How to effectively present in English in the 21st Century

Often when we have to do a regular business presentation, we have to present data in the form of a chart. These charts are typically filled with either text or numbers. Because of the nature of many charts, these words or numbers are usually squeezed into small boxes in the slides and most of the audience cannot read the small text.

The question I am often asked is: how do I make these charts more audience friendly?

The thing to remember is that a presentation is never for the convenience of the presenter. A presentation is always for the convenience of the audience. Because of this you, the presenter, have a duty to make your slides more friendly for your audience and therefore you have a lot of work to do so your audience doesn’t have to.

Let us look at a couple of different examples of showing charts using Stephen Covey’s Time Matrix chart:

This first example is the way 90% of bad presenters would show this chart. Everything placed into one slide, whereupon the audience will inevitably begin reading the whole slide from left to right immediately it appears on the screen. The audience stops listening to you, and they just read. A completely useless way to explain or demostrate this chart.Alternative 1

Rather than showing all the data at once, bring in each item one by one. The downside to this method is time. It will take quite a few minutes to go through each item and explain it. If you are on a tight time schedule this method will probably take too long. However, if this chart is the main point of your presentation, it is probably worth taking the time to explain it in detail.

Alternative 2

Fade out the areas of the chart you are not talking about and only leave the area you are focussing on highlighted. This method would overcome the issue of time and allow you to go through each section step by step. The advantage of this method is that it keeps your audience’s attention on the part of the chart you are discussing.

Alternative 3

Zoom in the area you are speaking about so that it fills the slide. At the same time fade out the rest of the chart so that it is almost hidden away in the background. This is really a matter of aethetics rather substance and is essentially just a variation of alternative 2, but it does give you an idea of another way to show data in a chart.

Alternative 4

You could introduce the full chart briefly at the beginning of this part of your presentation, then as you introduce each part you move on to the next slide which only shows one of the boxes. This would then allow you to introduce each part line by line. At the end of the fourth box, you show the full chart again, but longer to allow your audience to absorb the full data. Again, the issue of time would come up, but it is another alternative of showing this data in a way your audience can follow.

The take away of this is that when you are presenting charts you need to avoid putting too much data up there on the screen at once. Charts and slides with too much text cause your audience to turn off their attention on you, and place their attention elsewhere. The best case scenario is they stop listening and start reading, the worst case, and often the most common case, they just simply stop listening to your presentation altogether. Your job as the presenter is to keep your audience’s attention on you. These alternatives can help you to do that.

Here’s a quick New Year tip to help you instantly improve the look of your slides.

Often, presenters like to include a quotation or perhaps their company’s mission statement or some other form of ‘motivational text in their slides. The problem is that making simple text look interesting on a slide is actually quite difficult. Or, perhaps the presenter does not think about the aesthetics of the slide when they create it and ends up having a slide that looks unprofessional.

The above slide is typical of a presentation slide where the presenter has not thought about the design and look of their slides. All they have done is used the default typeface and the default place holder and simply typed in the quote that they wanted to use. It is really not very inspiring.

In the second slide above, you can see that although the words are exactly the same, the way the words have been arranged, the use of large and small letters and a different typeface helps to bring the slide to life. It makes the whole slide much more interesting and it also gives the audience the feeling that the presenter has given some thought to their content and that they actually care about their slides.

Finally, the above slide is taking it another step further. By adding an image that relates to the words, the presenter has given the slide a completely new life. The image helps to convey the feeling the presenter wants the audience to feel and it helps to give a stronger meaning to what the presenter wants to say.

It really is quite easy to improve the design of your presentations with just a little thought. It does not take a creative genius to create more compelling and interesting slides.

People talk a lot about ‘telling stories’ in your presentation and a quick simple way to tell a story is to allow your audience to create their own stories by using images with your words. Each audience member will interpret each image in their own way based on their own experiences, and this will make your presentation resonate with each person in your audience. All it needs is a little thought and a little application.

That thought and that application is what your audience deserves.

Typefaces:

Slide 1 – Times New Roman

Slide 2 & 3 – Helvetica Neue Light

A question I am often asked when I am coaching a presenter, is what do I wear?

