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‘Brilliant tips and strategies for not only developing an effective presentation but also how to successfully deliver a message to an audience. Every professional should read this no matter what stage of their career they’re at.’
‘Good presenters work hard to make presenting look easy. The Presentation Book is their secret.’ Denise Fay, founder and MD, Achieve Marketing, award-winning author, TEDx speaker
Tiffany Poeppelman, organisational psychologist, speaker, business consultant
THE PRESENTATION BOOK
Have you ever watched a TED talk and wondered what their secret is, or a business leader influence with impact and wished you could emulate it? Now you can! The second edition of this #1 bestseller will show you the presentation techniques and insider secrets used by expert speakers globally. Having presented to over three million people for MTV and the BBC, Emma Ledden shares the method, mindset and mastery she has learned to empower you to present like a pro. Plan and prepare properly – learn how to inform, inspire and entertain through a proven three-step visual approach. Profile your audience – quickly understand what your audience needs and how to banish your nerves. Shape your message – transform your raw data into three cleverly crafted points.
second edition
Design your slides – get the right visuals in the right place, at the right time.
Make your next presentation the best you’ve ever done.
Cover images © Shutterstock.com and coyoteuss/Shutterstock.com
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THE
PRESENTATION BOOK HOW TO CREATE IT, SHAPE IT AND DELIVER IT! second edition
Emma Ledden 25/11/2016 10:02
Praise for The Presentation Book ‘A succinctly written book on the dos and don’ts of presenting. Detailed and informative, this book not only teaches you the best skills to have in your presenting tool-belt, but also teaches you the importance of a good presentation in the modern world. A must-have for anyone entering or already part of the work-place!’ Claire Fox, Freelance writer ‘This book isn’t just for presentation beginners! It has very valuable insights on how to get an audience spellbound and engaged with your presentation. This is a must-have for beginners and experts alike. If you like the stage, this book will make your audience like you on stage. If you have any degree of stage fright, this book will give you the confidence to be the presenter you always wanted to be.’ Frank Hattann, The Sales Institute of Ireland, Digital Sales Advisory Council Member ’Not surprisingly, Emma has delivered the best book on presentation skills I have ever come across. Having experienced her training course first hand, and immediate success in selling consulting work shortly after, I can say with full confidence that she is exceptional at what she does. The Presentation Book provides compelling, practical and pithy advice that is easy to take in and apply. It will be my go-to resource for presentations and communications in general from now on.’ Robert Freese, Director, Talent and Organisation Development, First Data Corporation ‘The Presentation Book exemplifies what Emma does best – c ommunicate the complex clearly, concisely and with great consideration for her audience. This is a truly insightful and practical book that will undoubtedly inspire many in the delivery of more impactful and influential communications.’ Johanna Fullerton, business psychologist and Director, SEVEN, Psychology at Work
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’Finally, there is a book that can guide the most inexperienced presenter to deliver a top class presentation, as well as help the more experienced presenter figure out how to get better results from the presentations they deliver. Full of simple yet incredibly effective models that will help shape and create powerful presentations, as well as practical advice on delivering compelling messages that connect with the audience and create the right impression.’ Mary O’Reilly, Senior Manager, Talent, Development and Learning, Deloitte & Touche ‘The Presentation Book is a really practical guide for anyone who is involved in presenting. It is very engaging and an easy read with lots of useful reallife examples and templates for guidance. This book will support those new to presenting through the preparation process and encourage the more experienced presenter to improve and refine their approach.’ Elaine McGleenan, Director, Learning and Organisational Development, KPMG
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The Presentation Book
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At Pearson, we have a simple mission: to help people make more of their lives through learning. We combine innovative learning technology with trusted content and educational expertise to provide engaging and effective learning experiences that serve people wherever and whenever they are learning. From classroom to boardroom, our curriculum materials, digital learning tools and testing programmes help to educate millions of people worldwide – more than any other private enterprise. Every day our work helps learning flourish, and wherever learning flourishes, so do people. To learn more, please visit us at www.pearson.com/uk
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The Presentation Book How to create it, shape it and deliver it! Second edition Emma Ledden
Harlow, England • London • New York • Boston • San Francisco • Toronto • Sydney Dubai • Singapore • Hong Kong • Tokyo • Seoul • Taipei • New Delhi Cape Town • São Paulo • Mexico City • Madrid • Amsterdam • Munich • Paris • Milan
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PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED Edinburgh Gate Harlow CM20 2JE United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1279 623623 Web: www.pearson.com/uk First published 2013 (print and electronic) Second edition published 2017 (print and electronic) © Emma Ledden 2013, 2017 (print and electronic) The right of Emma Ledden to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The print publication is protected by copyright. Prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, distribution or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, permission should be obtained from the publisher or, where applicable, a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom should be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Barnard’s Inn, 86 Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1EN. The ePublication is protected by copyright and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased, or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and the publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. The use of any trademark in this text does not vest in the author or publisher any trademark ownership rights in such trademarks, nor does the use of such trademarks imply any affiliation with or endorsement of this book by such owners. Pearson Education is not responsible for the content of third-party internet sites. ISBN:
978-1-292-17198-2 (print) 978-1-292-17199-9 (PDF) 978-1-292-17200-2 (ePub)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for the print edition is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ledden, Emma. Title: The presentation book : How to create it, shape it and deliver it!/ Emma Ledden. Description: 2 Edition. | New York : Pearson Education, [2016] | Revised edition of the author’s The presentation book, 2013. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016044171 (print) | LCCN 2016048941 (ebook) | ISBN 9781292171982 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781292172002 Subjects: LCSH: Business presentations. Classification: LCC HF5718.22 .L424 2016 (print) | LCC HF5718.22 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/52--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016044171 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 Cover designed by redeyoff design.com Cover images © Shutterstock.com and coyoteuss/Shutterstock.com Print edition typeset in 9.5/13 and Mundo Sans Pro by SPi Global Printed by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport
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CONTENTS
About the author ix Acknowledgements xi Why buy this book? xiii
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
The presentation that tried to save lives The way we are presenting is not working 9
Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Presentation 101 17 The six golden rules of Audience Focused Presenting 27
Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
The communication factor 51 The Audience Focused Presenting way 61 Delivering a great performance 89 Presenting virtually 115 Become a world class presenter 125 Move the needle on your presentation skills 137
1
Conclusion 147 Two final tip sheets 149 Index 153
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emma is an international bestselling author, speaker and communication and learning specialist. During her career to date she has been an MTV VJ, BBC TV presenter, radio host, business woman and author. Emma began her career presenting for Irelands National broadcaster producing and presenting her own slot for two and a half years. Following this, Emma Source: LÍosa McNamara – Anchorbird was chosen from over 2,000 hopefuls to become a VJ for MTV UK. This involved being in front of a television camera five days a week. Here, she presented The Dancefloor Chart Show, Select, Weekend Edition and MTV News. Within six months Emma landed another very high-profile television position. She was chosen to present BBC’s flagship program Live and Kicking. During this time Emma fronted major ad campaigns including Pepsi and Lee Jeans as well as gracing the front covers and pages of international magazines including Maxim, Ministry, Loaded, Heat, FHM and Company. Over the past ten years, after making the move from Media into B usiness, Emma developed a unique three-step approach to business communication called Audience Focused Presenting based on her exceptional experience.
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About the author
This globally recognised approach is based on the professional presentation secrets Emma learned while working as a television presenter for MTV and the BBC. This approach was first published in The Presentation Book in September 2013 and The Communication Book in September 2014. Today, Emma is a leading international communication and learning specialist.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For my wonderful Granddad Richard Mc Mahon You are loved beyond words and missed beyond measure
Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you to Eloise Cook at Pearson. Your support, advice, guidance and positivity have been invaluable. I am so happy we got to do this second edition together. To the whole Pearson team for all your work and partnership. Dr. Priyadharshini Dhanagopal, Melanie Carter, Sarah Davies and Jessica Houlihan, you have made it all so easy. I feel very lucky to have worked with you all. Thank you. Also a very special thank you to the amazing designer Patricia Fox who designed all the graphics for this book. You were a dream to work with. To my lovely mum for always being my no 1 fan. To Michael, there aren’t enough words to express my love for you. Thank you for letting me be The Chief. To my granny Una. You are an inspiration and I am so proud of you. And to the rest of my family for all your love and encouragement. I feel very blessed to have you all. Finally, to the amazing people I work with every day that are brave enough to put themselves out there and work to be better presenters. This book would not be possible without you. Thank you.
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Acknowledgements
Publisher’s acknowledgements We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material: Author photo on p ix by LÍosa McNamara – Anchorbird; all other illustrations created by Trish Fox.
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WHY BUY THIS BOOK?
In business today, very little time is available to prepare for a presentation. It’s real. The call to present with one hour’s notice. Being told to use other people’s slides, sometimes more than one person. Your workload being so heavy it’s impossible to prepare for a presentation on top of it. Add to this the human factor; we procrastinate with the time we do have. We begin to panic when we have time to think about our presentation and we go into self-protection mode. This self-focus causes us to think only of our own agenda, forgetting we have an audience we need to communicate to, persuade and influence. Finally, and I believe worst of all, when we overcome all these hurdles and we start preparing, we have only an outdated presentation approach to help us. We don’t know any other way but to open a laptop and start writing slides. We are not equipped with a methodology and framework to help simplify our message and have impact. A methodology and framework to take our expertise, tailor it, shape it and edit it. A framework to talk about what we do in an impactful and meaningful way to our audience, to talk about what the audience cares about at the right time, in the right way. And it doesn’t end there. There is one final layer to all this. The world has changed. We now live in a digital age. Not only do we have to present, we have to present globally, virtually and with cultural intelligence. We have to present to people in different countries and times zones, thousands of miles away, who we cannot necessarily see and persuade them to engage with us.
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WHY BUY THIS BOOK?
These are the real challenges we all face every day and they create real problems for individuals and businesses such as: 1. Presenters who are overwhelmed with information 2. Audiences who need to be re-educated multiple times 3. Bottom line impacts such as wasted time and money/longer sales cycles/misunderstandings and damaged reputations The approach of using slides alone to prepare a presentation is simply not good enough anymore. It doesn’t work. I want to offer you a new and different presentation approach. This approach is based on the professional presentation secrets I learned while I worked as a television presenter for MTV and the BBC. In these roles I presented to over 3 million people at any one time and my sole purpose was to keep them engaged. I want to share with you the approach I took to do this. The approach is called Audience Focused Presenting.
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
O
n 16 January 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia was launched from the Kennedy Space Center. There were seven astronauts on board.
Eighty-two seconds after the shuttle launched, an incident occurred. What happened was a piece of debris from the shuttle broke off during the launch and hit the wing. This type of incident is called a foam strike. Foam strikes are very common and happen during nearly all shuttle launches; however, in the case of the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia the engineers at NASA, having watched a playback of the launch, believed this foam strike was out of the ordinary. The engineers feared the foam strike that occurred during this launch was bigger and faster than any other they had seen before and had, as a result, caused damage to the shuttle’s wing and heat shield. The shuttle was now in space.
The problem The difficulty, however, was the engineers in NASA were not 100 percent sure the shuttle was undermined because foam strikes occur all the time without damage. What they needed was a photograph of the shuttle in space taken with high-resolution spy cameras to see if there was indeed damage to the wing as they suspected. Now, getting a satellite photograph of this nature is expensive business and must be justified to senior management in NASA. Why was this foam strike different from any other that had occurred in the past? This was the question NASA management needed an answer to. In the hope of getting the approval for the photograph, the engineers, based on 3 reports, prepared a presentation with a total of 28 PowerPoint slides to present. The engineers’ approach to preparing this PowerPoint presentation was a typical Slide-Based Approach. Using the PowerPoint slides as a structuring tool and a presentation aid: began the presentation with a general introduction to foam strikes • They and their history.
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instances when foam strikes did not cause damage.
• Then, at the very end, they delivered the key message. This approach of moving from general information about a topic through detail and data to get to a concluding key point is called deductive reasoning. Simply put this means building up to your strongest point instead of leading with it.
THE PRESENTATION THAT TRIED TO SAVE LIVES
then went into detail on all the past foam strikes that had occurred • They and had been tested for. Ensuring to cover all the detail, including many
This approach was also very evident in their slides. The bullet points moved from large, general, more optimistic bullet points to concluding, smaller, lower-level bullet points mentioning doubts and uncertainties. I would like to show you what I mean.
The slide Below is the final slide the engineers presented to NASA. This is the slide that tried to save lives.
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
Do you have any idea what the key message is here? Because they had used deductive reasoning and a slide-based approach when preparing this 28-slide presentation, the engineers placed the key message as a fourth-level sub-bullet in the PowerPoint on the last slide. The key message the engineers wanted to get across was – ‘Flight condition is significantly outside of test database’.
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The decision Let me remind you what the purpose of this presentation was. The engineers believed (they feared) seven astronauts were in space in a shuttle with a damaged wing. They wanted a satellite photograph to verify this. They needed budget sign off from NASA management for the photograph. They didn’t get it. The relevant NASA managers attended the presentation given by the engineers and made a decision. They decided the Space Shuttle Columbia was safe and there was no need for a photograph.
THE PRESENTATION THAT TRIED TO SAVE LIVES
What they were trying to communicate was that this foam strike was outside of anything they had seen or tested for in the history of NASA.
On 1 February 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry to earth and all seven astronauts died. The foam strike that occurred during the launch created a hole in the wing, resulting in the disintegration of the shuttle, exactly as the engineers had suspected all along.
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
The investigation After this terrible accident the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) was set up to investigate how this tragedy could have occurred. As you would suspect this was a very detailed investigation and blame was found in many places, one being the culture of NASA (this is a whole other book) and the other being the communication. Specifically, the CAIB found fault with the 28-slide PowerPoint presentation the engineers prepared and delivered to the management in NASA. The CAIB concluded that despite an abundance of data, the crucial message, that the shuttle was in imminent danger, was completely lost. They determined that: Key information was so buried and condensed in the rigid format of the PowerPoint slide that it was rendered useless.
They also criticised the use of PowerPoint as a preparation tool saying it was:
• An obstacle to internal communication • Had a dampening effect on clear thought and expression.
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“It is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realise that it addresses a life-threatening situation,” The Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded, citing E dwards Tufte’s work.
The conclusion
THE PRESENTATION THAT TRIED TO SAVE LIVES
And had the uncertainties been more clearly expressed, the need to inspect the wing may have been more obvious.
