There are times when I’m coaching higher level executives that they also have multiple speech writers to craft the key messages, and Comm’s Departments to create their slides. Now a number of them are also relying on AI to write their speeches.
When you're not a "natural" public speaker
The moment before the first word
The $7 million presentation slide
How the smartest people lose their exec audience
Independence and the secret to being causative
Worrying about what others are going to think, fear of their reaction, being excessively careful not to ruffle feathers … All of these cripple communication.
I can't tell you how many times clients come to me and say, “I just have to put up with it for now because I don’t want to shake things up right now. I’m just going to let it go for now.” And they suppress their own communication and chance for success. “For now” turns into a very long time.
If you need everyone to agree before you stand up to speak, you’ll never make anything happen.
Becoming more attractive
Most people don't know how to truly connect with others as themselves. There's always something holding them back, some self-consciousness, a feeling something is “missing”, or something they put between themselves and others to protect them.
Often this is manifested when you see presenters trying to connect with their audience through their PowerPoint slides. You can see the trouble they would have if you took the slides away from them. They’d feel exposed, vulnerable, unsure.
Whether it’s slides, a beautiful body, or some attitude a person assumes because they think it makes them impressive, it doesn’t make any difference. The REAL skill is connecting directly as yourself.
How to own a room of C-Suite executives
This result isn’t something you achieve by improving your “corporate presentation” skills. It’s only available when you’re willing to step beyond what you see everyone else doing and do something very different.
This isn’t a journey about hand gestures or tone or how you make your slides…this is a journey about connection.
How to transform a meeting
Ayansh felt powerless. His promotion had put him in an extremely contentious engineering team. They didn’t discuss each other’s ideas, they shredded and destroyed them. No one listened. They were all sneering. Each one showing off how brilliant they could be, and the way to do that was to see the others go down in flames.
They were brilliant. But it was all being wasted.
So good they won't interrupt you
Imagine being in a really good movie. Would you interrupt what’s happening on the screen? Never! You would never let anyone else interrupt either until it’s over.
The audience only gets restless and starts to talk, or wants to do something else, when what’s happening in front of them doesn’t hold their interest.
The right question to ask yourself is, “What does it take to be uninterruptible? What does it take to be so good, everyone wants to hear everything I have to say? How do I keep them totally captivated from my first word to my last?”
When do you give up on someone? That’s something only you can answer, but when the answer to this question affects tens of thousands of people, it’s worth pushing the limits of not giving up.
I’ve seen communication succeed despite all odds, and this is where REAL skill comes in.
How to get the audience to “open up”
I was watching Jed give a sales presentation. The faces of his audience were attentive and respectful. They were also unsold. Unmoved.
In other words, Jed’s ideas weren’t landing the way he wanted.
They were politely waiting for Jed to come to the end. They had probably already mentally formulated a polite way of telling him, “Thank you, we’ll consider it” as they gently ushered him out the door.
Jed had no idea why he was losing it, and he kept going. As Jed talked, he got visibly more and more enthusiastic as a way to pump energy into the meeting, which did nothing for his audience.
Jed knew something was wrong, but had no idea what it was.
How to make stage fright go away
I have seen innumerable methods for attempting to vanquish stage fright.
Bianca addresses groups of 3,000 customers at a time. She’s in sales. Her way of coping with terror was to run out on a large stage with very loud music, seemingly all “pumped up” and yell at the crowd, “Hey! How's everybody doing?” It was about as far from her true personality as could be, and the second she started her presentation it was obvious she was tense nervous.
Peter found two people in the audience on either side of the room. First, he talked to one, then he talked to the other. They were the only 2 people he looked at. Anchoring on only 2 people didn’t handle his stage fright, but it kept him from totally losing it.
Risha is an engineer. She presents project updates to a skeptical and demanding senior leadership team. Her solution was to avoid all eye contact because she didn’t want to see their disapproving looks, she forced herself to keep her eyes squarely fixed on her notes and her slides.
Lynette powered through her talks on pure nerves and adrenaline, and collapsed with exhaustion when they were over.
