Tag: Public Speaking

  • Dive In!
    Presenting and Open Water Swimming

    I am an “adult onset” swimmer. Learning to swim at age 46, I trembled with the same anxieties as many of my Presentation Skills clients. I even heard myself describe my experience using the same words. Swimming was unnatural, awkward, unnerving, and out of my comfort zone.

    Twelve years after my first lesson,  I continue to feel amazed at how many parallels I continue to discover between swimming and presenting. I often ask my workshop participants for similarities they perceive between these two divergent activities. Their collective wisdom will help YOU overcome your “fear of the water:”

    1. You must prepare

    Workshop participants cite this similarity most often. This makes me happy. Open water swimmers can literally die (and sometimes do) for lack of preparation. Presenters can metaphorically “die” if they are not prepared.

    Keep the ratio of 1:3 in mind. For each hour spent presenting, it’s wise to put aside a minimum of three hours to design, prepare, and rehearse your material.

    2. You must keep focused on the final goal

    For swimmers, effectively sighting on the final buoy helps determine who wins and who loses. Open water swimmers can end up swimming hundreds of extra yards if they don’t continually keep their eyes on where they want to end up. Those who sight poorly end up off-course, exhausted, and maybe even wounded: One swimmer I know ran into a piling and broke a tooth because lost sight of his final goal.

    Presenters also lose when they drift away from their stated purpose. Remember to carefully craft and state your purpose. (Here’s an article that will help.) Then remain accountable to your purpose throughout your presentation, even if metaphorical winds, chop or waves  try to toss you off course.

    3. You must stand tall

    Efficient, graceful swimmers demonstrate the same physical skills as presenters. Although swimmers remain horizontal, the fastest ones elongate the back of their necks. Their shoulders roll back and down to achieve the most powerful stroke, and their chests press into the water.

    Presenters, if you practice these exact physical techniques, you will appear more credible, authoritative, and strong in front of any group.

    Both in swimming and presenting, conditions can be rough. The first few strokes can feel icy. But if you’ve taken these three participant-generated tips to heart, you will overcome those challenges within the first few minutes. Then everything will go “swimmingly!”

    Send me your “swimming” and “presenting” analogies!

  • The Curse of Knowledge

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    Think of a skill you have, (such as driving, swimming, writing, reading…) Would you say you are unconsciously competent with this skill? That is,

    • Can you do it without thinking about it?
    • Is it part of you, like an instinct?
    • Would you have a hard time explaining the steps of this skill to someone with no knowledge at all about it?

    All of us have skills like these. And it’s great that we do! And yet, here’s the big question. Can this level of expertise actually hurt us as teachers, trainers or presenters?

    Before taking a guess at the answer, consider this experiment Elizabeth Newton did in 1990 at Stanford University. She assigned volunteers to one of two roles, either a “tapper” or a “listener.” Each tapper was asked to pick a well-known tune such as “Happy Birthday” and tap out the rhythm on a table. The listener’s job was to guess the song.

    Over the course of the experiment, 120 songs were tapped out. Listeners guessed only three of the songs correctly, making the success ratio only 2.5 percent. But before they guessed, Newton asked the tappers to predict the probability that the listeners would guess correctly. They predicted 50 percent. The tapers were flabbergasted by how hard the listeners had to work to “get” the tune.

    Why?

    The problem is that once we know something (for example, a song’s melody or a skill), we find it hard to imagine not knowing it. Our knowledge has cursed us. The more intimately we know a subject or a skill, the harder it may be to effectively teach or present it to others in a way they can understand. We may find it impossible to fathom how to teach because we don’t know where to begin.

    The Need for “Conscious Competence”

    It’s common knowledge that experts who know the most about a topic don’t always make the best teachers. In fact, some of the very worst teachers have the highest levels of knowledge and expertise. These experts have lost touch with conscious competence, and they wonder why their students aren’t learning.

    As presenters and trainers, we must come to our subjects anew. We need to get in touch with what the Buddhists call “beginner’s mind”, an experience of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions. But we must also “crank ourselves down” from unconscious competence to conscious competence.

