Create Your Communications Experience

Master the Art of Telegraphing

Hi all, @kellydecker here...

Think telegraphing is outdated? Think again.

When's the last time you got a telegraph? Well, if  you've interacted with anyone in the last ten minutes - a coworker, friend, boss or even your kids, you definitely got one. And I bet that you sent a couple in the process.

I'm a big John Madden fan. He's the kind of authentic communicator that makes you want to buy him a beer, sit back, and listen to his stories. So I do (minus the beer) - usually right about the time I take the Fremont exit during my commute into the city - on The Daily Madden, his 8.5 minute gig on KCBS at 8:15am. Today he and the great Tony LaRussa were talking about the typical random and rambling banter of this segment when they turned to the topic of telegraphs. (Listen to the segment here.)

Telegraphing in baseball is common. Turns out that pitchers do it all the time.

LaRussa says that pitchers "get in these habits wherein they start their delivery and they let you know what they're going to throw. The hitter sees that and they know what's coming."

This is pretty amazing. It means that the batter, who is standing 60 feet away, can look at how the pitcher raises his arm, grabs the ball and holds the glove and then that batter can figure out exactly how to hit the ball. They read telegraphs to their advantage, and to literally hit it out

of the park. Don't know about you, but I've got a new found respect for ball players.

LaRussa continues, "Some guys are great at seeing it - it can be really just a glimpse of something...and some can't, unless it's really obvious." And it's becoming more important. "There's a legitimate study going on in every big league team more every year at reading pitchers' little quirks and tips."

Sounds like business communications to me. Telegraphing is happening in nearly every interaction that you have, and you'd better get good at sending and reading those messages.

On the sender side, there's nothing that will help you more than video. Just like in baseball (and any other sport for that matter - which is why the best athletes just keep getting better and better), you've got to "break down tape." Until you get yourself on video, you probably have no clue how or what you do in your daily communications. What signals are you sending that either help or hinder your listener to do something with your message? It's about making what is unconscious to you (your habits, quirks, 'tells')...conscious.

And if you can learn to read the telegraphs, you've got a game changer on your hands. Whether it's selling a customer, delivering a performance appraisal, hiring a new team member, or talking with a friend - you'll be well served to pick up on their telegraphs and respond appropriately. Here's are a few ways to learn:

• Read Blink. Malcolm Gladwell's great best seller on how and why we make judgments in the blink of an eye.
• Watch/Listen to your kids: They can't help but wear their heart on their sleeve. Even though it's obvious (and pretty funny) it's a great way to get tuned into telegraphing in general.
• For fun...watch a game of No Limit Texas Hold 'Em. These guys and gals are good at reading "tells", and really good at hiding them. At least watch (or re-watch for the umpteenth time) the movie Rounders and learn how even an Oreo cookie can be a downfall.

Where's Your Lean?

Years ago I co-produced the film "Robert Kennedy Remembered." One of my favorite lines in the narrative described when Robert Kennedy first came to Washington as Senator, “He hit the ground running, leaning forward.”

Politicians know it.  Executives know it too.  Successful communicators (ie. successful people) lean forward in all they do.  They possess character and talents, of course -- natural gifts and developed skills.  But it’s how they communicate with action that differentiates them from the pack.

The forward lean is a mindset.  It impacts every facet of your life.  It's a "can do" attitude, approaching opportunities with a simple commitment to just do it.

We're talking about leaders who engage.  They get involved.  They participate.  They stand up, raise their hand, volunteer and take chances without hesitation.  High energy, always working toward something specific and moving in a deliberate direction – successful leaders understand how to lead, by example.  They communicate with action.   

Do you have a forward lean?  Do you:

• sit in the front row at a seminar or meeting?
• speak up, ask questions, volunteer?
• often find you're the first to get things started?
• jump in and get involved...put yourself on the playing field?

