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#CareerAdvice : #Presentations -5 Common #CommunicationMistakes (and how to fix them).. A Great REad for All!

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We have all unnecessarily suffered through disengaging, ineffective presentations and meetings. But most of us make the same mistakes, again and again. By applying these straightforward fixes, we can make our communication experiences more effective and productive.

Below are five fixes for more effective communication.

1. STARTING

The most precious commodity in today’s world is not gold or cryptocurrency, but attention. We are inundated with a tremendous amount of information vying for our focus. Why then would so many people squander away an opportunity to gain attention by starting presentations or meetings with: “Hi, my name is . . . and today I am going to talk about . . . ” This is a lackluster, banal, disengaging way to begin. Not only does it lack originality, it is downright silly since most speakers start this way while standing in front of a slide displaying their name along with the title of their talk.

Rather than commence with a boring and routine start, kick off your presentation like a James Bond movie–with action: You can tell a story, take a poll, ask a provocative question, show a video clip. Starting in this manner captures your audience’s focus and pulls them away from other attention-grabbing ideas, people, or devices. This action-oriented approach works for meetings, too. On your agenda, have the first item be one or two questions to be answered when you start. In this way, participants get engaged from the moment the meeting begins.

 

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2. ENDING

Research in psychology teaches us that we tend to remember best what we hear first and last rather than what comes in the middle–aka primacy and recency effects. You would expect then that speakers would dedicate more time to how they conclude their talks and meetings. Unfortunately, this just doesn’t happen. The most common concluding lines I hear go something like, “I guess we’re out of time and someone needs our conference room.” This type of ending is a missed opportunity! Take time to plan out and practice how your presentation and meeting will end. Be concise and clear because you don’t have a lot of time. Once you signal you are wrapping up (e.g., “In conclusion”), your audience disengages and begins to focus on what comes next.

A great way to end is to first express gratitude: “Thank you for your time,” or, “I appreciate your attention to this.” And next, simply speak out your communication goal, which should be a concise statement of what you want your audience to know, feel, and do as a result of your content.

3. TRANSITIONING

In college, I was trained for a full academic quarter to be a tour guide of my campus. During my very regimented training, they impressed upon me that above all else good tour guides never lose their tour groups. The very same standard exists for presenters and meeting facilitators. Never lose your audience because if you do, they will likely go to their phones or their friends or to sleep. The weakest link of any tour or presentation comes when moving from one place/portion to the next. It is in transition that your audience is most likely to get lost, distracted, or confused. Thus, you must spend time planning and practicing robust transitions that go beyond “next” and “so.”

In any typical business communication, there are several potential transition points that must be bridged successfully:

  • Moving between points in your talk or meeting
  • Entering and exiting slides
  • Going from presentation into Q&A
  • Switching from one presenter to another

A successful transition includes a concrete wrap-up or takeaway of the immediately prior topic/slide/person and then bridges to the next topic/slide/person. These transitions can be statements (e.g., “With a clear understanding of the current problem, we can now address one way to solve it”) or questions (e.g., “With a problem as substantial as this, how can we best solve it?”).

4. HEDGING

Too many leaders today negatively impact their credibility through their word choice, such as, “I think we should kind of sort of enter this new market.” Hedges are these phrases that litter much of our communication. Repeated use of hedging language reduces perceptions of your competence because it softens your assertiveness, reduces your clarity, and makes you seem wishy-washy and unsure of what you are saying.

The best way to address hedging is via substitution. Find stronger, more powerful words to replace these less assertive ones. For example, “I think” becomes “I believe” or “I know.” “Kind of” and “sort of” can be replaced with “one way.” Finding more assertive substitutions affords you a way to make your point more clearly and definitively. However, before you can substitute, you must first become aware of your hedging language. Thankfully, apps such as Orai, LikeSo, Ummo, Ambit, and VoiceVibes can provide useful, personalized feedback on your language use, along with pacing, pauses, variation, and tone.

