Using More Idioms and Colloquial Expressions to Make Your Communications More Interesting and Evocative—Action Item for Foreign-borns As Well As Those Who Manage or Lead Them

This morning, while listening to NPR’s “Morning Edition,” I was thrilled to learn that Christine Ammer has come out with an all-new edition of her book on American idioms and colloquial expressions--“The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms—Second Edition.”

I have possessed a copy of her first edition since 2002, during which time I must have consulted it hundreds of times. It comes in most handy when I am trying to spice up an email or other piece of writing, or an upcoming presentation, with an interesting expression whose meaning I am not 100% sure of. Of course, I also refer to it on those rare occasions when I hear an idiom or colloquial expression that I am not perfectly familiar with.

When I arrived in the U.S. in 1977 from Bombay, I already had a superior command of English because that was my primary language both at home and at work. Yet, I was not able to understand every expression uttered by my professors and fellow-students at Northwestern because American English teems with idioms and other expressions that are unique to this country. And for the same reason, whenever I spoke in class, I must have sounded so very austere, and formal, and alien not only because of my accent but because my speech was devoid of colloquial expressions.

Strongly recommended action items for both foreign-borns and those who manage or lead them:

1. For foreign-borns: From the preceding narrative, it should be obvious to every foreign-born employee that it is in their interest to acquire a good dictionary of American idiom and refer to it frequently. Remember, when trying to “connect” with a mainstream American instantly, it helps if your language is interesting, fun, and pleasing. Merely having the ability to speak English is not sufficient.

2. For managers/ supervisors of foreign-born employees: They, too, should posses such a dictionary and proudly display it on their office bookshelves, even if they are intimately familiar with the idioms commonly encountered in the American workplace,  Why? Because, by occasionally grabbing such a book and making at least a pretense of referring to it with enthusiasm, in full view of the others, they would inspire and encourage their foreign-born employees to acquire their own idiom dictionaries and use them frequently.

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

Even You, the Princeton-and-Yale-Educated Sonia Sotomayor? A Most Glaring — and Unforgivable — Mispronunciation by a U.S. Supreme Court Justice

First, my customary declaration for posts on “mispronounced words”: The objective is NOT to denigrate or ridicule someone. Instead, I feature such posts in the belief that if a highly educated person is mispronouncing a particular word, there is an extremely high probability that at least a few of my blog readers are making the same error. In other words, these posts are meant to serve as “pronunciation alerts!”

Now, click on the 30-second video clip below and note how U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor mispronounces the word chasm [as chaz-um] even though, just seconds earlier, PBS interviewer Gwen Ifill has pronounced it correctly [as kaz-um]. This is egregious! It is unforgivable, considering that chasm is far removed from the category of highfalutin, arcane, or grandiloquent words that were known to and used by only the late William F. Buckley. [Lest you think I am disparaging Mr. Buckley, please know that in my book “The Articulate Professional” I describe him as “a cerebral Olympian” and “a man of Olympian intellect.”]

A reminder why correct pronunciation matters: In the case of Supreme Court justices, you can automatically assume that they are highly educated, else they wouldn’t have made it to the nation’s highest court. [According to Wikipedia, Sonia Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and has a J.D. from Yale Law School.] But, if you were to hear such a glaring mispronunciation from, say, a new acquaintance whose background you know not, you wouldn’t be faulted for assuming that the person is not very well educated or that he or she leads an insular life.

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Enhancement Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online for about ten days. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. enfant terrible

2. sinecure

3. enervate

4. alchemist

5. pensive

6. granular

Here are extracts from some of my favorite examples, all carefully designed to help you implant the word into your conversational vocabulary and use it with confidence:

enfant terrible

-- with reference to the wholesale massacre of precious wildlife occurring in Africa and elsewhere thanks to China’s gluttonous demand for rare animal parts, this author expressing the hope that some Chinese Americans and other moralists will band together to become the enfants terribles of wildlife conservation

-- Martin, who is by far the youngest of our top management team, has really shaken up the establishment—one enfant terrible of a guy!