Successful communication is a natural extension of the forward lean.  We see it in high profile leaders, but we also see it in every area of life:  Home, office, church, non-profit, school, community organizations.  The opportunities for any of us to lean forward abound.

So where does your lean manifest?  Are you leaning forward?  Once you start leaning forward, you MOVE forward.

Handling Hecklers - Obama does it well

Much has been written about President Obama's speaking style, particularly here and elsewhere, so I'm not going to comment on the specifics of last night's speech. Nor get into the opinion of many as to whether he is using the Bully Pulpit to excess. (He is.) But I do want to laud him for the way he handled the heckling of Rep. Joe Wilson.

There are some lessons to be learned here. I doubt if any of us will ever have the massive stage, audience and pressure that Obama had at a speech almost State Of The Union in it's size and impact - but how Obama handled the outburst is worth noting.

As you can see in the clip, not only is President Obama taken aback by the shout, "You lie!" from Wilson, so are Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. Actually everyone was set back a bit - as with most hecklers it isn't whether the actual content is anywhere near accurate, it's the shock of the disruption - particularly to the President on the floor of Congress in such a major speech.

At 1 minute and 23 seconds into the clip Wilson shouts, "You lie!" Then Obama pauses, finger upraised and looks pointedly at him for 4 seconds. Then he wisely does not argue, but takes it in stride with a calm ad lib and low key refutation, "That's not true." And then he continues on to recapture his momentum. Well done. And an immediate acceptance of Wilson's rapid apology later furthered President Obama's accomplishment at turning a lemon into lemonade.

How You Can Handle Heckler's

We can learn from this very public example and apply it to our own communicating situations. Here are three things you can do to help you handle hecklers and hostile audience encounters:

1. Don’t argue.

You might win the argument, but you would probably lose the audience. The hostile questioner is ‘part’ of the audience, so you don’t want to put him or her down – publicly. Obama did that well – he stopped, looked and listened – and then went on.

2. Use simple behaviors.

Use your voice, and increased volume or change in tone, and/or a pause, to get the attention back to your message. Use your eye communication to engage the heckler, and then take the attention away from the heckler by looking and talking elsewhere. (This is also a good behavioral technique in a hostile Q&A session – when you ask for the next question, have your eye contact looking away from the past hostile questioner.) Sometimes a simple hand gesture (or finger pointing) might be useful to direct attention away from the negative energy. And then, you just talk and move on.

3. Keep control.

At all costs, you can’t lose control for it is YOUR communication experience and you are responsible for it. Don’t let anyone else hijack it. 95% of the time you can handle most hecklers with the simple behaviors in #2, but if necessary, raise your voice, confront, or do what is necessary to keep control, even if you have to ask for help in removing the extremely disruptive.

Simple common sense techniques, but they can work wonders if you keep your cool, and keep control. Like the President did last night.

Decker Made To Stick Messaging is here!

@kellydecker here with a super newsworthy post...

Think back to a time when you've been so incredibly excited to give someone something that you knew they would LOVE. Maybe it was the Superman PEZ dispenser that your younger brother wanted for his 5th birthday...or your kid's first bicycle with training wheels. Maybe even the macaroni necklace you gave to your mom for Mother's Day. You thought about what they wanted and then went out and made it or bought it, wrapped it up, and eagerly awaited the day they would open it.

Well, we've been wrapping something up for you over the last couple of months, and we're just as excited. We're thrilled to announce a partnership with Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the fabulous, best-selling Made To Stick.

Announcing the Decker Made To Stick Messaging Program!

Together we created a program that is completely dedicated to messaging. It'll teach you how to talk about your ideas in a way that will make them stick, and most importantly, make an impact - with your customers, co-workers, bosses (and maybe even your kids). We take our Decker Grid system to bring focus and structure to the message, and then layer on Made To Stick's SUCCESs principles to make it good and, well...sticky.  

