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The year was 2000. It was time to give the annual report
to the Board and Suzanne, the VP of Finance, was sweating
buckets. The rolls of nausea began before she moved up to
the podium. With clammy hands and short breaths, she went
through her Power Points, breathing a sigh of relief when
the 20 minutes were up. Fast forward, seven years later. A
new company and a new board waited. As the A.V. team adjusted
her mike she came from behind the lectern and watched calmly,
with a slight smile as the audience members filed in. The
paralysis of years ago had disappeared. Under protest, Suzanne
had enrolled in a Toastmasters group at her company and attended
it consistently for 3 years. She took these learned skills
and confidence into her work, seized every opportunity to
speak in public and overcame what might have become a huge
career derailer.
Warren Buffet said that public speaking can be our greatest
asset or our worst liability.
Do you experience what Suzanne felt in her earlier days
or are you able to find your "voice" and give presentations
with ease and confidence? Perhaps you are somewhere in between?
We all have heard the statistics about people fearing public
speaking more than death. Even the act of getting up and introducing
themselves makes introverts in my classes anxious. Their voices
and hands shake the first few times they are asked to report
out to the group. However, as Warren Buffet said, presenting
your ideas coherently in all kinds of situations moves your
career forward. Being introverted does not mean you can't
also be a phenomenal speaker. Just like an actor goes into
character in some of earlier examples in this book, you can
perform brilliantly in the role. You need to educate, inform
and persuade people as a leader in your organization or profession.
You also need to challenge individuals to talk to you and
each other. Setting the stage, by laying out a business case
or problem to be solved requires you to deliver a command
performance.
On some level, most people know the steps they need to take
to overcome their fear of public speaking. A combination of
training and, like the Nike commercial slogan "Just Do It!"
is part of the formula for success. As the "Sales Guy", Richard
Elmes says, "The presentation you give tomorrow will be that
much better because of the speech you delivered today." Life
is too short to be paralyzed by this fear. People need to
hear what you have to say. Why rob them of that opportunity?
When I first started as a corporate trainer I spent days
and days preparing for one presentation. I studied the material,
tried to anticipate every question and entered the room ready
to be "the expert". Of course, I soon realized that though
I felt well versed in the material, I could never be totally
aware of every fact and every question that might arise. The
company had hired a coach to work with our team on presentation
skills. He saw my tenseness that day and before the program
walked up to the lectern and said, gently, "Jennifer", he
said, "You know this material. Now enjoy the experience and
relax." His words have stuck with me over the years. The synergy
of preparing the material and even more importantly, your
attitude, is a winning combination for presentation success.
So what are three key steps in preparing to be a more confident
and competent speaker?
1) Know Your Purpose
2) Tell Stories and
3) No More PowerPoint Karaoke.
1. Know Your Purpose
You should know the purpose of your program. Is it to inform,
persuade, educate or motivate? Do you know what you want people
to leave with? Why should they care about what you have to
say? What are the three big points you want to make? Focus
in depth on these points and use lots of examples, not on
numerous points that overload your audience. What do you want
them to remember? This will be the basis of your talk. Your
preference for introspection as an introvert will allow you
to reflect on this and think it through before putting "pen
to paper." Being prepared gives you the confidence to get
up there and be with your audience. Many introverted professionals
I know have said that people do not believe them when they
say they are introverts because they look so at ease on the
stage. It is the preparation that allows them to relax into
the delivery.
2. Tell Me a Story
A few years ago, I heard Montel Williams deliver a keynote
speech to a room full of administrative professionals. He
told a story about promoting his secretary to president of
one of his companies and introduced this woman to the crowd.
It was a moving moment and many of the people in the audience
were visibly touched by his showcasing a living, breathing
role model. The power is in example. How many times have you
heard a speaker, whether it is a motivational speaker or your
CEO, engage a group by sharing a story? How about a leader
made a point by sharing a personal experience? The use of
stories to make a point is a skill you can master.
