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Own the Room: Talk may be cheap, but lousy presentation skills can prove very expensive to your business.
Leader's Edge, November 2008
Fast Focus
- Set yourself apart from the crowd by engaging it.
- Presenting well is not an innate gift; practice six skills and you can own the room.
- When so much depends on presentation skills, why are only 10% good at it?
My fellow Americans… Wait, that's not quite right. Good day, my
friends… Hmm, they're more like colleagues. Hello, future
millionaires… Catchy, but it sounds like an infomercial.
Well, how would you open your next speech? Folksy like McCain?
Inspirational like Obama? Tongue-in-cheek like Stephen Colbert?
Uh…let's drop that last option. I have only seen him on his
self-named television show, but I can imagine what he might try from
behind a podium.
How you speak, whether in a staff meeting, at a local business lunch or
to a national convention audience, is vitally important. And I believe
that whether a person can speak well is a good indicator of potential
success in business.
This is way beyond reading bullet points off of PowerPoint. Giving a
presentation is a key skill that is worth time studying and perfecting.
The Spoken Advantage
This past election season, how did you gauge the relative merits of the
candidates? I bet it was on what they said, either in speeches or to the
media—or in the all-too-rare actual debate. The presentation
skills of these men and women are what set them apart from their
opponents.
Over the years, I've met many talented people. They had many traits in
common: smart, good leaders, experts in their field, well respected.
However, out of every 100 talented people I've met, I would say only a
few were good presenters. Whether at public events, seminars or board
meetings, in large groups or small, most people give an underwhelming
performance. In fact, 80% perform below average, 10% are average, and
10% are impressive public speakers.
While I see many audience members exit an event very impressed with the
speaker, my impression is definitely diminished if the person gives a
bad talk.
So as we get into November and most everyone is focused on hitting their
numbers, achieving goals or simply hoping to see the end of the soft
market, I want to gain your attention for a few minutes to provide some
tips on how you can improve your essential presentation skills. A number
of techniques and strategies can greatly improve your abilities so you
can present yourself and your ideas more impressively at any event, to
any audience.
Overcoming the Myths
How many times have you left a presentation thinking the speaker was
typical, boring or the dreaded "OK"? The problem, I believe, is that
many people think you must be born with the ability to be a great
presenter. Having given hundreds of speeches, workshops, seminars and
presentations, I strongly disagree. Anybody can become a great
presenter. Maybe not an incredible presenter like Tom Peters or an
orator like Obama, but you can become an exception to the law of
averages.
Like any other skill, if you want to become better, you need to be
willing to make mistakes, accept criticism and, most importantly,
practice.
Maybe you don't see presentation skills as a major part of your work or
an important tool for your particular job. I'd like you to broaden your
perception of the topic because, with the way I define presentation
skills, it applies to virtually everyone in the insurance industry.
Every time you write, you are presenting. Every time you speak, you are
presenting. I consider presentation skills to encompass all the various
settings in which insurance people communicate: proposals, prospecting,
sales, negotiations, board meetings, team presentations, seminars,
networking, recruiting, training, customer service, phone
conversations—even voicemail. In so many ways, presenting is one
of our
everyday skills, and the better we are at it, the more successful we
will become.
Consider this: If we took a look at proposal bids that were lost or
clients that did not renew—while price may have been a factor
sometimes—a great percentage of those losses resulted because we
did not present ourselves well or adequately make our case.
Six Steps to Owning the Room
There are many ways to becoming a great presenter. Some people are
self-taught; others have been trained by exceptional speakers. While I
can't discuss all these approaches, I'll focus on some basic methods
that are outlined in a book called The Exceptional Presenter: A Proven
Formula to Open Up and Own the Room, by Timothy Koegel (Greenleaf Book
Group Press, 2007). The author uses the acronym "OPEN UP" to express
common characteristics of exceptional presenters.