Yes, it's for sales and marketing types, but just as important and applicable for the techies, engineers and ops managers. You'll learn to identify (and avoid) the dreaded "Curse of Knowledge" - the single biggest obstacle in our communications. Then, with lots of hands-on exercises, you'll give your idea the wings it needs to fly.

The premiere program is happening October 6th in our San Francisco office - be sure to check out the promo at www.decker.com. I'll be leading this one with Chip Heath. There's limited seating, with phone registration only. If you're interested, give us a ring or send an email to [email protected]. If there's no room, we'll get you on the list for the next one.   

Until then...start looking around. Anything sticking these days?

Obama, Teleprompters and Authenticity

President Obama is no longer the premier communicator - which is remarkable as he was elected largely because of his speaking ability. I even named him as #1 in my Top Ten Communicators of 2006. It's not about the words - he does have very good speech writers - it's about the authenticity. 

He has slipped for several reasons.
First of all he is over exposed - speaking somewhere almost daily:

• 9 health care speeches in 9 days
• 4 Press Conferences in his first 6 months, more than President Bush did in 8 years
• more interviews than any recent President in recent times

In this over exposure in the media it is also now apparent that he is too scripted and aloof in formal situations, and halting in the informal situations. Not the great communicator.

See it now
Let me show you what I mean. First, there's the teleprompter. It astonishes me that most people don't consciously know when a person is reading from the teleprompter - but I think they DO know it unconsciously. And authenticity suffers. When someone is using the teleprompter, someone is READING A SPEECH - not coming from the heart (or at least appearing to do so.) I do not understand why Obama does not have good teleprompter coaching so that he properly uses focal points to at least APPEAR to be talking to an audience.

Teleprompter 1
Here is Obama in his teleprompter mode at his Egypt speech. He appears to be observing a ping-pong game - 4 seconds to one side (left teleprompter paddle) and 4 seconds to the other side (right teleprompter paddle.) Throughout the campaign and up until last week he had this rigid habit - 4 seconds left, 4 seconds right - and here recently in a Health Care speech.

Teleprompter 2
It's very interesting that last week, in his press conference on health care (that turned into his ObamaGates speech that spawned the Beer Summit), he used the teleprompter (finally) like a newscaster - looking straight at the camera as he reads his speech on a transparent mirror. You'll see he's better - but still cadenced, stiff and academic.

Teleprompter 3
Now here's a funny but revealing take from the TODAY Show on Obama's reliance on the teleprompter. It's written and talked about, and has become so apparent that there is actually a teleprompter on Twitter that is very funny reading: @BOTeleprompter. (As BO says, no POTUS without TOTUS.) So Obama's use of the teleprompter is unprecedented. No President, nor perhaps any public figure in history, has relied on continuous scripting of what he says as has this President. 

Extemporaneously speaking...
The sad fact is President Obama got elected because he was a supposed 'great speaker.' Actually he was, and is, a great orator - but I think the teleprompter is now getting in his way. He has to go to another level. Martin Luther King, JFK, Roosevelt, Clinton and Reagan rarely read from teleprompters - except on formal and State occasions. And their greatest moments were not when they were reading - it was when they were speaking. From the heart. Authentically.

Every leader has to be able to speak well extemporaneously - they are always in the limelight and have to communicate well in all situations. You can't take your speech writers and teleprompters everywhere. Sometimes President Obama is OK in extemporaneous mode, but more often he is halting and pedantic - his speech laced with ums and ahs, as in this press conference with Prime Minister Brown, and here in an informal press response that I posted on earlier.

Why it's important
President Obama is our President. No matter what your political bent you want the country to succeed. It is leadership that makes that happen. And we have a President who is now over exposed and, purely from a communications standpoint, going in the wrong direction .

Reading speeches is not leading - where inspiring is critical. I posted about President Bush losing the Bully Pulpit a while back, and most would agree on that. I don't think most will agree with me that President Obama is about to lose the Bully Pulpit as well, but it's happening.

And that would be a tragedy for a country that is already on a slippery slope.