    Conscious competence is the state we’re in when we are able to do a skill, yet must still concentrate on its steps and nuances. It’s the state we inhabit when we don’t feel like an expert, even if we are. Even if we must concentrate in order to do the skill correctly, we can verbalize each step we take. We are not on automatic pilot.

    A Challenge

    So-beyond the need to “know your stuff,” which elements do YOU believe are most important to make a great teacher? Here’s this month’s challenge. Please take the time to answer the question, What makes a great teacher, trainer, or presenter? in the “add new comment” box below. I’ll publish the most-often stated ideas in our next newsletter.

    Thanks to The Art of Explanation, by Lee Lefever, for introducing me to the Stanford experiment.

    Learn about Guila Muir’s Pre­sen­ta­tion Skills Workshops.

    Guila Muir is a pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

  • Presenting from the Seat of Your Pants


    The Challenge of Sitting

    We can lose a great deal of speaking power when we present from a seated position. Why?

    1. Half our bodies, with their eloquent capacity for language, are hidden.
    2. Often, our hands are not visible.
    3. Our internal organs are more tightly constrained.

    What’s Wrong With This Picture?

    Here’s how to present with confidence and authority while sitting:

    • Place your feet parallel to each other, flat on the floor, facing forward. Your knees should be bent at a 90 degree angle. No crossing your legs!
    • Feel your sitz bones, (the bones at the very bottom ends of each side of your pelvis) sitting squarely on the chair. These form your anchor.
    • Roll your shoulders down your back, opening your chest.
    • Practice gesturing in the camera. Make sure your hands are visible, but don’t move them TOO close to your face. Gesturing makes you appear much more dynamic, and helps bring your own energy up.

    You’ve Got It!

    Present from the seat of your pants. Whether you are presenting to board members, City Council, or being interviewed, you look and sound strong, approachable, and confident.

     

  • Your Biggest Gift as a Speaker

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    Does this sound like you? “I’m a fine communicator one-on-one, but put me in front of a group and I just die!”

    Why is it easier for many of us to present in front of a few people than to a larger audience? Why do many of us believe that some people just “have what it takes” to present effectively, and the rest of us don’t?

    The truth is that everyone has the innate gifts to speak in public. True, few may possess the flamboyance of a professional motivational speaker. But I question the value of this presentation style, which often looks inauthentic. And although it does matter how you use your hands (avoiding the infamous “figleaf” pose, for example) and how you pitch your voice, the real gift you have to offer is YOU.

    Three Tips to Enhance Your Gift

    • Connect.
      It’s important to remember that speaking publicly is a relationship event, NOT a performance event. Your audience remembers what you say because you connect with them, not because you are the smartest or most charismatic person in the world.
    • Don’t speak “to,” speak “with.”
      Think of the event as a dialogue or conversation. Look directly at people and share your knowledge with them.
    • Express yourself.
      Remember that your unique style is better than any set of “stage skills.” Be yourself.

    But Is “Being Yourself” Really Enough?

    All truly compelling presenters use their greatest asset–themselves–to sell their concept and get their message across. All also realize that they can intensify their authentic selves for a more dynamic effect. Don Pfarrer, author of Guerilla Persuasion: Mastering the Art of Effective and Winning Business Presentation, calls this the “Intensified You” persona. It is “a task oriented, turned-on, intensified version of yourself.”

    When I work with clients to achieve their own Intensified You personas, I notice their increased confidence and resilience as speakers. This is particularly useful when they deal with jaded or potentially hostile audiences.

    Elements of The Intensified You

    • Subject Mastery: You must know your subject thoroughly AND know the limits of your knowledge.
    • Steadiness: You must “keep a steady hand on the tiller”–knowing you might need to change course to avoid a hurricane, but not allowing a small squall to deflect you.
    • Empathy: You must remain sensitive to your audience. If you were a member of your own audience, what would you need to hear? To see?
    • Candor: Include in your presentation what needs to be there–don’t hide anything. Show you are aware of challenges or problems; then present solutions.

    So — bring your authentic self as a speaker, but pump it up. This combination is unbeatable!

    Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshops.

    Guila Muir is a premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

     

  • How a Hook Can Save Your Presentation

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    I have discovered that my clients all love a good hook, and are always looking for new ones. Let’s review what a Hook is and isn’t. Then I’ll provide two dynamic Hooks for you to use in your next presentation or training session.

