We continue our review of influential CISO’s around the globe. Noopur Davis is on our “Best Public Speakers” list because of her physical and vocal poise, emphatic vocal tone, and the bucketed way she responds to questions. Noopur is a model for presentation effective communication skills as the Executive Vice President and Chief Information Security and Product Privacy Officer for Comcast Corporation and Comcast Cable.
by Stephanie Bickel
We reviewed her best public speakers interview where she talks about prioritizing cybersecurity to protect precious assets.
Noopur’s greatest executive presentation effective communication skills:
Great eye contact and smile: Even in a virtual interview, it looks as though Noopur is looking directly at her audience. This non-verbal cue helps her connect with her listeners. When introduced, she also opens with a nice, engaging smile. Her direct eye contact continues even while she speaks. She also “thinks” a smile throughout the entire interview to soften her facial expressions. (:30 - 4:16)
Organized structure to her responses: She begins answering questions by bucketing her responses. For the first question Noopur starts with, “2 surprising findings, one…, second is…”(1:15 - 1:40). For the second question, she states, “There are 4 things they can do…first…, second…, third…, and finally…” (2:45 - 3:55). Bucketed answers are easier for an audience to follow and demonstrate a speaker is comfortable with their material.
Emphatic vocal tone: Noopur emphasizes key words, numbers, and statistics to highlight where she wants her audience to focus. For example, you can see where she highlights the underlined words in these phrases, “6 billion threats”, “...experienced 12 cyber attacks per month…”, “our actual data shows…we are blocking 104 threats per month”. (1:15 - 1:59)
Physical and vocal poise: She speaks very slowly and intentionally and she maintains a nice, still upright posture. This is comforting to the audience and shows she is in control during her delivery. (:30 - 4:16)
What Noopur could do to improve her executive presentation effective communication skills:
Minimize fidgeting: While she is listening to the interviewer’s question, Noopur tends to tug at her sweater and cross and uncross her arms. This can be perceived as someone who is uncomfortable as opposed to relaxed. (:30 - 1:15)
Minimize filler words - Noopur begins sentences with filler words and qualifying language, and also uses “um” when she is searching for her next word. “You know” and “um” start her first answer (1:15 - 1:59). She starts with “I think” for her second (2:08) and third responses (2:45). To strengthen a response, pause and go right into the answer. Phrases like “I think” make you come across less certain, so try to avoid them when you are delivering strong recommendations.
Expand gestures to show more passion and energy: Noopur uses a nice, slow, consultative voice, and could also benefit from adding more variety in her delivery. Her gestures tend to stay within the frame of her body. This conveys an analytical, detailed oriented-mindset. By bringing her gestures above her shoulders and outside her frame, she will add energy and help convey more passion about the topics. (1:15 - 1:59, 2:08 - 2:42) You can see a difference when she uses a greater variety of gestures and extends them to the side and toward the screen. (2:55-3:22)
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