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Many ESL speakers, when tasked to make presentations, commit the mistake of making everything sound too formal. Truth is, much of English has gone the informal route – including getting up in front of people and giving the details of a report.

Most audiences, in fact, prefer a relatively informal delivery. That’s because it’s less stuck-up and more natural. The more comfortable they are, after all, the less of a hindrance it will be to impart your message.

However, informal doesn’t mean unstructured. Presentations, after all, are best accomplished when everything is organized for the audience’s benefit. When starting a presentation, make sure everyone is clear about what’s going to happen. However, be vigilant about keeping everything brief (use your language software to help you if you’re struggling). Here’s how you do it:

1. Get their attention. Project your voice and pipe up: “Let’s get started.” If you have a more fitting “call to action,” use it.

2. Welcome everyone. Greet your audience and welcome them to the presentation. It’s small talk, yes, but it breaks the ice and gets the ball rolling.

3. Introduce yourself. Make sure the audience knows who you are by giving your name and a short blurb about your qualifications (company, position and such).

4. Announce the purpose of the presentation. Tell them flat out what the presentation will be about. What are they going to learn? What should they get out of it? Keep it tight, though.

5. Tell them how you want to deal with questions. This is huge. People raising their hands in the middle of a presentation can be distracting. Different speakers have different preferences, so make sure you tell everyone how you’d like questions to come.

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.

The study of power and its effect is important in the understanding of negotiation and relationships (or common ground) flowing from any negotiation. Every interaction and every social relationship, in side and outside organizations, involves an exercise of power.

INTERPERSONAL POWER:

French and Raven suggested five interpersonal bases of power that are important to negotiators.

1. Legitimate power
2. Reward power
3. Coercive power
4. Expert power
5. Referent power

We will examine only Expert Power and Referent Power in this article, but should you wish to learn more about Legitimate Power read the article entitled “The Use of Power in Negotiations” on http://www.ezine.com. To learn about Coercive Power and Reward Power read the article entitled “Release your Power in Negotiations” on ezine.com

EXPERT POWER

A person who possesses expertise that is highly valued has expert power. Experts have power even when their rank is low. An individual may possess expertise on technical, administrative, or personal matters. The more difficult it is to replace the expert; the greater is the degree of expert power that he or she possesses. Expert power is sometimes referred to as information power and is often a personal characteristic. For example:

A secretary who has a relatively low-level organisational position may have high expert power because he or she knows the details of operating the business – where everything is or how to handle difficult situations.

According to Lewicki et al. (1985:249), men and nations will act rationally when all other possibilities have been exhausted. Within the context of negotiation, expert power is the most common form of power in use. Expert power refers to the persuasive, influential nature of the information itself. It refers to the accumulation and presentation of information that will change the other’s point of view on an issue.

Lewicki et al. are of the opinion that expert power is a special form of information power. Information power can be used by anyone who has studied and prepared his position for negotiation. Expert power, according to this author, is accorded to those who are seen as having mastered and organized a great wealth of information.

Lewicki et al. are of the opinion that there are methods by which a negotiator can establish him or herself as an expert in the eyes of the other party:

• By citing facts and figures.
• By ‘name dropping’.
• By citing examples of detailed experiences gained in well-known institutions.
• By being known through the press or through other people, or through writing articles in well-known journals (by being visible).

Presentation of information:

Within the context of negotiation, information power is at the heart of expert power. Even in the simplest negotiation, the way that information is presented could make a large impact on the outcome. In the light of this it can be seen that visual aids like charts, graphs and good statistics have a substantial impact on a negotiation. Market research on other prices in the area, on consumer’s opinions and on financial position and the interest of suppliers is important information to gather when preparing oneself. Care should be taken that this information is trustworthy, since if it is proved to be untrue this could damage the trust built through negotiation in a serious way.

Information power is often used in a distributive way so that information is manipulated to control the options open to the other party. For example, the other’s choice of behaviour is influenced by sending him positive information about the option we want him to choose, or by concealing information about an option we don’t want him to choose.

In some cases experts are brought into negotiations since people are less likely to argue with a perceived expert in the area of his expertise. To really take on the challenge, the non-expert would probably have to consult with another expert, which is costly, time consuming and somewhat risky. The lack of confidence of the non-expert is often quite visible in his body language, posture and manner speaking.

Countering good information:

Countering information power can be a real problem. When information or an expert is brought in to counter the other side’s information, it can lead to an escalation in conflict with either a negative result of no resolution of the conflict and hence agreement; or a positive result which leads to a search for other alternatives which could be beneficial to the negotiation process. So the best approach would be to:

• Explore all the information at hand
• See an expert for what he is. All experts have abilities in a certain field, but seldom over the whole field covered by the negotiation.
• Either specify or generalize depending on the posturing of the opposition. For example, if the opponent comes with very specific information, an effective counter would be to return with very general information.

REFERENT POWER

It is common to identify with and be influenced by a person because of his personality or behavioural style. The charisma of that person forms the basis of referent power. A person with charisma is admired because of his or her personality. The strength of a person’s charisma is an indication of his or her referent power. Charisma is a term used to describe the magnetic personalities of some politicians, entertainers and sports figures. Some managers are also regarded by their subordinates as extremely charismatic.

Referent power is sometimes referred to as personal power. Referent (or personal) power is based on the target’s attraction to the power holder – liking, perceived similarity, admiration, desire to be close to or friendly with the power holder. This attraction may be based on physical attractiveness, dress, mannerisms, lifestyle or position, but can also include friendliness, congeniality, honesty, integrity and so on.

Truly charismatic people – those who have a unique blend of physical characteristics, speech, mannerisms and self-confidence- are able to influence very large groups of people by their actions. Referent power is based on the need of an individual to identify with people of influence or attractiveness. The more the target admires or identifies with an individual, the more referent influence the power holder has and the more control he can exert because of this identification. This form of power is often regarded as one of the strongest in negotiation.

In international negotiations governments realise the importance of sending professional negotiators or individuals with special qualities of referent power to negotiate on their behalf. If personal power is abused by any side it can lead to tremendous distrust between the parties involved. Personal power is seldom associated with destructive tactics of any form, because individuals with an abundance o personal power will often try to find those agreements that could befit both sides as not to leave any victims in their wake and thus lose their source of attractiveness.

The personal integrity of an individual in the opponent’s team could be a very strong from of common ground in negotiations. Many negotiators fall back on the integrity of the parties and the relationships built up between individuals as the strongest bond that exists between negotiating parties. The very existence of this bond will encourage them to find solutions for any conflict that may occur.