-- John McEnroe, once the enfant terrible of international tennis; Carlos Ghosn, the enfant terrible of the auto industry; Arnold Schonberg, regarded as the “arch rebel” and the enfant terrible of modern music; Iran’s Ahmadinejad seemingly relishing his role as an enfant terrible by frequently issuing shocking statements

-- movie director Peter Jackson of the “Lords of the Rings” trilogy fame being branded the enfant terrible of the movie industry, thanks to his extracting one-sided agreements from movie studios

-- Silicon Valley being densely populated with potential enfants terribles—entrepreneurs who have devised revolutionary approaches to deliver a particular product or service

sinecure

-- an ABC report indicating what a sinecure a Congressman’s job has become

-- Jim’s present assignment is a sinecure—it requires very little work and allows him time to play golf even on weekdays

-- Our company founder and CEO has bestowed this company sinecure on young Michael because of the latter’s gifts as an artist and writer

-- I wish I had famed film critic A.O. Scott’s job, where you make handsome money watching and critiquing a few movies a week—it would be a nice little sinecure

-- eagerly seeking a particular job that you believe will be a sinecure and will enable you to live the good life you have long sought

-- the corporate boardroom sinecures enjoyed by some, thanks to their glowing resumes, as in the case of Robert Rubin, former Goldman Sachs co-chair and U.S. treasury secretary, who was paid $150 million for….

-- referring to the fact that Robert McNamara was against the Vietnam War all along but did not speak out against it until the 1990s, a critical Sen. John Kerry saying: “Instead of speaking out when he should have, McNamara retreated to the sinecure of the World Bank” (where he was president from 1968-1981)

enervate

-- in a recent appearance on “Face the Nation,” Peggy Noonan referring to the ongoing series of “fiscal cliffs” or cliffhangers as “these dreadful, enervating dramas”

-- In my previous job, the backbiting and the dog-eat-dog Machiavellian culture drained me of my enthusiasm and drive—it enervated me, to say the least

-- here in Houston, June, July, and August being the worst months for sightseeing because of the enervating heat and humidity

-- after two failed attempts, I am not sure if I can summon the enthusiasm for yet another go—a sense of enervation has come over me

-- all this leisure and luxury, plus an absence of any sort of purpose in life, is enervating him…he is on a moral decline; then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair warning European nations to wake up from their shallow and enervating lives or risk being obliterated by the stiff new competition from the likes of China and India

alchemist

-- Arthur Hiller, then-president of the Motion Picture Academy, saying: “What makes films the transcendent medium of expression is the alchemy of collaboration”

-- remember, a really successful conference will not come about by some magic or alchemy—you better start planning for it right away

-- once a couch potato, he has now turned into a health and fitness nut, having alchemized his fear of falling ill into a firm determination

--  in an appearance on PBS “NewsHour,” Columbia Professor Klaus Lackner, a pioneer of the emerging “direct air capture of CO₂” industry, speaking passionately about how his “commercially viable” technology can literally suck out all the surplus carbon dioxide that has been pumped into the earth’s atmosphere during the past 150 years, and thus alchemize the earth’s atmosphere into that which existed at the dawn of the industrial revolution

pensive

-- in the recent Time cover picture of President Obama, notice how the photographer, by deft use of lighting and position of the head, has made his subject appear deep in thought, looking pensive

http://lightbox.time.com/2012/12/19/behind-the-obama-cover-person-of-the-year-2012/#1

-- someone who is normally pretty boisterous not asking any questions during a long meeting and, instead, sitting pensively

-- the pensive look in the large, brown eyes of my Labrador retriever; I couldn’t help staring at her because she looked so sad, and lonely—there was such an air of pensiveness about her

-- someone on his 80^th birthday locked in a pensive mood, reflecting sadly about his many close friends who had died in their 30s and 40s

-- turning to a Rembrandt that depicts a seated, naked woman, the curator explaining the subject’s “beautiful, pensive expression” by pointing out that ….

