Life After PowerPoint!

People often use words and phrases during business presentations that I find annoying. Incentivize, bottom line, ROI, going forward, robust, stakeholder, low-hanging fruit, granularity, and 360-anything are near the top of my list of most annoying phrases. (For some reason, when technical experts make presentations to non-technical audiences they tend to use a lot of these words.)

Notice how many of the words and phrases are redundant, vague, ungrammatical, or flat-out ugly.  

George Orwell’s six rules of effective writing apply equally well to effective speaking. His 5th rule — “Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent” — is especially pertinent.

Here is the list of “The Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases” as cited by the Oxford Researchers.

1 – At the end of the day

2 – Fairly unique

3 – I personally

4 – At this moment in time

5 – With all due respect

6 – Absolutely

7 – It’s a nightmare

8 – Shouldn’t of

9 – 24/7

10 – It’s not rocket science

Oxford Researchers List Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases | The Underwire from Wired.com#comment-140842928#comment-140842928.

What words or phrases irk you?

As so many polls suggest, the fear of public speaking is people’s number one phobia.

The problem — at least one problem — with public speaking is, well, it’s public. Any mistake you make is right out there for everyone to see and hear. That’s why perfectionism is, in my opinion, the main enemy of public speaking and the root cause of most fear of public speaking. If you’re afraid of making mistakes and afraid of being seen to make mistakes, you’ve got lots of reasons to fear public speaking.

Perfectionism causes problems in just about every human endeavor, but it wrecks havoc when it comes to giving a speech.

Here’s why Ron Pereia thinks perfectionism — in general — can be so dangerous.

1. You’re scared to try new things.

A perfectionist may plan and plan and plan the improvement idea, or new business, or new anything… only to find themselves frozen with fear in such a way as to never actually give it a try.

2. You may lose focus of what really matters – long term perfection.

Some of you may have read Dr. James Womack’s good work. If this is the case you probably know his fifth step of lean implementation is to pursue perfection.

So, does this mean he’s saying we should all become short term perfectionists? I don’t think so.

Instead, I think Womack is saying to keep our eyes down field. He’s saying that the “ideal state” we’re all aiming for doesn’t really exist since better is always possible which, in this case, makes it the perfect target for us continuous improvement practitioners.

3. You may just lose your mind.

If nothing but perfection is acceptable you may end up losing your mind. You may read and re-read every email, document, or blog entry hundreds of times only to skip over the fact that you meant to say “morale” and not “moral.” And when someone calls you on it, in front of thousands of others, you may feel like curling up into the fetal position and dying. Of course I’m not speaking from actual experience here or anything.
The Deadly Sin of Perfectionism | Lean Six Sigma Academy

What he says about the dangers of perfectionism in general applies in spades to speaking.

Trying to eliminate your fear is, paradoxically, a form of perfectionism. (“I shouldn’t be afraid!”) So try instead to lessen it.

Do you agree? Does perfectionism trip you up? Any stories you’d like to share?

Last week I wrote about the first 3 mistakes leaders make when they’re giving a speech: 1) Not Having a Goal, 2) Not Having Anything to Say, and 3) Taking Too Long to Say It. Now I’ll continue with rules 4 through 7.

4. Me, Me, Me, Me, Me

Yes, you want to keep it personal. And yes, it’s fine — preferable, actually — to talk about yourself and your experience. But your speech can’t be about yourself. It’s got to be about the audience. Everything you say, even if it’s a personal story or a pet peeve, should be for the audience’s benefit.

5. Using PowerPoint

In spite of decades of accumulated experience and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, PowerPoint can be used well. But it should only be used to present information — data, charts, graphs, lists, etc. And most of the time at least, you shouldn’t be talking about information. Not if you’re a leader. It’s your job as a leader to shape the way an audience thinks and feels and to inspire them to take action. And the only way to influence and inspire people is to appeal to their imaginations and emotions. And PowerPoint can’t do that.

