a few, well chosen words can evoke amazing images.

there’s been some recent comment in the blogosphere on this. for instance CreativityWorks’ post citing Churchill’s ‘iron curtain’ speech.

here in australia, an equally evocative phrase, ‘stolen generation’, conjures up plenty of desperate and emotional images.

 in this context, the link between words and images is summed up in one word itself: emotion. photos, paintings, pictures – phrases, poetry, prose are all at their best when they convey emotion.

 I don’t know, but emotion, to me, in both words and pictures means an ability to suggest. Stimulating the audience to conjure up the texture and dimension of the story themselves produces the strongest reaction. it’s the classic – tell me you’re funny, or tell me a joke – maxim. the inclusion of involvement is the imperative. without it, life is a lecture, with it, it is an adventure.

 the images we create from certain words are individual, private even; but often, when the suggestion, the emotion, is extremely powerful, the images have the commonality of an ‘archetype’. and as such can be immensely powerful, binding us all together, collectively, in the human condition. producing the equivalent of a profound, ‘we understand’.

 even words that don’t on the face of it ‘paint pictures’, can, used in the right way, in the right context, be dramatic and a driving force. think about Obama’s ‘yes we can’.

 but all too often words are trotted out ad infinitum, machine-gun style. too many words, or the same words delivering, basically, the same information, in the same way. a lazy, fearful, vacuous soup where all too many business presentations, unfortunately, reside.

 words are about communication. if we are to communicate well, we need to pay words more respect. the famous line ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’, is perhaps the most disrespectful and inaccurate use of words, in history. words cause all wars.

 but, equally, words also deliver hope. and without them and the connection they provide, we wouldn’t even be here.

 words to me exist to paint pictures. so I think we should all learn to paint with them. some days we will use words to create modern art, some days to paint impressionist landscapes, other days to measure out exact technical drawings or precise diagrams. but never to create grey, fuzzy photocopies.

 in business, this means don’t tap out PowerPoint slides full of words. use words carefully. parsimoniously. try alternatives for words that are overused, words that have lost their shine from the battering of the bandwagon they’ve been on.

 imagine, for a moment, being the word ‘agenda’. your very soul would be so dull these days, you’ve been ‘photocopied’ so many times; used to the point of becoming almost invisible. the same, it’s a pity to say, goes if you were any one of the words: ‘objective’,  ‘leverage’ or ‘strategy’. you just don’t evoke the same passion, imagery or meaning that you once did.

 so here’s some practical food for thought. say, for example, you’re in Sony’s digital camera sales division and you’re at some swanky, exotic location for your annual sales conference. the first slide in the presentation on screen reads ‘objective 2010 – increase sales by 15%’. you’re in the audience. I’m guessing here…but I don’t think I hear your adrenaline pumping in your eagerness to hit that mark’?

 so, instead, what if the first slide had read ‘what are we gonna do this year – make 9 million more people say ‘cheese’ with a Sony’. now there’s an evocative image! doesn’t that involve and inspire you a bit more. and what about the ‘agenda’ slide. how about ‘a million smiles in the making…’

 understand? get…the picture?

 words. they are at their best when they paint pictures. so learn to paint with them.

1.  What we can to set the scene and take control

2.  How we can say it in order to own the room

1.   Set the scene and take control 

To set the scene, all presentations should have a Purpose, and possibly some Background information, some Housekeeping and/or an Attention Grab.  For more information on these, have a quick look at my blog ‘Mission Control.  Ready for lift off’. 

Great, so now we have some relevant scene setting information to ease you and your audience into the presentation, plus they all now know why they are there listening to you.  Now let’s look at how we can own the room and create a really strong 1^st impression.

2.  Owning the room

It’s essential that you use the first 60 seconds to establish your presence, authority and credibility i.e. to sell yourself.

The first thing to do is MARK YOUR START i.e. decide where you physically want to be to start your presentation.  You obviously want to be where everyone can see you (usually at the head of the table) and you ideally want to position yourself as close to the audience as is comfortable.  This is because increasing your proximity to your audience increases your presence and appearance of confidence.  Once you’re at the spot where you want to begin, take a moment to collect and connect.  

To do this, pause as this will raise your perceived confidence and authority. As you pause, breathe.  Breathing naturally will help you to appear in control, whilst also reducing your nerves.  At the same time make eye connection with your audience.  Obviously don’t eye ball every individual, but you do want to start building some non-verbal rapport with them.  As part of this, make sure you smile!  This is one of the most important assets we have – it makes us appear relaxed, approachable and in the moment – and smiling also helps to reduce nerves!

