Tag: presentation

Categories
Uncategorized

Starting on the Right Foot

There is an old tradition that says you should always enter your house with your right foot first. That first step, where things are fresh and undetermined, makes all the difference.

Much like that old saying, conveying a message has a lot to do with the beginning; you need to figure out how to open on the right foot in front of your audience in order to set the tone for the entire session. The beginning, in this case, is the first 30 seconds to 4 minutes on average, depending on the length of your session. This is your window of opportunity to create a powerful first impression on a new or even a familiar audience.

So how do you start off on the right foot and experience “good luck” (at least for the duration of the session)? Start with anything that’s interesting and memorable, relevant (related to the topic and your agenda), and fits the time frame. It could range from a personal story, joke, historical anecdote to a piece of data, a quote or a visual aid, like a video or a picture.

In order to make your opening—or “grace period,” as we call it at VAYOMAR—effective make sure you match it to your audience, your comfort zone, and personal style and the kind of image you wish to portray.  For instance, an unconventional joke might not be the wisest choice in front of a conservative audience. If you can, find out who your audience is ahead of time and adjust accordingly.

Next time you begin your presentation, speech, or other form of message, make sure you start on the right foot and choose a strong opening. It could make all the difference.

Categories
Uncategorized

It's All About Your Face

Rarely do we think about the impact facial expressions have when giving a presentation. However, as they are a big aspect of our body language, the faces we make can influence others to think and feel certain ways, merely depending on which muscles we choose to move.

The video below shows sets of identical twins sitting side by side. Their only difference? One is chewing gum. Particpants were asked a series of questions based on which twin they thought fit certain criteria. Watch to see how the experiment unfolds.

http://youtu.be/Ueg33qiCq9Q

While this was interesting to watch, chewing gum is not the best way to show movements in your face.

Our suggestion is that you don’t chew gum when you go on stage or go to a job interview or to a business meeting. What you should do instead is take advantage of facial expressions.

Facial expressions are one of the major tools in the body language game. We express the entire spectrum of feeling, whether consciously or subconsciously, through our facial expressions.

Below are a few central aspects through which you can increase your use of facial expressions and your ability to identify the facial expressions of other people. In 2014, the University of Ohio found that there are 21 facial expressions that we, universally, use in our daily lives. Next to the six dominant facial expressions—which demonstrate feelings of anger, fear, disgust, enjoyment, sadness and surprise—another 15 expressions were found that were integrated into the first six, such as: surprise in anger, disgust in fear, etc.

When you stand before an audience and want to transmit a message in the most attractive way, you need to try to integrate as many facial expressions as possible. Your facial muscles should be moving as much as possible. This might be very difficult to do, as every person has 43 muscles in their faces and only uses two to four of them. The more aware you are of the impact of facial expressions, keeping this in your subconscious, the more you will use when you stand and speak before an audience.

The most important and the most discussed expression is, of course, the smile. We all know the old cliché that a smile is the only crooked line that can straighten out anything. Clichés are clichés because they are true. A smile can really break the ice, melt and soften opposition, and strengthen our position as speakers who are pleasant to listen to and to work with. An experiment was done with patients suffering from clinical depression. Half of them requested anti-depressants and half requested placebos for a period of one month. The placebo group was asked to stand before a mirror for seven minutes and to smile. The group asked to smile showed more improvement compared with those using genuine medications.

A smile, in particular, and general facial expressions not only show other people how we feel; they also influence the way we express our feelings, the way we experience our reality. There’s a difference between a courteous or artificial smile and a smile that shows real joy. The difference can be seen in the creases around the eyes. A real smile will include creases at the corners of the eyes, an artificial smile won’t. However, an artificial smile will actually stir the blood in the area of the brain responsible for enjoyment, and will improve your mood. While it’s true that a smile isn’t always suitable at every lecture or for every audience, if used in a moderate way, a smile can always be a bridge, knocking down walls, and creating effective communication between your listeners and you.