6. Me, Me, Me, Me, Me (Revisited)

I know I said leaders need a goal for every speech, something they want their listeners to know, feel, or do. But you can’t simply tell them what you want and expect them to hop to it. You have to show them why and how it will benefit them. They are always asking themselves WIIFM? What’s in it for me? Tell them how knowing / feeling / doing what you want them to will help them solve a problem or achieve a goal that’s important to them.

7. Faking It

If you try to be something or someone else in front of an audience, they’ll sniff it out. They’ll smell a fraud and they’ll turn up their noses at you. Be yourself in front of the audience — your best self — because you can’t be anyone else. Let your values, experience, passion, even your sense of humor show through. Imitating someone else – even a masterful speaker – only makes you look pompous or fraudulent. Don’t do it.

What examples do you have of a leader bombing in front of an audience?  I’d love to hear your feedback. Use the comments field below.

Most, not all, speeches are meant to move people to take action. Sometimes you can afford to be subtle about it. You can point people in the direction you want them to head and trust them to go there. Doing so can be very powerful, since people are more committed to a decision that they come to on their own.

But often you need to be blunt. You need to tell people exactly what you want them to do. Without pussyfooting. Without ambiguity or qualification. Winston Churchill put it this way, “When you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Hit it again. Then hit it a third time — a tremendous whack.”

This movie speech (“Network,” 1976) is a great example of a pile-driver call to action. Watch how the character (Howard Beale) takes less than two minutes to rouse people to action. Pay attention to three things he does that are particularly effective:

1. He gives concrete examples of issues that are bothering his audience. He doesn’t have to convince people that things are bad — the dollar isn’t worth what it used to be, punks are roaming the streets, and we’ve retreated to our living rooms wanting to be left alone — he just has to name them.
2. He taps into the underlying feeling: anger. If you want to move people to action, you have to appeal to their emotions. (Notice the motion in emotion.) It’s easy to move people to action by rousing their most basic feelings — anger and fear — but I’m not sure those emotions will keep people acting. To have a longer affect on people’s actions, I think you need to appeal to their love, loyalty, sympathy, hope, and patriotism — what Lincoln called “our better angels.”
3. He makes a specific and immediate call to action. He tells people to go to their windows, open them, and shout “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.” The more specific you can be — do this — and the more immediate you can be — do this now — the greater your chances of getting people to do it.

What did you notice about his speech? Did it work for you? (Did you consider going to the window?)

For some reason I’ve gravitated over the years to working with technical experts — engineers, programmers, researchers, scientists, and the like — helping them give presentations to non-technical audiences.

Usually they’re frustrated. They think they’ve got good stuff to talk about. And they don’t understand why the people they talk to don’t get it. Why, they ask, do other people’s ideas — which are often not as good — get more attention than their ideas?

So I have to explain to them that the best ideas don’t always win. (Politics and history are littered with proof of that.) What wins out is the most persuasively presented idea. It helps, of course, if it is a good idea. I’m not suggesting that you adopt a lameola idea and dress it up.

But if your idea is better than someone else’s and that other person’s idea won approval and yours didn’t, you don’t have anyone to blame but yourself. This is a hard concept for techical people to get: it isn’t just about being right; it’s about being persuasive.

In future postings I’ll look at some of the principles of persuasion, but for now I’d like your feedback. Do you agree or disagree? Is it your responsibility as a presenter to be persuasive? Or is it good enough to present a good idea?

A toast is, in essence, a mini-speech. And since short speeches are sometimes the hardest to prepare, the chances of messing up are pretty high.

Every speech has to have a goal, an objective, and a toast is no exception. On Thanksgiving, I think the goal is to sum up the meaning of the meal itself: to bring people together in a spirit of gratitude.

So don’t try to be funny or cute. Don’t do anything that will put people on the spot or make them feel excluded. And don’t go on too long. “Brevity,” Shakespeare said, “is the soul of wit.” It’s also the hallmark of most great speeches and the essence of all successful toasts.

