Pimp My Talk: A Quick Guide to Great Presentations
FOREWORD
We all nurture secret ambitions of great success. It could be the idea of becoming an
entrepreneur or seizing an opportunity
for advancement in a large corporation.
As a professional of any type, whether physician, banker, executive,
salesman or CEO, there is one skill which can singlehandedly make or break a
career: delivering a fantastic live presentation. The ability to develop and deliver a dynamic
and memorable speech can, in a single day, make the difference between standing
out and rising above or blending in with a very large crowd. Many great careers have been built on one’s
ability to ‘wow’ an audience, and here’s a secret: anyone can learn to be a
great public speaker.
Most people rarely face the need to ‘Give a Talk’ or
‘Make a Presentation’. For many of them, a conference is anathema, to be
treated like the plague. Rather than embrace and plunge into the opportunity,
they look to shun it at any cost. It doesn’t have to be that way. The gift of
being a great public speaker is within reach of everyone. With practice and preparation, anyone can
master the building blocks of being a great Presenter. Being a good public speaker is a cornerstone
of any successful role as a leader and the confidence that comes with comfort
in front of a crowd is an essential and possibly, stand-alone skill, boosting
your ability to lead.
Whole careers have been dedicated to the art of public
speaking, and learning to charm, entertain, inform and motivate an audience is
a lifelong undertaking. But the skills are neither obvious nor inborn: they
must be cultivated and honed. This is one case where the old adage, ‘Practice
makes perfect’, holds good.
So how do we address an audience? By reviewing and understanding the basic
theory behind great presentations. Anyone who gets that under his belt can
begin the journey toward being a terrific public speaker. This guide is meant to be a starting point.
Let this booklet be a launch pad to a skill set that will pay dividends many times
over. Start now…you’ll be way ahead of
the game when that ‘big talk’ comes your way.
INTRODUCTION
Introduce Yourself
Yes, today
IS your big day. So there you are, seated in the corner seat of the front row
of a brightly lit briefing hall (auditorium, conference room) nearest the
podium, more than a trifle nervous with the adrenalin making your heart thump
like Tarzan’s jungle telephone. That’s quite normal. Actually, it occurs before
you step on stage. Once you're up there, it usually goes away. Try to think of
nervousness in a positive way. Fear is your friend. It makes your reflexes
sharper. It heightens your energy, adds a sparkle to your eye, and colour to
your cheeks. When you are nervous about speaking, you are more conscious of
your posture and breathing. With all those good side effects you will actually
look healthier and more physically attractive1. Every public speaker goes
through this phase, so take a few deep breaths and smile. Don’t worry, you
won’t have to yell “Kreegah! Tarzan bundolo.”
You’ve
made the seating plan, so you already know who should be sitting where.
Casually turn around and confirm that fact. As the hall starts to fill up,
recheck that your pre-tested collar remote mike is firmly attached, the laser
pointer is nestled safely in an easily accessible pocket, the remote control
for your projection system is in one hand and for lighting, in the other. If
you listen carefully, there will be a fair amount of light chatter, as the
people in your audience interact with each other. What this means is that you’ll
need an attention-getter that will force everybody present to stop what they
are doing and look at the most important entity in the hall-YOU.
At the
pre-ordained time or when you see that everybody is in, switch off the lights,
plunging the room into darkness. Stand up and flash the first slide: A
photograph of you, full frontal for best effect, placed along the left vertical
edge. The topic of your presentation fits alongside, in nice bold letters,
followed by your name and designation. The date and time follow. Walk to where
you are close to centre stage, gradually increasing the overall luminosity to
the ideal level,4 ensuring that your shadow is not cast on the screen. Your
next sentence is, “Yeah, that’s me all right, so what if it’s me who’s made
this slide.” Expect some polite titter, and smile widely. Switch off the slide.
This is one example of how an attention-getter works. Get rid of the power
control remote as discreetly as possible.
Your
audience would have read the slide by themselves. If they can’t read ten words
in six seconds, either they or you’re in the wrong auditorium! One informal but
not impolite slide and your short sentence would have set the tone and tenor of
your presentation. It is crucial that you make a good first impression because
you will be selling yourself to your audience shortly.
Your next sentence should be somewhat staid. After all, a presentation is a serious affair, not a stand-up comedy or a Jay Leno show. Ideally, it should be along these lines, “Good morning and thank you for coming. In the next twenty-five minutes, I shall be talking about…………….(topic). I’ve spent twelve years in this business and have learned a bit, enough to tell others, I mean. I’ve kept the breakdown of how I intend to discuss the subject simple. I’ll first take up xxxxxxxx, followed by yyyyyyyyy and then combine the two to discuss zzzzzzzzzz, before rounding off.” Then comes your second slide, and you add, “There you are.”Keep ALL slides simple, short and to the point3, so that you can switch them off after a short pause.
The key word in visual aid is aid, but what is
amply visual and connectable and, therefore, the surrogate key, is YOU. While
your audience reads this slide, take that time to think about what’s next.
Coming back to reality, add, “If there is something you don’t follow, or need
clarification, I think it would be best if we take it up right after the coffee
break. Smile again and add, “After twenty-five minutes of me, you’re gonna need
that coffee break, believe me.” You may have noticed that I have used the word
‘smile’ repeatedly.
Retain the
interest of your audience by giving them some important and interesting
information to open up the topic. If you were planning to talk about the manufacture of clothing or white goods imported from a third-world country which
gains handsomely from the contract, you could give them stark figures about
poverty. You could ask, “Did you know that more than half the world survives on
less than $2 per day?”
