November 18, 2008

Virgin empire founder Richard Branson suffers from it. So does Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers. As does Paul Orfalea, founder of the Kinko’s chain. Charles Schwab, too. And what that is, is dyslexia.

If you wonder how some entrepreneurs who struggle at reading and writing not only succeed, but thrive, it’s often the result of developing superior public speaking skills (as well as social and problem solving skills). This is one aspect outlined in a fascinating New Yorker article by Tipping Point author Malcom Gladwell published last week titled: The Uses of Adversity: Can underprivileged outsiders have an advantage?

Gladwell suggests it’s fair to compare people who rise to the top in their field while battling disabilities, like dyslexia, to those who seem often to amaze us for success after being reared in poverty, or lacking the social connections affluent families can provide.

Gladwell points to a study that found 35 percent of small business owners suffered from dyslexia, surveyed by business school professor Julie Logan.

“That’s a remarkable statistic,” Gladwell writes. “Dyslexia affects the very skills that lie at the center of an individual’s ability to manage the modern world. Yet Schwab and Orfalea… and Branson seem to have made up for their disabilities in the same way that the poor, in [Dale] Carnegie’s view, can make up for their poverty.”

Another fascinating stat Gladwell points to came out of a study conducted in Britain. It found that 80 percent of dyslexic entrepreneurs had held the position of captain of a high school sport, versus 27 percent of non-dyslexic entrepreneurs.

“They compensated for their academic shortcomings, by developing superior social skills, and when they reached the workplace, those compensatory skills gave them an enormous head start,” Gladwell writes.

Gladwell’s New Yorker article comes on the heels of his new book, Outliers: The Story of Success, which hits bookstores today.

More about Malcom Gladwell and his books:

The Malcom Gladwell Effect, from the New York Times, Feb. 5. 2006

Secrets of Their Success: Fortune Magazine’s Q & A with Malcom Gladwell, Nov. 18, 2008

Gladwell TV Interview on The Colbert Report, Nov., 17, 2008

May 13, 2008

The most engaging public speakers are not worried about succeeding or failing at the podium. Instead, they are focused on delivering their message.

Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, makes this point in his new book by analogizing a speaker to a swordsman in battle.

“Once we think of failure or success, we are like the swordsman, whose mind stops, ever so briefly, to ponder his technique or the outcome of the fight. The moment he does, he has lost,” Reynolds writes.

A presenter, Reynolds says, should focus on contributing something to the audience, rather than focusing on success or failure. Don’t ask: “Will I be appreciated?” or “Will I win them over?” But rather, “How can I contribute?”

By shifting your mindset in this manner, it relieves the pressure off of you, allowing you to perform by being “fully present.” In other words, you can have a conversation with the audience, rather than delivering a memorized speech, which sends your mind elsewhere.

Reynolds, a former manager at Apple and now a professor of management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, derives much of his presentation demeanor from the practice of martial arts.

He notes that a speaker to be “fully present,” s/he needs to achieve “mindfulness,” which means awareness of that particular moment. To do so, you must eliminate your personal filter, which makes you worry about the past or future.

“When you perform in a state of ‘no mind,’ you are free from the burdens of inhibitions and doubt and contribute fully and fluidly in the moment,” Reynolds says.

Reynolds acknowledges this is difficult to achieve, but to do so, you must clear your mind and only focus on one place: right here.

April 20, 2008

Making a speech or a core message of a speech stick in people’s mind can be challenging for many people. However, Dan and Chip Heath have simplified techniques for doing just that in their New York Times bestselling book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. (I blogged about one tidbit from the book in March).

The Heath brothers found that sticky, compelling, and memorable messages and ideas share six common attributes: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, and Stories. The acronym is SUCCES(s). Pretty clever.

Simplicity: How do you strip an idea to its core without turning it into a silly soundbite?

Unexpectedness: How do you capture people’s attention… and hold it?

Concreteness: How do you help people understand your idea and remember it much later?

Credibility: How do you get people to believe your idea?

Emotional: How do you get people to care about your idea?

Stories: How do you get people to act on your idea?

April 12, 2008

If you are starting the preparation of a presentation in PowerPoint, or Apple’s Keynote, you are making the creative process far more challenging than it needs to be. Many business people and college students make this mistake.

Presentation design guru Garr Reynolds says that most professional designers – even those who have grown up on computers – do much of their planning and brainstorming on paper first.

In Reynolds’ new book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, he notes that he spends a lot of time working out of his office in coffee shops, on park benches and on trains. Even though, he has a laptop with him nearly all the time, he prefers to use a pen and paper to privately brainstorm, explore ideas, make lists and sketch out his ideas.

“I could use the computer, but I find – as many do – that the act of holding a pen in my hand to sketch out ideas seems to have a greater, more natural connection to my right brain and allows for a spontaneous flow and rhythm for visualizing and recording ideas,” Reynolds writes.

If he’s in his office, he sketches his ideas on a whiteboard, because it allows him to freely brainstorm on a large scale. This allows him to step back and imagine how it might flow logically when slides are added later.

He says the advantage of a whiteboard or chalkboard is that it allows you to use small groups to record concepts and direction. As he jots down key points and assembles and outline and structure, he can draw quick ideas for visuals, like charts or photos, that will later appear in the slide.

He says this saves time compared to going straight into PowerPoint. That’s because if he started in PowerPoint, he would have to constantly switch from normal view to slide sorter view to see the whole picture. And by doing that, it would disrupt his natural flow of creativity in simplifying his message in his head.

March 22, 2008

Speakers who can simplify their message through clear and concise examples have a far greater positive impact on there audiences. Instead of using multiple examples to illustrate a single point, it’s often best to use one very powerful example, and run it through the “Sinatra Test.”

The Sinatra Test, coined by Chip and Dan Heath, co-authors of the NY Times bestselling book Made to Stick, refers to the singer’s classic “New York, New York.” In the chorus, Frank Sinatra sings about starting a new life in New York City, and declares “if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.”

The Made to Stick authors elaborate on the point by suggesting if you run a security company that has provided security for Fort Knox, there is no other credential you need to prove your credibility to another potential client. In other words, this one example alone is powerful enough to establish credibility, that no additional examples are necessary. Therefore, it passes the Sinatra Test.

By using an example that passes the Sinatra Test, a speech will have the clarity and simplicity to keep an audience attuned to your message.