Trust and Walter Cronkite

Why was Walter Cronkite the epitome of trust? Trust is an essential quality to have in any communicating experience, particularly newscasting. And every article, blog or TV clip mentions how Walter Cronkite was so trusted. What can we learn?

I think there are three primary elements (of many) that made him "the most trusted man in America", and perhaps the most successful newscaster of all time. Two of them have oft been mentioned, so I'll just mention some adjectives here because they are well sprinkled in other more weighty commentaries on his passing, and then concentrate on the third one, which I have not yet read nor seen...

1. Character

Walter Cronkite: Even temperament, tough, disciplined, hard working, news leader, values, accurate, thorough researcher, thought leader.

As Lyndon Johnson said when Cronkite came back from Vietnam and reported that we were NOT going to win that war, "If we've lost Cronkite we've lost mid-America."

2. Behavior

Walked the talk, did his homework, loved his work, authentic, consistent, highly skilled. 

Although he could read script and teleprompters with skill, he excelled (and preferred) to be extemporaneous and real, as when he told the nation of JFK's assassination.

3. Physical

This is an area that is not often mentioned, but in my view is critical to the trust that Walter Cronkite engendered.

First, a question on trust. If you didn't know their names, of these two public figures whom would you tend to trust more?

Now I don't mean to disparage Michael Chertoff, and he may even have the character and behavior of a Walter Cronkite for all I know, but looking at his face alone he is at a disadvantage in the trust sweepstakes. There are other examples of course, but here it's like night and day, black and white, closed and open.

Face: Walter Cronkite was called Uncle Walter because he was open and approachable - largely because he looked open and approachable. Walter Cronkite had the face and the voice to be "the most trusted man in America." This is not  talked of much - perhaps it seems superficial - but it is not. Our facial expression 'speaks' volumes without saying a word.

Yet many people have a trustworthy face, but most don't have qualities #1 and #2 above. Of course there are a lot of people who have character and who walk the talk, but they don't 'look' that trustworthy. For the former, work on #1 and #2. For the latter...

Although we can't do a lot with changing our face, we can change our expression and our attitude. Particularly if we tend to appear closed, and not friendly or open. It's critical to our communications, and worth working on. In Walter Cronkite's case, he was unique in having one of the most welcoming faces in America to go with his skill and credentials.

Voice: And what a deep, resonant and ear pleasing voice Cronkite had. All of us who have heard him often can recall today that voice like no other. It IS the voice of trust. Always calm, never strident. Conversational but not casual.

We are fortunate if our voice naturally gives us credibility. No matter, our voice gives our feelings away - like it or not. In the age of the cell phone we ought to take note. We can work on our vocal energy and enthusiasm. If we work hard we can affect the tone and resonance of our voice, and professionals must train at this. In the age of podcasts and YouTube replacing newscasts - the voice becomes even more important for credibility and influence. For professionals - and for us. For we are communicating daily to others, when it counts, on the phone - no matter what our occupation.

So with Walter Cronkite, perhaps we had the 'perfect storm.' In this one man came together the blessings of his physical nature that he honed, along with the character and behavior of a man that was destined to become the foremost newscaster of the ages - and a man we can trust. He will be missed. May he inspire all of us.  

 

 

 

Leadership Communications - the Fundamental State

A leader grows into the "Fundamental State", according to Robert Quinn, and this is a concept we can apply to President Obama – and any new leader. In Obama's case, we could compare his effectiveness as a campaigner (Normal State) and his effectiveness as a leader now that he is President (Fundamental State). But maybe it's too soon in his leadership, but not too soon in his communications.

For we can apply the concept to speaking and communicating as well. We know that effective leaders are usually great communicators – the confidence of leadership often self-evident in confident behavior. This is generally true of Obama, with exceptions noted below. 

