KEY POINTS:
When you're speaking in front of an audience, it's not your style, your presentation or even a gimmick that's important - it's your content, says Tony Burns, principle consultant for Effective Speaking. Burns' company is focussed on training business presenters and he says audiences aren't there to be entertained.
"Unfortunately what we're ending up with is presentations that are all style and no substance. It's got to be about the substance and about the information," says Burns.
Presenters should be themselves and not be gimmicky by going out into the audience, he says.
"You're not meant to be a performer. You're meant to be an informer or a persuader but not a performer."
You won't need a gimmick if you have something worth saying. No delivery technique in the world is going to save you if you don't present interesting information. And if you're just rehashing the same PowerPoint that you used with the last group, you're sure to flop. In fact, PowerPoint is where a lot of presenters go wrong and part of the problem is the way the software is set up, says Burns.
"It's the default that Microsoft provides. When you open PowerPoint, the first slide that you get is a title slide and so people fill that in. The next slide is bullet points. Our mantra in regard to PowerPoint is banish bullets."
Bullet points provide too much temptation to simply use your slides as notes and read through them. Audiences don't want to be read to.
"Instead of engaging with the audience, they end up engaging with the screen."
In fact, Microsoft's own website advises against reading slides. "Don't parrot PowerPoint," it says.
Burns also recommends that instead of using a title slide, you simply have a grey slide and stand centre-stage to introduce yourself. Any other slides you use should be justified by either helping the audience understand or remember what you're saying.
"You should be able to show the slide and be silent for five seconds while they look at the slide."
Burns says a slide should be like a billboard. It should have an image that communicates a message.
"We remember images. We don't remember words on a screen."
There was a time in mankind's history where speeches were made without PowerPoint and Burns says you should be able to do without it.
"A lot of people could do better if they cut back on their reliance on PowerPoint and start to rely on their own stories and experience and examples."
It's these tales where most audiences will find the message. Burns says to have just one message you want to deliver and then provide evidence to back it up.
"Don't talk about key messages. You might have key points but there's only one message. If you try and have two messages, you're already diluting your message."
Burns says not to try to provide everything you know about a subject. Just pick one message and back it up with stories, examples, statistics, a professional endorsement or research to justify your point. Burns points to Martin Luther King's most famous speech as an example.
"Martin Luther King said, 'I have a dream' and people remember that. He painted pictures on the minds of the audience."
If you use slides, spell out your single message on one slide in a full sentence along with an image at the beginning of your presentation.
As for the practical details of presenting, Burns says not to be afraid of having notes on paper or written on a card in your hand. It beats reading PowerPoint slides. If you have a lectern, have it next to you rather than in front of you and feel free to place your notes on it. Remember to keep the focus on your content.
"If you feel good about your content, you'll be engaging. You'll lift your act in your delivery automatically," he says.
"One of the most confidence-boosting things that you can do as a presenter is to know in your heart that your material is going to be of value to your audience."
If the content isn't there then things can go bad fairly quickly.
"The audience gets restless. They get bored and the presenter detects that feedback and then they start to struggle."
In fact, for most people the hardest part about public speaking is not finding something to say but getting up and saying it. Most people suffer from some degree of glossophobia. Donna Andronicos, director of Catalyst 3:1, once had a morbid fear of public speaking but is now a certified career coach and regularly gives presentations. She says that if you're nervous, putting yourself in the right frame of mind beforehand is important.
"Imagine yourself up there delivering your speech. Imagine getting a good response and it's all going well," Andronicos says.
Before you get up, Andronicos says you might need to relax yourself and focus on slowing down your breathing.
"Breath in for 10 seconds. Breath out for 10 seconds and just relax and just focus for your delivery."
It's not a good idea to drink a lot of coffee as that can dry out your vocal cords and make you even more jittery. But it really doesn't matter if you're nervous, the audience does not need to know. Being well prepared is the best way to fight glossophobia. Practice till you can rattle it off without thinking about it and always know your topic.
"I only talk about topics I know my stuff on. I would never get up there and talk about something I didn't know because that's the worst thing you can do to yourself," Andronicos says.
And make sure that you know your opening lines better than anything else or it could just cascade into a complete disaster.
"The last thing that you want to do is to have another bad experience to reinforce the belief system you already have," Andronicos says.
Knowing your topic also takes the fear out of facing questions from the audience.
"Have more knowledge than you probably need to have on the day. That way it takes away the nervousness around, 'Oh God, what if they ask me a question and I don't know what the answer is?"'
Andronicos says that being asked a question you can't answer is not the end of the world.
"That's actually OK. If you don't know the answer you can just say, 'That's a really great question. I'll find out the answer and come back to you."'
It's the information that's the key to any good business presentation and not the delivery.
"It's classic to see people using humour. You'll often see people get up and they use humour that's a very scripted humour and it doesn't feel very impromptu. Or they will use humour as a way of hiding their own nervousness. That can completely kill a presentation," Andronicos says.
Trying to put on a show or pretending to be the world's greatest presenter can also kill a presentation.
"People can smell authenticity a mile off. If you get up there and you're authentic and you're connecting with the audience, that's how you bring them along with you."
