The questions and answers here were from a questionnaire for an interview by a group Masters degree students from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Their work was not published but I wanted to share these answers because people often ask how I communicate and present my research findings to an audience. I also explain my philosophy on real estate research. My audience may be one or many and the communication may take place over a phone call, a face-to-face meeting, with or without presentation material, over live national radio or television, through print media, or other mediums.
To produce a convincing piece of work which I can present confidently, I must research, analyse then interpret the data, correlate the data and test the assumptions. Only then will my audience enjoy and benefit from the presentation.
Some scholars have called persuasion a science, while others have called it a necessary art. Do you have a ‘style’ of persuasion?
I do not have a style. The only way I know is through logical reasoning, step-by-step, like solving an equation, leading to the Aha! moment. However, I recognise where it comes to persuading people that most times we need to take a stand on certain issues — take for example, driving a eco-friendly electric car as opposed to a petrol-fuelled car — one person’s logic differs from another. Even in situations, such as discussing the financial statements of a listed company to decide whether the shares are worth investing into, everyone may apply a different logic and interpretation to the same set of numbers. We judge the same subject differently. Therefore, with persuasion, a step-by-step logical argument is merely a basic requirement to be convincing. It has to be presented with good simple language that the audience can understand, and further accompanied by an emotional pull — make the subject matter relevant to the audience; help them agree with your logic; then to persuade them to accept your stand, you need to appeal to their emotions. Only then can you will you get your audiences’ buy-in.
Taking a stand is important. In cases where taking a stand is impossible, I will acknowledge to the audience that I am ignorant about the subject and cannot take a meaningful stand.
Body language is another important component. I smile and nod in my delivery, hoping to get the audience to follow my actions. In nodding along with me, they are convincing themselves to accept the subject presented. I will show my emotions that corresponds to whether I agree with the points presented. I might show that I am flabbergasted about certain real estate cooling measures which were overly harsh and had impacted the investment decisions of my clients. I might show that I am excited about the new developments to rejuvenate Holland Village. I might show an incredulous look when discussing the new Jewel project at Changi Airport.
Through the course of your career, how do you persuade your opponents to support your agenda? Give an example where you successfully turned your opponents around.
The phrase ‘Time will tell’ sounds clichéd but if one has the luxury of time to allow the naysayers to be convinced about your points-of-view, that is the simplest and most effective strategy. So state your case, listen to the jeers and let these jeers slowly die out. Eventually, evidence to support your initial claim will come up, proving that your case was correct, and the jeers will turn to cheers. However, when the world is jeering, which is always too long a time, one needs a lot of strength to hold firm to the stand taken.
Unfortunately it is usually tough to make people cross from the their side to yours. Especially if the opposition is not due to a differing opinion but because they are your competitors. When I was working in Savills Singapore, a real estate consultancy, and in 2006 to 2007, I published research and was quoted in the media about my take on the strength of the Singapore residential market, how the shortage of housing was compounded by the enbloc demolitions and together with a strong economy and demand from expatriates, residential prices will break record highs. When the most pricey residential unit was just above the $3,000 per sqft mark at end of 2006, transacted at the St Regis Residences, I was presented my research and opinion to the market that Singapore will cross $4,500 per sqft within three years.
Industry experts poohpooh-ed the idea, saying that I am talking up the market, and some bloggers even accused me of investing in the residential market, talking up a euphoria, and then selling my investments to cash-in my profits.
A few months later, another consulting firm published their forecast for $4,000 per sqft. Market transactions started to move up. And then within a year, the record high price forecast of $4,500 per sqft was reached, and then breached.
So I was vindicated. Sweet.
How should one build up the skill of persuasion and influence?
There are training courses for such things. But the simple, low-cost way would be to present in front of friends or colleagues with a video camera capturing yourself giving the presentation. Then, together with your friends and your critics, review the video, discuss which portions were interesting (ie. the audience was paying full attention) and which portions were boring or unintelligible. Review the standard of English, your grammar, posture, hand gestures, such as the rubbing of the eyes or nose, the ‘errrmmm’, ‘eh’, ‘hor’ or ‘hum’, or anything too flashy, such as a big capital-H belt buckle, branded pens with white wavy dots sticking out of your shirt pocket, a loud spectacle frame, an ostentatious brooch, dangly earrings, or other objects which will detract others from your presentation.
