Wow! I was amazed to receive the Waseda University Teaching Award for my business school course in Strategic Thinking and Effective Communication.
I was invited to attend the commencement ceremony and had tears in my eyes as I saw not only students I knew from my class but also all the others who had completed their MBAs and stepped up on stage to receive their certificates.
Then it was time for my 3-minute award acceptance speech. Let me share with you my top tip that you can use in any type of presentation.
The tip is “Focus on others.”
Here are three ways that I did that.
1. Listen to other speakers
Even though it’s tempting to rehearse our own speech in our head while others are talking, I recommend listening to what others are saying. You can then refer to that, which helps to reinforce important messages and shows consideration for others.
In the introductory remarks of the ceremony, the speaker had referred to 実践知 (jissenchi), which is knowledge that you put into practice – often translated as “practical wisdom.” I’m all about making sure that people can use what I teach, so I referred back to this with examples of how my students took what they learned in class and applied it in their workplace every week. Then, in the next lesson, they shared their success stories.
It’s also great to turn to look at the person when you mention what they said.
2. Refer to people in the audience
Referring to people in the audience makes them feel good and shows to the rest of the audience that you’re thinking about others.
I was delighted to see the smiling faces of some of my students in the audience of around 270 who were completing their MBA (plus their families), so I pointed some of them out and waved.
3. Think about what makes the audience feel good
I wanted the audience to remember this great moment of their commencement ceremony and feel good. Using words and sound and movement helps us to remember things.
So, at the end of my short speech, I congratulated them once again and invited them all to stand up. Then I got them all to raise their arms in the air and shout “I DID IT!” It was amazing to see everyone’s smiling faces.
After the ceremony, several of them came up to me and said, “I did it!” and some have been posting that on social media too.
This last idea came to me just before I stood up to give my short speech. I’m sure that if I’d been focusing on myself and repeatedly rehearsing my own speech in my head, I wouldn’t have received this inspiration that turned out to be the highlight of my speech.
So, listen to other speakers, refer to people in the audience, and think about what makes the audience feel good. What can you do to focus on others in your next presentation – whether it’s an acceptance speech, a client pitch, or an update in a team meeting?
I’m sure that doing this will ultimately make you feel good too!