For those of you who teach lengthy courses or run a series of seminars, it’s important to check in on your audience’s needs and wants from time to time. Regular readers should know that it is crucial to know your audience at the beginning of a course or seminar series, however many presenters forget that audience needs evolve over time. The best public speakers evolve with their audience. Here are two concrete ways to do so: Continue reading
As I mentioned before, planning and rehearsing are critical for successful presentations. There is, however, one thing that you might have to do on the spot: a meet and greet.
For those of you who do a lot of one-off seminars, you might not have a clue about your audience beforehand. Yet, as previously discussed, tailoring your content to your audience is critical. So dos this mean that we are at an impasse here? Not at all. Continue reading
If you study or experience Japanese culture, it’s only a matter of time before you come across the concept of tatemae, the feelings/attitude that one projects to the public. Tatemae may or may not conflict with one’s honne, or real feelings. Whether or not one’s tatemae should match one’s honne is a constant source of debate. Luckily, we’re not going to go into that here. Continue reading
If you live in Japan, at some point in life, you are going to have to acquire a “hanko” (name stamp). Like a signature in western countries, a hanko is how you represent yourself in correspondence and business transactions.
The other day, I was staring at my own hanko (pictured above) and wondering how I could get more use out of it. The only place that requires me to use it is my bank—I can simply sign for everything else. Then it hit me: “This would make a great blog post!” Continue reading
The tittle of this article, courtesy of Lifehacker (by way of the Harvard Business Review), may seem simplistic, but it’s loaded with good advice. In fact, the article has a lot of synergy with what I’ve been posting here. To be specific, it offers another perspective on three of my favorite pieces of advice: Continue reading
Thanks to a training session, I recently found myself on the other side of the public-speaking coin: in the audience. As I watched Japanese salespeople give presentations in English, I observed various levels of pre-presentation anxiety. Despite that fact, each presenter made successful speeches. Nothing went wrong.
One of the most well-known rules of public speaking is to know the details about where you are going to present, before your present. How big is the room? How are the chairs and desks arranged? What version of PowerPoint is available? Is PowerPoint available at all? Continue reading
After spending some time looking for a quick-fire list of common public speaking mistakes, the best source turned out to be right under my nose. Toastmasters International has a great summary of exactly what not to do when giving presentations. Continue reading
For a while now, the Harvard Business Review website has been a great source for advice on management and working effectively. Recently, thanks to an article by Nancy Duarte, HBR has become a great resource on public speaking. Continue reading
So you’ve been doing your presentation routine for a while now. You’ve gotten used to your regular rotation of topics and can anticipate what the audience will be like for each one. Your stomach is officially butterfly free. Continue reading