5. MEMORIZING

We all fear standing in front of a group in the middle of a high-stakes presentation and forgetting what to say next. Many people try to address this ubiquitous fear by memorizing their content. Unfortunately, memorizing often increases the likelihood of blanking out. How do you escape this fate? Simply put: Avoid memorizing.

Here’s why: If you commit your script to memory, you create the “right” way to speak your content. This approach only increases the pressure you feel because you want to say things exactly the way you previously memorized. This pressure increases the likelihood that you will make a mistake due to the increase in cognitive load. Further, this added mental demand reduces the bandwidth you have to adjust and adapt to your audience. Thus, speaking to your audience “through” your script causes you to be less connected and engaging.

But if you aren’t supposed to memorize your presentation, how can you be sure your content won’t be forgotten or come out as a rambling, unorganized mess? The key to not blanking out and remaining connected and engaging is to create a comprehensive outline that is based on a clearly structured presentation. A structure provides a map for both you and your audience. With a map in hand, it’s hard to get lost. First, take the time to thoughtfully apply an audience-centric structure. Second, document it in an outline format. At least three types of outlines can help you:

  • Traditional outline: Leverage an indented, hierarchical listing of your points. Provide key phrases or words.
  • Question-based outline: List questions that spark specific answers in the order you intend to cover your content.
  • Illustrated/picture-based outline: Graphically map out your ideas using icons, pictures, and words.

Finally, practice your presentation from your outline and allow yourself permission to vary how you speak your content; your wording need not be exactly the same each time. Outlines afford you the opportunity to adjust and adapt your content based on how you feel and how the audience responds. This flexibility reduces the likelihood of blanking out when compared to the more rigid memorizing approach.

 

FastCompany.com | BY MATT ABRAHAMS  5 MINUTE READ

 

#Leadership : #Presentation – 6 Takeaways from Tim Cook’s Apple Keynote that Will Make you a Better #Presenter …Steve Jobs was a master at Presenting New Products, and Tim Cook has Plenty of Best Practices for Public Speakers, Too.

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Apple’s keynotes have been seen as examples of public speaking excellence for almost two decades. Steve Jobs’s launch of the iPod in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007 are not just product launches that changed how we communicate, they’re also among the best examples of public speaking.

KNOW YOUR STYLE, OWN YOUR AUTHENTICITY

Apple keynotes may still be judged by the example that Jobs set, but Cook hasn’t tried to be another Steve Jobs. Cook uses his own speaking style, with his own mannerisms and measured speaking pace. That’s reflected on stage as he presents as someone who is comfortable and believable.

The best speakers are those who have confidence in themselves and their style. Authenticity shines through and builds trust and credibility. When speaking, don’t try to imitate someone else, go with your own style.

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WALK, THEN PAUSE FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT

One thing that Cook did pick up from Jobs is the impact of a controlled walk onstage. Watch the keynote video from the 08:20 mark and see how Cook builds up to his announcement that the Apple Watch is the best-selling watch in the world. He stops and announces it while the message pops up behind him. That walk–and then the pause–added energy and drama.

By matching how you walk with your words and visuals, you can build tension and excitement. Move slowly to a major point, then stop, and drop the revelation. With advance thought and practice you can incorporate this into your presentations.

KNOW WHEN NOT TO SPEAK

The keynote lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes. How long was Tim Cook on stage? Around 12 minutes. Cook opened for four minutes, introducing the Apple Watch Series 4 before turning it over to COO Jeff Williams. Cook returned briefly to introduce the new iPhones before Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller came on and led the keynote for an hour, also sharing the stage with developers and other Apple speakers. Cook then returned for the final five minutes.

Related: Why Apple is the world’s most innovative company

Cook knew his role and stuck to it, and let the experts stick to theirs. A good speaker and leader knows their specialty and expertise and sticks to that, and understands where they can shine without hogging the spotlight. Speak about what you know best about, and be sure to share the stage.

BREAK LONG TALKS INTO SHORT SEGMENTS

The keynote not only featured multiple speakers, it spaced things out. No one spoke for long before something changed. A new speaker or topic was introduced, the format switched, videos were shown. These kept things fresh and held our interest.

