Prepare Your Plan, but Be Ready to Change It

Adaptability is key. In the May issue of Harvard Business Review, veteran mutual fund executive Robert C. Pozen authored an article on “Extreme Productivity” and in it he addresses 6 principles for greater personal productivity. Principle 4 is “Prepare Your Plan, but Be Ready to Change It” … Amen, Bob!

And I quote from Pozen's Principle 4: “Most executives must give talks to various groups. They often prepare by writing out the full text of their remarks. But that makes them feel compelled to deliver the whole speech even if the audience is not receptive. Speaking is very different from writing. You need a much clearer line of argument, and you have to connect with your listeners at a given time. They may be bored or excited – you won’t know in advance. To prepare for a speaking engagement, you should jot down on one page a list of your four or five key points and a concluding paragraph.”

Nicely put. Less wordsmithing, more dedicated focus on key points. The only part I might take issue with – and those of you who have been through my coaching will smile! – is that I believe four or five key points is too many. Sometimes it’s too many for the speaker to remember, and always it’s too many for an audience to retain. Other than that, Bob nailed it.

You may feel better having prepared a full-text script, rather than putting yourself in a position that feels a lot like ad libbing or winging it. But by being wed to your words, sentences and paragraphs once you're at the front of the room, you risk sacrificing the real-time connection with your audience. So even if you do prefer a full-text script, be sure to also know your key points and promise yourself that you'll remain adaptable … if the audience is fading, be ready and willing to ditch the script.

Thanks for this reinforcement, Bob. As I always say to clients, it’s not all about you, it’s all about them … the Audience!

Leadership Development Redux

Fascinating! I find it absolutely fascinating that conferences and summits and institutes and seminars on leadership and leadership development boast agendas chock full of topics, except for the one that matters most … communicating effectively. Wow, really?

Can a leader really lead without communicating effectively? Can a leader succeed on these topics alone: managing tight budgets for profitability, maximization of social media, cutting edge HR programs, understanding corporate social responsibility, or fostering a culture that’s comfortable with change? Um, I don’t think so ...

My own obvious bias notwithstanding, you could argue that true leadership is almost exclusively about communicating effectively, and success is almost exclusively dependent on the ability to communicate effectively. Think about it. No one succeeds alone. No one leads alone. “Leadership” implies the involvement of, and need for, other people. And how does one lead other people? Through budgets? Through HR policies and programs? Through Facebook? No. Those are management issues and tools. Leadership is different. One leads other people by engaging, connecting, inspiring, persuading, informing, motivating … all communications tasks.

Successful leaders are people who communicate with a steady, dependable “voice” … a voice that’s clear, open, appreciative, and affirming. The true work of a leader is to be able to find his/her voice, the exact style and tone, and then stick to it. The trickiest part is to remain clear, open, appreciative, and affirming even when times are tense and the message is difficult. This is absolutely the distinguishing characteristic for leadership, though; it’s how one engages, connects, inspires, persuades, informs, motivates, etc. even under duress.

I am not suggesting that managing can be done by a trained monkey and that leadership is for the elite few. Not at all. In fact, managing well also requires the effective communications skills of a leader. What I am suggesting, though, is that, in one way or another, we are all leaders or in leadership positions. And so the single most important skill we can develop is good communications skills, beginning with a clear, open, appreciative, and affirming voice. And then the finer points will come with time … or with reading this blog!

Power Points on PowerPoint

Here’s what we know …

• Less is more.
• A picture is worth a thousand words.
• Microsoft named it PowerPoint, not EveryPoint.
• Slides are a visual aid for the audience, not a script for the speaker.
• Visual aids are meant to reinforce and illustrate, not narrate.
• Screen + darkened room + speaker taking time to boot up technology = naptime.
• Slides + bullet points with sub bullet points + handouts + speaker = audience overload.

Nonetheless, PowerPoint is to meetings as negative campaigning is to elections: something we don’t like but feel helpless about and resign ourselves to accepting; something we complain about, but rarely take steps to change.

Soooooo, just a few SmartMouth ideas for changing it up:

Write on a whiteboard or giant sticky notes for visuals. It’s animated and dynamic; it’s as though you’re engaging the audience in the process of creating your “slides,” which is far more entertaining and memorable for them.

Use video footage instead of slides when and if you can. People love to watch TV! There’s so much available out there (YouTube, etc.), and it’s easy to embed a video into a traditional PowerPoint presentation.

Think about creating slides that use one word or one sentence to capture the “so what?” of your points. You should know your stuff well enough to be able to speak to the topic without needing to read a paragraph off the screen anyway. If you don’t, that’s a whole other problem, isn’t it?

Be brief. Be animated. Be present. Be engaged. Be open to a dialogue with your audience. If you do all that, you might not even need visuals. Brevity is so impactful just on its own.

Be adaptable! Be open to shutting down the PowerPoint if you notice you’re losing your audience. When all else fails, connect with the people in your audience. It’s all about them anyway. Don’t kill them with your slides just because you worked hard on preparing them. It’s not all about you!

The word “presentation” is not automatically synonymous with PowerPoint. You have choices ...

Learning to Tell Time

Why do speakers go over their allotted time? If there was ever a presentation buzzkill, it’s the speaker who keeps on going … and going … and going.