Here's what he means by OPEN UP:
- Organized—The presenter is poised and polished. The
person sounds like an expert. The speaker's goal is not to overwhelm
you, but to inform, persuade, influence, entertain or enlighten.
- Passionate—The presenter exudes enthusiasm and
conviction, and that energy is persuasive and contagious.
- Engaging—The presenter does everything possible to
engage the audience. The speaker builds rapport quickly and involves the
audience early.
- Natural—The presenter's style is natural and has the
feel of a conversation. The person is comfortable with any
audience.
- Understand Your Audience—The speaker knows the audience
ahead of time and has a plan to connect and engage the audience before
beginning the talk.
- Practice—Exceptional presenters practice
many times. The skills to become great are natural and become second
nature.
Let's expand upon Koegel's acronym to see how to apply these terms to
your next presentation.
Organize
There are two essential points to organizing your presentation:
structure and looking organized. Developing a structure allows you to
frame your objective, cover all relevant material, transition smoothly
from one topic to another and finish strong. If you are lacking
organization, it appears you do not care, and—worst of
all—you will create a negative perception from the start.
In the most simple terms, being structured means:
- Tell them what you are going to tell them (the opening),
- Tell them (the body), and
- Tell them what you just told them (the closing).
Research shows that a person's average attention span is no more than 30
seconds and that most people forget 90% of what they hear after the
first couple of minutes. It is these basic human traits that require a
speaker to be organized to become more effective.
A presentation must consist of a series of key areas that are short,
focused and relevant. I've found a good way to look at it: Use the "Five
Components" method with your material.
- Begin the talk with a purpose statement. Delivering that at the
beginning of your talk will keep your audience focused on your key
points. It prepares them for what you want them to hear and take away.
You should be able to break your purpose statement down into three to
five key points and deliver these very clearly.
- Identify what you will cover in each of those key points by
considering the four-step process of objective/purpose/mission/goal. Use
this to build your agenda. Many people make the agenda too detailed,
which is a mistake. Keep it simple. Answer these four steps for each key
point, and your presentation will be nearly constructed.
- Position your presentation so that it affects your audience. Tackle
this by applying the logic of position/situation/issues. How you
position the talk is based on the situation and issues faced by the
audience. For example, in my "Increasing Shareholder Value" seminar, I
always use something along these lines: "We all understand we are in a
soft market, prices are dropping 15% or more, carriers expect more from
their agencies, consolidation is increasing and competition is becoming
greater." Those five points characterize a situation to which each
audience member can relate. A simple "position/situation/issues"
statement helps bring the audience to the speaker.
- Bring the audience toward the end result of your talk by laying out
the benefits and consequences. Explain the ramifications of not taking
action or the advantages of doing so. For example: "If you as an agency
owner cannot continue to grow and increase shareholder value, what are
the odds of your remaining independent in five years?"
- Finally, outline the steps or actions that your audience can expect
from you—or that you expect them to take—both during and
after the presentation. Lay out an action plan and a timeline, simply
and clearly.
I have found that this approach, when broken down into no more than five
minutes in the beginning of a presentation, is a great way to engage the
audience.
Passionate
To me, this is the easy part, yet it's an area where most people
struggle. Exceptional presenters radiate passion, conviction and
enthusiasm. It makes sense that a person who is giving a presentation
about something would have passion about it. So why are so many
presenters dull? If you don't see the passion, it's not because the
speaker does not feel passionate. Rather they do not bring it across.
This is a learned skill, and it makes a presentation more persuasive.
So what makes a speaker passionate? Koegel believes passion is expressed
entirely by delivery and everyone has a different delivery. However,
there are common characteristics that affect delivery:
- Posture. How a speaker looks and stands creates a powerful
first impression, which we all know is lasting, so part of appearing
passionate is improving posture to make a good impression. Stand tall,
keep your head and eyes up, smile and make contact with your audience.
Move forward, not backwards, and, most importantly, move with purpose,
energy and enthusiasm.