Shorter is always better. TED talks are limited to 18 minutes because the human brain tends to wander after 20 minutes unless it gets some fresh input. In your talks, break things up every 15 to 20 minutes by introducing a new speaker, changing the format, or making things interactive. Do whatever you can to reboot the audience’s brains before their attention drops to their smartphones.

USE ANAPHORA

Cook described the new iPhone XS MAX as:

The biggest screen ever in an iPhone.
The biggest battery ever in an iPhone.
And of course the biggest experience ever in an iPhone.

This repeating of words and phrases is a time-honored and powerful rhetorical device known as “anaphora.” The rhythm and cadence of the sentences adds emphasis and power to the words. Some of the most powerful speeches use this, think Winston Churchill’s “We shall fight on the beaches . . . ” and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream . . . ”

The words you say in a presentation are important, so plan what you’ll say by using anaphora for impact.

END BY REINFORCING YOUR KEY POINTS

Tim Cook wrapped up the keynote by summarizing the three introduced products and their benefit: Apple Watch and a healthier life, iPhone XS and innovation, iPhone XR and value.

Related: Forget the new iPhones, Apple’s best product is now privacy

Don’t end your talk with, “Thanks for listening to me” after a Q&A session. End your presentations with a quick recap of your main points and then thank the audience. Make sure the last thing they hear from you is your main message.

Becoming a better public speaker means being a keen observer and learning by watching other talks. In the case of Tim Cook’s turn on stage, it’s a lesson from the best. You may not be giving a talk as big as Apple’s keynotes, but in your world and in your business, the presentations you make can be just as important.

Darren Menabney lives in Tokyo, where he leads global employee engagement at Ricoh and teaches MBA students at GLOBIS University. Follow him on Twitter at @darmenab.

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FastCompany.com | September 15, 2018

#Leadership : #Presentations – These 7 Common #SpeakingHabits Undercut Your Credibility …These Simple Behaviors are Easy to Fall into When you’re Nervous, But they Can make Listeners Think Twice About Taking you Seriously.

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Every speaker needs to be credible. If your audience spends the duration of your talk mulling over whether or not to take you seriously, you can kiss goodbye to any chance of your message resonating. Sometimes your credibility has as much to do with your behavior as it does with the message itself.

Here are a few common bad habits to watch out for.

1. OVERSMILING

Speakers are frequently coached to smile, but many overdo it. Rather than smiling continuously, just smile spontaneously–as a natural reaction to a certain part of your message or based on audience feedback. You can’t have a smile pasted onto your face continuously, which makes you look wooden, like a Barbie or Ken doll. Oversmiling comes across as fake, definitely costing you credibility points.

2. TOO MUCH ENERGY

Every speaker needs to show a level of ease in their delivery. Talking fast, gesturing quickly, any jerky movements–these behaviors project anxiety rather than enthusiasm. They make your energy seem too sharp, like a jackhammer. You might be worried about punching things up a bit to avoid putting your listeners to sleep, but it’s possible to go overboard. With too much energy, you’ll come across as talking at your audience instead of to your audience.

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3. WINKING

Whenever you wink, you’re sending a “Get it?” message. It invites your audience to hunt for some sort of unspoken meaning, which introduces ambiguity you probably don’t want. You might think that winking once or twice at a key moment helps makes you seem clever or intriguing, like some kind of impresario, but in most professional settings it costs you credibility points by suggesting that you’re not being clear or transparent.

4. RAPID PACING

Don’t pace continuously back and forth. If you keep moving while you speak you’ll drive your audience to distraction. They’ll start to focus less on what you’re saying than on watching you move. One principle I learned as a theater director was to avoid having actors walking and talking at the same time, unless they’re saying throwaway lines. As a speaker, you don’t necessarily need to stay perfectly still, but pacing too much suggests that everything you’re saying is essentially a throwaway line. Listeners will miss your key points and begin to doubt your credibility.