The crucial message of the presentation was completely lost because of a presentation structure that does not account for how we listen and engage as human beings. The presentation the engineers delivered:
• Was complex, when it should have been clear and concise • Demonstrated data, when it should have been delivering key messages overloaded with facts and statistics giving different perspectives, • Was when it should have been organised by giving only critical detail at the early stages of the presentation The truth is the engineers struggled to do what we are all struggling to do – They struggled to simplify their message. And they are not alone. The need to make the complex understandable is the biggest challenge all presenters face today. Most business people today are: product/technical training to equip them to be experts but no • Given methodology to take this knowledge and talk about what they do in an impactful and meaningful way to their audience
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
multiple slides from multiple sources but no technique that • Given allows them to pick out the critical messages about their concepts or products but are not necessarily • Talking equipped with the ability to relate these to the audience and talk about real business problems or needs This book aims to change that. For more details on the CAIB report and Edward Tufte’s finding please visit www.edwardtufte.com
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
M
icrosoft estimates that there are 500 million PowerPoint users in the world, with an estimated 30 million presentations created daily. Right now as you read this there are 1 million PowerPoint presentations being delivered somewhere in the world. I am sure there are also many thousands more using other presentation software too.
Slide Focused Presenting Many presenters use slides as a preparation tool to help them organise their thoughts. They look to PowerPoint to give them structure in a presentation. I call this approach to presentations Slide Focused Presenting. It typically follows this approach: slides are prepared first: In preparing their presentation, most • The presenters open their laptop and start typing data onto their slides, believing this is the only step in the process of preparing a presentation. The truth is this is fundamentally destroying your chance of being an effective presenter before you have even begun. is no difference between the handout and the slides: Present• There ers will regularly prepare a handout which they will then use as their slides and also as their notes. In reality a handout, a visual aid (slides) and your notes have three completely different purposes and all need to be prepared separately. a written document: With a Slide Focused Approach the • Presenting presenter has effectively written data onto slides. Very often this is every single word they are going to speak in case they lose their way. Plus the slide is also doubling up as the handout so it needs all the information. The presenter is now left with no option but to:
• Deliver a whole heap of information with no clear messages 10
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THE WAY WE ARE PRESENTING IS NOT WORKING
a structure dictated to them by their slides rather than their • Follow own natural way of thinking • Speak the written word
The reality is the majority of these Slide Focused Presentations leave their audience feeling confused, frustrated or jaded. What is even crazier is this out-of-date approach turns what could be a great presentation into an average one. And worse still, turns what could be a very engaging speaker into, at best, a mediocre one. Slide Focused Presenting doesn’t work because this modern world we live in demands so much more of us and our presentations.
The real world As I stated at the beginning of this book, in business today, very little time is available to prepare for a presentation. It’s real. The call to present with one hour’s notice. Being told to use other people’s slides, sometimes more than one person. Your workload being so heavy, it’s impossible to prepare for a presentation on top of it. Add to this the human factor, we procrastinate with the time we do have. We begin to panic when we have time to think about our presentation and we go into self-protection mode. This self-focus causes us to think only of
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
our own agenda, forgetting we have an audience we need to communicate to, persuade and influence. Finally and I believe worst of all, when we overcome all these hurdles and we start preparing, we have only an outdated presentation approach to help us. We don’t know any other way but to open a laptop and start writing slides. We are not equipped with a methodology and framework to help simplify our message and have impact. A methodology and framework to take our expertise, tailor it, shape it and edit it. A framework to talk about what we do in an impactful and meaningful way to our audience, to talk about what the audience cares about at the right time, in the right way. And it doesn’t end there. There is one final layer to all this. The world has changed. We now live in a digital age. Not only do we have to present, we have to present globally, virtually and with cultural intelligence. We have to present to people in different countries and times zones, thousands of miles away, who we cannot necessarily see and get them to engage with us. These are the real challenges we all face every day and they create real problems for individuals and businesses such as: 1. Presenters who are overwhelmed with information 2. Audiences who need to be re-educated multiple times 3. Bottom line impacts such as wasted time and money/longer sales cycles/misunderstandings and damaged reputations The approach of using slides alone to prepare a presentation is simply not good enough anymore. It doesn’t work. I want to offer you a new and different presentation approach. This approach is based on the professional presentation secrets I learned while I worked as a television presenter for MTV and the BBC. In these roles I presented to over 3 million people at any one time and my sole purpose was to keep them engaged. I want to share with you the approach I took to do this. The approach is called – Audience Focused Presenting or AFP for short.
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Audience Focused Presenting is a very simple three-step methodology you can use to prepare any presentation.
THE WAY WE ARE PRESENTING IS NOT WORKING
Audience Focused Presenting
Step 1 – Profile the audience – Truly valuing the audience and investing in what they need from you as a presenter is the secret to presentation success. This means the first thing you must do is close your computer and understand your audience before you can build any slides. Step 2 – Structure your messages – This methodology includes the world famous Audience Focused Presenting preparation structure. This storytelling framework will provide an organised way for any presenter to effectively prepare and deliver best-in-class presentations to any audience. It enables you to:
• Stop and think • Sort through your tsunami of data • Slow down your fast thinking for a short time • Give yourself a structure for your messaging • Be simple and meaningful • Save time, money and reputation
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
Step 3 – Design visual aids – Once you have relevant structured messages you can build amazing visuals to match them. So the Audience Focused Presenting is:
• Profile the audience. • Structure your messages. • Design visual aids. This is the simple three-step approach you are going to take away and be able to implement immediately after reading this book. Audience Focused Presenting can be applied to all types of presentations including:
Everyday presentations – A small, informal presentation, as simple as a meeting to discuss the status of a project, or to present some research, strategy or inspiration. Many times these presentations are internal and often include only members of the team. Formal presentations – These include the decision makers who’ll give the go ahead for the project or sales pitch to move forward. Often these presentations are offsite and require significant preparation. There is more at stake here because this type of presentation proves the presenter properly understood the problem and created great solutions.
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Before we get into the detail of Audience Focused Presenting, let’s go back to basics in the next chapter and explore what makes a great presentation.
THE WAY WE ARE PRESENTING IS NOT WORKING
Keynote presentations – This is where you speak to a larger audience, say over 20 people. There’s less interaction between the presenter and the audience. And the presentation is highly structured and choreographed.
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
What is a great presentation? You know it when you see it, don’t you? But it can be very hard to pinpoint what you’re seeing. Usually we attribute a great presentation to the presenter’s personality, charisma or style. It seems that great presenters have some intangible quality that is just out of reach. This good news is once you examine what a great presenter is actually doing you realise charisma and personality are not at the heart of great presenting. Let’s examine exactly what happens in a great presentation.
A great presentation grabs the mind of the audience at the beginning, navigates them through all the various parts, themes and ideas easily, never letting go, and then gets them to the point of action or result. It does this by: 1. Beginning with the audience’s needs, thoughts and feelings. A great presentation ensures right from the beginning the audience recognises how the messages of the presentation will relate to them.
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3. Achieving the goal of the presentation. This means the audience is thinking, feeling and doing what the presenter planned for. For example the audience understands the concept or has bought into the idea.
PRESENTATION 101
2. Having structure and flow that allows the presenter to take the audience through the data in the most direct, easy, jargon-free, enjoyable and understandable route possible.
The wrong presentation path Unfortunately, very few people do this. Most people take a path similar to that shown below.
Most presenters don’t consider the audience and their needs properly when they are preparing the presentation so they start the presentation at the point they think is important and then they simply dump data in all directions. While they talk their messages get lost in a fog of facts. Because of a lack of structure the audience has to work very hard to unearth the point of the talk and understand the data being flung at them. In most cases an audience is not prepared to work this hard. In some presentation scenarios an audience may not even know why they should listen in the first place.
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THE PRESENTATION BOOK
The sum of the parts Presenting is a skill. The skill of presenting involves two distinct, individual parts you must consider separately: Communication – Content Crafting
Delivery – Standing and Speaking
Both have different elements you need to master:
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PRESENTATION 101
A great presentation is made up of all the elements above; however, please note that 90 percent of the success of your presentation is determined in the Communication – Content Crafting Phase.
In order to stand and speak with confidence and impact you must prepare a great story you can wow the audience with.
What is your presentation skill level?
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What your presentation score tells you: Score of 194 = very nervous and no presentation skills A person on the lower end of the scale usually has limited or sometimes no experience on their feet so presenting is terrifying for them. Couple this with a lack of knowledge about what makes a really great presentation and this person is left feeling unsure and incompetent. Score of 5—7 = confident but limited presentation skills The majority of people I train, especially business people, fall into this category. They do have experience on their feet. They are also what people might call talkers or extroverts. If you fall into this part of the scale the good news is you have overcome the hurdle of managing your nerves, which is fantastic. You may feel comfortable and even enjoy presenting. However, what you still don’t necessarily have at this stage is the skill to structure and shape a message that is engaging, impactful and meaningful for your audience. You can present for 20 years and stay at this level. Conference rooms around the globe are filled with presenters who like to talk and have lots of data but never actually get a clear message across.* Score of 8—10 = confident and presenting skilfully When you are truly at this level you have mastered your delivery skills (although you will still get nervous, which is vital) and you will also be capable of crafting a message that always gets the right results. At this level it is about inspiring and leading with your presentations.
*FYI – The most common ratings I get from this assessment are 5 or 6.
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Your feelings are not an indicator of your abilities. You must examine the components that make up the skill of presenting and objectively measure yourself against them. You must experience yourself as the audience does.
Becoming a presentation leader
PRESENTATION 101
How do you know where you really are on this scale?
The only way to be successful in a presentation is to lead your audience from the start of your presentation to the end. To do this, firstly you have to make a decision to take the focus off you and make your audience number one. You must make them the most important person in the room. Secondly, you must get to grips with your words and your messages. Owning what you say is vital to being credible and authentic. If you don’t own what you are saying all you are doing is impersonally reading data. Unfortunately a lot of people when they present struggle to feel empowered and lead their presentation because they are too focused on the nervous feelings that arise when they have to stand and talk. Being judged by an audience is difficult for all of us. Every human being has a fear when they present of embarrassing themselves or making a fool of themselves. Because of this real fear they don’t lead when they present; they merely survive. In an effort to survive the experience of presenting they prepare a Slide Focused Presentation that acts as a crutch. They then stand up and read the slides as quickly as possible and sit back down, relieved it’s all over.
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Ultimately, they approach their presentation in self-survival mode. The problem with this mode is it is about the presenter surviving the experience of standing and speaking rather than putting the audience first and creating a positive and engaging experience for them.
A final word on this Every so often I come across someone who has a presentation horror story. This is a time when they presented and it all went unspeakably wrong. I am talking worst case scenario, the scene we all dread, the silence we don’t recover from, the going blank that breaks us. Sometimes this experience is so traumatic it causes an individual to avoid presentations at all costs. They simply can’t risk another failure, another humiliation, another public defeat. If you are someone who has had such an experience I want you to think back to your horrible experience for me. I want you to be really honest and ask yourself why it went so wrong. 1. Were you told to speak at the last minute without any warning? 2. Were you not prepared enough but maybe didn’t realise it until it was too late? 3. Did you realise too late your audience were not who you thought they were or your information was not relevant to them? 4. Did you have a catastrophic technology breakdown and were unable to deliver the talk without the slides? 5. Did you prepare in your head and then were unable to find the words? 6. Did your negative beliefs (nerves) gain control of your presentation leaving you paralysed with fear? Any human being would fail in these circumstances because it was too late to deal with the situation they found themselves in. All of the above
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I want you to chalk your negative experience up to just that, experience – something to learn from. The question is what did you learn?
PRESENTATION 101
s cenarios can be overcome with forward planning and preparation. One bad experience presenting does not need to dictate your presentation future.
In the following chapters I am going to equip you with a method and framework that will give you the structure, security and sureness you need be a great presenter.
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1. Begin with a clear purpose To be a successful presenter you must ensure every single word you speak (from start to end) is relevant to the audience you are talking to. The first and best way to ensure your presentation content is relevant is to begin your preparation by asking and answering a simple question.
By identifying the purpose or objective of your presentation, you will ensure everything you say is focused, clear, concise and purposeful.
More is not always better A great presenter decides what information to leave in and take out as they prepare their presentation. A great presenter knows more information
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As much as you feel you want or need to, you can’t say everything there is to say on a topic. As part of the preparation of your presentation you must figure out what you will and will not say. As you prepare and rehearse your presentation keep asking yourself:
• ‘Why am I saying this?’ • ‘What is the purpose of telling my audience this?’ Imagine your audience reacting to your information by saying ‘So what?’ Being clear on the purpose of your presentation also allows you to make decisions such as:
• Will I have audience interaction? If so, how will you do this? I include a role play, PowerPoint or a demonstration? If so, how • Will will you do this?
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does not equal a better presentation. In fact studies show the more choice you give an audience the less likely they are to act. We as human beings become paralysed to choose when we have too much choice. Your goal as a presenter is to empower your audience not immobilise them.
The mark of a great presenter is not what they say, but what they choose not to say. Being clear on the purpose of your presentation enables you to decide what to include or exclude and is the first step to building and delivering a successful presentation. 2. Don’t assume interest Before a presentation, any audience anywhere in the world is thinking two things: i. How long will this presentation last? ii. And … What’s in it for me?
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What all audience members really want to know at the beginning of any presentation is:
Research tells us an audience will engage and listen only if there is a reason for them to listen, for example: 1. If they are sincerely interested in what you have to say 2. If they know there is a benefit to what you have to say 3. If they fear there will be a negative consequence/or pain for them for not listening
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One of the biggest mistakes I see presenters make is assuming their audience will listen to them out of interest. The truth is maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Maybe they should, maybe they shouldn’t. Maybe they will hang on your every word or maybe they will tune out in the first minute. You really have no idea. Therefore:
A great presenter doesn’t leave the choice to listen in the audience’s hands. In order to ensure an audience will listen, you need to tell them why they should listen to you. You need to entice and seduce them into listening. How do you do that? You simply need to tell your audience the value of your information to them. You need to tell them the benefit of listening or the pain for them of not listening.
THE SIX GOLDEN RULES OF AUDIENCE FOCUSED PRESENTING
Making assumptions about your audience
Going forward you must never assume an audience will listen out of interest. For each presentation you prepare you need to give the audience a reason to listen.
Just a final note on this. I have come across presenters who tell me there is no specific reason for their audience to listen to them as their presentation has no real value. My recommendation in this situation:
If you don’t have anything of real value to say to your audience please stop talking and sit down.
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3. Hook the audience in We have just learned in Rule 2 we must never assume an audience will listen to us out of interest. We must give an audience a reason to listen. That is telling them the benefit of our information or the pain for them if they don’t listen to us. But when do we do this?