-- in the movie “Chariots of Fire,” Vangelis’s music helping endow that opening scene of runners on a beach with an aura of pensiveness   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYJzcUvS_NU

granular

-- the filmmakers of the 2012 movie “Lincoln” went to extraordinary lengths to imbue the film with authenticity, displaying an obsession for detail at the most granular level

-- even on relatively minor assignments, my new boss Iris asks questions in a very specific and granular way

-- the top management has finally leveled with us and addressed the issue with granularity, giving us precise reasons behind their stunning decision

-- after a meeting with the CEO, an exasperated manager telling her colleague: “He is much too involved in the granularity…in the microscopic aspects of everything that’s going on”

-- before we begin the brainstorming, could someone please make the definition of the problem more concrete, more granular?

-- during a Congressional hearing involving a case of corporate malfeasance, an executive professing innocence, saying that he was operating at too high a level to be granularly involved in the alleged actions; police investigators grilling a suspect, demanding more granular information

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

Answer to the Quick Quiz of Three Days Ago

To make sense of this post, you need to first read the previous one, which asks you to identify the mispronounced word in a 19-second video clip.

Next, my customary declaration for posts on “mispronounced words”: The objective is NOT to denigrate or ridicule someone. Instead, I feature such posts out of my belief that if a highly educated person is mispronouncing a particular word, there is an extremely high probability that at least a few of my blog readers are making the same error.

Answer: The mispronounced word is momentous which, in the video clip, Hari Sreenivasan is heard pronouncing as moh-MEN-choo-us instead of moh-MEN-tus. 

Likely cause of the stumble?  Regular viewers of PBS NewsHour know that Hari Sreenivasan’s enunciation is immaculate. So, in my judgment, the pronunciation screw-up was the result of a typo. The person who typed up the headlines for Mr. Sreenivasan to read must have thought that the last part of the word momentous is spelled similar to presumptuous, sumptuous, etc. 

No spell-checks at PBS?

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

Quick Quiz: Identify the Mispronounced Word

This is an easy one. Click on the 19-second video clip below, which is an excerpt from a recent (January 3) reading of that day's news headlines by PBS NewsHour regular Hari Sreenivasan. Can you identify the mispronounced word? And why do you think it occurred?

Answer in my next post.

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

A Single Word That Can Markedly Impact a Discussion; Paraphrasing Joan Miro’s famous utterance “I Want To Assassinate Painting”

First, a Very Happy New Year to my readers.

Second, greatly inspired by the Spanish painter Joan Miro’s famous proclamation in 1927 that he was going to “assassinate painting,” (something I learned about only a couple of months ago, while watching a previously recorded CBS “Sunday Morning” segment presented by Rita Braver), I am today launching a new series of posts featuring single words or phrases that can help inject force or vigor into your important statements or arguments during a meeting.

Now, note that in uttering the above statement, Miro meant that he wanted to radically change art and go about it in a militant manner. So, the moment I heard this highly unconventional usage of the verb assassinate, i.e., assassinating a thing instead of a person, it occurred to me that this common word lent itself to forceful speaking during meetings because of its evocativeness and inherent power.

An example of how you could use it: Supposing you are a marketing exec or manager and determined to make wholesale changes in the (dumb?) current strategy / merchandising methods that were implemented before you came on the scene. Well, you could begin your announcement with a smile, saying “To paraphrase the great Spanish painter Joan Miro [pronounced zhoo-AHN mee-ROH], we need to assassinate the current strategy” (or “assassinate the way our products are being merchandised….”).

Indeed, in the six to eight weeks since watching that CBS segment, I have excitedly suggested this usage of assassinate to several of my clients and audiences, and the idea has resonated wildly. Many have reported back triumphantly, saying that they’ve employed it to good effect… that the term has turned heads and been subsequently mouthed by other meeting participants.