1 Johns Hopkins Medicine: Service Excellence: hopkinsmedicine.org
2 EruptingMinds Self Improvement Tips: eruptingmind.com
3 Reducing Amount of Text on your PowerPoint Slides: presentationadvisors.com
4 How to give a GOOD Presentation: Tips and Suggestions: lrc.centennialcollege.ca
5 World Poverty & Hunger Facts: cozay.com
Contrapunt
Let’s
first consider hiring an expert. Why engage a professional presenter? “Because
he is a pro on the subject and will deliver. Everybody will gain.” To me,
that’s pure poppycock. I won’t deny that he or she is probably the last word on
the subject. But they know nothing about the insides of your organization, your
chain of actual command, not what is displayed on your company’s website; your
line and staff layout and duties delegated; the ambience in your firm and
interpersonal relationships, or anything related to individuals that are the
body and soul of your company. His presentation will be construed as an
imposition by many and a free coffee break by others. This lot is not
going to carry away any tangible gain from the presentation and the onus of
implementing new concepts suggested by the speaker will fall squarely on the
Managers. Besides, experts carry steep price tags and have a host of demands
that must be confirmed before they condescend to come address you. OK, fine,
that’s the wrong avenue; forget imported speakers. They are, de facto, meant to
address a gathering of leaders of many companies, not a simple single company
like yours.
But then, even if the speaker or speakers are from
within the organization, setting up a conference is no mean task. A group of
people is taken off their normal production line for the seminar or meeting,
leading to a loss in productivity. Conference space must be available, often at
some expense. Necessary audio-visual
equipment is either purchased or rented.
The meeting requires support staff and publicity. Even simple catering adds to the cost. Printing, postage, planning and cleaning-up
add to the logistics. And this meeting
is either in-house or at a local convention centre! Such meetings are a luxury:
an expensive mode of communication.
Let’s go
the whole hog and plan the conference at a popular resort. Now you have to
factor in the cost of travel to and from that resort, boarding and lodging, regulatory/educational
requirements and honoraria, and you end up with a big package, a steep price to
pay for what might be considered just a gathering for information
transfer! Isn’t there a cheaper
alternative, say, a book?
Of course
there is. A book might well serve the purpose.
But then
you miss out on something truly unique. The chance of a live face-to-face meeting:
the one characteristic which sets this modality apart from other viable
options, and the one feature which provides the opportunity of full
exploitation to justify the huge expense: it is not a book! Instead, your
presentation is an animated, energy-filled, creative, entertaining and customized one-time-only live event. The
human touch is precisely what sets a speech apart from a book. This is an event
where you need to prepare, refine, focus and shine. Herein lies the essence of public speaking:
the ability to amplify and exploit that very same distinction optimally and
prove your worth to your organization.
For most
people, rather than embrace and plunge into the opportunity, a conference is
“the plague”. It evokes anxiety taken
out as anger on innocent bystanders, calls for a lot of attention and Librium
pills, leads to a mediocre performance, and is quickly forgotten by the
audience and scrapped from memory by the speaker. It’s tough to master an “occasional use”
skill, and who wants to seek out a terrifying experience, that too voluntarily?
Frankly speaking, I liken it to bungee jumping. Get over the heart-stopping
first jump and soon you’ll be boasting about how regularly you jump off the
bridge.
The gift
of being a great public speaker is within reach of everyone. With practice and preparation, anyone can
master the building blocks of being a great presenter. Unfortunately, the mentality of the average
person limits him to just be a good speaker and in time, a good presenter.
Notice that I have used the term ‘average’ to rate the person, and the
comparative ‘good’ for the same person in oratorical skills. That’s one level
up, and this person conforms to the Maslovian hierarchy. But the ability to
“WOW” an audience is a critical, often neglected skill. And the confidence that comes with comfort in
front of a crowd is an essential and possibly stand-alone skill, for
leadership. So how do we sort this
problem?
By
starting from scratch! That’s exactly what this guide is all about.
How to Become a Good Presenter
The first
step towards becoming a good presenter is to become a good public speaker. There
is a major difference between the two. A presentation, as the term connotes,
employs visual aids to convey info or reinforce a point made during the
presentation; a speech relies on the magic of words alone to create feelings and
images in the minds of the listeners. The disadvantage that a speaker faces is
that he cannot talk too much about numbers or rates, etc., nor can his speech
be too long. His audience will not be able to remember what he has said. This
is where the presenter scores over the speaker. He can project a chart onto a
screen, supporting what he has said. A simple example would be a comparison of
Gross Domestic Product in 1990, 2000 and 2010 in billions of dollars, using
separate colors for each year, and displaying the variation in percentages. The
audience would easily comprehend and remember this data. I need hardly restate that an audio-visual presentation is the most effective form of
communication. But you still need to know how to speak. And speak well!
The Importance of Public Speaking
Over 99%
of the educated masses have asked this question: Why do I need to learn how to
speak in public? The answer has invariably been the same, as has its riposte:
Every person recognized by history in the past and reputation today was/is an
excellent public speaker. Only names change, from Becket to Cromwell to Hitler
and Churchill, from Kennedy to Gorbachev to Clinton and Bill Gates…….the list
is never-ending. “But I’m not going to become a President or
multi-billionaire!” True, but if you have any ambition in life, one day, sooner
than later, you will be called on to give a speech and then speeches. Your
audience will grow in size as your speeches increase. Somewhere in between, you
will start making presentations, again with increasing audiences, with
financial and executive decision-makers from your and other organizations
listening to and watching you.
Over half
the English-speaking population do not rate public speaking skills highly
because they labour under the misapprehension that good public speaking skills
are only for people in sales or marketing. More often than not, it is these
people that get tongue-tied and lapse into a state of total meltdown when told
that they would be presenting a topic in public, even a topic they know inside
out. Public speaking skills are the physical part of communication skills and
good communication skills are crucial for any career unless you are the only
person in the entire office. Lack of good public speaking skills is one major
reason why a lot of intelligent ideas by some of the brainiest people on the
planet are discovered many years after their death11.
J.Doug
Jefferys, another expert on public speaking reproduces an amazing chart from
the Book of Lists 1977:
Man’s Greatest Fears--
- ·
Speaking to a group 41%
- ·
Heights 32%
- · Insects and bugs 24%
- · Financial problems 23%
- ·
Deep Water 22%
- ·
Sickness 20%
- ·
Death 19%
- ·
Flying 18%
The fear
of speaking is 41% against just 19% for death. One could fairly summarize that
a person giving a eulogy at a funeral would rather be in the coffin! The sharp-eyed amongst you will notice that the total of the percentages exceeds 100%.
