Archive for October, 2008

No.

Anyone can be a great presenter. Presenting well is not a rare talent, like playing concert-level violin, or shooting 6 under par on a golf course. Presenting well is a skill that anyone can learn with a little focus; it’s more like making tasty Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies, if you follow the recipe and pay attention, you will create a satisfying final product.

If you have ever had a single interesting conversation with one other person, then you already have all of the technical skills you need to be an excellent presenter. You already know how to talk, engage and be understood. So for most people, when learning how to become a great presenter, they do not have to learn a new skill set such as when learning how to play polo where you have to learn out to ride a horse, swing a mallet, aim a ball through a goal, etc.

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No, chances are you don’t need a deeper voice or a better voice than the one you naturally speak with.

Most people hate the sound of their own voice. If you video record or audio record your voice during a rehearsal and then listen to it, chances are you won’t like yours either. Here’s why: when you listen to your voice coming out of a TV or a speaker, you are hearing your voice in a non-distorted manner; this is how everyone else hears your voice on a daily basis.

But that’s not how we normally hear our own voice. All day long we hear our own voice distorted through the bones in our own skull from both inside and outside. So when we hear our voice coming from just a speaker and not from within our head, we are all of a sudden not hearing the distortion. The result? It sounds so different to us that it is disorienting and we don’t like it. They we think we need to change our voice.
Not so fast!

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Everyone says the occasional “uh” and “um.” Don’t beat yourself up if you do. Bill O’Reilly and Martha Stewart both say “uh” and “um” all of the time and they both make tens of millions of dollars a year by speaking! So let’s put your problem in perspective. Martha and Bill are still successful because they have messages that audiences find interesting. Your biggest problem is always making sure you have something interesting to say, not whether you have too many “uhs” and “ums.”

However, all things considered, the few “ums” and “uhs” you have cluttering your speech, the better. The first thing you have to do is actually determine if you have the problem. In my experience, executives and sales people who think they have a problem with too many uhs and ums rarely do. Those who think they don’t have a problem often do.

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This is one of the most common fears that presenters voice to me. You are likely feeling vulnerable when someone, especially a boss or important client or prospect asks you a question and you can’t answer it. I sympathize with you; really, I do. But it is important to keep your potential problems in perspective.

Every time I speak to a large audience of 100, 500 or more, I ask the following question, “How many of you remember a time when you saw a presenter who couldn’t answer a question and it was embarrassing for the presenter?” Sure enough, 10 or 20% of the hands go up. So yes, this is real and legitimate concern.

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This is a common situation. You’ve been told you have 30 minutes to make your presentation to the board on what your department has been doing for the last quarter and why you deserve to continue to receive funding. But at the last minute, the organizer whispers in your ear, “We’re running behind schedule. You need to speak for no more than 15 minutes.”
“Egads!”

What do you do now? You have 30 minutes worth of material. You’ve rehearsed it, just as you know you should do, and you got the time down to exactly 30 minutes. This is unfair! This can’t be happening! You played by the rules, why can’t everyone else stick to the rules?
Relax. You will get through this.

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Don’t tell anyone!
Don’t show anyone!
It really does come down to following those two principles.

Everyone makes mistakes when they present. We forget a point, go out of order, and talk about a slide that is two slides away instead of the one that is coming up next. Everyone makes mistakes. But not everyone reacts to their mistakes the same way.

The average presenter will literally say “I’m sorry” in front of people and have a look of extreme sheepishness crosses his or her face. But here’s the fundamental insight:

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There really is no such thing as a formal presentation or an informal presentation—from the perspective of our audience. There are really only two kinds of presentations in the entire world:
Good ones.
And bad ones.
Really. That’s it.

Think about when you are in listening to someone speak or present in front of you. Are you thinking, “Wow, I sure am glad this presenter is being formal and grabbing a lectern and standing in front of the room?”
Of course not.

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Don’t do it! It doesn’t work. Imagine you are going on a date if you are single, or try to remember a time when you were single going out on a date. How impressive would it have been at the beginning of the evening if your date said, “I’m sorry but this is going to be a really lousy date because I’m not good at this sort of thing, and I didn’t get enough sleep last night, and my mom picked out this ugly shirt…?”

Would that have made the date go better, or would it have just soured things from the start?

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You will encounter some experts who advise you to stand still with both feet planted firmly, or to grab the lectern with both hands so that you don’t appear shaky. This is terrible advice!

You are normally better off if you can walk around when you are presenting if you are speaking to a group from 5 to 5000. Obviously, if you are presenting to just one or two people and everyone is seated, you can just stay seated. But if you are standing, then I recommend that you move around the room.

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Look at individual audience members, one at a time. This will make you appear to be a comfortable, confident, authoritative and a credible presenter—even if you are scared to death inside.

The following are things you should NOT look at when you are presenting:
•    The tops of people’s heads
•    The clock
•    The floor
•    Your PowerPoint Slides
•    Your fully-written script

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This is one of the most common questions that comes up in every training I conduct. “I don’t know what to do with my hands!” people complain to me every week.

The thing to do with your hands is what you do all day long with your hands when you are talking to one person—you move your hands. Somewhere, long ago, it was written that a professional presenter should not move his or her hands when speaking. This is utter nonsense!
If you attempt to stop moving your hands when you speak in front of one or more people, you set off the following negative chain reaction:
1.    Your body looks literally stiff.
2.    You look uncomfortable.
3.    Your arms stiffen.
4.    Your vocal chords stiffen.
5.    You speak in a lower volume.
6.    You speak more monotone.
7.    You seem more boring.
Don’t do it!

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