The above sounds complicated but really it’s no different to how you would behave if you were being introduced to someone for the first time – and it only takes 2-3 seconds, and these few seconds can be crucial in helping you appear poised, self assured, and ready to begin.

Ok, so now it’s time to own the room.  Here goes!

Simply go through your first scene setting chunk (i.e. purpose, background, housekeeping or attention grab) then pause.  If you don’t pause at this point, what comes out of your mouth will sound like verbal porridge.

Now change gear, up or down it doesn’t matter.  This is to make sure you begin to engage the audience and don’t come across as monotone.

Next, see if you can move/change position.  This doesn’t have to be dramatic!  A lean back in your chair or a step forward will do.

Now deliver your next scene setting chunk.  Then pause, change gear and move and so on until you reach your agenda.

QUICK WARNING – This may feel unnatural at first! But I guarantee it’s well worth it as the combination of pausing, changing gears and moving is incredibly powerful. Together they will help you own the room and come across as comfortable, confident, and in control.  At the same time, you will get the audience’s attention, maintain their engagement and build a sense of anticipation for your presentation.  A pretty good 1^st impression I’m sure you would agree – all achieved in a matter of seconds. Plus, this will reduce your nerves, so that by the time you get to your agenda you should feel you’re firing on all cylinders and ready to deliver a really successful presentation.

If you want to kick off a presentation and own the room remember the first 60 seconds can make or break a presenter. So plan & practice the start so you know you’ll make a great 1^st impression

p.s. remember it’s your personality that powers your presentation performance.

Set the scene and take control 

PURPOSE

The first thing to do is provide your audience with a clearly defined PURPOSE for the presentation.  It’s like telling your car passengers where you’re going.  But make it about them, not you!  So include a WIFT i.e. What’s In It For Them, so they’ll be eager and engaged from the start.

The next 3 scene setting components are optional, so only put in what you need.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION, E.g.

• Introducing yourself and/or the team.
• Providing context to the presentation e.g. the background situation, recapping on the brief, reminding the audience of any prior meetings or discussions etc.
• This is also a great time to build rapport with your audience.  Can you:
  -       Acknowledge the challenges or successes in their world
  -       Pre-empt any concerns they might have about the content within your presentation
  -       Proactively manage their expectations

HOUSEKEEPING

I’m sure you’re familiar with the sorts of things housekeeping can include, but just in case here are some examples:

-       Saying thank you to the audience
-       Letting them know how long you’ll be talking for
-       Stating when you want the audience to ask you questions
-       Letting them know if you’re going to be asking them questions
-       Advising if there will be any interruptions or breaks during the presentation
-       Letting them know catering arrangements
-       Telling them if there will be handouts during, or leave behinds after, the presentation.

Then there are the presentation ‘rules’ regarding things like mobiles, blackberries, laptops etc as well toilet location and emergency procedures.

THE ATTENTION GRAB

As the name suggests, this is a great tool to get the attention of the audience, to set the mood of the presentation, and to reduce your nerves.

Don’t worry, your attention grab doesn’t have to be wildly creative.  What it must do however is support your message in some way.  Otherwise there’s a danger that the only thing people will remember will be your attention grab and not the point of your presentation! 

There are loads of great sources for attention grabs.

Ok, having decided what you’re going to say to set the scene and take control of your presentation, you now need to determine in which order it makes sense to say them.  There’s no right or wrong – just whatever order seems to flow right for you.

Great, so now we have some relevant scene setting information to ease you and your audience into the presentation, plus they all now know why they are there listening to you.  I’d say you’re ready for lift off!

p.s. remember it’s your personality that powers your presentation performance.

Here are 6 simple steps to help you answer questions with confidence and credibility (even ones you don’t know the answer to!):

Step 1.  Before you rush headlong into your answer – pause.  This will give you time to think about your reply and make you look as though you are giving the question due consideration.  It is also a critical sign of respect to the questioner.

Step 2.  Then make sure you understand the question.  Vague or garbled questions usually receive vague and garbled answers.  If in doubt ask for the question to be repeated or paraphrase it back to the questioner.

Step 3.  If appropriate, agree with the questioner. For example:

Lisa (who’s in the audience) says to Tom (the presenter):   ‘Tom the roll out plan has some tough deadlines.  I’m worried we aren’t going to make those timings.’ Tom might reply ‘You’re right, the deadlines are tough (i.e. he’s agreeing with Lisa) but I think if we put on an extra shift we’ll be ok.’ (i.e. his answer).

Step 4.  Wherever possible, acknowledge the merit of the question (sincerely!).  Here are some examples:

 ‘That’s a question a lot of people have asked us recently.’