5. FIDGETING

You already know not to fidget, but it’s sometimes hard to avoid making small adjustments when you speak–especially when you’re nervous. Fiddling with your hair, your jewelry, or your clothes may help you feel more comfortable, but they make you look uncomfortable, and the audience wonders why you’re so jittery. They’ll see a disconnect between what you’re saying and what you’re showing them–they feel the anxiety you’re feeling.

6. STOIC DELIVERY

While being too energetic can be a credibility killer, not being energetic enough can do much the same. Reining it in and appearing too stoic can leave you to come across as mechanical–or worse, you seem like you’re hiding something. You might think you need to project an air of seriousness in order to be taken seriously. But if you go too far, you’ll end up looking like an android instead.

7. VARIABLE PITCH

While recent research has focused on so-called “upspeak”–ending sentences on a higher pitch–as a problem for women (some of whom argue, by the way, that the bias against this habit is itself sexist), I’ve found that the real credibility killer is too much pitch variability overall, a problem that’s actually gender-blind.

As a speaker, your pitch should stay level or go down very slightly as you finish your sentences. It’s true, as upspeak critics have noted, that if your pitch rises at the ends of sentences, everything winds up sounding like a question. That can sap some of the conviction from your voice. From your listeners’ standpoint, too much variation in your speaking pitch is like a roller-coaster ride–a distracting experience rather than a compelling one.

Your credibility as speaker always hinges on what you’re saying, but it also has a lot to do with how you say it. When you’re nervous, these common bad habits are easy to miss, but paying a little more attention to how you look and sound can help you come across as someone really worth listening to.

 

 

FastCompany.com | March 31, 2018 | BY ANETT GRANT 3 MINUTE READ

#Leadership : 3 Steps to a Well-Structured Presentation…Many People Struggle with Writing Business Presentations. What’s Needed is a Structured Way to Think about the Presentation.

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PowerPoint presentations are an ingrained part of the business experience: A 2015 survey by OutsidetheSlide.com found that more than 25 percent of workers surveyed said they see at least one presentation every workday.

Close-up of businesswoman holding touchpad with document

Related: Avoid the PowerPoint Trap by Having Less Wordy Slides

And that may be a problem, considering the less-than-optimal way in which today’s organizations communicate through these presentations. In short, from our observations, many of these presentations fail to deliver.

One of the major reasons for this is poor structure. As Mind Tools reminds us, without a logical, clear and well-structured presentation, your audience is unlikely to follow and remember your message.

We ourselves have written thousands of presentations and business documents in our careers. And, in our experience, the most important step is what we call “hanging the document.” In simple terms, you need an outline. However, this can’t be just a list of random points. The document has to have a structure. It has to hang together in a way that makes your point as clearly as possible.

Doug learned to structure presentations when he worked with McKinsey & Company. McKinsey used a method called the Pyramid Principal. Barbara Minto, McKinsey’s first female consultant, developed this methodology for structuring business documents, which we believe is the best in the business.

Below is a simple illustration of this powerful method. Imagine you are making a business presentation during which you hope to persuade the decision-maker to take specific action. In such situations, use what we call the “situation-complication-resolution” approach. Each of its three steps is discussed below.

1. Situation

This is a statement of the current state of affairs. It should be fact based (e.g., “Since its founding 15 years ago, the company has grown from a startup with no revenue and one employee to a robust enterprise with $15 million

 

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in revenue and 60 employees”). Because it is fact based, this “Situation” step should be something with which no one can reasonably disagree. We often use this section to highlight positives. If possible, give the person to whom you are presenting credit for his or her accomplishments.

2. Complication

This is a statement of the problem — the issue you are addressing (e.g., “Over the past three years, revenue growth has stalled”). It lays out why the company should take action. Without the “Complication,” the company wouldn’t need to do anything; There would be no reason for change.

People who are resisting the change you are suggesting may well try to take issue with the complication. After all, if it isn’t valid, there is no need to change. Therefore, if possible, you as presenter should base this section on objective facts that are irrefutable (“Sales three years ago were $15.1 million, while sales last year were $14.9 million”). People may not like hearing this, but they can’t argue that it isn’t true.

3. Resolution

This is your recommendation; it resolves the complication. It should be a single point. For example, “We should launch a sales growth program.” Each document should have only one main point. If you can’t boil your recommendation down to a single point, you should have more than one document.