You know you get aggravated with the long-winded speaker when you’re sitting in the audience, but what happens when it’s you standing at the podium? Are you aware of time? Do you know what 5 minutes of talking feels like? Do you know what 20 minutes feels like? You should. You need to learn to tell, or keep, time.

In the speech prep arena, I’m going to put it out there that minding your time trumps all your excessive fretting over content. Yup, I’m saying that content alone will not leave a good impression with your audience. You need more than that. Great content needs the added ingredients of audience connection (more on that another time!) and time sensitivity.

We talk about people who are “brief and to the point” with awe and admiration, so let’s work on being one of those … Practice delivering your material. Know how much time it takes. Know what 5 or 20 minutes of talking feels like. Prioritize in order to make any necessary cuts. And when you’re at the mic, don’t go off on a tangent just because you have the floor and you thought of something super cool to share. Keep to the time limit; your audience will be grateful, and you will have succeeded in leaving a good impression … with or without perfect content!

Tick tock, people, tick tock.

Storytelling 101

And I really mean 101, nothing fancy. No once upon a time stuff here, no professional storytelling tactics. Just some basic tips for telling a story – as in, sharing a case example or an anecdote – during a talk. So here goes …

First, there has to be a point. Stories or anecdotes or examples must illustrate a point. And, as mere illustrations of a point, they fall under the category of “information” (see http://smartmouthtalks.blogspot.com/2011/03/putting-engine-back-together.html). As with any information you share to support a point you’re making, you’ll want to pick out and prioritize the stories you tell and the detail you share based on your audience (their needs, interests, concerns, etc.).

Second, you can’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t matter how short you think it is, it’s probably not that short. You’re going to need to figure out how to be concise, so you can neatly support your point while holding onto your audience’s attention. So here’s a quick recipe:

1-3 sentences of problem/challenge

1-3 sentences of dramatic tension/suspense

1-3 sentences of solution/outcome

This recipe is doable. I have had people trim their 10-12 minute, multi-paragraph stories down to 1.5 minutes and fewer than 9 sentences by using this recipe. Stick to the recipe, stick to what’s relevant to the point (and the audience!), and you can do it in less than 9 sentences, I promise. It’s good discipline!

Third, you have to practice stories. Just like you practice the rest of your talk. Making a note to self – either on paper or in your head – that you want to include “the Uncle Joe story” is not enough. You need to map it out and practice it. Otherwise you’ll find yourself adding unnecessarily to the length of your talk and potentially losing your audience.

Try these tips, and hopefully you’ll speak happily ever after …

Being Audience-Centric: A Shortcut

The term “audience-centric” is worth more consideration and discussion than I can accomplish in just one blog post (although there are certainly many posts in this blog that cover how to think about audiences!). In fact, the ability to be an audience-centric – versus ego-centric – speaker is everything, literally. Just think about what you like … you tend to favor the speakers who talk to and about you over those who talk to and about themselves, right?

So, how would this work if you were preparing a talk? I recently gave a bit of super simple advice to a client in California as she struggled with finding a shortcut that would help her be more succinct and very focused on her audience. Here’s what I told her: Instead of sitting down and thinking, "ok, what do I want to say?" – which is so very normal for a speaker – sit down and think, "ok, what do they need to know or hear?" Start with them, not you.

In a nutshell, if you shift your initial thoughts away from your topic, and put your head straight into the needs, interests and concerns of your audience as the first step in your prep, it just might be all you need to do!

To Rehearse or Not to Rehearse, that is the Question

On the one hand, you are a pro in your field, you know your stuff, you present in meetings all the time, you’re sure you can pull it off, and you just don’t have time to practice.

On the other hand, you have been asked to speak in front of a slightly larger audience than usual this time, using slightly different visuals than usual, and the opportunity is somewhat higher stakes than usual, but you just don’t have time to practice.

The realist in me says, no worries, the world won’t end, you’ll pull yourself together and pull it off, you’ll be just fine if you don’t have time to practice. Organize yourself, review the material, and you’ll do okay.

But the Coach in me says, while there may be no particular harm done if you don’t rehearse, there might also be no particular good done either. What if you could get up and nail it versus getting up and doing okay? If you have to think, and wonder or worry, about whether you should rehearse or not, then you probably already know the answer.

Last week, I worked with a client three days and then one day before a bigger than usual presentation. She’s a pro, knows her stuff, presents a lot, was asked to speak to a larger audience, with new visuals, and it was pretty high stakes. She was organized and had reviewed the material quite a bit. Three days before, we met and mostly went over content and visuals, fine-tuning transitions and making a few edits. One day before, we met, did some more fine-tuning and then had her run through the whole thing – choreographing the speaker with her content and visuals – about four times.

How’d she do in rehearsal? Not so great. She fumbled, forgot, changed things, got frustrated, wanted to stop. But she pushed through.

How’d she do the next day in the actual presentation? Amazing. She nailed it. She was polished, the presentation flowed, she hit the high notes beautifully, and she ended just under her time goal without ever rushing. It all came together smoothly; she was ready, and it showed.

The lesson here is that even crummy rehearsals are valuable. Practicing as if it’s the real deal forces a level of intimacy and familiarity between you and your presentation that can only benefit you – your brain and your mouth – when it’s showtime!