Are Your Professional Presentations Ineffective?
Tips for rising leaders and project managers to be more effective
This week I will give a status report on a major construction project. Tomorrow I will be one of two people giving a presentation for a prospective project. Late in the week, I will participate in a day-long kickoff meeting with a dozen people inside the firm. Learning how to give a powerful business presentation is challenging. And especially when you are 24 years old.
It is more beneficial than harmful to be thrown in the fire early. You fail a lot, succeed some, and learn to fear nothing. When I joined the Fortune 500 more than a decade later, I was amazed that many of my peers and superiors were less experienced — and almost frozen — at the prospect of going on stage.
Start Simple
Opportunities abound. There are internal team meetings and external client engagements. There are professional meetings and civic meetings. Sometimes you deal with elected officials. The media appears If you work on some controversial projects.
The key is to start simple. Get clarity. Build confidence. Learn. Add more complexity.
These are a handful of the basics that every aspiring manager should remember regarding powerful business presentations.
Develop the framework
The literature is full of 5-step, 8-step, and 10-step sequences to follow to build a powerful business presentation. The following list is an 8-step version that I usually recommend:
1. Develop Your Objective
2. Analyze Your Audience
3. Structure the Main Body
4. State the Main Ideas
5. Decide on Supporting Information
6. Create an Opener
7. Develop Transitions
8. Prepare the close
The last three are the most forgotten which makes them probably the most important. Much like an accomplished actor, an accomplished presenter can lean into the last three and be successful, even if the material is bad. Less experienced presenters should be equally prepared in all eight areas. Remember, a chain is only as strong as the weakest link.
Different Types of Presentations Have Different Purposes
There are six types that cover the range of business presentations. Each type has different purposes and require different skills and approaches.
- Company/Internal: trusted advisor is the approach
- Company/External: this varies with the details and could take the form of either a trusted advisor or persuader
- Civic-professional/External: entertainment value is highly valued
- Political/External: a memorable story and support for the good the elected official strives to do
- Media: a memorable quote and support for the story’s slant
Aspiring young leaders should focus on doing the first two well. Try the third if you have some affinity for entertainment. Leave the fourth and fifth to trained, seasoned professionals
Be Aware of Your Words
Rapport is a relationship characterized by agreement, mutual understanding, or empathy that makes communication possible or easy. Rapport builds more easily if your words resonate with someone’s primary thinking processes. Most people are dominant in one thinking pattern and their words reflect it.
- Visual: “keep your eye on it,” “keep your eye on the ball,” “that’s how I see it,” “looks good,” “picture this,” “I don’t see it”
- Auditory: “sounds good,” “say to yourself,” “rings like a bell,” “sound the alarm,” “struck a note,” “calling out”
- Kinesthetic: “feels good,” “it hit me like a ton of bricks,” “drive it home,” “building block,” “hot potato,” “where are you coming from?” “where are we going?”
A balanced approach to the terms you usually use creates the most powerful presentation because the language helps build quick rapport with the most people. An unbalanced approach can easily be a turn-off. Listen to yourself. Listen to others. It is often not what you say but how you say it.
Limit the number of colors
Like your words, colors can produce noise that destroys the effectiveness of the message. A white background is usually safe. Font and line colors of black, dark blue, and dark green are most effective in most forums because they convey confidence, authority, power, and finality. Yellow, red, and orange are helpful for highlighting but tend to create noise when they are used as primary colors. Purple is whimsical and unusual, so use it to decorate your kitchen or bedroom but avoid it in business presentations.
Most powerful business presentations have a couple of primary colors. The rule should be to let the message carry the day rather than depending on the art department to succeed.
Spend Time on Q&A Preparation
Openers, transitions, and closers are essential elements of any business presentation. However, remember that the closing is not complete until all of the questions are asked. There will be questions after your presentation that will have much to do with how you are remembered in business.
These are a few tips that are worth reflection:
- Always repeat the question
- Watch your body language
- Breakaway from the questioner
- Stick with what you know
- Be brief
- Pass the buck when appropriate
- Stay on message
- Verify you answered the question
The Five Stages of Fear
In On Death and Dying, Elizabeth Kubler Ross described the five stages of grief as Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
The five stages of fear when it comes to business presentations are:
- The possibility of being chosen to speak
- Planning the material to present
- “Butterflies” immediately before presenting
- During the actual presentation
- After the presentation
The presentation you give on the way home is the best presentation you will ever give. Remember that nothing will be perfect.
Five Important Things to Remember
- State (or ask for) the outcome
- Simple is Better
- Less is more (finish early and know when to leave)
- Stay on message
- Be memorable
Remember, too, that you will fail a lot, succeed some, and hopefully learn to fear nothing.
