Your right to speak doesn't mean we need to listen

In many countries you have the right to state your opinion. But you don’t have the right to demand that people agree or even listen. As a public speaker you have to earn that privilege to capture their attention. Then you need to persuade them with your message.

Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

Superior Presentations 68: Move From Left to Right

Move from Left to Right

 

English and other languages originating from Europe read left to right. That means that these people naturally move their eyes from left to right when reading.

They prefer to absorb information in the same manner.

When you speak before an audience you can use that principle to enhance the acceptance of your message.

First you must realize that it's the audience's perception of left to right and not your on-stage left to right that counts. It's not what you thought you said. It's what they thought you said that is important.

How can you use this principle in your presentation?

Timeline

If you asked these people to draw a timeline of a project they will likely draw it from left to right. The left represents the beginning while the right represents the end or the future.

Here's how you can move while talking about your project or proposal. Talk about the past while standing on the extreme left side of the stage (your right). Stand in the middle of the stage when talking about the present and move to the far right of the audience when describing the desired future.

Instead of walking around you could also simply gesture to your right when talking about the past and to your left when talking about the future. Another variation is to make a quarter turn to your right to talk about the past and a quarter turn to your left to talk about the future or goal.

Objections and Obstacles

You can use the same methods to place problems in the past and solutions in the future. When you acknowledge an obstacle or an audience member raises an objection place them in the past - your right.

Place the strengths, benefits and desired outcomes of your idea or product in the future - your left.

Practice

You are reversing your movements for the benefit of your audience. This is not natural so you will need to rehearse these movements. The benefit to you is that they will be more willing to accept your ideas when they can SEE the progress.

Remember to also look in the direction in which you are gesturing to complete the picture. If you do this well the eyes of the audience will move in the direction you intended. That leverages the internal programming of the brain associated with left to right eye movement.

 

Of course when you present in the Middle East you will need to reverse everything above because they read from right to left.

George Torok

Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

Superior Presentations 67: Don't Say Sorry

Don't say sorry.

It happens. You're speaking to a group and you stumble on a word or make a mistake. The temptation is to immediately blurt out "Sorry" or some variation of that word.

Don't say sorry when you make mistakes during your presentation. Instead, collect your thoughts as quickly as you can, restate the point correctly and move on.

There are three reasons why you shouldn't say sorry:

1. Often many of the people in your audience weren't listening closely and they missed the error. But when you say "sorry" you unnecessarily draw attention to the fact that you made a mistake.

2. When you say sorry your brain tends to fixate on the mistakes instead of your message. That might cause you to become anxious and feel more nervous about your presentation. Instead focus on your destination, not the bumps along the way.

3. The more times that your audience hears the word "sorry" the less they will feel confident about your credibility. This means that every time you say sorry you are working against yourself. Just imagine if the pilot of your plane announced every course correction with a "sorry". How might you feel about the pilot and the flight?

Here are some of the transition phrases that you might use:

• Let me correct that.
• What I really mean is...
• Correction...
• That didn't come out right.
• Let's try again.

Or you could simply pause, smile, and then start that last sentence again.

What if you didn't notice a factual error when you stated it but recalled it later? You could say, "I want to correct something that I misstated earlier."

Naturally there are exceptions to this rule. If you did or said something that could have offended the audience then you would issue a sincere apology.

My youngest daughter used to say "oopsies" when she made a mistake. It sounded cute. When you are the speaker you don't look or sound cute when you litter your presentation with "oopsies".

Your audience will ignore or pardon simple presentation errors. The key for you is to look and sound competent so you can deliver your intended message.


Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

Superior Presentations 66: Start Your Presentation on Time

From George Torok

Start Your Presentation on Time

Respect your audience and especially their time. Develop the habit of starting your meetings and presentations on time. Do that and people will notice. They'll be more willing to attend your meetings and they will make the effort to arrive on time.

They will also be in a better mind set when they notice you starting on time. If you want to annoy your audience, start late.

Announce the times (start and end) and provide directions

If it's your meeting, clearly advise all invitees exactly what time it will start. One trick to convince people of your intentions is to state an odd time - e.g. 9:03, 1:07, 3:36.

If your presentation is the main feature and there are some things happening before you go then it's a good idea to state that upfront. Imagine attending a concert only to be forced to endure unannounced warm-up bands for hours before the main act (a la Justin Bieber).

If your meeting is in a conference center or hotel, ensure that there are clear directions from the main entrances to your meeting room. Check with the venue staff.

Plan to arrive early

You get there early. If you haven't been to this location before be sure to double check the directions and the map. Allow for travel delays and the potential for bad directions.

If you are travelling out of town to deliver an important presentation, you might want to arrive the night before.

Check the room and test your equipment

Visit the presentation room before anyone arrives. Get into the room and get comfortable with it. This is easy to do if you arrived the day before your presentation. At least plan to arrive one hour before the program begins so you can get into the empty room.

Start even if...

At the promised time start your presentation. If you've checked the room and your equipment then you are ready to go. If you've clearly communicated the start time and directions then most of your audience will be ready. Someone will always be late.

To help get people into their seats and ready as the time to start draws near, announce "Five minutes to start", "Two minutes to start" and even "We're starting in 30 seconds."

If your equipment fails just before your presentation - start! Start on time and that means you need to have a Plan B opening while the crew is fixing the equipment problem. Don't make the audience suffer because of your equipment failure or lack of preparation.

Don't do what one Vice president of an IT company did at a presentation. Clearly she hadn't checked her equipment. When she was introduced she walked up to the stage with her laptop and handed it to the crew who were seeing her for the first time. They scrambled to hook up her laptop and ran into problems. Meanwhile the audience was waiting.

She watched the crew for a couple of minutes, remembered the audience and turned to us with an exasperated tone, "Talk amongst yourselves."

She clearly didn't demonstrate respect for the audience or the crew who got her equipment working in a few minutes.

Respect your audience and start your presentation on time.

 

George Torok

PS: Tell me how this tip helps you.

 
Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives

Presentation Power does not come from PowerPoint

How do you present yourself with power? Don't be fooled by the name. There is no implied power in PowerPoint. Have you noticed how many presenters use PowerPoint and do not have power? That should be your first clue. PowerPoint is easy-to-use software. It seduces you into believing.... read more

George Torok
The Speech Coach for Executives