Saturday, January 22, 2011

6 Simple Rules for Putting the Polish on Your Fellow Presenters


Rehearsals are stressful.

Presenters must remember their content and the transitions between speakers – all while remaining mindful of time constraints. Oftentimes these concerns take priority during rehearsal, but remember: how we say things is as important as what we say. Here are a few tips to help one another polish the mechanics of the team’s delivery.

1. Set the Expectation for Improvement
No one is perfect – especially under stress. The group should agree to provide honest and helpful feedback to one another in order to develop a polished group presentation.

2. The Player/Coach Mentality: Be Open to Coaching/Be Open to Coach
Let the group know you expect to receive personalized presentation feedback, and that you will be providing feedback to others. This is not about “getting personal”: this is about helping the team deliver the message clearly and effectively.

3. Positive Feedback/Positive Reinforcement
When coaching a presenter, start with positive feedback. “I liked your upbeat energy, but I think you were rushing some of your sentences.” Likewise, give positive reinforcement when presenters implement your coaching ideas: keep in mind some of the best coaching we can give is non-verbal positive cues: smiles, head nods, thumbs up, some quiet “nice jobs”, “looks good”, etc.

4. One thing at a time
Help your fellow presenters without overwhelming them. Suggest only one improvement at a time – things within the presenter’s control and, because rehearsal time is precious, only the most important items (for example, someone playing with the keys in their pocket might deserve more focus than if they say the occasional “umm”.)

The most common areas for improving presentation delivery fall into the following categories:

Energy level
  • Confident
  • Calm
  • Enthusiastic
Body Dynamics
  • Location (“center of attention”, easily seen by audience, not in projector light, etc.)
  • Never leave the podium/speaking space empty (departing speaker waits for new speaker to take center stage)
  • Choreographed transitions (new speaker is not upstaged by departing speaker)
  • Stance/Posture (feet planted, shoulder squared)
  • Hand gestures (appropriate to content – not random or nervous)
  • Facing the audience (as opposed to facing the screen/boards)

Facial expression

  • Eye contact
  • Smile
  • Facial variety appropriate to content and emotion
Vocal Dynamics
  • Warm tone (friendly, confident)
  • Clarity of speech (E-Nun-See-Ate)
  • Minimal vocal pauses (“ummms”, “uhhhs”, “you know”, etc.)
  • Appropriate rate of speech (not too fast, not too slow)
  • Appropriate volume (project without yelling)
  • Vocal variety (voice pitch and rhythm include variety for listener interest)
5. Follow Through
When coached on a specific improvement area, try to improve it immediately. Ask for feedback. “How’d I do with my pace – was that better?” If you don’t get it perfectly, don’t beat yourself up or draw attention to a mistake, keep going and just try to do it better the next time.

6. Coaching in the Moment
Ideally, you can rehearse multiple times and provide critique notes for each presenter at the end of a run-through. However, when rehearsals are limited to only one or two run-throughs, the team may need to provide feedback on critical issues (“slow down”, “plant your feet”, etc.) during the rehearsal. It’s not ideal, but it is an efficient tactic when time is short.


Thanks to Mike Scott for his input on this post.




Mike is Executive Vice President & General Manager for Dale Carnegie Training Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Mike leads the client delivery and operational efforts of the third largest Dale Carnegie franchise in the world.




He is a certified Dale Carnegie Course, High Impact Presentations and Corporate Solutions trainer. Over the last year, Mike has led training projects with Lawson, Universal Hospital Services, Johnson & Condon, Prudential, Ryan Companies, Medtronic, Cargill, Thomson Reuters, Egan, Short Elliott Hendrickson, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Michael Foods, and Pentair Technical Products. Mike is currently ranked among the top 35 trainers in North America.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

My Cup of Past Experience Runneth Over


The word redundant is the present participle of the Latin verb redundare, which means “to overflow”. There are times when overflow is good, like when your coffers overflow with money. Then there are times when an overflow is bad, like when red wine flows over your glass onto white shag carpeting.


This may come as a surprise to 99.2% of you based on my “extensive” research: the redundant phrase past experience is well entrenched within the English-speaking world.


I googled the phrase past experience, and retrieved 395 million results.


When I added the word “redundant” to my Boolean search, I turned up only 34,300 results.


That tells me that the majority of people using this phrase aren’t aware of that they are using an extra word (“past”) when the word “experience” would stand very well on its own. Only .000008% of English speakers recognize the redundancy.


Examples abound (at least 395 million, apparently), but the top result from the 395 million results came from Science Daily: Past Experience Is Invaluable For Complex Decision Making – and they’re scientists, which is a tribute to this redundancy’s insidious nature.


As I blogged in my Enough Said post, today’s reader tends to have a shorter attention span, so, as writers, we need to present ideas clearly and efficiently.


My advice is to make the phrase “past experience” a thing of the past. The only exception that springs to mind for me is if we were having a mind-altering (or simply convoluted) conversation about our future selves, and we needed to differentiate between experiences gained in the past versus those we have yet to experience.


I invite you to add your thoughts in the comments about any other exceptions that come to mind.

Friday, January 14, 2011

11 Q & A Tips to Keep You in Control

How you manage the question-and-answer period following your presentation can be as important as the presentation itself. How we handle questions win or loses sales, builds or destroys careers, and bolsters or undermines public confidence.

During your presentation, you maintained control over your voice, body, and visuals. How do you maintain control during the question period?

Here are eleven tips to help you keep control during Q&A from professional presentation coach and trainer, Mike Scott from Dale Carnegie Training.

  1. Start Strong. So many presenters set up their Q & A period with “Are there any questions?” Often the response is silence, which frequently leads to the presenter wrapping up the presentation with a low-energy, unimpressive closing statement like, “thanks ”. Start strong! Let the audience know you are still “in charge” while transitioning into the question period by saying:

    “We have ten minutes for questions. Who has the first question?”