True. Jefferys clarifies that in this survey people were asked to list their
top THREE fears. The list describes what percentage of total respondents
included the particular fear in their choice of three.
Why Learn to Present?
A great speaker stands out from the crowd, precisely
because most speakers are “average”.
Average speakers are a bit nervous and it shows. An average speaker devotes a lot of time
preparing for his talk but, because of an inefficient method, his time spent
does not directly translate into an effective presentation. The typical speaker will use PowerPoint as
the primary tool to develop his speech, and the resultant “slides” as the
focus: PowerPoint is the star of the show! Slide after slide of dense clutter,
using all the whiz-bang animations available, fills the screen. The speaker is relegated to the job of
“slideshow accessory”.
Oh, but it gets better!
The handout: a verbatim copy of the slides (three-to-a-page, of course),
swelling into a tree-slaughtering half-ream, too thick for a standard
stapler! Distributed at the beginning of
the talk, the sound of page-rustling fills the room with every pause. Hiding behind the lectern-fortress, the
speaker reads the slides aloud, while using a laser pointer to direct the
half-asleep audience to the words on the screen. Those who are not yet asleep soon will be,
once they finish silently reading the handout…at about triple the rate of the
speaker. Then they will sleep.
In contrast, a great speaker presents from memory. Knowing what to say, yet still sounding real,
live, and spontaneous. The occasional
reference to slides and other visual aids serves only to enhance what could
otherwise be easily delivered without them.
In seemingly automatic synchrony, graphics, instead of words, appear on
the screen, clarifying the main points. Very
smooth! Each audience member forgets he
is part of a crowd: the speaker is speaking to them.
Energy.
Live. Dynamic. Even a bit funny. A few surprises pop up, here and there, to
keep the event lively. The entire speech
progresses with a sense of direction and purpose. Which speaker do you want to
be? Great speakers are respected as
“experts”, superior to others with similar knowledge or credentials. By opening up doors, you will get invited to
conferences, network with other leaders, and quickly establish your
expertise…and leadership.
Understanding Why Public Speaking Is So Important
We are now
in a position to set valid points carried over from the previous paragraph in
concrete:
LEADERSHIP.
Competent public speaking is a cornerstone of leadership. Motivating a group of people toward a desired
goal is an essential skill which sets apart great leaders from the crowd. Sooner or later, you will be faced with this
task. Being ready to pounce on that
opportunity can make a pivotal difference in your career. That’s right: one hour of your life can alter
its course! Do you want to be the
speaker that makes everyone yawn, daydream, roll their eyes, and goof off with
their seatmates? Or the one who commands
an audience, elicits head nods, trips the occasional burst of laughter, makes
the hour fly by, incites action, and becomes the new boss?
PERSUASION. The
art of influence is what makes great leaders stand out, and persuading a crowd
using the magic of words is the pinnacle of vocal achievement. And since it takes time and practice to be
comfortable with these skills, you must start developing these skills early…way
before the need arises. Begin to
cultivate the necessary skills long before you are called to the podium.
CHARACTER. By
mastering the art of public speaking, you will have an extra, secret tool at
your disposal: one that truly sets you apart.
You possess a magical knack for assembling plain data, ideas,
statistics, and opinions, and adding a layer of sparkle and creativity to truly
make it yours.
NO RULES. A
wonderful feature of being a speaker is the freedom of creative
expression. Your mandate may be to sell,
to motivate, or to inform, but how you do it is completely up to you: there are
no rules! Therein lies great freedom
which is arguably the most rewarding aspect of a speaker’s job. Let go!
Own it! Have fun! Make it yours! The more clever, creative, dynamic, funny,
and interesting you are, the more successful your speaking career will be. And here’s why:
ENTERTAIN. A
conference, a meeting, or a keynote is, by definition, a form of work for the
audience. Otherwise, it’s called
something else, such as a show, a concert, or a stand-up comedy. But, out of a boring table of data, a cryptic
financial report, a tedious workplace project, or a high-stakes business proposal,
you morph a day at work into entertainment.
That’s cheating! Work’s not
supposed to be…fun!
What a clever way to catapult your career! You see, people get paid to work. And when they are not working, they spend
their money on entertainment. And you
figured out a way to sneak in a little fun on the job. But don’t worry: you won’t offend anyone by
entertaining while you get the job done.
In fact, your phone will ring off the hook for repeat speaking
engagements: meeting organizers LOVE entertaining speakers, and will home in on
you like a smart bomb!
SELF CONFIDENCE. By speaking convincingly in public,
you'll see your self-confidence increase. You will overcome one of the most
prevalent fears in this part of the world as just shown (41%). Speaking well
regularly in public will make you comfortable with other people, even
strangers. In time, you will be able to hold your own in a room full of unknown
faces. It will add finesse to your daily verbal and non-verbal commn
skills. Using public speaking to get your message across is a great way to
humanize it, regardless of what that message may be!
CAREER BREAK.
Luck comes to those who are most prepared. Behind every great fairytale of success,
there is the real story of hard work. What
will your story be? You have made a
decision to cultivate skills as a speaker, and have already begun to study the
theory behind it. Over time, you will
practice this skill, embracing every opportunity to address an audience,
develop material, expand your skills, and constantly critique your
performance. Eventually, your comfort on
stage shows in your ability to relax, enjoy the moment in front of an audience and drive your leadership – and career – to new heights.
DURATION. Stephen D. Boyd, writing for ‘The Sideroad’
avers that audiences remain interested in speakers who get their points across
in a short period of time. Television and advances in mobile telephony as well
as the advent of gadgets that are palm-sized or a bit larger, like Apple’s
multi-application IPad have created an impatient society, where audiences
expect you to make your point simply and quickly, a fact noted by the eminent
feminist, Patricia Ward Brash. Today,
great speakers are noted for their brevity. Billy Graham speaks for just over
20 minutes. No Kennedy speech was more than 20-30 minutes. He wasted no words
and his delivery wasted no time. 12 Common consensus has it that a good speaker
starts to lose his audience around the 25-minute mark. An authoritative
personality slips in another five minutes, whereas a controversial or sexually-oriented subject allows the speaker to reach 40 minutes. All this is without
audience participation, of course, as that would drag the speech beyond its
remit and time catered for.