If any of these methods of handling stage fright worked, they wouldn't have it.
What they’re all trying to do is drive their symptoms out of existence. The symptoms include every flavor and intensity of fear, from feeling slightly nervous and on edge to complete terror.
The reason these methods don't work is because they don't address the root cause of stage fright. And most people have no idea what's causing it.
If you don't know what's causing it, how can you fix it?
Do THIS to keep your audience on the edge of their seats
Sam put them to sleep within the first 10 minutes of his 40-minute presentation. He’s not alone in being able to do this.
The problem with corporate presentations is they’re lifeless. Audiences slowly drown in a sea of droning boring corporate “they all look alike” PowerPoint presentations.
They all start with, “Today I’m going to talk to you a little bit about…”
Then they unroll a slowly moving parade of too many uninspired slides endlessly connected by unimaginative transitions of, “Now on my next slide you’ll see…”
If this is you, you’re gradually putting them to sleep. Your audience slowly, but politely, disengages. Their minds start drifting and they start covertly multitasking, their attention desperately seeing something to keep them awake.
If they possibly can, your audience will start interrupting you. I coached a VP last week who told me that when his people present to executives they always hear, “Okay, let’s stop here, stop presenting for a moment, just let me ask you some questions ….” and the execs just take over and drive the presentation into a ditch (as far as the presenter is concerned).
Here’s the thing to know about audiences: they only stay with you as long as they are learning from you, and what they’re learning must be new and interesting.
I know, I know. The problem is you don’t have exciting content to work with. You have, well, corporate presentation material. And, let’s face it, nobody’s ever made an action movie out of a corporate presentation. I understand your challenge.
But just because your material may seem boring, it does not mean that you have to be.
Your Presentation Mojo
I’ve been delivering tons of virtual and in-person presentation skills workshops and coaching. Extraordinary executives, brilliant engineers, top sales professionals, fascinating attorneys, individual contributors, early in career, the complete spectrum of corporate life.
They’re dynamic, charming, funny, warm, open, personable …. that is, until the workshop starts.
Then they each take turns giving their 1st presentation, before any coaching.
Suddenly life, personality and charisma drains out of them, they become very corporate. Very businesslike, deadpan. Dry data, cautiously stated conclusions, serious, matter-of-fact, completely restrained and inhibited self-expression. Conservative. Suddenly it’s SERIOUS.
I remember a student I had a couple years ago who, when I asked her to tell me her goals for the workshop said, "I want to get my Mojo back. I used to have Mojo and somehow I lost it." Such a good goal!!!
When your Mojo’s working, you’re feeling GOOD. And the audience can’t help but feel good too, and absolutely love you.
It has nothing to do with content. Nothing at all to do with WHAT you’re talking about.
It has everything to do with YOU.
Why "trendy terminology" destroys communication
I was watching a video of a live presentation by Mark, the CEO of a major corporation with more than 40,000 employees. Mark was visibly and painfully uncomfortable. Worse yet, he was making a fool of himself.
Mark had heard about me and reached out with a request that I coach him on his presentation skills. He had his Chief of Staff send me a couple of his recent videos to watch in advance “to see what he’s doing wrong”.
Mark knew something was clearly wrong. In our initial conversation, Mark told me, “The more feedback I get, the worse I’m getting. I need someone to straighten this out for me. I may not be the best public speaker in the world, but there’s no reason I need to be the worst.”
I started our first coaching session wanting to understand what was going on in his mind. I asked Mark, “What were you trying to do up there?”
Mark answered, “I’ve been given feedback that as a CEO I need to be vulnerable, and that I also need to be more passionate. That’s what I was trying to do.”
I asked, “What does that mean? Vulnerable and passionate?”
Mark looked at me, and with great pain in his eyes said, “I have no idea.”
Well, there you go. Mark was trying really hard to execute something that was completely incomprehensible and confusing.