In addition, watch the presentations by great presenters and captivating speakers. There are some people that when you listen to, you don’t want the talk to end. Those presenters make you want to hang around some more. You don’t want to leave your seat.
If that ‘delicious’ presentation were recorded, watch it over and over again. One example is Gordon Gecco’s speech in the movie Wallstreet, that starts with “Greed is good…” Observe that speech, think about how selective he was with his words, consider all the pauses he used for dramatic effect and to let the message to sink into his audience’s minds. All great speakers know how to harness the powers of silence to communicate.
However, keep in mind the following: the audience, be they one or many; and consider the location, in a seminar room, at a stadium or in an open field at an election rally — they all have to be treated differently. Your voice, tone, dressing, gestures, posture, speed, etc, has to change with these variables. Each audience and setting calls for a different pace, a different overall package and a different approach in sending out your message.
Looking at the traits of successful leaders, we found that they all possessed a certain presence — an effective way of communicating without using words. It has been argued that effective leaders are naturally good nonverbal communicators. What is a non-verbal skill or trait that most leaders have (eg. charisma)? Do you have a non-verbal skill that you consciously or unconsciously use at work?
I am not sure if emails and written communications are included here but I consider those ‘non-verbal’ skills too. These days, you get a lot more written communications — internet, email, social media, — than verbal communication or face-to-face discussions, where charisma and body language can be observed and perceived by an audience. In written communications, a phrase such as “This is just great!” might mean “Yippee!” or “OMG! It’s lousy!”. In verbal communications, we can listen to how the phrase is pronounced and delivered. Does it follow on from the previous sentence? Is it exclaimed in surprise, happiness, sarcasm or disappointment?
Another important skill is that of posture. We touched a little on that before. You need to take note of what you wear when making a presentation, bring out your charisma, enthusiasm and authority on the subject matter. You need to tap into such a mix of elements when you speak to an audience or even your colleagues at a department meeting. Do you inject humour? Do you have a deadpan face? Do you coax with heartwarming words or use harsher words to emphasise the gravity of the discussion? If you put on some charm and charisma, would you come across as insincere or fake?
If you would like someone to judge you from the first and only meeting, then you would need to package yourself to look your best when you meet people. But if you prefer long-term relationships and one-off interactions do not matter, then to make things easy, be honest and sincere in your presenting your case. Honesty and sincerity can be sensed by your audience.
On the point about effective leaders being good non-verbal communicators, I think it is a matter of self-awareness and to become an effective and strong communicator, the ‘natural’ part can be trained. So it is not really an innate gift but a matter of being well prepared. The counter staff at McDonald’s have standard scripts which roll off their tongues smoothly and their interaction with consumers may be flawless. But does that make them good communicators, similar to many statesmen and politicians who can deliver good speeches at events with scripts in-hand?
Let’s take it one step further. Look at how good our previous minister, George Yeo, was with a doorstop interview and compare that to many other office holders who stumble and need a team of PR specialists. A really good communicator is be able to speak off the cuff, and very importantly, deal with questions.
Firstly they need to listen intently and understand the context of the question (whether they decide to pare it off and go tangential when they answer is a separate matter). Then they need to reply with an answer that is understood by the audience. Dealing with questions is important because it is part of a two-way communication that goes back and forth. Those who are good with delivering presentations or making speeches might make good lecturers, but not necessarily be good communicators. Communication is a two-way thing.
When comparing younger people coming into the workforce and people in mid-career, who would you say are better listeners? Will their listening ability affect their work performance?
Listening abilities vary from one individual to another and is not age dependent. A young worker who is eager to learn and to grow might listen much better than a mid-career worker who thinks he knows it all. Poor listeners will encounter a whole life of issues, not just with their work performance. They will probably be stunted in their growth in other areas too.
