Making First Impressions Count

Some of the strongest, most practised introductions I have seen in a professional setting, have been from non-native executives.

When you speak in your native language you tend to be more confident in your ability to speak about yourself spontaneously. As a result native speakers giving introductions quite often fall short of a practised confident introduction. Overselling, underselling or maybe even just not having a very compelling pitch. In my opinion native speakers really should practise and can also benefit from the following tips.

Although I have seen strong introductions from non-native speakers there are also some other "anti-patterns" I have observed. I have observed very strong communicators suffer from these issues and I have also seen this in the way that I approach introducing myself in another language.

Anti-patterns to avoid when introducing yourself

• Focussing on language (Prioritizing Syntax Over Substance): This is essentially where you are putting together phrases spontaneously but focussing on grammar and vocabulary and not on the content that you are communicating. For example "Hello I am Michael Cogan, I have had a long career that spans more than 27 years. I have worked in multiple industries including telecommunications, media and finance. In my leisure time I enjoy walking and visiting different countries". Context of introduction: Let's introduce ourselves and what our role is in this programme.
• Repeating rehearsed lines (irrelevant scripting): This is where you have rehearsed a block paragraph in it's entirety and repeat it verbatim even with content that isn't relevant. For example "Hello I am Michael Cogan, I work for Company X. We are a leading provider of X and Y, our CEO is proud of his charity work and is recognised as a leading figure in the industry. We provide a range of services including hardware for the retail and aggricultural sectors. We also provide development resources for the software industry". Context of introduction: Introductions infront of a CIO of a financial services company.
• Over familiar phrases (performative colloquialism): This is where the speaker who is very proud of their ability to speak the language uses overly familiar expressions in their introduction to display their linguistic abilities rather than communicating in an appropriate manner for the situation. For example "Hi gang, I'm Mike and it's really cool to be here. I'm the new guy who's going to be PM for this gig. In my free time I like to hang and play basketball". Context of introduction: Escalation meeting on quality of services provided by incumbent Project Manager based on lack of professionalism and seriousness in the way they are managing a critical project.

Tips on how to improve your introductions to adapt to context (the Jazz framework).

First of all, prepare for the meeting and understand what introduction will be most suitable.

Usually this will be based on why the meeting is happening?

• Escalation, serious, new high profile clients = Formal, clear communication, detail relevant to the situation and not superfluous e.g. don't talk about hobbies, pets or amusing anecdotes.
• Meeting a new team that you are going to be working with = Friendly, human aspects (hobbies, area you live, recent activities)
• Meeting a client = Understand attendees specific focus, interests or problems they need solving.

Create individual phrases that you can use in combination. Write them on flashcards and ensure they can be used on their own. This will allow you to change the order of them and combine them in different ways.

Group them by intent and context, for example, for the "Inital greeting" group you could have "Hello everyone, it's a pleasure to meet you" (suitable for formal introduction meeting),"Hello team" (suitable for smaller more casual meeting) or "Hi there" (very casual where you are emphasizing your approachability).

Another set could be "talk about myself" and could include "I have 27 years of experience working in the technology sector" (formal), "I have a wide range of experience in Technology" (slightly less formal and leaving it open with regards to your level of seniority and experience) or "I am a keen musician" (very casual, much more human and open to follow up questions or conversations).

I won't list out every combination here but by building up a phrase library and practising them individually you will build this up as muscle memory. This is a great approach because 1) it means you know the phrases by heart and don't need to think about the grammar or vocab. 2) you can join the phrases up in different ways to give your message fluidity, spontaneity and authenticity. 3) you can adapt to the context of the meeting and the people you are speaking to.

This is a technique that musicians use with improvisation. If you have ever seen someone improvise (properly improvise) and been amazed how they come up with such phrases off the top of their heads, it's because they haven't just created them. They practise phrases and then use them in the context in which they know they will work.