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I regularly get asked how speakers can improve their ability to engage with their audience and hold their attention.   Given the number of dull boring and apparently pointless presentations I have had to sit through this is no great surprise,  I am often complimented in my ability to quickly engage my audience so today I’ll share with you some of my secrets.

1. Set a clear intention.
2. Have a clear outcome for the presentation - Know what you want them to do as a result of your talk
3. Connect with your audience before you start to speak. Silently welcome them as you scan the room
4. Quickly establish “What’s in it for your audience” so that  they can see the relevance of your content
5. Maintain good eye contact with the whole audience -
6. Vary you energy and expression - a  monotone delivery will send your audience to sleep
7. Turn your presentation into a story or series of stories that communicate your key messages
8. Don;t overload them with too much detail - less is more!

That’s it in a nutshell.   If you want more detail on any of these steps - just send me an email or aska  question in the comments box below and I’ll be happy to expand on any one of them.

People are always asking me how I manage my nerves and come across as confident and fluent under almost any situation. Well I am not entirely sure but I believe that part of the answer lies in being able to quickly access a resourceful internal state.  By state I mean the neurophysiological gestalt or felt sense of how I am  feeling and thinking whilst  presenting.

Now that’s a bit of a mouthful so to get it it may be easier to take a moment to ask yourself this question.  “How would I need to be, in the moment, to allow me to express myself naturally and authentically to an audience?   - How would I be feeling and what would I be thinking simultaneously that would open up my capacity to be authentic?    Stop reading and imagine what that state could be for you now.

One powerful way that I use to access this state comes from the Eastern martial arts tradition and is called centering.  This process creates a state of preparedness which is akin to that needed to be an authentic communicator.

There are two components to centering:

1. Dropping down into centre
2. Opening out and connecting with the outside world

The first, involves us taking a couple of deep breaths and deliberately shifting our conscious attention   from our intellectual mind (head) down and into to our physical centre of gravity somewhere around our belly.

So far so good but If we just stayed in this place we might feel really relaxed but it would be difficult to communicate and influence with others.   So we need to add in  the second part of the process.

Once we are in our centre we can now imagine, opening up our consciousness outwards from our belly so that we energetically connect this sense of centeredness with the wider world outside.   In a presentation sense, this means connecting wordlessly with our audience.   Connecting from this more grounded place is quite different from connecting purely on an intellectual mind level.

When you do this it has profound beneficial effects not only on how you feel yourself, but also on the quality of connection you make with those around you.   Physically things change too; typically;

• Your delivery slows down
• You are able to speak from the heart without fear of what others may think
• Your voice tone drops, becomes more resonant, and takes on a much more genuine and compelling quality
• You become more comfortable with pauses and silences

You could say that centering is the “master skill” and like any skill it takes work and practice to develop.

The reason most people don’t get it is because at first it feels completely different from the normal, head centered style of communication most business communicators are used to.

This feeling of unfamiliarity is often labelled as discomfort and so they go back to their old habits.   If you stick with it and practice it, it will become the norm and your ability to conect and influence will improve quickly ans easily.

I came across this presentation from an Analyst at Morgan Stanley and it epitomises everything that is wrong with the way most people use PowerPoint.   Honestly!   it doesn’t have to be like this.  Don’t deluge your audience with data.   These slides are so busy that after a couple you just want to give up.

I’m sure this lady means well and knows her stuff, but believe me, presenting it in this way won’t hack it!  Do yourself a favour and learn how to ditch the bullet points and simplify your slides.  Your audience will thank you for it.

For some practical tips on how do do this check out my short video presentation on how to make powerpoint work

As an unashamed NLP fan, I have always been interested in the idea that we can learn much from modelling success in others but what about ourselves?

Modelling in NLP terms is the process of identifying a model or exemplar of excellence and then seeking to identify what are the critical patterns of behaviour AND though that underpin that excellence.   We know that our behaviours are driven by our internal mental patterns so it is vital that we seek to understand the thinking strategies of our exemplars as much as their behaviours.

In this post however I’d like to encourage you to apply the principles of modelling to yourself.    You may not yet have reached the dizzying hights of eloquence displayed by  President elect Barack Obama however I’ll bet that their are some things that you already do pretty well.

I recommend that  you set aside some time to answer the question “What am I already doing well!” and then get curious about what it is that is allowing you  to display this level of excellence.

Here are some questions to get you started?

• When I am performing at my best how am I behaving?  What’s my posture like, how is my eye contact?  how am I breathing?  What’s my speed of speech like?
• When I am speaking at my best what am I thinking about?   What am I saying to myself inside my head?   What pictures or mental movies am I running?
• When I am influencing at my best what do I believe that helps to feel they way I feel and act the way I act?   What do I beleive to bve true about myself and my abilities?   What do I beleive about the people I am communicating with?
• When I am feeling at my most confident and persuasive what am I paying attention to consciously?  What am I not thinking about?

Asking yourself these and other questions will start you on a powerful process of self modelling that will inevitably lead to self improvement.    By identifying you answers to these questions you are starting to identify a “model” of how you are operating when you are in the zone.   By testing and refining this model uou will develop your awareness and be able to make finer and more accurate distinctions as to what is the difference that makes the difference when you are performing above average and so raise your game incrementally.