THE POWER OF THE PAUSE. In order that your audience really gets a chance to take in what you are saying, stop talking. Stop talking long enough for your audience to ingest the last thing you said, get a mental image of it and try and put it into a familiar context before moving on to the next thing you are going to say. Most experts believe that a slide that stays on screen for one minute remains in the back of the average listener’s mind for 4-5 minutes, till presented with another slide. Thus, the great presentation will have two slides in the introductory phase and between 4-5 slides for the presentation itself. The super presenter will have very few slides, never more than 6-7. He will always leave the slide on for a minute, taking time off to think ahead.
These are hardly all of the reasons that public
speaking is important. Given enough time and effort, you could probably make a
list that spans several typed pages. The point remains, though, that
public speaking IS an essential ingredient to a successful, empowered life. If
you can master the finer points of public speaking, there's a fairly good
chance you'll be able to tackle and master other opportunities and obstacles
that come your way. So, do whatever you can to prepare yourself to be a better
public speaker. Don't let yourself be like the majority of Americans who are
more afraid of giving a public address than they are of dying!
What Makes A Great Presentation?
There are
four ingredients in a presentation, as we’ll soon see. The most important
factor that controls the quality of the presentation is the speaker, the first
ingredient. You have to be an excellent public speaker with the ability to run
through your entire speech without once referring to your notes or what’s
projected on a slide. However, you must know what is written on each slide─ if
you are using them, which is advisable if only to create an interval and give
you both breathing space and time for reflection─ and when to project it for
maximum impact. Thus the second ingredient is the audience and the connection
between these two is the third ingredient, the subject matter and the message
it conveys.
A great
speaker seems confident: ‘in command’ of the situation. He/she is
likeable. The motivation is there for
everyone to see. And there seems to be an added layer of creativity to the
material. Rather than reading lists of
data, churning out a bunch of ideas, or grinding through a spreadsheet of
numbers, the speaker seems to be telling a story. The subject flows naturally
and logically, in a comfortable sequence.
Difficult concepts are portrayed succinctly. The speaker is ‘live’; there is palpable
energy or dynamism. Vibrant enthusiasm
brings the material to life, but the speaker doesn’t get carried away and
remains self-effacing. There is a
coherent theme and a subtly recurring core message. This adds credibility to the speaker’s image,
and it is this credibility that constitutes memory in the listener’s mind. In
the end, the message is a simple, clear, and memorable one.
You will
not be able to do this overnight. The ability to be live, responsive,
spontaneous and funny, are skills which come with time. You will pass through
and overcome stage fright. Everybody else has. It's only a matter of time and
experience. This same experience will teach you to spot what works in a
jiffy. You will learn how to cope with a
small conference room one day, and a large auditorium the next, each with its
own set of acoustics. Adjusting to the makeup of the audience, distraction
levels like a second conference room next to yours, with wrong people poking
their heads around the corner and even the time of day are all subtleties that you
will learn to harness with experience. A sense of ‘being in the moment’ will
come with time. Rather than feeling
constrained or on the spot, you will develop a loose, calm, relaxed sense of
control and enthusiasm that will resonate with your audience. Time is the best
teacher there ever was.
According
to Diane DiResta, an authority on Public Speaking and Presentations, “You can
get and retain the interest of your audience by your message and your value to
the marketplace through effective public speaking wherein your ‘Presentation
Skills’ are the most competitive weapon.” What is startling is the set of
statistics she speaks of: “If communication was to be considered 100% of your
message, your body language contributes 55%, your voice 38% and your words used
just 7%.” Does that alter your views about communication? You bet it does.
People will discount what they hear in order to believe what they see. That
holds good for you too, if you were up there presenting. People will discount
what you say for the same reason. Such is the power of observation. So how do
you get their attention and bring them along in your message? By strategically
being a listener and not speaker-centric!
Empathy is
a forgotten presentation skill. Empathy is the ability to understand the
thoughts and feelings of others, making us more successful in our personal
lives and careers because it is a binder connecting us with those around us. If
a speaker lacks empathy—that is, if he demonstrates a lack of understanding of
their view of the issues under discussion and their feelings—his audience will
disengage from him. One way to demonstrate empathy with an audience is to talk
about them. Make your content
listener-centric. First, show an understanding of their situation and then
introduce your product as the solution they seek.
For instance, if presenting a new product to a new
customer, first demonstrate that you are familiar with the difficulties of
their business. As you elaborate on your product you are progressively linking
its features and functions to your audience’s needs. Though you have shown how
good your product is, you have framed it around their experience. This may seem
manipulative, but it’s not: Empathy is not the same as sympathy. Sympathy
implies that you feel the same as the other person. By using empathy, you are more able to get
and hold their attention by making your ideas more relevant to their frame of
experience. If you are truly trying to help them, your skill is not
manipulative. It is caring and
constructive.
The event
is multimedia, but not for show. Audio,
video, photographs, and illustrations, are used to demonstrate and illustrate
ideas. The speaker has a complete
command of these aids, and they seem to follow the speaker in a natural,
flawless sequence. 15 The audience leaves the event feeling alive, refreshed,
energized, and entertained. They are
motivated and inspired. They leave with
a feeling of connection with the speaker as if they were spoken to directly
and intimately. They want to hear more from the speaker and learn more about
the speaker. The channel of communication is the fourth ingredient.
A great presentation triggers the desired behaviour in
the audience. Whether the speaker, or
meeting organizer, intends to generate sales, education, inspiration, or
entertainment, achieving those goals is the single most important purpose of
the speech. Speakers are assembled for
an express purpose, and the more successful you are at accomplishing the
meeting’s objectives, the more in demand you will be as a speaker.
INFORM: The audience is there to learn something. For whatever reason, YOU have been chosen as
the instructor. Herein lies a great
responsibility. But don’t sweat it. This booklet contains a few secrets which
will relieve the weight of this burden and allow you to focus on creating a
simple, memorable message.
