In this quick 2 minute “Connie off the Cuff” video recorded behind the scenes of a keynote speech in Phoenix, you’ll discover the one thing you need to deliver a presentation.
Posts Tagged ‘Presentations’
Speak from Your Heart, not Just Your Head
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 by Connie DiekenDo You Resonate?
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 by Connie Dieken
You’ve been tapped to give a presentation. Quick – what are you feeling? Has a sense of dread washed over you?
Of course.
You’re tasked with creating a slide deck, which can swallow hours of your time. Perhaps you’d prefer a root canal – at least you could just lay there under the influence of a numbing anesthetic. Instead, you’re worried that your presentation may leave your audience numb.
Rightfully so. After all, most presentations are dull and deadly, aren’t they? You feel trapped as the presenter morphs into a reporting robot, hosting a tedious read-along of his text-laden slides.
I believe presentations are fundamentally and deeply broken. They’re wasting more than just your time. They’re squandering opportunities for thought leaders to breathe life into transformational ideas.
Here’s a key: presenters are reporting when they should be resonating.
The Resonator
That’s why I interviewed Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design and the author of Resonate and Slide:ology. I believe Nancy’s message will resonate with your desire to create a groundswell for your initiatives.
Connie interviews Nancy Duarte
Who better to understand the power of visual information than Nancy Duarte? Her firm creates the best slide decks on the planet. Over the past twenty years, Duarte Design has created over a quarter of a million presentations for the world’s leading brands, helping thought leaders communicate ideas in strikingly visual ways.
Nancy agrees that the overwhelming majority of presentations are sadly inadequate. At first, she labeled it a slide problem, which is why she wrote the award-winning Slide:ology in 2008. “I thought that’s where the breakdown was – that people didn’t know how to visually display information,” she told me.
But gussying up slides – while a terrific start – isn’t enough, she learned. So she turned her attention to storytelling. Nancy believes stories can help put the heartbeat back in presentations. “A storyteller on a stage takes on a completely different presence. I wanted to close that gap.”
You may be asking, “Connie, what does storytelling have to do with my leadership influence?” Here’s a brilliant example: contrast “what is” and “what could be” as a structural device.
Nancy explains, “Our job as leaders is to define as clearly as possible where we need to be in the future. And what you do is compare what currently is to what could be, which is the future with your idea adopted. And by moving back and forth as a structural device, you’ll start to compare what is to what could be. People will be like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t want to stay where I’m at, because that would be foolish. I want to move towards this new idea that my leader is telling me.”
I believe you’ll benefit from hearing more about Nancy’s approach to storytelling, so I urge you to listen to our interview in my podcast. Or, if you don’t have time, you can download the transcript here.
Listen to the Podcast (iTunes)
Where to Learn More
Nancy’s books are powerful resources for any leader wanting to influence, inspire and impact audiences while presenting ideas. You’ll discover how to stop reporting and start resonating.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of her books here.
You Write. We Reward.
Would you like to win a fre*e copy of Resonate? Nancy has kindly provided me with an autographed book for my readers. Simply submit a comment below, telling me the most valuable lesson you learned from Nancy’s interview. I’ll pick a winner and send the book to you.
Good luck!
The Fire Hydrant Habit: Does Your Communication Sabotage Your Power?
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 by Connie Dieken
Consider the fire hydrant’s purpose. Your neighborhood fire plug lets firefighters tap into the municipal water system to extinguish a fire. They attach a hose to the cast iron hydrant, screw open a valve and whoosh, out comes a powerful flow of water. Simple enough.
But have you ever considered how you might be using a fire hydrant habit when you communicate? Someone requests the communication equivalent of a sip of water but instead, you screw open a hydrant… and flood them with too much information.
Perhaps you launch into long-winded explanations when you’re asked simple questions. Maybe you send e-mails two screens long with five attachments. Perhaps you leave voice mails so lengthy that you get cut off by the beep.
If so, people are having frustrating experiences communicating with you and it’s damaging your credibility. People are probably avoiding communicating with you as a result. They see your name on caller ID and let it go to voice mail. They ignore your emails. They interrupt you constantly during presentations, meetings and other face-to-face interactions.
If you’re getting these outcomes, it’s time to stop the flow of blah, blah, blah. Here are a few ways to do it:
- Think portion control
- Aim for clarity, not confusion
- Answer questions first, justify them second
- Use shorter sentences
- Send succinct, frontloaded e-mails
- Use bullets instead of run-on sentences
- Use visuals instead of text whenever possible
- Present info narrow and deep, not wide and shallow
- Be aware of the effect you have on people
Like a dieter counting calories, put yourself on a communication diet. We must all re-learn what a proper serving size is in today’s world where we’re bombarded with communications 24/7.
