HUMAN BITER CAN BOOST YOUR PRESENTATIONS

A new gold standard has been set when it comes to defining what makes news. Thanks to the World Cup anti-hero, Luis Suarez, the old adage of "Man Bites Dog" has suddenly become outdated. Traditionally in journalism classes we have taught that when a dog bites a man it probably isn't big news - because the situation is all too common...as postmen will attest. If someone famous owns the dog, or if the attack is particularly ferocious, then the news value goes up. But really big news is the unusual. Hence the rule that if a man bites a dog then it is indeed news. Now, as the striker from Uraguay has shown, "Man Bites Man" is worth even more in media terms. The Suarez taste for Italian has won a well-deserved four month ban and damning international headlines.  The biter, right, and the bitee, left. (You can be forgiven for not believing the Suarez excuse that he lost his balance and accidentally fell on the Italian defender.) My latest mission in life is to extend the rules of journalism to help fight the curse of dull presentations. I spend the biggest chunk of my time in master classes these days seeking to enliven dull presentations - often with presenters who have sparkling personalities when away from the lectern!!! This has overtaken the number of people I help through boosting their media interview performances. The reason is that there are more under-performing presenters than there are people scared of interviewers (especially now that the human rotweiler Jeremy Paxman has retired from the BBC Newsnight programme). So here's how to learn from the Suarez Factor in your next speech...

APPLY THE RULES OF JOURNALISM TO YOUR NEXT TALK   The problem with so many presentations is that they tell us too much about the bleeding obvious. Your audience doesn't want to hear what it already knows. Audience members want something new, exciting and unusual. This is what makes a big media story. And this is what will make your next presentation shine out. It's particularly important to say something with bite at the very beginning. I once did some television and radio reports on the Australian comedians who come over Britain to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe and London comedy clubs. Australian Comedian...Felicity Ward   They told me they had ten seconds to get the audience to like them. So they had to come up with something really powerful right at the start. You do too. So my campaign to save the universe from boring starts to boring presentations begins with your first ten seconds. If you find yourself saying: "As you all know..." then stop yourself. If you find yourself saying "It's a well-known fact that.." then stop yourself. If you find yourself saying "You've no doubt heard the old joke about..." then stop yourself. The best way to lose attention is to say something obvious at the beginning. This gives your audience permission to switch off. If you want to learn more about switching on your audience, details of my sessions on "Presenting with Confidence, Impact and Pizzazz" are at: www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/presentation_training.php

STANDING WITH CONFIDENCE IN YOUR NEXT TALK Once you've learned to apply the rules of journalism to your presentations, you can move onto football. How you stand in front of the audience also plays a big part in their perception of you. The World Cup has provided an opportunity to remind us how football defenders stand when there's a free kick close to the goal posts. It's the same way nervous public speakers often stand. Like this...    Football defenders adopt this position to protect themselves from getting hurt somewhere painful. When speakers stand like this it looks as if they fear the audience is about to attack them. The way to look confident in front of your audience is to stand with your hands up and open. Your open hands signal you have nothing to hide - or to fear. When you get used to it, standing up and open helps you feel more confident too. Together with my professional speaking colleague, Nicci Roscoe, we can demonstrate the rules good body language on stage at your next conference. Your team will stand the right way in their presentations forever after - and project the confident image that you want! Details of "Make Your Team Look Sound And Feel Great" are at: http://michaeldoddcommunications.com/Making_Your_Team_Look,_Sound_and_Feel_Great.php

MAKING THE RIGHT IMPRESSION ON YOUR CUSTOMERS  The rules of good presentations can also be adapted to those less formal but all-important  business conversations. In my one-to-one sessions on "Become That Inspirational Business Communicator In A Day" we can focus on getting your message across to different personality types. http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/inspirational_CEO.php This enables you to communicate in a way that the person you are dealing with prefers - depending on his or her character. A colleague of mine in the Professional Speaking Association is now working with me to take this concept a step further with your team. Gerry Brown, pictured, is known as "The Customer Lifeguard" He helps track down bad service and asks it to leave.   Gerry can help your team draw up a set of "personas" who your company routinely has to deal with. These personas are identifiable fictional characters based on the different behaviours, attitudes and goals of the people that buy - or who might buy - your product or service. Gerry and I now run joint master classes on "Making The Right Impression On Your Customers - Every Time". We can help you define the typical types of people who your company interacts with and how to recognise them. For while all your customers naturally have their own unique personalities, you will find there are enough overlapping similarities to enable them to be grouped into different categories. Gerry and I can then guide you and your team on how to make an emotional connection with each type - in a way that makes them feel comfortable, relaxed and confident in your ability to serve them better. You can plan, prepare and practice in advance for the conversations you need to be ready for. So you and your team will be better equipped to deal with the actual people you deal with now - and the types of people you know you will have to deal with in the future. This result is a winning combination for your customers and your team. Email enquiries@michaeldoddcommunications.com if you would like to receive the flyer with more details about these sessions.

