Here I am at an event I am excited about. The advertised speaker and topic look so interesting. I am so looking forward to hearing her and getting that valuable information. The speaker is introduced and begins. Very soon after she starts speaking, I am bored, I check my phone, secretly hoping that an email or text has come in that will have me leave. Alas, no such message arrived and I endure 30 minutes of mind-numbing power point slides and monotone reading of her speech. She may have delivered the valuable content that was promised, but I could not receive it with her presentation.

Has this ever happened to you? Or are you afraid that this speaker will be you? It is often said that many people fear public speaking more than death. And yet, today, in our careers and as we build our businesses, we are called on more often to speak publicly.

When I was a young child, I won speech contests and dreamt of a career where I would write, travel and speak. Then, when I was in high school, I took an upper level speech class and had an embarrassing moment. I was made fun of. I dropped the class, and gave up that dream. I became a registered nurse instead. When I was working for the State of California in the High Risk Infant Follow-Up Program, I was the chairperson for a fund raising event. Here I am with hundreds of people and the master of ceremonies calls me up to the stage to acknowledge me. I turn to my boss and say, “I hate speaking in public” and walk to the stage, trip on my way up and land flat on my face. I sat up and giggled with the rest of the room, but inside I was embarrassed and said to myself “I will never speak in public again”. And that was that.

Many years later, I got over that. The embarrassment was simply holding me back from fulfilling my dreams and I went about getting myself trained to be a great public speaker. I have now spoken in front of thousands of people and consistently receive great feedback. I have also trained many speakers to be great and I want to share some ways you can enhance your presentation skills.

1. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Write out your speech, practice it ALOUD many times. Practice it in the mirror. Practice it aloud to another person. Preparation is not about getting every word down, or getting it perfect. Preparation allows you to be comfortable so you can speak with people and interact with them. They came to hear you, so preparation allows you to be fully you.

2. Be Yourself. You may make mistakes, you may say something stupid, you may trip or do something you had not intended. So what? You are human. Your humanity makes you relatable. You want people to experience being with you, and if you try to not be you, you rip them off of the real opportunity of being with you.

3. Talk with People, Not At Them. You are speaking to PEOPLE. No one really enjoys being talked at- like a stern parent giving a lecture. We all like to be included in the conversation. That is the key to great speakers- have the speech in a conversational manner, including interaction with your audience.

a. When you are speaking, look at people- not above their heads, not darting around the room, but actually look someone in their eyes and talk to them for a while and then move on to another person in another part of the room and talk to them for a while, and repeat this. (We all tend to have a favored side that we look to- I recommend having someone support you in making sure you are speaking with everyone on all sides of the room. This simply can be having someone on your support team move to a side of the room you are neglecting, for example.)

b. Let what you say land. Do not talk to fast- if you are having a conversation, and do achieve a conversational tone, this is natural. However, nervous energy often has people talk fast. Slow down. If you have something important to say, say it and then be quiet. Let people process what you said.

4. Make sure you can be heard. If you don’t have a microphone, make sure you project so everyone can hear you. You may sound like you are yelling to yourself, but you are not. I often ask, “Can everyone hear me” in this situation. If you notice the people in the last rows, seem distracted, consider you are not loud enough.

5. Do NOT READ your script or your slides. This is boring! If you have slides, they can read them, you should be expounding on your points. If you forget some of what you intended to say, it is fine. Remember, they don’t have a copy of your script, so they don’t know. I always know that everything that should have been said, was said- and if you are being interactive, it always goes this way!

6. Humor is good. We all love to laugh, so sprinkle in some humor. Be sensitive to off color jokes or any humor that might be offensive. Self-deprecating humor is great.

7. Be willing to dance in the conversation, AND don’t give up your room! This is one of the most challenging aspects of public speaking for newer speakers. You want to be out with people and may answer questions or go different directions during your speech. Most important, however, is to remember that this is your speech and not to let someone derail your direction. This takes finesse, at times, when someone is trying to take the conversation where they want it to go. I find if that happens, you can simply say “Let’s discuss this after we are done here so I can make sure everyone gets what I promised”. And then be available to meet that person at the end of your presentation.

8. If something embarrassing or unexpected happens, use it. This is when all that preparation pays of big time. I once was speaking and my blouse had come undone… after buttoning up my blouse, I used the incident to make a deeper point in my speech.

9. Join a public speaking practice group, like Toastmasters, or take opportunities to practice with a speech coach or even among friends or masterminds.

Have fun! Being center stage and having a conversation with a larger group of people at one time on a topic that you are interested in can be fun if you simply go with the flow and enjoy the ride.

Maybe you heard that horses sweat, men perspire and women glow. But in the boardroom everyone who presents sweats – some more than others. If you are in management or want to be, you will need to present in the boardroom. This is the worst place to present. First understand why it is that way. Then use these techniques to be more successful when you present in the boardroom.

Beware of Boardroom Landmines

Culture

The boardroom is a place of punishment. It is where management and executives go to thrash the last bad quarter results and beat up somebody. Whoever presents today in the boardroom is the target for today’s flogging. Hence just entering the boardroom stirs up a defensive and offensive attitude in most meeting attendees. They are ready to defend their own performance and at the same time attack someone else just to escape. A boardroom is not a place to birth new ideas – it is a place to crucify suspected sinners, torture under-performers and kill dreamers.

Physical

The physical step-up of the boardroom is adversarial. Meeting attendees face each other across the table. They are not facing the speaker. In fact to face the speaker they must turn their head and expose themselves to the physical discomfort of a kinked neck.

Hierarchy

There is always a power position at the table. Even in King Arthur’s round table the strongest positions were those closest to Arthur. The presenter will usually speak opposite the power position – thus having the weakest physical position on the table.