Dr. Paul Ekman (whom the show “Lie to Me” is based on), specialist at reading faces and facial expressions, developed the micro-movements that can identify, to the millimeter, the meaning of a movement of an eyebrow (helping police investigators to identify and analyze lies), and coined the term “facial slips,” which are much like slips of the tongue. Even when you try really hard not to show your facial expressions and to keep a poker face, these facial slips just happen. It’s difficult to control them. Only 1% of the population is clever enough to decipher the micro-movements of the face; they are also the ones who can control their facial movements.

Most are not among the people who are talented enough to control facial movements. But you can succeed in seeing someone in the audience who wants to ask a question or someone who doesn’t agree with you and you will certainly see those who do agree with you. These things happen naturally and you need to increase these talents. Someone in the audience who wants to ask a question will transmit his wish through eye contact.

When you stand in front of an audience, you need to take as much advantage as possible of a wide range of facial expressions – because our message must awaken a certain emotion, a certain desire. And in order to succeed and to touch this emotion, you must personally feel the emotions on your body and radiate them outward, calling your audience to feel what you are feeling.

Even blind infants have the same facial expressions as other infants do. Thus,, we understand that facial expressions aren’t an acquired trait, but an inherent one. When we are children we use a lot more facial expressions than we do when we’re adults. That’s because when we’re children, we have less inhibitions. We must learn to go back to this period of lack of inhibitions, so that we can properly use our facial expressions to convey our messages.

Categories
Uncategorized

8 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Giving a Presentation

By: Dafna Cosidoy

You’re giving an important presentation to your boss, it all goes very well and your boss is pleased. He later informs you that an important client is arriving from Singapore the following day, and he wants you to show him the presentation. The common mistake people make in such cases is the “copy paste,” basically giving the exact same presentation to different people. Even if your boss was enthusiastic, there is no guarantee that the client will react in the same way, especially since they are two totally different people from different cultures with different interests and goals.

We tend to prepare ourselves before presentations or meetings; we go over the important points in our heads, we review the presentation, and we even think about what to wear. But we rarely focus on the main purpose of our presentation: the audience. Whether it’s a one-on-one meeting or a lecture given to hundreds of people, the audience is the target of your message. The following eight questions will help you analyze your audience in advance and ensure that you transmit your messages in the correct way:

  1. What is the common denominator of the audience? What do they all have in common? Are they all on the same level on the business hierarchy, or experts in the same field of knowledge? Figure out the common denominator and appeal to that.
  2. Why are they there? What is the goal of the meeting, and what is the desired result from their perspective? What is the KPI that they would rate from the meeting or presentation? Make sure the audience feels like this was a good use of their time.
  3. What is expected of me? Try to think what your audience wants from you based on your status and theirs. For example, if you’re new to the job and you’re presenting to the organization’s decision makers, remember they are examining not just your presentation, but you as an employee. If they are senior decision makers, they probably expect you not to reach a conclusion, but to present them with a subject and give them the honor of reaching a decision.
  4. What will be the most common questions? Try to anticipate your audience’s questions; what are some potential things they might find confusing? You can  try to make some extra slides just for yourself with the answers to some of these questions.
  5. What will be the strongest objections? There are those who call this “frequent and explosive questions,” but objections aren’t necessarily through questions. Rather, they are reactions, comments, or expressions. You can anticipate them based on previous meetings you’ve attended – what was most objected to: Budget? Damaging the time schedule? Potential downfalls? Identifying objections has great value in solidifying your position and softening any opposition.
  6. What are the points of sensitivity? There are some sensitivities that we should know about in advance so as not to embarrass ourselves or to cause tension among the audience. For instance, you should probably avoid topics like organization politics, someone getting fired, a recent failure etc. Be sensitive to these things, as well as physical sensitivities, such as someone in the crowd who has hearing problems.
  7. Who are the key people? Preparation can help you with lobbying before the presentation, preparing the ground, as well as during the presentation itself. If there is someone whom you know to carry a lot of weight, you can give him more of a “say,” or even ask for his opinion. If he has a question and others do as well, you can call on him to ask first, or give his question more attention.
  8. How does my audience like to acquire information? With or without PowerPoint, videos, etc.? This doesn’t go for just presentation tools but also the substance. Maybe you’re speaking to an administrative team that prefers the “bottom line” – short and focused – or maybe your audience are managers who prefer micro-management and want to hear some background, understand all the data. Knowing what your audience likes and what they’re used to is an extremely important tool in your arsenal.

