Actually, these aren’t American tips at all – they’re not even tips for American in particular, but they’re tips I wrote (in a hurry) for an American newspaper which needed some tips in a hurry to fill some space and meet a print deadline – I reporoduce them here simply “as is”. :)
1
Remember the presentation is not about you – you’re not that important…. get over it. Unless you’re Nelson Mandela or one of half a dozen other people in the world no one’s there to hear you. They’re there to hear what you’ve got to say. To think they’re there to hear you is a kind of hubris. Think about it: which is more important to the audience – you or the work of whatever charity you’re supporting? If you think it’s you, you shouldn’t be speaking.
2
Secondly, always check with yourself what your audience knows before you start. Your job isn’t to tell people what you know – it’s to tell them what they need to know in the way they need to know it. That means your presentation should tell them everything they need to know but only what they need to know: everything else just gets in the way and makes it harder for them to get to the guts of what you’re saying.
3
Lastly, don’t become a professional public speaker because you want to do public speaking! If you must become a professional speaker, let it be for the right reasons… because you’ve got something burning inside you that you’re so passionate about that you just have to tell people about it by making presentations. If you don’t have that, you’ll end up boring and your audiences (if you have them!) will end up disappointed. What’s more, you’ll deserve it. Your ego isn’t important – what you have to say might be! :-)
Having something worthwhile to say is surely the most basic (but most often overlooked) of presentation skills…….!
I agree and disagree with your 2nd 3rd points. Certainly, you are there to share (I don’t like to use “tell”) with your audience something new. When writing one’s presentation, I suggest starting with the conclusion first. What do you want your audience to leave with? What is the call to action? Then one can work backwards to fill in the details which lead to the conclusion.
You are right about becoming a public speaker. Let me back track for a moment and say that the vast majority of presenters do not want to be publi speakers. They merely want to improve their presentation skills. Most professional speakers (i.e. those who are paid for speaking) do have a passion. They tell us about their experiences and how they overcame adversities in life. One of the most important ways professional speakers present is to tell a story to make a point. The story is generally a personal story.
I respectfully disagree with your #1 topic. To be effective as a speaker, you need to be the focal point of the presentation. Even if one is a techie and presenting to other techies, one can be very less boring if one is on “center stage” and conversing with the audience. In my opinion, the presenter is the most important person because he/she is the one with the knowledge and experience. :-)
Hi Frank. Thanks for your input.
I gues what I’m getting at with point number one isn’t that during the presentation you shouldn’t be the focus of the presentation (far from it!) – what I was really getting at was the idea that most (non-expert or non-professional) speakers seem to get hooked up on the idea that everyone’s come to hear them speak and therefore they’re under pressure. My point is that the audience has rarely come to hear ME speak, they’ve come to hear me SPEAK, if you see what I mean.
I still need to be the locus of the event at the time.
Sorry I wasn’t clearer but like I said, these were knocked up quickly for a particular occation :)
S
Just love point 3. Spot on for me. I learnt the same from the World Champion of Public Speaking.
Anrew