The good news is that you can prepare and rehearse stories
to bring out points a lot more powerfully than through making
a case with bullet points on a slide. This can be done to
motivate a team on a project that is lagging as equally as
it can be used to influence customers to purchase your product.
Today, stories are the key to a successful presentation.
Annette Simmons, a storytelling expert, says, "The human
presence in communication is frequently elbowed out by criteria
designed to make communication clear, bite sized and attention
grabbing, but which instead oversimplifies, truncates and
irritates. These "sub goals" often obscure the real goal:
human connection. Communication can't feel genuine without
the distinctive personality of a human being to provide context.
You need to show up when you communicate. The real you, not
the polished, idealized you. The missing ingredient in most
failed communication is humanity. This is an easy fix. In
order to blend humanity into every communication you send,
all you have to do is tell more stories and bingo - you just
showed up. Your communication has a human presence.
We are not all natural born storytellers (coming from someone
who forgets the punch line of most jokes!) but you can learn
to tell great stories. There are sources of stories all around
us, the media, books, movies, television, and etcetera. I
think the most powerful stories however, come from our own
experience. This is true especially when we reveal our flaws.
It is then that we connect with the audience.
I remember an experience several years ago when our family
went whitewater rafting. My spouse, Bill, flipped out of the
raft and because I never really listened to our trusted, ponytailed
guide before the trip, I practically strangled Bill in the
process of "rescuing" him. I often use that story (with more
graphic details of course), to make a point about the importance
of listening. It certainly wasn't funny at the time but in
retrospect, with time to reflect and weave stories like that
in, I can get some laughs and make a point at the same time.
You can do the same.
Follow a format that works. For instance, what is the point
you want to make? What was going on in the scene? What were
the smells, the sights and the sounds? You can help the listener
be there with you. I am so committed to tell stories in my
work now that I keep a small notebook with me and jot down
memories and observations. Just open your eyes and you will
find stories waiting to be told.
3. No More Powerpoint Karaoke
Though PowerPoint is a great tool it has become overused and
over-relied on by many of us. Too many bullet points on a
slide, reading the slide out loud when the audience can do
it themselves and not promoting audience engagement are some
negative impacts of PowerPoint. Kevin Smith, a Marketing Manager
at Dell Canada put it well. "The audience showed up to hear
the expert (that's you) talk about a solution to a problem
that s causing them pain, not to hear you perform "powerpoint
karaoke" by reading PowerPoint off of the slides.
Instead, consider using photos, a single question, key words
and even audio to make your points. Cliff Atkinson on his
website, http://www.beyondbulletpoints.com,
has some great examples of how to construct these types of
presentations. I had a Benefits Specialist resist this approach
when I suggested it to her. I advised her to suggest her audience
take notes on an outlined handout and make the material available
on line. You are better off providing the three key points
in your presentation on your slides. By writing down the points
important to them, retention will be greater and they can
get more details in their follow up. I think she is kidding
herself if she thinks people are retaining the myriad of benefits
details she is providing. It takes a little getting used to
but your audiences will appreciate it and gain more from your
program. So spend some time on the front end, thinking about
your purpose, preparing stories and editing your slides. With
some practice, you will, like Suzanne, learn to embrace the
experience of speaking to groups and your fear will melt away.
1. Buffet and Gates Go Back To School, PBS Home Video Net
Foundation for Television, 2006.
2. Annette Simmons, Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins, (AMACOM
2007), 4. • Excerpt from The Introverted Leader: Building
On Your Quiet Strength available at Amazon for 30% off
http://tinyurl.com/55f3y6 Check out Jennifer's CD, No
More PowerPoint Karaoke: Mastering Public Speaking for Introverts,
available at http://www.aboutyouinc.com,
and watch for her new book, The Introverted Leader: Building
on Your Quiet Strength (Berrett Koehler Publishers), due out
in June 2009.
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