The Truth About Public Speaking (and the Media) Blog

Private Client Briefing Aids Professional Service Firms

From the shameless self-promotion department:

Successful professional service firms realize they must go the extra mile if they hope to capture and retain valued clients. Barks Communications now gives those firms another advantage in the ongoing fight for client loyalty—the Private Client Briefing on effective communications skills.

One of the biggest questions law, accounting, consulting, and other professional service firms confront on an everyday basis is, "How can I bind my prized clients more tightly to my firm?"

The Private Client Briefing allows firms to provide extra value that their competitors cannot hope to match. The enlightening yet fun experience delivers real world advice clients can use in their businesses the moment they walk out of the room.

The service is also a great enticement for prospective clients. This separates firms we work with from the run-of-the-mill lawyers, accountants, and consultants who would never dream of offering something this creative.

Private Client Briefing topics can include:

• The Three Keys to Great Presentations™. The easy to grasp system puts clients on the road to public speaking success.
• Mini-Media Training. A crisp review of what it takes to shape a magnetic message and deliver it with punch when dealing with reporters.
• Sounding Board. Clients drive the agenda in this lively Q&A session with Ed.
• Public Policy Success Equals Business Success. Show clients how to advance public policy goals when appealing to lawmakers and regulators.
• A Conversation with Ed. Showcase the managing partner when he or she interviews Barks about communications topics of import to clients.

The Private Client Briefing can take place at a firm’s office or at any other prestigious location—from your conference room to your country club or a nearby hotel or conference center. If you want to rent Radio City Music Hall and invite 6000 of your closest clients, that’s fine, too.

I have the pleasure of personally leading each exclusive session and will autograph resources from the Barks Learning Network for every client. These lifelong learning resources keep professional service firms constantly top of mind with clients, reinforcing the fact that you care about their success. The firms also gain access to special purchasing power discounts. The Barks Learning Network includes these publications:

• The book, The Truth About Public Speaking: The Three Keys to Great Presentations
• The media relations guide, Face the Press with Confidence: The Media Interview Companion
• The witness preparation guide, Winning at the Witness Table: 60 Tips to Terrific Testimony

The Hows and Whys of Lifelong Learning

A brief follow up to yesterday's treatise on the need for lifelong learning: It is important to recognize what style of learning suits you best.

For example, the preparation questionnaire I send to media training participants asks whether they would rather learn something new by watching a video, listening to a podcast or CD, reading a book or article, or having a discussion. This gives me some idea how to begin to structure a lifelong learning program for them. During their workshop, I am monitoring for added clues (both verbal and nonverbal) related to their preferred methods.

If you plan to participate in such a workshop, make sure that future learning will not be ignored. On the rare occasion when a workshop leader recommends added skill development, he or she often stops at suggesting a book or two. But not everyone holds the same learning style. If you, for instance, tend to be more visual, you may learn more readily by viewing videos but dread reading a book. If, on the other hand, you are auditory, podcasts may be for you.

The point here is to stop and consider how you like to learn. It will be more fun and, therefore, you will approach lifelong learning more readily if you are working in a medium for which you have a natural affinity.

Defining Lifelong Learning

To many individuals, lifelong learning means nothing more than free public university courses for senior citizens. This definition needs a tweak.

I am all in favor of extending knowledge for those over 60 years of age. But the lifelong learning process should be viewed in a much broader context. All of us who are no longer engaged in formal education -- which means most people beyond their early to mid-20s -- need to pay particular attention to our own ongoing education, both in a personal and a professional sense. Personal growth I will leave up to you. My concern here is with continued professional growth.

We can no longer rely on our employers providing us all the tools we may need to cope with the ever-changing job market. And we certainly cannot count on them to constantly reinforce our learning with so-called "soft skills" like public speaking or dealing with the press. Even those organizations that spring for a formal workshop may do so only once (a big mistake).

That is why I emphasize the value of lifelong learnaing in every media training, presentation skills, and witness preparation workshop I lead. My clients tell me that I am a proficient educator when it comes to communications skills. Regardless, I cannot magically produce a significantly better spokesperson in a single day. What I can offer is some valuabale messaging advice and some important skills rehearsal. And, perhaps of greater importance, I can begin to set each individual on a course for continued improvement.

Today's world demands education -- both formal and informal -- beyond our college years. That is how we should view lifelong learning.

The Envelope, Please

Are you wowed by businesses that breathlessly tout how many awards they have won? Or do such claims induce yawning? Count me firmly in the second camp.

Most industry awards are meaningless. It's largely a matter of insiders stroking other insiders. Moreover, such ceremonies serve as thin cover to raise funds for the organization that bestows them.

One public affairs practitioner and a global public relations agency leap right to mind as among the worst violators. But the fact is lots of companies in many industries spend lots of time applying for awards. Some firms even charge an employee with sniffing out possibilities. So much for creative spirit. If part of your business model involves securing as many seals of approval as possible, fine. But don't expect everyone to be bowled over by your baubles.