Once you overcome the fire hydrant habit, you’ll see that others seek your input and stay tuned in when you talk. Just as importantly, people will happily park themselves within six feet of you without the fear of being soaked by a data dump.
Gaining Confidence in Front of a Room
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 by Connie Dieken
You might be surprised at how many executives say they lack confidence in front of audiences and want to gain the skill.
Here’s a nerve-wracking experience that I keep in mind as I coach high-powered leaders who want to improve their presentation skills. It starts in my rear view mirror, back when I was sixteen years old. My high school business teacher entered me in the Future Business Leaders of America speech contest. First of all, you should know that I had never given a speech before. Secondly, I was raised in a humble family in a tiny Indiana farm town, so I had no clue what topic to choose for a business speech. I certainly didn’t have any compelling business nuggets that would rock Wall Street to its core.
As the deadline to select my topic approached, and with no sudden emergence of business acuity, I chose a simple, safe speech title: “Confidence is the Key.” Yes, I know – my topic choice was part lame, part prophetic.
When the day of the speech arrived, I stood before the audience in my self-styled seersucker suit with a homemade poster as my visual. The poster was canary yellow, featuring a giant black key that I’d cut out of construction paper and carefully glued next to my emphatic magic marker title. You get the level of sophistication. Unlike a James Bond Martini, I was shaken and stirred as I dug deep and delivered my heart-felt message. I’ll get to the outcome of the contest in a moment – it’s pertinent, I promise.
Luckily, my grasp of presentation skills has evolved a bit since high school, so here are a few secrets to help you become a remarkably confident communicator, despite your nerves:
- Forget the underwear. The solution to overcoming nerves is not to picture the audience in their underwear – that’s a tired old tale. Instead, the smart solution is to shift your focus to serving the audience. Make this your new presentation mantra: the purpose of my presentation is the people. The people. It’s not about creating killer slides. Not about seeing how much information you can cram in. Not about whether your mouth is dry or you’re sweating through your jacket. Your mission is to create a positive experience that will influence people to act. Shift your focus to serving the audience and an amazing transformation will happen.
- Confidence is situational. If you think self-confidence and self-esteem are interchangeable words, hit the reset button. Confidence is the expectation of a positive outcome in a specific situation. It’s very different from self-esteem and your underlying sense of worth. The key to a confident presentation is to prepare for the specific situation. Smart preparation will help you wrestle your nerves to the ground. Expect a positive outcome in this one specific situation, prepare for it with a sound strategy, and you’ll achieve it. Every time.
- Lacking confidence is selfish. You read that right. It sounds harsh, so let me explain. If you lack confidence in a presentation it means that you’re focusing your attention squarely on yourself. Everyone gets butterflies before presenting. I know I still do. But butterflies are actually a good sign because it means that you’re taking the presentation seriously. You have a choice: you can let the butterflies undermine the situation by focusing on your own feelings — or you can use them as an edge to redirect your focus and take your audience to a higher level.
- Forget perfection – think excellence. Please understand that this is a huge statement coming from a recovering perfectionist. When you stop worrying about being flawless, people will start relating to you. Aim for excellence instead of absolute perfection. Truth be told, people see right through the illusion of perfection anyway and value genuine, relatable human beings, warts and all. Spewing endless, perfect factoids with a flawless style leaves people cold and that’s a confidence killer.
- Don’t slip into “presentation mode.” Do you morph into a faux-heavyweight version of yourself when you present? Stay centered. You’re good enough. If there’s a glitch, stay light and handle it graciously or humorously. Turn mistakes into advantages. You’ll light a fire by aiming for people’s hearts, not their heads. Take the pressure off of yourself and see how much better people respond to you. Isn’t that the point of business communication – getting a positive response?
Since you’ve stuck around this long, I’ll share how my high school business speech contest ended. The sixteen year old mini-me surprised myself by winning the state and regional contests with my “Confidence is the Key” presentation. I then packed up my poster board and boarded my first-ever airplane to the national finals where I became the top loser in America. In other words, I was first runner-up nationwide. The judges chose an experienced eighteen year with big city business ideas as the top Future Business Leaders of America speech winner.
Rightfully so. The winning speech was content-rich and well-delivered. I learned that content and delivery are equally important to your success and I’m passionate about sharing the secrets to reaching this presentation nirvana with executives today.
Clearly, confidence is a key to business success. But I don’t recommend a goofy poster board.