Robert E. Quinn is a University of Michigan professor who introduced the concept of the Fundamental State of Leadership – a heightened perspective, and one that’s inherent in all of us. Quinn's interesting concept appears in the Harvard Business Review, and it is relevant to business and politics…

“In the normal state people tend to stay within their comfort zones and allow external forces to direct their behaviors and decisions. They lose moral influence and often rely on rational argument and the exercise of authority to bring about change…the result is usually unimaginative and incremental – and largely produces what already exists. To elevate the performance of others, we must elevate ourselves into the fundamental state of leadership.”

We’ve all been there in our personal and professional lives – a time of crisis where we rise to the occasion and overcome the challenge. (For example President Bush leading us during 9/11, but not so much before or after.) If we force ourselves into the Fundamental State, rather than waiting for crisis to knock at our door, we'll get better and better. And so too is the case with communications. Quinn says that getting there requires a shift along four dimensions:

So, what does this mean for us as communicators?

1.   Don’t stick with what’s comfortable. Instead of standing in one place behind a lectern during a presentation, move and create energy. Actively pursue speaking engagements that push your comfort zone, where you can practice the behavioral skills of communication.

2.   Master the Natural Self – that special combination of your unique personality, mind, opinions and behaviors. Don’t become someone you’re not. Harnessing the Natural Self while communicating will increase your ability to connect with others, because you’re just being you – confident and relaxed.

3.   Create listener-focused messages. State early and openly the audience’s WIIFM – What’s In It For Me?, action steps and benefits.

4.   Read cues and adjust. Practicing is good, but not if you can’t adapt to external cues. Create an experience that’s specific to your audience – whether it’s one person, or one hundred.

 

Now in President Obama's case, let's hope his Normal State of communications (over dependence on the teleprompter, speaking in what I call 'Obama bursts', many 'ums' and 'ahs' in interview settings) will transform into the Fundamental State, where he can communicate more openly and skillfully, even though in unfamiliar territory.

The Green Light Approach

The Green Light Approach

Most successful people have a 'forward lean.'

In our Communicate To Influence program we draw a parallel to the Ready Position, a posture that comes from all types of athletics, where you are on the balls of your feet. You can't be back on your heels and be "ready" - ready to move fast in tennis, basketball, skiing - any sport. You have to always be fast on your feet to move in any direction.

In speaking, when you are habitually in the Ready Position you are physically and psychologically forward. You WANT to get out there and talk, and convince and influence - you can move!

My friend Ben Sottile has been CEO of several companies, and coined another name for moving forward that I've found very useful. He calls it the Green Light Approach. We all operate under one of the three traffic lights, and he advocates Green.

• Those who are ruled by the red light stop themselves - or never get started.
• Those who always see yellow are very cautious about making a move.
• But those who go for the green light are staunch advocates of their positions and DO move forward. While they certainly slow down if they see yellow - and stop at the red signals - they see life as a green light. Moving forward unless directed otherwise.

Same in communicating. Business would be vital and vibrant if more people had a forward lean and looked at communicating, much like life, as a green light.

The Visual Dominates - Mehrabian Revisited

There's been a lot of unfortunate controversy among communication professionals about Professor Albert Mehrabian's oft quoted research (below). It's good to have discussion though, for his research has altered the communicating landscape and has helped to get people out of the 'curse of knowledge.' Here are my thoughts and personal experience on the issue:

Mehrabian wrote the classic "Silent Messages" in 1981 (2nd Ed). From this book came the research that shows vocal and visual outweigh the verbal when you have a conflicted message. The weight is at the feeling level ('likability'), not at the informational level. His exact numbers were:

• Verbal      7%    (the word, or words, or message)
• Vocal     38%    (the sound of the voice)
• Visual    55%    (what people see)

For extensive background on the research detail and methodology see the links here. Olivia Mitchell did her usual thorough job of research also, although I disagree with her conclusions. And to not make this post too long, let me hit on what I think are the critical points.

