The Winnick Group Blog

I recently went to hear an expert speak on a controversial topic. The speaker kept the audience's attention until the Q+A period. Then suddenly, because he was visibly shocked at the type of  questions asked, his answers became defensive, he appeared unprepared and left us with a negative impression. What a waste of a good opportunity. 

Remember the Q+A section of a speech is an opportunity. It's a chance for a speaker to restate his or her position in a relaxed and conversational manner. It allows the  speaker to show a  less formal side of himself. This opportunity backfired.

What happened?

As a speaker, you must always anticipate the questions you will be asked and prepare for them. You can say anything with a smile but if you get into the fray with a  mean spirited questioner, you've lost the war.

Practice your answers and how to respond. All that work done putting together a good speech can be wasted if you blow the Q+A .

Four points to remember:

·         Take tough questions first. Be willing to confront controversial issues with  informational, factual or even humorous responses; but answer briefly and bridge back to the key messages. Anticipate the questions you will be asked. Audiences vary. Know your audience and anticipate questions geared to that specific audience. Don't get into a debate with a questioner. Answer  the question and take another question.

·         Bridge answers as often as possible. Bridge from the direct answer to an answer that covers the larger answer in the question. Take the attitude that the question belongs to the entire audience and this choice gives you the right to broaden the answer to include other answers. Break your gaze with the questioner and deliver the answer to the entire audience.

·         Q+A gives you a chance to reemphasize your key messages. it also allows you to introduce new and positive information. And remember, the last things said are remembered longest.

Leave a certain amount of time for Q+A. Take one last question within your time frame and thank everyone and close with a smile.

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Yesterday I went to the library to find a specific article in the Atlantic.While I read the article a woman on her cell phone spoke for 20 minutes in Spanish as if she were in her kitchen. This is the library. Silence is golden. Did she lower her voice? No. Did she keep her conversation brief? No. She prattled on and on. Needless to say I left,  too hard to concentrate.

Whether the problem is getting worse or I am going through a bad spell but last week I was privy to the horrible divorce proceedings of the woman sitting next to me in a sushi bar. I soon discovered in her explicit choice words that her husband was certainly a complete......well you know. According to the tough talking, fowl mouth woman next to me he was a dog.  The the onslaught of toxic vibes made the meal rather unappetizing. I was ready to appear as a character witness for her husband by the time my sashimi arrived.

Then sitting in the middle seat on route to New York by train, I was held hostage while another woman  ragged on about how much stress she was under in full voice.Now everyone around her within earshot was living her stress. Is it me? Do I attract these big mouths? Are people ( in this case all women) so insensitive to others and so lacking in any sense of discretion that they open up their dreary lives to anyone who happens to be near them.
I know this is not a new complaint. Yet it seems to continue and cell phone abusers have become what many smokers used to be oblivious to the effects of second hand smoke in these cases second hand toxic noise.
I guess the buck ends here and I need to be more assertive and less of a wimp. I just keep thinking they should know better, but they don't.

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"That's been one of my mantras -- focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains ."     ~ Steve Jobs -- BusinessWeek interview, May 1998

As a communications consultant, this quote synthesizes the work I do with clients. Together we work hard at refining complex ideas so they become clear and simple and memorable key messages. While sailing over the holidays, I read Steve Jobs, a bio by Walter Isaacson. It is the saga (as everyone on the planet now knows) of how Steve Jobs launched a start-up in his parent’s garage and built one of the world’s most valuable companies. It was a daunting, inspiring and conflicting read. Jobs was a complicated , prickly perfectionist; but no one can deny he was the master at putting together ideas, technology, and art that transformed the future. He surrounded himself with “A” players, with a penchant for mastering details and he created products that have changed how we communicate.
It is hard not to compare his success and world impact with our own. But applying some of his distinctive traits gives us the chance to look at how we do business and rethink certain changes we might initiate in 2012.
• INTUITION: Follow it. Jobs relied on his and respected it. Combined with his magical imagination, he envisioned products that didn’t exist.
• MOTIVATION: How did he motivate his employees? His passion, perfectionism and success ratio attracted the very best. He set the highest standards and only employees interested in creating great products need apply. The products, not the profits were the motivation.
• VISION: As Jobs would say, “Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
• DRIVE: When explaining what drove him incessantly, Jobs’s response was “’We try to use the talents we do have to express our deep feelings and to show our appreciation of all the contributions that came before us and to add something to that flow.”
• INNOVATION:  Jobs was the quintessential icon of imagination and inventiveness colliding. He believed in on-going conversations between colleagues, hated cubicles and was always interested in another’s viewpoint even if he felt” it sucked”! (one of his favorite responses, not mine)
• FOCUS: Jobs ability to filter out extraneous thoughts, set priorities and laser his attention on them got insurmountable things accomplished in record time.