CREATE: In developing your talk, you must allow yourself the
freedom to present the information in a novel way. Remember, the audience is there to SEE YOU
deliver the material. The purpose of a
live speech is NOT to “read aloud” what may already be written. Instead of reading what you or others have
already written, try to bring the topic to life.
How To Do It
So, you want to speak.
What will you speak about? Pick a topic which is at the intersection of
your EXPERTISE, your PASSION, and the AUDIENCE’S INTEREST. This is a guarantee for SUCCESS.
YOU ARE THE EXPERT: Whatever topic you choose, make
sure you combine solid broad-based knowledge with focused research in order
to have a defensible ‘expertise’ in the subject. This deep knowledge of the subject is
critical as a backdrop for your much simpler and concentrated talk: the intent
is not to tell the audience everything about the subject, or, for that matter,
everything you know. Instead, it gives
you the confidence necessary to display a certain sense of authority, as well
as prepares you for the plethora of possible questions which may be asked. Any hint that you are merely a ‘messenger’,
or your knowledge is shallow will be readily apparent to the audience, and will
swiftly destroy your credibility.
PASSION: You may know your material well, but it’s your
passion that will bring it to life. Not
only will your expertise be amplified by your enthusiasm, but your demeanour and
energy will reflect this excitement and dedication in many ways, some of them subtle
and not easily faked, and will impact the audience reaction, and ultimate
response, to your message.
AUDIENCE INTEREST: Who cares about what you know and
love? It should best be the
audience! What better combination of
ingredients than a devoted expert in front of an engrossed, friendly crowd. In fact, this is a speaker’s dream. A careful selection of material, customized
for specific listeners, is a critical step in composing a successful
speech.
YOU ARE THE FILTER.
You’ve spent years studying your choice topic, and are obsessed with
every detail. Now you have a big
presentation to do and have further tuned your knowledge, so your expertise is
irrefutable. Finally, you will have your
big break to show off your stuff in front of your colleagues, your boss, or an
assembly of ‘who’s who’ at a big conference.
Here’s a common pitfall: the impulse to tell it all. As a tribute to your favourite subject, you
assume that ‘expertise’ means ‘the ability to condense everything I know into a
45-minute production’.
This ‘leave nothing out’ thinking has doomed more talks
than dog-eaten notes, lost luggage, and laryngitis combined. In fact, you should leave most of it
out. The elegance of a clear, concise,
inspiring speech is what separates the exceptional orator from the good. Let your familiarity with the subject, your
enthusiasm for it and your resultant confidence give you the freedom to distill
the subject into a few clever, interesting ‘take home’ points. That is, break down the subject matter into a
few simple points, and THEN build your talk around them.
YOU ARE THE VOICE: BREAK DOWN FIRST, THEN BUILD. How many concepts will the typical person
remember the day after a talk by even the most skilled speaker? ONE.
That’s right. And only if you’re
lucky. So do yourself, your audience,
and the topic a favour: hand-pick a single, core message. Before you write a single word, pick ONE IDEA
that you will weave throughout the fabric of your speech: a recurrent theme
that is played, and re-played, in a variety of forms. Think of the whole purpose
of your speech as this: if polled the following day, every member of your
audience will give the exactly same response if asked, “Hey, what was the talk
about?” A unanimous response to that
question is arguably the single most valid indicator of an effective speaker.
CLARITY AND CONCISION.
Having a single core message is also a fantastic tool for crafting a
clear and concise speech. It helps as a
benchmark for every point you intend to add: Does it support my core
message? If the answer is ‘no’, leave it
out. That one little secret is the best
way to avoid feedback such as “The speaker seemed to ramble on and on”… “It was
interesting at times, but I didn’t understand the main point”
YOU ARE THE STORYTELLER: People like good stories. We seek them out: Books, movies, Broadway
shows, comedians, and even friends at a party love to relate stories to each
other. Stories are a natural way for
people to connect. Why? The human brain thinks in links and
associations. That is a long version of the term ‘stories’. A story contains a natural, pre-formatted,
timeline-oriented flow of information emanating from that giant repository that
is the brain. And as human creatures,
our brains are hard-wired to extract useful information in both inter and
intra-lobe pulses.
Hark back to our caveman days: a youngster learns to
hunt by watching his father sharpen a stone, lash it to a stick, stalk a deer,
make the kill, and prepare the meat. He
learns to hunt by inferring the essential information from a day in the woods:
a story. NOT by bullet points on a cave
wall:
- sharpen arrow
- assemble spear
- find deer
- kill deer
- butcher it for venison
Although an informed, experienced person may reduce his
knowledge to an essential list (ie: “bullets”), that list is not the most
efficient, nor interesting, way to teach those points. Instruction is delivered most effectively
within a context: deep in the woods, immersed in the hunt.
Make your points within a story. But don’t just tell the story: live it! That’s right: the hunter SEES the deer, HEARS
the leaves crackle, SMELLS the forest, FEELS the arrow, and TASTES the meat. Your audience will learn best if you BRING TO
LIFE your story. Pictures, props, video,
audio: anything you can do to animate your story will not merely entertain and
captivate your audience: it will enlighten them.
NO TELEMARKETERS!
CONNECT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE.
What’s more annoying than a dinnertime phone call from an unwanted
salesman robotically reading from a script?
And why do we despise this experience so much? We have trouble connecting with rigid, phoney,
disrespectful, flat people. We just
do. So your stage persona must embrace
the antithesis of everything we hate about telemarketers.
BE LIKEABLE.
Instead of a rigid script, an audience prefers a live voice, replete
with subtle imperfections, speaking to you, and responding naturally to questions
and interruptions. A fluid, unique
moment, devoted to you, the listener. A
person who respects you. In the amalgam
of business, what sells most is a good relationship, even leading to
friendliness. You must be a smiley face, enthusiastic, engaging and passionate
about your work, display excitement when talking about it because enthusiasm,
passion and excitement are contagious. They allow you to connect with others
and be considered a likeable person. THAT is the model of a well-received
speaker.
