Art & Science Archive
Many years ago, I gave an important client presentation that went all wrong. Not because I was ill-prepared. Or lacking in confidence. It all went south in large part because of where I was positioned in the room — right across the conference table from a Stoneface. You know who I mean: unsmiling, impassive, giving nothing. During the presentation, this woman alternately glared, grimaced or winced at virtually everything I had to say. The experience, while unnerving, had a distinct upside. As a friend once counseled me, “You learn more from failure than success.” This particular experience — in its own right and when considered in light of many more years of experience presenting — has taught me several valuable lessons:
Look for an ally. Seated right next to the woman during the presentation described above was a young man who happened to be smiling and nodding enthusiastically at just about everything I said. I was so focused on trying to transmute the negative energy radiating from Stoneface that I missed an opportunity to gain confidence and momentum from this young man’s positive energy. It can be a mistake with any audience to focus unduly on one individual. In an instance where one member of the audience appears particularly unreceptive, there is a tendency to try to change the temperature of the room by warming up this one person. But maybe the temperature of the room is already warmer than you think. Look for allies and let their positive energy become your own.
Assume nothing. An impassive facial expression, and even an occasional frown, does not always mean disagreement or displeasure. It may just mean that the person is listening seriously, taking it all in, appearing to frown when considering carefully your every word. Recently, while speaking at an industry conference, I noticed a man in the front row who appeared to be frowning throughout my part of a panel discussion. Having learned to look for an ally, I transferred my attention to those in the audience who appeared more receptive. Afterwards, I was surprised when this same gentleman approached the podium to tell me warmly how much he had enjoyed my talk! Keep this in mind when confronting a Stoneface: an impassive expression doesn’t necessarily mean that the person thinks you are boring or an idiot.
Put yourself in the Stoneface’s shoes. Some audience members look bored for good reason. They are bored. And really, why shouldn’t they be? “Return enhancement, blahblahblah, risk control, blahblahblah, fundamental, bottom-up research, drone-blah-drone…” Their stone face may be telling you something that you need very badly to know: that your presentation sounds pretty much identical to the last three presentations that they have heard that week or even that day. A cold expression often communicates an earnest desire to hear something new, something that hasn’t been said before — until you deliver, then you are guilty until proven innocent as far as a Stoneface is concerned. Instead of feeling defensive about this, dig deep for a presentation that rises above the ordinary.
Come down to earth. A cold expression also may indicate that the subject matter is over the listener’s head. The presenter has not succeeded in making complex material clear in lay terms. I recently asked my father, a nuclear physicist, to review the presentation of a quantitative investment firm. He called to report, after some study, that the presentation, “leaves me very much in the dark about how they actually invest.” If a physicist feels this way about a quantitative manager’s presentation, imagine how a former English teacher on the board of a state teacher’s retirement fund feels! Or even how a sophisticated investor might feel without the benefit of a PhD in mathematics. If you believe the stone face across the table may indicate not boredom but deep mystification, then downshift several notches to connect with the audience (and be sure your presentation gets the total overhaul it needs as soon as you get back to the office.)
Engage with the audience. Many presentations fall flat because the presenter has failed utterly to consider what will connect with that specific audience. The presenters have not done their homework. Stonefaces expect this. Stonefaces are tired of having their own worst expectations consistently fulfilled. Tired of hearing about this product and that product without one concrete, well-researched, thoughtful reference to how this or that product can benefit their organization. Digging deep for a presentation that rises above the ordinary can be as simple as focusing on the specific needs of a given audience, as simple as asking a question that takes the focus off your company and puts it squarely on the hopes, dreams and fears of the audience.
Check for understanding — not approval. There is a difference between engaging the audience with a decisive, thoughtful question and demonstrating a lack of confidence. In our presentation strategy and coaching sessions, we have observed that Stonefaces often cause the following effect: the presenter starts to exhibit self-doubt, looking tentatively at the Stoneface as if asking for permission or approval after every statement. If you are confident in who you are and what you do, a Stoneface should not cause you to lose momentum or exhibit tentative behavior.
Be yourself! Maybe you have done everything right, made every effort to engage the audience, to disarm Stoneface, to ask well-considered questions instead of droning on about your investment strategy. All to no avail. Stoneface still stares at you impassively, reserving judgment, not ready to pronounce that hoped-for not-guilty verdict. Then the best thing you can do is to believe in yourself and forge onward. If you believe in who you are and what you have to say, if you believe that you have worked hard to develop a presentation that makes a connection and stands out, then you have nothing to fear from any Stoneface.
Confront “the brutal facts.” While “believe in yourself” may be good advice when all else fails during the presentation, after a presentation you have every right to research and explore audience reaction. As a friend of mine always says, “you are owed feedback.” The problem is, honest feedback can be hard to come by when you go after it directly. There’s a lot of truth to the old saying, “Some things even your best friends won’t tell you.” Alpha Partners conducts research on why our clients are or are not hired for a given mandate. Feedback provided to us on a “not for attribution” basis is consistently more candid and vivid than feedback provided directly to our clients. In his most recent book, Good to Great, Jim Collins cites the ability to “confront the brutal facts of their current reality” as a defining characteristic of truly great companies. That Stoneface across the conference room table from you may well reflect concerns about you or your organization that no one will ever share with you directly. Research by an independent third party is a critical first step in confronting the “brutal facts.”
In a spirit of practicing what we preach, Alpha Partners hired an independent consultant to confront the brutal facts behind my own early Stoneface experience. What this consultant learned in an interview with our client changed the way our company presents research and, incidentally but importantly, changed our strategic focus. As a consequence, when I now see a Stoneface in the audience, my primary thought is, “Here is an opportunity to break through, to connect, to stand out…but most of all to learn.”