This photograph of a group of young Parisian children watching a puppet show was taken by the famous photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1963. When I saw it I could not help thinking how us humans (big and small) can look at exactly the same thing and experience a totally different emotional response.
I just love the expression of the little girl second from the right in the front row. But what really caught my attention was the variety of expressions that obviously reflect how each of the children interpreted what was going on. It occurred to me immediately that I have seen exactly the same range of expressions when I have been conducting an annual business performance review with business owners.
Some are amazed, some shocked, some sad, some scared, some surprised, some don’t want to hear the commentary, and some are totally indifferent. The point is you have to tailor your presentation to your audience and be very sensitive to how your clients are responding to the conversation. The better you get at that the more effective your presentation will be in helping your clients see the results and opportunities their business has to offer.
I’ll be talking about this in more detail in my Web Conference on July 2 in which I’ll be dealing with the process of presenting a business performance review.