Professionally Speaking...

Enchanting Your Audience

I have just finished reading Guy Kawasaki's new book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. And as with all of Guy's books, this one is filled with easy-to-understand concepts and immediately applicable suggestions made all the more memorable by intriguing stories and examples of both everyday people and celebrities like Sir Richard Branson, Al Gore and Steve Jobs.

Kawasaki's main premise is that enchantment "...causes a voluntary change of hearts and minds and therefore actions. It is more than manipulating people to help you get your way. Enchantment transforms situations and relationships....It changes skeptics and cynics into believers."

And isn't that exactly what we set out to do as presenters? Change hearts and minds and actions. Change skeptics and cynics into believers.

Here, then, are some key enchantment principles, as they relate to business presentations:

• "One must understand what people are thinking, feeling, and believing in order to enchant them...Enchantment requires understanding why people are reluctant to support your cause."
  APPLICATION: Do your homework and uncover the needs of your audience before you even start creating your presentation. This will make it easier to include the appropriate level of detail and examples. Knowing what points are likely to be contentious allows you to prepare extra backup in these areas, anticipate questions and rehearse answers that will satisfy the skeptics.

• Be likable, achieve trustworthiness and create memorable experiences for those you are trying to enchant.
  APPLICATION: Don't spend all your time creating the slide deck. Leave enough time to speak to people ahead of the presentation to get a sense of attitudes towards your topic. Rehearse adequately so you are comfortable with what you're going to say and can focus on interacting with the audience. Get to the presentation venue early so you can mingle with attendees before you start to speak.

• "Sell your dream. Enchanters don't sell products, services, or companies...Steve Jobs isn't thinking, How can I get people to buy $188 worth of parts with a two-year contract from AT&T? Enchanters sell their dreams for a better future...It makes them think of what could be, not what is."
  APPLICATION: Even if you don't think you're trying to change the world, most of our presentations are advocating a better or different way of doing or looking at things. Focus on the dream -- the benefits, solutions and opportunities -- rather than getting stuck in the weeds.

If you need a little extra help enchanting your next audience -- and who doesn't -- go get Kawasaki's book and take your enchantment quotient to a new level.

As a special bonus for a limited time, buy Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions in any form (paper, ebook, recording) and get a free copy of Garr Reynolds' classic book on presentations, Presentation Zen. Details here.

 

 

 

 

 

Review of Nancy Duarte's New Book: resonate

Like a great presentation, Nancy Duarte's new book, resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences is engaging, relevant and passionate. It is physically gorgeous with an appealing layout, evocative photographs and, no surprise, lots of visuals...diagrams, sketches, charts, graphs...that explain and clarify the content. But don't be misled into thinking that this is just another outlet for one of those creative types to show off her design skills. Even without the visuals, Duarte's content can transform the world of business presentations.

The book is fundamentally about how to use story to create presentations that produce an emotional impact on the audience. As Nancy says in the introduction, "This book is simultaneously an explanation, a how-to guide, and a business justification for story-based messaging." Using examples and lessons from the worlds of mythology, literature and cinema, she demonstrates how to incorporate dramatic elements into presentations which invite the audience to become more involved, more interested and more invested.

Learning how to do this effectively and consistently would be reason enough to buy this book. But Duarte offers many more applicable lessons such as how to plan the audience's journey, how to create meaningful content, how contrast creates interest, how to recall stories, how to turn information into stories and how to move from data to meaning. These topics, rich with case studies of people and companies you'll recognize, cover easily usable techniques that will improve any presenter, regardless of experience or job level.

One of the things I love most about this book is its focus on the audience. The clear truth that the audience is the raison d'etre for any presentation is proclaimed loudly and often. Contrary to what we experience in so many presentations, Duarte says,

"The audience does not need to tune themselves to you -- you need to tune your message to them. Skilled presenting requires you to understand their hearts and minds and create a message to resonate with what's already there. Your audience will be significantly moved if you send a message that is tuned to their needs and desires."

resonate is being called groundbreaking and magnificent. I don't think that's hyperbole. Presentations shape every aspect of our business lives and they have enormous power, much of which we don't leverage. If you have any interest in becoming a more compelling presenter and transforming your audiences...and who wouldn't consider that a worthy goal...rush out and buy resonate. It belongs on your bookshelf, to be consulted frequently.

Then you'll be much better equipped to accept Nancy's presentation challenge: be bold, stand out and go change your world.

 

Fear of Public Speaking

One of the consistent issues that many participants bring to my presentation skills classes is fear of speaking in front of an audience. In some people, this fear may manifest itself as mild anxiety while in others, it shows up as a nearly paralyzing force.

There are a variety of techniques used to help presenters deal with their presentation nerves, but I have just finished reading a book that comes at this fear from a more holistic perspective. I would recommend It's Your Time to Shine: How to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking, Develop Authentic Presence and Speak from Your Heart by Sandra Zimmer as a very useful read to anyone struggling with this problem.

Zimmer's central premise is that "...stage fright comes from the belief that you should be perfect, and not only are you not perfect, you are not even nearly good enough. These feelings set up the devastating expectation that you are going to be judged as lacking or less valuable than others."

My work with people who experience presentation anxiety would absolutely support this. These folks have no tolerance for what they perceive as their shortcomings and they are convinced that no one else is as nervous about speaking to a group as they are. Often, no amount of facts to the contrary, positive reinforcement or actually seeing themselves on videotape doing a reasonably decent job will convince them otherwise. That's why I like Zimmer's approach to dealing with this issue.

She helps the reader re-frame stage fright from something negative to "...a sign of your sensitivity which you can tap to help you speak from passion..." Encouraging people to focus into their fear, she says, gives them permission to feel what they feel without judging that the feelings are bad.

The book is organized into three parts. Part I focuses on the hard, important work of exploring your fear and your feelings and Zimmer provides excellent, easy-to-do exercises on body awareness, grounding and breathing. There is also a useful discussion on self-talk, which I always recommend as a powerful tool in managing presentation anxiety.

Part II focuses on the critical skill of connecting with the audience, an extremely valuable antidote to stage fright, but a behavior that is challenging to those nervous in front of an audience. Zimmer uses what I think is one of the most powerful concepts to describe the presenter's relationship with the audience: "Your presentation is not about you; it is about them, being there for them, to provide information, inspiration and understanding. When you make this shift in your thinking and create a mindset of service, your fear will diminish dramatically."

Part III focuses on how to weave stories into your presentation as a way of reducing stage fright and forging a stronger connection with the audience. There are some great tips on how to pull the lessons from your stories and how to integrate stories into the content of your presentation.

In sum, It's Your Time to Shine is a nice mix of philosophy and practical advice. If you're strongly left-brained [as I am], you may struggle a little with the focus on feelings, but get over it! Fear of presenting is all about feelings that are deep-rooted and generally negative. All the presentation techniques in the world won't be very effective until you can understand, own and move beyond those feelings. Sandra Zimmer's method seems like a very effective way to do that.                                 

Are Presentation Skills Like Riding a Bicycle?

From time to time, I get the following question from prospective clients and participants in workshops:

"What should I do, if I have been away from presenting for a while, to refresh my skills?"

Perhaps you've had some presentations skills training in the past. Perhaps you even previously presented with some frequency. But you haven't presented in some time -- because of a job change or having been out of the workforce. Now you want to get back to feeling comfortable speaking in public.

Should you start all over with basic presentation skills courses? Should you just jump back into presenting, assuming it's like riding a bicycle and all your former skills will come back to you?

I think the best advice is a combination of both.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO REFRESH SKILLS

1. First, assess your current presentation skills. This may require the help of a professional coach or trainer who, by videotaping you delivering a presentation, can help determine the key areas you need to address.

2. Depending on what your assessment uncovers, there are a variety of presentation skills workshops and books you can use to refresh your skills. Do some homework so you choose ones that focus mostly on your deficit areas rather than on a broad spectrum of beginner skills, many of which you may still be reasonably competent in.

3. If presentation nerves are bothering you, here are a couple of good books to give you some perspective on that anxiety and tools to deal with it: It's Your Time to Shine: How to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking, Develop Authentic Presence and Speak from Your Heart by Sandra Zimmer and The Confident Speaker: Beat Your Nerves and Communicate at Your Best in Any Situation by Harrison Monarth and Larina Kase.

4. Update your knowledge of how to use slideware (PowerPoint or Keynote) to support your presentation. This is one area where there has been significant change in best practices. Search out blogs like PowerPoint Blog, PowerPointology and PowerPoint Ninja and books like Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds and slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte.

5. Other resources that can educate and inspire you are the TED presentations, where speakers are challenged to give the presentation of their life in 18 minutes and PechaKucha presentations where speakers streamline their talk to 20 slides, each forwarded automatically after 20 seconds. Listen to brilliant orators like Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Don't ever underestimate the value of watching and listening to skilled speakers as a way of incorporating techniques into your own style.

6. Speak frequently. Look for opportunities to present to groups whether it's staff meetings, customer briefings or sitting on a panel. The more you get back up on that presentation bicycle, the smoother and more comfortable you become.

7. At the end of the day, whether you embrace all or some of the above recommendations, it comes down to practice...and more practice. If you're just rusty...practice. If you are acquiring new skills...practice. If you're refining and updating previously used techniques...practice.

Practice is truly the one thing that will make a significant impact on your confidence and ability to deliver presentations and speak in public.

So presentation skills are indeed a lot like riding a bicycle...you'll always have them. You may just need to take a few spins around the block to once again feel comfortable.

This post is part of a blog carnival at The Eloquent Woman blog -- surf on over and check out some other perspectives on how to revitalize rusty speaking skills.

Photo Credit:
www.flicker.com CC 2.0 
Kyle Gradinger/BCGP

ONE SMALL STEP TO PRESENTATION EXCELLENCE

Do you ever get frustrated when, after taking a presentation skills course, you're not immediately much better at giving presentations? I mean, you've learned all those great new techniques...right?

I recently heard an interview on WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi Show that offers an explanation. According to Robert Maurer, Director of Behavioral Sciences at the UCLA Medical Center, in his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, you need to break down the overall task you want to accomplish into very small steps. The smaller the step, the easier it is for the brain to learn new behavior.

THE KAIZEN WAY

The basis for this approach is kaizen, the ancient Asian philosophy of "achieving great and lasting success through small, steady steps." Maurer says that these small steps "disarm the brain's fear response." Since fear plays a role in all types of change, both positive and negative, disarming or negating the fear creates room to achieve desired results.

An associated technique Maurer endorses is mind sculpture (I've posted here about visualization) where you "visualize virtual change to effect real change." That is, you imagine, in as small detail as possible, what you want to have happen or how you want things to go. When the brain cells realize that something is important to you, because you've visualized it multiple times, they commit to it.

So what does this mean for presentations?

• Pick one thing to work on that will improve your presentation [such as focusing more on the audience].

• Break that thing down into very small steps [find out 3 issues that are important to this audience; write out 3 questions that you will pose to the audience during your presentation; write into your presentation notes 6 places where you will specifically make eye contact with the audience; videotape yourself to observe the frequency of your eye contact].

• Then visualize, in minute detail, doing these things and include in your visualization the audience responding warmly and being engaged in what you're saying.

Once you see improvement and experience increased comfort with this aspect of your presentation, pick another aspect and repeat.

The brain is a creature of habit. Once it gets in the practice of knowing what you're going to ask of it, it will gladly oblige.