Professional Development:: Present with Impact: Get Results

Zzzzzz '

We've been all been there: the boring presentation. You can't leave the room. There are 40 minutes left and you are being held prisoner, experiencing slow death by PowerPoint. Here are several of my favorite principles and techniques to turn your presentation from “Oy!” to “Wow!”

WII-FM

To maximize your impact, know what “radio station” your audience is tuned into ' WII-FM: What's In It For Me. Put yourself in their shoes, understand what's important to them and craft your message accordingly.

Chocolate Cake Lesson

I attended a seminar 20 years ago and the leader did something extremely odd. He came out with his shirt tail hanging out, chocolate stains on his cuffs, offering us chocolate cake, “Who wants some chocolate cake?” With his bare hand he grabbed a chunk of cake, slopped it onto a paper plate and shoved it at a participant. The leader then excused himself, left the room and came back wearing a tuxedo jacket, bow tie and white gloves. With a silver cake server he cut a piece of cake, placed it onto a fine china dish and served it with a “Bon appetite!”

What's the point? It's all in the presentation! Your content, like the ingredients of the chocolate cake, must be of high quality. However, without the proper presentation, you won't get the impact or results you seek.

Elevator Eyes/Subway Eyes

Let's talk about eyes, for a moment. Have you ever sat in a presentation, where the presenter is looking above your head, like someone standing in an elevator looking up at the floor numbers? Maybe the speaker is looking at his shoes, watch or notes, avoiding all eye contact as if he is taking a subway ride. Or scanning the room like a windshield wiper?

Mastering the do's and don'ts about eye contact is essential. Look directly into someone's eyes. Focus for a thought. Take a quick breath. Lock onto another person's eyes in another quadrant of the room for your next thought. Keep moving your eyes in a random pattern. It comes across more conversational. Engage. Connect. Increase your presence! How long is a thought? It's where you would naturally pause, at the commas and semicolons in a sentence, or the end of a sentence.

The Um & Ums'

Um. Er. Uh. Ya know! Like ' I call them the “Um & Ums'.” Most of us have no clue how often we use them when we speak, whereas, as the listener, we are sometimes so distracted by word fillers we miss the message. Effective eye contact and power pauses can not only eliminate the distraction, but emphasize the message. My suggestion for the Um and Ums: STOP. LOOK. SPEAK. STOP what you're saying. Close your mouth and P-A-U-S-E. LOOK to another person in the audience. This buys you thinking time while you appear to maintain control, and gives your audience time to absorb what you've said. SPEAK to that next person's eyes, picking up where you left off with an apparently seamless transition.

The Prison Joke

Vocal variety makes our presentation interesting and effective. Ever notice how two people can say the same thing and get a completely different reaction?

It's like that old prison joke. The prisoners have been there so long and the jokes have been retold so many times that at mealtimes they just call them out by number and everyone laughs. When the new guy tries it and calls out a number, there is dead silence ' nobody laughs. Obviously, he can't tell a joke. It's not just what you say, but how you say it.

So make sure to modulate your voice. Emphasize key words. Increase drama with ' pregnant pauses. Use techniques such as alliteration and repetition of important phrases. Voice quality and delivery are the most important traits of great speakers.

Locker Room Sock Principle

Coach John Wooden, one of the great basketball coaches, was known for his motivational sock talk.

I imagine the scene on the first day of practice: With his new squad huddled around him in the locker room, he says, “Fellas, I'm going to show you how to put your socks on.” The players wince, sneer and rumble “this is ridiculous.” Coach Wooden then goes on to explain, “Wrinkles, folds and creases can cause blisters. Blisters interfere with performance during practice and games. The seemingly trivial matters ' build into something very big; namely, your success.”

Similarly, great presentation success comes from mastering the details of delivery and crafting your content.

Paint the Picture

Just as with the chocolate cake story and the Coach Wooden sock parable ' make sure you use stories, analogies, anecdotes and word pictures to make your points memorable. It's not just what you say, it's what they remember. Instead of the chocolate cake story, I could have just said, “It's all in the delivery.” With the Coach Wooden parable, I could have just emphasized that “great success comes from mastering the details.” While both are true, the lessons wouldn't be as memorable and wouldn't stay in your mind, as the chocolate cake story has stayed in my mind for the last 20 years.

Conclusion

Tune into WII-FM, make sure your socks are pulled up, present your chocolate cake with style, eliminate elevator/ subway eyes, let the Um & Ums melt in your mouth, learn from the prison joke, and paint the picture to present with impact and get results.

Brent Baer is the founder and president of BAER ESSENTIALS, a communications training firm, and has provided communication, presentation, interpersonal and leadership skill training to organizations and individuals for over 15 years. Brent leads CLE and other professional development programs for lawyers and law professionals throughout the country.