History

If you are relatively new to this board meeting the ones with history will play their seniority card against you. They can bring up past issues, insider jokes or unwritten rules that put you down.

To succeed in the Boardroom

Before the meeting

Learn who will be there and learn their hot buttons. Meet with all or at the very least the key decision makers before the meeting and get them on your side. Never introduce new ideas in the boardroom. That is the surest way to kill your new ideas.

If the meeting chair is an abrasive type, meet with him before the meeting. Explain your ideas and demonstrate how your ideas support his visions and goals. And ask for his support to make it work. Tell him that you cannot make it happen without his critical support, which implies that if it fails he is responsible. Tell him what you want to accomplish and ask for his advice on how to get everyone else onside.

The more people you have taken into your confidence and who know about your presentation in advance – the more will support you when the vote comes down. If you don’t surprise them they won’t surprise you. When you meet with them ask them for their support.

Speaking in the Boardroom

Get into the boardroom before the meeting to get comfortable with the room – to make it your room. Test your presentation equipment. Sit in a few of the chairs to see the perspective of the attendees. Beware that the others are evaluating you the whole time – before you present, while you present and after you present. So appear calm and confident.

When it is your turn to speak, calmly take the power position of the room. Stand. Pause while you attain everyone’s attention. Then begin your presentation.

Speak to everyone in the room. Make a point of talking and looking at every person in the room. Move your eyes across the table in imperfect x’s. Don’t be fooled into only talking to the one with the most power or the one who engages you. And don’t be lulled into staring at the broad expanse of the boardroom table.

State your position clearly and strongly. Never apologize. Look to your allies for their support. Make it clear what you want them to do because of your presentation. Repeat your purpose. State the purpose early and be prepared for interruptions as well as your presentation time getting cut short.

Seek to gain one key point that moves them in the direction that you want. Don’t try to sell and close all the details in one boardroom presentation. Boardroom meetings are either to confirm earlier discussions or to suggest new directions. But seldom are they for details.

Your Boardroom Success

Accept the directional win and next step. Be willing to work out the details later. People are more defensive in the boardroom. Don’t try to nail the whole project in one boardroom presentation.

This might seem like a strange question to ask, but trust me, it’ll make sense in a bit. When did you last see a seat or bench that you hadn’t seen before, and yet know exactly how to use it? It could have been in a restaurant, or a bar, perhaps in someone’s office, or even in the park. Yet when you saw it, you knew exactly how to use it, right? Question is, how did you know? Still a serious question… The answer is a mix of things… You had seen ones like it before, your brain compared to previous experiences, you looked at how other people were using them and so on. So, with all of that happening in a thrice of a second, you didn’t even notice what was going on in your brain, and went ahead and sat down. Brilliant, itsnt it, how our brains can spot these patterns and act on them?

Now let’s compare that with something a little silly… What if you knew that ONE of the spaces to sit down was going to collapse, because it was being filmed, and the “hilarious” result would be broadcast on TV and the Internet. Wouldn’t that lead to some different behaviour on your part? Of course. A totally different pattern would likely see your brain playing a very full part in choosing where to sit. You would give it proper thought and attention.

Our brains get into patterns which is very useful a lot of the time. It saves time and thought by just letting us get on with things. But this same process happens all over the place, including in work situations. Which is why anything predictable… Like a work presentation, is liable to be experienced in the same auto pilot way as the seating example I just ran through. The answer then, to keeping our audience interested, is to find ways to interrupt these standard patterns.

This is about finding ways to be different when presenting. Not different for the sake of it, but different in order to prevent our audience fighting a losing battle with their own levels of attention. It is not about intentionally being wacky, crazy, humorous, funny or so on. We don’t desire to be provocative, or to cause offence, or upset, though any of these things may happen as a result of us seeking to be different. The reality is that a presentation with great content and a very standard style of delivery will get the same level of attention as a presentation with average content and an amazing interest generating style of delivery.

Look at most conferences and situations where there are a number of speakers and you will see one person after another doing the same things with pretty much the same lines over and over. Standard conference etiquette for example means that speakers use a podium or lectern, therefore speaking from the same spot, and a clearly defined structure makes it harder for any speaker to be noticed.

What we are looking at then is to identify patterns which often hold sway in presentations, and do something different. Remember, we don’t want to be different for the sake of it, we are looking to interrupt patterns to engage our audience and to demand their attention. This is a simple process to do, identify those habits many speakers have, just take note of what many speakers do, and look to do something differently. Here are a few points to start you off.

PowerPoint is one of the most common patterns that many speakers find themselves falling into, so the biggest interruption is to avoid using slides. When I say that to people they always go into a panic about how they can speak without slides, but if you can speak without slides, among a sea of other people using PowerPoint, you can certainly interrupt a strongly defined pattern.

Assuming you need to use slides for some reason, then consider your layout and design. Many conferences and organisations insist on a “house style” but this very style is putting you into a pattern.

A lectern forces you to remain in one spot… So when arranging your speech, ask for lapel microphones. This simple difference means that your audience can see you, and you can be yourself. Consider how other people are using space as they present, and if they are moving a lot, then consider standing still. Whatever patterns you see from other speakers, do something different.

Most speakers and conferences have a convention where they “open the floor to questions” at the end, so why not invite questions throughout? Think also about style within speaking, so look to take a contrary approach, which means use humour where others don’t, or challenge when others are more compliant and so on.

Finally do an audit of your personal presentation habits, and work hard to change them. Many habits are shared by speakers… So interrupt those patterns. Look out for people twizzling long hair, glasses off and on, ballpoint pen popping, phrases like “for those of you who don’t know me” and so on… It’s easy to see this as flippant and trivial details, but for those determined to gain and maintain their audiences attention, it’s essential that we find ways to interrupt our patterns. Good luck.