Activating your power to inspire
Alan has been giving “All-Hands” presentations to the 1500 people that report to him. His organization has over 80,000 people. They’re currently getting hammered in the news. The company has been struggling, trying to recover from mistakes made by the then-CEO five years ago. Unfortunately, they’ve just had to announce layoffs. There’s a tremendous amount of re-organization and re-shuffling happening. Where people will land is up in the air. The future of the organization is uncertain and morale is at an all-time low.
Alan’s group has been the only one that’s been inspired. Why are they inspired? In the midst of all this, there is one reason only: Alan is inspiring them.
This wasn’t always the case.
When Alan came to me for coaching, his desperate “pep talks” had been falling flat. Alan said, “If I don’t inspire them, I’ve lost them. I need them inspired, aligned, engaged, and enthusiastic. I know it’s impossible, but I need them to stop listening to the news, to tune out what’s happening in the rest of the organization and focus on what we need to be doing. I haven’t been able to get them to see it, but I know we can make a difference.”
That’s a difficult assignment when the only conversation in the halls is the latest trash in the news, who got laid off, who’s afraid of getting laid off, how all the “good people” are leaving, the shattered trust in management and loss of faith in the vision.
Alan wanted to be MORE than just understood. That wasn’t enough. He wanted to inspire. Many people who come to me for coaching want that.
It’s an important ability for a leader to have, at any time.
How to sound authentic
Victor says, “I want to sound authentic.”
What a funny request. I started laughing before I caught his serious look and stopped myself.
I asked him, “Are you saying you’re not authentic, but you want to sound like you are?”
Victor: “No, that’s not it. I think I’m authentic.”
But he didn’t sound sure.
Me: “Then what’s the problem?”
Victor: “I just don’t think I sound it. And I don’t know why.”
In a flash, I took in everything about Victor, and I understood.
It started when Victor was little and in school.
Authentic means being who you are, being genuine, true, in opposition to that which is false, fictitious or counterfeit, in other words “put on” to create an appearance.
When Victor was little, I’m sure he had no trouble being authentic. No 2-year old does.
The secret to keeping your audience on the edge of their seats
Here’s the thing to know about audiences: they will only stay with you as long as they are learning.
I know, I know. The problem is you don’t have exciting content to work with. You have, well, corporate presentation material. And, let’s face it, nobody’s ever made an action movie out of a corporate presentation. I know your challenge. I get it.
But just because the material may seem boring, does not mean that you have to be.
This is something you can do with your own presentations to keep your audience on the edge of their seats. I’m going to tell you how a professional keeps their audience engaged.
Waking up to your audience
I said, “Here, watch me.” And then I took George’s slide and presented it exactly the way he was doing it.
I asked, “What do you think about that?”
George, “It’s really awful.”
I said, “Now watch this.”
I presented using the exact same words, but differently this time.
Me: “What did I change?”
George: “Everything! Your body language, your tone of voice, you were leaning in, you sounded more passionate, your hand gestures, your eye contact. You were compelling, you were engaging. It was impactful, the first one didn’t feel like it had much meaning.”
I told George I only changed ONE thing. Only one. Everything that George observed were byproducts of the one thing I changed.
I asked, “Do you have any idea what that one thing was that I changed?”
The magic of muscle memory
For two years, Jason had been in his home office, in front of a computer monitor not more than 2.5 feet from him. The camera was close up, and everything was within arm’s reach and easily under his direct control.
Today, his presentation was “direct to camera”. The only live audience was the crew. And they weren’t paying attention. They were running around, moving equipment, ignoring Jason.
Jason scoped out the room one last time. Located the main camera, boldly connected with it and told the crew, “Hit it.”
He looked directly into the camera and smiled, an irrepressible, irresistible smile. He brought forth all of his warm, eye-twinkling charm and charisma and said, “Hi. Thank you for being here. Let me tell you what I want to talk to you about today.”
The reviews of Jason’s talk from his worldwide audience were enthusiastically positive. Employees felt drawn in, they were captivated, inspired, engaged and they really liked listening to him. The Communications Department is suddenly getting requests for “More Jason presentations please!”
I was reviewing the recording with Jason afterward and he revealed the secret to his success.
“Muscle memory.”