    In this case, the presenter starts with an assumptive, confident, “bring it on” mentality that positions them as a credible, confident presenter.

  2. Keep Back-Up Questions at the Ready. A lack of questions from your audience can seem to slow the effectiveness of your presentation, but you are a confident presenter! If your audience doesn’t have any questions, have a few questions up your sleeve.

    “One question I’m frequently asked is…”

    “You might wonder about…”

    If the audience has no questions, it doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t interested. Sometimes people just need a few minutes to think. “Back-pocket questions” help presenters give listeners a minute to think of questions. In addition, it is a great way to emphasize an important point or to introduce overlooked content.

  3. Reframe and Unload Questions. Reframe questions to demonstrate that you listen and understand AND to remove “loaded language” from questions. Summarize the question: do not parrot it word for word.

    “The question is…”

    If the question is hostile, this is a great first step in beginning to defuse the confrontation and demonstrate our control and poise to the audience.

  4. Empathize. After reframing, transition with empathy language that demonstrates you are on the asker’s side, looking out for their interests, etc.

    EXAMPLE
    Question: How would you handle a project that requires a lot of public involvement?

    Answer: The question is about our approach to public involvement. [REFRAMED QUESTION] The City needs to make sure that its residents are informed every step of the way [EMPATHY] and our approach is to…

    Our rule of thumb is “less is best”. Remember to keep your answers simple and back up your answers with evidence.

  5. Bite Your Tongue. If you are in a group presentation, fight the urge to “add-on” comments. Often we find the comments added by another presenter do not necessarily add value. In some cases, they actually take away our colleagues’ credibility and communicate a lack of teamwork. In the event a colleague said something glaringly wrong, then, yes, add a comment, but always ask yourself “Is what I’m about to say going to add valuable information?”

  6. Good News Sandwich. If you encounter a hostile question, use the “Good News Sandwich” to respond. Just as the name implies, there are three layers: the two “slices of bread” are the good news, and the “filling” is a difficult or potentially contentious point.

    PART 1: The Good News is that…

    PART 2: While it is true that…

    PART 3: Let me just say….

    EXAMPLE
    Hostile Question: Your firm dropped the ball on the last project. How could you blow the budget so badly?

    Good News Sandwich Answer. The question is about staying on budget. [REFRAME QUESTION WITHOUT LOADED WORDS]. The good news is that of our last 10 projects, 9 of them actually came in under budget. While it is true that the last project experienced a series of change orders because of some very difficult environmental conditions, let me just say that as we moved into the latter stages of that project, we actually trimmed costs enough to come in at only 2% over budget, still well under the industry average and well below the contingency amount.

    Remember even if you have a the perfect answer using the good news sandwich but deliver the answer with a mean-spirited tone or body language our audience might not hear us. They may interpret the tone and body language as a negative, affecting our ability to communicate our overall message. In fact, since we can probably anticipate 75 – 80% of the hostile questions we’ll receive, we’d highly recommend practicing handling hostile Q & A with a colleague and ask for feedback on your body language and tone.

  7. Finish and Move On. Maintain the control as you move between questions by asking:
    “Who has the next question?”

    This approach “closes” the previous response so that you can address new questions.

  8. Maintain Momentum. While it might seem polite to conclude the previous response by asking the audience member if your response answered the question, this can lead to an open-ended (and sometimes hostile) forum. Since you are interested in maintaining control during Q&A, we recommend avoiding the “Did I answer your question?”

  9. Address the Entire Audience. Respond to questions to the whole audience – not just the question asker. If you address the entire audience, you will be less likely to find yourself in a “running conversation” with particular individuals in the audience, which not only slows down the session, it can also make the rest of your audience feel excluded.

  10. Wrap it Up. When time is running out, demonstrate that you are sensitive to time.
    “We have time for one more question. Who has the last question?”

  11. End Strong! Close with a restatement of your presentation’s main point and call to action.
    In closing, selecting our company will give you the technical expertise and available team members to meet your schedule objectives while delivering an award-winning project.
    Most presenters simply wrap up Q & A with “Thanks for the questions.” Let’s remember, the Q & A might have gotten way off topic or could have ended with a hostile question. We need to bring the presentation in for a close with our final closing comment and ensure the audience leaves thinking about our message.


Thanks to Mike Scott. Mike is Executive Vice President & General Manager for Dale Carnegie Training Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Mike leads the client delivery and operational efforts of the third largest Dale Carnegie franchise in the world.

He is a certified Dale Carnegie Course, High Impact Presentations and Corporate Solutions trainer. Over the last year, Mike has led training projects with Lawson, Universal Hospital Services, Johnson & Condon, Prudential, Ryan Companies, Medtronic, Cargill, Thomson Reuters, Egan, Short Elliott Hendrickson, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Michael Foods, and Pentair Technical Products. Mike is currently ranked among the top 35 trainers in North America.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

YES! We now have CROUTONS!

I make snap judgments, rash decisions, and impulsive purchases, even.

When I saw this sign in the window of the North End’s beloved Mama’s Pizza on Rice Street, my first reaction was to assess it as a marketing claim. I concluded that it is not a strong claim. “We now have croutons” isn’t as strong as “we use three pounds of mozzarella cheese on every dish” (which they pretty much do!).

I thought, “how quaint,” lamented the challenges small businesses face in marketing in a down economy, and passed by.

The next day, the sign was gone.

“A short-lived marketing campaign,” I concluded.

A week later, the sign was back up.

I finally walked into Mama’s and asked about the crouton sign.

It turns out, the sign is to alert regular customers when the restaurant has made a “fresh” batch of croutons, because they are not always available.

I had a nice chuckle at myself.