Executives want you to be comfortable when you’re presenting to them. Yet, most of the people who come to me to polish their executive presentations are FAR from comfortable when they have a high level executive audience.
The tortured life of Senior Leadership
Senior executives spend their days listening to endless proposals and briefings. They sit through so MANY presentations, it TORTURES them to listen to presenters who don’t get right to the point.
I’m sure you watch YouTube videos. Have you ever watched one that took a long time to get to the point? You know that feeling you got? Did you ever fast-forward hoping they would get to something good? Did you ever skip out before the end?
Senior executives LIVE with that feeling.
It’s torture. There’s no other word for it.
I’m sure they would wish for a remote control that could fast-forward. And they would use it liberally.
This is how to stand out from this crowd in your executive presentations:
A night of goodness
I love tomorrow’s holiday, a great tradition born on a chilly November night, exactly 400 years ago.
Dreamed into being in 1621 by a tough people after endless struggle through long periods of great hardship, tremendous hardship, more than we could ever imagine.
They sat down together as community, and enjoyed a moment of peace, for the simplest of purposes: to be grateful. Together.
Their hardships were not over. Far from over. This moment was no more than “a time out.”
It was a, “Let’s stop what we’re doing and create a night of goodness.”
It was also a perspective shift: “Let’s step back and admire what we’ve created amidst the swirling winds of adversity.”
The secret of those who criticize you
Executive presence doesn't work with training wheels
Many executives who come to me for executive coaching come prepared with their word-for-word script.
What’s the problem with speaking from a script when you’re giving a presentation?
Well…what does a script say about your mindset? About your thoughts and feelings about yourself? Your feelings about the audience? About your true power?
Having a script sends out a lot of messaging about you that you might not want to be sending.
Breaking through to human
The price of silence
Then she would ask, “Are there any questions? Are we all on board?”
Crickets. Dead silence.
Lucy was a little relieved there were no objections. Then she would say, “Okay, moving on…” And go to the next item on the agenda. She was terrified that they would object to her plans, and she had no idea how to handle it if they did.
Your presentation Mojo or Getting your Mojo back…
When something bad is “inevitable”
The one question you should never ask
Daniel's "crash course" for impressing senior leadership
What Daniel ran into is what all human beings run into: the more you try to impress others, the more you move away from your true self. You get tangled up in knots. The more you do it, the less impressive you become.
People are not impressed by someone who is trying to impress them. It’s a road that leads to anxiety and defeat.
Pecked to death by feedback
Playing the game not to lose, instead of playing to win
People don’t listen to me because …
Breathing life into the virtual
One fundamental that changes everything
The magic of making people human
When they have no idea what you’re talking about
The two-letter secret to making your audience love you
Matt, an executive I’m coaching, recently gave an all-hands presentation to the employees who report to him, an audience of 750. He received 100% 5-star reviews for his talk. Amazing.
When I congratulated him, he said, “Well, it was an easy audience.”
I couldn’t stop laughing.
I asked him, “Isn’t this the same audience that about six months ago was giving you a whole lot of 3’s and a bunch of 1’s and 2’s?”
He thought about it for a moment, and said, “Oh yeah! They were doing that, weren’t they?”
It was the same audience.
What this shows is it doesn’t matter what your starting point is. Whatever it is, you don’t have to be stuck there. You can develop your skills to the point where the audience gives you 5-star reviews.
What was the big difference in Matt’s presentations?
There were many. We covered a lot of ground during the six months of regular coaching. But let me talk about one of the most important things that happened during our work together:
Matt went from talking at his audience to talking to them.
You wouldn’t think that a couple of simple two-letter words would have such a profound impact, but they make all the difference when it comes to the foundation of your presentation ability.
At means in the direction of.
To means so as to arrive.
You don’t go at New York. You go to New York. It’s a destination, a point you reach. You ARRIVE.
You don’t look to a wall. You look at a wall. In the direction of. You don’t arrive there.
Big difference.
Most people are talking at their audiences. Their audience is a wall. They’re just talking in their direction.
These presenters don’t have their ideas or messages actually arrive. And they suffer the consequences.
What you’re doing in a presentation is getting an idea from your mind over to the minds of your audience. If you just project it in their direction, it will not arrive.
It takes deliberate awareness, intention and skill on your part to get it to arrive.
Matt’s message didn’t change. Matt’s audience didn’t change.
Matt started talking TO them. This woke them up and they got it. Matt’s ratings completely changed.
Developing this skill to the level that Matt did takes focused work best done in a coaching-type environment where you’re getting real feedback.
The good news is that you can take the first few steps on this journey all by yourself, starting right now.
Here’s how:
This week, notice when you’re talking at, and switch gears and talk to them. Get your idea to arrive.
See how this simple change makes you focus your attention and intention. See the extra power that it gives you.
Be the cause!
Presenting to skeptics
Mara’s first “practice run” of her presentation in the workshop rubbed everyone the wrong way. She was too forceful. And her voice had an edge to it.
I asked her what she was doing and Mara said, “My audience is somewhat closed to what I’m presenting. This is a big deal and I need to persuade them. A lot’s riding on it.”
Mara’s story highlights the importance of being able to communicate effectively with someone you anticipate will be closed or skeptical. Especially when a lot is riding on it.
When you allow yourself to focus your attention on the expected skepticism, it changes you. You are now talking to their skepticism, not to them. You start to resist the other person. You may even feel you need to overcome their skepticism.
The kiss of death is when you start to feel the need to convince.
This is guaranteed to bring out the worst in you.
Many people are not able to “be there” comfortably and face a person or group they assume will be closed or skeptical.
Receptive means willing to receive or accept.
You create receptivity.
Whether your audience is 1 or 100, you have no chance of opening them up and making them receptive unless you can be there comfortably and face them.
The ability to comfortably face another person is one of the highest communication skills there is. There are a thousand ways to run away from it.
One person wrote me that her boss is really difficult to communicate with, and so she imagined she was talking to her cat while she looked at and talked into the camera during their virtual meetings. She said that really helped her.
Well, okay. I can imagine that it would be more comfortable than thinking she was talking to a boss she didn’t like, but it’s a long way from being aware of the real person who IS there, a long way from being able to be comfortable, and face them in the moment, with the full power of your awareness.
In Mara’s case, it was even worse. People create anxieties and problems, and make it difficult for themselves to face others, when they anticipate what’s going to happen, rather than being in the moment.
In the corporate world I live in, people are constantly anticipating. This keeps them on edge, slightly anxious. Rarely in the moment.
When you worry someone will be closed, skeptical, stubborn, or any of a hundred other adjectives, you’re anticipating.
That anticipation alone is enough to change you, to make you try to convince, resist or overcome. This only makes the other person wary, closed, skeptical or stubborn.
Only when you are fully in the moment and aware are other outcomes possible. The truly positive outcomes. The happy transformations.
In other words, you will be most creative, most powerful, when you are in the moment.
That’s what Mara did with her real audience (which was about as closed, skeptical and stubborn as they come). She emailed me this morning:
“We had this morning the meeting and it REALLY worked! I kept looking into the camera and had a very relaxed voice and they fully opened up… we had phenomenal interaction and are having a next meeting and I have all required information we need to make that successful! THANK YOU!!!”
Notice your conversations this week…
How much of the time are you anticipating what’s going to happen?
See if you can stop the mental noise and just be in the moment with that person or group. See if you can sustain it throughout your meeting or conversation.
Get ready to be surprised.
Let me know what happens.
Be the cause!