by Thomas Leech originally appeared in Toastmaster Magazine.
As a presentations consultant, independent and corporate, over the past twenty years, I've coached thousands of business people in how to make better presentations and speeches. Without doubt the single most common question I've gotten is the one about the hands. Getting up before an audience and giving a presentation has transformed many a hard-charging executive into an awkward kid stumbling through a class report.
The problem is that this report may decide whether this kid gets the contract. Or receives the funding. Or convinces the audience the program is in good hands. The speaker may be brilliant, the material excellent, the preparation diligent... but none of that may come through if the delivery is weak.
Emily Dickinson wrote about a fellow writer: "She has the facts, but not the phosphorescence." Many presenters -- executives, program managers, engineers -- work hard to master the facts, but fall short with the phosphorescence and flat with the presentation.
Columnist William Safire once blasted a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan (a chap back in the news again). "Occasionally a speech is written of such apparently stupefying dullness that it rates the accolade 'MEGO of the Year." (My Eyes Glaze Over)... It's stirring title was 'Remarks,' a come-on to become comatose."
That is not high praise. To keep your presentations out of Safire's MEGO of the Year competition, follow these ten tips for punching up your delivery:
1. Do have a come-on title. I still recall the eager anticipation of the entire audience for a Toastmaster speech 25 years ago titled "Sex." (Unfortunately the speaker then delivered his prepared remarks about... roofs. I've never forgiven him.)
2. Be prepared and practice. Two valuable old saws that are frequently replaced by another old saw -- wing it. I've heard many excuses from presenters about why they didn't take the time to prepare or do a dry run, as they moaned about their poor treatment and lousy success. Add to the value of practice by getting feedback from colleagues or via a video recorder.
3. Get there early. This is commonly violated, and a resultant heavy price commonly paid. Have you seen the presenter walk in at the last minute, hurriedly sort through a batch of visuals, and be unable to turn on the projector? It's amateur night in Dixie, folks. GONG.
4. Have your opener down pat, and put some punch in it. The first minute is where the nerves are tightest and the audience still not tuned in, so get off in style.
5. Talk, don't read. The fastest way to generate MEGO, and to kill your credibility, is to read.
6. Talk with your audience, not notes, screen or ceiling. You may even find it helpful to project a little personality, such as with a smile. What the face and eyes say is perhaps the single most important factor in interpersonal communication, according to psychologist Albert Mehrabian.
7. Speak so you can be heard, by even those in the far corners. You need a sound system? Now you tell us.
8. Oh, yes, that opening question, about the wayward hands. Well, what do you do with them? Such as when you're standing around talking with the gang about something you're enthusiastic about? Say how the Padres smashed the Giants (in your kid's Little League, that is). Do you stand there with your hands gripping tightly in front of you (the fig leaf) or hanging onto the lectern so tightly a tire iron couldn't pry them loose? Of course not. Your hands are an integral part of the communication. (Wasn't that the message from Shakespeare only 400 years back: "Suit the words to the action, the action to the words,"?)
9. To help those hands get naturally in on the action, weave in some body language aids, visual and verbal. A prop heightens audience interest and has to be held up, pointed at or operated to be useful, doesn't it? With charts and projected visuals, the hands and pointer are valuable for directing audience attention. (But don't let that pointer become a baton or weapon.) In your spoken words, describe a process, place or activity and the hands will follow. Remember all those movies where the fighter pilots describe how they knocked down the enemy planes? That's the idea. (Tip: here's an exercise I've used in seminars for years to help speakers loosen up. Describe a favorite place without visual aids, doing it vividly so the audience sees, feels, and smells that scene.)
10. And a final tip, BELIEVE in your message. What words do you use to describe speakers you enjoy? How about "energetic," "enthusiastic," and "forceful?" These attributes and related qualities of natural body language, vocal inflection, and delivery spark -- Dickinson's "phosphorescence" -- spring from the speakers' strong feelings about the value of the messages they came to communicate.
So go get 'em, and let those hands in on the action.
International Presentations: How Not to Sound Like a Fool
Oringinally appeared in Executive Update Magazine, George Washington ASAE chapter
"We really appreciate the chance to talk to you folks from Japan. We have some new ideas we want to bounce off you that we think will really blow our minds. C-Cubed 1 has had great success in CONUS, especially on DoD spook programs such as HTSM and FRGM."
Whether sharing knowledge, pitching membership, or selling products, association leaders increasingly must craft their presentations to appeal to international audiences. Author and coach Tom Leech describes how careful crafting of your message and style can serve as a passport to success.
Check out the whole article at:
htpp://www.asaecenter.org/PublicationsResources/EUArticle.cfm?ItemNumber=11577