Different audiences grasp messages in different ways. We have to do some fine-tuning to our presentation before bringing it to different audiences, just as we change our CV before submitting it to different workplaces. We emphasize various qualities and values that will suit each company to which we submit. It’s the same with presentations – the basis will remain the same, but the specific audience should be taken into account. This way, your messages will be transmitted in the best possible way.

Categories
Uncategorized

All About Body Language

Studies have found that only 7% of the messages we send are verbal – the other 93% are sent in some non-verbal way. This percentage probably shocks you. The bottom line is this: people first pay attention to your body language, and only afterwards do they hear what we’re saying.

Much has already been said about the importance of body language in sending messages and its basis on our status as speakers. But the question that frequently arises is: what can we do to change this? How much of our body language is innate and how much of it can we acquire?

Every individual has his/her own starting point, some finding body language more natural while others struggle. The key is to become aware of the strengths and weaknesses of our body language. Through this, we can learn to elevate our strengths and improve upon our weaknesses. This awareness will help us succeed in dramatically increasing the quantity of the messages we send, as well as the understanding of those messages.

Up until now, studies have mainly dealt with just one of the three aspects of body language.

1. How We’re Perceived – This relates to the audience, and how we succeed in transmitting our message. It applies to how we can improve our status before an audience and transmit our message, as well as using techniques like voice, eye contact, movement, etc.

Today more and more studies are dealing with the two additional aspects of body language, and if we relate to them, we can significantly improve the transmission of our messages.

2. Reading the Audience – Body language can help us to read the audience, to understand and to identify the small nuances that will help us make the right connection (an audience can be anything from one person to an entire stadium). For example, if someone in the audience slightly raises or lowers an eyebrow, we can assume that he/she has a question to ask or that he/she doesn’t completely agree with what we said. Before they are able to interject their question or opinion, try to ask that person, “Did you want to add something? Do you have a question?” The immediate message will be “they understand me, the speaker is reading me before I even said a word.”

The more we are aware of the small nuances in the audience’s body language, body movement, facial expressions, and eye contact, the more we will succeed in creating a better connection, and our message will be transmitted in a much better way.

3. Effect on Ourselves – This is the most innovative aspect: body language not only influences how we are seen by the audience; it also affects how we perceive ourselves. It can succeed in influencing us and how we succeed.

Amy Cuddy, one of the leading researchers in the field of body language, performed many experiments and found that if, just before a job interview, we take two minutes to ourselves in the bathroom or in the car and we stand in a “super power position,” we will walk into the job interview with more self confidence, and our chances of receiving a position reply are that much greater.

Cuddy claims that this isn’t a “fake it ‘till you make it” situation, but rather “fake it ‘till you become it.”

This principle answers the question concerning innate body language as compared to acquired body language. At the beginning, it may seem a little false or forced, but later on it becomes part of our DNA. It will influence not only how we are perceived by others, but also on how we perceive ourselves, and it will help us succeed in business, in our personal lives, and beyond.

In the next few weeks, we will carefully examine each of these three aspects of body language more carefully, so that the next time you present in front of a crowd, your body language will help to captivate your audience and let them connect with you easily!

To hear all of Amy Cuddy’s TED talk on body language, CLICK HERE.

Categories
Uncategorized

Charisma: How to Match Your Verbal and Non-Verbal Messages

If you look up “charisma” in the dictionary, the definition will say something along the lines of: “a person with personal charm, persuasive and possessing high interpersonal skills.”  Clearly, charisma is a quality that one should want to possess, particularly in the communications field.

But how can we truly become more charismatic?

There are many qualities that can make a person charismatic. On a practical level, however, a person is thought to be charismatic when his verbal messages and his non-verbal messages are consistent.  This means that your words and your body language have to correspond with one another, and have to work together to create a stronger impact.  It may seem simple, but how exactly do you effectively do this?

5 tips for achieving correspondence between verbal and non-verbal messages:

  • Voice and tone – 38% of our first impressions are based on our ability to use our voice correctly.  What is considered the “proper” use of your voice?  Simply put, you should use a moderate and changeable variation of: volume (high/low), pace (quick/slow) and style (decisive/authoritative/soft/containing).
  • Facial expressions – it’s very difficult to listen with interest and gain a connection with someone who has an expressionless face.  We must ensure that we use varied facial gestures according to message we’re trying to convey and of course, we can’t forget to smile.  As a rule, people have an easier time connecting to and having a positive perception of people who smile at them.
  • Eye contact – in order to radiate credibility, honesty and intimacy with the person standing before us, we must ensure to make eye contact with all the people in the audience.  Don’t stay fixated on one person for too long though; make sure you are making eye contact with the entire audience.  Additionally, try not to look at your notes or presentation too much.  Keep engaging the audience to make sure not to lose them.
  • Shoulders – studies have shown that something that radiates high self-esteem is the shoulders.  That is, erect and straight shoulders send a message that a person can be counted on; strong shoulders give the impression that a person believes in himself. This, in turn, makes it easier to believe in this person and in his message.
  • Use of attention grabbers – in order for our message to be memorable and to create an experience as a derivative of the interaction with us, we must spice up our content with concrete examples, personal experiences, anecdotes, surprising data from recent studies, videos etc. As much as we might want our presentation to stand on its own, using extras can really help our message stick with the audience.

Charisma can be something that comes naturally to people, but it can also be taught and learned very easily through these simple steps. If you want others to be excited about what you’re saying, you need to be excited while saying it. By being passionate and energetic, your message will grab hold of an audience and make them feel the same way you do.

Categories
Uncategorized

Enhancing Your Influence

Every person is looking for a way to maximize his input, whether it’s in a big or small way.

One of these ways is becoming an asset to the big decision-makers at a company.

How can you be sure that your suggestions are helpful and not hindering? CLICK HERE to take a look at our infographic on Enhancing Your Influence and learn more!

Categories
Uncategorized

Information vs. Knowledge

We live in a world that is surrounded by a massive influx of information that is easily available. If you want to find out more about a subject, all you have to do is go to a computer or smart phone and type it in. It’s that simple. We, literally, have a wealth of information available at our fingertips, whenever and wherever we want it.

Often times, the terms “Information” and “Knowledge” are used interchangeably, and people do not give much more thought on the subject. However, in your daily interactions (in the office, at home, etc.), it is extremely important to think about the distinction between the two. What really is the difference?
We have created a short Prezi presentation to show you which of the two is more important when delivering your message, and how to make your audience listen to you. CLICK HERE to take a look!

Categories
Uncategorized

4 Steps to Creating a Memorable 60-Second Pitch

This week, VAYOMAR’s trainers are taking part in the Mass Challenge Awards Ceremony, happening on October 29th. Over 1700 startups sent in applications in order to win $1.75 million dollars to further their startup. VAYOMAR helped each of the Top 26 Startups prepare a 60-second pitch to present at the awards show in front of 1500 potential investors. Imagine you’re the founder of one of these new startups, eager to expand and gain support from investors.  Would you be prepared if someone asked you to pitch your startup in just 60 seconds?  It sounds impossible.  How can you be expected to give all the necessary details in only one minute?  Believe it or not, 60 seconds is plenty of time to introduce yourself, your startup, and your goals.  All you have to do is follow these easy steps in order to create not just a 60-second pitch, but a GREAT 60-second pitch.