Example of its use by an executive at Subsea 7: Here is how this powerful action word was used by one of my clients, Jeremiah Gilbreath--General Manager of Subsea 7’s i-Tech unit, who is constantly trying out fresh verbal expression to make his points penetrating (and also keep the discussion lively when things are getting soporific or droopy)--during a recent meeting to vehemently decry a current practice or mentality and urge change: “We need to assassinate (pregnant pause) the temptation (or assassinate the knee-jerk response) of leaving it to the project managers to sort out...”

Note Jeremiah’s laudable use of the pregnant pause to give emphasis to the word assassinate, thus ensuring that it did not escape anyone’s attention.

 

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

New Seminar/ Coaching Topic for Executives and Managers who have Foreign-born Employees

At the urging of some of my client firms, including Technip, I have developed the following new topic: 

For those who manage foreign-born employees:

(i) How to "connect" and establish a stronger bond with your foreign-borns. 

(ii) Strategies and tactics to help enhance the communication effectiveness of those foreign-born employees.      

Thus, to help increase productivity and strengthen the esprit de corps within organizations that comprise one or more foreign-born employees, I now offer the following topics by way of seminars and one-on-one coaching:

A. the one mentioned above, and

B. For foreign-borns:

(i) How to "connect" and engage with the typical American professional. 

(ii) Strategies and tactics to compensate for the loss in communication effectiveness that occurs because of an accent.

The topics at B were very well received at one of Shell Oil’s annual events for employees of Asian origin.

Email me or call me at 281-463-2500 if you or your organization needs help. I will be delighted to send a proposal.

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

Mitt, the Correct Pronunciation of “Tumult” is NOT "TUM-ult"

First, my customary declaration for posts on “mispronounced words”: The objective is NOT to denigrate or ridicule someone. Instead, I feature such posts on the theory that if a highly educated person is mispronouncing a particular word, there is an extremely high probability that at least a few of my blog readers are making the same error.

Now, click on the 15-second video clip below, excerpted from a broadcast of the third and final presidential debate, during which Mitt Romney used the word "tumult" several times when referring to the situation in the Middle East. Each time, he pronounced it as [TUM-ult], meaning that his first syllable seemed to rhyme either with “sum”/ “hum”/ “bum” etc. or with the first syllable in the word “tumultuous.” Wrong!

The two correct pronunciations of tumult are: [TYOO-mult] and [TOO-mult], with the "OO" pronouned as in "boot" and not as in "book."

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize Something

Here are some recent examples of articulate Americans using a vivid, evocative expression to emphasize something--examples which, I hope, will inspire the rest of us into similarly imaginative use of the language, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

• Referring to the strong “Cyber Monday” sales earlier this week, Marshal Cohen, a retail analyst with the NPD Group, telling PBS’s NBR: “…every year we keep saying more and more consumers are shopping online, both the younger consumer which was born with a computer in their crib—they are very comfortable doing it—and the older generation is also…” 

• Referring to Joe Biden’s “antics--his interjections, sighs, and quips…” during last month’s vice presidential debate, John Dickerson of Slate magazine saying: “At times his (Biden’s) treatment of Ryan was so dismissive, he seemed only a few threads of restraint from reaching across the table and patting Ryan on the head.” Really humorous!

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

Male Attire: First Selecting an Appropriate Tie and then Anchoring the Rest of the Attire Around It

Republican Sen. Bob Corker is much in the news these days because of his leadership role in helping fashion a solution to the so-called “fiscal cliff.” [In fact, he was interviewed just this afternoon on NPR.]  Well, did you know that he is also a sharp dresser, that he knows a thing or two about what sort of clothes will sharply enhance his appearance—specifically, his facial glow? Just click on the video clip below (taken from a recent segment of PBS Newshour, my favorite news program) and see for yourself.

Analysis:  In the case of people whose hair is of a light color, one easy and really effective way to heighten their facial glow is to first select a tie that matches the color of the hair and then anchor everything else--jacket and shirt--around it, making sure that the contrast below the neck is of about the same intensity as the contrast above the neck. (I am referring to the “the principle of matching contrasts,” something I never fail to mention in my seminars on “Some Simple Verbal and Nonverbal Skills for Creating a Highly Favorable First Impression” and which is also discussed in previous blog posts.) In the clip below, you can see that Senator Corker has done exactly that, picking a tie whose color matches his silver gray hair. Exemplary!