    What a Hook ISN’T:

    Fluff. Never make the mistake of thinking that a hook is unimportant and can be left out. It is an essential part of the learning experience.
    Lengthy. A hook is typically not a full-blown exercise, energizer or icebreaker.
    A pre-test. Don’t use a hook to identify the “smartest guys in the room.”
    A way to fill those nervous first moments of a training session when you feel least confident. A hook has a definite role. Don’t waste the precious first moments of a training session with comments about the weather or unrelated issues.

    What a Hook IS:

    • A way to immediately engage your listeners.
    • Relatively short. Although there is no actual rule about length, the hook should serve its purpose concisely.
    • Connected to the session’s topic or purpose. Although anything can serve as a hook, it should have a relationship to your session’s purpose. Don’t lob out a meaningless joke just to get laughs.
    • Connected to who your participants are. You must know your audience’s concerns. The best hooks relate to their past experiences.
    • Emotional, even if only mildly so. Adults become engaged through their emotions. Good hooks incite almost any kind of emotion, including laughter, groans of recognition, anxiety, or excitement.
    • Inclusive. Use a hook that all the participants can relate to. Again, the best hooks elicit the past knowledge, emotions, and/or experiences of most people in your audience.

    Developing a hook takes careful preparation. However, your participants’ immediate interest and involvement is on the line, so a little preparation on your part is worth the effort.

    Two Dynamite Hooks

    You can use literally anything as a hook. Trainers have used visual aids such as short videos or toys from the local Dollar store. They have used riddles, music, anecdotes, yoga stretches, and many more ways to immediately engage their participants.

    The two Hooks I’ve outlined here have proven to work with a bang every time:

    1. Real-life Questions

    These may be the easiest type of hook to create.  As for all hooks, make sure you know enough about your audience to use topics that resonate. Also, as in all hooks, ensure that your questions elicit an emotional response.

    See if you can guess the topics for these Hooks:

    “How many of you get so frustrated with your computer sometimes that you’d like to put your fist right through that screen?”

    “Raise your hands if you’ve ever participated in a nightmare meeting.”

    “Raise your hands if you’ve ever hit your boiling point around kids—even if you don’t have any!”

    Guidelines:

    • Always ask a minimum of two questions. You need this many to get your participants’ brains moving in the direction of your training session.
    • Create your questions so that nearly everyone will respond in the same way (for example, 99% of hands in the room go up or down.)
    • Insist on a physical response (hands up, stand up, thumbs up, etc.)

    Option:
    Start your questions with the following:

    “How many of you would NOT be willing to…(Remember, your goal is to get everyone’s hands up. Asking in the negative may be more provocative and participatory than asking in the positive.)

    2. “Did You Know?”

    (Provocative Fact or Statistic)

    The world is full of provocative statistics you can use to hook your participants. Just keep your eyes out as you read blogs, newspapers and articles. You can usually make the most unrelated statistic relevant to your participants.

    See how one trainer brought together issues as diverse as strawberries and personal choices:

    “Did you know… that Delta Airlines recently saved $210,000 a year simply by removing one strawberry from salads served in First Class? One little strawberry was removed and passengers didn’t even notice it. Big results can be achieved by little changes. Today, we’ll talk about how little changes in your thoughts and attitudes can have big results in your own life.”

    Here are two other examples, used in actual classes:

    1. “Did you know that in one second…

    • A telephone signal can travel 100,000 miles?
    • A hummingbird beats its wings 70 times?
    • And guess what, in one second, eight million of your blood cells die.

    A lot can happen in one second. This session will give you tools to decrease your response time in household emergencies.”

    2. “Did you know that ‘Generation X’rs’ have watched 23,000 hours of television by the time they are 20 years old? They also believe they have a better chance of seeing a UFO in their lifetime than a Social Security check. In this workshop, we’ll see how generational differences in the workplace affect all of us.”

    3. “Before the rule, more than 50 people here were dying in trenches every year. When you get killed in a cave-in, it’s not an easy way to go. You’re literally crushed to death under the weight of the soil. Soil weighs approximately 3,000 pounds per cubic yard. Nobody deserves to go to work and die that way.”