1. Mehrabian's research was only on the inconsistent message! When your message and your tone and your look are one, are congruent - Mehrabian is irrelevant. He was measuring what the listener judged more important in 'liking' (and thus trusting, believing, being open to) when there was inconsistency and incongruence between the message and the behavior. This is the critical issue.

2. Many say that Mehrabian's findings mean content is worth 7% of the message and 'body language' is worth 93%. Totally wrong. The research was not at the information level. It was at the feeling level. And it just measured what channel the listener liked (trusted, believed) more than the other. Many bloggers have pointed this out by now - so hopefully at least that misinterpretation should be put to rest.

3. The visual dominates! The most important takeaway is that when there is an inconsistent message, the listener will overwhelmingly judge the visual cues more as to whether they like (trust and believe) the speaker. And realize all this happens at the unconscious level.

Let me amplify:

Dr. Mehrabian Interview
When I interviewed Dr. Mehrabian at his UCLA offices in Los Angeles in May of 1981 on his findings, I learned a lot.

Here is one of his quotes from my June, 1981 newsletter (no blogs in those days):

    "It's true we say that non-verbal is more important than the verbal when it comes to conveying emotions and attitudes. Now I cannot say to you non-verbally that my check book is in my desk drawer at home on the left hand side. That's information.
    "So we have to be very careful to make that distinction. But when we are talking on the emotional level, attempting to be persuasive, getting across information in an important way, here the non-verbal elements of our speech become more important in the impact that we have."

Which leads into one of my favorite findings:

People buy on emotion and justify with fact

In my book "You've Got To Be Believed To Be Heard" I write about the importance of the emotions - the feeling level - in all our communications. It is very powerful, and works at the First Brain (emotional brain, limbic system) level. And as I point out in my book, the eye sensory input is by far the most important nerve pathway to the emotional First Brain (25 times larger than auditory). Not only does the visual dominate, visual cues have a direct pathway to the unconscious brain.

In his book "Blink," Malcolm Gladwell talks about the adaptive unconscious (First Brain), and how important the enormous visual input is in making immediate and unconscious decisions. (In the first 2 seconds a police officer may have to decide to shoot or not - Gladwell calls it Thin Slicing.) We make those same decisions in communicating - in whether to believe someone or not.

So when you meet someone for the first time, the visual will dominate, and likability will be important to your openness to the person. If you don't like someone, you will tend to neither trust nor believe what they say. Likability has been proven to be the most significant factor in electing Presidents, or in any voting for that matter. (See also Tim Sanders book, "The Likeability Factor.") We tend to discount emotionally and unconsciously those we don't like. Doesn't matter how important or true the message is, it will tend to not be heard. Thus Mehrabian's findings are important to point the way to being better communicators.

Overcoming the 'curse of knowledge.'

In Chip Heath's great book "Made To Stick" he talks about how we - our society and all of us as communicators - are caught up in the 'curse of knowledge.' Starting in our academic system we are taught information reigns supreme - if we say the words people will get them. But it just isn't so. It takes more than words.

Mehrabian points the way for overcoming the 'curse of knowledge.' But there are so many other examples and proof points (I could write a book...  well actually, I did.) Suffice to say, when we speak we create a communications experience where people WILL get our message if we are trusted and believed. And enthusiastic and confident. And we connect and engage. If we are congruent with our message. And unfortunately most people communicating in business aren't congruent - when they are nervous, lack confidence, or otherwise sabotage their message with inappropriate vocal and visual cues. Those cues are what will be believed at the feeling, liking and unconscious level. That is what Mehrabian's research shows. And if you want a visual and vocal example, look at these clips from people who are at first nervous and then gain confidence.

The ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

Much of the criticism of Mehrabian in recent blogs comes from his methodology - he was using still pictures, he combined two different experiments, etc. These interpretations miss the point. I think most statistical research can be faulted in some way - and as Mark Twain said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." But what is the essence of the findings? It is that the visual dominates at the feeling (liking) level, and that is the dominant factor in establishing trust and credibility. Which is critical in getting any message across.

I'll close this post with my personal experience that I think totally verifies Mehrabian. I founded Decker Communications, Inc. 30 years ago this year. We have trained and interacted with well over 100,000 people in 1 and 2 day "Communicate To Influence" programs. I have personally been involved with tens of thousands of our clients in coaching and training.

To my knowledge, there has not been an exception to:

• every participant coming in content-burdened and behaviorally-challenged in some way, exhibiting an inconsistent message.
• every participant gaining confidence and conscious control of behavioral skills - vocal and visual - that allowed them to give a more consistent and powerful message.
• ...and finally, there has not been an exception to any participant who did not agree with the substance of Mehrabian's findings after learning of the research intellectually, and then spending some time observing themselves on video, with feedback and coaching - and seeing how important a congruent message was.

Professor Albert Mehrabian has provided a great service to communicators who learn of, and apply, his work. Let not misinterpretations of that work diminish the importance of Mehrabian.

But PowerPoints are NOT Your Presentation

With all the recent emphasis on the design of your PowerPoints (Keynote for the Mac), it's time to revisit the fact that your visuals are NOT your presentation. You and your Point of View are the centerpiece. I think that the emphasis on PowerPoints (we'll call them PP for brevity) is because 2008 WAS a great year for great design with the publication of Garr Reynolds' book "Presentation Zen" and Nancy Duarte's "slide:ology" (both still best sellers on Amazon.) Make no mistake that having powerful and visual support materials is critical to your impact. But it's still your impact - it's not a PP.

Keep in mind that we're talking here about in-person presentations, not PP 'decks' that are designed to be used as a written report. Also, many major conferences think 'decks' when they ask their speakers to send in their PowerPoints in advance. Why? They are NOT their presentation! (This just happened to me, and I did it because the client IS the client. But it misses the point of the experience.)

Unfortunately we find that in about 95% of the cases for most speakers in business today their PP's are the centerpiece of their message. They create their content around their PP's, rather than figuring out what they want to say, and then using PP's, (and videos, and exercises, and SHARP's, etc.) to SUPPORT their presentation.

When it comes to persuasive impact in our communications, it is not through technology, but only with it. YOU are always the centerpiece of your presentation, and no graphically dazzling slide should ever replace you. Nor Twitter stream for that matter.

With all the advances in technology, we must continuously emphasize the critical importance of human confidence in the delivery as well as in the tools of delivery - the primary tool being yourself. With greater "high tech" we need a corresponding increase in "high touch." Think of using videos - embed them in your PPs. And experiment with a live Twitter stream - this can be distracting in a more formal speech but is great for tech/breakout/collaborative sessions. And remember that with this advanced technology and the many more options available for visual support, your confidence and control as the centerpiece has to be even more skilled.

Think of Steve Jobs and why his presentations are so powerful. (He led our Top Ten Communicators of 2005 list, even before the famous iPhone announcement, and was on the list most years since.) While he uses elegantly simple slides and perfectly timed and executed demos, he remains the center of the presentation. Often, (as at the top of the screen here) he will completely clear the screen (using a black slide - that's the way to do it) to keep the audience's attention on his energy, on his enthusiasm, and on his words. Not the PowerPoint's. (Or Keynote's in this case.)

Remembering that you are the presentation, develop visuals that enhance your point of view. After all, visuals are important:

• "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."    Cicero
• 55% of likability - critical component of trust - comes through the visual behavior of the speaker Mehrabian
• A 500% average increase in retention occurs when visuals are used in a presentation
• 83% of what we know is learned by seeing and observing

For your own personal and visual impact, see yourself on video. And when you get to support, for great tips on presentation design, check out Garr Reynold's blog Presentation Zen and Nancy Duarte's blog slide:ology.

Always keep in mind that you are your most important visual aid. Train yourself first so that you have a confidence that never quits in the face of new technology. And then add great design.