Note that while donning the same tie and dark jacket, had Sen. Corker worn a dark shirt, the extremely high contrast level of the attire would have overwhelmed the contrast above the neck, thus eclipsing the face.

  

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

 

Vocabulary Enhancement Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online for about a week. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. blandishment

2. despotic

3. denouement

4. temerity

5. prowess

6. conundrum

Here are extracts from some of my favorite examples, all carefully designed to help you implant the word into your conversational vocabulary and use it with confidence:

blandishment

-- highly credentialed students at top business schools being subjected to all sorts of blandishments from major consulting firms

-- ever since the collapse of Vioxx, I’ve been very cynical of the blandishments contained in all the slick commercials that dominate prime-time TV

-- the young Wisconsinite was unmoved by the pleadings and blandishments of his parents to come home and run the family farm; two rivals for the club presidency showering blandishments on undecided members

-- succumbing to the blandishments in an attractive brochure; not buying into the blandishments of the latest “get rich quick” scheme being promoted on a local TV channel

-- Karen is a math genius and enjoys working in the derivatives department where math skills reign supreme. No amount of sweet talk or any of the usual blandishments such as offers of a higher salary or a juicy bonus will get her to leave derivatives and come work for you.

despotic

-- referring to such U.S. actions as the invasion of Iraq, secret military action deep inside Pakistan to eliminate bin Laden, and the relentless drone strikes in NW Pakistan, some critics saying that “the U.S. is acting despotically”

-- our new department manager Sandra comes across as a bit despotic, the way she demands total obedience from everyone

-- during manager meetings, Joe held almost despotic sway, thanks to his close ties with the CEO

-- the fate of those animals that have the misfortune of wandering onto the new 85-miles per hour highway between Austin and San Antonio is one more example of man’s despotic attitude toward wildlife

-- the despotic Miranda Priestly in the movie “The Devil Wears Prada”; Joseph Stalin, the Nazi Party, and Idi Amin being among the many rulers and organizations whose names are synonymous with despotism; following the attempted killing of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, Pakistanis protesting the Taliban’s “despotic agenda”

-- talking about J. Edgar Hoover, author Ron Kessler telling CBS Sunday Morning “being as powerful as he was, he thought he was a god… as time went on, he became a despot”

denouement

(Note that the last syllable is nasalized and thus rhymes with the last syllable in "rapprochement")

-- during the Cuban Missile Crisis, our heads were filled with thoughts of the unimaginably horrendous denouement that was likely if either leader (JFK or Khrushchev) were to take an escalatory step, such as….

-- I am anxious to see the upshot, the denouement of it all—will either of the two execs resign, or be fired?

-- all the execs, managers, and other employees eagerly awaiting the denouement—the go or no-go decision by the board of directors

-- in the 1941 Alfred Hitchcock movie “Suspicion,” the startling denouement, when the Cary Grant character is suddenly transformed into …., leaving this author disgusted, even cheated

-- in soccer, the dramatic denouement of many a World Cup match, thanks to the nail-biting series of penalty kicks…

temerity

-- the often-broadcast video clip from a 1988 vice presidential debate showing Democratic VP nominee Lloyd Bentsen chiding his Republican counterpart Dan Quayle for the latter’s temerity in comparing himself to the late John F. Kennedy

-- our colleague Robert is the only one around here who has the temerity to question execs on some of the assumptions in their presentations

-- everyone was surprised when brand manager Marian had the temerity to say during her presentation that she owes her winning strategies to Mr. Smith (who, last year, left the company in disgrace)

-- this author having the temerity to describe this blog as being second to none in giving professionals new ideas on how to be more impactful while participating in a meeting or while delivering a presentation

-- each year, several ambitious but inexperienced climbers who were thirsting to add Mt. Everest to their list of conquests in life paying for their temerity dearly

