As a presenter, you’re always trying to do something to the audiences that you meet. Explain the new product, sell the benefits, clarify, motivate, inspire and convince being but a few of the more common ambitions. It’s just that often it’s at an unconscious level, and so it’s out of our awareness.
Poor presenters are very often ‘trying‘ to do one thing to an audience and achieving another. Often it’s as simple as understanding that ‘verb‘ that you want to ‘do’ to the audience before you start to prepare, and then speak, that will help you become better at judging what you have to do, or how you have to be, to be successful.
Let’s look at an example to clarify (my verb for this paragraph).
I was working with a client the other day, a very senior guy in an international company. He had a speech to give to a huge audience, and he wanted to be inspiring. We met and he ran through the speech for the first time, made a few changes to the text, and then he ‘did it for real’ in front of the video camera. We then watched the tape together and he was horrified.
‘But I’m so boring’ he said.
‘Yes you are’ I replied. ‘But you’re not a boring person, in any way, it’s just that you’re not consciously engaged in the message, or a verb, you’re reading a speech. You’re trying to inspire but delivering something else. ‘
We talked about the ‘verb’ thing a little more, and he decided that he wanted to inspire, engage and honour the audience, and so he spent 30 minutes redrafting his words in line with those words, and then, consciously, worked to do those things in his delivery.
No acting required, no personality transplant necessary, just conscious pursuit of a few simple verbs, and God, he was good.
This is a part of my Fit, Focus & Flair model. To be great, a presentation must be a perfect FIT for the situation; the content must have complete FOCUS on it’s purpose and message; and it must have enough FLAIR to stand out on the day, and in our memories. Learn more about developing your Fit, Focus and Flair.
