Episode #302: Making The Presentation Yours

It seems logical that any presentation we are giving is ours. Well, that is sort of correct, but what I am talking about is making it reflect your style and personality. When you talk to people about being a leader, they often bring up the word “authentic”, but when you talk to people about presenting, few ever mention that word. They are focused on being easily understood, convincing, concise, memorable etc. Being yourself should be the default, but somehow many people get wrapped up in being the “presenter”, as if it is a role they are playing.

I totally agree that the presenter role is a thing. What I usually tell the Japanese participants in our classes is that when you are presenting you have a different set of responsibilities. When having a chat with your friend over coffee, you can talk in a soft voice and not project any great energy. However, when you are up on stage, that is a different set of responsibilities. The volume has to be sufficient that no one in the audience is struggling to hear what you are saying. Of course, you might be thinking, what is the issue, we all have microphones today. True, but have you ever noticed that many people have no clue how to handle the technology. They hold it down way to too low relative to their mouth or they strangle it, by placing their hand over the mesh, which is specifically designed to pick up the sound.

The energy part is also important. We buy enthusiasm and confidence and the amount of buying going on is in direct proportion to the amount of energy being projected. What if I am a low energy person, aren’t I being authentic to speak with low energy - isn’t that who I am? The answer here is that you should give up any ideas about being a speaker, because there is a range of skills and mindset required to do the job well. If you don’t have those skills and the right mindset, why do we have to listen to you, when we can listen someone who is more professional.

We have to be ourselves but be our professional selves, not our train wreck selves. What I am talking about is operating at a high level of skill and bringing aspects of your personality into the presentation. Many presenters are stuck in low gear and they give a journeyman performance but we don’t feel close to them or impressed by them. Being able to bring more of yourself means, not being afraid of adding a little flair when presenting.

I will contrast two presenters. I attended an event recently and the slides were well done, the presenter (I am his client by the way), was very well presented, his voice was clear and calm. That was the problem – it was calm. It wasn’t energised or excited by the chance to share his content with the audience. The voice was clear but the tone was flat – it was a Johnny One Note performance which can be sleep inducing, if we get too much of it. He is the President of his firm and he should be the chief proselytiser, he should be projecting his confidence about what a great company they are and about all of the great things they can do for their clients. The demand for his company’s services is strong, so maybe he doesn’t feel any need to project anything, but that is a big mistake. Markets turn and he has a professional brand for himself, regardless of where he works.

Another presenter I saw brings all the clarity, professional slides etc., to the party but he also brings a lot of himself and all of his little idiosyncrasies as well. He brings all of the professionalism around the skill and mindset but also some of his personality. This is what makes him memorable. We associate the professionalism with his personal brand and he can take it one step further – he makes his talks entertaining. This is dangerous territory because being entertaining as a speaker is the hardest element in the speaking universe to pull off. The true professionals are just that – they are doing stand up for a living and the rest of us are amateurs delving into an area of great complexity. I am sure you have no shortage of recollections of speakers attempting to be humorous and just falling totally flat.

We don’t need to be comedians, but we can allow aspects of our personalities to shine through which can be entertaining or at least work well in that environment. The speaker I was referencing isn’t setting out to be humourous, but he is allowing his natural personality to come through and that makes his talks entertaining. I realise about myself that comedy is not in my future, so I don’t even try it. I also realise that there are limits to how much I can loosen up on stage. I compensate for these weaknesses by being authentic, which in my case means being high energy, confident and powerful when presenting. Think about how you can be authentic, but also be skilled and memorable when on stage and not just fade into the wallpaper and become totally forgettable after the talk is finished.