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:

No one noticed the mistake of the presenter. But everyone noticed the react in the speaker had to the mistake.
When you combine this blunder with the probability that the average speaker is unemotional, bland and boring through the rest of the speech, then you end of with the situation where the only emotional moment in the whole presentation is when the presenter looked and sounded embarrassed. This “moment” now stands out as the most interesting moment of the whole presentation and therefore the most memorable. Disaster!

The foolproof presenter, being human, doesn’t aspire to flawless perfection when delivering presentations. But he/she does have one trick up the sleeve that other presenters don’t have, and that is the knowledge that if you don’t tell audiences you made a mistake, they will likely never figure it out.

Let’s say you go out of order when it comes to delivering points from your presentation. Well “order” is a concept in your brain or on your notes; the audience doesn’t have an order. They don’t have your notes or speech text in front of them. They are just listening to you and trying to understand what you are talking about. So if you realize you’ve gone out of order, just go back to the points you missed without telling anyone.

Let’s say you are in the middle of making a point and suddenly your brain freezes and you can’t remember what to say next. The average presenter will have a look of horror shoot across his face, turn bright red, grimace, apologize to the audience, and then mutter something about having a senior moment. But here is what you do once you are a foolproof presenter in these situations where your mind has gone blank:

Stop. Look at one person in the audience like you just said something so brilliant, he or she needs a moment to think about it. Next, perhaps ask a question of one person or the whole audience to see if they are with you so far. Or, just quietly walk across the room as if to signify a planned, natural transition. Inwardly, you are thinking “crap, I forgot what I was supposed to say. What comes next?” But outwardly, you are projecting serenity, calm, purposefulness, and a focus on your audience.

Trust me; this technique will work for you the vast majority of the time when you blunder. Obviously, if you say something that is glaringly, factually wrong that everyone will notice, I.e., “the moon is only 93 thousand miles away from the Earth” then you should instantly and immediately correct yourself, but without unnecessary self-flagellation.

Every so often, I will start talking about a concept and a story that is supported by a video clip or image that is 2 slides away in my PowerPoint. So when I advance the slide, the wrong slide will come up. But I never panic and I never comment on it. I just calmly advance the PowerPoint to the next slide that I need. Then, I go in reverse when I am ready to go back to the missed point. Then, I have to advance twice to get back to the right place. Guess what, no one ever notices this blunder when I quiz them on it immediately after the presentation. This is because my face never shows distress. My words never utter apologies. My tone never shows concern. I just keep going and the whole mistake becomes so unmemorable that it is forgotten moments later.

So if you make a mistake, don’t panic. You now have the skills to minimize the damage in the eyes of your audience. And if you master the skill of ignoring your weak moments, you will condition your audience to do the same.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.