The Ultimate Presentation

Based on Andrew Leigh’s book entitled The Ultimate Business Presentation Book, 1999, Random House, 1999, Copyright © Andrew Leigh, 1999

“To be what we are,and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the

only end of life”

Baruch Spinoza

Make It Outstanding1. Decide your key message2. Invest in thorough preparation3. Find your passion and use it4. Explain what’s in it for the listener5. Be willing to take it slowly6. Stay fully present the whole time7. Stand up, balanced on both feet or sit forward in your chair8. Use your personality, allowing your gestures to grow from your

natural enthusiasm9. Move around10. Speak clearly and loudly enough to be fully heard

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Be Different

• Create a unique angle or approach that sets the performance apart

• Be willing and able to instantly change the entire presentation

• Bring it alive with examples, stories, metaphors• Use visuals sparingly• Keep it short

“Knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do.

In fact it is good taste.”

Lucille Ball (1911-89)

“It’s the Audience, Stupid”• Remind yourself about the prime

importance of the audience• Allow enough time really to listen and

the audience will “tell” you what it wants to hear

• Invest heavily in understanding the potential audience

• Focus on two essential audience goals1. Detailed knowledge about those

involved2. Build relationship with the potential

audience

Discover

• What makes your audience tick• What people want from the presentation• How best you can serve them

Skilled Presenters• Put their attention on other people, rather than themselves• They

Gain attention – by being attentiveBecome interesting – by being interestedAre understood – by seeking to understand

Making sense of purpose

Every presentation has a

Core PurposeCore Purpose YOUR ESSENTIAL MESSAGE

Presentation Purpose

Presentation Purpose

AIMS AT DIFFERENT STAGES

Follow-Thro’Purpose

Follow-Thro’Purpose

WHAT YOU WANT TO HAPPEN NEXT

• Confusion over core purpose explains why so many presentations fail

• There are too many aims leaving both the presenter and the audience confused

• Try to reduce the core purpose of your presentation to a single, headline statement

Core PurposeCore Purpose

• You will have different intentions throughout the presentation

• At some point you may want toMake people laughChallenge current thinkingGain agreementOffer new insightStimulate involvementProvoke questions

PresentationPurpose

PresentationPurpose

Take your audience on a journey

• At different stages achieve different things and let this guide your presentation

• If at some stage you want to wake people up, you can shout, bang the table, play some loud music or get them working in small groups

• If you want people to challenge you, make a particularly provocative point

• If you want them to think, allow lots of silence, use an insightful quotation or run a quiz

• What do you want to achieve after the presentation• Audience need clear guidance about what is

expected of them• Get clear on the follow through action

Follow-Thro’Purpose

Follow-Thro’Purpose

Persuasive Presentation

Pay particular attention to:• Facts• Logical flow• Clear message• Relevance• Emotional content• Effective delivery

FactsDecide• What to include and exclude - present those that enhanced

your message, acknowledge those don’t• The most and the least important • The order in which to offer them• What they mean and how they can be interpreted• Support them with examples and case histories

Clear message• Cut verbiage• Use simple sentences and phrasing• Avoid multiple sub-clauses• Substitute short, plain words• Eliminate jargon• Use the active voice• Reject excess slides or overheads

Sounding natural• Be yourself – who you are is enough, you don’t need to try

be someone else• Use simple, everyday language• Take your time and enjoy yourself• Be well rehearsed• Put your full attention on your audience rather than

yourself• Respond to the audience and their moods• Allow your personality to shine through• Constantly vary your pace and tone of voice• Sound animated

Voice Power• Clear your voice gently, without a rasping sound• Use cool or tepid water rather than heavily iced water• Give your voice a rest by altering the cadence and pitch• To heighten audience attention occasionally vary your

loudness• Breathe deeply before speaking, enabling your voice to

carry further • Speaking clearly• Put power into your delivery, without shouting

“Her voice was sharp and probing, like a needle in the hands of a nervous nurse:”

Ann Bannon, Women in the Shadows

Presenter’s Highway Code

StopBreatheLookListenDo this before you actually utter a wordStand or sit quietly taking your time, absorbing the atmosphere, making contact with the audience, all without saying anythingMay last only 5 to 15 seconds, but has a profound effect on how you come across, conveying pose, confidence and gravitas

Presence• Critical for making a strong impact• Being fully ‘present’ in the moment • Totally aware of your situation and the surroundings• Able to read the audience• Ready to adapt to anything that happens• Focus on the here and now• Creating n other people an acute awareness of your

existence, so that they are intensely alert to what you might do next

Opener

“Nothing is more expensive than a start.” Nietzsche, The Will to Power

(1888)

Opener• Important and establishes the tone for the rest• Vital moment when you take charge, getting people’s

attention• People tend to remember openers more than any part of the

presentation, except perhaps the closing remarks• You never get a second chance to make a good first

impression• Put real passion into it - it’s your enthusiasm, commitment

and energy that excite people, making them want to hear more

A Powerful Opener

• Hooks the listener into wanting more• Makes people think of your purpose• Lets people know you’re an expert without doing it overtly• Cut to the chase: people hear the main point quickly• Present issues that the audience thinks are important• Wakes people up and holds their attention• Acts like a headline, summing up the entire presentation

Humorous verbal openers

• “If you are wondering if this will be a boring presentation, you are not alone. I’m dying to know too.”

• “I’d like to make three important points. That’s the first one. Can’t remember the other two.”

• “They said keep it short and simple, so thanks for listening and goodbye.”