LEARNING FROM THE VIRGIN TOILETS Meanwhile back to the unusual... Virgin Trains have the right idea when it comes to getting across a message by saying something unexpected. They're trying to combat the problem of miscreants putting the wrong stuff down their train toilets. The standard dull messages clearly weren't having enough impact. Hence this new message - so memorable that I photographed it on the way to doing presentation training with engineers and sales people in Yorkshire this month. So please don't give chewing gum to your goldfish, put a nappy on it, wrap it in your ex's sweater and flush it down a Virgin toilet. And please find a better way to make a big impression on your competitors than biting them. Keep smiling, Michael

GET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS TO ALL PERSONALITY TYPES

Suppose you had a great new idea that you wanted to pitch to that snarly Alan Sugar, the charming Richard Branson and the contemplative Bill Gates. If you wanted to maximise your chances of success, you wouldn't present it to each of these businessmen in exactly the same way. This is because - despite their individual success - the three of them have a distinctly different personality and a strongly preferred way of thinking and communicating. Alan Sugar in firing mode. When it comes to persuading people on a one-to-one basis to go for your ideas, your products or your services, it makes sense to use a different communication approach for different types. This is why I am launching my new communications-boosting session "Get Your Message Across To All Personality Types". It's for business leaders groups such as the Academy for Chief Executives, Vistage and others where those keen to raise themselves to new heights in the commercial world come together to enhance their knowledge and skills. And the new session is also for companies that have to persuade their clients, their prospects or their own staff. Board members, sales teams and those working in customer service centres are prime examples of those who might need it. There's also a keynote version of "Get Your Message Across To All Personality Types" for conferences. This is where we can demonstrate on the big stage how to best connect with introverts and extraverts - and with those who are more task-oriented and those who are more people-oriented. And, more amusingly, we can also demonstrate how to spot when it's done badly. We can even act out the game where we seek to sell a proposition in the manner of the "Dragon's Den" BBC programme on business pitching. If you pitch in the wrong way to the wrong "dragon" you won't get much in the way of investment - or even civility. Which is why you need to get it right.

LET'S TRY IT WITH ALAN, RICHARD AND BILL  So let's start with Alan Sugar - the often grumpy, get-to-the-point tycoon whose favourite expression on his TV "reality" show is "You're fired". As an ascerbic, highly task-oriented extrovert known as a "Director Type", Alan Sugar wants you to get straight to the point. He's likely to ask things like: "Why should I go with your idea?", "Do you really know what you're talking about?" and "How much money will it make me?" And he'd expect to get answers that are short, sharp and punchy. Give Mr Sugar and his type what they see as too much superfluous detail and you'll be fired before you're ever hired. Your experience with Richard Branson would probably be more pleasant.    As a suave, people-oriented extravert known as a "Socialiser Type", he'd be more interested in getting to know you personally. You could potentially captivate him with the story behind your idea...and he'd probably be keen to tell you a couple of stories of his own. In one of his many business books, Richard Branson writes about spotting and employing Virgin-type personalities around the world. These are people who are good at connecting with others and strong on keeping customers happy...rather like him. If you don't connect with Richard Branson and other Socialisers personally then he probably won't buy your idea - or you. Winning over Bill Gates to a new idea to assist his planet-wide charitable causes would need a different approach.    As a somewhat geeky, task-oriented introvert classified as a "Thinker Type", Bill Gates - if interested - would want far more detail about your idea than Alan Sugar could possibly stand. He would also want the information imparted gradually so he could analyse it as you talked. And you wouldn't want to rush him for an answer, because he would want to mull it over for a while before reaching a conclusion....and possibly kick it around with Melinda Gates.