- Gestures and movement. Use gestures and movement as visual aids
to keep the audience engaged. Counting off numbers with your hands,
pointing to something on the screen, anything like that can help your
audience understand and remember your message and key points.
- Voice command. We have all heard of this one. Use inflection,
make your voice dynamic, use different tempos, learn to pause, etc.
Perhaps most important—speak with a strong voice because this will
impart confidence.
- Eliminate hesitation and verbal graffiti. This refers to the
junk, filler and words or phrases that add no value: um, clearly, like,
honestly, actually. These words that distract from your presentation.
Engage
Exceptional presenters connect with their audience, build rapport
quickly and involve the audience early and often. Several quick tips to
engage your audience:
- Speak to the interests of your audience. Don't talk about
yourself or why you are important. Talk to your audience about what is
important to them.
- Use stories, examples and anecdotes. These tools bring your
presentation to life. They add reality. Storytelling, just like when
reading to your kids at bedtime, stimulates the listener's mind and
instills a message.
- Make eye contact. We all know the importance of eye contact,
but few people are good at it. Eye contact is not a glance here and
there or sending your gaze darting across the room. It means looking at
your audience. Lock in contact with someone for several seconds. It may
be difficult, but it helps connect you to your audience and avoids the
"spinning head" syndrome that speakers get when they do not
connect.
- Smile. Smiling creates a warm environment. It indicates you are
relaxed, confident, approachable and prepared.
- Use names. Try to learn at least some of the audience members'
names right away and use their names during the presentation.
- Humor. This may be the toughest to work in successfully, but
try to use humor, no matter what the subject matter. Humor breaks down
barriers and makes people feel comfortable.
Natural
You cannot be who you are not; however, exceptional speakers present
themselves very naturally. Their style is conversational, and they look
completely at ease in front of the audience. This is where innate
ability comes in, and not everyone is born being able to do this. But it
can be learned, as I know from experience.
For many people—including me—being natural takes practice.
Remember, a natural presenter sounds lively, the presentation flows
easily and, though it sounds well rehearsed, it does not sound scripted.
At a minimum, being natural means you have to be able to speak without
reading a script or, even worse, regurgitating the PowerPoint
presentation while facing the screen.
Understand Your Audience
Great presenters do their homework and have solid knowledge of their
audience before taking the podium.
Take the time to not only know who is in your audience, but what is
important to them. Are they the decision makers? How much do they
already know about your topic? What are their expectations of you? The
bottom line is, the more you know about your audience, the better
prepared you will be to speak to their issues, concerns, fears and
goals.
Practice
Aristotle had a saying: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then,
is not an act, but a habit." While I'm not as smart as Aristotle, I do
know that if you aren't willing to commit to practice, at best you will
be average, and most likely, your presentation skills will fall below
average. I know this because I see it all the time. Ask any exceptional
athlete about what made them successful and they won't simply say, "I
was born with it." They'll say, "I practiced all the time." The great
ones do.
Like a politician working the room shaking hands or a canvasser going
door-to-door to sway voters to a cause, presentation skills are a strong
determinant of success. Everybody in business will be more successful if
they have good presentation skills because our work requires us to use
these skills every day.
As the author Koegel explains with his OPEN UP acronym, there are ways
to break down the tasks of doing a presentation that will help you
succeed. Then, as with anything in life that is worthwhile, a commitment
to practice is the way to build on those basic concepts and skills. Most
people can become better presenters, and I believe that many more could
become great if they put their minds to it. You can do it.
If you are up to the challenge of becoming an exceptional presenter,
remember these three points from Koegel: Do not accept average when you
can be exceptional, every attempt to present counts and those who
practice will improve.
Once you achieve exceptional, you will never again accept an average
presentation from anyone.
Rob Lieblein is a contributing writer and managing partner of Hales & Co. Rob.Lieblein@LeadersEdgeMagazine.com
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