    Guidelines:

    • Turn a provocative fact into a hook simply by prefacing it with the words “did you know?”
    • Make sure your data is correct.
    • Make sure to integrate emotion.
    • Consider combining your fact or statistic with another hook, such as a Real-life question.

    Always use a Hook if you are serious about immediate engagement and interest!

    Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshops.

    Guila Muir is a premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

  • 5 Ways to Energize Your Presentations

    What’s the difference between presenting and training?

    Presentations are typically delivered one way, from speaker to audience. Great training sessions, on the other hand, are interactive.

    To spruce up your presentations, try injecting these five techniques borrowed from active training:

    5 Ways to Enliven Your Presentations

    1. Preface your presentation by briefly stating a relevant problem. Ask participants to be ready to solve the problem by the session’s end based on what they’ve learned.
    2. Distribute a list of questions for participants to answer as you present. (By directing participants to listen and search for information covered, you actively engage their attention.)
    3. Ask a relevant question and make it clear you expect the participants to think about it; then have them share their responses with one other person. (Optional: then elicit few of those responses.)
    4. Interrupt yourself periodically and challenge participants to give examples of the concepts presented thus far or to answer “spot-quiz” questions.
    5. Provide a “quickie” self-test either before, during or after the session.

    These techniques shift several responsibilities onto the audience, where they belong:

    • the responsibility to learn
    • the responsibility to engage, and
    • the responsibility to remember

    However, your responsibilities as a speaker shift a bit, too. You must move from spraying audience members down with an “information hose” to having more of a dialogue.

    Be sure to let your audience know what you expect of them before introducing each technique. And don’t let them slide back down into passivity—keep them awake and involved!

    Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshops.

  • Four Gender-Specific Presentation Blunders

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    Is it true that men tend to make certain types of blunders while presenting, and women others? In my experience, yes. I have worked with hundreds of individuals and single-sex groups, and notice recurring, gender-specific behaviors that sabotage presentations.

    In the interest of advancing further research, I submit these very common blunders, and give you the tools you need to prevent them.

    Most Common Presentation Skills Blunders: MEN

    1.  Guys, you wander aimlessly too much. Move with purpose ONLY. Pacing or shuffling weaken your delivery and your message.

    The best reasons to move are:

    • When you are changing a subject.
    • When you are changing an emotion.
    • When you’ve been in one place for the entire time.

    Stand and deliver, then move.

    2.  Get those thumbs out of your pockets or your waistband. This posture is called “genital framing.” Do you really want to express “check me out, I am a virile male” during a high-stakes financial talk? (Or maybe you do…What do I know?)

    Instead, use your hands and arms in a natural way to emphasize your words. You can even just let your arms hang down at your sides (now that feels weird, doesn’t it?)  Just don’t tuck your hands away…anywhere.

    Most Common Presentation Skills Blunders: WOMEN

    1.  Read the following. Is Mary credible?

    “Hello. My name is Mary Smith? I am the communications director? And I’ve worked here 15 years?”

    I’ll bet your answer is NO.  Mary just sabotaged herself, big-time. Even if she is most credible person in the company, she now has to earn back the credibility she lost through the upward inflection at the end of her sentences.

    Professor Yia Hei Kao of Claremont University is just one of many researchers and linguists who have found that when women end their sentences with an  upward lilt, they project uncertainty, tentativeness, and the desire to please others.

    Women, is THAT how you want to come across? We no longer need permission to speak, so why act as if we do?

    Practice introducing yourself. Listen for the upward swing at the end of the sentences. Enlist someone else to help if you are not sure what you’re hearing. End your sentences with a downward inflection. This “fix” is one of the most important things you can do to increase your credibility as a speaker.

    2. Stand evenly on both feet. Don’t heap your weight onto one hip. This “cheerleader” stance makes you look like you’re posing for a photo shoot. To come across as grounded and powerful, BE grounded from the floor up.

    OK, men and women. I hope these tips help you. Share them with those of the same and the opposite gender. Let’s all work towards a world full of improved presentations!

  • Does Smiling Help or Hurt Presenters?

