Whether you're talking about you make pencils or jet them off to illiterate kids in Eritrea, there are some typical things you may say in a presentation to get people to support your work. The more these messages stick in people's minds, the more success you'll have in what you do.
The trouble is, that even those who don't technically fear public speaking, do fear saying something unprofessional. And it's understandable. If speaking in public isn't an environment you swim about in day-to-day, your nerves will be heightened by the task. You already feel pretty silly standing up to talk, your brain then chips in with a resounding 'No!' and there's that voice inside your head dying to tell you how much people are judging you. 'Don't do anything different and for god's sake, be professional.'
This desire to be professional leads to us giving exactly the same presentation as everyone else (you know the one: a powerpoint with four neat bullets down the side and a picture in the right hand corner). If professional is to fit right in with what everyone else is saying - job done. If professional is to be bland, then another job done.
But wait a minute. How many of those 'professional' presentations have you sat through? You probably don't have enough fingers. And how many of them can you remember in any detail? Do you even need any fingers to count those? Speakers who focus on being professional and mild, are in fact doing everyone in the room a disservice. Far from being pleasant and inoffensive to listen to, they are subjecting their audience to a presentation which they won't remember and their organisation is losing ground to organisations where the presenters make their message stick.
So what does it take to make your message stick?
There are three broad areas to consider to make your message stand out. Take a look at each of these below and see which you use and how you could use them differently to engage your audience.
1) Visual aids
How you use your powerpoint, flipchart, props, or physical space to engage, or disengage your audience. Do you ever do a presentation without powerpoint? What if you pre-prepared a flipchart or powerpoint with no words- only pictures and numbers?
2) 'Verbal aids'
The nuggets of gold that come out of your mouth. These could be metaphors, poems, a personal story, a famous example, a joke, quotes, powerful facts, collections of three or buzz phrases to repeat. These all add variety, depth and emotional buy-in to a presentation. They also provide a good opportunity for you to stimulate both the left, logical part of the brain and the right through powerful evidence, emotional part of the brain through rapport-building stories.
3) Interactivity
My personal favourite is to get audiences involved in information as people far & wide learn best by doing. This could be something so simple as a brainstorm, or elaborate like a challenge, quiz, team game, or role play. With any interactivity, make sure that your full energy goes behind the task, so as to motivate others to get involved.
But before you run off and play, remember the "RULE" of memorability. To be successful, any visual, verbal or interactive 'nugget' that you slot into your presentation should be:
R - Relevant
Somewhere along the line, we were told to "start with a joke." This is like saying "Start with something to distract the audience, then you can get into the really boring bit." Any tool that you use should link clearly to your message, rather than pulling away from it.
U - Unusual
The unusual or unexpected often has the effect of tricking the brain out of its stereotypes and leads to the creation of new neural pathways. This means more learning which is retained for a longer period of time.
L - Learning
The best nuggets usually take the audience forwards and teach them something new. Give your audience insight and they'll see you as an expert in your field. Repeating or reiterating key learning points reinforces them.
E - Exciting
It's not to say that you have to have your audience leaping out of their seats with thrills, but a good nugget excites, or stimulates a part of the audience's mind - whether it's their imagination, their motivation, or their logical mind. You're looking to create "ooh" and "ahah!" moments with what you say, show and do.
Stick to these rules and your presentations will start to stick. Next time you do a presentation, pick a new nugget and give it the "RULE" treatment. Give yourself permission to experiment.
For more information on how to progress with your public speaking through a coaching programme please take a peek at Ginger Training & Coaching's public speaking programme.
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Awareness- the first tool to outstanding public speaking
I wrote recently about my friends Mark & Denise who entered a competition to live their dream lifestyle for six months. Did they win the Ultimate Job competition? Have a look here to see their journey and my thoughts.
Mark & Denise's efforts inspired me to think more about how dreams become reality, particularly because this is something I help my coaching clients with every day. So, just what does it take to make your dream fly?
1) Before you reach a peak, you need a mountain to climb
If we don't know where we're trying to get to, how can we complain when we don't get there? One of the biggest challenges is to work out what you really want from your life. I started to ponder dreaming based on Mark & Denise's example in this article: Give yourself the Authority to Dream. What I learned was how much we restrict ourselves to the habits of our current reality; a path we chose perhaps many years ago and perhaps without conscious choice.
If Psychologists are right in saying that 90-95% of our thoughts today are the same as our thoughts yesterday, what impact does that have on our capacity to dream up changes in our lives? Ask yourself this;
- When did I last do something that felt thrilling?
- What was the last thing I wished for?
- When I wish for things, how often are they in my usual range of habits and how often are they big, or even scary wishes?
There are plenty of techniques to help you dream outside of your habitual patterns, or comfort zone. One of my favourites that I do with my clients is to help them visualise a fantastic future, based not on their logic, but based on their deep internal desires. That, incidentally, is where Ginger came from. You can use vision boards, positive affirmation, work on personal meaning and even a shopping spree to help you strengthen your dream. By creating a rock solid dream- a future that's so utterly desirable - anything else that gets in the way will seem insignificant.
2. Build your confidence muscle
We're afraid to dream because of the risks. What if I fail? and What if I lose what I already have? are two big ones, but I believe they hide an even bigger fear - What if I get what I want?
Whatever the fear, we can train ourselves gradually to have confidence in our ability to succeed and our ability to cope with success. That confidence, of course, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But, like any muscle, your confidence muscle needs training. Of course you may not have the confidence (or opportunity) to run for Prime Minister right now, but if you set yourself tiny goals to achieve, then celebrate and reaffirm your success, you'll find that over time your self confidence grows and your ability to dream strengthens. And with your strengthening confidence muscle, bigger and more powerful dreams are possible. Not to mention the connections and possibilities you naturally come across that help you on your way over time.
Start really small and focus on your power to make something happen in your life. If you're building trust in yourself, fulfil even the tiniest of promises you make to yourself. Get up when you say you'll get up; call home when you agreed and follow up on that person asking for your help. Achieve all the goals you set for yourself in a month and you'll see the difference in your confidence.
3. Give yourself time & space
Ever given up on an idea half way through, thinking they're not working, only to find a few weeks later that if you'd kept going you would've succeeded?
Remember to build your confidence and your dream over time, without being put off. If you climb a few metres up one mountain, then decide to change to a different mountain because it looks easier, you may never reach a summit. Recogise that it often months and years to reach dreams. Here it's important you have that rock solid dream, so that you can cling on even when times get tough. And you can prepare yourself for those tough times by acknowledging the following:
- Your mind will play tricks on your to try to put you off (we call it the saboteur, the inner critic, the gremlin...)
- You will get there if you keep going
- What happens in your life is nobody's choice but yours
And finally, don't forget that it is you who makes your dreams happen, by making your dreams happen.
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Give yourself the authority to dream!
What's your point? Focus & one-pointedness in action
Two friends of mine recently entered a competition to with the Ultimate Job in Ireland (and Probably the world) and have just been shortlisted in the top 10 out of hundreds of applications. They're now in with a chance of spending 6 months travelling the world to test out honeymoon venues.
You can see the moment when they found out they got shortlilsted here. What struck me was their willingness to dream this into reality and the effect it had on the outcome. Here's the difference between them and me:
Me - I looked at the website and thought "pfff... I can't make a video and even if I could and did, there's no way I'd win"
Mark & Denise - with vision boards, bundles of dreaming out-loud and a go-getting attitude (including doing a 2k run dressed as bride & groom), they'd already experienced getting into the Top 10. It's like the famous instance when Edmund Hilary, having climbed Everest was asked how it felt. He responded that it was just like every other time he'd climbed it in his dreams.
Giving ourselves the authority to dream actually allows those dreams to become a reality. Mark & Denise (along with Buddhism and The Law of Attraction) showed me that we can literally conjure anything we want into our lives. In fact more than that- that our lives are actually a physical representation of what we dream for.
It's because with a dream we're much more focused on creating an outcome. With a mountain like Everest to climb, you're not going to see the Hillaries of the world lurking around the bottom for too long.
But there's a couple of limiting beliefs that get in the way - otherwise we'd all be living our dreams. Here's a few I've identified:
- To put ourselves out there and say "I want that" publically is to risk failure if we don't get it
- The belief that somehow they would be able to do it because they're that sort of person. Whereas we could never manage it.
- Focusing on other 'serious' parts of life that we've constructed for ourselves in favour of the things we really want to do.
Why, I ask?
I dreamt of running my own training business, and here I am. Now, Mark and Denise have inspired me to ask... What else can I conjure?
Good luck for the finals guys!
Update 10th May 2010:
Of course it hardly came as a surprise, but it was an incredible pleasure to hear that yesterday Mark & Denise actually won the Ultimate Job! Congratulations to them both for their hard work and self-belief that made this possible.
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What's your point? Focus & one-pointedness in action
As he finishes to his last point, Edgar Mumble looks up at the audience. ‘Phew, it’s over,’ he thinks with satisfaction. He half-heartedly asks if anyone has any questions and then, when his offer is met with silence, he scuttles out of the room to a thin ripple of applause.
‘That was pretty alright,’ he tells himself with a relieved sigh, ‘I’ll do the same presentation again next year.’
How many times have you sat through a similar scenario? How many times have you been the speaker with the same attitude? The good news is that it doesn't have to be that way- and the first step in this (and any other) personal development process is to become aware of yourself and your impact on the world. There's no other way to get the distance needed to change your actions?
Awareness starts with a desire to do better, so first you need to want to give a presentation that doesn't just pass for 'okayish.' Just in case you're on the fence, look at those people who you know who entertain and dazzle their audiences. Do you prefer hearing them talk? Do you listen more and remember more about what they say? Chances are you do.
So, have you got the motivation? Good. Now you’ll do well with a framework for analysing yourself. Buddhists, the masters of awareness, identify five different centres in the body. Four of these are relevant for public speaking awareness- our body, speech, mind and qualities. Let's take a look at each in turn:
Body
First, consider your eye contact – do you cover all of the room or do you hold onto a supportive-looking group on the left hand side? Do you have the tenacity to make eye contact with specific people for 1-3 seconds, or do you find yourself inspecting the ceiling because that way you can pretend you have nobody watching you?
Second, look at your gestures. Take your hands away from your ear, the back of your head, your necklace and other undesirable places (we all do it). And stop with the flappy, general and repetitive hand movements. Now you’ve got some space for crafting gestures that tell your story and emphasize the bits you want your audience to remember. Pick gestures that are strong and memorable.
And there’s much more. Consider the way you hold your body, your facial expressions and how you move. You will, of course, be ditching the lectern.
Speech
Look at the way your voice behaves when you talk in public. Once your volume’s not too loud and not too soft, but just right, you can start to use it as a tool for adding drama and tension into what you say. Same goes for an awareness of your gaps, your intonation, your clarity, your energy and so on. Play with your voice and use it to create a story that engages your audience.
Mind
The voices in our mind can play funny tricks on us if we’re unaware on stage. Because we take our nerves seriously we feel that fight-or-flight are the only two serious choices. If we’re aware, we’ll learn that our nerves are energy that can either help, or hinder our performance. That energy can either be labelled 'fear' or 'excitement.' We chose which way it goes.
Qualities
And finally, awareness of your qualities will indicate the kind of presenter you can be at your very finest. Your ‘stage persona’ – be it the Kind Expert, the Competitive Dad the Energiser Bunny, or countless others, will provide you with hooks for creating humour and themes that are natural and dazzling.
To develop your stage persona, start by pondering the ideal persona for your message. Are you challenging, or consensus focused; serious or humorous? Now, look at where you are on each of those spectrums. The gap is your list of points to develop.
If you'd like to learn more about these techniques, join the next Public Speaking with Wings- Your Presenter's Toolkit session - http://www.go-ginger.com/workshops.html. You can also request a free Public Speaking with Wings e-book here which goes into further techniques for becoming a master of public speaking.
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I was pondering my ability to focus this Easter weekend (before I got distracted by a chocolate egg) and reminded myself of what Buddhists call 'one-pointedness'- a state of complete concentration where you are completely on-task, or in-the-moment. Given my own flighty nature when faced with a day of activity in the office, I set about investigating one-pointedness to see how I can find and keep to my own single-point more often.
I asked myself the following questions, which I invite you to ask yourself too...
What does it mean to be many-pointed?
I've always considered myself a great multitasker, so why should I change my ways? First stop, a consideration of my current situation - what effect does being many-pointed have on me? We've all had those days where we set off to get something done, but without much focus. At work, it's that day where there's so much to do you don't know where to start. If you're anything like me, your first step (and third and sixth step) is to check your email. You're heading somewhere, but you don't know where and suddenly 'urgent' emails, phone calls or questions from colleagues are all you can seem to get through. Perhaps it's no surprise that days like that tend to finish in frustration, exhaustion or a feeling of 'peh... what was that?' This is a many-pointed day.
Although I think I love multi-tasking, when I consider how many-pointedness really makes me feel, it's words like stressful, breathless, darting, anxious, pulling, pushing, changing and regretting that spring to mind. It brings the discomforting feeling that I'm not really living up to my best, which only brings more confusion and panic.
How does One-pointedness feel?
Should I take that moment of confusion and panic and myself into a one-pointed mindset, how does that feel? For me words like this come up: space, focus, calm, purpose, simplicity, sensing, timeless, easy, tireless, light, connected, right, effortless, relaxed... and so on. There's a beautiful simplicity and balance that we instinctively know comes with us finding focus.
What does One-pointedness think like?
Let's go deeper into the mind-set of one-pointed focus. If you were Mrs One-Pointed herself, what sort of language would run through your head? For me, it's the following;
- This is the only important thing there is right now
- My task is the right one beyond doubt
- I have everything I need to make this happen
- This will happen with a little patience and calm
How do I get One-pointed?
Buddhism has skillful and long-term methods for training the mind to become focused on a single point. Whilst not attempting to better those fine teachings, I devised a three step process for upping one-pointedness in every day life;
1) CHOOSE
Your first step in becoming one-pointed is in picking one thing to do at a time. It's like picking one cake to eat at a time, rather than shoving in the chocolate eclair with the apple tart, with a chicken sandwich. It seems obvious, but we so often fail to take this crucial step. The important thing here is that you make a conscious choice- rather than getting blown this way or that by emails, twitter, text messages and so on. (Later this month we'll look at what to do if you have to react to your situation rather than choose.)
To get here you may have to spend time considering, planning, researching and analysing without the 'assistance' of your inbox. To stay here, you must also make the firm choice to honour your choice, even if other more attractive offers (read: a better cake) come along whilst you're still chewing.
2) DO
Many people love the planning bit, but then fail on action. I'm a classic example when it comes to selling my products. I spend hours designing a wonderful product, I think through who I'll market it to, how I'll market it and then... get distracted by a new opportunity before I follow it through. An effective "DO" stage is where the one-pointedness happens. It's all about noticing any distracting thoughts, acknowledging them rather than repressing or ignoring them and then letting them pass without influencing you. Expect to be pulled off-task - it will happen. But with every sense and thought, patiently and continually refocus yourself back to what you chose to do.
You'll find techniques to strengthen your DO stage on the way and we'll investigate some of these later in the month.
3) FINISH
Everyone has a limit to their attention span (for adults we focus at our maximum for around 20 minutes), so having an end to your task will ensure that you can set yourself up to succeed. The finish is the bit where you can say to yourself "That's it, completed, finished, end of story" before starting on something else. It's important to congratulate yourself when you get here, no matter how small your victory, as it motivates your subconscious mind to focus again next time you take on a choice. After finishing and congratulating yourself, only now do you critique the process you went through to get there to improve it for next time. This is critical so that that self-doubt doesn't derail your choice during the DO stage.
This month is One-Pointed April, so follow this blog for more in the coming weeks. Please contribute with your questions and comments below.
Sarah and a Ginger team of volunteers took out the morning of Saturday 27th to inspire a group of young campaigners for the Equality & Human Rights Commission. What we didn't expect was to leave feeling so inspired ourselves...
It's always a great privilege to be invited to train a group of motivated young people. In comparison to the sterling and long-term graft teachers and parents commit themselves to, we 
are often gifted with the 'headliner' role of coming in, saying something inspirational, dancing around a bit (sometimes literally) and then leaving again with the warm feeling of having done something good for the world.
Take Saturday morning at Project 1000 - a group of young people brought together by the Equality & Human Rights Commission. We were invited to train the group on public speaking to help them 'up' their impact as activists. I led a bit of fun theory from the front and the team of volunteers worked with small groups to practice their presentations and get feedback on their technique. To see so many young people give better performances than my adult clients was a heart warming experience. And they loved it. Debates ranged from tuition fees to full body scanners, many of them packing into their 2 minute speeches arguments that would give our MPs a firm run for their money.
But whatever excitement and inspiration we helped create, it was my team and I who left feeling inspired. With so much apathy and 'easy' entertainments distracting British youth culture away from their communities and into facebook, twitter, PS3s (and blogs...?), it was exciting to see so many fresh and ambitious faces giving up their Saturday morning for a wider cause.
With young people like this supporting equality and human rights, I only feel positive and secure about the future of my country. The question is, how can we encourage more people to take a critical look to the world around them and talk up about the things that aren't right? This is a lesson that starts with youth and ends on the doorstep of each and every adult in the country, especially with a general election looming...
Public Speaking Coach Sarah Lloyd-Hughes shares her experience with making gestures add colour and spice to your presentations.
Stand up in front of people to give a speech or presentation and you'll notice something funny happen. Those two implements on the end of your arms, usually your faithful servants, suddenly feel like sweaty, awkward lumps. "I just don't know what to do with my hands!" clients often comment to me. And the result is a series of embarrassing gestures that totally take our 
attention away from your message as a speaker.
What can you do about it? First of all, become aware of what you're doing. To help you, here I've put together a list of my Top 10 Grim Gestures to avoid. Which ones do you do?
10 - The Jab: Too much pointing is rarely received well by an audience. Whether it's pointing directly at people, or jabbing into your hand, it comes across as aggressive or accusatory.
9 - The Tony Blair: "Education, education, education" and the accompanying hand slicing movement. Whilst this gesture is controlled and powerful, fans of the 'naughties' will notice we're in a new decade. Audiences are looking for empathy and The Tony Blair is no longer a gesture that carries a message of authenticity. Avoid if you want to seem genuine.
8 - Quick, Hide! I often see new speakers try to hide themselves due to nerves. Pulling on sleeves and tops to cover a little bit more skin. Guess what? The audience will still be able to see you anyway! Forget your clothes and take the floor with pride.
7 - The Laurel & Hardy: Unless you're acting out a story, or a thought process, scratching the top of your head will give your audience the impression you don't quite know what you're talking about.
6 - The Comforter: One especially for the girls with lovely long hair. In an alien or intimidating situation it's natural you'd like to feel safe, but give yourself that feeling by preparing well for your talk, rather than stroking your long hair, or running your hand along your arm.
5. Clapping & slapping: Whilst a well-placed hand clap can add emphasis to your main points, over-do it and it becomes a distraction. This could be hand clapping, or - often - unintended hitting of your hand against your side or knees. Distracting. If you want some applause, wait until you've finished.
4. The Lifeline: Many speakers rely on notes as a lifeline for talks they're unfamiliar with, or as an excuse to avoid gesturing. In reality, you will need your notes far less than you imagine and they become a barrier between you and your audience. Put them down and free up your hands for masterful gestures.
3. The Wringer: One of the most common Grim Gestures in business, this is holding your hands together and massaging the palms with each other. Great for a masseur warming up, but to your audience you come across as tense, indecisive and possibly a touch aggressive.
2. The 10 second itch: Of all the weird and wonderful ways adrenaline plays with our hands when we're nervous, itching and scratching must be the most distasteful. I've seen speakers almost scratch holes into their necks, arms (etc) in moments of high stress. What should you do about it? First, notice what you're doing. You'll realise, if you pause for a moment, that there's a repetitive action going on here and it's beginning to hurt! Then, relax your hands. Breathe some oxygen into them and place your hands - calmly - somewhere they can do no harm.
1. Fly Swatting: And finally, holding the number 1 spot is the classic Fly Swatting gesture. There is nothing more grim than fairy, flouncy gestures that continue on and on and on, no matter what the speaker is saying. The key here is power. If your gestures are weak, your authority as a speaker will be weak and thus the message you're trying to get across will be weakened (whether it's a sales pitch, a training programme or a wedding speech, we all have a message). Concentrate on making your gestures definite, and appropriate to your message, rather than too general.
To work on your gestures, start to study public speakers as you come across them. Who has power as a speaker? Who fails to keep your attention? How do gestures contribute to this?
And watch out for my next blog in the series, "Gorgeous Gestures" - tips for adding spice and colour to your presentations, using only your hands.
Sarah Lloyd-Hughes runs a regular workshop Public Speaking with Wings: Your Presenter's Toolkit, for beginners and experienced speakers looking to work on their technique. Visit www.go-ginger.com/workshops.html for more information.