• “You’re thinking, how will I start? Don’t. Your real problem is when will I stop.”

• “Some of you have heard me speak before. The rest of you have something to look forward to.”

• “I’ve been working on this material for months. Fortunately, last night my dog ate it.”

What kind of opener?

a poem or rhymea promisea jokea questiona requesta quotea drawinga story

an analogya startling statistica magic tricka cartoonanything unexpectedasking the audience to

do somethingan extract from a

newspaper of the day

“The first blow is half the battle”

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74) She stoops to conquer

Passion and Energy• Audience responds with their hearts, not just their heads• Show the power of passion, commitment and energy to

transform even the most pedestrian subject into something that an audience is curious top hear

• Gives a presentation its real power, the unique flavour that audience find memorable

• Connect with feelings, not just rational thoughts

Passion • The sparkle separating your performance from other

people’s• When you’re excited about your message, people respond• First make contact with it• Uncover the audience’s emotional trigger point• If you don’t feel strongly about what you are saying, why

should the audience?• Share with the audience why you feel enthusiastic

“Everyone’s feelings have a front door and a side door

by which they may be entered.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior, The Autocrat of the breakfast table (1858)

Locating the emotional trigger

• An audience’s emotional trigger point is ‘the compelling’ factor

• Drive your performance• What aspect of your presentation arouses strong feelings –

why?• What point would you make if you only had ten seconds –

why?• What does the audience most care about and want to know

– why?

Energy

• Transform a presentation relatively weak on content into a triumph

• Not necessarily about loud delivery• It’s your entire demeanour, how you hold yourself

physically and interact with the audience

Nine Ways To Increase Energy Levels

1. Alter the pace of delivery2. Stand up from a sitting position or sit down from standing up3. Move around4. Mingle with the audience5. Pause to breathe and refresh yourself6. Give the audience and yourself a few minutes break7. Use humour8. Use passion9. Get the audience to do something, like working in groups, standing,

going outside, doing some physical exercise

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9Tips

“Humour is the shortest distance between two

people”

“It’s hard to be funny, if you have to be clean:” Mae West

Using humour in presentations

• Draw on personal experience• Use it when you feel naturally funny• Don’t force yourself to start every presentation with a joke• Stick to short stories, not long rambling ones• De sure that the audience will understand a particular joke• Tailor it for a specific audience• Use jokes only if they fit the presentation• Avoid, racist, sexist, ageist references or other slurs• Wait for the laughs• Learn the punch line• Turn the humour against yourself, rather than someone else• A useful way of communicating a difficult or controversial message

Getting the audience to nod• You know you have gained the audience’s

agreement when you see them nodding, laughing or even saying ‘yes’

• Present a powerful fact that you know people believe to be true

• Make a statement with which you can expect most people to agree

• Pose a closed question to which the answer is either yes or no and is likely to be yes

Q & A Session• Unpredictable• An opportunity to excel, turn it into a presentation triumph• Think about the questions you may be asked – what is the

worst question they could ask, how could you answer it?• Be alert, involved and enthusiastic• Address the person who answered the question and then

open it out to everyone

Questions• Behind them are statements – a particular point of view• Uncovering the implied statement enables you to respond

effectively• Treat the person posing them with respect, no matter how

weak or irrelevant they are• People ask them to:1. Learn more2. Seek clarification3. Challenge you4. Make things awkward for you5. Make themselves look good6. Get across their views

Difficult Questions• Congratulate the person on their astute inquiry• Take a little time to summarize their point and check that

you have really understood it• Give a direct answer – keep it short and simple• Admit ignorance if you do not know the answer• Hand on – pass the problem back to the audience• Redirect• Throw back• Redefine

Humour can defuse tricky question

• ‘Could you rephrase that, preferably into something I can answer!’

• ‘Glad you asked me that, only trouble is I haven’t the faintest idea’

• ‘I’d love to know the answer to that too!’• ‘That’s a good question for you to ask, not a

wise one for me to answer’

“There aren’t any embarrassing questions –

just embarrassing answers”

Carl Rowan, the New Yorker (7 December 1963)

No QuestionsLack of response because people are:• Still absorbing your presentation• Too shy to ask• Fearful of looking foolish• Exhausted from your performance• Unsure what to askFace with silence, you could pose a question yourself: ’A

question you might like to think about is … ‘

Ten Ways To Handle Difficult Questions

1. Use thorough preparation to anticipate possible questions2. Ask colleagues to give you practice by posing difficult questions3. Announce in advance whether or not you’ll be taking questions4. Before answering, summarize the question to understand it and win

extra thinking time5. Avoid signs of irritation6. Be seen to give it some thought7. Ask the person or the audience what they think8. Be honest and say so if you don’t have the answer9. Summarize long questions before replying10. Invite the person to say why they are asking the question

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“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.”

Boris Pasternak, On modesty and boldness (1936)

Dealing with the unexpected1. Be prepared2. Clear your mind3. Focus on purpose4. Trust5. Stay present6. Build relationships7. Breathe8. Tell the truth9. Ask the audience10. Risk

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“That’s all there is, there isn’t any more.”

Ethel Barrymore, Curtain Call, 1904

Closure• Signal the coming close with relevant remarks• Remind audience of the key take away message• Be specific about what you want them to do next• Finish on a memorable note such as a story, a single word,

a fact, an appeal, a demand a poem• Show that you have finished perhaps with a nod or a thank

you• In the final moments of your presentation, add extra energy

to your delivery