PERSUASION TECHNIQUES. Before getting down to preparing
your projection technique, you need to evaluate the personalities of the
decision-makers attending your presentation. No two people have the same
personality, making your task more difficult since people with different
personalities prefer different types of approaches if dealing with them. This
is equally applicable to the general staff, if any, in your audience, as they will
absorb your inputs as part of their learning curve and then anticipate
managerial directives issued by the decision-makers after the presentation. The
major issues are:
- Are they ‘extroverts’ who discuss the issues before reacting or ‘introverts’ who put their mind to work on the subject, derive a ‘best method’ and then react? Are they flexible and willing to accept changes, based on the thought processes of contemporaries? Or are they ‘thinkers’, who want hard facts with invariant values to evaluate cost-effectiveness?
- Are they ‘sensory’ in that they want issue-specific minutiae like Probability of Error and Standard Deviation values, or ‘intuitive’ and satisfied by a holistic picture? This is critical for the general staff, as they will turn selective at this point, absorb issues specifically relevant to them and tune out the rest. The more responsive will also position themselves in the section of the big picture that they feel applies to them.
- Are they welfare-oriented ‘feelers’ who take cognizance of people’s sentiments or are they men of action, ‘pushers’ who are perennially snapping their fingers once the go-ahead has been given? Or, are they ‘perceivers’, willing to keep their options open?
As a speaker, you may not know the personality of
everyone in your audience. In such a case, do your homework and get to know as
much as you can about these people, their habits and proclivities or any clue
to their psyche. Try and get to speak with them, allow them to do the bulk of
the talking and pay close attention to what they say and how they word their
sentences. Being aware of what type of people they are is a tremendous asset in
the formulation of your presentation. Intriguingly, your success as a speaker
depends greatly on your skill in identifying a person’s personality type, in
turn regulating your style of presentation.
Types of Personalities Amenable to Persuasion
As a
speaker, you need to focus on just two sets of personalities:
1. (S) Sensor
– (I) Intuitive
2. (T) Thinker
– (F) Feeler
This provides the max four combos, viz.,
S-T; I-T; S-F; I-F.
Thus, you will get four presentation strategies. For
the S-T grouping, present a step-by-step logical analysis and focus on the
evidence. For the I-T grouping, start with an overview and offer well-analyzed
practical options and logical alternatives. The S-F pairing is best approached
with details and elaboration on how these details will affect the people
involved. Focus on the relationship. Finally, on the I-F set, present the big
picture and demonstrate how your proposal will impact people’s lives, values
and feelings and help the other persons realize their vision.
An audience will be much more receptive to the message
of a speaker they like. Major axiom: if
you alienate your audience, you sink your message. Plain and simple. On the contrary, if they like you, they will
like your message: simple human psychology at work. So how do we stand in front of a roomful of
strangers and win ‘em over? We will look
at the major components of attractiveness.
But first, let’s examine sure-fire ways to annoy your audience.
MASTER LIST OF WAYS TO ANNOY YOUR AUDIENCE:
- Waste their time. Being an unprepared speaker will annoy your audience. Their time is valuable. Forced to sit and keep quiet in your presence, they will resent having to listen to a poorly-prepared hour of junk. First, they will resent you. Then they will resent your message.
- Brag about yourself. Your resume is impressive: You’ve published 214 peer-reviewed articles, are the Chairman of 11 worldwide committees, sat at the President’s roundtable on Important Policy, appeared on national TV, wrote six books, and won the Big Cheese award at the Ricotta County Fair. Guess what? Nobody cares. Actually, they do care: that’s probably what got you invited to speak in the first place. And your introduction by the meeting host will laud your accomplishments just fine. Good. Let them do it. That’s their job. Not yours. I must reiterate that you are liked best when you are self-effacing and can narrate comical situations where you are the butt of the story. Warning: Limit your story to 60 seconds max!
- Boast that your company is no 1 in your area. The sceptic will interpret that statement that means that as a customer, you mean much less to your company than to your competitors. “Last year we saw profits increase by 25%.” Again, it could mean that we took everybody else's money; this year we are after yours.
- Brag about your resume. Your job is to seem approachable, and by bragging about your resume, you will nix any hope of people feeling connected to you. As humans, we are naturally intimidated by those of higher status. Your job as a speaker, then, is to seem like a regular person: match your apparent status to theirs.
- Perceived inequality of status. Resembling a bum off the street will destroy your credibility, but a lofty and omnipotent image will have the same destructive effect on your ability to communicate. Again, this is basic human psychology at work: people feel most comfortable listening to someone they perceive as being of equal status. Equal: neither higher nor lower. If the audience can identify with your qualities and status, they will automatically feel a warm, human connection. By constantly reminding them of your superiority, you lose any chance of building this connection. If the audience doesn’t connect with you, will they NOT connect with your message.
- Insult their intelligence. There are two situations where it is perfectly appropriate for a speaker to read legible words directly off a projection screen: in a roomful of 1) young children, or 2) illiterate adults. Amazingly, this is one of the most common speaking blunders. Nothing screams ‘amateur speaker’ louder than this tactic, yet this same theme is played daily in boardrooms worldwide. Please, if you choose to do this, don’t tell anyone you read this book! Don’t mix this up with the use of a laser pointer. If you have made a telling point and then the slide comes on, read the slide silently to yourself and when you reach the point that you want to stress, point the laser beam at it and say, “Yes, there it is.” Nothing else is required. At times, you may have to explain line drawings or a graph or a chart. Use the laser pointer freely to make your point. But make sure you coordinate the two; what you are explaining and which issue the laser is pointing at! You may need to keep the slide on for some time, as you explain a subject in detail. Given the fact that the audience prefers visual to audio, use the pointer to remind the listeners where you are on the slide.
MAJOR COMPONENTS OF SPEAKER ATTRACTIVENESS
BE HUMAN. Instead
of the robot telemarketer, be a live person.
With all the imperfections that make up a live moment, your audience
will come to like you, merely by sharing space with another creature like
themselves. It’s OK, even preferable, to
make an occasional error: that’s an opportunity to laugh at yourself. By allowing your audience to see you as a
normal, fallible creature, you create the human bond which opens them up to
your message. At the risk of being repetitive, I must reiterate that being
self-effacing is a virtue, not a defect.
