Techniques to Help You Confidently Lead Business Presentations
Some people are natural-born public speakers, but that’s a rare minority. If you aren’t a natural silver-tongued orator, client pitches or presentations can be stressful, uncomfortable or even downright terrifying.
Truth is, even the most confident public speakers still get nervous, they just know how to manage those nerves. I’m no natural when it comes to presenting, and certainly still get nerves, but I’ve learned some proven steps along the way that allows me to conquer those fears through preparation, breathing techniques and some good ol’ fashioned thought reframing.
Next time you have a presentation coming up, try these helpful techniques.
Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. This one seems obvious, but allow me to elaborate. By the time I go into a presentation, I know the content/data in my presentation, I know exactly how I want to frame the narrative, I know the short and long-term implications of any data, I know exactly what questions my audience will ask and why, I know my responses to those questions, I’ve mapped out my inflection at each stage of the narrative and I’m prepared for any potential unknowns/curveballs. Research, think strategically and rehearse.
Understand your audience. Research everyone who will be there. Think strategically about what their goals are, what type of personality they have and what questions they will have. That way when you go into the meeting, you’ll anticipate things like… this is a C-suite level group, I’ll probably want to keep jargon to a minimum and think big picture, or, John is known to be a hard-ass, he’ll drill into this slide so I better have a solid rationale to counter with.
Build narratives, not decks. Tell a story instead of reading a bunch of monotonous lines directly from the slides. Humans respond to stories, not data. If you structure your presentation narrative with a problem (situation), journey (tactics/strategy), solution (result) and resolution (future-state/next steps), your audience will be much more engaged. Nothing more uncomfortable than an audience that has disengaged from you and you still have 30 slides to scamper through. Telling a story will make you feel more comfortable while presenting.
Breathe. My late college presentations professor taught us a ton of great tactics for calming yourself, but one process stuck with me the most. Every single time we stood up to give a speech, monologue or even just ask a question, he would make us follow this simple process:
Stand up
Take one deep breath - establish balance
Briefly scan the room, looking at each audience member for a millisecond
Exhale and begin!
That should all be a fluid motion and take you no more than 5 seconds. May sound a bit awkward, but it’s a game-changer. It allows you to slow down for a moment, get your bearings and, when done right, helps establish confidence in the eyes of your audience.
Plan for the unknowns. I mentioned this one above, but I think it deserves a bit more spotlight. Nothing can derail a presentation like a completely unforeseen question or critique that you have no answer for. I still remember early on in my career when a vendor, let’s call him Jimmy, came in to “pitch” us on their software. Everything was going fine until one of our directors challenged the young representative on some of his facts. Normally this would be fine, but the poor guy was already a bit nervous presenting in front of our whole agency and obviously hadn’t thought through how he would handle adversity. He became a deer in headlights, fumbling around his words (or lack thereof), until one of our other employees finally jumped in to redirect the conversation. Empathetically, it was really difficult to watch and taught me a very valuable lesson. It’s not always possible to anticipate all unknowns, but thinking through potential scenarios will help you be more nimble on your feet. When in doubt, prepare a blanket escape response like, “Good question, I’ll check on that and follow up with more detail.”
Presenting can be a challenge, but few things that will advance your career faster than being a confident, effective presenter.