Zzzzzz '

We've been all been there: the boring presentation. You can't leave the room. There are 40 minutes left and you are being held prisoner, experiencing slow death by PowerPoint. Here are several of my favorite principles and techniques to turn your presentation from “Oy!” to “Wow!”

WII-FM

To maximize your impact, know what “radio station” your audience is tuned into ' WII-FM: What's In It For Me. Put yourself in their shoes, understand what's important to them and craft your message accordingly.

Chocolate Cake Lesson

I attended a seminar 20 years ago and the leader did something extremely odd. He came out with his shirt tail hanging out, chocolate stains on his cuffs, offering us chocolate cake, “Who wants some chocolate cake?” With his bare hand he grabbed a chunk of cake, slopped it onto a paper plate and shoved it at a participant. The leader then excused himself, left the room and came back wearing a tuxedo jacket, bow tie and white gloves. With a silver cake server he cut a piece of cake, placed it onto a fine china dish and served it with a “Bon appetite!”

What's the point? It's all in the presentation! Your content, like the ingredients of the chocolate cake, must be of high quality. However, without the proper presentation, you won't get the impact or results you seek.

Elevator Eyes/Subway Eyes

Let's talk about eyes, for a moment. Have you ever sat in a presentation, where the presenter is looking above your head, like someone standing in an elevator looking up at the floor numbers? Maybe the speaker is looking at his shoes, watch or notes, avoiding all eye contact as if he is taking a subway ride. Or scanning the room like a windshield wiper?

Mastering the do's and don'ts about eye contact is essential. Look directly into someone's eyes. Focus for a thought. Take a quick breath. Lock onto another person's eyes in another quadrant of the room for your next thought. Keep moving your eyes in a random pattern. It comes across more conversational. Engage. Connect. Increase your presence! How long is a thought? It's where you would naturally pause, at the commas and semicolons in a sentence, or the end of a sentence.

The Um & Ums'

Um. Er. Uh. Ya know! Like ' I call them the “Um & Ums'.” Most of us have no clue how often we use them when we speak, whereas, as the listener, we are sometimes so distracted by word fillers we miss the message. Effective eye contact and power pauses can not only eliminate the distraction, but emphasize the message. My suggestion for the Um and Ums: STOP. LOOK. SPEAK. STOP what you're saying. Close your mouth and P-A-U-S-E. LOOK to another person in the audience. This buys you thinking time while you appear to maintain control, and gives your audience time to absorb what you've said. SPEAK to that next person's eyes, picking up where you left off with an apparently seamless transition.

The Prison Joke

Vocal variety makes our presentation interesting and effective. Ever notice how two people can say the same thing and get a completely different reaction?

It's like that old prison joke. The prisoners have been there so long and the jokes have been retold so many times that at mealtimes they just call them out by number and everyone laughs. When the new guy tries it and calls out a number, there is dead silence ' nobody laughs. Obviously, he can't tell a joke. It's not just what you say, but how you say it.

So make sure to modulate your voice. Emphasize key words. Increase drama with ' pregnant pauses. Use techniques such as alliteration and repetition of important phrases. Voice quality and delivery are the most important traits of great speakers.

Locker Room Sock Principle

Coach John Wooden, one of the great basketball coaches, was known for his motivational sock talk.

I imagine the scene on the first day of practice: With his new squad huddled around him in the locker room, he says, “Fellas, I'm going to show you how to put your socks on.” The players wince, sneer and rumble “this is ridiculous.” Coach Wooden then goes on to explain, “Wrinkles, folds and creases can cause blisters. Blisters interfere with performance during practice and games. The seemingly trivial matters ' build into something very big; namely, your success.”

Similarly, great presentation success comes from mastering the details of delivery and crafting your content.

Paint the Picture

Just as with the chocolate cake story and the Coach Wooden sock parable ' make sure you use stories, analogies, anecdotes and word pictures to make your points memorable. It's not just what you say, it's what they remember. Instead of the chocolate cake story, I could have just said, “It's all in the delivery.” With the Coach Wooden parable, I could have just emphasized that “great success comes from mastering the details.” While both are true, the lessons wouldn't be as memorable and wouldn't stay in your mind, as the chocolate cake story has stayed in my mind for the last 20 years.

Conclusion

Tune into WII-FM, make sure your socks are pulled up, present your chocolate cake with style, eliminate elevator/ subway eyes, let the Um & Ums melt in your mouth, learn from the prison joke, and paint the picture to present with impact and get results.

Brent Baer is the founder and president of BAER ESSENTIALS, a communications training firm, and has provided communication, presentation, interpersonal and leadership skill training to organizations and individuals for over 15 years. Brent leads CLE and other professional development programs for lawyers and law professionals throughout the country.