It’s still LP Meeting season in private equity and hedge fund land, and I keep running into basic errors.

Here’s Mistake #99:  Not rehearsing together.

I just came back from a meeting in which the Founder spoke first, followed by the President of the firm.  They had not rehearsed together.

The Founder had been planning to discuss the macro-economics of the horrible year past.  Unfortunately, he also elaborated on various aspects of the investments in the portfolio.

When the President (the next speaker) reached the lectern, he had to do some quick thinking to rearrange his comments, since his fearless leader had stolen much of his thunder. 

This was partly the Founder’s fault for changing his talk at the last minute; partly the President’s for not insisting on a joint rehearsal; and partly mine for rehearsing with them both privately and not anticipating the need to collaborate and coordinate.

The price they paid for this error was a low buzz of complaining about the length of the meeting and the repetition of information.

It could have been worse.  Limited Partner Meetings are a key branding opportunity.  If the teamwork between Founder and President isn’t seamless, what does it say about the decision-making process in the firm? 

Could faulty teamwork lead to a much bigger mistake?

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

Ironically enough, the biggest challenge faced by scientific and technical presenters is their reluctance to follow the scientifically established principles of communication.

What are those rules?  One of them is that the human mind is drawn to problems, puzzles, and mysteries.

Rather than seeking to capture the attention of the audience by making a case for the puzzling mystery of the topic at hand, most scientific and technical speakers simply begin with their objectives, methods and data.

This may be admirable science in some circles, but it is not effective communication because it fails to provide the context for the content.

Effective communication seeks to gather the attention of an audience by igniting curiosity and emotion, and only when it has done so can it pull the many human minds present in the same direction.

For instance, let’s say a locomotive is backing up to hook onto a long train of railroad cars.  If it fails to connect, it cannot pull the train forward.

A speaker who does not connect with an audience has the same problem:  He cannot pull his listeners forward unless he has somehow gotten his hook into them.

To sink the hook, a scientific or technical speaker must leave the narrow realm of his expertise and put it into broader context.  He must make a case for the importance of the problem he is working on, or for the maddening slipperiness of the always- receding solution he seeks.

This is the skill of the storyteller, the weaver of tales, the painter of pictures that draws us in—deeper and deeper.  This is the skill of the dramatist, whose opening scene makes us want to stay tuned, and whose subsequent scenes keep us asking the question, “Where’s this going?  What’s going to happen? “

A doctor, researcher, or engineer can improve her outcomes by applying the scientifically established principles of communication.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

The current shouting match going in Washington is bad public speaking.  Good public speaking begins– literally and figuratively– with civility. 

“May it please the court,” says the lawyer.

“Madam Speaker,  Vice President So-and-So, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans,” says the President at the State of the Union.

“It is indeed an honor and a privilege to be with you today,” say most commencement speakers.

“May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable to You,” says the preacher, beginning her sermon.

Speeches begin with an elaborate display of good manners because good manners flatter the audience and predispose them to find the speaker and his argument appealing.

So public speech begins—literally—with ritualistic words of respect designed to, at the least, get the audience to lend its collective ear to the speaker.

Later on in the body of the talk, if the speaker is advocating against an opposing point of view, she would be wise  to state that view in a fair and balanced way, and acknowledge the legitimacy of it.

Then, without demonizing the values and beliefs that support the opposing view, the speaker can demonstrate why that view is flawed, and hers is better.

In addition to treating the opposing view as reasonable, the speaker should be mindful of her own tone and word choice. 

We recognize that being uncivil earns the speaker notoriety, adulation from the partisan crowd, and maybe some emotional catharsis. 

But it tends to delay a considered decision made for the public good because it shuts down the other side’s ability and willingness to listen. 

In the end, civility gets things done better, cheaper, and faster.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.