-- during the early years of my career, I was brash and often lost my temper, once even speaking angrily to my boss—that temerity cost me heavily

-- the stirring opening scene  in the 1982 movie “Gandhi,” during which the freshly minted attorney is physically thrown from a train in the middle of nowhere because he, a “colored” person, had the temerity to sit in a first-class compartment

prowess

-- whenever you burrow into the circumstances that earned someone the august Medal of Honor, you instantly realize that the serviceman’s actions were the very definition of martial prowess

-- they lack selling prowess; somebody’s growing prowess in producing catchy ads; the retailing prowess of Wal-Mart; the legendary Peter Lynch, who became famous for his stock picking prowess

-- Apple Computer’s unrivaled prowess when it comes to product innovation; GE execs’ reputed prowess in managing large organizations

-- the image of Toyota, which had become synonymous with automobile design and manufacturing prowess, taking a hit of late because of massive product recalls

conundrum

-- a major conundrum facing Western democracies today: how to effectively surveil all those who are likely sympathizers of al Qaeda without grotesquely profiling or seriously infringing upon the constitutional rights of entire Muslim communities

-- let me tell you about just one of my many conundrums….

-- the challenging conundrum faced by many first-time job seekers: they cannot find employment in their chosen professions without relevant experience, and they cannot acquire such experience without first getting a job in that field;  the current Israeli-Palestinian conundrum

-- a government minister in an African nation saying: “One issue that is making me lie awake at night is actually a moral conundrum: whether or not to sanction a new road that will improve economic conditions in a very impoverished region but which will also lead to the destruction of wildlife habitat”

-- Paul Thompson of Purdue citing the following as an example of a “real philosophical conundrum” in the matter of gene implanting: “Supposing we could produce a strain of chickens that are blind and therefore don’t mind being crowded together. Would that be permissible on animal welfare grounds?”

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

One of the Most Articulate In the Land: David Darst of Morgan Stanley

If you are looking for someone to inspire you into becoming a superior communicator, then David Darst, Morgan Stanley’s chief investment strategist, is one such person. Unquestionably, he belongs to the pantheon of the most articulate Americans.

Click on the 3-minute video clip below (taken from a recent edition of “Consuelo Mack WealthTrack,” one of my favorite programs on television) and watch how, using a variety of verbal and nonverbal skills, Mr. Darst makes an impassioned and persuasive case regarding Wall Street--that we should not lose faith in the financial markets, notwithstanding the recent financial crisis. Not in at least the past three or four years have I come across anyone new whose communication style is so extraordinarily effective and gripping, particularly someone who can spontaneously come up with a stream of brilliant analogies to emphasize his point.

Not surprisingly, I’ve decided to give Mr. Darst the equivalent of my personal "medal of honor" by including him in the select few Americans named in the welcome paragraph on my website’s homepage as being “enormously successful communicators.”

P.S. I would urge you to watch the clip more than once: As I say at the beginning of this post, David Darst’s engaging style is bound to inspire you to further invigorate and expand your communication skills. To remind you of the Lee Iacocca quote on my home page, “The ability to communicate is everything.”  

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

Timeless High-Impact Verbal Techniques: In the 3rd Obama-Romney Debate, Each Candidate’s Most Talked-about Rebuttal or Parry Employed One Such Skill

Immediately after the last presidential debate between Obama and Romney--the one on Monday, Oct. 22, in Florida--one rebuttal from each candidate instantly became airborne. And that was no surprise to me because each of those two parries employed one of the simple but powerful verbal techniques that are standard fare among highly effective communicators. Nor should the cogency of those two rebuttals have been a surprise to anyone who has attended my flagship seminar “Power of the Spoken Word & Techniques to Communicate with Impact and Sway.”

• Obama’s highly effective line: Responding to Romney’s contention that our navy is weak because the number of ships is fewer than what it was a hundred years ago, the president said: “We also have fewer horses and bayonets!” In other words, he used an analogy--one of the half dozen or so most effective verbal techniques to emphasize a point--to assert that the strike power of a single modern-day weapon can easily overwhelm a sea of 100-year-old weaponry.