Once you have identified you primary recommendation, you should support it with a series of what we call MECE (mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive) sub points. Mutually exclusive means that the points do not overlap; there is no duplication among them. “Collectively exhaustive” means that there is nothing left out. Taken together, the sub points cover all possible ways to achieve the point above it in the structure.

Related: 10 Questions to Ask When Creating a Killer PowerPoint Presentation

For example, consider that the main point is, “We should launch a program to grow sales significantly.” The supporting points then might be:

  1. We should cultivate new customers, and
  2. We should sell more to existing customers.

These are clearly mutually exclusive points; there is no overlap between new customers and existing customers. They are also collectively exhaustive; every sale will be to a new customer or an existing customer. There are no other possibilities.

You will then support each of the sub points with another set of MECE points. For example, you might support cultivating new customers with: 1) Cultivate new customers in existing sales territories; and 2) Cultivate new customers in new sales territories. Again, the sub points at this level are MECE.

If you diagram the structure of your document keeping all points at the same level in the document on the same line of your paper, you will begin to see a triangle or a pyramid emerge. The pyramid continues to grow until your recommendations are at a sufficiently granular level to make it crystal clear how you propose to accomplish your main objective.

Related: 10 Tips for Creating a Winning Business Plan in PowerPoint

Many people struggle with writing business presentations. What’s needed is a structured way to think about the presentation. Once you have the structure, hanging meat on the bones is straightforward. The pyramid principle provides that structure that’s needed.

Entrepreneur.com | October 18, 2016 | Doug & Polly White

Your #Career : How to Craft the Perfect #ElevatorPitch ….An Elevator Pitch can Be Scary. But Once you Start Investing your Time & Effort, You’ll get More & More Confident. That Process of Building Confidence Starts by Squaring Away What you Want to Say, Getting Used to Saying It, & Speaking it to People Outside of your Current Circle.

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An “elevator pitch” is so called because you’re supposed to be able to summarize your pitch so quickly that you can effectively get it across in an elevator ride.  The idea here is if you’re ever lucky enough to trap Richard Branson in an elevator for three minutes, you can pitch him on your killer idea and get him to lavish you with riches to make it a reality.

Free- Focus on Work

This concept works whether you’ve actually got Branson cornered, you’re a guest on “Shark Tank” or you just want to explain to someone what you’re dedicating your life to.

The crux of it this: People are busy, so you it’s best to present ideas in the most succinct manner possible. What’s more, if your idea is as good as you think it is, you ought to be able to present it in a minute or so. Simple ideas that connect sell. So here’s how to boil your pitch down to its barest essentials.

What your elevator pitch needs

There are three things your pitch needs to communicate:

Your qualifications

One question you need to ask yourself is why you are the person to make this dream a reality. What makes you qualified — uniquely qualified — to be in charge of your project.

The up-front value

Your project has to have a tangible value you can express in a single sentence. This is the value you’ll be delivering to your potential investor or partner. Take it as a given they know you’re passionate about your own project. What’s in it for them?

What you want

Frankly, a partner or investor who doesn’t want to know what’s in it for them isn’t a very good partner. Similarly, you’re not going to make a good partner or investment if you’re not clear about what you want out of the project.

There are as many answers to these questions as there are people running around with dream projects. The problem most people have is that they can’t even begin to answer these questions. When you start honing your elevator pitch, these are the three questions you need to answer at a bare minimum. This is what you need to communicate.

 

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Start working on your presentation

All that covered, answering these questions isn’t your presentation. This is simply the research you have to do before you can even begin working on your presentation. A presentation is far more than the words that come out of your mouth.

It’s everything you have to say, but also the way that you say it. This includes your tone of voice and your mannerisms.

If you’ve ever given a presentation, you know that they can be a little nerve-racking. This is 1,000 times more true when you’re talking about trying to sell someone on your dream. You’re going to feel pressure like you’ve never felt before.