A compulsive and obsessive perfectionist driven by his own tunnel vision, Jobs left a legacy unmatched by anyone in the 21st century.  His words speak for his life and so I want to close with them to remind us that the work we choose to do can really make a difference.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

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As a nationally known communications consultant, I suggest you capture your unique communication style on video. Video changes how potential clients and visitors respond to you when they view you on the web. They get to see you in your most relaxed, uncensored and truthful mode.

For the past few years, I and my first-rate videographer, Mark Holleran, are creating dynamic, multi-purpose videos that invite visitors to your website; introduce you to prospective clients, and create valuable media opportunities—plus a personal and real presence on important social media sites.

People just don't want to read that much anymore.

A study conducted by On-line Publishers Association revealed that 52 percent of web visitors took action after viewing a video on a site, as compared to merely reading text or viewing static graphics. 

These well-designed 3-to-5-minute videos personally introduce you to prospective clients, to highlight your expertise, reveal your professional credibility, and capture the unique intangibles of you and /or your product.

without any text. It like over-hearing a juicy conversation you want to be a part of.

It separates you from the competition, and it drives traffic to your site.

Since that conversation is so important I supervise all the content, plus do the all important on-camera training and you get an edited video ready to be down-loaded. Our unique expertise in on-camera instruction, content creation, filming and editing (adding existing stills, videos that promote you) are included.

Once we capture YOU: ON VIDEO edited to our mutual liking it can be used, however, you so desire.

We begin with an interview with you. (I, as interviewer, am included for in filming but edited out of the final film.) But before taping, we will spend time organizing what, precisely, you want to say—and how best to make you feel relaxed, prepared and confident.

It's a great way for a client to get to know you personally. So present them  with an expertly filmed, tastefully imagined, state-of-the art video of YOU.

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"To be able to really listen, one should abandon or put aside all prejudices. When you are in a receptive state of mind, things can be easily understood. Most of us listen through a screen of prejudices and a screen of resistance. Therefore we listen to our own noise, our own sound, not what is being said."
- First and Last Freedom by Krishnamurti

As many of my clients know, part of Mastering the Art of your Message is the art of hearing others' messages. The quality of your business relationships, as well as your friendships, depend on your trustworthiness; and trustworthiness  begins with hearing; with listening; with knowing whom you're speaking with and what they are telling you.

Why aren't we better at it? Because listening, like any art, demands attention to detail, skill, interest and practice. Some researchers claim that 75 per cent of all oral communication is ignored, misunderstood, or quickly forgotten. As Krishnamurti says, we're listening to others through our own noise, the ideas we already have formed, the chatter of our own brilliant next thoughts.....it's called not listening at all. Robert Bolton, author of People Skills, has described three groups of skills for good listening.

1. Attending Skills: Give your physical attention to the speaker and listen with your whole body.

2. Following Skills: Get out of the way so you can discover the needs of the speaker.

3. Reflecting Skills: Build a bridge between you and the speaker.

However, I think the most important skill is an empathic skill. You know, when you speak with someone, if he or she is compassionate, caring, and empathic. You feel the warmth. You feel the concern. You feel like telling more. You feel....heard. And then, of course, you've created a relationship in which you want to bring the same Empathic Skills to the person who so carefully listened to you.

When a client says to me, "That was an amazing training we just had. It was like therapy!" I know I've done my job. A good interaction, one in which the client feels heard and understood, DOES feel like therapy because, after all, how often in a given week or month does anyone get that kind of connection with a stranger?

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