SO HOW DO YOU REACT? "Get Your Message Across To All Personality Types" helps you and your people identify the different kinds of characters - and how to appeal to their varying preferences for absorbing information.  If you're a Director Type this is what you might say to what I've outlined so far: (A) "How much money will my team make if they master all these personality types?" (B) "Let's just get on with it and book it now" (C)  "I've got better things to spend my money on it. You're not hired." If you're a Socialiser Type you might respond by saying: (A) "Tell me about the cases where understanding the different personality types worked best." (B) "We should discuss this over a drink" (C)  "Let me tell you my story about..." If you're a Thinker Type you will be scratching your chin absent-mindedly and saying: (A) "Send me more details so I can really get to grips with what you're offering." (B)  "I'm developing a three-year plan to enhance the skills of my staff. Maybe this could be part of it." (C) "Let me mull it over." So for you thinkers who want to learn more, you can google Dr Tony Alessandra who writes comprehensively about the different personality types. And if you want to know what are the other communications-boosting options for your people: # This is the place for business leaders groups: http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/workshops_for_business_leaders_groups.php # Here's the spot for companies: http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/transform_communication_skills.php # And this is the link for conference bookers:http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/international_speaking.php

HELPING TEACHERS PRESENT WITH PIZZAZZ I've been doing a lot of work with teachers in recent times, and there's a couple of things I've noticed about their communications skills. One is that as learning experts, they tend to be impressively rapid learners. But however good teachers are at performing in front of the classroom, they often find presenting in other situations to be a different and more challenging experience. This is especially so for the high flyers who are on their way to becoming head teachers... or head teachers who are on their way to becoming these "super head teachers" who lead a group of schools. The higher teachers climb, the more their success depends on how they perform in front of those outside the classroom - audiences on parent-teacher nights and open days and the media. And of course there are also those school inspectors they have to wow. (In the UK I have an unfair insider advantage here, as I've been training Ofsted inspectors to present their messages to teachers - which rather helps when it comes to showing teachers how to shine in front of Ofsted inspectors.) When it comes to helping teachers reach new levels, I have been working with confidence coach, Nicci Roscoe, known as the "Mind Makeover Artist". Nicci is a wizz when it comes to inspiring teachers to feel more empowered and effective when presenting in potentially daunting situations.    Here's what some of those in the teaching world have kindly said on our report card... "Nicci Roscoe and Michael Dodd led a master class focused on Presenting With Confidence And Positivity. Over a week later I am still talking about it! The impact on the day was evident in the way the participants had developed their confidence in public speaking. Presentations changed from the ordinary to the extraordinary - engaging, interesting and influential." Barbara Chevis, Senior School Improvement Partner, Education Kingston "Nicci and Michael: I wanted to mail you to say how powerful I found the course you ran. I attend many courses, but rarely do I remember so much of the content, days later. I can now clearly see how to structure any presentation and am so eager to get on and do my next one."  Emily Haywood, Paddock School, Wandsworth "Nicci and Michael's master class was utterly inspiring. I have now taken away so many valuable ideas that I can put into place immediately - and I am now excited about presenting with confidence." Helen Palmer, Deputy Head, St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School. We can do communications-boosting work with teachers on Inset Days. Or if we run a master class for teachers on a school day we can also include the option of a session for pupils on "How To Shine In Job and University Admission Interviews". Having been lecturers at colleges and universities, Nicci and I have insider tips on what these institutions are looking for when it comes to student selection. Nicci and I can demonstrate good and bad interview practice in front of the pupils. And if they're up for it, some of the more courageous, outgoing pupils can have a go on stage and we can critique their approach.

THIS WEEK: SUNNY BRIGHTON AND EVEN SUNNIER LIBYA As the British summer sunshine is revving up I'm heading off to the English seaside this week to Brighton. The aim is not so much to feed the seagulls and plunge into The Atlantic - though this could well happen - but to spend two days helping British civil servants enhance their presentations to large audiences. It's always great to run presentation courses over a couple of days because participants get the chance to think about things overnight and rework their content, structure and delivery style to a much greater extent than they can in a single day. They can then wow their audiences on Day 2 - partly by mercifully reducing unnecessary verbage on their slides and replacing it far more absorbable images and graphs. After the seaside sunshine my thoughts will turn to Libya. I'm privileged to be chairing the two-day "Libya Higher Education Forum" in London to help Libya chart its educational future as it emerges from its recent troubles. As Libya seeks more stability and development, there are sixteen-thousand students who have been awarded Liyban Government scholarships to pursue their higher education studies abroad. Many of these will end up studying in the UK. The forum is bringing together Libyan decision-makers with education providers from British universities, English language schools and vocational training centres to help place large numbers of Libyan students. The forum promises be a great meeting of minds as it seeks to foster the creation of innovative partnerships and lasting alliances between the academic communities in Libya and Britain. As an Australian conference chairman, I can hopefully provide a comforting neutrality between all parties represented. I'm not an expert yet in Libyan higher education, but expect to be steeped in it by the end of the week. So if you're interested in contributing to Libya's future higher educational development, ask me who you need to contact at the end of the week. Details of the forum are at: www.libyaed.com   Meanwhile I have fallen in love with this captivating Libyan scene which the conference organisers are using to promote the forum.       It certainly makes you want to go there. Keep smiling, Michael