The Remote Control Test I would like you to think for a second about the way you watch television. You are sitting on your couch channel surfing. You change to a new channel, you ask yourself: Is this interesting (interest)? Worth watching (benefit)? Do I need to watch this (fear)? Eh no. Next!
As human beings we watch a presentation the same way we watch TV. We decide very quickly if this is something of value to us and if not, we switch off or go to another channel. You will not be surprised to learn audiences make the decision to listen to you very quickly. Your audience will decide if your presentation is of benefit or if they really need to listen in the first 45 seconds.
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• What they are going to tell them • What they already know • What they don’t want to know
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Unfortunately, a lot of presenters spend the first 45 seconds and the majority of the rest of their presentation telling their audience:
This approach guarantees an audience will switch off right from the start.
The key to a great presentation is getting the beginning just right To be a successful presenter you have to cut to the chase, get to the point and be direct. You need to inspire your audience, engage them, and let them know this presentation is worth listening to. When it is your turn to talk please connect with the audience straightaway with the benefit or the pain in the form of a hook. A hook can be a:
• Question • Story 33
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• Quotation • Visual • Video • Statistic • Startling statement • Personal anecdote or experience • Expert opinion • Sound effect • Physical object • Testimony or success stories Here are some examples of hooks: ‘Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, 4 Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat.’ — Jamie Oliver’s TED Wish ‘Okay, now I don’t want to alarm anybody in this room, but it’s just come to my attention that the person to your right is a liar. (Laughter) Also, the person to your left is a liar. Also the person sitting in your very seat is a liar. We’re all liars. What I’m going to do today is I’m going to show you what the research says about why we’re all liars, how you can become a lie spotter and why you might want to go the extra mile and go from lie spotting to truth seeking, and ultimately to trust building.’ — Pamela Meyer How to spot a liar ‘Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary. Well I had a unique seat that day. I was sitting in 1D.’ — Ric Elias 3 things I learned while my plane crashed ‘There have been many revolutions over the last century, but perhaps none as significant as the longevity revolution. We are living on average today
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— Jane Fonda in Life’s Third Act, a TED talk
A gentle word of warning There are so many ways you can hook your audience, from the most simple to the more extravagant. You can have a lot of fun coming up with alluring and impactful ways to engage your audience at the start of your presentation; however, I do have a gentle word of warning for you on this. I see so many presenters today play videos or tell stories that are not relevant to the presentation topic and don’t actually tell the audience why they should listen. The presenters are doing this because they think something novel will ensure engagement. It won’t. You must make sure your hook has both style and substance. Something funny or unpredictable might get the audience’s attention for a few seconds but ultimately you will still be left with a room full of people asking, why should I listen to this presentation?
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34 years longer than our great-grandparents did. Think about that: that’s an entire second adult lifetime that’s been added to our lifespan.’
The purpose of a hook is to tell the audience in the first 45 seconds why the presentation is of value to them. Please make sure your hook achieves this.
But wait, what about an agenda? Traditional Slide Focused Presentations tend to begin with an agenda slide. This is a slide that lays out exactly what will be talked about, in sequence, sometimes with exact timings.
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For example:
But is this a good thing or a bad thing to do? Let me try and answer that. Imagine you turned on the radio in your car to your favourite station and the DJ was telling you what was coming up in the next hour. They began:
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They would never do this because they wouldn’t have any listeners.
A radio station picks the best bits coming up in the next hour and uses this to hook you in and keep you listening for as long as possible.
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Have you switched over to another station yet?
For example: ‘Coming up in the next hour, we will be playing our mystery voice and if you guess right this hour you win €5,000. We are going to play last night’s number one and of course, we are going to give you all the latest celebrity gossip.’ This is what you must do as a great Audience Focused Presenter.
Audience Focused Agendas The first thing to say on this is an agenda is not the same as a hook. A hook gives the audience a reason to listen. It tells them explicitly why the content is of value. An agenda simply lists the topics that will be covered in the presentation. The audience may deduct from the agenda the value, but they may not. The problem with the traditional agenda slide is it is long and boring to get through for the presenter and can give the audience an option to decide not to listen at certain points, if at all. I completely agree it is important to let an audience know what is coming up in the presentation BUT you need to do it in a smart way. You need to do it in an Audience Focused way.
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If you want people to know what’s coming up once you have hooked them in, instead of giving them a full topic list, give them an overview of what is going to be covered to keep them interested or tell them what value they will walk away with at the end.
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression I cannot stress how important the beginning of your presentation is. The stronger the hook the more durable the audience’s engagement will be. It is not easy to get someone to listen to you, but if you make sure they really understand the value of your information and what it can do for them you will succeed in getting their attention. You do not need to employ any out-of-the-ordinary antics like juggling or joke-telling at the beginning of your presentation to get attention. I have seen so many of these tricks go horribly wrong and the presenter doesn’t recover from the bad start. All you have to do is answer one very simple question for your audience:
‘Why should I listen to this presentation?’ 4. Start at the end
The presentation structures I typically see fall into three categories:
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Presenting the wrong way up Most people when they structure presentations do so using what is called deductive reasoning. We saw this structure in action in C hapter 1 in the Space Shuttle Columbia story. Deductive reasoning moves from a general introduction to a more specific conclusion. Simply put, this means building up to your strongest point instead of leading with it. The main reason this is a chosen approach is presenters want to establish themselves and their credibility before they give conclusions. Traditional Slide Focused Presenting heavily influences this approach. Deductive reasoning means: 1. Beginning with a general overview, background or intro to the presenter and company 2. Going into detail about the topic, covering all possible areas 3. Finally, at the end, showing an executive summary or final slide that reveals the key message
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This model of communication, building up to your strongest point instead of leading with it, assumes the audience will listen throughout the buildup till you get to the key message. In this structure you do not give a reason to listen, a hook, you simply dive into the information and hope the audience will still be there at the end when you get to the key message or point. If you are using this presentation structure, I do understand why but you must ask yourself if your audience is going to wait until the end to get what they need. Would you wait that long? This approach may be fine for a book or a written document because people are choosing to read it at their leisure or dip in and out at certain points, but for a presentation this is a very uncertain approach. Now here is the good news: you can transform this presentation structure in one easy step. All you have to do is turn the triangle the right way up.
THE SIX GOLDEN RULES OF AUDIENCE FOCUSED PRESENTING
Just to be clear this is a very legitimate approach to structuring a presentation but there is a massive vulnerability to using it you need to be aware of.
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Presenting the right way up As we have already learned you must start with your most relevant, engaging and striking point for the audience. You must be confident in yourself and your communication and lead with your strongest point for the audience. You then spend the rest of the presentation building your story and credibility around that opening point. This is what is called inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning moves from a specific opening statement to the more general yet relevant material to substantiate it.
Why is this the right structure? gives the audience a reason to listen because you are telling them the • Itbenefit or addressing the pain factor straight away. for repetition. You can keep linking back to the hook, remind• Itingallows the audience why your content or new point is relevant to them. holds people’s attention. When you state your key point at the begin• Itning of your presentation, you can then weave it throughout the presentation, showing how each point you cover relates to and supports it. Rule 5 next explains exactly how to do that. 5. Use the word YOU The right start is vital to a successful presentation but the best start alone is not enough to guarantee presentation victory. Once you have the right presentation structure you will be leading with your strongest point and hooking the audience in the first 45 seconds by giving them a reason to listen. But then, as you continue through the rest of your presentation you have to keep the audience captivated and engaged. You must keep the connection you have formed with the audience from the start of your presentation to the end.
Stay connected to your audience The best way to keep your audience engaged as you deliver your full presentation is to intentionally, actively and continually link your relevant facts
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and data back to the audience’s needs and make sure the audience knows why every point you make is relevant to them.
During your presentation you need to talk to your audience about them, their reality and how your company or concept will be of value. The secret to great presenting is to talk to your audience about them even when you are talking about you . . . think about it for second. And how exactly do you do that? By using one simple word. The word YOU.
Here comes the science Researchers at Yale have identified the 12 most powerful words in the human language proven to attract attention and stir emotion. At the top of the list is the word you!
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The word you is the most powerful word you can use in a presentation. Using the word you is how you relate your data back to the audience and what is important to them. Here are two examples of the power of the word YOU in action.
Example 1: Before: ‘We have 45 offices worldwide with 10,000 staff.’ Audience – ‘So what?’
After: ‘We have 45 offices worldwide which you can access to leverage your existing business. We also have a huge support team which will be available to you with a range of languages and contacts already in place. We intend to give you a key contact in each country if you choose to do business with us.’
Example 2: Barack Obama, the US President, addressed supporters in Chicago after decisively winning a second term using the word you to relate and engage: ‘Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward. It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue (Continued)
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Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come. I want to thank every American who participated in this election. Whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time, by the way we have to fix that, whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone, whether you held an Obama sign or a Romney sign, you made your voice heard and you made a difference.’ 6. Have a middle not a muddle The success of your presentation is determined by your ability to put your information together in a way that is meaningful for the audience. This is where the skill of presenting really comes in.
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our own individual dreams, we are an American family, and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.
Words and ideas have great power when they are linked together properly and in the right order. A great presentation has a beginning, a MIDDLE and an end and NOT a beginning, a MUDDLE and an end.
The only way to avoid the muddle is to structure your data around three digestible groups of information. Any more than three and the audience will struggle to remember them.
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The rule of three The rule of three is a very general rule in speaking, writing and music that states concepts or ideas presented in threes are inherently more interesting, more enjoyable and more memorable. Good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. The number three is universal in well-known stories: the three little pigs, the three musketeers or the three wise men. And of course many advertising or political taglines take the form of threepart quotes: ‘Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’; ‘sex, drugs, & rock ‘n’ roll’; ‘Work, rest and play’. It is vital not to overload your presentation with too many ideas and messages. Three core messages illustrated in different ways, re-visited and re-emphasised, will make sure your messages are understood, remembered and most import antly will guarantee you have a middle not a muddle. I call this the 3 : 3.
And finally, end on a high So far we have spoken about the beginning of your presentation and how important it is to hook your audience in the first 45 seconds. We have also just looked at the middle of your presentation where you will structure your content based on the rule of 3 * 3.
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The primacy and recency effect claims we remember the first thing we hear and the last thing we hear in a presentation. Your conclusion is very important as it will be the last and most recent message your audience will receive and walk away with.
Have a smooth landing Concluding a presentation is like landing a plane. There are a few ways you can do it. 1. Crash landing: You can crash out of the sky. You can suddenly and abruptly finish your presentation with no warning at all. 2. Circling: The presenter is coming to the end and realising they haven’t got their message across, just keeps going in the hope they will get there at some stage. No one has ever said – I wish that presentation were longer. Only speak for your allotted time.
THE SIX GOLDEN RULES OF AUDIENCE FOCUSED PRESENTING
But can you just stop there? What about concluding at the end of your presentation?
3. Smooth landing: You tell your audience what they have gained from the presentation and what action they need to take, if any, such as:
• Tell the audience you are coming to a close. • Summarise the key points. them with something to remember or a call to action (not some• Leave thing new). • Thank them and ask for questions. Audience Focused Presenting Preparation Structure One of the main reasons people become Slide Focused Presenters is because they are dependent on slides to give their presentation structure and to give them as the presenter a feeling of security. When we are asked to present on a topic we have so much data to choose from and so many thoughts in our heads, we need a method and framework to prioritise our information and construct our presentation. Slides seem to offer us this. But please don’t be fooled. 47
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The purpose of a slide in a presentation is to act as a visual aid and if used correctly it works amazingly. Slides are not designed as a tool to structure content. When they are used for this purpose they force presenters to think and speak in a very unnatural way. It is vital you have a great presentation structure for your audience to follow, for your own self-confidence and for your peace of mind. One of the main goals of this book is to give you a framework to organise your thoughts and allow you to present logically, impactfully and most import antly as yourself. I want you to be able to create an engaging, relevant and clear piece of communication that you can add visual aids to if needed. The Audience Focused Presenting Preparation Structure will allow you to do this.
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T
he success of your presentation lies in your ability to put together a relevant, understandable audience focused piece of communication before you stand up to present it. This vital skill, the ability to make data understandable, relevant and digestible, is one that is being overlooked in presentations today. I find presenters are so busy trying to stand out, trying to do something quirky or funny or impactful that they are missing the point of presenting. I am a massive fan of a great video, a funny joke or an impactful picture but only as part of a great story. Great presentations are not about the elusive X Factor, they are fundamentally about The Communication Factor. There can be different ideas about what communication is defined as, but it’s really quite straightforward. Communication is creating understanding. It’s telling a story. Great communication is about making sure your audience engages with, understands and remembers your key points. It is about taking the driest of topics and making it relevant, interesting and even enjoyable for your audience. Great communication is about you doing all the work to create a great experience for your audience. To be a great communicator you must know your audience inside and out. You must talk to your audience about them and things that interest them. To explain your ideas you must find great stories, examples and analogies your audience can relate to. You must talk with passion and interest in your own subject. Great communication takes work on the part of the presenter as you must research, develop, organise, structure, shape and rehearse your presentation before you stand up and deliver it live. Creating a great piece of audience focused communication is the most important ingredient for any presentation today. But how do you do that?
What kind of communicator are you? I want you to imagine for a second that your presentation is like a car journey for your audience. They have to get from one destination to another and your presentation is the road they travel on. 52
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Is your road signposted clearly to ensure your audience has a smooth journey with no wrong turns or unnecessary stops? Does your road make it easy and effortless to reach the place the audience wants to get to?
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Are you a super slick motorway that allows the driver to effortlessly get from A to B without stress or hassle?
Or is your presentation journey more like this?
Is your road so intertwined with so many other roads and options that the audience feels overwhelmed and confused before they even start? Do you have no clear signs to help the audience distinguish which road is right for them? Does getting to your destination leave your audience exhausted and frustrated about how long and unnecessary the journey was? To ensure your presentation road is easy to travel down you must avoid the four presentation pitfalls.
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1. Not making the content relevant to the audience After hooking the audience in the first 45 seconds you then have to keep them. You must be consistent with your engagement and linking throughout the talk. If at any time the audience feels your data is not relevant they will lose interest and you will lose them. 2. Overloading the audience with too much data Too often in presentations audiences are overloaded with too many facts and details.
This is done for many reasons. The most common are the presenter:
• Thinks this is the best way to give their audience value for money • Feels all the information is important unable to choose what to take out and leave in so they present • Iseverything and hope the audience gets something the data as a crutch to fill time or showcase their knowledge • Isandusing expertise
• Is doing what everyone else in their company is doing
Ultimately though the main reason for data overloading is the presenter hasn’t focused on the audience and thought about what they actually need and want to hear.