Here's why: A company that is busy trolling for its next award is a company that does not have its eye primarily on helping its customers or clients. I prefer spending my budget dollars with firms that want to do good work for my benefit, not with those obsessed with how they can leverage my work for their benefit.

A Chance for Civil Discourse

Imus is gone. Clearly, his final tirade against the Rutgers women's basketball team went beyond the pale of any notion of polite public conversation. But this discussion should not end there.

In an era where coarseness of language is taken for granted by too many of us, is it too much to hope that Imus' public meltdown might spur a greater sense of civility? In an era where the word "sucks" is used even in business meetings these days, might we use the fired DJ as a poster boy to help us curb our tongues?

This coarseness is growing insidiously from the morning shock jock teams (most of whom are far more rude and far less intelligent than Imus) to the guy I overheard on his phone last evening, talking loudly in the middle of a crowded department store (replete with little kids), saying loudly how he hated that b**** (yes, I told him his language was offensive; no, he didn't pay any attention).

I'm trying my best to monitor my own civility, for such language has no place in the media, in presentations, or in any business setting.

Facilitation Is an Art

Content is important in any business meeting. So is process.

While rules should not override the need for substantive progress, a modicum of process is necessary if a meeting is to reach any sort of meaningful conclusion. At a recent idea session I attended, everything started fine. The discussion was on point and participants were energetically engaged. Then a faction hijacked the proceedings. It was nothing mean or intentional. The topic just meandered to something largely unrelated to what we were there to discuss.

Whose fault was this unintended shift? One person and one person only -- the facilitator. Perhaps he thought the discussion had run its course. I did not sense that was the case since participants were still engaged in spirited on-topic conversation. Regardless, if matters veer off course, the facilitator owes it to everyone in that room to keep the discussion on track. It is not always easy to pull it back when a number of people change the topic and begin a lively, albeit superfluous, discussion. But everyone entered that room agreeing to adhere to an agenda. Changing the rules midstream is rude.

It is important to acknowledge that not everyone is cut out for the job. Assertiveness is required. I had some doubts from the start about the facilitator in question. His vocal volume made most of us strain to hear him, and his body language seemed distant at times. Hardly the picture of someone capable of taking charge if the situation demanded.

Most groups give too little thought to this crucial role. That's why successful organizations set forth some ground rules and expectations for those who are asked to facilitate. If they cannot or will not abide by the guidelines, fine. Don't take it personally. But do find someone else.

If you are involved in a meeting dedicated to talking about a certain subject, stick to it unless there is consensus that the discussion has outlived its usefulness and there is explicit agreement to move on to something else.

Help Wanted Ads

This isn't your dad's job market. I am struck by the parade of job ads demanding solid presentation skills. From librarians and sales people to commercial real estate brokers and information technology workers, employers view effective communication skills as paramount.

The lesson is simple: If you are in search of a new job or are a first-time job seeker, time spent sharpening your communications edge puts dollars in your pocket.

Even an ad for a Senior Payload Systems Engineer in the space program requires "excellent presentation skills." Hey, maybe this is rocket science, after all.

Can't This Wait Until Tomorrow?

Procrastination is a fact of life for many of us at one time or another and in one area or another. A new study on the subject by University of Calgary professor Piers Steel got me to thinking.

My foot dragging most often manifests itself when it comes time to pick up the phone. This even applies to those times when I need to call reporters, a task I enjoy. Still, my strong preference is to deal face to face rather than get on the horn. I generally am not inclined to navel-gazing, but in this case I think it stems from the fact we humans lose roughly half of the communication signals we receive when we cannot see somebody. Those nonverbal traits -- a blink of the eye, a gesture of the hand -- mean so much both to senders and recipients.

Enforcing Consistency of Message

Some organizations bang their heads against the wall because they try to reinvent the wheel before every public appearance. However, message consistency done right actually facilitates your communications efforts.

My Personal Trainer column for December, "Enforcing Consistency of Message," details how you can leverage your communications efforts to save time and ensure discipline, in the process putting your organization ahead of the competition.

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Ignore Those Motivational Speakers

Do you find it tiring when people carp at you to think positive? Does that office mate with the plastered on smile annoy you, especially when you feel the walls crumbling? Feel like giving a swift kick to the next "motivational" speaker who, with all the false sincerity and expertise he can muster, implores you to think and grow rich, powerful, hairy, etc.?

Good news. You and I now have some solid research to combat the ceaseless sunshine brigade. Christina Ting Fong, an assistant professor at the University of Washington Business School, has found that the ambivalent among us tend to be more creative than those who are happy or sad. A news release issued by the business school explains, "people who feel mixed emotions interpret the experience as a signal that they are in an unusual environment and thus respond to it by drawing upon their creative thinking abilities."

"[O]ne implication of this research is that when people feel mixed emotions, they see this as a signal that they are in a situation that might contain lots of unusual associations, and thus will need to respond by using more creative thinking," the news release continues.

The next time a stranger urges you to smile, ignore it. Take comfort in your ambivalence-sparked creative thinking powers.