‘That’s an issue we’ve discussed at length internally.’

‘That’s an interesting perspective.  I haven’t thought of that before.’

Step 5.  If required, chunk your answer so your reply is easy to follow.  This is useful when you want to present both sides an argument or if your answer is likely to be a long one. 

Step 6.  Finally, always check in, verbally or non verbally, to make sure you’ve answered the question to the questioner’s satisfaction.

Ok, so now you know how to answer a question with confidence and credibility – but what should you do if you don’t know the answer?

Don’t panic.  And most importantly pause(!).  Then, if possible acknowledge the merit of the question (see point 4. above) as this will help you appear in control and on the front foot.  Then you have several options depending on the situation. 

Let’s say you’re asked:  ‘What’s the current rate of inflation?’.  You might reply ‘That’s a really relevant question given the RBA is reviewing interest rates again next week…’ and then (here are your options)…

• What I do know (i.e. I’m still an expert):

…The inflation rate is between 2.5 and 3%.  Let’s face it, 99% of people would be more than happy with that answer.

• I know I don’t know (i.e. I’m human)

…New data was released yesterday.  Let me check the most recent figures and get back to you via x before y.  How on the ball and cooperative does that sound!  That would receive a gold star from me.
Or; …I’m so sorry, my mind has gone blank. If it doesn’t come back to me, I’ll get the answer to you via x before y.  Well heck – who hasn’t been in that situation before?  No drama.

• Someone I know knows (I’m helpful):

…I’m not the best person to answer that.  Let me talk to John and get back to you via x before y.  Or;…Does anybody else have the latest data with them?  That’s ok, I’d rather hear the answer from an expert anyway, and if you can help achieve that – great.

• I know I should know (i.e. I’m honest)

…I should know that and I’m sorry I don’t.  I’ll get the answer to you via x before y.  Perhaps not ideal but if you’ve acknowledged the worth of the question, your reputation should remain intact.

You see, you can still come across as confident and credible – even when you get questions you don’t know the answer to.   

So put yourself in the firing line and ask your audience to get involved.  It increases their engagement and enjoyment, plus it will make your message more memorable. What’s not to like?!

p.s. remember it’s your personality that powers your presentation performance.

There are 3 levels of proactive audience involvement (i.e. where you make the first move) – Passive, Participative & Pointed.

1. Passive audience involvement

Where you involve the audience but they don’t respond.  E.g.:

• Pre-empting questions or concerns e.g. ‘Looking at the project rollout, some of you might be worried about the tight deadlines.  I’d like to chat about that now.’
• Using rhetorical questions e.g. ‘So when exactly are we going to implement the restructure? Well …’
• Referring to the audience e.g. ‘I was chatting to John from IT and he’s also worried about the SPAM we’re receiving.’
• Getting the audience to imagine a situation e.g. ‘Imagine life if you could finish work by 5.00pm 3 times a week.  Think about all the extra exercise, family, social, cooking, hobby time you would have. That’s what I’m going to talk about today – work/life balance.’
• Acknowledging success or challenges e.g. ‘I’d like to congratulate the marketing team on a really successful campaign last quarter.’

The great thing about Passive audience involvement is that it’s a low-risk way of having a relationship with everyone in your audience, no matter how many people there are!

2.  Participative audience involvement

Asking a question of the audience and they respond.  E.g.:

Closed questions e.g. ‘Hands up who would like to win the lottery?’

Open questions e.g. ‘What other ideas can you think of that would improve our work/life balance?’

Checking-in e.g. ‘Does anyone have any questions about the restructure before we move on?’

Closed questions are a terrific way to warm your audience up, especially if they don’t know each other.  Once they feel comfortable, you can introduce open questions.

NOTE:  I always recommend you let your audience know in your housekeeping that you’ll be asking questions as this will help them feel prepared to contribute.

3.  Pointed audience involvement

Same as Participative but it’s to one member of the audience at a time.  Pointed audience involvement can be like being asked for a date by someone when you’re with a crowd of your mates.  Embarrasing! So to prevent this reaction try our 2 stage comfort technique:

Stage i)  Prepare the audience for the question e.g. ‘Sarah I’d like to get your input if that’s ok.’

Stage ii) Then provide comfort that you won’t judge them or their input e.g. ‘You’re someone that has a balanced life.’  Then the question ‘So what do you do to ensure work doesn’t take over?’

So get polygamous and build relationships with your audience because the more involved they are, the more engaging, enjoyable and memorable you and your presentations with be.

