With a Little Help From Obama

We can definitely learn a lot from Obama; his audacity, optimism, and even presentation skills. However, I am not suggesting that you copy him. If during your next HR update to management you were to begin by saying,“Make no mistake ladies and gentlemen, the path that lies before us is fraught with hardship, yet lays the claim to something greater, more powerful that resides within us all…”then I am certain that you’d get more than a few strange expressions. Someone might even check if you are late on important medication. No, the point of this article is to take a look at some of the great principles that Obama uses, so we can convert them into our own style. As the tile of this article suggests, here are four Obama skills:

1. Maximize Your Personal Presence– “Own The Room”

This is probably the most important element of any presentation and yet the most difficult to master. Many people, especially those with little presence, don’t even realize that they don’t have it. Any presenter without it will soon be forgotten, any interview candidate without it will soon be shown the door and any presidential candidate without it will soon drop out of the running.So how do we build it?Visualise – Back when I used to live in Beijing I used to take some training from a Qigong master. One of the tricks he taught me is that you can play movies in your mind to produce the effects that you want. Let’s say, for example, that you have to take a free kick in a game of football. Using visualization, you would imagine a powerful dragon flying through you and into the back of the net. When bored and stuck in the back of a taxi you could play an action movie, where you star as a special agent, fighting bad guys in helicopters. And when you have to give a presentation you could run a movie in your mind where you are an eagle flying high abovemountains and rivers, feeling the wind against your wings – or whatever works for you. By visualising, you are changing your emotions and therefore your presence. In more technical terms we call this “Managing your state”.Obama certainly has great state control, in fact I think the only time recently that it was clear he was nervous was during his inauguration where he managed to stumble over his own name.

“By visualizing, you are changing your emotions and therefore your presence.” 

2. Say what the audience is thinking before they do.

Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), arguably Germany’s greatest writer that ever lived wrote “Every word that is uttered evokes the idea of its opposite”. This means that when we deliver our view of the situation, the audience will often naturally think of the oppositecase.

For example when a presenter says:

“Staff morale has improved significantly”“We are through the most difficult times”“There were some problems with payroll”

The audience thinks:

“Not in my department it hasn’t”“Has she read the latest finance report?”“There still are!”What we want to do therefore is mention people’s concerns before they think of it and come up with a question that could bring down your whole presentation.The sentences above would change therefore to:“Now although we have been going through difficult times, the latest staff satisfaction reports show that with only a few exceptions the outlook is much brighter.”“Although the latest reports show a drop in sales, the fundamentalsof the market remain strong” (and give examples.)“While some problems with the payroll system still remain, we have made significant progress.”In Obama’s speeches he always makes sure to outline the negatives as well as the positives in such areas as racial issues, the troubled economy and dangers from terrorism.

3. Give real examples

Too many speeches nowadays keep to general concepts and don’t elaborate with details. This is a seriously missed opportunity, as it is when these details are given that a presentation becomes real for the audience.

“Too many speeches nowadays keep to general concepts and don’t elaborate withdetails”

For example when an HR manager outlines their new plan for 2009 and lists a series of general actions they might include “New Employee Sports Initiatives”, but then not give the details. When that is followed up with “Mike and Joe in the finance department have created a world-cup soccer afternoon where our staff will compete against clients such as GSK and Lenovo at the local park” it becomes richer and more emotionally engaging.Obama’s speeches often mention individuals such as “The lady of 102 years that I met in her front room in Wisconsin who told me about her dream as a child” and “The man who was having sleepless nights thinking about his son who might get turned away from college due to lack of financing”. These examples make him a person who listens to the concerns of real people that he has met and not just a figurehead saying some nice words to get votes.

4. Make people smile

Wherever possible make your audience smile. While the finance team can get away with giving a cold and analytical speech (although we wish they would lighten up) the HR team needs to make sure its message improves staff morale. During a downturn, employees are longing for some laughter.

“During a downturn, employees are longing for some laughter.”

The following examples can help to make people smile in your presentations: · Add a fake slide that includes some funny statistics. You could say that things are looking up because a number of factors have increased recently such as: number of times one particular staff member has changed their job title, number of times one person changes theiroutfit, or the number of memos from senior management.· Add some humorous quotes from famous people. For example, “Although the finance department says we are over budget for this year, Oscar Wilde says “Anyone who lives within their budget suffers from a serious lack of imagination!”· Photos of team members having fun at recent events.· Adding a gentle joke such as, “There was a rich man, who was dying and asked to be joined at his deathbed by his vicar, his bank manager and his financial advisor. He told them that he wished to be buried along with all his money and gave them 1 million RMB each to throw on top of his coffin after he went into the ground. After the funeral the three men got together for a chat and the vicar began “I feel really bad, I actually only threw half the money ontothe coffin, the church roof needed repairs and with this financial downturn we needed the money!” The bank manager continued “I should confess too, the bank has been in real trouble lately, so I also only threw in only half the money, otherwise I feared the bank might have to close.” The financial advisor jumped up and said “You two are terrible! Shame on both of you! I threw in a cheque for the whole amount!”

Obama, in his recent speech when asked about if he would spend money on refitting Marine One at a cost of $180 million (The presidential helicopter) said “We have decided against refittingMarine One. The helicopter seems just fine to me as it is… of course I’ve never had a helicopter before… perhaps I am underprivileged!” Even in his presidential acceptance speech he made the world smile when he mention that his daughters, Malia and Sasha had gone through a lot during the recent campaign and very much deserved the new puppy that would be coming with them to the Whitehouse.