BE RESPECTFUL.
The meeting is not about the speaker: it’s about the audience. Without them, you are nothing but an animated
weirdo carrying on in a big, empty room.
Respecting an audience means acknowledging the valuable time spent in
your presence. This is best accomplished
by being well-prepared, and by using quality audio/visual materials. A rambling talk with bad slides is
disrespectful to your audience.
BE APPROACHABLE.
This is the human connection idea: let the audience see you in the same
social category as they are. This sense
of harmony is crucial. But wait: the
host just applauded my accomplishments as he read my introduction. Oh no!
I’m doomed. There’s no turning
back from ‘Superman’ status now.
Antidote: self-deprecating humour.
Knock yourself down a few rungs by laughing at yourself. Collect about
20 jokes on the ‘dumb Polack’. That’s easy. Now substitute that Polack with
yourself. This is a great idea because no ‘dumb Polack’ joke lasts the full 60
seconds!
BE PERSONAL.
This means customizing your interaction.
Learn as much as possible about your audience, the conference agenda,
the context of your talk, and your host.
Your efforts will pay off in this area: many professional speakers fail
to adequately adapt their content to the specific event. Even in the hands of a seasoned speaker, a
generic talk appears ‘canned’. By
knowing a few basics about your audience, the subtle hints within your talk
will come across as a well-prepared delivery.
BE FUNNY. People
love to laugh. Figure out ways to make
it happen. Tell a funny story,
especially one in which the object of the joke is you. Show a cute or humorous photo or
cartoon. Sprinkle a few witty lines or
amusing observations here and there.
When people are laughing, they are having a good time. If they are enjoying themselves, they will
enjoy your message. Remember this one-liner if perchance you slip or stumble
and fall. Stand up, dust yourself and look at the audience as you say, “At
least I fell into good company.”
MOVE AROUND. I don’t mean perambulate. I mean: Make
every member in the audience refocus on you. This keeps them alert and they
stay with you, instead of drifting off into dreamland. Use your fingers, hands
and face to good effect. Do not point at anyone. That’s bad manners, apart from
making that person squirm in his/her seat. Only school teachers and ball-game
coaches are allowed to use their fingers. Shift a couple of steps at a time and
with each shift, identify who is focusing on you intently. These will be people
who you can make and keep eye contact with. Remember to also move forwards or
backwards a step or two as you move about. This means you are always moving
diagonally, forcing the audience to refocus in two planes. A lateral mover
resembles a crab, and the distant members in the audience do not really need to
refocus. In twenty-five minutes, traverse the entire width of your walking
space at least twice. Left to centre-centre to right, right to centre, centre
to left. Also, when you say-as indeed you must-that you have handouts for
everybody, make sure you are, in general, travelling towards the podium. As you
utter the word ‘handout’, reach behind the podium and pull out a folder,
display it and replace it. Now use this one-liner: “What do you call a Filipino
contortionist? (5-second pause). A Manila Folder.”
Planning The Delivery
You have thought in advance about your speech and you
are confident that everything is in the bag. But there are some issues that
tend to get left out. Where you deliver your presentation is critical. It must
enhance and not militate against your presentation. Take a trip to the
location, the venue where your speech you will be speaking. Determine ahead of
time what the facilities are like. This way you can plan your delivery or make
necessary adjustments, if any. Meet the people involved in the logistics of
your presentation. Ask if every seat has a mike. A sidelight? Will they be
providing notepads and pencils? Be flexible with the meeting planners, as this
is their job. They do this all the time and have a big say behind the
scenes. Standing out as a friendly,
adaptable speaker will get you rich dividends in the form of a smooth session,
logistically speaking.
Have you met your superiors? At times, your boss may
want you to put a particular point across. If it jells with your story, go
ahead and do it. If it doesn’t, get the audience involved. Flash that issue on
the screen, discuss it dispassionately and ask, “What do you think about this
point?” You will get a pro-boss response very quickly, much faster than you
expect. Latch on to this person and amplify the point, bringing it into what
you think is neutral territory. This is your escape route; use it wisely. If
too many people want to join in, smile and defer it to the post-coffee-break
session. And say so.
Look for poor internal acoustics, temperature control,
ventilation, lighting, obstructed views, soundproofing from external noise, the smell of fresh paint or any other irritants. Will you need room fresheners? The
next step is to test stuff. That can only be done on the day of the ‘big
event’. Arrive early and test your slides, including screen format and focus,
volume of audio, pointer, remote controls and anything else you plan to use.
Use the room freshener early and check that notepads and pencils are laid out
correctly.
To be able to devote undivided attention to a
presentation, the audience must be comfortable. If they are not, then their
mind will keep wandering into the zone of discomfort. If someone is feeling
cold or hot or has his bladder full, his priorities change and you lose a
member of your audience. As the speaker, you and your audience must be on the
same page every moment of the program. You can’t afford to give them any reason
to think of anything but your message. Poor speakers launch members of their
audiences into journeys of fantasy, from which they cannot really return.
Points to Consider
You have
to make an impact with your delivery.
- As stated earlier, start with an attention-getter.
- Then, be vocal and grip your audience with riveting storytelling, using all available resources (sing, juggle, play the bassoon!).
- Use vivid imagery, analogies/metaphors, and if you can, surprises.
- Move around in the manner suggested.
- Use props if required, as part of your visual aids, along with slides.
- Ask a rhetorical question or two. Though audience activity adds interest to the goings-on, limit it to the minimum. It’s your day and you don’t want a raconteur stealing your show.
- Balance theory with practice.
- Balance stories with logic.
Don’t be shy of using gestures and dabs of humor.
Mimic activities, as long as you don’t have to try and emulate Bob Beamon or
Sergei Bubka. We always think we are
more animated than we really are. If you
gesture or demonstrate, don't be hesitant....be deliberate. Hesitant attempts
always look weak and fear of failure leads to failure!
