When you are asked what you do for a living, can you explain yourself in less than a minute? And when you’re done, do people say: “That’s interesting, tell me more.” Conversely, do you hear business people blather on in presentations or social gatherings, and still don’t understand what their business is?

Many people do a painfully poor job of explaining themselves, says Stephen Chapman, president of the Canadian Leadership Institute (CLI) in Calgary.

“When we have a group of people together and ask them to stand up individually and say what they do (for a living), I’m constantly surprised that 80 per cent of them don’t have a good answer.

“They don’t have something that rolls off the tip of the tongue that says: ‘Here is my benefit, here’s why I do it and here’s what I’m looking for.’ ”

Mike Dempster photo, Business Edge
Stephen Chapman helps teach people how to present themselves effectively.

What many people don’t realize is that they have a small window of opportunity to get their message across – whether it’s trying to sell a product, to convince the boss about a new idea, influence a co-worker, a spouse, even our children.

Late last fall, Chapman co-developed a three-hour program that is held once a month in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto. It teaches people what would seem to be the most natural thing in the world: how to properly introduce ourselves.

“It’s to figure out what a person’s 30-second elevator speech is, and how to tell people what you actually do when you are asked,” says Chapman.

“Are they stopping you before you can turn away and saying: ‘Tell me more?’ If that’s not happening, we say: ‘Then why don’t you try this, this and this?’ ”

While Chapman’s course, called Power Prospecting, is designed to teach people how to improve their business, it is by extension a skill that can be applied to any facet of life.

It’s an issue he finds intriguing. A former 10-year veteran of the Calgary Police Service, Chapman has a knack for psychology and entrepreneurism.

He has a master’s degree in applied psychology, primarily focusing on traffic safety; has taught at Mount Royal College and the University of Calgary; operates a computer consulting company; and in 2001 ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 8 aldermanic job.

He recently began running the Calgary-based CLI and is a part-owner. In Canada for five years, CLI is a spinoff of the U.S. Leadership Institute that has been in operation for 26 years. Its primary focus is to teach public speaking and sales training.

Chapman believes that the new Power Prospecting course is a good introduction for people who need to understand that they can improve their skills engaging others. “There are a lot of very smart people out there who just can’t communicate ideas in 45 seconds, or 45 minutes for that matter.”

He suggests that people aren’t good at so-called elevator speeches because they’ve never been taught.

“Or perhaps we’re not supposed to get overly excited about what we do,” he says. “Perhaps if we’re effusive all the time, we think we’re coming across as being phoney.”

Based on his experience, once people understand the concept, listen to themselves and accept constructive criticism, the change can be stunning.

“We tell everybody to start with the benefit. ‘Hi, I’m Steve Chapman. I’m president of the Canadian Leadership Institute. We teach people to make more business.’ ”

He cites the example of a financial planner who, when asked what she did, only said that she worked for herself. She had to be convinced to say: “I run a business. We basically help people double their portfolio.”

The woman used the introduction on a ski trip and ended up managing a large portfolio because a seatmate said: “Tell me more.”

Equally important in the introduction is sending out a message telling people what you are looking for.

Chapman recalls a CLI client who was starting a business card company. The man wanted to get into a large organization, producing cards across the country.

“When he was out networking, he asked for that,” says Chapman. “He’d say that he wanted to meet the VP of companies in charge of . . . and the first time he threw it out, he made a contact that led eventually to a four-million-card order.”

Chapman says we all can become complacent in our daily routines and forget what we’re trying to accomplish.

He remembers his days with the Calgary Police Service, when he would write 25 traffic tickets a day to meet his quota. His routine was changed by a fatal accident that he attended.

“A 16-year-old kid literally died in my arms after crashing his motorcycle into the side of a car at 150 kilometres an hour,” he says. “That really had an impact on me, and the question became: What’s my goal? When I write the ticket, what am I trying to accomplish?”

He realized that giving tickets was a measure designed to change a driver’s behaviour. So he changed the way he gave tickets. With each car that was pulled over, Chapman explained concisely why he was there and why the driver was receiving a ticket. His message was simple. He didn’t want to see any more deaths on the road.

“My not-guilty rate went down to almost nothing. No one was fighting the tickets. They went away understanding the ticket was completely legit.”

It was the perfect elevator speech – one that pushed all the right buttons.

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