But what about when people ask us questions?  In others words, reactive audience involvement.  See our blog ‘Put yourself in the firing line’.

p.s. remember it’s your personality that powers your presentation performance.

I couldn’t agree more!  Likewise, I absolutely concur that pauses are useful to allow the audience to process what’s been said and of course it gives you, as the presenter, time to think about what you want to say next.

However, I think the pause can be a far more powerful tool for us as presenters.  Here are 3 more reasons why the pause is so powerful

1.  Message impact

Verbal pausing is like visual white space – it creates room for an idea to breathe and standout amongst all our other presentation content. To steal Garr Reynolds’ idea ‘simplify to amplify’ – in other words, we can use pausing to amplify our key message, because a pause gets people’s attention and creates anticipation so our message arrives with a bang.

2.  Authority + control

Pausing can give the appearance of authority and control, especially in the first 60-90 seconds when creating a good first impression is so critical.  If you’re a nervous presenter, pausing in the first few minutes might not be easy, and it can take practice, but the results are well worth while if you want to command respect from get-go.

3.  Approachability

Pausing is important to create the impression of approachability.  In a social conversation, pausing allows others to speak.  In a business presentation, pausing also allows people to speak, by giving them the opportunity to ask questions.  In a conference/speech situation, allowing questions may not be practical, but it still allows people to reflect and connect to the presenter.  Without pausing we can appear to be steamrolling over our audience with words, so that they feel like the proverbial road kill by the time we’ve finished speaking.

So I agree with Olivia.  Talk at your usual pace, but harness the power of the pause for the sake of yourself, your message and your audience.

p.s. remember it’s your personality that powers your presentation performance.

Or perhaps this has happened to you.

Why does this occur?  Well it’s because many presenters wrongly assume their summary or recap slide is their final point, or the presentation’s conclusion.  Unfortunately the summary slide is not the final point, at least not for the audience.    

You see a presentation is like a journey; a journey of logic.  As the presenter, imagine you are the driver of the bus and you are taking your audience i.e. your passengers (ideally engaged and involved ones!) on your journey of logic.

And as with all journeys, a presentation must have a final destination – a final destination where you want to take your passengers.  So, the end of your presentation is not a summary or recap of all your points within the presentation.  The end of your presentation is your final destination and the final destination needs to be all about your audience, not about you and your points!

Creating a memorable destination 

To make it sticky, make it short.  Ideally only 1 sentence, which has two parts:

i)             Decide what audience reaction you want i.e. what do you want the audience to do/think/feel as a consequence of your presentation? 

ii)            Determine their motivation i.e. the WIFT (what’s in it for them), or what might be the consequence, that will motivate them.

Combine reaction + motivation (any order) to = the final destination.

Here’s an example of a destination based on this blog: 

If you want to deliver a memorable message and

end your presentations with conviction (motivation)

you need to finish your presentations with a final destination

that focuses on the audience (reaction). 

I said before that a destination is not the same as your summary.  A summary is simply a recap of your points of interest and persuasion along the journey.  More about those soon!

One last thing – perhaps a word of warning(?).  Deciding your final destination can take a bit of time.  Like deciding where to go on holiday; so many choices!  But make the effort to think carefully.  You may only get one chance to take your audience on this journey, so make it matter, make it memorable, make it count.

p.s. remember it’s your personality that powers your presentation performance.

So, firstly there’s the script. A crafted set of words, meticulously selected to convey precisely what the speaker wants to say. Nice and easy from the presenter’s view point. But to the audience, someone that reads from a script usually sounds scripted(!), stiff, formal and unnatural. Sure, when every word matters, and there is no other visual support, a script might be necessity. A good example of such a case was Jacob Zuma giving his acceptance speech earlier this month. But on the whole if you want to engage your audience and appear relaxed and confident, leave the script to Hollywood actors.

What about memorising the script? Well unless you’re a trained actor (back to Hollywood again!) this is possibly your worst option. It’s incredibly unlikely that you’ll be able to remember 3 minutes of a script, let alone 30 minutes; and the stress of just thinking about all that stuff to remember is likely to send you into a tail spin before you’ve even got to the agenda. My advice – rehearse and memorise your first 60-90 seconds, not word for word, just the key points, then acknowledge you’re human and that you’re going to need more than your memory to get you through the gig.

Which leads us to notes. Notes aren’t bad but they have 3 distinct drawbacks. Firstly you need to remember where you are within your notes, at any given time, if they’re going to be of any use. It’s no good rattling through the first 9 slides notes-free and then realising you need their help on slide 10. Unless you can go directly to that spot in your notes, you’ll be stuffed. So let’s assume you use your notes all the way through. Well, the second problem occurs if you happen to be someone that gestures a lot and is pretty animated as a presenter. In this case your notes, waving all over the place, can be a serious distraction to the audience. And finally, every time you read from your notes, you’re cutting eye contact, and therefore engagement with the audience.
So notes too can be a serious hinderance to successful presenting.

