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Boost Your Presentation Performance
October 26, 2007
By Arthur Germain
We've all heard the statistic that people fear public speaking more than death. It may be an urban myth—but death? Wow, that’s some powerful fear. Look, if you're in business and you work in any department where you need to communicate with others—inside or outside your organization— then, guess what? You've got to make presentations.
But there is some good news. Often this fear is actually presentation performance anxiety—which isn't life threatening. Rather than live in fear of your next presentation, you need some ways you can build confidence in your presentation skills. Increasing your presentation performance will reduce your fear and accelerate your career.
So how can you improve your presentation performance? I use the term "presentation performance," because, just like sports, there are certain techniques, tactics and strategies you can master. Are some people better presenters than others? Of course! But you can become a better presenter over time as well.
Interestingly, it's not the act of presenting that causes all of the angst; it's the doubt in your presentation itself—your message—that often causes the pain. Ever notice that some of the strongest actors and actresses become absolute boors and goofballs when they're accepting an award or sitting on a talk show couch? It's because they no longer have a script, a solid story to tell.
Here's seven tips that will help you significantly boost your presentation performance.
1. Focus on one idea
We seem to have this fear that the audience is not going to understand what we're trying to present. So we keep talking—adding more and more points—until our presentation becomes one long, run-on, endless series of words.
Here's a better idea: focus your presentation on one idea. Not five. Not three. One. This is your core idea and everything you say and do should revolve around it.
Try this: take out a single piece of paper and write down the one idea you want to leave with your audience. When you're finished presenting, what do you want them to know? Better yet, what do you want them to do? Because when you give a great presentation performance, it moves your audience to action. Create your message to be explicit and concrete.
2. Give it some structure.
Once you have a core idea, and you've developed some supporting materials, it's time to put everything together. I recommend thinking in threes. It's simple, you can count off each point on your fingers and you're less likely to get lost: "Now where was I? Oh yes, number three…"
PowerPoint is everyone's favorite crutch/tool (more on that later), but it does give you a great canvass for painting your ideas. I'm not going to discuss the design of your presentation (keep it simple, leave shock and awe for other venues), but let's focus on the structure of your content.
Simply put: structure is a good thing. Even if you plan to get up and speak while walking around your audience it's an absolute necessity that you have a structure to your presentation. Thinking in threes makes building your structure fairly simple and powerful. For example, when discussing a new service offered by your company, try this outline:
Introduction
1. Who we are
2. What we do
3. How we're different
Our Services
1. Yesterday: editorial services
2. Today: case study development
3. Tomorrow: podcasting services
Podcast Benefits
1. Storytelling intimacy
2. Ability to share word of mouth
3. Listener loyalty
One last note about structure and PowerPoint. You don't need a lot of words and you shouldn't read your slides like they were a book. It's up to you to use that structure to present a story.
3. Be flexible about time
"How long should my presentation be?" is one of the most common questions about presentations. The answer is: Just as long as necessary, and no longer. As I mentioned before, you want to focus on a core idea and then be prepared to support the idea. But that support can come in many flavors. You should have a bag full of presentation tools at your fingertips. Prepare with examples and memorable stories, statistics and research findings.
The key is: if you come prepared with a number of presentation tools, you can choose the best tools to fit the time you have. If you have a brief presentation window, go for something short—a fact or figure. If you've got a lot of time then pull out all the stops. The fact is, most of us have no problem with a long presentation; it's the shorter ones that kill us. Having presentation tools makes either length interesting for your audience.
4. Say something interesting (to me).
How many times have you watched a presentation and realized somewhere along the way that the presenter had absolutely nothing to say? When you are the audience, the presentation should be all about you. You should see yourself in every slide and lurking behind every statement.
But what about when you're the one making the presentation? How do you deliver a presentation that resonates with your audience? Try doing a little role playing when you're developing your presentation and keep switching roles. Become the audience for a moment and ask "Do I care about this?" and see if you can strengthen the emphasis of your presentation.
5. Stop repeating yourself.
Recapping a few main ideas is fine—it provides a good take away. But, the "rinse, lather, repeat" public speaking formula is more than a little stale. A better idea is to support your core idea with credible references, concrete examples and action. If the content is worth listening to, and you prepared, then you’ll be successful. Provide useful guidelines and help your audience see your presentation differently. That will help you increase your performance.
6. Ditch PowerPoint
Could you give your presentation sans slides and the whiteboard? For many executives, the answer is "Yes, but I would rather not." But the problem is that many of us behave oddly when we have a slide deck. We read from it like it's a teleprompter during a news program. Our audience can read the slides themselves.
In reality, a presentation requires only three things: a strong presenter (that's you), an audience and a great idea. If you can share the latter item between the first two, you're all set. And that's the point. You no longer need the PowerPoint crutch. You own the presentation.
7. Practice, really practice.
Now, put everything together. You have your core idea. You know how to make it interesting to your audience. You are going to make one, lasting point (and not ramble on about other things). And you don't need to rely on PowerPoint.
Now you need to practice your presentation. You can do this by yourself or you can practice in front of a trusted "audience." Look for an outsider to preview and critique your presentation. Are you on message? Speaking too quickly? Using too much jargon?
By following these recommendations—especially the one about practicing—you will improve your presentation performance. And then you can work on those other fears.
Arthur Germain is principal of Communication Strategy Group (www.gocsg.com), a strategic brand marketing agency that helps brand stories become remembered, repeated and rewarded. He can be reached at info@gocsg.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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