Giving a presentation, any presentation, is a type of performance. But if you, the speaker, also happen to be the boss of your audience, if they happen to be employees who report to you, then this changes the dynamic of the relationship. I’m not suggesting that you beat your employees if they don’t laugh at your jokes or give out a standing ovation.
Here’s what I recommend for bosses who must give weekly or monthly status reports or goal presentations to employees:
Clients say to me all the time, “But TJ, I only have to give a technical presentation.â€
And I respectfully respond, “No, you don’t.â€
Of course, you may have to give a presentation that conveys messages and facts that are of a highly technical nature. But I contend there is no such thing as a “technical†presentation any more than there is such a thing as a “formal†presentation.
Presentations are either effective or ineffective; they either convey ideas in a good way or in a bad way. That’s really all there is to it.
One of the most effective ways to get your spoken words taken more seriously is to back them up with text. This works for two reasons:
This advice seems glaringly obvious when it comes to a candidate running for US President—of course you have written position papers and speeches to hand out to voters, supporters, and the media. But it is also true for much of the day-to-day communication that average people experience.
In June 2007 the Microsoft program PowerPoint, used for creating graphic presentations, celebrated its 20th birthday. Is this a cause of toasting or despairing?
To me, that’s a ridiculous question, sort of like debating whether or not the invention of the printing press was a good thing because for every work of Shakespeare created, thousands of violent comic books are also created.
Robert Gaskins, one of the creators of PowerPoint software in the 1980s, recently told the Wall Street Journal this in response to criticism that PowerPoint has turned people into bad presenters, “if they do an inadequate job with PowerPoint, they would do just as bad using something else.â€
by TJ Walker & Jess Todtfeld
You’re about to give a speech in front of a room full of people…
Maybe you’re about to be interviewed? Maybe you’re arriving at a cocktail party and have to make small talk? Suddenly, your heart starts to pound. Your breathing becomes rapid and shallow. Your sweat glands go into overdrive. Your body is sending you signs that any of these forms of public speaking are not for you. What do you do? One of the typical responses is to shut down or flee. Thankfully, there is help.
Transitional sentences and paragraphs are keenly important in the written word. Novels, short stories and magazine articles need smooth transitions in order to keep the reader captivated.
But what about speeches?
In my experience, many public speakers worry needlessly about finding the perfect transition sentences leading them from one message point to another. This is unnecessary because the spoken word is not absorbed by listeners in the same way the written word is by readers. If you don’t believe me then try to remember the last really interesting conversation you had with a friend or collage. Was every message in the conversation transitioned to perfectly? Of course not. Chances are you both jumped around as ideas came to your head.
Prime Minister Tony Blair made international headlines in June 2007 when he compared the news media to a “feral beast†intent upon ripping its victims apart. Of course the media is always hostile to criticism and is especially unsympathetic to Blair, because he seems to have gotten the better of the media for a majority of his ten years in power.
Blair is hardly the first to complain about the increasing trivialization of all that comes out of the media or the trend of blending news with commentary, but he is the most high profile member of public life to offer such a detailed, thoughtful critique. Here is his address:
Nobody likes to be manipulated, especially the news media. On June 14, 2007 Sen. Hillary Clinton released financial forms revealing her investments and fundraising information. A few hours alter, the Barack Obama campaign started distributing a document that, according to the New York Times, “demanded…a not-for-attribution-basis—(with) a scathing analysis.†The Obama report ridiculed Clinton’s investments in India-related companies and for extensive fundraising within Indian communities. The not-for-attribution report even went so far as to label the New York Senator as “Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab).â€
Uh., oh!
I was doing a last minute rehearsal 20 minutes before I was to give a keynote address at a trade convention. As I pulled up the tenth element in my PowerPoint presentation, a video clip, my computer froze. I tried to advance to the next clip—nothing happened. I couldn’t advance the speech at all!
As a public speaker, I like big audiences, the larger the better. There’s a chance to reach more people and have a bigger impact. But from an audience’s perspective; there will never be anything better than having a monopoly of the speaker’s attention—and that means no one else is in the room.
When you speak to only one person, you can see if they get what you are saying. You can ask that person a question if it seems he/she doesn’t understand.