Having said that, if properly prepared (large, easy to read, bullet points only) notes can be vital when you are presenting with minimalist slides a la Garr Reynolds, so I won’t be completely black and white about their use.

A close relative to hand-held notes are the computer/laptop notes function that comes with packages like Microsoft PowerPoint®. I personally never recommend people use this option as to be honest I think it’s pretty rude, especially during a business presentation (vs a conference presentation). That’s because every time you look down at your computer notes you draw the curtains shut between you and your audience, which completely disengages them. In fact the disengagement is so strong that you almost have to re-engage them from scratch again when you look back up. I’m afraid using the notes function is a big pet hate of mine.

So that leaves us with looking at our slides. Now I need to stress that I am talking about business presentations – millions of which are probably taking place in meeting and board rooms around the planet as I write this. So, let’s be clear, I am NOT talking about large scale conferences and the like.

What I want to advocate is that your slides should be there to support you, as well as to add clarity and interest to your content. So your slides should act as your guide. But to use them effectively, I encourage people to ‘slide surf’.

For those of you not familiar with surfing – a quick intro. Once surfers are past the breakers, in the ‘take-off zone’ as they call it, they glance every now and again behind them to see what waves are coming. Once they see the wave they want to catch, they face forward and focus on catching and riding that wave.

This is what I recommend as a presenter. Every now and again, to remind yourself of the point you need to deliver, glance at your slide. Now of course I’m not suggesting that you stand with your back to the audience and read continuously from your slides. That would clearly be ridiculous.

What I recommend is a look that only needs a second. If you are using bullet points (and I’m not saying I’m a bullet point fan – in fact the opposite is true, but I acknowledge they are a major factor in business presentations today) and follow the 5×5 rule (No more than about 5 bullet points on a slide. No more than about 5 words per bullet point) a second is all you need.

There are 3 distinct advantages to ‘slide surfing’:

1. You don’t need to hold any notes, leaving your hands free to add animation, dimension, energy, passion etc to your delivery which keeps the audience involved and interested.

2. Glancing quickly at your slide actually adds to audience engagement because looking at your slide acts as a non-verbal signpost; indicating where you are and the direction you are going, which in turn adds clarity and comprehension.

3. For the second that you glance at your slide, you become briefly one of them – a member of the audience, all looking at the slide together. This is a great technique for creating synergy between you, your slides and your audience and therefore for building rapport

And the downside – well I seriously can’t think of any.

So, leave scripts and memorising scripts to Hollywood actors. Only use notes if your slides are minimalist. And never use the computer/laptop notes function unless you want to shut the curtains on your audience. Instead, slide surf! Work with your slides to keep your audiences involved, to signpost the journey, and to create synergy.

One final thing. Don’t forget that YOU are the presentation and YOU are the deliverer of your information.

Above all, remember it’s your personality that powers your presentation performance.

Then he/she gets to the recap.  You’re looking forward to having the key insights from the presentation delivered in a crystalised, golden-nuggetty form for you to take away.  But no!  Instead the presenter decides to deep-dive back into the content, flaying around in his evidence, leaving you tediously bored and utterly frustrated.

Make sure you never make the same mistake.  Use my simple 2-step process to help you develop a short, sharp recap – and deliver it with impact.

Step 1:  Look at each chunk of your presentation (usually determined by your agenda – every business presentation should have one!) and decide what is the key point of interest or persuasion from that chunk of information.  Decide this point of interest or persuasion for each presentation chunk.

Step 2:  To deliver your recap, all you need to do is remind the audience of each chunk of the presentation that you covered and the key point of interest or persuasion from that chunk.  Easy! 

No deep diving back into the content.  No fat, flabby recaps.  No sinking summaries.  Simply the key points re-iterated; short, sharp and gift-wrapped for your audience.

An example from this blog…

Summary:

Step 1 –  develop your recap by deciding what the key point of interest or persuasion is from each presentation chunk.

Step 2 -  deliver your recap by reminding the audience of each chunk of the presentation that you covered and the key point of interest or persuasion from that chunk.

So in future, don’t bore or frustrate your audience just when they are supposed to be feeling enlightened and uplifted. Nail your key points and deliver a concise, impactful recap they’ll remember.

p.s. remember it’s your personality that powers your presentation performance.