Here comes the science Research over the last 20 years, by Professor Iyengar (https://sheenaiyengar .com/the-art-of-choosing/), shows that overloading people with too many choices (or too much data) reduces engagement in a process, the quality of decisions and ultimately the satisfaction with those decisions. When we gear presentations to the needs of the listener, the messages do not get lost in the muddle of data overload.
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3. Using PowerPoint the wrong way
The point of a PowerPoint slide is not to cram as many words as possible onto it and then stand up and read it to an audience. The idea of a slide is to help the audience visually understand your ideas and concepts.
PowerPoint is a very powerful visual aid when used correctly. It really is. Unfortunately many presenters do not use it as a visual aid, instead they use it as:
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In order to clearly communicate an idea so the audience understands and can take action, remember: Purposeful, Audience Focused Presenting is better.
• Their notes • A crutch • A substitute for preparation • The handout (given before, during or after the talk) PowerPoint that gets circulated to the people that weren’t at the • The talk
I will talk about PowerPoint in more detail later in the book but please know that what you think is helping you could be the reason you are being branded a lacklustre presenter.
4. Using too much industry jargon
The best presenters speak in plain English.
‘Plain English is clear, straightforward expression, using only as many words as are necessary. It is language that avoids obscurity, inflated vocabulary and convoluted sentence construction. It is not baby talk, nor is it a simplified version of the English language. Writers and speakers of plain English let their audience concentrate on the message instead of being distracted by complicated language. They make sure that their audience understands the message easily.’ — Professor Robert Eagleson
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I know you don’t want to be seen to ‘dumb things down’ or speak in what you perceive to be baby talk. Dumbing down and baby talk are very different from being clear, concise and understandable. I am not asking you to dumb anything down; I am asking you to speak in a universally understood language rather than your industry dialect. In everyday conversation we speak in plain English using first-degree words. These are words that have only one meaning that everyone can understand. For example ‘road’ is a first-degree word. ‘Infrastructure’ is not. To be understood you have to stop:
• Using concepts, acronyms and jargon without explanation • Assuming levels of understanding that are simply not there the audience with too many numbers with no context for • Bombarding those numbers • Using ten sentences to say what could be said in two about what you are going to talk about instead of just talking • Talking about it. You need to get to the point Facts are, of course, critical but the reality is they take time to penetrate the brain. A mistake many presenters make is assuming their colleagues, customers or clients understand the everyday jargon they use. In most instances, this is not the case and can result in serious miscommunication and misunderstanding. Please believe me when I say your audience (internal and external) does not understand your industry language as much as you think or maybe in the way you think. They may have heard the acronym or come across the theory but that does not mean they understand it in the way you do. Don’t make the mistake of being over-confident in your assumptions about your audience’s level of understanding. There is a very good chance you’re mistaken in assuming understanding that simply isn’t there.
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The purpose of a presentation is to create understanding. If you don’t make your facts understandable you are essentially expecting your audience to:
• Take on board a catalogue of data • Assimilate the data immediately with no real context • Reach the same conclusion you have reached
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The onus is on you the presenter
(And all of this in 20 minutes.) The onus is never on the audience, it is always on the speaker to keep the listener engaged and ensure they understand the data. You must know your audience and how they will interpret what you are saying. Something that is incredibly natural and everyday to you may not be to them. You must speak to your audience in a language they can understand. You have to step back from your own assumptions. If in doubt start at the beginning and make sure everyone understands. To ensure engagement throughout and to make sure you are creating understanding you must avoid the four presentation pitfalls (pages 68–70) and always do the following:
• Speak in plain English to explain your messages and concepts. • Relate your information to how it affects your audience. real-life examples, stories or analogies to explain your concepts and • Use bring your facts to life. The power of a picture A concept is an abstract general idea that could have many meanings. ‘Sustainability’ is a concept. I don’t think anyone actually knows what that word means. Children and adults think in pictures and concrete thoughts rather than general ideas.
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We go through years of education and all we are taught is how to memorise data and concepts. Only a very small percentage of teachers take those concepts and make them stick, make us understand and remember them. Great presenting is about the creation of understanding. Presenting concepts to an audience and assuming they will be able to take the general abstract ideas and understand them as you do is senseless and ultimately ineffective. You, the presenter, must take the concepts and make them real. You must present them so the audience can touch them, taste them and feel them. People relate easily (and emotionally) to stories, examples, analogies and case studies. More importantly, people remember them. Our brains are hardwired for story. Story was how cultures were passed from generation to generation. Stories are interesting, easy to listen to and you remember the message. If you have an important message, concept or idea that must be remembered by your audience concentrate on telling a story or finding one concrete example to support your point. Facts are important and can even be critical but they penetrate the brain very slowly – remember learning your times tables or your French verbs. Stories make facts speak. They give them an emotional context. They make facts digestible and appetising. As well as the facts entering the brain more quickly, in the process you become more human, more approachable and more audience-friendly. The best speakers reach into their bag of stories and examples and this is what brings their presentations to life. This is what connects them to the audience. I hope I demonstrated the power of story in the opening chapter of this book when I told you about the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy.
Let’s talk about TED It is very important, before I finish this chapter, to talk about TED Talks as I believe many TED Talks and TED presenters are the benchmark against which today’s presenters measure themselves. TED is an organisation devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a
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TED Talks are excellent presentations. But why and how are each of these talks consistently so engaging, understandable and powerful? One of the reasons the presentations are so good is because TED’s organisers send all upcoming speakers a stone tablet, engraved with the ‘TED Commandments’.
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conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today it covers almost all topics – from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.
Speakers must follow these rules.
• Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot out Thy Usual Shtick. Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New • Thou Thing, or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before. • Thou Shalt Reveal Thy Curiosity and Thy Passion. • Thou Shalt Tell a Story. Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the • Thou Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy. Shalt Not Flaunt Thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of Thy • Thou Failure as well as Thy Success. Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither Thy Company, Thy Goods, • Thou Thy Writings, nor Thy Desperate Need for Funding; Lest Thou Be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
• Thou Shalt Remember all the While: Laughter Is Good. • Thou Shalt Not Read Thy Speech. • Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them That Follow Thee. Presenters at TED events follow these commandments and that is why they are so great. The reason I share these with you is the TED Commandments are the same presentation best practice guidelines you will find in this book.
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O
ver the next few pages I want to take you through the Audience Focused Presenting three-step method and introduce you to the One-Page AFP Preparation Cheat Sheet. This three-step approach and preparation cheat sheet is a time-efficient and structured way to prepare for your presentations in three easy steps. This approach is tried and tested and if followed it guarantees results.
One step at a time The Audience Focused Presenting approach is three separate steps you take in sequence when preparing your presentation. The steps are:
• Profile the audience. • Structure your messages. • Design visual aids.
It is vital for your success that you move through these one step at a time.*
• Firstly, understand your audience and their needs.
*Please note, each step informs the next so it is vital you complete step 1 before you move to Step 2. And again you must complete Step 2 before proceeding to Step 3.
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Finally, the most important thing to remember about the Audience Focused Presenting approach is all three steps need to be worked through before you go near your computer or slideware.
AFP APPROACH STEP 1 PROFILE YOUR AUDIENCE
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• Then analyse all your data and extract and group the relevant messages. • Finally, build valuable visual aids to support your content.
Early in my media career I went to work for a radio station. On my very first day I was given a piece of paper with some writing on it. I was told no matter what I was talking about, ever, I had to make sure I was talking about it in relation to Orla (below), my audience.
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Audience profiling in real life I was always aware every television or radio show I worked on had a specific segmented target audience they aimed the programme at, but I had never seen it written down so clearly. Orla was our ‘listener persona’. She was a single representation of the whole audience the show was aimed at and every time I presented, I needed to keep her in mind. Audience profiling is the act of knowing in as much detail as possible who your message is aimed at so you can tailor your content to them. Audience profiling is understanding the needs of your audience beforehand, so you can put across your messages in the most effective way to produce the best result.
The right diagnosis The right diagnosis is crucial to success in the medical field. Without it, patients suffer and sometimes die. Diagnosing the state of a patient is an organised and logical process. Diagnosis is more than just gathering information; it is applying that information in a way that brings a successful and wanted outcome. A great presenter knows there needs to be an organised and logical diagnosis of the audience to deliver content which is relevant and accomplishes the right result. Audience profiling is an indispensable part of the design of a presentation. Presentations need to fit a specific audience the way a prescription is given to fit a specific diagnosis.
Mixed audiences Very often you will have a mixed audience with different needs and questions. There is no one simple answer to this scenario. This is very testing as a presenter and you need to ask yourself some serious questions: 1. How many groups of people do I have in my audience exactly? For example, if it was an all company presentation you might have an
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2. Do I want or need to talk to them all? You need to identify who you actually want to convince. Who is the decision maker or who does your content affect the most? It is not possible to talk to a mixed audience with different needs at the same time in your presentation. You can address a mixed audience one at a time in the same presentation. However, if you need to talk to everyone about a topic then you must begin your presentation from the place of the person with the least level of knowledge and go from there. Bear in mind that this approach means people with more knowledge may switch off.
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audience made up of interns, managers and directors. These are all at a different level with different needs.
Please remember the only guaranteed reason an audience listens to you is if there is a benefit or a fear. You must accept that if your presentation is not relevant to a section of the audience they will switch off. The first step to preparing your presentation is to profile your audience by grabbing a pen and paper and answering the ten questions below.
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If you are unable to answer these questions yourself, reach out to a representative of your audience in advance of your presentation or gain some insight from a colleague. In most presentation situations, it is completely acceptable to ask your audience before what they need from you. You must answer these questions before you move onto Step 2. This audience insight is what will allow you to structure and shape your data into a compelling story.
AFP APPROACH STEP 2 STRUCTURE YOUR MESSAGES The mark of a great presenter is not what they say, but what they choose not to say.
Would you like a piece of chocolate cake? I want you to imagine you’re at a party and you have just been told they are about to serve chocolate cake. You like chocolate cake. You would love a piece of the chocolate cake. Next thing the hostess appears with the chocolate cake on a dirty plate. She then starts using her bare hands to break off pieces of the cake. She then places the mashed-up piece of cake on a piece of toilet paper and hands it to you. Would you still want the chocolate cake? Now imagine the hostess wheeled the cake out on a silver cart. She then divides it into perfect slices. She serves it on a china plate and unexpectedly also gives you a glass of champagne. Now how would you feel about accepting the chocolate cake?
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The way you introduce, structure and deliver your content in a presentation is what makes an audience accept it or not. Every day I see business people serve an audience unprepared, unplanned, unrehearsed, mashedup content on ad hoc PowerPoint slides.
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The cake is still the same cake. The way the hostess presents the cake to you is the difference between you wanting it or rejecting it.
The worst part is the audience that would easily accept the information, if served as it should be, is left with no choice but to reject it. This outcome leaves both the presenter and the audience feeling disappointed, frustrated and ultimately unfulfilled.
Moving from slides to the Audience Focused Presenting structure Most presenters I work with know they have an over-reliance on slideware, using it as a crutch to support the structure of their presentations. BUT – If you don’t use the slides to structure your content, what do you use? You use the Audience Focused Presenting structure. This is a simple storytelling framework you can plug your content into for any presentation for any audience. Once you have completed Step 1 and Profiled Your Audience, the next step is to create your presentation outline.
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The AFP structure is based on the communication best practices we have looked at earlier in the book. It will ensure you: 1. Introduce yourself 2. Hook your audience in 3. Have three key themes with supporting insights and evidence 4. Conclude convincingly
Let’s now look at how you plug your content into the AFP structure
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This is simply deciding how you will say hello and introduce yourself. Things to think about when deciding how to greet your audience:
• Does your audience know you? • Do you have a relationship with them? • Is it morning or afternoon? • Are you the first or last to present?
There is no right way to greet an audience. Your greeting must be genuine, real and short as this is eating into your 45 seconds.
2. The Hook
As we explored earlier in the book, a hook is leading with your strongest point and telling your audience why they should listen in the most engaging and relatable way possible.
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1. The Greeting
3. Shaping your content using the 3 : 3 format Before you begin preparing for any presentation all you will have is data. What you need to do as a presenter in preparing for your talk is package or group that data into a story-like format that is really easy for you and your audience to understand and follow. Please be clear, I am not asking you to exclude any important information. I just want you to give it to the audience in a way that is digestible and chunked.
The goal is to have three clear core themes explained and expanded on with the three most compelling and impactful pieces of information you have to support each message. This structure ensures you have a story-like flow and you don’t have mixed messages. Theme 1 is the beginning of your story. Theme 1 and the supporting information is explained and delivered, then you move onto Theme 2 and then finally you address Theme 3. With this structure you have a very clear beginning, middle and end to your presentation.
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NB You don’t have to have exactly the full 3 * 3 in every presentation. You can have less. This is, however, the maximum I recommend for a business presentation.
Joining the DOTS How do I decide what to say under each theme? What you need to do is join the DOTS.
• D – Do a data dump • O – Out or in • T – Test for relevance • S – Segment into your themes
• Do a data dump Begin by simply brainstorming all the possible things you could say about your presentation. Get everything out of your head and onto paper. Don’t hold back here. Anything at all you think you might want to talk about or might be relevant for this presentation – get it on paper now. 70
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Now it’s time to apply the MoSCoW principle (a business prioritisation method) to your data dump. Ask yourself what information is a:
• Must have • Should have • Could have • Won’t have
Remember to refer back to your Audience Profile answers at all times during this process so you can be diagnostic in your approach and have your audience at the top of your mind.
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• Out or in
• Test for relevance
With whatever data you have left at this point, apply the ‘So what?’ principle.
Just imagine your audience saying ‘So what?’ at the end of everything you are proposing to say.
• Segment into your themes
Finally, you need to take your relevant content and like a jigsaw puzzle you need to group it together into three themes and three supporting insights and information. Again if you are having trouble here go back to the Audience Profile and look at the answers. Everything you need to help you decide what goes where will be there.
4. Concluding
Finally, you have hooked the audience and have given them three understandable and clear messages. Now you just want to remind them of the value of your presentation, thank them and open the floor to questions.
The Audience Focused Presentation structure in action Below are four examples of the AFP structure in relation to four types of real-life presentations.
• Presenting to inform • Presenting to influence 71
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• Presenting to motivate • Presenting to sell Because of confidentiality I have had to make these 4 examples quite generic but they are based on real-life 30–60 minute presentations I have worked with clients on. Once the presenters have the structure in place they would then decide exactly what they will say under each theme and supporting insight depending on how much time they have and the relevance to the audience.