• Romney’s highly effective line: More than once, when responding to Obama’s criticism of the Republican nominee’s stand (or flip-flops) on an issue, the latter began: “There is no point attacking me…” Why was this choice of words so effective in parrying Obama’s criticism, why did it resonate so wildly with Romney supporters? Because “attack” is a negative word, and telling someone to their face that they are “attacking” you immediately disarms that person, puts them on the defensive. Users of my book “The Articulate Professional” (3^rd Edition) know that I have a whole chapter (Category V) featuring words employed by smart communicators to disarm and neutralize their critics and detractors (words such as denigrate, aspersion, reflexive, foist, puffery, apologist, nostrum, meretricious….).

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

How to Introduce a Speaker: A Sample of an Under-Two-Minute Intro that Stirs the Audience by Embodying the Five Attributes Cited in the Previous Post

Reference the previous post listing my five “critical ingredients” of a speaker introduction that is impactful and productive, one that instantly builds anticipation and enthusiasm in the audience. Here is an introduction I drafted two weeks ago for one of my executive coaching clients who was to deliver the keynote to an audience of about a thousand people at a transportation industry conference. Notice that my draft below pretty much embodies the five items listed in the post of last Sunday.

[Note 1: Names, numbers, and other facts cited in the intro have been changed to preserve anonymity.]

[Note 2: Words that should be emphasized--by the use of appropriate nonverbals--are in bold.]

 

“Our speaker today, Jim Smith, is the owner of a freight services firm, The ABC Co., based in Houston. Since acquiring ABC six years ago, he has expanded (or grown) it over 400%, dramatically boosting the sales volume from $10 million in 2006 to over $50 million today. And he has done this despite the Great Recession of the intervening years, and despite the painfully high fuel prices.

Jim has accomplished this extraordinary feat by transforming The ABC Co. -- by instituting an entirely new culture! After settling on "a sharply enhanced customer experience" as his #1 goal, Jim went about assembling an all new regimen at ABC--a regimen that incorporates... (list of five or six business parameters most pertinent to freight services).

Not surprisingly, Jim has won numerous awards in the last couple of years. Among the more notable ones: Texas Business Journal’s “Houston-Galveston's Fastest 100 Growing Companies” for 2011 and 2012; Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 finalist; and ....

A bit about Jim's background: he hails from the great state of Minnesota, and began his professional career as an attorney after receiving a BA from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Columbia. He is married and has two children, both of whom are school teachers. While talking to Jim, I've gathered that he owes a big part of his leadership and management qualities to the skills and perspectives he honed during his top executive positions in corporate America, most recently as the Exec VP for one of the largest supermarket chains in the Southwest.

Well, we all want our respective businesses to flourish, to fly high, to soar, just like Jim’s ABC Co. is, and I am sure you all are as eager as I am to learn the ingredients of his secret sauce. So, please join me in welcoming Jim Smith to the lectern.”

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

 

Introducing a Speaker: The Five Ingredients of a High Impact and Productive Speaker Introduction, One that Instantly Builds Anticipation and Enthusiasm in the Audience

• Length: not too long, because of the risk of the introduction becoming flat and soporific, thus losing audience interest; not too short (such as a mere 2 or 3 sentences) because in all likelihood it will then be superficial and perfunctory.

• Delivery: Best for the introducer to present his or her piece with passion and enthusiasm because such show of emotion is often infectious and will help rouse and galvanize the audience.

• Drama; attention-getting: An introduction is like a mini-speech, and so, just as is highly desirable for any speech, the opening words of an introduction should be attention-getting; the speaker should attempt to inject a bit of drama to make the audience sit up instantly.

• Personalizing / Humanizing the speaker; endearing him or her to the audience: Say something personal (and, if possible, humorous) about the speaker so that the audience can “connect” with the speaker even before he or she ascends to the lectern.

