This new topic is presentations, which are not to be confused with pitching ideas. There are many things to look at when presenting and I am not going to cover them all, but I will cover what I believe to be the most important part of the presentation… you!

It’s all about you.
Presentations are an opportunity for people to get to know you better. You may think that the purpose of the presentation is to persuade your audience, but in reality the real point is for them to see you ‘in action’, to get to know you and, ultimately, to trust you. Confidence in you and your team will follow.

It’s a mistake to think that the primary function of any presentation is the conveying of facts. Lists of facts and figures belong in an email or a leave-behind document. The presentation is about demonstrating your personality and, by association, that of your team. Knowing the facts is a given. They need to like you and believe in you!

Even though your presentation may be proscribed by the company it still has to feel as if it’s yours; you have to own it and be comfortable with it.  And it has to be focused on the particular individuals in front of you: their needs and interests. The more you work on engaging with your particular audience the more it will take on the dynamics of a successful meeting where everybody is helping to move things forward; even if your audience are only doing that by providing you with energy and focus because they are engaged.

Remember: They might fear that you’re going to be dull, but they’re hoping that you’re not.

When you’re on you’re in charge
When you are presenting you are in charge. In charge of everything. This is the way that the agreement about presenting works. When people accept the role of audience they effectively say,  “ok, over to you. What have you got?” This means you are put in a very powerful position. If it doesn’t feel that way, there are techniques to help build your confidence.

The feeling we usually start out with is, ‘it’s just little old me and all of them’. The journey we make from there is one of ‘ownership’. It is effectively a claiming of territory that most audiences will willingly give up. When you begin to work from a position of being in charge or responsible for everything, you start to realise that you are responsible for what your audience thinks and feels for the duration of the presentation. And it isn’t just about knowing what to say: the messages they receive will be as much to do with how you stand and how you sound. If they are excited it’s your fault. If they are bored, it’s your fault. If they can’t keep up, it’s your fault.

At first glance this may seem more, rather than less difficult. But if you look again you can see that it brings with it liberation from the straitjacket of just doing what you’ve already prepared (the Blue Peter approach to presenting). If you can see that they haven’t understood and it’s your fault, then the obvious thing to do is to depart from the script until everyone’s up to speed. This can bring a gloriously refreshing approach to the preparation of a presentation, where you begin to look at a grab bag of possible routes you may take and possible things you may bring into your presentation.

In Summary

• Presenting is about you.
• People want to meet, like and trust you.
• You have to take control.
• Everything you do communicates.
• The challenge is to keep things fresh.