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AFP APPROACH STEP 3 DESIGN VISUAL AIDS The Results of the 2015 Annoying PowerPoint survey carried out by Dave Paradi of Think Outside the Slide* found:
Reading slides is still the biggest issue audiences have with presentations. This finding is followed closely by three other related frustrations:
So why are these three things happening? They are happening simply because presenters are using slides in the wrong way. *http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/free-resources/latest-annoyingpowerpoint-survey-results/
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Today, more than ever, presentation slides are being over-used and abused. People give the following reasons for over-using and exploiting slideware:
• ‘Everyone else’s slides look like this.’ were used by the last speaker therefore I have to use each • ‘They and every one of them!’ • ‘If I don’t use them people will think I have not prepared properly.’ • ‘They help me remember what to say next.’ • ‘The slides are doubling up as the audience handout.’ audience will be more interested if there are words they • ‘The can read.’
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Are you missing the point of PowerPoint?
• ‘If I miss a point the audience can read it on the slides.’ • ‘People will think I’m more professional.’ You are the presentation I have no preference when it comes to slideware. To me PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi and any other programs are all tools to build slides. They are slide-centric, rather than message-centric. However, 99 percent of the people I work with use PowerPoint so I am going to draw on that as my basis for talking about slides in this chapter. Please note any point I make about PowerPoint relates or can be adapted to the other presentation software. The first thing I hope to help you understand is that the slides are not for the presenter, they are for the audience. Slides are a visual aid to help the audience understand and remember your messages. You build the slides around your presentation structure and messages and not the other way around.
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A presentation is not about the slides, it is about YOU. It is about you engaging with the audience and presenting a clear relevant message, slides or no slides. We do not walk around in everyday life accompanied by slides. Imagine going to a party and plodding through a PowerPoint to talk about your week. Going home to your partner and whizzing through a Prezi as you talk about your day. Lunch with your friends would not be the same if you had to keep in line with your Keynote talk. The truth is you don’t have to use slides to deliver a great presentation. Using slides in a presentation should be an option. A choice you make to enhance your content. Slides should not be a critical crutch you can’t present without. If you prepare a great presentation using the Audience Focused Presenting structure the option to use slides or not use slides is just that, an option. They do not become a must, they become a ‘would be good to have for the audience to understand the message better’. One of the big issues with slideware is people spend more time picking animations than profiling their audience and pay more attention to sound effects than structure. It isn’t which software you use that is important, but how you use it. The important part is what goes on before you prepare the slides. You are going to have to experiment with the software yourself to decide what you like, but whatever your preference you must take the three-step approach before you go near your PowerPoint, Prezi or Keynote: 1. Profile the audience. 2. Structure your messages. 3. Design visual aids.
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At this stage you have completed Steps 1 and 2 of the Audience Focused Presenting method. Now you take your Step 2 completed presentation structure sheet and use that to storyboard out what your slides might look for each section. At this stage ask yourself questions such as:
• Will I use a slide for the greeting? • How do I visually depict my hook? • Will I have a slide for each theme and supporting insight? • Do I need a slide for every point I am making? if I didn’t use a slide here, could I use a prop, flipchart, video or • What just talk?
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Putting the power into your PowerPoint
• Do I need to use slides at all? There is no right number of slides. You might use 1 or 100. It is not about the right number of slides, it is about using a visual only when it adds to your presentation. What follows are my top ten tips based on industry best practice for putting the power into your PowerPoint. 1. PREPARING VISUAL AIDS IS THE LAST THING YOU DO
You must profile the audience, structure your messages and then work on how to make your messages visual using the story board template demonstrated on page 87. Always ensure you design your slides around your Audience Focused Presenting presentation structure.
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2. A VISUAL AID (SLIDE) AND A HANDOUT OR SLIDE DOC ARE TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PIECES OF COMMUNICATION WITH TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PURPOSES There is a concerning amount of overlap in business today between visual aids and slide docs. The term ‘Slide Doc’ was coined by the wonderful Nancy Duarte to describe a visual document, developed in presentation software, that is intended to be read and referenced instead of projected. In other words a handout, report, proposal or information for the people who can’t make the presentation. Presentation slides are meant to be presented accompanied by a speaker. Slide Docs are meant to be read alone by an audience member.
They are not the same thing. They should never be the same thing. They should never look the same.
A visual aid is supposed to complement what you say, not act as a distraction. The handout is what the people in the room are meant to take away and refer to after or before the presentation, when you are not there to wow them with your brilliant presentation skills and charm.
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If you give an audience a handout during the presentation or have slides full of text, the audience will read ahead and not listen to you. If that is happening then what is the point in you being there?
3. DO NOT USE A PICTURE FOR THE SAKE OF IT
I was working with a group in a law firm, telling them their presentations should be visual.
The next day, I got a phone call from my client to say this group stood up to present and had random pictures of judges and legal scales all over their presentations. When they were asked why, they said, ‘Emma told us to use pictures!’
I did not tell them to use pictures, I told them to use visuals. A visual is an image that helps make your message easier to understand. Your image has to have meaning. No random judges allowed!
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4. BEST PRACTICE SAYS YOU SHOULD ONLY HAVE ONE MESSAGE PER SLIDE The audience should look at your slides and have an ‘Aha’ moment. Your slides are supposed to create clarity. Your audience are not supposed to have to squint, have speed-reading abilities or have to frantically search through the spreadsheet on the slide to find the number you are referring to when you say ‘as you can see from this slide’.
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It doesn’t matter if you have 20 slides or 2 slides. They are just for you to speak with. The handout, of course, does not have to follow this rule as it is a written document so you can go crazy with the number of messages per page on that.
5. FIVE WORDS ACROSS, FIVE WORDS DOWN
You are of course allowed to use some text on your slides but there is a rule about how much text is effective. For best results limit your text to five words across and five words down.
Now, I did not say five sentences. There are no sentences allowed on a visual slide. It is PowerPOINT . . . You the presenter are the full sentence. You are the text. You are the presentation.
That is why you are there.
Talk to the audience and stop making the slides do your work. The slides just show the key points. If you have more than five across and five down you need two separate slides.
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Animating text means that each bulleted point of your slide appears on the screen one at a time. For example, if you are going to have five words across and five down then you need to animate them so they appear on the screen one by one. If you put all five up together then you will be talking about point number one and your audience will be… well you have no idea where they will be. Point 2, point 3, point 5, wishing you would hurry up because this is time they are never getting back.
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6. ANIMATING TEXT
7. TRANSITIONING BETWEEN SLIDES
When you are moving from one slide to another there are many fancy ways you can do this – it is called slide transitioning. You can have your slides fly in, float in, fade in, appear, wipe, zoom, swivel AND bounce to name but a few.
As cool as all the above ways are to make your slides move, please use just one slide transition type in each presentation.
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So for the people who use all of them in one presentation (I’ve seen you), you need to stop showing off. It is disorientating, you are giving your audience motion sickness, and many fancy transitions are not what make a great presentation. 8. THE PRESENTER LEADS THE SLIDES NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND
This is what most people do when operating their slides: 1. They click onto the slide. 2. They pause and have a look at the slide to get a prompt. This pause is possibly accompanied by a look of shock (did I put that slide there?), an expression of fear (what am I going to say about this?) or an air of apathy (this talk is very boring). 3. They then start talking about whatever point is on the slide.
They repeat this for the entire presentation.
This is not how it should be. You the presenter should introduce your slide and tee up what is coming before you click on the slide itself. You are the leader and the slide is the follower. You must introduce your slide before you click on the slide itself.
The presenter leads the slides and not the other way around.
How do you get to the point where you can do this? There is only one way: preparation.
9. THE SCREEN IS NOT FOR YOU
The people in the audience have taken the time to come and hear your presentation so the least you can do is look at them and not turn your back and talk to the slides.
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Yes, maybe they have been forced to come and listen to you but either way you have more chance of actually engaging them if you turn around and look at them.
But how will you see your slides? Some conference rooms will actually have special screens so the presenter can see the slides while looking at the audience. If this is not available to you all you have to do is put your laptop in front of you somewhere so you can see it (and your notes if you need to) and you are going to use this to see the same slides the audience can see.
The laptop is for you, the screen is for the audience. You must stand with your hips facing the audience at all times. If you need to point something out on the screen you step back in line with the screen and you turn your head and your arm to point. You do not turn your back on the audience at any time during a presentation. Ever.
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10. B AND W
This is just a little trick I thought you might find useful. When your slide show is on full view if you press B or W the screen will turn to black or white, respectively. If you hit B or W again it will come back to the same slide.
This is really powerful if you want to blank the screen, grab the audience’s attention and make a point. It also means you do not have to use slides if you don’t need to.
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Design visual aids You need to begin the process of creating your visuals away from the computer. Using your structure sheet, start moving through your presentation and seeing what visuals might add to the message. As you do this I recommend you sketch out what your slides might look like and in what order they may go in the template provided here. Once you are clear on the visuals you can start creating them on your computer.
Pulling it all together On the next page is the Audience Focused Presenting One-Page Preparation Cheat Sheet. This is the AFP three-step method in an easy to use and time efficient one-page format. You can use this to help you prepare for any presentation you have going forward. You can download this cheat sheet and all the templates in this book at www.thepresentationbook.com
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THE AUDIENCE FOCUSED PRESENTING WAY
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A
presentation is made up of two parts:
Communication – Content Crafting, and Delivery – Standing and speaking. Up to now we have been looking at communication and the approach to structure and shape your messages. I would now like to address delivery skills. These are the skills needed when you’re standing in front of the audience. If you do all the preparation we have looked at up to now then a lot of what I am going to talk about will happen naturally because you will own your messages. However, there are a number of things you must be aware of and in some cases manage when you stand up in front of an audience.
It’s a performance The part of a presentation where you stand up and speak, your presentation delivery, is a performance. A lot of people don’t like it when I say that to them. They recoil in disgust, believing I am now asking them to do something that goes against their nature. When I talk about a performance, I don’t mean an act. You don’t need to be someone else. I don’t mean something false or fake. You don’t need to pretend to be something you’re not. What I mean by a performance is you need to be in a great mood when you present. You need to be the best version of yourself when you present. You need to bring energy and enthusiasm to the presentation. You can’t just go through the motions when you present. Here are the things you need to consider and master for your delivery style to complement your communication.
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Passion, humour, energy and personal style Passion Passion is an essential ingredient for your delivery skills to be impactful. Passion simply means you care about what you are talking about, your subject, your audience, getting the right result or simply being a great presenter. Passion is the opposite of indifference. If you feel your presentation/ content is boring and irrelevant then this is how you are going to make the audience feel. I know some content is easier to get excited about than others but the truth is all data is boring and dry in its rawest form. A great presenter brings it to life. If you are not engaged in your own topic then you need to find a way to get engaged. Change the content around and get some great examples and stories. Find the value in your messages from the audience’s point of view. Find a way to make your content enjoyable and digestible. Unfortunately, passion is not a skill. It is not something I can teach you. If you hate your job or you think what you do is boring then a book on presentation skills is not what you need. A new job is what you need.
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Humour You do not need to be a comedian to deliver a great presentation. I really mean that. I get asked a lot by budding presenters if they should tell a joke or be funny. There is nothing more cringe-worthy than someone trying to be funny – I believe either you are or you aren’t. What you do need to do is bring your data to life by telling stories and using your experience and personality to make the presentation enjoyable. Focusing on being funny is going to stop you being yourself. Be authentic and trust your own style. You never know, you might make the audience laugh.
Energy OK, you like your job. You enjoy talking about numbers. You see the value in your processes. You get excited about your service. But here’s the thing. You got two hours sleep, had a fight with your partner, your most valued client is unhappy and your deadline has just been moved to a time sooner than you’re ready for. On top of that you now have to deliver a presentation and perform. ‘Are you kidding me, Emma?’ I hear you cry. I am not kidding and it is not easy to perform when you have a life going on around you. What you must do is leave it at the door. I was told about this when I worked for MTV and I rejected the concept at first. I found it very challenging to leave my life at the door, forget my frustrations and worries, and perform. That felt false to me. It took me a while to understand that my audience had no interest in what was going on in my life. I couldn’t bring that into a TV studio and today I can’t bring that into a training room. If I do, it may not be obviously visible but it will be present in everything I do and say and the audience will be able to feel it. I have to leave it at the door and find a way to be in the room and in a good mood. I need to get my head in a good place before I begin presenting.
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You set the mood and tone of the room as a presenter. Your audience deserves the best version of you no matter what is going on in your world.
Eye contact Eye contact is how we build relationships. It is how we build trust and credibility. We are always suspicious of someone who doesn’t make eye contact with us. When you are presenting you must make meaningful eye contact with the audience.
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I have two strategies to help me do this. I listen to music (I have a specially prepared playlist) or I go and have a few minutes to myself before I talk to clear my head.
This is sometimes easier said than done because audiences have a way of being very distracting when you look at them during a presentation. There are four reasons why people fail to make eye contact: 1. Denial: The belief that ‘if I don’t look at the audience and don’t see them looking at me then maybe they are not really there’. They are there, they do see you and you do need to look at them. 2. The slides are the presentation: This is the presenter who actually turns their body away from the audience and talks to their slides for the entire presentation. (Please see point number 1: your audience is there, they do see you and you need to look at them.) 3. Anywhere but the eyes: Instead of meaningful eye contact a presenter will pick a spot at the back of the room to stare at or will look at their audience’s foreheads and not their eyes. Please don’t do this. It is daft and the audience can see you! 4. It’s the audience’s fault: Audiences have a way of being very distracting when you look at them. They move, they cross their arms, they check their phones, they frown, they talk, they look confused, they seem annoyed, they appear bored, they remain silent and most annoying of all they are sitting there judging you. With all this in mind it is no wonder it is an undertaking just to look at them. Nevertheless they deserve proper eye contact. You need to look at the audience. This is how you do it.
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Be a lighthouse! You must stand with your entire body facing the audience. You need to make eye contact as if you are a lighthouse. You must ensure you are sweeping around the group slowly moving from left to right or right to left. As you sweep you must engage with each person for roughly two seconds. Be careful to really look at each person so that they know you’re interested in each one of them. Do not look at any one person for too long or they will feel uncomfortable. This applies to both small and large groups. However, in a large group you may not be able to look at each and every person, but ensure you are sweeping across all areas of the general group.
Root yourself to the ground – my one body-language rule There are entire books written about body language and the nuances of non-verbal communication. I have just one very simple thing to say to you about body language. Don’t let your body language take away from your messages. Your audience is not supposed to be leaving a room talking about your body language. body language is good the audience won’t even notice it. That • Ifis your how it should be. language is ineffective it is all your audience will talk about • Ifandyourtakebody away from your presentation. I live by one very simple rule when it comes to body language. Don’t let it be a distraction for the audience.