• Compelling everyone in the audience to divorce their minds of any distractions and focus sharply on the presentation: The introducer must say at least a couple of well-formulated sentences (or, at the minimum, give a hint) on why it is in the audience’s self-interest to listen intently to the upcoming speech. This will compel everyone to instantly disconnect their brains to the electronic devices in their possession and to any other distractions in the room.

A speaker introduction sample that embodies the above five ingredients: By Tuesday night of this week, I will post an actual introduction I wrote a few days ago for one of my public speaking coaching clients who is to deliver a keynote later this week to an audience comprising over a thousand people.

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

High Impact Presentations: Last Week’s Obama-Romney Debate was Proof that Speaking Forcefully is a Key Ingredient of Successful Public Speaking

By now, everyone who does not live in a cave knows that a preponderant majority of the nation regards Romney to have been the hands-down winner of the first presidential debate, the one that was held in Colorado last week. But what may not be so universally known is that because of the two antagonists’ different speaking styles that evening, Romney’s standing surged at the cost of Obama’s on every major issue that surfaced during the debate--even those issues on which Obama has had a shinier record! This according to a Gallup poll conducted 3 or 4 days after the debate.

While discussing those Gallup results earlier this week, PBS’s “Newshour” pointed out that specific areas in which Romney’s image moved substantially ahead of Obama’s included “candidate of new ideas,” “strong leader,” “willingness to work with others,” and “honest and truthful.”

The foregoing is perfect testimony to the power of forcefulness during a presentation or other public speaking activity. In other words, chances of your presentation being successful are sharply enhanced if you use some of the verbal and nonverbal techniques that help inject force into your words.

For instance, the antonym technique--a key verbal skill to project vitality and conviction, and which was employed liberally by Romney that night--is the defining trait of famed communicators such as former H-P CEO Carly Fiorina and Morgan Stanley's David Darst, as well as the others whom I have honored on the homepage of my website.

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

 

 

Visual, Evocative Words to Emphasize Something

Here are two examples of articulate Americans using a vivid, evocative expression to emphasize something--examples which, I hope, will inspire the rest of us into similarly imaginative use of the language, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

• Earlier this month, a guest on the “Diane Rehm Show,” emphasizing how something was deeply embedded into an entity and could not possibly be separated or extricated, saying: “…it’s baked in the cake.”

• This past February, during a “Charlie Rose” interview, guest oncologist David Agus, author of the highly recommended book “The End of Illness,” saying “We are still in the early days of genetics therapy… to use Steve Jobs’s amazing analogy, it’s like jumping from lily pad to lily pad of molecular targeted therapies.” 

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Enhancement Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online for about ten days. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. pusillanimous

2. progenitor

3. democratize

4. chafe

5. subterfuge

6. bête noire

My Answer to Yesterday’s Quick Quiz

To make sense of this post, you need to first read the previous one, which asks you to identify two things that the Morningstar analyst could have done to elevate his first impression even before he started speaking.

Answer: The first thing is he could have had a wide smile, what I humorously refer to as the “all-32 teeth-showing” smile. Why? Because a wide smile--with upper teeth clearly showing--conveys warmth and enthusiasm. Most people have an almost “visceral attraction” to others’ dental enamel.

The second step Mr. Hottovy could have taken to instantly convey a highly favorable first impression: Donning a high contrast attire since he has a high contrast face, thanks to his light complexion and black hair.

© Copyright 2012 V. J. Singal

Quick Quiz, This Time on How to Create a Better First Impression

The 21-second video clip below is from the opening moments of a recent PBS-Nightly Business Report interview with Morningstar’s highly regarded R.J. Hottovy.

Question for you: Identify two things that Mr. Hottovy, who is described on LinkedIn as a global director for research at the famed investment advice company, could have done to create a stronger, a more favorable first impression even before he started to speak in response to the interviewer’s first question.

This should be really easy if you’ve read some of my posts below or attended one of my seminars on the subject of how to create a highly favorable first impression.

Tune in to this blog tomorrow for the answer.

© Copyright 2012 V. J. Singal