I’d love it if you would share your observations with the rest of the readers of this post via the comments option.  By doing this we can try out each others patterns of success and find out which bits are truly transferable.

I spent some time in George Best International airport in Belfast recently coming back from a fundraising workshop with the charity Concern Worldwide UK

When I entered the airport departure lounge I saw the usual television screens with departure and arrival information but I also saw something I had never seen before…

Normally, when your flight has not been called, the screens show the message “Please wait in lounge”  but in Belfast airport thy had a different message!   Somebody had clearly thought about the impact of words and had harnessed their knowledge to see if they could increase the amount of money people spend whilst waiting for their flight.

Can you guess what they did?

They changed the message from “Please wait in the lounge” to “Relax and shop”

To me this is a classic example of how changing the words people read can have a major impact on their behaviour.   If you want your audience to do something, then tell them what it is you want them to do!

How could you use this simple lesson to become more persuasive and influential

I’d love to hear your examples or comments!

I often get asked for tips to help people who have to deal with more senior people. One of the most common questions in this area is how do I project authority and credibility.

One powerful way to do this is to simply focus on keep your head still when you speak! Sounds crazy I know but it is true and it works. Head stillness is one of a number of key non verbal cues that effect the way we are perceived by others.

if you don’t believe me - take a look at this clip from Dirty Harry and see for yourself.

A few days ago I was running an advanced presentation skills course and when one of my participants gave her first presentation it was clear that she had fallen into the trap of confusing a presentation with an information dump.   Its not that her content was bad, there was just far too much data and as a result it was almost impossible for the audience to tell the wood from the trees. Couple this deluge of data with a series of very wordy bullet point slides and you have a recipe for disaster.

Thankfully, by the end of the workshop she was starting to get the message and had reworked the presentation into a much more impactful and easily digestible package.

So next time you come to write a presentation remember that less is more.   Be kind to your audience, don’t overwhelm them but instead only present relevant key facts thst help you tell the story you want to tell.   You can always put the extra facts in a concise but detailed handout for those people that really must have all the data!

Today is worldwide blog action day and as a supporter of this campaign I want to talk about what we as presenters and communicators can do to help end poverty.     Poverty is a very big problem and an emotive topic. Whilst most of us would agree that it is a bad thing, we may also believe that it is inevitable and that there just isn’t enough wealth, housing or food to go around.

Seems to me though that, whether this is ultimately true or not, we can still take action to reduce poverty at home and abroad.  So I’d like to challenge you to do just one thing today to tackle the issue of poverty.  Maybe just thinking about it is a good start.  Perhaps you might feel the urge to donate a few quid to a charity that works to help eliminate poverty be it at home or abroad.   Maybe you could choose to buy fairtrade products to help ensure that growers in third world countries get a better deal. Maybe you could buy a copy of the Big Issue rather than walking past the seller on the high street.

Remember too that poverty isn’t just about money, its about attention and even love.   Give your loved ones a little bit more TLC today and you will have made a difference!

In several of my previous posts I have talked about the importance of having a clear outcome for your presentation or speech. Today I’d like to take a look at the next step in the design process - finding a
logical flow.

Your audience need to see that there is a path between your starting point and your outcome and they need to see this logic early on or they will switch off!   Nobody wants to listen to a ramble or apparently disconnected set of information that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.

So what can you do? Well one way is to consider an “off the shelf” template. There are a number of tried and tested story formats from which you can choose the most appropriate one for your message ad audience.  Here are a few of the simplest and most effective ones.

• The Chronological flow:
  This is a simple, past, present and future structure where you start by talking about the history of the organisation, project or approach then move on to talk about the current situation before finally painting a picture of future developments.

• The Pro’s and Cons Analysis:
  This approach harks back to the classic exam essay question  “Compare the pros and cons  of various  options and then recommend the most appropriate one.”

• The Problem/Solution mode:
  In this template you start by identifying an amplifying a problem or issue faced by your audience,  Then you propose a solution and support your recommendation with appropriate evidence.   This model is often used to great effect in TV commercials for cleaning products.   Scene one - “Oh no! you have a sink full of dirty dishes and your wife is due back in five minutes! Scene 2 - “Don’t worry, a quick squirt of  New JIFFO Cleaner and everything will be sparking clean before you know it!” Scene 3 - “Phew I with JIFFO that was so easy”, Husband putting clean and sparking dishes away just as his wife arrives home”

• The Solution First template:
  In this approach you start by outlining the solution to a real problem, challenge or issue facing your audience and then work backwards to explain how you got to this solution. It’s a bit like a murder mystery where the murderer is revealed early on in the drama and the interest lies in the story of how thy came to be in this position

Choosing a template:
If it is not immediately obvious to you which template to use I suggest you start by getting away from the computer and start by jotting down the main ideas in your presentation onto post it notes.   Stick these up on a suitable wall or whiteboard and step back to see the bigger  picture.  What makes sense?  Move them around and read them as if you were a member of your audience?   What order is simplest?   T and clearest from the listeneres perspective? Next ask yourself “What type of story flow will suit this situation
and help me achieve my desired outcome?”

Crafting a great presentation takes a little more time but the results are always worth it!