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• The presenter dances around, taps toes, or rocks back and forth. presenter sways hips from side to side or constantly shifts weight • The from one foot to the other. • The presenter moves around the room with no purpose. Body language best practice: presenter should stand with feet shoulder width apart, toes pointed • The forward, with weight distributed equally on each foot – almost as if feet were in a block of cement. The hips of the presenter should be facing the audience at all times. This is what is called being rooted to the ground.
DELIVERING A GREAT PERFORMANCE
Distracting body language behaviours look like this:
a presenter moves, it should be with purpose (e.g. to go to the • When flipchart, to move to the other side of the room, to walk into the group to make a point). Once the presenter has arrived at the destination, he/ she becomes rooted.
Filler words – banish your ums and ahs Um . . . Eh . . . I think . . . I suppose! Filler words are . . . eh . . . I suppose . . . words that find their way . . . um . . . into our presentations and . . . eh . . . I think . . . most presenters don’t want to say them but they . . . I suppose . . . don’t really know how to stop!
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Your filler words, sounds and phrases are actually pot holes in your presentation road for the audience. Every time you use a filler word the audience experiences a bump and discomfort. Too many bumps and your audience will leave the talk feeling a little bruised and battered. One of the most common challenges I come across on a daily basis in my training courses is the use of filler words. People know they are doing it but can’t seem to stop it. There are some really common filler sounds, words and phrases used by most people such as:
• Filler sounds – e.g. um, uh, ah, mm • Filler words – e.g. basically, actually, like • Filler phrases – e.g. ‘I think’, ‘you know’, ‘I suppose’
So what exactly are filler words? Filler words represent a verbal hesitation that has to be filtered out by your audience. Repeated and excessive use of filler words weakens your credibility. It may be perceived as indicating lack of preparation, lack of knowledge or lack of passion. You can most easily identify a filler word if it’s a part of the presentation that is said but never written. It’s often an irrelevant transitory word used to give yourself more time to find the right word you’re looking for, gather your complete thought or idea and finally finish your sentence. So why do we fill our presentations with words that add no value and in fact detract from both our message and our overall impact? There are three main reasons for the use of filler words: 1. We are thinking as we are talking live in front of an audience. We are thinking about what comes next because we haven’t quite figured it out yet. The reason is lack of proper preparation and rehearsal. 96
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3. We really are not sure what we are talking about so our filler words reflect the real amount of understanding we have about our topic – i.e. not enough.
So how do you overcome these challenges? 1. The first step is awareness. You must become aware of what filler words you are using and then identify from the list above why you think you are using them.
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2. We are afraid of silence. When you are presenting, a three-second pause can feel like three hours and rather than feel the discomfort a presenter fills every second with a sound.
2. The most simple and effective way to reduce and even eliminate filler words is to practise out loud a minimum of three times before you present for real. This way you will have done your thinking and found your flow. 3. Replace the filler word with a pause. You must plan to pause at key points in your presentation either before or after you deliver an important message. A pause is when you stop, breathe in and breathe out. It lasts between two and three seconds. It will take time to get used to the silence but persevere. 4. You must understand and get to grips with your own topic before you can communicate it to someone else. If you are not sure of your message no one else in the room is going to get clarity.
One point at a time – planning to pause We talked earlier in the book about self-survival. When you are standing in front of an audience it is natural to want to talk through your presentation as quickly as possible and sit back down again. The faster you get it over with the less chance there is of things going wrong. Also that awful audience is still judging you so the quicker the experience is over the better. On top of that you probably have lots of data to get through so you have to talk fast to get through it all, right?
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Not anymore. One of the most important delivery tools you need as a presenter is the pause. A pause is when you stop talking, you take a breath in and then a breath out. As I mentioned when I was addressing filler words, it lasts about three seconds. Those three seconds will feel like three hours. The silence in the room can be very overwhelming for any presenter (hence the enormous urge to fill up every single second of the talk with your voice). You pause:
• For your audience to digest your messages • So you, the presenter, can breathe You need to embrace, plan and practise your pausing. Most presenters don’t talk too fast; they simply don’t allow any space between their key points. need to pause at the beginning of your presentation before you • You start to make sure the audience is ready to listen.
• You need to pause either before or after you make an important point. • You need to pause when you put up a slide to allow people to take it in.
Rehearsal – the secret weapon of great presenting One of the most overlooked areas in a presentation is the need to rehearse. The truth is in most cases the presenter only realises how vital this step is when they are presenting in front of a real audience and the words won’t
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Why rehearse? Here comes the science . . . David Weiner, author of several psychology bestsellers, including the new Reality Check: What Your Mind Knows, But Isn’t Telling You, writes:
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come, at least not the right ones. Their talk is full of ums and ahs as their brain scrambles desperately under pressure to find a flow between words and points. They take 20 sentences to say what could be said in 2 because they didn’t find the most direct path to their message before they decided to bring their audience there. They didn’t rehearse.
‘Now there’s new clinical research that shows there’s a physical reason why rehearsing works so well and why those hours of outloud practice can make you a more confident presenter.’ Weiner states:
‘The research shows there are two important reasons why practice makes perfect. The first is that when you practice anything – be it a business, sales or scientific presentation or even Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ sonata – you essentially carve a path for it in your brain. Without practice, your brain can take any of tens or hundreds of paths to reach its final destination.’ Practice reduces the number of potential pathways. In other words, by repeating your presentation again and again you’ll start using about eight to ten pathways, says Weiner. ‘The brain will know what you want it to do,’ he says, ‘so you’ll become more precise.’
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A real rehearsal A real rehearsal is when in advance of your talk you deliver your content with slides, while standing and saying the words out loud in real time without skimming over any detail. Glancing over your notes or reading through your slides in bed or on some sort of public transport is not a rehearsal. To ensure your audiences are taking the right path you must rehearse a minimum of three times for any presentation.
Rehearsal rules – seven steps to success 1. Rehearse your presentations at least three times. 2. Always rehearse out loud not in your mind. 3. Always rehearse with all your slides and props. 4. Always endeavour to rehearse once at the final location. 5. Check from the back of the room that your visuals can be seen clearly and you can be heard. 6. Arrive before everyone else (a minimum of 30 minutes before). 7. Check all the equipment 24 hours before, bring a back-up and have a plan B.
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Picture the scene. I have just delivered a one-hour presentation. I have spent two weeks preparing and rehearsing. I have just discussed my threestep approach in detail. I have left my negative feelings at the door and I have talked with passion and energy (if I do say so myself). I am exhausted but happy. I feel I have really got my point across about how a great presentation is about ownership and content crafting. I open the floor to questions. I wait with held breath for feedback from my audience and for a glimmer of insight that shows me my messages have landed. The first question comes: ‘Hi Emma, yeah that was great and all, but what do I do with my hands when I present?’
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My hands – what do I do with them?
I am not going to lie. I die a little inside. I jest, because the reality is this is a real concern for millions of people. Like body language, gestures and information on what to do with your hands can take up entire books. My understanding and practice of what to do with your hands is the same as what to do with your body language. Don’t let your gestures take away from your messages.
Your audience shouldn’t be leaving the room talking about your gestures. your hand movements are appropriate the audience won’t even • Ifnotice them. That is how it should be. gestures are distracting and ineffective it is all your audience • Ifwillyour talk about and take away from your presentation. This is not how it should be.
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Don’t let your hand movements be a distraction for the audience. Distracting hand movements look like this:
• Fidgeting of any sort • Nervous repetitive movements (e.g. touching your face or hair) • Hands on hips or both hands in pockets • Holding/clicking/fidgeting with a pen • Holding/fumbling/fidgeting with your notes Gesturing best practice looks like this: and foremost you must be yourself. Some people gesture a lot, • First some not at all. There is no right or wrong as long as it is not a distraction. aware of your gestures through feedback or watching yourself • Become on video.
• Place your hands at your sides, unless gesturing or using a visual aid. key is to practise this, and it will eventually feel more comfortable. • The This is a very confident, open stance. • Gesture from your shoulder and not from your wrist. Anxiety – please make the nerves go away If there is anyone reading this book who can stop me feeling nervous can you please email me immediately? Seriously! I have been presenting for 20 years and I still get nervous all the time. Usually my level of nervousness depends on the group in front of me and how intimidating I perceive them to be. I am also one of those people who gets more nervous in front of people I know. I prefer talking to an audience of strangers.
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I never focus on my nerves, and I never think about my nerves. I know my nerves will be there. I work very hard to ensure that when my nerves are at their worst at the beginning of an important presentation, I have prepared to get me through it. The only two techniques I have found to help me when I am feeling very nervous and I can’t get my mind to quieten down are:
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I have always accepted my nerves as part of what I do. The days on television when I felt comfortable were the days I performed the worst, so as much as I don’t like feeling nervous I reckon my nerves must be doing me some good. I would be worried if I wasn’t nervous.
1. Mentally challenging the fear 2. Mindful breathing
Here comes the science . . . Anxiety or nervousness is the body’s way of responding to being in a life or death situation. Adrenaline is rushed into our bloodstream to enable us to run away or fight. This happens when the danger is real or when we believe the danger is there when actually there is none. It is the body’s alarm and survival mechanism. This is what happens to people when they present, especially in the few minutes before they are about to speak. What this simply means is your internal survival system cannot tell the difference between a life and death situation and a presentation. Embarrassing yourself in front of a room full of people is life or death for your ego so that is why the feelings are so strong. The first step in managing your nerves is recognising this response and why it is happening. Your body is just telling you this is important and you don’t want to mess it up.
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Thoughts that often occur when you are about to present:
• This is a life or death situation. worst possible scenario is going to happen and I will embarrass • The myself. • I won’t be able to cope with this and I will make a mess. PHYSICAL SENSATIONS – THE ADRENALINE RESPONSE When there is real, or we believe there is a real, threat or danger, our body’s automatic survival mechanism kicks in very quickly. This helps energise us to fight or run away (‘fight or flight response’). The action urge associated with anxiety is to escape or avoid. We will therefore notice lots of physical sensations, which might include: racing: This helps to take the blood to where it is most • Heart needed – the legs so that we can run faster (flight); the arms so that we can hit out (fight); the lungs to increase stamina. At the same time blood is taken from the places it is not needed, for example fingers, toes and skin. These changes cause tingling, coldness and numbness. gets faster: This helps the bloodstream to carry oxygen • Breathing to the arms, legs and lungs. This will give us more power. The side effects may include chest pain, breathlessness and a choking feeling. As there is a slight drop in the blood and oxygen being sent to the brain we may feel dizzy or light-headed, and we may experience blurred vision. This helps to cool the muscles and the body. It helps to stop • Sweating: them from overheating. Sweating can also make us more slippery to our enemies! system slows down: This is not important while in dan• Digestive ger and so is slowed down for the saved energy to go to where it is most needed. Side effects may include nausea, butterflies and a dry mouth.
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Behaviours that will happen to you during the presentation:
• Self-talk/inner critique • Fiddling with clothes, hair or jewellery • Avoiding eye contact with the audience • Moving from foot to foot • Talking fast • General fidgeting You will do a lot of these things to help you cope with anxiety and yet these behaviours will only show an audience your fear.
WHAT IS YOUR BELIEF ABOUT PRESENTING? Negative beliefs make us prone to failing if we try or may even hold us back from making any effort at all. It is our limiting beliefs that stop us from reaching our potential. It is the negative voice in our head that repeats to us daily all the reasons we will fail. Negative beliefs are a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our negative thoughts cause us to behave in a negative way therefore ensuring a negative outcome: Negative belief = Negative feelings = Negative actions = Reinforced negative belief With presentation skills the belief cycle goes like this.
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The negative belief is:
• ‘Presenters are born not made.’ • ‘I am not naturally good at this.’ • ‘If I stand up, I will make a mess of it.’ • ‘I hate presentations. I can’t do presentations.’ don’t have time to prepare and anyway people who are good at pre• ‘Isenting don’t prepare.’
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• No preparation • Last-minute preparation that is focused on getting the presenter through the talk • Preparation rather than the audience The final result the audience and presenter experience is:
• A nervous unprepared presenter with the wrong focus • No engagement with the audience • Negative feedback
DELIVERING A GREAT PERFORMANCE
The negative behaviour is:
Because of this result the original belief is reinforced. In order to change the result you must change the belief and you must prepare.
Mentally coping with nerves STOP! Pause, take a breath and don’t react automatically. Ask yourself:
• What am I reacting to? • What is it that I think is going to happen here? • Is this fact or opinion? s the worst (and best) that could happen? What’s most likely to • What’ happen? • Am I getting things out of proportion? • How important is this really? How important will it be in six months’ time? • Am I overestimating the danger? • Am I underestimating my ability to cope? • Am I mind-reading what others might be thinking? • Is there another way of looking at this?
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• What advice would I give someone else in this situation? • Am I putting more pressure on myself? • Just because I feel bad doesn’t mean things really are bad. Thinking through the list of questions here can often help you recognise that things are not as threatening as they might seem!
Physically coping with nerves Practise calming or mindful breathing – this one act alone will help reduce the physical sensations, emotions and intensity of thoughts.
WHAT IS MINDFUL BREATHING? Imagine your mind when you are nervous as a brand new puppy that you need to toilet train. You allocate an area for the puppy to do his business, you put down some paper and then you show the puppy this area. What are the chances of the puppy getting it right the first time around? None. The puppy will keep wandering to all sorts of other places you don’t want him to go and you will have to keep bringing him back to the area with the paper. This is what it is like trying to calm your mind before you present. Your thoughts will be like the puppy, full of energy about all the possible outcomes and dangers when you present. You have to find a way to keep bringing your mind back to a calm and confident place. You do this by mindful breathing and it is very simple: you are sitting waiting to present, observe the natural rhythm of the • Asbreath. You don’t need to force it to be longer, deeper or slower. your mind starts to wander off simply take note of this distraction • When and bring your attention gently back to your breath. you like, either count up to ten in-breaths or ten out-breaths. If you • Ifwander off mid-count go back to the start.
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Yes, you can use notes and you should use notes in case you lose your way, which can happen to any presenter. However, you want to use notes in the right way so here are a few things to consider. you are going to use notes use them openly. You don’t need to hide • Ifthem from the audience or pretend you’re not using them. Please remember that the audience can see everything you are doing. allowed to look at your notes. A good time to do this is when you • You’re put up a new slide and the audience is getting to grips with the visual.
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Notes – can I use them?