Keep it simple and uncluttered:

1. Get everyone’s attention.
2. Make sure they have something in their glasses.
3. Make a general statement about the people who have gathered.
4. Propose a toast which is halfway between a wish and a (secular) prayer.
5. Raise your glass and drink.

Have you found any Thanksgiving toast that you’d like to share?

As an orals coach, one of my happier experiences is going to a win party. Which I did last week. A team I had coached in the spring finally got notified that they had won the bid on a job that’s worth 35 million dollars over the five year-term of the contract.

If you’re not familiar with the process, this is how it works. The customer—in this case the Department of Homeland Security—puts out a request for proposal (RFP). Companies submit proposals. Some of them are chosen—it’s called being down selected—and are asked to send in a team to make an “oral proposal.” Depending on the customer’s specifications, the oral proposal can be a one-hour to two-day presentation. I work with teams that are sent in to make the oral proposal.

At the win party the program manager told me what the customer representative said he liked about the team’s oral proposal. The reps comments sum up what I consider to be three of the most important aspects of a successful technical presentation.

Clarity

Clarity is the most important quality of any technical presentation. Being clear doesn’t always win you the audience’s approval or cooperation, but being confusing will inevitably win you their resistance. (A friend of mine puts it this way: “A confused mind always says no.”) Being clear isn’t about “dumbing down” your content. It’s about constructing a logical argument and presenting only as much evidence as necessary to illustrate, explain, or substantiate your points. When it comes to presenting information, less is more. (If people want more information or more detail, they can ask for it during the Q&A.

Audience Centric

“Most presentation teams come in,” the customer representative said, “and tell us all about themselves and how good they are. Which is a real turn off. Your team had clearly taken the time to learn what we want, and they told us what they could do to help us achieve it.” A presentation is NOT about what you know. It’s about using what you know to help your listeners solve a problem or achieve a goal.

Human

“Your people were real,” the rep said. “They weren’t slick or robotic. And they didn’t have a love affair with their slides. They spoke to us, not at us.” An oral proposal is a strange type of presentation. It is both a technical presentation and a job interview. The customer wants to see and hear the people who will actually be doing the work. (That’s why the customer always says to send in the technical people who are bid as part of the job, not to send in sales people.) So for an oral proposal you definitely want your presenters to be as real as possible. They are as much a part of the presentation as is their material. And the same is true for any technical presentation (or for any presentation at all). Who you are—your character, personality, experience, knowledge—is an integral part of any presentation. Don’t make yourself invisible. Don’t stand off to the side in semi-darkness. Don’t act as if the material on your PowerPoint slides is the real stuff and you are its adjunct. Let your personality come through in what you say and how you say it.

What are the qualities you look for in a technical presentation? Are any of them more important than clarity?

Leaders sometimes make the same mistakes other speakers make when speaking, but they get themselves into more trouble when they do.

Audiences are pretty forgiving. They’ve suffered through so many bad speeches and presentations over the years that they’ve developed low standards. And audiences are willing to cut most presenters some slack, because they’re so happy they’re not the one who has to give the talk.

So you can usually count on the audience’s goodwill. You just have to demonstrate a sincere effort and give a half-way decent speech.

But the same isn’t true when you’re a leader.

Rightly or wrongly — most rightly in my opinion — audiences expect more from their leaders. That’s why, if you’re a leader or if you want to be perceived as a leader, you can’t settle for being — in the words of a friend of mine — a “not sucky” speaker. You have to be a cut or two above the rest.

Here’s my opinionated list of the mistakes you can’t afford to make as a leader when you’re giving a speech or presentation. (I’m only posting the first 3 rules today. I’ll post the last 4 rules at a later date.)

1. Not Having a Goal

How many times have you left a presentation scratching your head, asking yourself “what the hell was that about?” If so, it’s probably because the speaker didn’t know him- or herself. As a speaker you have to know and you have to let the audience know why you’re speaking to them. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want the audience to know, feel, or do as a result of listening to you?

