Be Passionate about your message - but don’t turn to the dark side
It’s important to express your passion when delivering your presentation. Your passion can be a powerful force delivering your message.
Naturally, your audience still expects you to tell the truth.
Perhaps you’ve witnessed speakers commit this mistake. Maybe in the heat of the presentation you’ve been temped.
It’s dangerous when your passion seduces you into stretching the truth by exaggerating or lying. Don’t get seduced by the dark side.
When you’re excited or anxious it’s easy to fall into the trap of grasping at false facts, claiming absolutes or simply lying. Why might that happen? Because you are eager to convince your audience about the significance of your message and you’re getting desperate.
You believe that your point is valid and relevant but in your desperation to build a stronger argument you fabricate facts.
Astute listeners will see the flaw in your delivery. Others may feel uncomfortable because they might not immediately identify the weakness but your message “doesn’t feel right”.
Those who believe you might discover the falsehood later and feel betrayed.
Perhaps you believe your honest passion should persuade them but the result is that your dishonest “facts’ dissuades them from believing you.
Learn from the speaker who conveyed lies in these two ways. He was clearly passionate about his message but…
Vague Statements
Don’t be vague. The speaker said, “I hear this all the time.”
What does that mean? Does that mean you heard it today, last week, last month or last year? What does “all the time” mean?
That statement is vague, unprovable and lacking substance. It adds no value to the message and easily distracts the listeners with unanswered questions.
It would be more effective to be specific. Did you hear it three times this week, from five clients in the past month or three times last year?
Don’t be vague – be specific.
False Statistics
Don’t claim a specific that is untrue. The speaker stated that “99.9% of the time”…
It’s good to be specific but don’t fabricate facts. That’s considered false facts. Even though there’s a lot of that going around, it’s not acceptable.
The claim of “99.9%” was thrown at us without a source of reference and the circumstance was unbelievable.
Too many people make up statistics to support their point. Some merely repeat unsubstantiated statistics. Perhaps you’ve heard an indignant person defend their claim with “I saw it on the Internet so it must be true”.
Be specific. Confirm and clarify your statistics.
A passionate lie is still a lie.
If it’s not true – it’s a lie. Who wants to be known as a liar? Even if the point is valid, the lie sullies both the point and messenger.
The next time you’re on-fire while delivering your message don’t be tempted by the dark side.
Remember this school yard taunt…
Liar, Liar pants on fire.
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Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives
