The most important presentation tools in your toolbox – Part 2

Mon 22 Oct 2018

Communication, Meetings, Presentation Skills

This is part 2 of the transcript of a communications workshop I ran recently with a finance client. I hope you are finding these tips useful.

Language as a tool

Another interesting tool in our presentation toolbox is, obviously, language.

Is what you’re saying relevant?
Is there structure?

Now, this may be surprising to learn, but there are all sorts of studies about the importance of voice, and body language, and words. And here’s the kicker – the actual words you speak may be a less important than your body language! Research suggests that if your language is incongruent with what you appear to be saying, then your audience won’t listen to your words as much, they’ll “listen” to your body language. For example, if I say to you ”I’m really excited about this”, but I say it softly with no body movement, you are more likely to think to yourself, “No, you’re not” than trust the words coming out of my mouth. So, if you’re saying to an audience ”I’m really excited about this” – you do actually need to jump up and down and wave your arms about! (But not too much…!)

Don’t “um”. Pause.

There are some word that can make you sound less confident. The biggest one is “um”! We all do it, but why? Mostly it’s because we are all so uncomfortable with silence! So we fill in the silence with “um”… The problem is, “um” is deadly. If someone “ums” too much, what do you think? Chances are your audience is thinking that you’re not sure. And that’s the last thing you want when you’re presenting. So, how do you get rid of that? Well, ironically, the most powerful thing to stop an “um” is to do the very thing that the “um” is trying to cover. Silence. A pause. Just take a breath and watch your audience wait with baited breath for the next words that you say. And pretty much no matter what you say, it will sound profound! Pauses are SO powerful. They give a speaker great authority. So don’t be afraid of them, use them!

Words that suggest lack of confidence

There are other words that make you seem less confident. One is “like”. “Like, yeah!”. My oldest daughter says “like” every third word.

Another is “maybe”. Who wants to be told “maybe”. People want definitives.

And then there’s “I think”. It seems very unfair to diss that, because all you’re saying is, “That’s what’s in my head.” But if you say, “I think,” by definition, you’re saying, “I don’t really know.”

And here’s one you should definitely get rid of, erase the word hopefully from your vocabulary:

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed my presentation.

Hopefully, that’s a solution that you trust.

I’m your heart surgeon, hopefully, it’s going to work…

Not a good word, get rid of it!

These tiny little things, people are processing all the time. They’re not sitting there, counting, saying, “He said hopefully nine times”. They will just be left with a feeling of lack of certainty or trust. And what they’re doing is adding all this up and going, “Yes or no”.

Now, this doesn’t mean that to be confident and engage with people you have to be loud and slow, and say, “I’m confident and I’m sure” all the time, because different people work in different ways. But, think about some of these small, tiny little things that you can tweak, and adjust in how you communicate, and you can make a big difference to the person who you communicate with, and that can pay off further down the line.

I trust these and last week’s tips have been helpful and give you the confidence to excel in your presentations.