in college years ago. But I hadn’t thought of the term for decades, until it came back to me while I was watching the CEOs from automotive companies asking congress for money.

For an insightful analysis of the CEOs’ performance, see…

An open letter to GM, Ford and Chrysler (Mostly GM!)

Speechwriting and Professional Speaking.

If I can coin a term, I would say that a white-telephone speech is a presentation by people who are leaders in name only, talking about trivial matters in an inflated or pompous manner. White-telephone movies obviously served some need in the 1930s — for diversion, if nothing else — or there wouldn’t have been a market for them. But there is no need or justification for white-telephone speeches. Not now. Not ever.

Leaders speak — or should speak — to make a difference in the lives of the people they are addressing.

If you have an example of a white-telephone speech or of its opposite — a speech that matters — let me know.

Last week I wrote about the first 3 mistakes leaders make when they’re giving a speech: 1) Not Having a Goal, 2) Not Having Anything to Say, and 3) Taking Too Long to Say It. Now I’ll continue with rules 4 through 7.

4. Me, Me, Me, Me, Me

Yes, you want to keep it personal. And yes, it’s fine — preferable, actually — to talk about yourself and your experience. But your speech can’t be about yourself. It’s got to be about the audience. Everything you say, even if it’s a personal story or a pet peeve, should be for the audience’s benefit.

5. Using PowerPoint

In spite of decades of accumulated experience and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, PowerPoint can be used well. But it should only be used to present information — data, charts, graphs, lists, etc. And most of the time at least, you shouldn’t be talking about information. Not if you’re a leader. It’s your job as a leader to shape the way an audience thinks and feels and to inspire them to take action. And the only way to influence and inspire people is to appeal to their imaginations and emotions. And PowerPoint can’t do that.

6. Me, Me, Me, Me, Me (Revisited)

I know I said leaders need a goal for every speech, something they want their listeners to know, feel, or do. But you can’t simply tell them what you want and expect them to hop to it. You have to show them why and how it will benefit them. They are always asking themselves WIIFM? What’s in it for me? Tell them how knowing / feeling / doing what you want them to will help them solve a problem or achieve a goal that’s important to them.

7. Faking It

If you try to be something or someone else in front of an audience, they’ll sniff it out. They’ll smell a fraud and they’ll turn up their noses at you. Be yourself in front of the audience — your best self — because you can’t be anyone else. Let your values, experience, passion, even your sense of humor show through. Imitating someone else – even a masterful speaker – only makes you look pompous or fraudulent. Don’t do it.

What examples do you have of a leader bombing in front of an audience?  I’d love to hear your feedback. Use the comments field below.