What Your July 4th Greeting to Others Reveals About You

Did you ever have this experience? You and a friend hear a speaker in either a business or social situation  and you each come away with a different reaction to that person? You: “I thought he was really interesting!”  Your friend: “How could you say that? I was so bored by him!”  Who is right?  Was the person interesting or was he boring? The answer, of course, is both of you are right and neither of you is correct. How can that be?

Assuming good content, a presenter’s impact is often a matter of satisfying the preferred communication/thinking styles of the listener.  Everyone is a mix of styles, but some people are more data, process, and detail oriented. Some people are more long-term, conceptual big picture thinkers. Some are more strictly here and now bottom-line oriented.  And still others are more people and feelings oriented.

Good memorable anchors for these preferred styles are:

• Sherlock Holmes, Data            
• Steve Jobs, Big Picture
• Donald Trump, Bottom-line
• Oprah, People

Something for Everyone

When you present, particularly to a group where there is bound to be a mix of preferred styles, it is important that you go beyond your own preferred style and have something to satisfy everyone in your presentations.

• Talk about how you do what you do
• What the long-term impact will be on the company
• How easy people will find what you are recommending is (or how supported, if not easy), and
• Always provide the bottom-line results listeners can expect

This seems obvious, but when we  tend to slip into our own preferred presenting style, then, as the opening scenario suggested, we inadvertently jeopardize our chances for winning business or creating the change that we want.

More Important Today Than Ever

Scan the business literature and look at your own experience and you know there are many more people involved in a purchase decision.  While everyone is a combination of all four styles, it is obvious that C-Suite execs, IT professionals, line managers, purchasing agents, and HR execs will tend to have different preferred thinking styles. Your presentation message needs to satisfy all of them. When you are done, let them each feel that your argument was totally persuasive.

Anne Miller

Words Matter – Make What You Say Pay!

Have a wonderful July 4^th Holiday! (Which sign-off style do you like?)

• Be sure to have enough frankfurters and burgers for everyone and contingency plans if it rains.
• Imagine the possibilities for the future if every nation enjoyed the unique freedoms we enjoy in this country
• Bottom-line, have a blast, rain or shine.
• I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing time with friends and family this holiday weekend.

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