Usually when we hear the term “presentation”, we think of a public arena, a big crowd and a lot of formality. These public occasions are important because this is your personal and professional brand on show to the world. There are other presentations though, which are in the family bosom of the company, away from the bright lights and the fanfare. This is when you are addressing the troops, people who see you day in and day out. They know who you really are.
In these cases we may need to recognise people, perhaps hand out awards, celebrate a birthday or work anniversary. This is our crew but don’t take them for granted. We can’t be laid back about it and think it is not as important as a public soiree. We still have to prepare properly. This is inside the family, so the temptation is to see the stakes as being lower. Actually, these types of speeches are the hardest ones to give and we need to be at our best. Engagement and motivation are closely driven by how we make our people feel. How much attention we give them and how we treat them, are critical elements of our authentic leadership.
Typically though, we don’t prepare, we just wing it and so end up with a pretty ordinary facsimile of a proper presentation. Wrong thinking! Well what we should we do? Here is a simple four part formula for these occasions. Firstly, explain why the award is being made. It may be for dedicated service, high quality job performance, a major sales achievement, etc. Probably everyone knows already, but we need to remind them and set the scene for the presentation. For example, “Mary has won the sales over $500,000 medal” which is pretty boring. Compare it to, “Mary beat out hundreds of other salespeople to make it into the very exclusive half a million dollars club of outstanding salespeople”. We need to set the context for the award at the start.
Secondly, talk about the team member’s role as part of the team. We need to connect them with the group and how they contribute. We might say, “Mary is a high performer and she is a fantastic team player. Her willingness to help the team win, shows the mark of a true professional. I know many of the people in this room today can attest to her openness and availability to assist wherever needed and share knowledge with others.
Thirdly, we talk about the award itself, why it is deserved and how we are all proud of the recognition this has given to our whole team effort in the organisation. We say, “Mary has been a model of persistence. She has done all the steps of the sales process, consistently and professionally. Her achievement today is also driven off the back of the number of referrals she got from clients which led to new business with other companies. We preach this referral idea and Mary is a model to remind us to make this succeed for all of us as well”.
Fourthly, we congratulate the recipient on behalf of everyone. “Mary, I am very proud to make this sales award to you today. Congratulations from all of us, we want you to receive this recognition with our best wishes and hopes for even further success in the future”.
The danger of these presentations is to go too frugal or too exaggerated. We do want to create some buzz around the award but at the same time, it has to be real. Exaggerating the importance of the award or the winner’s achievements makes the whole thing sound like a parody, a fakery. Telling the audience “Mary is genius personified, a true legend in the business. She will stand in the hall of fame of salespeople in this organisation for time immemorial”, is obvious overkill and creates serious doubts about the integrity of everyone involved in this award ceremony.
Japan is a country of institutionalised flattery so we have to tread carefully here. If you have ever been on the receiving end, then you know how embarrassing these types of effervescent comments can be. The remarks have to be sincere, true and tempered with reality.
If we over praise one person in the group, the danger is the others will become jealous and shun them. In some cases, it may be better to present this speech to Mary alone, without an audience. A nice lunch with the boss and the award presentation one-on-one may be better than gathering everyone together. Japanese people get nervous when they are singled out for too much recognition. They know the knives will be coming out straight afterwards. In this sense, Japan is a bit tricky and you really have to know the person involved and the group itself, to decide which is the best plan.
The point is to treat this as a major speech, that directly hits the team’s motivation and commitment. When you think of it that way, then you give the talk the proper attention it warrants and you can make these occasions a great opportunity to engage the team even more successfully.
