Reaching Your Potential – What Makes a Presentation Really Hit the Mark?

How often have you sat in an audience wishing that the presenter would stop droning on and get to the point? How often have you been confused and frustrated when a presenter fails to make clear points and come to a logical conclusion? How often have you been embarrassed for the presenter when he/she fails to make him/herself heard or has technical problems with the presentation medium? If you want to avoid these situations occurring when you (or your people) are presenting, read on to learn more about the 3 elements which are critical to your success in Presenting with Impact.

1. Your Audience

If your presentation is to have the impact you want, you should do all that you can to build your audience's receptivity. This means motivating them to listen. It's really about knowing who the audience is, what their needs are and identifying why they should listen. Start by building a profile of the audience; who are they? What do they do? Why are they there? What do they know? What are their beliefs and values? If a presentation is a learning occasion for the audience, then it's also a listening occasion. This takes intellectual and physical effort on the part of the listener and, unless properly motivated, is something most people would rather not do. People listen to a presenter for three principal reasons: self-interest (what's in it for me?), who's telling it and how it's told. Addressing these considerations will help you prepare your presentation more thoroughly and engage with your audience.

2. You!

How can you make the experience of listening to you worthwhile? The simple answer is to reward the audience for their efforts. You certainly don't have control over the audience's self-interests, no matter how much research you have done beforehand. Knowing what motivates each of them to listen, learn and act on what they've heard is nigh on impossible. But, what you do have control over is HOW your message is delivered.

Among the factors that quickly influence whether an audience wants to listen to you is your speaking style. Research* shows that people react to speakers who are warm, friendly and interesting. Having an open and relaxed demeanour, making positive eye contact and smiling will help you come across in this way.

Audiences also like listening to people who are organised and confident. Delivering a logical message supported by relevant and clear visuals will show you are organised and help your audience to relax and really listen to your message. Confidence wins friends. If you're not confident about the subject, why should the audience give you their attention? If you show them your enthusiasm, they will reward you with their undivided attention.

Another speaking style with a positive impact includes speakers who are open, honest and authentic. Presentation style preferences are usually based on cultural norms, but generally, people seem to like people who step away from a lectern or podium to show they are open to questions, criticism and the views of the audience. And most audiences seem to respect speakers who are not only honest with them, but who are also who they appear to be. In other words, show a little of your personality – the more natural you are the more you will engage with your audience.

They also like speakers who are knowledgeable, creative and inspiring. Your audience has come to learn something and wants to know what you know about the subject. Show that you have some useful insights and try and do something new or memorable with your subject.

So, this is the good, but what about the bad and the ugly? Well, research shows that audiences don't tend to like speakers who are pompous, patronising, stuffy or very formal. They also react negatively to speakers who are vague, complex and unsure of themselves. The greater the level of complexity in a presentation, the more likely an audience will become confused, bored or disinterested. (Our tips on Creating Perfect Presentations in the June issue of REACH! help here – remember to tell your story and use message driven visuals to simplify your message.) Finally, audiences are often dismissive of speakers who are irrelevant, monotonous or nervous. Relevance, as we've said, is all about self-interest (what's in it for me?). If you can make your presentation relevant to your audience and their needs, they'll pay attention. They won't listen to a monotone delivery or to a speaker who displays unusual (and distracting) levels of nervousness.

So, think about your speaking style. The way you choose to approach your subject and the occasion, and your knowledge of the audience will massively influence their reaction to you. Work to develop a positive style that captivates your listeners and, at the same time, try to eliminate the negative, problematic elements that turn them off.

* Study by New York based communications consultant, Sonya Hamlin.

3. Your Presentation

Some years ago, a university professor took a well-organised speech and scrambled it by randomly changing the order of its sentences. He then had a speaker deliver the original version to one group of listeners and the scrambled version to another group. Afterwards, each group was tested to see what they understood from what they had heard. Not surprisingly, the group that heard the unscrambled presentation scored much higher than the other group.

A few years later, the experiment was repeated at another university. But instead of testing how well the listeners understood each speech, they tested what effects the speeches had on the listeners' attitudes towards the speakers. They found that the people who heard the well-organised speech believed the speaker was more competent and trustworthy than those who heard the scrambled speech. These are just two of many studies that show the value of organisation and structure in a presentation or speech.

Organisation is important for two other reasons. First, organisation is closely connected to critical thinking. When you try to organise your presentation, you gain practice in the skill of establishing clear relationships between your ideas. Evidence also suggests that using a clear, specific method of organisation can boost your confidence as a presenter and improve your ability to deliver a message fluently. The second and equally important reason for organising a presentation is that you'll save your audience the trouble of doing it for you! This leaves them free to focus on listening.

Presenters also benefit from organising their presentations. A message that unfolds in an orderly sequence of points (your story) is easier to remember and so takes less time to rehearse. Organisation also helps to eliminate rambling, which can undermine the audience's confidence in you as a presenter.

Take the time to structure your presentation and then explain it to your audience. You'll find it easier to deliver if you do this, and your audience will find it easier to listen.