There is nothing in the world that helps an executive stand out as much as great manners.  You stand apart when you know what to do and how to treat others in every business situation.  There are many elements to executive presence, including communication skill, presentation style, body language, appearance and wardrobe.  However, many well dressed, articulate, smart executives don’t know, or don’t care enough to learn the rules of manners and etiquette.

I just read that Reader’s Digest tested levels of politeness in 36 cities around the world. In each city, undercover reporters from local Reader’s Digest editions performed three tests 20 times each. Cities earned a point each time one of its residents (1) helped a stranger pick up his or her dropped papers; (2) thanked someone making a small purchase; and (3) held doors open to the people following them into a building.

New York scored highest with 80%, followed by Zurich with 78% and Toronto with 70%. The cities with the lowest scores on these three tests? Mumbai (32%), Bucharest (35%), and Kuala Lumpur (37%).

Now I’m not sure how scientific this study is, or whether they just caught some of these cities on a collectively bad day, but the larger point is - as a professional or executive, your score should be 100% on these behaviors.  This came out in the Harvard Business publication daily stat report.  click here to read about the study

You never know who is watching.  And you never know what might trip you up.  Companies usually invite top job candidates to one or several dinners and social activities.  The purpose is not only to get to know you in a social setting; it is also to test your know-do you know how to handle yourself?

In these situations, nothing is overlooked.  If you don’t thank the person who took your coat, or brought your drink; if you fail to handle introductions or wait until everyone is served to eat, if you don’t know how to carry on a great conversation, it will be duly noted.  Given two capable candidates, the one who handles himself or herself superbly gets the nod. 

There is a fun quiz on manners (actuallly several etiquette topics) at manners international’s web site.  Click here to take a quiz.

I can also recommend Judity Bowman, Protocol Consultants, who has decades of experience working with business executives on etiquette: click here to read about Judith Bowman.   

No comments »

The great American writer and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

“All the great speakers were bad speakers first.”

You didn’t become a leader overnight.  You don’t become a great speaker the first few times you get on stage, either. Don’t be afraid to invest time and effort.  It will pay off.

1 Comment »

I’m wild about a brand new, beautiful, and absolutely brilliant book on how to create memorable visuals for presentations.  It’s called Presentation Zen, Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds (New Riders, 2008).

You only have to flip through the pages to immediately grasp Reynold’s provocative mix of inspiration and practical guidance.  As a presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert, he shows how  thoughtfully designed, graceful, efficient visual imagery can make you look good as a presenter.  He has of the most popular Web sites on presentation design and delivery on the net — www.presentationzen.com.

The book is filled page after page of examples of how creativity, photos, large size font, and cool graphics can transform your PowerPoint from dull to dynamite.  Just one example - picture this - the slide on the left shows a full page photo of a runner slogging through the desert with a simple message - Less than 33% of U.S. adults are at a “healthy weight.”  Not bad.  But the slide on the right? It shows the midsection only of an overweight man grabbing his belly fat, with the caption in large print: 66% of Americans are obsese or overweight; below that a simple chart on the numbers of all adults, women and men.  It’s so much more memorable!

Garr Reynolds is a writer, designer and musician who currently holds the position of  Associate Professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan. http://www.kansaigaidai.ac.jp/asp/

 Hence, his zen-way of seeing things.

His real message: Simplicity Rules.

How good is it?  Seth Godin  http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/ the marketing guru of gurus quips, “Please don’t buy this book! Once people start making better presentations, mine won’t look so good.”

No comments »

This weekend at the National Speakers Association convention in New York, www.nsaspeaker.org Steve Forbes took the stage.  He had 1,800 professional speakers on the edge of their seats as he shared his insights about the future of the US economy.  Forbes, President and CEO of Forbes, and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, www.forbes.com as well as a former Republican candidate for President, can actually be a little awkward on stage, yet people who get paid a lot of money to speak to corporate audiences were mezmerized; in a room full of people who love to talk, you could hear a pin drop.  Why?  Forbes was funny and smart –he made economics accessible to all.  And, even more important he told us things we really really didn’t know. 

What’s the real state of the US economy?  Not bad at all!  But don’t ask the media, says Forbes.  They would rather stand in front of a gas pump talking about $4 a gallon gas than actually do research on the the dry stuff that matters, like US monetary policy. And he’s right. (Full disclosure, as many of you know, I was a reporter for 20 years.  I know how it really works.)

Forbes spoke eloquently about the real drivers of our economy, and I was convinced after he spoke–we still have the largest most resilient economy in the world.  He pointed out that as voters we’d better start asking better questions of the people running for office. For example, how will they approach monetary policy?  Because according to Forbes, it wasn’t oil companies or mortgage lenders that brought this on, but by the Fed, which four years ago, and again last year, started printing money like there was no tomorrow.  In an overreaction to the credit crisis, both times, it did more harm than good.

But back to executive presence.  What makes Forbes so powerful on stage?  Wit, intelligence, and the ability to explain something that dry and dull and make it fascinating.  What else did we like about him?  Smart as he is, he didn’t swagger onto the stage or lord his fortune or his smarts over us.  He was hilarious really, as well as respectful.  He treated his audience as the intelligent citizens they want to be. 

Something else– he obviously wasn’t reading someone else’s talking points.  He walked away from the podium five minutes in, and stood center stage for the better part of an hour, speaking eloquently.  If you’ve seen him speak, you know that sometimes his gestures seem slightly out of sync with his message.  Yet he transitioned beautifully from gas prices to the mortage crisis, tax policy to monetary policy, government to politics, all without notes.  He even threw in several funny lines about the speaker who had immediately preceded him on stage.  That’s confidence.  

You also can’t argue with Forbes success, even if he did inherit the company started by his grandfather.  Forbes is still on the cutting edge.  In 1977 they entered the new media arena with the launch of Forbes.com. The site now attracts over seven million unique visitors a month and has become the leading destination site for business decision-makers and investors.

For a copy of his speech, contact the National Speakers Association at www.nsaspeaker.org - I highly recommend you watch it, and take notes.

No comments »