Episode #39 Keys To Owning The Room When Presenting

Should the business presentations world be a democracy where anyone can speak? Actually no. Who wants to sit there and be hammered boring, unprofessional, dismal speakers? What we really want is for our time to be well spent. To be enlightened, motivated, inspired, informed. There are some prerequisites for speakers in this regard and they all have to do with the motivation behind speaking. Why are they doing it and should they be doing it in the first place? Have they earned the right? Are they excited about their subject and eager to share?

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

Ninety percent of Japan’s private security companies are suffering personnel shortages. This is causing concerns about Japan’s hosting of the Olympics in 2020. Crowd control, airport security guards and building security guards were the three main areas of shortage of supply. Why a lack of staff? Low wages, a shortage of workers in general and more competition for potential hires by other industries. Japan is very well organized with security people protecting you from trucks entering building sites, road works underway, etc. Robots won’t be much help for the moment, so who is going to take care of us into the near future?

This is episode number 39and we are talking about Keys To Owning The Room When Presenting. Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.

Not everyone should be a presenter. We don’t need higher levels of boredom or disinterest than we have already. A big “No thank you” to those conspiring to waste our precious time. This does not mean that only a few super talented individuals can be presenters. We can all learn to become competent and become better presenters. This is “nurture” not “nature” in action. The key point is your motivation, why are you doing this?

Dale Carnegie pioneered business public speaking when he launched his first course in 1912. He proffered the 3Es as a solid requirement before we contemplate being a speaker and it still applies today. Those Es are “earned the right”, “ excited” and “eager” to present.

We have earned the right to speak to others about our subject because we have studied the subject and we have relevant experience. It is not limited to our direct experience, because we could be drawing on the experience of others. We should be a subject matter expert with formidable knowledge on a particular topic. We have been reading expert opinion and doing research on this subject, absorbing the key points and making them relevant to the business community to whom we are speaking.

This means keeping up to date, because there are always new findings and new ideas emerging. For many of us, what we were taught in school is different to what our children are being taught today. The reason is specialties like biology, archaeology, astronomy, mathematics, physics etc., keep pushing the boundaries of our knowledge.

Today there are podcasts, advertorials, blogs, LinkedIn articles, YouTube videos, conferences, workshops, subscription information products, etc., all expanding our world. These are separate to the traditional sources of published academic works, journalistic offerings, thought pieces in print and mainstream broadcast media.

We must remain current because for sure, there will be members of our audience who are likely to be highly informed. As we know, everyone has instant access to everything today. While we are speaking, they can quickly go on-line and search for references we make to facts, situations and people. We do this ourselves don’t we!

We need to have reserve power – this is the additional knowledge of a subject, which we don’t have time to present during our allotted speaking time. To have reserve power requires we study our subject.

Experience is the other highly valuable arrow in our speaker quiver. Telling stories, based around our personal experience or observation is very powerful. Our audience may choose to disagree with our conclusion drawn from our experience, but they cannot argue with that experience.

We need to draw on more than our own individual experience and that is where the exploits of others, particularly famous individuals, lends credibility to the story we are telling and the points we are making. People remember stories but they don’t recall disjointed facts and data for very long.

Being excited to present because we have positive feelings about our subject is a another vital prerequisite for success. Watching the global head of a huge resources company give a presentation on what they were doing, but conducted without the slightest sense of excitement for the topic, was a brutal experience. The slides were fine, the speaking speed was good, the flow was logical, he was well appointed, his shoes were shined. It was horrible. It was awful because it was so bland, so devoid of passion for the subject. It was “painting by numbers” for someone thrust into the role of global representative for the company. He destroyed his brand on the spot.

He failed the other test, which is eager to project the value to his listeners. He was robotic, boring, passionless. There were no take-aways for our businesses, no lessons from the front line, no war stories of bloody failure and final redemption, no hero’s journey – there was just an hour of time, dull and devoid of all life forms instead. Let’s do our analysis of our audience and understand what will be of value to them and then provide it.

Do us all a favour – bulk up on the 3Es before you speak. And if you do, then you will project a highly positive professional image to your audience for your brand, company and yourself.