Hi everyone,

Happy Easter!  I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend.  As a professor this is a busy time of year, and this year is likely the busiest I’ve ever had.  Larger class sizes and an overload contract means I’m spending all my free time marking.  I’ll move away from marking to share some of the favorite links I’ve found recently on the web.

1. Learn how to “Manage Email Like an Expert” at Dumb Little Man.

2. Scientific proof for something that you’ve likely always known: “Bad Bosses are Killers“.

3. Zen Habits shares about “How to Live a Life of Gratitude“.

4. Seth Godin shares a wonderful short post about goals.

5. Finally, get inspired with this passionate speech by Jimmy V:

Enjoy, and have a great day!

Danny Gamache

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People continually place public speaking as one of their highest ranked fears, and yet public speaking can be an extremely rewarding and valuable experience.  Learning the skill of giving excellent speeches and presentations can help you do better in most every area of business and life.

Beyond the direct skills you learn by giving speeches, you also work on expanding your comfort zone.  As you expand your comfort zone in this area it becomes easier to expand in other areas as well.

Last week, in Part I, this series started by looking at some of the things you need to know as part of your preparation work, in order to give a better speech or presentation.  These included knowing your objective (why you are giving the presentation), know your audience (who you are giving the presentation to), and know your information (what you are speaking about). Part II will focus on tips that will help you organize your information in such a way that will allow your audience to stay connected to you, and your material, and follow effective throughout.

4. Have a Strong Introduction with a Clear Main Idea

The first minute or two of your presentation are critical. You need to look for ways to immediately grab the audience’s attention.  The introduction is so important that I recommend having a more detailed outline of it written down.  You need to know how you will connect with the audience and lead into your topic.

There are several good ways to grab the audience’s attention.  One great way to start is to use a story or illustration.  A good story or illustration will help the audience to relate to you and to your topic and will get them focused on what you are saying.  Humor is another powerful way of starting a speech.  The challenge is to make the humor appropriate for your audience and in some way connected to your topic.

You also want to use your introduction to share why your subject is important.  Connect your topic to your audiences needs. You can do this with your illustration or by providing shocking information or statistics.  Knowing your audience allows you to make this connection more clearly.

Finally, your introduction needs to make your overall main idea is clear. By the time your introduction is over the audience should understand exactly what you are going to be speaking on and what the main thrust of your presentation will be.

5. Be Sure Your Main Points Are Clear

As you work through the body of your presentation you need to make sure that your transitions between your main points are clear.  Unfortunately many presenters move from one topic to another without providing any clarity that they are doing so.  The audience is left looking for connections in their material.  Your transitions can be obvious, even stating things like, “the first topic we will cover is….”, “secondly, we look at…” etc.  Clear transitions allow the audience to follow the thrust of your argument, to take effective notes, and to mentally transition between topics.

When writing your presentation, be sure to limit yourself to three to five main points. This will help to make your material more memorable, and prevent your audience from getting lost in your speech.  You may want to mention your main points in the introduction so the audience can easily follow throughout your presentation.

6. Build in Attention Grabbers

No matter how effective of a speaker you are, the attention of your audience will be continually drifting. Because of this you need to look for ways to continually grab their attention.  You can use similar attention grabbing techniques to the introduction.  These include telling stories or using humor.  Humorous stories are often the best combination.  You may also want to use powerful statistics, shocking information, or say something else that is unexpected.

If you are using PowerPoint or some other presentation software, you can use vivid images to reconnect with people and get their attention back.  Remember that slides filled with lots of text will have the opposite effect.  Limit the amount of text you put on your slides and instead use the slides to show photos or other images that can connect emotion to your message.

7. Develop a Strong Conclusion

How you end your presentation will determine how your audience remembers you. It is vital that you end well with a strong conclusion.  Because of this, you should take significant time in developing your conclusion.

The first thing you want to do in your conclusion is to tie up your main points and reinforce your main idea. You can do this by summarizing the main points in a cohesive manner that brings everything together.  Sometimes an example or illustration will allow you to make connections between the points that may not have been obvious the first time they heard the points separately.

You also need to know how you are going to end your talk. I have seen many speeches end awkwardly with the presenter fumbling around and saying something like, “well, I guess that is all”.  Instead be sure to end firmly.  The ending should be clear.  In fact, everyone in the audience should know the ending when they hear it.  Your ending should naturally trigger the applause you deserve!  You may want to end with a quote or a story but frame it in such a way that it clearly is the last thing you are going to say.

Another way to avoid a fumbling ending is to write out your final sentences.  Add these to your outline that you will have in front of you.  That way, no matter what has happened, you know exactly how you will end.