Why are research skills important for leaders?
Understanding the fundamentals, understanding raw, basic data relating to the business the leader is running (or the country the politician is helping to run, or the platoon that the sergeant is leading), being able to understand the world around us from the ground up, that is something I would consider as the basic entrance ticket to the game. If you were leading a scout group, knowing how to read the map, getting your coordinates right, basic rope work, etc, would be the essential survival skills needed in the wilderness. Without understanding the fundamentals and the land, we cannot venture around or break new ground.
A good leader not only understands the raw data and what the raw data means, but also the context in which the data is interpreted, and the metadata or derived data from that set of raw data.
For example, we might have measured ten cars going past this stretch of the road at 60 km/h — nothing out of the ordinary. But were they driving safely? Was the road congested? Did the cars zigzag around at that speed? Did the cars alternate between slowing down and accelerating or was it a constant 60 km/h all the way through? The leader may not be required know how to collect and analyse the data himself, but he ought to know how all these activities are carried out. Similarly, a CFO may not need to understand the technical rules of book keeping and accounting entries but must know what revenue recognition is, when is a cost item incurred, and the time lag between cost incurred, payment made, accounting entry created, and other basic structures.
In the real estate sector, we get reports from financial analysts and real estate researchers, comments from market observers and professors who may have very high levels of formal education. It is disappointing to note that some of us still make some fundamental errors in our analyses, our assumptions and interpretations of the data. These almost always lead us to the wrong conclusions. Worse, some of these reports with skewed conclusions, inconsistent data, and backward corrections are published regularly and quoted by respected mainstream media.
One common error made by several commentators is to take the total population in Singapore (about 5.4 million) and dividing that by the number of housing units (current supply is about 1.2 million HDB flats and private residences) to derive the average household size (5.4 / 1.2 = 4.5). Another common error is to take the total population (5.4 million), divided by the average household size of 3.5 (as quoted by SingStat based on household surveys) and conclude that we need 1.5 million housing units, implying that we currently have a severe shortage in houses.
These interpretations are wrong. The total population include Permanent Residents and foreigners on employment passes and other temporary permits. If we include foreigners in the total population count and compare that against the number of housing units, we need to take into account foreigners who live in hostels, student dormitories, service apartments and hotels.
The problem is that when researchers quote these figures, crunch the numbers, derive new data out of them and present their conclusions published in a smart looking report, the media may consider these numbers as news. Propagated often enough, some of the distorted conclusions may become accepted by the general public as a fact. So readers need to be careful of what they read.
What are some tips for conducting a piece of research? Do you have any favourite research tools?
No particular tools. Electronic spreadsheets for data analysis. Real estate research is fundamentally very basic: walk the ground and get a feel for the property. For example, I like to invest in REITs, especially shopping centre or retail REITs because I can visit the malls and observe the crowds for myself, look at the traffic flow around the shops. Are there queues at the cashiers? Are there patrons in the F&B outlets? Are the shoppers empty-handed or do they carry shopping bags? This is in addition to reading up financial reports issued by the REITs to public.
How much impact does research have in the leadership game?
It is one of the foundation blocks and a basic component of the arsenal that a leader should have. Any good real estate agent needs to have this basic skill to understand Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). When marketing a property or when searching for properties on behalf of investors, a real estate agent needs to know the comparable numbers against other properties in the same neighbourhood—if the client would like to invest $2 million in a shop at Tiong Bahru, the agent should know the range of prices on offer in the district, the range of rental returns of perhaps around 3.5 per cent, who is offering to buy, how many are available for sale, etc.
An even more professional agent will further be able to research across other districts and offer the client alternatives—such as, “For $2 million, may I suggest this other HDB shop in Jurong which has a higher rental yield of 4.2 per cent in Jurong?”
If these property agents are promoted to become leaders or directors of large teams of junior property agents, then I would expect their ability to research industry trends and understand market numbers is even more crucial to their success, as an individual and as a team. A leader who is unsure about the market numbers or does not have a good grasp of statistics cannot hold a team of agents for long.