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    The actual answer to this question, based upon many studies and years of research, is “it depends.”

    How Smiling Helps

    The act of smiling changes our brain chemistry for the better. An authentic smile can:

    • Boost mood and confidence by increasing serotonin, norepinephrine and endorphins.
    • Lower heart rate, and
    • Reduce anxiety.

    These chemical changes obviously benefit presenters.

    An authentic smile also makes other people feel good. An audience that feels good makes our job as presenters easier. In fact, when people see a smile, the reward centers of their brains turns on, making them happier. Who doesn’t want a happy audience?

    So what could possibly be the down side of smiling?

    How Smiling Hurts

    Among primates, smiling means submission, “I am not a threat.” We humans still read smiling this way. Oversmiling makes you appear less confident and more desirous of approval. (NOT how you want to be perceived as a presenter!)

    Most studies find that in general, women smile more than men. In fact, research involving nearly 110,000 people found that smiling is females’ default option.  Audiences may perceive a constantly smiling female presenter as less competent and knowledgeable than a less-smiling female or a male. But males can oversmile, too.

    To Smile or Not to Smile?

    Here’s how I would answer that question. Before presenting, prepare yourself:

    1. Pump up your enjoyment level. Tell yourself, “I will enjoy this,” or “I feel great,” or “the audience is my friend.” Allow yourself to feel positive.
    2. Feel an authentic smile engendered by positive thoughts. Feeling 100% present, smile as you introduce yourself and take ownership of the presentation space.
    3. Gradually and naturally, let your introductory (and authentic) smile fade as you get further into the material.
    4. Be willing to smile and laugh naturally throughout your presentation. Always smile when welcoming people back from a break.

    The bottom line is, as usual: Be yourself, with an addendum: Watch your smiles!

    Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshops.

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

  • Five Words to Persuade Your Audience

    Even when you “just” deliver data, you want people to use it, potentially to do things differently or better. Certain words persuade people more effectively than others.

    Since 1961, expert speakers have identified several words as the most persuasive in the English language. My challenge to you: Try integrating  a couple of these into your next presentation. Be attuned to how YOU feel when you use them. Notice how your audience reacts.

    1.You
    Personalize your speech so that your listeners feel you are talking directly to them. (Example: Ask, “What does this mean to you? Here’s what it means…”)

    2.Discover
    What an exciting and enthusiastic feeling from childhood this conjures. Challenge your audience to discover something new.

    3.Easy
    Your audience wants more ease in their busy lives. What can you offer?

    4.New
    Freshness, innovation, change…people respond well to that whiff of freshness.

    5.Proven
    The opposite of ‘new,’ this word ensures us that we are not taking risks. Be sure to back this one with data.

    Remember, every effective presentation persuades the listener. Don’t be afraid to use these words, and let me know how your experiment goes.

  • Stand and Deliver!

    Excellent presenterAre you serious about wanting to increase your dynamism, power and energy as a speaker? Then you must stand up when you present.

    Andy Eklund, a presentation skills expert, tells us:

    “The vast majority of people are at least 50% less dynamic when sitting down, because their body movements are halved … and perhaps as much as 75% because everything else is restricted too. It’s more difficult to breath properly, which means it’s harder to project your voice. Hand gestures diminish, if not disappear. Eye contact disappears too because the person tends to read what’s in front of them.”

    I want you to stand when you present because I want you to be powerful. I’m providing my favorite mottos and metaphors to help you remember to stand tall. Note: Please stand up NOW to try them out—you’ll find a favorite to use the next time you present:

    • Imagine that your vertebrae are separated by small pockets of air.
      or
    • Roll your shoulders “into your back pockets.”
      (This opens your chest.)
      or
    • Imagine a string attached to the crown of your head, gently pulling it up while your chin relaxes downwards.
      (Don’t lead with your chin.)
      or
    • Lengthen your neck and all else will follow.
      or
    • Create  “cleavage” in your back, between your shoulder blades.
      (woo-hoo!)
      or
    • Point your chest to the place across the room where the wall meets the ceiling.
      or
    • Simply think “UP.”

    Remember-it’s not about rigidity, it’s about grace, strength and power as a presenter.

    Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshops.

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com