Apologising For “Poor English”

Many of my Korean students feel the need to apologise for their “poor English” at the beginning of their presentation. This is not a good idea. When you apologise for “poor English” at the beginning of your presentation, your audience immediately become nagative towards your presentation and expect a long, boring presentation.

Instead, if you feel the need to apologise for your “poor English”, say it at the end of the presentation. This way instead of getting a negative response, you will get yourself a positive response.

End your presentation with:

Thank you very much and I am very sorry for my poor English.

There are No Magic Phrases In Presenting

Recently, a company I have been working with, asked me for a list of words and phrases for doing a presentation. This shocked me. It made me realise that so many people simply do not get it. People still think that to do a presentation you need some unique forms of language.

This is not true.

A presentation has no set formula or groups of words, sentences or expressions. A presentation is simply a conversation with a group of people. If you start creating set phrases, words or sentences for a presentation, you are going to create a presentation that either nobody understands or make it so boring your audience is going to be asleep before you get to the five minute mark.

A presentation is a conversation with your audience. The only English you need for an English presentation is the English you use for every day conversations.

So, if you want to improve your English presentation ability, improve your English conversation ability. Stop complicating a form of communication that should be wonderfully simple.

Seth Godin writes about why reading your speech or presentation does not work. According to Seth, it is extremely difficult to read a speech and sound like you mean what you are saying.

“It’s extremely difficult to read a speech and sound as if you mean it.

For most of us, when reading, posture changes, the throat tightens and people can tell. Reading is different from speaking, and a different sort of attention is paid.”

When I am doing my presentation seminar, attendees have to do two presentations. The first is a brief self-introduction and the second is a final presentation on anything they like. What I find is that students, when given no time to write out a speech, actually sound a hundred times better, than students who are given time to write out a speech. They sound genuine, they sound like they really believe in what they are saying and above all they sound convincing.

I know, for most people presenting in a foreign language, having a pre-written speech is like a comfort blanket. But it really does not help you to deliver you message in the most convincing way.

Having a few “errm”s and “arrh”s in your speech is fine. It shows that you are genuine and it shows that what you are saying comes from the heart and not the head.

So next time you are preparing a presentation, do not write out a script. Make few notes by all means, but keep it natural aand allow the natural flow of your conversation to take over. If you cannot do that, then accept Seth Godin’s advice:

“… don’t bother giving a speech. Just send everyone a memo and save time and stress for all concerned.”

Decker Communications have released their 2011 top ten best / worst communicators list, and I could not agree more with their list.

However, there was one omission that I would include in the list and that would be the Pyeongchang Olympic bid team who presented in Durban, South Africa last July.

These guys were outstanding and their communication was brilliant. It would be great to see more Korean people effectively communicating globally in 2012, and I hope that I will be able to help this wonderful country (South Korea) to be a nation of global communicators.

Here’s a little presentation I did recently for CBC News here in Korea about my cultural journey – coming from the United Kingdom to Korea, and some of the things I have noticed that are different.

It is a light hearted look, but I hope it can show you how to keep a presentation natural, and how to use good quality slides to help your audience to fully understand what you are saying.

With the passing of Steve Jobs, there has been a lot of comment about his life and his presentation philosophy.

In the recent biography by Walter Isaacson, there are numerous references to Steve Jobs’s thinking on presenting and one in particular stood out for me. The quotation:

“I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking,” Jobs later recalled. “People would confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides. People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.”

This has always been a bug bear to me too. I simply cannot understand why anyone would want to use PowerPoint in a meeting. PowerPoint kills conversation, it puts slides at the centre of attention and it creates an atmosphere of staleness and boredom. The very things that prevent any kind of solution or idea being found.

The best meetings I have attended were where there was a proposal, typed on paper and given to all meeting participants before the meeting, and then everyone had an open and frank discussion about the subject. Often, new ideas were found or new angles were discovered about the original proposal, but one thing that happened was that people actually talked and discussed the idea.

The opposite meetings were where the organiser spent the first ten minutes trying to get his or her computer working, then completely dominated the meeting with slide after slide of boring text and poor quality clip art and pictures. There was no discussion and quite often a lot of confusion. The meeting ended and nobody knew what they were supposed to do.

PowerPoint and Keynote have their place, a product launch to a few hundred journalist, a training seminar where the slides are used to inform and teach. But a meeting to discuss a proposal or to come up with a solution to a problem is not the place.

Take a look at the video below. Here you see Steve Jobs talking to employees from Apple about the problems Apple was facing in 1997, and the solution. Note there are no slides, just Steve up front and centre talking to his staff, and then a video at the end. Had he used PowerPoint,it would have killed the effectiveness of what he had to say.