2. Not Having Anything to Say

My mother used to say, “If you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, don’t say anything at all.” I’ve adopted her advice (in theory, if not in practice) and adapted it: If you don’t have anything important to say, don’t say it. Leaders talk — or they should talk — about things that matter. Build each speech around one idea. Just one idea. But it has to be what I call a “Big Idea,” something that has the power to change people’s lives, if only in a small way.

As a rule, I find that the more big words a speaker uses, the smaller their ideas. If you’ve got something important to say, you don’t have to dress it up in fancy clothes.

3. Taking Too Long to Say It

When’s the last time you wished a speaker had gone on longer? People have limited attention spans these days. They are easily bored. And they’re always thinking about what else they have to be doing. So you have to have something worth saying (your Big Idea) and you have to say it as briefly as possible. Leave them wanting more. In my book I propose the rule “no speech over twenty minutes.”

What do you think? I’m especially interested in hearing if you agree with what I said about big ideas not needing to be dressed up with big words.

Executive Briefing

Thinking about executive presentations — something I do more than most, I was struck by what I experienced at the meeting of a professional association the other week. You know the kind of meeting. A little bit of networking. Something to eat. And a shortish talk.

The networking at this meeting was fine. Smart, successful, and engaging business leaders. The food was OK. (You don’t go to these things expecting great food.) The talk was disappointing.

I have this theory that every speech should be built around one idea. One, single idea. It’s got to be what I call a “Big Idea,” mind you. Something that makes people see things from a different point of view. Something that gives meaning and a sense of urgency to a lot of disparate information. Something that has the potential to change people’s behavior.

Yesterday’s speech had too many ideas. It was what I call a “shotgun speech.” The speaker peppers the audience with ideas—way too many ideas—hoping that one of them will hit some undefined target.

The speaker used PowerPoint, which I really don’t like. (It’s fine for technical presentations, if it’s used well, but not for most other speeches.) For a 45-minute speech, he had over 60 slides, and they were complicated slides, with lots of words and graphics. He also gave us a 20-page workbook, which contained most of the material on the slides and which occupied most of our attention.

It was way too much. Too much information. Too many ideas. Too much of his talking and of our lack of participation. Too little focus.

And the funny thing was, a formula on one of his slides said: Clarity + Simplicity = Success. I wish he had applied that formula to his speech.

What do you think? Do you like speeches that are crammed with information? Or do you prefer ones that are more tightly focused?

I’ve created this blog for people like me. People who have a love of the spoken word and, more specifically, of speeches. People who want to delve into the art and science of public speaking. People who are bored/bothered/annoyed by most speeches they hear these days and who think they can do better.

Since I work almost exclusively with leaders and aspiring leaders, most of my comments, reflections, and critiques are going to tend that way. So this blog is for leaders who know they’re being judged every time they give a speech. And it’s people who are being groomed or who are grooming themselves to be leaders, because the best way to be perceived as a leader is to speak like one. And it’s for people who want their ideas to get a better hearing, whether or not they have (or want) the title “leader.”

I also work with technical experts of various kinds—engineers, researchers, programmers and the like. So I’ll also be looking at how people can present sophisticated material in a way that other people, even people not in their own field, can understand what they’re talking about.

I have been described, on more than one occasion, as opinionated. I like to think of myself as educated, experienced, and willing to stake out a clear position. Either way, here’s what I hope to offer: insight and analysis, practical advice, reactions to what other experts are saying (either in books or on the web), and open-ended questions. I think I have something to say, and I know I have lots to learn. That’s why what I’m really hoping for is your feedback.

I’ve been speaking—and getting paid for doing so—for more than 25 years now. I’ve taught speech and communication skills at the graduate level. For the past 15 years I’ve been president of Witt Communications, a company that provides consulting and coaching for professionals who want to give more effective speeches. And I’m the author of Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint: How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas, which is due out from Crown Publishing in February 2009.