Always retain eye contact. Eye contact is a non-verbal ability to communicate. According to Jan Castagnaro, an old Yiddish proverb says16, "The eyes are the mirror of the soul", and they are. Eyes can captivate an audience and express what words may not be able to deliver. A word is a word, but a word expressed upon the sincerity of the eyes will allow the words spoken to reach the minds of those they are spoken to. This is why eye contact is important. Americans believe eye contact conveys the truth and are credited with coining the phrase, “Look me in the eye.” JD Jefferys makes exceptions of Presidents of the United States.
Your Slides
Slides are keystones of your presentation. They act as
indirect guides to the direction you want to take, and are cues, both to the
audience and you as to what’s next. You actually do not need slides for your
talk. You can rattle it off in your sleep. But they are needed by your audience.
And they’ll drift away if there is just a voice in the background, no matter
how good the modulation. Make each slide unique; it’s your presentation, not MS
PowerPoint. Spend the extra time, and possibly a little cash if you don’t
know Photoshop or Coreldraw, on a visually appealing look consistent with your
image. Of the many fonts suggested for a slide, I recommend Sans Serif in a
large size. Use the fewest words to remain decipherable (target: 5 or less) and
keep your bullet points down to three, with no or minimal use of animation. The ideal setting is muted lights, preferably at 66-75% luminosity, depending on
whether the room has dark drapes (dark drapes need higher luminosity so that
the audience won’t get sleepy). This means a light background with dark letters
will work best.
A darkroom presentation means that a dark background
with light letters works best. Drapes absorb sound, so speak louder. Moreover,
embedded photos/artwork/video always looks more professional than an
interruption in the slides to run a separate program….learn how to do it.
Remember to carry a dozen-odd CDs of your presentation, just in case people ask
you for a copy.
A Very Important point is that you must expect quite a
few questions. Anticipate the type of questions and answer them on pre-prepared
slides. Have a list of slides at hand and just call for that number. This
single tip can mean the difference between a massively pro result for you, when
compared with other good presenters. You have displayed the forethought to surge
ahead of your audience and be proactive! Very few speakers know this-now you
are one of those.
Your Handouts
Remember, your handout is a durable version of your
presence. It is a reinforcement of your
time spent with your audience, and will last months or years beyond your
speaking gig. Instead of that time spent
at the bottom of a junk drawer or, more commonly, in the next day’s load of
trash, why not harness this excellent opportunity to allow your handout to
trumpet volumes about you, your expertise, and your professionalism?
Your handout can and should:
1) Serve as a lasting reminder of your content, and carry much more depth than a conference will allow: this will reinforce your
expertise.
2) Reach people who were not able to attend your
conference, thus expanding the reach of your message.
3) Impart a polished, respectable image, thus enhancing
your image as a professional. If someone inquires the next day “Hey, I didn’t
make it to the talk, do you have the handout?”…what do you want to put in their
hands?
Handout Considerations
If background material is necessary for an effective
conference (i.e., background scientific articles, financial data), distribute
it a couple of days in advance. These are rare occasions and obviously carry
the risk of distraction if part of the audience shows up at the conference with
the material. But your presentation will be so engrossing that people who have
brought the handout along will, perforce, use it after the coffee break.
If a take-home package is desired, distribute it in
the break or after your talk.
Although practically universal, the habit of
distributing a handout immediately before your talk almost GUARANTEES a
distracted crowd. What do you think they
are going to do?...that’s right…they will READ YOUR HANDOUT instead of
listening to you!
Ensure that you are distributing something worth
reading and keeping and not garbage! It projects your image WAY beyond the
conference room. How do you want to be
remembered?
Handouts made from within PowerPoint are a dead
giveaway of incompetence. They scream ‘amateur’ from the rooftops and insult
your audience by suggesting that your slides are all they need to know! Also, good slides are lousy as a handout,
since they should be almost wordless, and thus useless as a stand-alone
printout.
-Writing up a brief outline as a handout is not
advisable. Although your dense outline
or speaker notes make sense to you, a reader will have a hard time using that
information. Further, it suggests that
your handout is an afterthought and that you do not value the handout as a
worthwhile focus. Remember, your effort
spent on creating a handout is both a reflection of your respect for the
content of your message, as well as your respect for your audience.
Practice Tips
-Practice in front of a video camera. This helps you SEE yourself delivering the
speech. Break untoward habits of fidgeting, pacing, vocal filler (um, ah’s), and mannerisms.
-Practicing in front of a mirror is not advisable. This will make you look phoney. Why? Natural acting is a skill we all possess
within…we DISPLAY our emotions automatically via facial expressions, vocal
inflexions, body language, etc. As you
see yourself in a mirror, you correct that fault all right. But you are bound
to repeat that fault when live. Instead, learn to let the natural emotions
flow.
-Memorize the essence of the speech, NOT the verbatim
transcript. Practice in chunks. Keep an outline handy with keywords to jog
your memory in case you get lost.
-Be able to speak WITHOUT slides.
-You will perform just like you practice. If you want to seem natural on a stage, try
to practice there.
-Just before you appear on stage, immerse yourself in a
ritual. Imagine a relaxed, cherished,
funny moment or idea. This will help you
appear loose, funny, and animated IMMEDIATELY.
If you hit the ground loose and run, your talk will get off to a
great start. Your audience will feel
your energy and relaxation…that’s what they want!
What to Avoid at All Costs
NEVER read your slides aloud.
NEVER fail to test equipment that will be used during
or after your presentation.
NEVER use ClipArt.
NEVER give the impression that your audience is beneath
you.
NEVER even THINK of your talk as a ‘slideshow’ or
PowerPoint.
NEVER stand behind the podium. You then hide half your
body behind an unassailable fortress.
NEVER use technical jargon unless every audience member
knows what it means. You will piss
people off.
NEVER build a speech around your slides. Slides come later.
NEVER put your hands in your pockets.
NEVER push out garbage as your handout.
NEVER make ‘handouts’ from within PowerPoint.
NEVER write up a brief outline as a handout.
NEVER practice in front of a mirror.
What to Anticipate
Murphy’s Law: If something can go wrong, it will. The unexpected is guaranteed to happen. An expert presenter takes them in his stride and rolls with these events. In time, you will develop a sense of humour that will allow you to pull out an uproarious quip.