This is also a good time to take a drink of water. Yes, you are allowed to do that too. are the outcome of your good preparation. They should be very • Notes legible, in a good large font and have minimal use of sentences – try using one word to remind you of the point you want to make. Your notes are not supposed to look like an essay. If you write your notes like that you will look down during the presentation and not be able to see the wood for the trees. cards or A4 sheets of paper are fine for your notes. Never staple • Simple the pages of your notes together. It is very distracting when you are moving through them and when you are turning the pages over. It also looks very sloppy. Leave them unstapled and slide them aside once you’re finished. Make sure each page is numbered in case you lose the order. notes should always be in your gaze path. This means placed • Your ahead of you so that your eyes only have to move slightly to look down at them rather than bending your head right down. If you have to look straight down, your head goes down, your voice becomes muffled and all the audience can see is the top of your head.
Confidence – how do I get it? It is the people with very limited presentation experience who talk to me most about having no confidence. They feel vulnerable and exposed when they present. They feel genuinely shocked they feel this way yet their lack of presentation experience means it is impossible for them to feel anything else.
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I don’t have a magic solution to this I am afraid. To have confidence you must have experience of doing something a lot and belief you can do it without making a fool of yourself (this comes from the experience). We feel confident about the things in our life we are skilled at. We are skilled at them because we work hard at them and have earned the right to feel confident and competent. Just think for a second about something you feel confident about – I bet you worked very hard to earn that feeling.
Confidence is not acquired easily and you don’t get it for free. There is no shortcut to real confidence. The reasons you don’t feel confident as a presenter are:
• You lack the experience (the skill) are not preparing properly or enough (you have not earned the • You right to feel confident) Do your best to gain more experience to build the skill or do as much preparation as possible and you will feel more confident.
Expect the unexpected – how to manage questions ‘What if I get asked a question I don’t know the answer to?’ I believe this is a dread that keeps many a presenter awake at night. What will you do if you are asked a question you don’t know the answer to? Let me tell you.
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2. You do not know everything. I am sorry if this is brand new information to you. 3. You can say you don’t know or you can try and bluff an answer (have you ever seen someone bluff an answer . . . not a pretty sight). Either way the audience knows you don’t know the answer to the question. 4. You must admit you don’t know. Explain why you don’t know and then tell them you will get back to them with an answer in due course. 5. You must manage your own anxiety around not knowing as you will feel very exposed. (This is not what the audience thinks, just what you feel.)
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1. This will happen to you. I guarantee it.
As well as preparing for the presentation you must also prepare for questions. I know you can’t foresee 100 percent of the questions you will be asked but you can certainly predict a number of them based on your audience profile. In preparing for questions write down:
• The obvious questions you think you will be asked • The challenging questions you fear • The one question you are most panicked about being asked The template below will help you prepare for questions. You might want to brainstorm with someone else in case you are too close to your topic and are unable to identify the angles of the audience.
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Finally, when you are asked a question you can answer confidently, follow this simple method:
• Take the name of the audience member. • Repeat or rephrase the question for the rest of the audience. • Answer it. • Check the response to your answer with the audience member. • Thank the audience member.
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oday more and more of us are delivering presentations in a virtual environment.
Global companies with multiple worldwide offices seeking their employees to work together collaboratively is just one of the reasons meeting and presenting virtually is on the rise. The ability to reach thousands of people worldwide and connect with a diverse audience with no travel costs is another reason this method of communication is escalating. Presenting virtually can be an incredibly effective means of communicating your message, but delivering a presentation remotely brings a whole new set of challenges and demands a more advanced set of delivery skills from the presenter.
Face-to-face versus virtual presenting In the hierarchy of communication speaking to someone face to face is considered the most effective interaction. In a person-to-person, faceto-face environment you have the best chance of communicating and convincing. Presenting virtually, although modern and valuable, will never be as personable or natural as face to face. But why is that? The reason is down to a very famous piece of research conducted in 1967 by Dr Albert Mehrabian, a Professor of Psychology at UCLA (http://www.toolshero .com/communication-skills/communication-model-mehrabian/). He found that:
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we communicate people receive our message in three ways, • When through our body language, our tone of voice and our words. our communication to be effective all three of these must be in • For sync. If they are not aligned the listener will get a mixed message.
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This piece of research has been quoted in many different ways and unfortunately it has also been misinterpreted in the past. This study is not saying what you say is not important. What this study is saying very simply is:
For example, I say I am excited but I do so in a hushed voice while shrugging my shoulders. non-verbal cues deliver our messages in partnership with our • Our words. In face-to-face communication, as long as the presenter’s message, voice and body language all say the same things, the communication has a good chance of being successful. In a virtual environment, these elements are either not all present (it may just be audio) or even if the audience can see you, your non-verbal cues will be dampened by the technology and distance. This is why presenting virtually is a challenge both for the presenter and the audience. Virtual presenting should not replace face-to-face presentations. In some cases, highly complex presentations that demand interaction may require and benefit from an in-person presentation. However, presenting virtually is a vital tool to have in your modern-day toolkit. It is a great advantage to master this medium as it is the way of the future. Now here comes the good news. The same communication rules apply. Preparing for a virtual presentation is no different to preparing for a traditional in-person presentation. The difference lies in the delivery or execution of the presentation.
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What follows are my five Virtual Presentation Tips. 1. Start with the Audience Focused Presenting Approach. 2. Master your technology. 3. Borrow some tricks from the media. 4. Eliminate distractions. 5. Get the timing right. 1. Start with the Audience Focused Presenting Approach There are bad presentations and then there are bad virtual presentations. Whatever hope a presenter has of engagement in person will be obliterated by technology.
The first step to preparing for a virtual presentation is exactly the same as for an in-person presentation. Using the Audience Focused Presenting Approach you need to: 1. Profile the audience 2. Structure your messages 3. Design visual aids
The key to a successful virtual presentation is the same as the key to a successful face-to-face presentation: preparation. need to be clear on your purpose, figure out how you will use • You notes and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
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2. Master your Technology I have yet to be involved in a virtual meeting or presentation where the technology does not go wrong in some way or other. I kid you not. It doesn’t matter what technology I use, how many times I use it, how much I prepare, how many people are on the call and even with IT standing by – something will not work.
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need to tell great stories, use relevant examples and create real • You understanding for your audience. need to be passionate, lead your slides and have a strong hook • You and conclusion.
I can also report it’s not just me. I have yet to attend a virtual presentation or meeting where I don’t see the same difficulties arising for someone else.
Predictable virtual failures are: dial in won’t work – it worked when you tested it 30 minutes • The before the call, it worked last week, it will work after the call but it will not work when you need it to.
will be a problem with sound – your sound or someone else’s • There sound. There will be a building site or chatting person in ear shot. There will be someone on the call who is unable or unwilling to use their mute button.
of course the more important the call, the more likely it will go • And wrong – it must be some sort of VC karma.
Our survey says According to a survey by Corporate Visions Inc., two-thirds of selling/ presenting time is now spent in virtual interactions, not face-to-face meetings.
In this same survey the no. 1 finding was those same professionals said they lack proper training in giving virtual presentations.
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Takeaway: Too many companies give their salespeople a Web meeting log-in, a PowerPoint deck, a pat on their back and send them on their way . . . and then wonder why more meetings aren’t converting into deals.*
Becoming an expert with the technology is vital to your success as a virtual presenter. If you’re uncomfortable operating the technology in any way, you and the audience will be so focused on trying to make it work that it will undermine the natural flow of the presentation and detract from your effectiveness.
As there are so many technologies and platforms out there it is impossible for me to give you training on technology but what I would like to offer you is a Virtual Presentation Checklist to ensure you are set up for success with any technology.
* h t t p : / / w i n . c o r p o ra t e v i s i o n s . c o m / r s / c o r p v / i m a g e s / C V I Q u a r t e r l y Report_Q112.pdf
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3. Borrow some tricks from the media Presenting virtually is not unlike being a TV presenter. For that reason I wanted to give you some media tips and tricks for your virtual performance. Smile, everyone can hear you
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The idea was to stand, smile and have energy during your delivery as the audience may not be able to see you but they can hear you smile. Look into the camera
Trust your microphone I have to admit I still struggle not to shout during a virtual presentation. Whether I am talking to people in Singapore, Sunnyvale or Spain, I always feel I need to speak a lot louder than if they were in the room. Your voice is your best friend in a virtual presentation. Speak slowly, pause, pronounce your words, show your passion and trust the microphones in the room are doing their job. 4. Eliminate distractions This is a big one. If someone in the audience is making unnecessary noises it can be very distracting. Distractions I have experienced, in no particular order, are:
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The goal is to try and keep your computer and your surroundings completely free from sounds that can irritate and turn your audience off. You can manage this with your audience by asking people to use their mute button during the presentation when they are not talking.
5. Get the timing right
Unlike an in-person presentation, a virtual presentation can span s everal time zones. You need to take this into consideration when scheduling the presentation. If possible, give the presentation during normal business hours for all audience members. Be aware of when audience members at various locations usually take breaks or eat meals. Try to plan a presentation time that is convenient for all of them.
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Also speaking of timing please ensure to respect participants’ time. Everyone has busy schedules, so it’s your responsibility to use the time as effectively as possible exactly as you would in person. The ability to present virtually is a fantastic technological advancement that connects people across the globe.
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o create a clear and influential presentation and to give yourself the confidence you need as a speaker you must schedule the time to research, develop, organise, flesh out, script and rehearse your presentation. The best and most powerful presenters make the time to do this. This is what sets them apart from the typical.
There is no shortcut to presentation success I have worked with thousands of presenters over the past ten years and the one thing they all have in common is they don’t prepare effectively for their presentations. What I have discovered is there are three main reasons why: 1. The urban myth 2. Preparing the wrong way 3. I don’t have enough time
1. The urban myth A massive falsehood believed by too many is the certainty you can present well and feel confident with little or no preparation.
I am sorry to say you will never be a great presenter if you: the slides together the night before and read them on the bus • Throw or train that morning
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three other people If you do what I have just described this is what you look like from the audience’s point of view:
• You let the slides lead the talk. • You spend all your time talking to the slides and not the audience. speak in a monotone voice with no breaks and no rhythm • You because you are reading not speaking.
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• Poach another person’s presentation three presentations already on the system; extract a few slides • Take from each, leaving you with a presentation that actually belongs to
make no eye contact with the audience. Your focus is on the • You slides and surviving in one piece. have body language that says ‘I don’t want to be here’. You fidget • You with a pointer or clicker while fumbling through slides and notes.
• You fill the slides with too many bullet points and full sentences. do not have a logical flow or structure. You try to communicate • You too much, too fast, causing information overload. • You do not have clear, structured messages. Speaking off the cuff ‘Our CEO here doesn’t ever prepare for presentations. He just gets up and speaks off the cuff. If he can do it, why can’t I?!’ This is a regular justification I hear. There is always a person identified in the company who they believe doesn’t prepare and therefore they conclude preparation is not necessary. They also back this up with the argument that they themselves are in a senior position therefore it seems unnecessary for them to have to prepare at their level. Sound fair? In most of the companies in which I have worked the person referred to as presenting off the cuff has spent between two and four hours with me preparing for the referenced presentation. They just didn’t tell anyone about it.
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School girl error When I was in school there was a girl in my class who told me she never studied for exams. Despite this assertion she used to get straight As. This baffled me because when I didn’t study I got Ds. I never questioned at the time she might be lying to me; in fact, I concluded she was smarter than me. It took me a long time to realise my mistake. There is no such thing as a student who gets straight As and doesn’t study. Similarly, there is no such thing as a presenter who talks naturally (looks like they are talking off the cuff) and is successful at delivering their message without proper preparation. It is not possible. It may look off the cuff or natural but that is because the presenter has spent time preparing it to look that way. A presenter must prepare and prepare effectively for the end result to be a success. I didn’t know this truth in school when I thought (or wished) you could get straight As without effort. I meet people every day who don’t understand this reality applies to presenting.
A study conducted by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and two colleagues, with the help of professors at the Berlin Academy of Music (http://projects .ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.PDF), divided student violinists into three groups: 1. Potential to be world-class soloists 2. Good, but unlikely to succeed professionally 3. Would become music teachers Each violinist was asked the same question: ‘Ever since you first picked up the violin, over the course of your entire career, how many hours have you practised?’
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At age eight, the amount of practice changed for those who later became the best with the potential to be world-class soloists. The ones who ended up with the potential to be the best increased their practice time from 3 hours a week to over 30 hours a week until the age of 20. By this time:
• These elite performers had each accumulated 10,000 hours of practice. • The good violin students had totalled 8,000 hours. • The future music teachers had totalled only 4,000 hours.
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Everyone started playing the violin around five years old and during the first few years everyone practised on average two to three hours a week.
The same study was done comparing amateur pianists with professional pianists. The amateurs never practised more than 3 hours a week during childhood and by the age of 20 had totalled 2,000 hours. The professionals increased their practice over time until by the age of 20 they had reached 10,000 hours. In Ericsson’s study there were no ‘naturals’, musicians who effortlessly floated to the top while practising less than others. The research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a music school, what distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it.
How the media professionals prepare Early in my career I worked as a presenter on the BBC show Live and Kicking. It was a live three-hour show that ran every Saturday for nine months from September to May. We presented on air for approximately two hours, allowing for other programmes we showed as part of the threehour show.
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We prepared in exactly the same way for the entire nine-month run. It went something like this.
Thursday The Live and Kicking week began on a Thursday at midday. I, my co-host Steve, the producers and the editor would all sit in a meeting room and a detailed document called a running order of items would be handed out. This was literally how the show would run, what competitions, interviews and games we were doing and in what order. We would then go through each section in great detail and start to discuss how we would bring the text and items to life. The producers’ role was to come up with ideas to make each item work, but as presenters Steve and I had to figure out what we would personally and individually bring to an interview or item. This meeting ran for seven hours.
Thursday evening On Thursday evening I would go home and start to put some structure on my items. I would work on how to introduce and end each section I was presenting. I worked on this for about two hours.
Friday Friday was a full rehearsal day from 8am to 7pm. We went into the studio where the show was transmitted from and we literally walked and talked the entire show twice. Some sections were rehearsed more than that. Every single detail from the way we walked, the way we talked and the way we interacted was rehearsed and critiqued by the production team.
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Friday evenings would consist of two hours of me sitting on my couch, speaking my scripts out loud, trying to link everything together and make sure it all flowed.
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Friday evening
Saturday After hair and make-up we did another full run-through of the show and even when we were on air we were continually rehearsing the upcoming items before we got to them. After the show or the next day I would sit down and watch a recorded disc of the show in full. This was never easy to do and I rarely liked what I saw but it was essential to see myself as I was, rather than how I felt I was. What always amazed me was how unreliable my feelings were. I had many Saturdays where I felt I was lacking in confidence and was very surprised watching myself back to see this was not visible to the audience. Equally I had Saturdays where I felt very self-assured, and again when I watched it back in fact I was lacking a spark on those days.