올해는 대규모의 다국적 기업부터 국내 중소기업까지 여러 다양한 회사에 계시는 많은 분들을 대상으로 프레젠테이션 강의 세미나를 진행해 왔습니다. 세미나에 참석하시는 분들은 영업부에서 인사부까지 다양한 부서에서 근무하시는 분들이었습니다.

허나, 한가지 제가 놀랐던 점은, 세미나에 참석했던 분들 중 상급 관리자는 단 한 분도 없었다는 것입니다. 수업에 참여한 분들 대부분이 각 부서의 하급직원들로 회사 내에서 프레젠테이션을 할 기회가 극히 드물거나 아예 없는 사람들이었습니다.

저는 속으로 “왜 그런걸까?” 하고 물었습니다.

영어로 중요한 프레젠테이션을 발표해야 하는 사람들, 이 사람들은 왜 프레젠테이션 트레이닝을 위한 세미나나 강의 혹은 워크샵에 참여하지 않는 것 일까요? 이런 강의나 워크샵에 참석하기엔, 자신들의 실력이 너무 뛰어나다고 생각하는 것일까요? 아니면 너무 바쁜 탓일까요?

이건 좀 말이 안 된다라는 생각이 들었습니다. 오늘날 이루어지는 대부분의 프레젠테이션들이 얼마나 형편없는지는 누구나가 다 알고 있습니다. 일부 프레젠테이션들은 점점 나아지고 있는 추세이지만, 또 프레젠테이션 소통방식에 있어 개선이 필요하다는 것을 이해하는 경우도 더러 있지만, 대부분의 사람들은 여전히 프레젠테이션란 지루하고 쓸모 없고 무의미한 것이라 생각하고 있습니다.

아마도, 이건 순전히 제 추측이지만, 자신에게 좀 더 트레이닝이 필요하다는 것을 이 상급 관리자들이 절대 인정하려 들지 않는 게 이유라는 생각이 들었습니다. 그리고, 이렇게 자존심을 굽히지 않는 데서 바로 문제가 생기는 것이라 생각됩니다.

제가 참관했던 대학생 프레젠테이션들은 대부분이 정말 훌륭했습니다. 디자인과 메시지, 그리고 스토리가 모두 담겨있었습니다. 대다수가 최종 프레젠테이션에 있어 약간 다듬어질 필요가 있긴 했지만, 프레젠테이션들 모두 전반적으로 좋았고 창의성이 돋보이며 명확하고 명료한 메시지를 담고 있었습니다. 하지만 이와 반대로, 제가 보았던 고위 간부급들의 프레젠테이션은 고리타분한 텍스트들로 꽉꽉 차 읽기 어려운 슬라이드에 메시지는 완전히 엉망진창이었습니다. 결과적으로 이들이 보여준 프레젠테이션은 명확한 요점도 없고, 종국에는 청중을 혼란시키는 마치 90년대에 만들어진 프레젠테이션처럼 보였습니다.

비즈니스 업계의 소통방식은 90년대에 멈추지 않고 진화와 발전을 거듭하였으며, 2000년대에 들어 급진적으로 거세졌습니다. 청중은 이제 간결하고 명료한 메시지를 요구하며, 또 이들을 20분 이내에 전달받기를 원하고 있습니다. 그리고 자세한 사항들은 편리하고 알아보기 쉽게 유인물로 받길 원합니다.  청중은 더 이상 낡아빠진 스타일로 간부들이 내뱉는 말을, 즉, 끝날 때까지 몇 시간 내내 재미없고 상상력을 찾아볼 수 없을 만큼 지루한 그런 말들을 들으며 앉아있을 시간이 없습니다. 이들은, 최상의 이미지와 영상을 통해 핵심 메시지를 전달받기 원하고, 쉽게 알아듣고 이해할 수 있는 팩트와 수치들을 원합니다.

 고위 간부급의 사람들이 이 점을 인지하고, 21세기에 걸맞는 방식으로 프레젠테이션 하는 법을 배워야 할 필요성을 느끼지 못한다면, 프레젠테이션은 계속 지루한 이미지로 밖에 남을 수 없습니다. 제가 부탁하고 싶은 것은, 만약 여러분이 상위 관리자급 직원이라면, 제발 자존심을 낮추고 주위에 도움을 요청하시라는 겁니다. 이는 여러분 자신을 발전시킬 수 있도록 도와줄 뿐 아니라, 현재 우리의 프레젠테이션이 받고 있는 이미지를 회복시키는, 즉 프레젠테이션이란 메시지를 소통하는 가장 최고의 훌륭한 방식이라는 것을 인정받을 수 있도록 도와줄 것이라는 것을 꼭 아셨으면 합니다.

