AP Photo by Aaron Harris
Over
the years I've
attended a lot of conferences and conducted a lot of attendees'
reviews. A lot of factors differentiate good speakers from bad ones,
but one of the top ones, which to me shouldn't be that much of a
factor, is a mysterious combination of energy, enthusiasm and
self-confidence that might be called presence. It
conveys to the audience:
- That the speaker knows what she's talking about.
- That the speaker has something very important or very
interesting to say.
- That the speaker cares about what she's talking about.
- That you should care about what she's talking about.
- That the speaker is paying attention to, and cares
about, you.
You can try to fake some of these things, but the audience will see
right through you. I've seen very slick, highly paid people speak, but
behind the theatrics there's a deadness in the eyes that says "I don't
really care" that only really inattentive audience members would miss.
I've seen speakers try to mask ill-preparedness or nervousness with
false bravado, but that "caught in the headlights" look in their eyes
is a dead giveaway. You either have presence, or you don't.
There is much to say for preparation and practice as a means of
overcoming lack of self-confidence. When you simply read your speech,
no matter how brilliantly composed, your audience will conclude you
aren't prepared -- and be annoyed that you didn't just send them the
speech so they could read it themselves.
Proper sleep and a modest shot of caffeine can ensure you have lots of
energy. But nothing can make you care about the subject if you don't.
To really care, both about what you're talking about and about your
audience, you have to have something really novel, fascinating and/or
important to say, to convey to or persuade your audience.
You have to have skin in the game -- your success or failure at
conveying your message or persuading your audience has to mean something to you and to them. What
distinguishes a presentation most from a written report is that with a
presentation you know immediately when it's over whether it's succeeded. The
difference between an audience riveted and animated by what you're
saying, and polite applause at the conclusion of your presentation, is
all the difference in the world.
We all want attention
and appreciation
more than anything else from our fellow human beings. The fact that
presentations, like stand-up routines, give us the opportunity to get
both, or to miss the opportunity and get neither, is what makes the
stakes so high, and what makes so many people nervous about public
speaking. Sometimes they try to mask that nervousness with an
appearance of being indifferent or nonchalant. Big mistake -- that will
come across as either arrogance or disengagement, or as what it really
is, a sign of nervousness and hence ill-preparedness.
There's another self-destructive impulse of a lot of speakers not to spend a lot
of time going over and over their material until it's polished and
until they know it cold. There are a number of possible explanations for
this surprisingly common quirk:
- They find the material kind of boring, so they don't
really want
to spend too much time on it in advance. So they convince themselves
they're too busy to prepare thoroughly.
- They are afraid if they over-rehearse, they'll come
across as wooden and mechanical.
- The whole point of all the bullet points on their
slides is to remind them
what to say, so they don't have to prepare.
- If the presentation bombs, they have an excuse.
Whatever the cause, under-preparing is a bad habit, and it's a bit of
an insult to the audience. Although I confess I'm still lost without my
notes, I no longer use bullet-point slides and I am getting better at
this, because it really pays off. The best speakers have only pictures
and graphics on their slides, and work without notes.
I'm still a mediocre speaker, and it's taken me years to reach that level. I've
learned from experience that there are some things you can do to come
across as better than you really are:
- If the audience is small enough, and likely to care
about the topic (not just there because the company paid for the
jaunt), lay out some useful, interesting, new (to them -- you
need to know your audience) information up front, throw out some
questions or intractable problems that the audience has likely been
grappling with, and draw them into a conversation. The audience likely
has more useful information to share with each other than you have to
give them, so facilitate them to do so. Facilitation is a different
skill set from speaking, and requires a deft touch, but it can be a
more effective, more valuable to the audience, and easier to do. But it
doesn't work in large groups or when the audience is disengaged.
- Give the audience more than what you
cover in your presentation. If you know the size of the audience,
hard-copy handouts of well-written in-depth articles, and useful
graphics, give the audience something to take away in addition to what
you've told them. At the very least, give them an annotated reading
list and/or annotated links to online articles for further reading on
the subject.
- Start with a story from your personal experience.
Tell it using fable
or other proven story structure. Make sure it's interesting
and has a powerful moral. Practice it on others (to ensure they think it's
interesting) and rehearse it so you don't need notes to tell it.
- Tell people what
to do about what you've told them. This may seem
condescending or patronizing, but it often works, even with
sophisticated audiences. If they've been paying attention, they have
probably already formulated an action plan in their own mind, and if
your short 'what to do' list at the end of the presentation resonates with what
they'd already decided to do, they'll say aha! and congratulate
themselves (and you) for 'getting it'. If your list usefully augments what
they'd already decided to do, they'll think you're a genius. Your 'what
to do' list
should include at least one thing that isn't obvious, something that
shows some imagination. And your list should be practical and not too
long.
While these hints may give you a bit of a safety net, they don't compensate for the lack of presence. So, no matter what:
- Know your stuff,
- Focus on what's really important, really novel or really interesting, and
- Only speak on subjects you care about to audiences you care about.
Number 3 is the most important. As important as knowledge and focus
are, passion is even more important. I've seen nervous, tongue-tied
speakers muddle through presentations extraordinarily well simply
because they obviously felt very strongly and deeply about what they
were saying -- so the audience made allowances. When people sense that
you really care about and believe in something passionately, and want
to convey that passion to them, they will go out of their way to pay
attention.
The same applies, in a way, to writing. A blog doesn't give you the
immediate and intense feedback that you can get in a presentation or
face-to-face conversation, but the comments, e-mails and amount of buzz
each article creates give you a pretty good idea of what your audience
thought of it.
Much
online writing is almost purely matter-of-fact -- links to other online
information, distillations of books or lists or summarizations of the
most pertinent points on any important subject. Many of my most popular
posts are synoptic, and their
value comes in saving readers' time and, sometimes, provoking their
thinking. Passion is not essential to such communications. But the
articles I've written that are argumentative, that have a point of view, that take a stand, are the ones that draw the most comment, evoke the most emotion and action, and attract regular readers as opposed to opportunistic ones.
In writing, as much as in oral discourse, what you know and what you can tell are interesting and useful, but what you really believe in,
what you instill with every ounce of passion in your heart and soul, is
what people remember, what changes them. And what can save the world. |
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
