Feedback Notes on KD From the Speaker's Circuit: If Everyone's Happy, You Didn't Do Your Job...
September 20, 2019
My friend Jennifer McClure is a speaker and loves to share actual feedback that's been gathered by organizations that bring her into speak. Overall ratings that are numbers-driven are appropriate and you have to have them for overall measurement.
But the real gold? It's in what I'll call the "verbatim" comments, where people can say anything they want. Jennifer is known for sharing chippy comments from attendees about her outfit - dress, shoes, etc. Good stuff.
You'll never please everyone in the room when you put yourself out there to speak. It's one of the first things you learn as a speaker, and over a decade ago (when I first started speaking at conferences) it was a hard lesson to learn. But it's probably also a lesson for anyone who's going to share a strong point of view (POV) inside their company as well.
I've spoken 4 times in the last two months - audiences range from 800 to 70 attendees. To underscore the reality you can't please everyone with your POV, I thought I'd offer up an overall rating and some verbatim comments from the speakers trail. Enjoy and scroll to the bottom for analysis and the soul crushing, hard criticism:
Date - sometime in the last 2 months.
Audience size and type: 200 attendees,
Overall Ratings:
"The content was valuable to me" - 8.90 out of 10
"The Speaker was knowledgeable and engaging" - 9.38 out of 10.
Verbatim Comments:
Very entertaining speaker. Love this event. |
The pictures used on the slides! |
The speaker |
Recruiters are sales people. Period. |
Timely reminder of how employers SHOULD relate and deal with all candidates. |
Valuable insights on making for TA experience human, the power of story telling, using assessments throughout the employment lifecycle. |
What's up KD!! Speaker was great. (editor's note - I do a group exercise to get people comfortable referring to me as "KD", which is what my friends call me) |
Good mix of data with tips to take back to the office. |
Q&A session & some of the content |
Actionable takeaways |
The delivery was intentional and he told a story vs. a lot of words on a slide. He made the session relevant. |
The speaker used compelling numbers and gave solid advice! |
Learning valuable information and networking with my peers. |
Engaging speaker |
Wealth of knowledge of the speaker and the valuable insights provided during the presentation. |
Conversation about finding low rules and highly organized individuals. Also Text Recruiting and the implementation of it. |
The welcoming environment at my table. The relevant/timely presentation. |
Value of story-telling in recruitment (company's TA website) |
Kris' succinct style of communicating a complex message, real genuine info that is implementable |
App length, Real people, 3:1 job posting, Text recruiting |
Sell, not screen. Focus on differentiators in culture. Make it easy to apply. |
Always Be Hustlin :-) |
Dynamic presenter on a very relevant topic |
Everything |
Designing the career website so it's real and memorable. |
How to manage effective recruiting processes |
Company branding and culture tips |
The application process should take no more than 5 minutes, assessments should be used to find people that fit the company, and should be used post hire as well. |
Memorable in a bad way. Usually, I find the speakers interesting and informative so this was an exception. It felt like an infomercial. The advice was simplistic and often not evidence-based. At least at my table, his comments about the unattractive people on the Amazon website prompted groans and comments such as "is he for real." He might consider more humility. At least acknowledge that "sometimes" these strategies might work. |
How difficult it is to confirm your company’s culture and how important it is to share and explain the culture during recruiting. |
The critical importance of having the website to be mobile ready. |
Engaging and practical |
The helpful advice and key takeaways from the speaker |
The dynamics of the speaker |
Good presentation |
Presentation mode - pictures and main thought. |
The number of relate-able business scenarios the speaker talked about. |
Kris' engaging personality and being a SME in the areas of culture, recruitment & retention. |
Discussion on ATS and attracting employees though branding. |
Great speaker and program! |
I absolutely loved the presentation |
KD would be good to have along with a panel of others to conduct a half/full day of talent acquisition/retention. |
SHRM member. |
Favorite speaker this year! |
Great meeting!!!! |
Offer some meetings around lunchtime as opposed to always in the morning |
Great session quality and impact! Let's bring him back :-). |
Fantastic program! Would love to be back! |
Glad to be a member of the local chapter. |
Dynamic speaker |
2nd program I've attended. First was Dec '17 or '18. Found program inspired. Now I'll return! |
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OK, so in the big scheme of things, that's pretty good feedback. I had a great time at this session and the audience is a hidden gem in the speaking world, engaged and responsive. While I probably had something to do with that, the reality is that some audiences are just better than others. This was a great crowd!
But just like my friend Jennifer McClure knows, there's a lump of coal ready for anyone with a point of view willing to share in an authentic way on the speaker's circuit. Usually there's more than one lump of coal, but in this case really just one.
Did you see it? Here it is:
"Memorable in a bad way. Usually, I find the speakers interesting and informative so this was an exception. It felt like an infomercial. The advice was simplistic and often not evidence-based. At least at my table, his comments about the unattractive people on the Amazon website prompted groans and comments such as "is he for real." He might consider more humility. At least acknowledge that "sometimes" these strategies might work."
My favorite part? "He might consider more humility." Also, "memorable in a bad way." Translation: KD seems like a bastard.
Now that's not a chippy comment about shoes or dress that Jennifer gets at times. Men don't get a lot of dress/look comments, which is good for me and another post. BTW, the Amazon thing was a crowd exercise where I ask the crowd to rate the attractiveness of some employees featured on Amazon's career site. The crowd was unified, they're a bunch of 6's. The point? You need to share real people, not pretty people in stock art as a part of a drive toward authenticity on your career site.
But the overall comment underscores a reality about anyone in the professional world with a POV. If you're going to have passion about something, you just need to know that when you share, a certain percentage of the world thinks you're a complete *** and should step back into the crowd. While this audience was a great one, I'd generally put presentation audiences in a bell curve of sorts - 20% of going to be supporters, 20% are going to be detractors - related to your content, your style, etc. It's what you do with the 60% in the middle that matters. You want to convert them, because the more you convert them, the more muted the detractors become.
If you're a white collar professional in America who wants to rise, your career rides on your POV being perceived as value-added and/or innovative. You can't communicate that POV without detractors. Don't stop sharing your POV if you believe in what you do. Detractors will always be there.
Oh, and could you be a little bit more humble when you share your opinion in the next staff meeting, please? That would be great.
Thanks for sharing the amazing post.
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