Getting Emotional

“There’s no crying in baseball.”

– Manager Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), in “A League of their Own.”

After my last post, Moist and Dry Presentations, I had a couple of interesting conversations about emotions, one an email exchange with a reader I’d never met and the other a talk with a good friend.

Both objected to my claim that good “American style” presentations, particularly in business, tend to be emotional in nature.

“I don’t know where you’re getting your information,” they both said, in essence, “but there’s no crying in business. Getting emotional is the fastest way to kill your career.”

Admittedly, whining, crying and pleading are rarely effective ways to conduct your business, whether in discussion, negotiation or presentation, but that’s a very narrow definition of emotional.

Anger is an emotion too. So are disappointment, pride, gratitude, excitement, sorrow, determination and optimism, if you cast your net wide enough.

Emotion is personal. It is human. It is present. It is what reaches out and grabs the attention of the audience and engages their interest. It is also what is missing from the vast majority of dull, ineffective presentations.

Facts and figures have their place in explaining your message, supporting your logical argument and justifying your conclusion, but they will never move your audience to care.

And if they don’t care, you might as well be talking to a room full of empty chairs.