How to present in English

I must first confess my love of Formula 1 racing before I begin writing this post. I have been a huge fan of Formula 1 since the early 1990s when Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna were drivers, and I remember the tragic accident in 1994 when Ayrton Senna died.

Photo courtesy of Flickr creative commons - Photo owned by fox2mike

Yesterday saw the opening of the 2010 Formula 1 Grand Prix, and as usual I was sat riveted to my seat watching both the qualifying and the race. While I was watching it I was struck by the awesomeness of the pit crews. (For those of you wondering what a pit crew is – the pit crew are the people responsible for changing the tyres on the car when it comes in for a pit stop) The pit crews involved in yesterday’s Bahrainian Grand Prix, were changing four tyres in less than four seconds! – that is incredible.

But this got me thinking – how do you prepare for such a high pressure event, where just one simple mistake can cost your team a winning race? The simple answer is practice. Pit crews of all the teams involved in the world of Formula 1 practice, practice and practice again until they can do the tyre change with their eyes shut. They even practice for things going wrong. They simulate problems and they work out the best and quickest solutions to these problems, then they practice handling these problems over and over again until they can deal with the problem in the quickest possible time.

When we do a presentation, quite often there is a team of people involved. You may be the presenter, the driver, but behind you are the people who are making the projector work, your computer sing and for large events someone ensuring that your audience are comfortable. These people are your pit crew.

I wonder how many companies involved in giving presentations today, think about the people who are making sure everything works? How many of these companies have their ‘technical’ staff practice for when things go wrong? My guess in pretty much none of them.

And therein lies a problem. In today’s world we need to be well practiced – and that includes you, the presenter, we need to be prepared for anything and we need to know what to do when things go wrong. We need to work together as a team, because quite often when we present to a customer, the prize for success can run into millions of dollars.

So next time you present, make sure that your team is prepared, practiced as much as you, and ready for anything. Not only will you look incredibly professional, but you will dramatically improve you presentation success.

Like most people here in Korea I was enamoured with the amazing skating of Yuna Kim at the Vancouver Olympics. She truly was fantastic. But this got me thinking. What is it that makes her so much better than everyone else. And can we learn anything from this when we do our next presentation.

First, I want you to take a look at Yuna Kim’s performance. This is the short programme that Yuna did last Wednesday:

The first thing that came to my mind was the almost perfect transitions between the beat of the music. It was seamless. Yuna Kim moves from one part to the next part in complete synchronisation with the music. And from this we can learn that when we present we need to move from one slide to the next seamlessly, not looking around at the screen and making sure the slide has changed, but have the confidence to know that the slide has changed. (alternatively, you can use the ‘presenter mode’ on your computer to check so that you do not need to look around)

The next thing you should notice is that Yuna has an amazing ability to tell a story in her skating. The music and her moves tell the story of romance and drama and even without words she conveys the story so that the audience is in no doubt where she is in her routine. When we present we need to make sure that the story within our presentation flows, it should inform our audience where they are in the presentation at any time and it should be relevant to your theme. In Yuna’s case the theme is James Bond, and she ably told the story of romance and action, we also need to make sure our theme tells the whole story.

Here’s something you will notice – the whole routine lasts a little under four minutes, but when you watch it, it feels much less (to me it felt more like two minutes) Because the whole routine was so smooth and flowing as well as entertaining and exciting time seemed irrelevant. When we present we are always up against the feeling from our audience that this is going to be yet another boring presentation. By presenting a flowing and entertaining, as well as relevant presentation your audience will feel they have been in the room with you much less that they really have. This should always be a goal. Your audience must leave the room wanting more, make your presentation flow with relevance, excitement and theme and you too can achieve this.

Yuna Kim really enjoys every moment of her routine and this clearly shows on her face. Because she is so well rehearsed, she does not even have to think about what is coming next, she knows. This leaves her with the opportunity to get out there and really enjoy her performance. When I saw a few of the other skaters the concentration on their faces was intense. They looked like they were thinking about what was coming next, and because of this they did not look like they were enjoying the performance. Yuna’s facial expressions and movement clearly shows she was loving every minute of her performance. If you know you presentation thoroughly, you know what is coming next, you too can enjoy your presentation.

Finally, what really makes Yuna Kim so good is her work ethic. Yuna Kim practices and practices and practices every little move until she is happy that it is perfect. This is one area that most people presenting today neglect and it shows. Without practice you will be an amateur and your audience will know this. To really make a presentation great you need to practice, practice and practice. Practice every emphasis on a sentence, practice even where you will move when you say a certain sentence. Make this your number one priority.

So design your routine (your slideshow) then practice and practice every slide. By doing this you will not need to look round at your screen to remember where you are. You will know, and you will really enjoy delivering your next presentation.

One of the biggest problems with today’s presenters, is that they are so worried about the words they use, how they use them and when they use them. When we do this, we lose our spontaneity, naturalness and passion. I know many professional coaches disagree with me on this point. And I would agree that in some cases carefully choosing your words may be important.

However, Jamie Oliver, the TED Prize winner of 2010, in his presentation shows exactly what you can do when you stop worrying about your words and just let your passion, enthusiasm and determination come through. You become AWESOME.

This talk at TED is just inspiring. It shows that if you truly believe in something, whether it is a cause, a product or service, by just letting your passion out you can turn peoples minds and hearts.

Who cares that Jamie was almost running around the stage? Who cares that he was carry note cards (I remember how much criticism Stan Sigman got for using cards on stage at the iPhone launch) what really mattered here was that Jamie truly believes what he was saying, his passion, enthusiasm and sheer presence made this talk one of the best ever at TED.

So, sit back, relax and be inspired:

Here’s a quick one for you.

I have spent many years trying to figure out why some people appear to be naturally good at English, while others always seem to struggle. And while I do not pretend to have a secret formula (one does not exist anyway) I do know that the way you treat English in your life does determine how well you speak and hear English.

The one common denominator of all good English speakers that I have met is they use English as a tool, and not as an academic subject. They make English a part of their life, rather than just another subject to study. When you take English away from being something you study to something you use in your everyday life, then English begins to open up a whole new world of possibilities to you.

Here in South Korea, the main search engine is Naver.com . Naver is a great website for all things related to Korea, and for some things not related to Korea, yet it is a Korean language website. Naver’s strength lies in it’s Korean content and not its English content. Sadly, most Korean students of English only use Naver, and not allow the skills and resources they have learnt in English to make good use of English websites like Google or Yahoo

What really amazes me is that candidates preparing for an English interview, or even an English presentation use only Naver or another Korean website. Surely, the logical thing to do is to use Korean websites for Korean related things and English websites for English related things.

Once your English ability reaches such a level that you are able to present in English, it really should be a logical step to use the English resources you have around you to make your presentation, interview or whatever else you are preparing in English.

Making English a part of your life does not mean abandoning your favourite native websites, what it does mean though is making use of all the tools you now have, that all the hard work and money you have spent on your English work for you. This can only enrich your life and help you both in your personal and professional life.

On a personal note. I like this logo

It is a warm, sultry day in July 2005 in Singapore. Delegates from 5 different countries are gathered in the main hall to deliver their final bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The London delegation know they are laying in 4th place. Between them lies 3 countries and a final presentation to the IOC. The odds of London winning the 2012 Olympic bid looks very thin, and most of the world are expecting the winner to be either Paris or Moscow, the two favourites.

Sebastian Coe, the former Olympic 1,500 metre gold medallist and 800 metre silver medallist rises to his feet. He has the task, as the lead person for the London delegation, of delivering the final presentation. He delivers, what has been described as one of the best speeches ever given to the IOC for an Olympic bid.

Several hours later, the delegates are all gathered again in the hall. The Chairman of the IOC fumbles with the envelope containing the winning bid.

As we all know now, the winning bid was London. The question. How did London come from 4th place to win the bid in one last presentation? The answer is a compelling, personal story.

Sebastian Coe was recently featured on the BBC’s Desert Island Disk’s radio programme. During that show he was asked about his speech.

Here is a transcript of the speech:

Kirsty Young: When you won the Olympic bid then in July 2005, of course it was a team effort, but key to the winning, so I believe from what I read, was a very personal speech that you gave yourself about a moment for you. Was it the 68 games?

Lord Coe: Yes it was, in Sheffield

Kirsty Young: And you were watching it on the TV. How old would you have been then?

Lord Coe: I was barely 12.

Kirsty Young: And what was it you told the Olympic committee about watching that?

Lord Coe: It was a very simple story about being dragged in to an assembly hall, in my school in Sheffield, and we watched the highlights of the games, the night before or the day before. Two local athletes in Sheffield; John and Sheila Sherwood. John got the bronze in the 4 hurdles, and Sheila narrowly missed the gold in the women’s long jump. And I just looked at this and I thought that this was the most extraordinary thing I’d seen. And I was sucked in by it.

In the Wikipedia entry for Sebastian Coe it is written “Coe’s presentation at the critical IOC meeting in July 2005 was viewed by commentators as being particularly effective, and the bid won the IOC’s blessing on 6 July.^”

Finally, here is a not so good copy of the official Olympic bid video.