That’s not going to make your project any more attractive. On the other hand, if you’re able to get your presentation down pat, you’ll be able to go into your elevator pitch with confidence. And confidence is probably the biggest asset you can have on your side.

Three things you should be doing while you work on your presentation include:

1. Memorize your pitch

Memorizing a pitch is a bit like learning how to tell a joke. You don’t want to memorize a script. You want to memorize the bullet points, the broad strokes, and fill in the rest on the fly. That’s going to make your pitch sound a lot more natural, organic and fluid when the time comes to actually deliver.

2. Say your pitch out loud

Even when you have your talking points memorized, you still might be nervous. Saying your pitch out loud, a number of ways and preferably to an audience is the best way you can start making that nervousness go away.

Record yourself and listen to your pitch. Take notes, then act on them. Toastmasters is a great way to get objective feedback on your presentation itself, but not necessarily on your pitch. Friends can give feedback that keeps your personality in mind.

3. Practice makes perfect

Eventually you’re going to have to deliver your pitch to someone. Otherwise, it’s just a good idea, not a pitch. In Social Capital, Jordan talks about how networking events are often seen as a sort of business equivalent of “singles events” filled with desperate, low-hanging fruit. In a sense, this makes them the perfect dress rehearsal for your elevator pitch. Even if no one bites, so what? You’re just practicing for the moment when someone with a higher value does.

Don’t worry about making mistakes

Here’s a little secret we’ve been teaching guys on our field nights for the better part of a decade: For the most part, people only remember crushing victories and incredible disasters.

Your elevator pitch will either fall somewhere in between, in which case no one is going to remember the line that you flubbed in the middle, or else it’s going to be a rousing success and you’ve closed the deal.

Even though it’s easier said than done, you shouldn’t be nervous when you’re giving your elevator pitch. You might make a mistake here and there, but so what? If that’s what people remember, your pitch wasn’t honed enough anyway.

Everyone is out there doing the best they can. When you pitch to networkers in your scene, you might not be closing the deal, but you are networking and meeting new people. At the very least you’re practicing your pitch. This time is only wasted if you allow it to be. If you can learn from the experience, it’s valuable.

Try and have fun. It’s all practice until the day you actually strike gold.

Be honest with yourself about what changes to make

Honest, truly reflective self-analysis is what separates the men from the boys. If you can’t give yourself honest feedback, your pitch is never going to improve. Beating yourself up isn’t going to make things any better than pretending that everything you just did was perfect. You need to shoot for the middle ground where you’re able to see what you did right while at the same time recognizing where there’s room for improvement.

A simple method for constructive self-criticism is:

The positive

Start by finding at least one thing you did you did well. That can be difficult for a lot of guys, because we’re not used to tooting our own horn. That’s OK. Finding one, two or even three things is the best way to start self-criticism.

Remember that self-criticism isn’t about beating yourself up. It’s as much about looking at what you did exceptionally well and capitalizing on that as it is about improving areas that need it.

The negative

There’s always room for improvement. So when you’re done seeing what you did correctly, you’ll want to look around to see where you could improve.

The point here isn’t to beat yourself up anymore than the part where you look around for the positives is about empty self-congratulations. Instead, you’re looking for areas where you can improve what you’ve already done.

Focus

One of the reasons that we concentrate on one or two or at most three areas is because you want to work on specific aspects of your pitch. Don’t try and tackle everything at once. Look for your greatest strengths and the biggest opportunities for improvement. That’s the best way to ensure your pitch is always getting better and better.

Try and view this as an experiment. You want to plan, test and then report to yourself on the results. It can be hard to have this kind of emotional detachment from a project that you’re passionate about.

However, the more that you can view things objectively, the more you’ll be able to improve your pitch. The more you improve your pitch, the closer you’re going to be to the day when your elevator pitch finally connects. That’s the point of all of this.

An elevator pitch can be scary. But once you start investing your time and effort, you’ll get more and more confident. That process of building confidence starts by squaring away what you want to say, getting used to saying it, and speaking it to people outside of your current circle.

 

 Businessinsider.com | March 27, 2016 | Johnny Dzubak, Art of Charm