Step 1: The Opening

Every famous speech needs a powerful opening to capture the audience’s attention, and that’s exactly what your pitch needs.  Whatever it is you do, make it relatable to what you’re speaking about.  It could be a quote or a statistic, something dramatic to really pull them in.  It could be a question or an ask for a raise of hands, something to get the audience involved.  It could even be something as simple as wearing a funny accessory or holding a funny prop, something to make people look at you. You need to clearly communicate what it is you’re pitching within the first 10-15 seconds.

Step 2: The Essence

Now that you’ve introduced yourself in an interesting way, it’s time to move on to the bulk of your speech: what exactly your company is.  The trick here is to do it in the least amount of words as you possibly can.  There is no real correlation between the innovation of your company and the time it takes to talk about its core essence.  Your audience just needs to understand the importance of what you’re trying to say.  After another 15-20 seconds, you should have communicated the space your venture is in (i.e. transportation, technology, etc.), the value this idea brings, and the innovation.

Step 3: The Traction

30 seconds have gone by and you’ve already captured your audience’s attention and fully explained the core of your company.  Now is the time to tell your audience about the progress you’ve made.  They will need facts, not just ideas, to prove that you can actually further your company.  Talk about the money you’ve made so far, the advisors you’ve recruited, partnerships you’ve formed, anything to show that you’re serious about the future.  Talk about the team you’ve put together, where you want to improve upon or advance in the short- and long-term.  In these 15-20 seconds, you should prove to potential investors that you have a solid foundation and know how to take your company to the next level.

Step 4: The Conclusion

At the end of your pitch, you must clearly communicate what it is you want from your audience.  If it’s money for the company, potential partnerships, or something else, your audience must be made fully aware.  Thank the audience for their time, and your 5-10 seconds will have been worthwhile.

The goal here is to get face time with potential investors, so you need to be able to stand out. To learn more about how to give a great pitch and make it count, listen to this podcast created by one of our founders, Ariel Halevi!

“How to Build a Winning 60-Second Pitch”

Categories
Uncategorized

Are employees snoozing through your meetings? Here's the solution

In most organizations, team meetings are perceived as useless and boring.  No matter how hard you may try to make it interesting, your employees still seem restless.  How can we make these meetings effective AND engaging?  Before we try to understand how to do that, let’s ask ourselves the following question: what are the classic problems managers run into during staff meetings?

  • Employees show lack of interest and are busy chatting.
  • Employees arrive late.
  • Employees walk out to take phone calls.
  • There is no internalization and implementation of the points raised in the meeting.

However, this is not a one-way street.  If we were to ask your employees the exact same question, they would probably say that:

  • Meetings start late.
  • Meetings don’t end on time.
  • They are boring.
  • They are ineffective.
  • The message isn’t clear.
  • There’s information overload.
  • The topic doesn’t pertain to everyone present but only to some departments.

The following model attempts to tackle some of these problems:

A Model for Constructing Staff Meetings to Motivate Employees

  1. Present the meeting objectives in a precise and concise manner.  A clear objective and vision instill commitment among employees.
  2. Present the rationale behind the objectives (for example: other ruled-out alternatives, examples of past experiences, your position in relation to competitors, case studies that led to developing such a procedure, simulations, roll switching, etc.) – the “what” isn’t enough; it’s also important to understand the “why.”  The more an employee takes part in making decisions, the more committed he is to perform his tasks in the best way possible.
  3. The implications (value, benefit) of meeting objectives on any level (individual/group/school) – what do we gain by achieving our goals? It is important for employees to see the end result of their hard work and effort.
  4. Predicting and presenting possible resistance – when a manager knows how to detect and bring to the surface possible backlash before his employees do, he’s able to minimize the degree of resistance and show that he knows the situation up close.
  5. Holding a discussion about the working methods to achieve the goals – a good manager should encourage creative thinking and teamwork.

When a manager builds his staff meetings based on this model, the message he is sending is a positive one.  It shows he’s truly invested in his employees, that meeting them is important to him, that he doesn’t want to waste their time, that he understands their motives, and that he knows how to appreciate their hard work.  Above all, a manager should serve as a role model and set a personal example for his employees (a factor that has been found to be key in motivating employees in the long run).