A simple guideline to follow is to wear clothing that is slightly more formal than what your audience will be wearing. Finding out what your audience will be wearing is part of your research and planning. It is not difficult to work out.

If you are presenting to a TED like audience on a weekend, then you can be sure that your audience will be wearing casual clothing. Therefore it would be a mistake to wear a formal business suit with a tie and all the trimmings. A better clothing combination would be a pair of trousers, a sports jacket or blazer and a buttoned shirt. whether you wear the jacket or not will depend on the temperature in the room. Feeling comfortable when you present in the priority here.

On the other hand if you were presenting the financial performance of your company at your shareholders annual general meeting, then a formal business suit would be the right choice. Preferably dark in colour with a white shirt, black shoes and a tie.

If you were asked to present at a company retreat or workshop, then a more casual approach should be taken. Wearing the type of clothing you would wear for a TED like presentation would be appropriate.

It is also worth bearing in mind any cultural differences. In many parts of Western US, informality in clothing style is normal, whereas in many parts of Asia, such as Japan and Korea, business attire is still largely formal (although I do accept this is beginning to change) Finding these things out should all be part of your research when you are preparing to do a presentation.

The key thing to remember when you are presenting is that the clothes you are wearing should not detract from the main message of your presentation. So, leave the bright yellow socks at home, and wear something that does not stand out. Always keep in mind that you are not presenting to promote yourself, you are presenting for your audience and they really do not want to be distracted by your fashion statement no matter how good or bad it is.

Professor Robert Winston is a British professor of medicine and science, as well as a member of the British House of Lords, a TV presenter and pioneer in human fertility treatments.

It is as a TV presenter that Professor Winston has become a household name in the United Kingdom, because of his ability to take a very complex subject, science and medicine, and to simplify it through the use of stories.

As presenters we can learn a lot from Professor Winston’s style.

The key element to Professor Winston’s style is to use words and descriptions that everyone would understand. He does not use medical jargon or difficult to pronounce latin words, he uses every day common words such as “the heart”, “the brain”, “the liver”. This is language that is understandable to everybody.

Using jargon in any presentation is bad. Even if you are sure all members of your audience will understand what you are talking about, but you can never be 100% sure. It is far better to avoid jargon altogether and keep the words you use to everyday phrases and expressions.

Professor Winston communicates his message by making data interesting. For example, when talking about the number of people who die in the UK each day, he expresses it by saying “by the end of this programme, 60 people will have died in the United Kingdom” this number is easy to understand and appreciate, and is simple to understand. It is also remarkably memorable.

Taking your presentation subject and turning it into a story with easy to understand examples and data sets, really does make a difference to your presentation. It makes it memorable, and actionable. And that is what you want to achieve.

Professor Winston’s voice is also a strong factor in his speaking style. It is not monotonous and he varies his tone and inflection. He speeds up when he needs to and slows down when pointing out something that is important.

You too need to vary your tone and speed when speaking. It will help you to sound much more natural and much more human. Far better than speaking with one tone – then you just sound like a robot.

Seth Godin writes about why reading your speech or presentation does not work. According to Seth, it is extremely difficult to read a speech and sound like you mean what you are saying.

“It’s extremely difficult to read a speech and sound as if you mean it.

For most of us, when reading, posture changes, the throat tightens and people can tell. Reading is different from speaking, and a different sort of attention is paid.”

When I am doing my presentation seminar, attendees have to do two presentations. The first is a brief self-introduction and the second is a final presentation on anything they like. What I find is that students, when given no time to write out a speech, actually sound a hundred times better, than students who are given time to write out a speech. They sound genuine, they sound like they really believe in what they are saying and above all they sound convincing.

I know, for most people presenting in a foreign language, having a pre-written speech is like a comfort blanket. But it really does not help you to deliver you message in the most convincing way.

Having a few “errm”s and “arrh”s in your speech is fine. It shows that you are genuine and it shows that what you are saying comes from the heart and not the head.

So next time you are preparing a presentation, do not write out a script. Make few notes by all means, but keep it natural aand allow the natural flow of your conversation to take over. If you cannot do that, then accept Seth Godin’s advice:

“… don’t bother giving a speech. Just send everyone a memo and save time and stress for all concerned.”