Category — presentations

If you don’t sound polished when answering questions in the office people will get the wrong impression about your ability

Yesterday I wrote about the need to focus on crafting and being able to delver a good story, rather than spending all your available time tweaking a deck of Powerpoint slides. I’m sure that many of you might be thinking, “so what? I don’t have to give presentations.” That may well be true, but I would argue that having strong presentation, or public speaking, skills will aid your career development, even if you never have to get up in front of a group and present.

“…everyone who works in an office will need public speaking skills on a regular basis…. If don’t speak well then you will give people the wrong impression about your abilities.”

The fact is that everyone who works in an office will need public speaking skills on a regular basis. You will find yourself in a team meeting on occasion where you will be asked to deliver something in a round of questions. “John, how are things going on the Acme project?” or “Sally, give us an update where your work stands.” Now you may be sitting down, sharing coffee and doughnuts, but how you respond will eventually be judged. If not in a meeting, you will certainly be asked questions one on one by a superior who needs to know how your work is progressing. How do you respond in these situations? Are you clear and concise? Do you get to the point? Do you stumble over your words. If don’t speak well then you will give people the wrong impression about your abilities.

Here are a few typical speakers who show up in most offices:

The person who runs on and on saying in 50 words what others can sum up in a sentence.

This person can convey all sorts of bad things. They may come across as a time-waster, if they can’t get to the point with a simple question, they might spend all day getting not much done. Or perhaps they come across as endless blowhard who feels they are more important than they really are. The one who uses jargon to impress rather than substantive content. Worse stil, some people run on and on saying little expanding on the one small thing they did - and make it clear to everyone that they have nothing real to say.

The person who stumbles over their words.

The ums, and ahs and you-knows and likes suggest a lack of confidence, a lack of competence, a lack of preparation. If this is how you speak when reporting to someone in the office, there isn’t much chance you’ll be given more responsibility where you have to lead a team, or interact more with customers.

The person who has too little to say

The opposite of the run-on talker, this person comes across as either unprepared or lacking confidence. If all you say when called on is “everything’s fine” or “nothing new to report” people will begin to wonder what you are doing all day. On the other hand, if they know you work hard they will think you lack the people skills to move up to a position of more responsibility.

The confident, polished speaker

The person who can answer a question in a group or even one on one with a confident manner as if in front of a large audience will go far. They give the impression that they can handle anything, and they will speak for the firm in the most professional way. The work that they do can stand on its own, rather than being burried under a steam of ums and ahs, or behind a pile of superfluous words.

If you don’t feel comfortable presenting in front of a group, that lack of confidence or lack of skill may well be holding you back from showing your true worth to your company. It is an unfortunate truth that the lack of the ability to speak clearly and appropriately in day to day interactions around the office can mask you true worth to the organization.

Tomorrow: Improving Your Presentation Skills

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Want to be the best presenter in your company? Ditch the slides and spend your time writing and practicing to deliver a great story.

There is a quiet revolution underway in the presentation rooms of the world. Slowly, the standard presentation known as “death by Powerpoint” - slide after slide of bullet points, clip art and endless reams of data - is being replaced by skilled presenters backed by supportive visuals. If you haven’t already seen any, there are outstanding resources out there that you should look at if you ever step in front of a group to present. Garr Reynoyds’ site Presentation Zen and his book by the same name are my favorite resources. I also have a copy of Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson, which takes an excellent look at presentations as storytelling. Watching great presentations on-line is well-spent professional development time.

In becoming a better presenter there is a danger though- one I alluded to in my post on how to be more effective by focusing on getting the one most important thing done. In it I made the point that it is all too common to avoid the most important thing, often because we don’t feel comfortable dealing with it. How does this apply to presentations? 99% of people trying to improve their presentations do so by working on improving their slides. Even if you had Garr Reynolds himself at your disposal, creating better slides is not the most important thing to do, for the vast majority of us, if you want to become a better presenter. In fact, it just might be a better use of your time to show up with no slides at all!

For almost everyone, the best thing that can be done to make better presentations is to practice. Rehearse your presentation so that it becomes a natural dialogue with your audience and you will be a better presenter than almost anyone. It is not about memorizing your list of bullet points and slide titles. And please - it is never about reading your slides to the audience - it is about being able to get up and tell a story. Create a conversation. Be a teacher.

Take a few minutes and consider - what is it that makes the vast majority of speakers absolutely mind-numbing and sleep inducing? What are the failings of the worst presentations that you have seen? Remove all those things and what is left? A story. And in a great presentation, a masterful storyteller who could engage a room without a projector and a deck of slides.

For the next presentation you have to give, start well in advance and prepare a story that you can tell without the aid of slides. When you are ready - practice. Practice, practice and practice until it is a natural presentation done without aid. Practice in front of trusted colleagues who will honestly evaluate your message and your delivery. Do you think Steve Jobs gives keynotes off the top of his head? Did Al Gore shoot An Inconvenient Truth on the first take, off the cuff? Yet, so many people will spend hour after hour refining their bullet point laden slide decks, and then assume that they can get up in front of their peers - or worse their superiors - and speak to them without any practice. As if the point of the slides is to remind them what to say next.

Now I’m not suggesting that you get up in front of a group without aid of any visuals. Follow the advice of Presentation Zen and you will impress. What I am suggesting, is that if you took as much time preparing a good story and the ability to deliver it as you take to make slides, you would deliver the best presentation of your life.

Tomorrow: Everyone can benefit from mastering presentation skills.

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