These points will help you prepare a good presentation.  Having a strong introduction, clear main points and a strong conclusion all interspersed with attention grabbing techniques will allow you to effectively deliver the presentation.  Coming soon, Part III will look at several tips related to delivering the presentation that you have prepared.

Written by:

Danny Gamache – The Success Professor
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The old saying is that people rank the fear of public speaking higher than they rank the fear of death so people would rather be dead than speak in public.  While this statement is obviously an exaggeration, it does bring up the point that people are often afraid of speaking in public.

If you have this kind of fear, you are not unusual.  Fear grips many people who speak in public. Often this is simply a comfort zone issue.  If speaking is outside of your comfort zone you will naturally be fearful when you start doing it.  The same is true for anything outside of your comfort zone.

The good news is that your comfort zone expands with time. As you begin to speak in public you will start to feel more and more comfortable over time. Many people will eventually feel fully at ease with public speaking once they have expanded their comfort zone.  Admittedly, public speaking carries with it such a perception of being a fear-worthy event that some people carry a fear with them for some time.  Even for these people, more frequent speaking and better preparation helps to limit the effect of this fear.

Aside from experience, preparation is the most important ingredient in giving better speeches and in lowering fear levels. Simply taking the time to know and understand a few key things about your presentation can make you more effective and confident.

1. Know Your Objective

The first thing to understand is your objective for giving a presentation.  You need to know why you are speaking (and the answer can not be simply that your boss told you to).  Ask yourself, what is my desired outcome?  The outcome you are hoping for is your objective.  It is why you are giving the presentation.

There are many different reasons for a speech and they are tied directly to your outcome.  These include:

• debate – to defend and argue for a position, such as in politics
• inform – provide information such as a progress report on a project
• persuade – presenting a request for funding or making a sales presentation
• amuse – when your goal is to entertain or provide humor
• motivate – to inspire, encourage or challenge people into action

Any of these objectives are valid reasons to speak in public.  By knowing what your objective is you can focus in on how to accomplish your goal. You will be more effective and less distracted.  Make sure your speech sticks to your objective.  If your goal is to debate, don’t spend all your time providing basic information.  If your goal is to persuade don’t spend all your time trying to amuse.  Stick to your objective.

2. Know Your Audience

The second key is to know your audience. Your audience is who you are speaking to, directly and indirectly.  The direct audience will be people who are hearing your speech initially – likely those people who will be sitting directly in front of you.  The indirect audience will be people who will hear your speech later – perhaps through an audio recording, podcast, or published transcript.

You need to know who these people are.  Learn as much as you can about them. An effective teacher learns as much as she can about her students.  A pastor learns as much as he can about his congregation.  Professional speakers will also do significant research into the company that has hired them to present.  I have seen many professional speakers who are able to directly interact with the company that has hired them through the knowledge they have gained about the company, its products, and business.

If you are called on to give a presentation, take the time to do this research.  If you don’t know who the audience will be you need to ask:  Who are they, and what do they expect?  How many people will be in attendance?  Are they there because they choose to be, or because it is required?  What are they hoping to get out of the presentation?  Knowing these factors can go a long way to understanding your audience.

Once you understand your audience you are able to make your speech relevant. You can connect the presentation details to the people you are talking to.  The effective teacher will use what she has learned about her students to provide illustrations that the students can connect to.  For example, in one of the classes I teach there are a high proportion of student-athletes.  Because of this, I look for opportunities to use athletics as an example.  Tailor your speech to what you have learned about your audience.

3. Know Your Information

You also need to know your information.  This may be obvious, and yet far too often people think they can get by with a surface level understanding of their topic.  You need to take the time to learn so much about your topic that you could have a detailed conversation with someone about your information with no notes to guide you.

When you give your presentation you should use notes.  There are three levels you could use for how much to have written down when you start your speech.  On one end of the spectrum you could have every word written out in a manuscript. The other end of the spectrum is to have everything memorized with no notes.  There are excellent speakers who use each of these options.

For most, however, the third option is most effective.  This involves having a detailed outline of what you will say that you can refer to from time to time.  If you know your material very well you can use an outline to keep you on track but then speak from your memory and your knowledge base the rest of the time.

Your outline could be in many formats.  You may chose to use a regular piece of paper, index cards, or PowerPoint slides that you present to the audience.  To effectively use your outline include notes on the following:

• detailed introduction and main idea so you can start your presentation well
• the main points along with reminders about stories, illustrations, or important statistics
• your conclusion, including exactly what you want to say to finish your talk

So take the time to really understand your objective, your audience, and your information.  This knowledge will help you make more effective speeches and presentations.  Further, it will help ease the nerves you have as you will feel more prepared and ready for whatever comes at you.

Written by:
Danny Gamache

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