Monday Our post-show meeting would begin at 2pm with the ratings for that week. We would get a breakdown of the 3-hour show in 15-minute segments and we would know exactly who watched which part. We would then go back over each section in detail to see why things did or didn’t work.
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It was consistent Each week, without exception, for nine months this was my routine for preparing for Live and Kicking. The reason I am telling you this is because I would like you to understand the consistent approach to preparation we took on a weekly basis while working in a professional presentation environment. At no time was it felt we could ease off because we knew our stuff or had been doing the show for a while.
2. Preparing the wrong way Many people tell me they spend lots of time thinking about and planning their presentation and I get very excited before they explain all this preparation took place in their head! This is probably the worst place in the world to prepare. In your head you will be clear on everything. You will never um and ah in your own head. You will never go blank in your own head. You will never get nervous in your own head. You will be brilliant in your own head. Preparing a presentation in your head is like trying to learn to drive a car on a bicycle – completely crazy and ultimately futile. Preparing a presentation in your head is not the only way you can prepare in the wrong way. Another very common process is writing down every word you are going to say, like an essay, and then learning it off word for word. With this approach you will not be able to engage an audience as you will be too busy trying to
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I don’t blame you It is not your fault if you are preparing in the wrong way. We are not taught in school or university or even in our workplace the right way to prepare and deliver a presentation. It is brilliant if you are putting in the time to prepare for yourself and your audience. The aim of this book is to make sure you are using that time effectively by giving you a three-step method to ensure your success.
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remember every single word you learned, in the right order. Your biggest fear will be missing a word. Because you have prepared a written document and learned it off there is a very good chance this worse fear will be realised.
3. I don’t have enough time The no. 1 reason I hear for the absence of presentation preparation is a lack of time. I know some of you reading this book work 12-hour days just to meet the demands of your day-to-day job. I know you have partners and children with whom you like to spend time in the evenings and at weekends. I know you want to prepare but the problem is time. Finding the time to prepare for a presentation is an enormous challenge for many professionals. I can’t solve your workload problems but I can tell you if you are ploughing through presentations that aren’t working for you then you need to prepare properly. Preparing for your presentations must become a vital item on your to do list, not the thing you put on the long finger or leave to the last minute because you have too much else to do. People tell me all the time that when they prepare properly they perform very well. A lot of the obstacles that arise with presenting become inconsequential with preparation. Fundamental preparation steps like rehearsing your talk out loud a minimum of three times before you do it for real is vital for presentation success. If you don’t rehearse your presentation in full out loud it will be full of hesitation, ums, ahs and long drawn-out sentences. You will look unsure of your messages and as if you don’t know what you’re talking about. I have devoted an entire chapter to presentation preparation in the hope of convincing you how worthwhile and essential preparation is. You can be a really great presenter, but you have to prepare.
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The big question How long do I need to spend preparing for my presentation? Earlier in the book we looked at the three types of presentations – Everyday, Formal and Keynote
Everyday presentations – A small, informal presentation, as simple as a meeting to discuss the status of a project, or to present some research, strategy or inspiration. Many times these presentations are internal and often include only members of the team. Formal presentations – These include the decision makers who’ll give the go ahead for the project to move forward. Often these presentations are offsite and require significant preparation. There is more at stake here because this type of presentation proves the presenter properly understood the problem and created great solutions. Keynote presentations – This is where you speak to a larger audience, say over 20 people. There’s less interaction between the presenter and the audience. And the presentation is highly structured and choreographed. Each of these will require a different level of preparation depending on the topic, the audience and how long the presentation is. For example, if you have a 40-minute presentation that means ideally you will need to find 3 * 40@minute pockets to rehearse as well as separate time to prepare the content. Below are some guidelines on how to best use your time.
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If you have . . .
My final word on this is, give yourself the best chance of success and use whatever time you have wisely.
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T
he ability to be a great presenter is a skill.
What I want to do in this chapter is give you a long-term action plan to help you make a noticeable difference in your presenting. To move the needle on your presentation skills long term the five Actions you need to consider are: 1. Present, present, present. 2. Employ the Audience Focused Presenting Approach for every presentation. 3. Complete the checklists. 4. Continue to ask for feedback. 5. Make better presenting your goal. 1. Present, present, present
It might sound silly but the first thing you have to do to be a great presenter or even a better presenter is to present.
That’s right, I want you to present as much as you possibly can. I want you to present standing up and sitting down. I want you to present to 2 people and if you can to 200 people. I want you to present daily, weekly, monthly, as often as you can. I want you to volunteer for every presentation opportunity in and outside of your work or college. I want you to attend courses where you will present and I want you to join presenting clubs such as Toastmasters: www.toastmasters.org.
Presenting is a skill and the only way to learn and master this skill is to do it as much as possible.
The best way for you to become the presenter you want to be is to present.
2. Employ the AFP Approach for every presentation
Not only do I want you to present as much as possible but for every single presentation, no matter how significant or trivial you feel it is I want you to follow the Audience Focused Presenting three-step methodology.
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• Start by asking the ten Audience Profile Questions. your messages using the Audience Focused Presenting • Structure Structure Sheet. • Design visuals (If needed).
3. Complete the checklists I am not a very good flyer. In fact, I am terrified of getting on a plane. This is not something that is fun to live with so a couple of years ago I took a course to help me overcome this fear. What I learned on that course is that pilots and co-pilots always go through a checklist before they take off and land. These are usually pilots with years of experience flying but they still must go through the checklist every single time they take off and land. Why? Because forgetting even one tiny detail (which is so easily done) can have very serious consequences – life or death in the case of flying a plane. The main reasons for using these checklists is to ensure the pilots do not get complacent or overconfident.
Presenters who are complacent or overconfident are just as dangerous for an audience.
It is for this reason I am giving you the Audience Focused Presenting Pre-Presentation checklist. I would like you to use it as a support in your presentation preparation. My recommendation is you do not stand and present until you have ticked all the boxes.
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Have you ever asked for feedback after a presentation only to be placated with some general statement like you were ‘fine’, ‘yeah it was good’? Or worse you are given critical feedback by a colleague: ‘I think you were a bit nervous’, ‘You were talking very fast’. ‘I didn’t like what you were doing with your hands’. Getting real and relevant feedback on your presentation skills is vital. Why?
Because how you feel you are presenting and how an audience is experiencing you can be very different.
Feedback is important because you need to understand the impact you are having on your audience. In order to get good feedback you need to ask a person in the audience to assess you based on specific criteria. You have to ask the right questions to get the right answers.
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4. Continue to ask for feedback
On the next page is the Audience Focused Presenting Presentation Feedback Sheet. You can give this to the person you’re looking for feedback from and ask them to fill it out based on a specific presentation scenario. Alternatively, there is one very simple question you can ask after your presentation to the person you are seeking feedback from. The question is: ‘What messages did you take away from my presentation?’ Then wait and see what they say. No prompting from you allowed.
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Ultimately if you really want to be a better presenter, what you need to do is come up with specific actions you can take over the next 12 months to reach that goal. You may need to attend a course, get more experience presenting or read some more books. You might want to try out Prezi, explore ways to get more energy or uncover ways to manage your nerves.
The actions are yours to determine. I have shared with you in this book what makes a great presenter so use that as your guide. Start by using the Action Plan Template below to identify some specific actions you can take to get you to the next level as a presenter.
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5. Make better presenting your goal
If you want to create your own presentation action plan please do but if you are not sure where to start I recommend the Audience Focused Presenting 365-day Presentation Plan.
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Move your presentation skills needle You are actually always presenting; you just don’t realise it. Every time you talk to someone face to face or on the phone you are presenting. Think about it. The only area you may not get to practise day to day is standing in front of a large audience and using visual aids but every other element of presentations you can practise in your everyday work situations. With that in mind our 365-day Presentation Plan means you select one behaviour a month for 12 months and wherever and whenever possible you put it into practice. Ideally, try your new behaviour once a day for the month. These are the 12 behaviours I would like you to practise over the next 12 months.
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CONCLUSION
In business today no matter what our job title the ability to present a message to a group of people is something we all have to do in one form or another. The reality is engineers don’t just deal with machines and models, accountants don’t just deal with numbers and solicitors don’t just deal with legislation. We need to present to our co-workers and managers. We need to go out into the world and present ourselves and our ideas to audiences such as clients, groups or agencies. We need to know how to present with impact to do this effectively. For a presenter to succeed he or she must figure out how to get the information out of their mind to the people in the audience in a way they will understand, remember and even act on. This is the skill of presenting. This is the skill you may not have been taught despite graduating from a top university, having a 25-year career under your belt or acquiring a very impressive job title. This is a skill you can acquire now using the Audience Focused Presenting three-step method. Don’t let yourself down when you stand up to speak. Great presenters are created, not born. Good luck out there.
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TWO FINAL TIP SHEETS
All for one and one for all – group presentations A lot of you reading this book have to present as part of a group. The same rules apply to a group presentation as an individual presentation. Below are some quick tips for group presentations.
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Tips for group presentations
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A one-pager for your desk Top five tips for great presentations:
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INDEX
adrenaline response, 104–5 AFP see Audience Focused Presenting agenda slide Audience Focused Presenting, 35–8 Slide Focused Presenting, 35 animating text, 83 anxiety, 102–8 Audience Focused Presenting (AFP), 12, 13–15 begin with a clear purpose, 28–9 don’t assume interest, 29–31 for every presentation, employing, 138–9 have a middle not a muddle, 45–8 hook the audience in, 32–8, 69 One-Page AFP Preparation Cheat Sheet, 62, 86–7 preparation structure, 47–8 profile of audience, 63–6 start at the end, 38–42 structure, 66–75 use the word YOU, 42–5 virtual presenting, 118–19 visual aids, designing, 76–88
B and W, 85 back to future, 39 belief about presenting, 105–7 body language, 117 body-language rule, 94–5 CAIB see Columbia Accident Investigation Board challenges to presentation, 11–12 checklists completion of, 139 pre-preparation of, 140 Virtual Presentation Checklist, 120, 121 Columbia, 2 decision-making about satellite photograph, 5 Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), 6–7, 8 communication, 20–1, 90 Communication Factor, 52 communicator, 52–6 confidence, 109–10 Corporate Visions Inc., 119–21 Virtual Presentation Checklist, 120, 121 critics against presentation, 6
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Index
deductive reasoning, 3, 40 delivery, 20, 90 denial, 93 distractions, eliminating, 122–3 DOTS, 70–1 Duarte, Nancy, 80 Eagleson, Robert, 55 Elias, Ric, 34 energy, 92–3 everyday presentations Audience Focused Presenting, 14 preparation for, 134 expect the unexpected, 110–12 eye contact, 93–4 face-to-face presenting, 116–24 feedback, 141 presentation sheet, 142 filler words, 95–7 first impression, 38 foam strike, 2, 5 Fonda, Jane, 34–5 formal presentations Audience Focused Presenting, 14 preparation for, 134 goal presentation, 143 great presentation, 18–19, 33–5, 58, 98–100 greeting, 69
keynote presentations Audience Focused Presenting, 15 preparation for, 134 listening the presentation, 30 Live and Kicking, 129–32 maze, 39 media professionals preparation of, 129–32 Mehrabian, Albert, 116 mentally coping with nerves, 107–8 message structure, 66–75 Meyer, Pamela, 34 Microsoft, 10 mindful breathing, 108 mixed audience, 64–6 mixed message, 117 my hands, 101–2 mystery tour, 39 negative behaviour, 107 negative belief, 107 nerves mentally coping with, 107–8 physically coping with, 108 notes, 109
handout see slide docs humour, 92
Oliver, Jamie, 34 One-Page AFP Preparation Cheat Sheet, 62, 86–7 one point at a time, 97–8 overloading, 54
industry jargon, 55 information amount of, in presentation, 28–30
Paradi, Dave, 76 passion, 91 performance, 89–113 anxiety, 102–8
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real rehearsal, 100 rehearsal, 98–100 real, 100 rules, 100 remote control test, 32 right diagnosis, 64–6 right presentation, 42 right time, getting, 123 rule of three, 46
Index
body-language rule, 94–5 confidence, 109–10 energy, 92–3 eye contact, 93–4 filler words, 95–7 humour, 92 my hands, 101–2 notes, 109 one point at a time, 97–8 passion, 91 rehearsal, 98–100 physical sensations, 104–5 physically coping with nerves, 108 picture, power of, 57–8 presentation leader, becoming, 23–4 presentation skill, 144 level, 21–3 presenter, 57 slides leaded by, 84 presenting, 138 Audience Focused Presenting see Audience Focused Presenting belief about, 105–7 face-to-face, 116–24 to influence, 73 to inform, 72 to motivate, 74 to sell, 75 Slide Focused Presenting, 10–11, 23, 35, 40 virtual, 116–24 profile of audience, 63–6 in real time, 64 right diagnosis, 64–6 purpose of presentation, 28–30
school girl error, 128 screen and visual aids, 84–5 sensations, physical, 104–5 shortcut to presentation success timing of presentation, 133–5 urban myth, 126–32 wrong way preparation, 132–3 slide, 3–5 slide-based approach, 2–3 slide docs distinguished from visual aids, 80–1 Slide Focused Presenting, 10–11, 23 agenda slide, 35 deductive reasoning, 40 slideware, over-using and exploiting, 77 stories, 58 structure of Audience Focused Presenting, 66–75 DOTS, 70–1 greeting, 69 hook the audience in, 69 presenting to influence, 73 presenting to inform, 72 presenting to motivate, 74 presenting to sell, 75 3 3 format, 69–70 sustainability, 57
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technology, mastering, 119–21 TED, 58–9 3 3 format presentation, 69–70 365-day Presentation Plan, 143, 144 timing of presentation, 133–5 tone of voice, 117 transitioning between slides, 83–4 tricks from media, borrowing, 121–2 trigger, 106 Tufte, Edwards, 7, 8 urban myth, of presentation success, 126–32 Virtual Presentation Checklist, 120, 121 virtual presenting, 116–24 Audience Focused Presenting approach, 118–19 distractions, eliminating, 122–3 right time, getting, 123
technology, mastering, 119–21 tricks from media, borrowing, 121–2 visual aids animating text, 83 B and W, 85 best practice, 81–2 designing, 76–88 distinguished from slide docs, 80–1 five words across and down, 82 preparation of, 79–80 purpose, 81 screen and, 84–5 slides leaded by presenter, 84 transitioning between slides, 83–4 warning, 35 Weiner, David, 99 wrong presentation, 40–1, 55, 132–3 path, 19
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