This year I have done our presentation seminar with a large number of people from many different companies. Some were large international companies, others were smaller domestic companies. On each occasion the students attending were a mixture of people from various departments ranging from the sales department to the human resources department.

However, one thing that has surprised me is that none of the students attending were senior managers. Almost all of them were junior members of their departments who, when questioned, did little or no presenting in their companies.

I find myself having to ask the question: why?

Why is it that the very people who have to do important presentations in English are the very people who do not attend presentation training seminars, courses or workshops? Do they think they are too good to attend? or is it that they feel they are too busy?

In my mind this is a crazy situation. Everyone knows that that the state of presentations today is terrible. In some places it is getting better and in some cases there is an understanding that presentation communication needs to improve, but the perception of the humble presentation is still that they are largely boring, useless and pointless.

My guess, and this is only a guess, is that these managers are too proud to admit they need further training. And it is here where the problem arises.

Most presentations I see done by university students are fantastic. The design, the message and the stories are there. It most cases the final presentation is a little rough around the edges, but on the whole their presentations are good, creative and have a clear, simple message. On the other hand most presentations I see done by senior executives have difficult to read slides, are full of boring text and are a complete mess when it comes to a message. The end product looks like something created in the 1990s., with no clear point and at the end a very confused audience.

Business communication did not stop evolving in the 1990s. The evolution of Business communication exploded in the 2000s. Audiences now demand simple, clear messages that are delivered in twenty minutes and the details are handed to them in a clear, convenient handout. Audiences no longer have time to sit in a meeting room listening to an old style executive spew word and boring word in a dull, unimaginative way for hours upon end. Audiences want to the point messages with great illustrations and simple easily digested facts and figures.

Until these senior executives get it and begin to understand that it is they that need to be taught how to present in the twenty-first century, presentations are going to continue with the same boring image. All I ask is that if you are a senior executive, please lose the pride and get some help. It will not only help you develop, but it will help restore the image of the presentation into something it should be. A great way to communicate a message.

스티브 잡스는 저 뿐 아니라 수 많은 이들에게 진정으로 영감(靈感)을 불러 일으켜 준 사람이었습니다. 그는 컴퓨터 산업뿐 아니라, 음악 및 휴대폰 산업계까지 변화를 가져다 주었습니다. 한 사람이 이렇게 많은 변화를 일으켰다니, 정말 믿겨지지 않을 만큼 대단하고 훌륭한 업적입니다.

뿐만 아니라, 제게 있어 스티브 잡스는 프레젠테이션계에도 변화를 가져다 준 인물입니다. 그의 프레젠테이션 스타일은 전 세계 수많은 발표자들에게 창의적 생각을 불어 넣어주고 고취시켜 주었습니다. 단순함과 심미성 그리고 메시지에 중점을 두는 그의 스타일은, 사람들로 하여금 프레젠테이션은 청중과 그들에게 전달되는 메시지에 관한 것임을 깨닫게 해주었습니다.

제가 “스토리 프레젠테이션”이라는 책을 쓸 수 있도록 해준 도구도 스티브 잡스와 애플이 만들어 낸 제품이었으며, 프레젠테이션 코스를 쓰고 만드는데 있어 진정한 즐거움을 가져다 준 것 역시 스티브 잡스와 애플의 제품이었습니다. 또 매주 토요일 아침마다 진행되는 비즈니스 영어 수업에 필요한 키노트 프레젠테이션을 만드는데 재미를 선사해 준 것 역시 이들의 제품이었습니다.

스티브 잡스! 당신이 세계에 가져다 준 모든 것에 감사를 표합니다. 당신은 우리들 마음속에 영원히 간직될 것이며, 언제나 제게 영감을 불어 넣어주는 이가 될 것입니다.

Steve Jobs was a real inspiration to me and to many millions of others. Not only did he change the computer industry, he also changed the music and mobile phone industries. For one man to do all that, that is incredible.

But to me, Steve Jobs also changed the world of presenting. His style of presenting has inspired many millions of presenters around the world, the focus on simplicity, aesthetics and the message made people realize that a presentation is about the audience and about the message.

It was Steve Jobs and Apple’s products that gave me the tools to write Presentation Story, it was Steve Jobs and Apple that made it a real pleasure to write and create our presentation course and it was Steve Jobs and Apple that make it fun to create Keynote presentations for my regular Saturday morning business class.

Thank you Steve for everything you have given to the world. You will never be forgotten and you will always be an inspiration to me.