Episode #110: Be Clear Every time You Present

What are the key things we should be concentrating on to make sure we are clear to our audience?

The most common request, from both Japanese and English speakers in our classes is to “be clear when presenting”. The speakers want their message to get across to the audience, to be easy to follow, to have some impact from their efforts to get up in front of others and speak.

Firstly, we should decide what is the purpose of our talk? Is it to Entertain people, so they leave feeling warm and fuzzy about us and our organization? Is it to Convince them or to Impress them that our organization is reliable and trustworthy? Is it to Persuade or Inspire them to take some action that we are recommending? Is it to just Inform them of some recent data or information that is relevant to their industry?

Secondly, we need to thoroughly investigate beforehand just who will we be talking to? What is the generational mix, the age demographic, the male/female split? Are they experts, amateurs, dilettantes, critics, supporters, potential clients, etc.? We need to gauge our listener’s level of comprehension and make sure we are talking to them at their level of expertise.

Thirdly, we should rehearse our talk before we give it. If we prepare the talk in writing, we may find the cadence is different to when we say the words out loud, compared to when we silently read it on a page. We also may find we have misjudged the time completely and be too long or too short. We need to start singling out key words we want to hit harder than others for emphasis.

Some Japanese speakers have complained to me that they are at a permanent disadvantage with public speaking, because the Japanese language is a monotone, non-tonal language. Apply pace to speed up or slooow right down. Another variation is to add more power to a word or phrase or to speak in an audible whisper, removing the power altogether.

Fourthly, get the mechanics of delivery right. The message cannot stand by itself; the quality of the content is not enough; the supreme value of the data is insufficient - if people can’t hear you. Yes, physically they can hear you are speaking, but when the content and the delivery are not in harmony, only 7% of the message is actually getting through to the audience. When the message content is not congruent with the way you deliver the message, we get distracted by how you are dressed, by your body language, by the tone of your voice.

Engage your audience by using eye contact and keep each person’s gaze for around 6 seconds to make the eye contact meaningful, without it becoming intrusive.

Also, get you face involved! If it is good news, then smile; if you suggest doubt, have a quizzical expression on your face; if the information is surprising, have an expression of wonder; if it is bad news look unhappy or concerned.

A well placed pause is a brilliant way to get the audience focused on what we have just said. Often when we are nervous, we speed up and start jumbling the run of the ideas together. A pause also gives us time to regroup our thoughts and calm down a bit, if we found we were getting a bit too fast in our delivery.

Throw in some gestures to add power to the words, but don’t maintain the same gesture for longer than 15 seconds. The gestures should be natural and not Shakespearian or pseudo thespian. Leave acting to the experts, be natural, be your “professional” self.

When we know why and who we are speaking to; when we get voice, face and hands working in unison to add strength to what we are saying, we get 100% of the audience to clearly absorb our message. It is quite clear what we have to do isn’t it!

Action Steps:

1. Define the purpose of the talk
2. Analyse who were are going to be taking to
3. Rehearse
4. Master the mechanics of delivery