As I’ve discussed in previous posts, it’s important in your presentation to have a balanced mix of what your audience wants to hear and what they need to hear. It is sometimes difficulat for presenters to distinguish the difference between the two – because it’s all interesting to us!
So to help you find the “want to knows” here is a small (and growing) list of ideas. Please keep in mind, the “want to knows” are not necessarily the steps, processes, or action items. Instead, a “want to know” is the picture you paint of how their life will be if they implement your suggestions. You have to make the end-result crystal clear in their minds in order for them to even consider listening to you action plan. Read through the list and see if you have any “want to know” you’d like to add…
Recently my article “Being a Bad Leader: 5 Ways to Improve Your Leadership Abilities Through Communication” was featured in Training Magazine Online. Click here to read the article!
In Part One of this series, I discussed how to gauge if your audience thought you did a good job when you spoke, or if they are simply being polite.
Another source people use to determine if the audience enjoyed the speech or not is evaluation sheets (or as Alan Weiss calls them “smile sheets”).
While I [...]
Too often presenters are trying to get feedback on their presentations from either unreliable or pointless sources. Here are a few pros and cons to the usual feedback sources.
People talking to you at the end of a presentation. Usually, right after a presentation, you will have a few people come up to you, shake your [...]
In my workshops and seminars, I teach my audience to determine what the audience needs to hear and what the audience wants to hear. More often than not, the two can be as different as night and day. And yet, having a balance of both in your presentation will aid in the success of your [...]
In “Reasons Why Audiences Applaud at the End of Your Speech”, I pointed out many reasons why audiences applaud and give standing ovations other than you delivering a fantastic speech. Therefore, it is foolish to use applause as your only measurement for determining the success of a speech. When working with my clients, we begin [...]
Often speakers think that their audiences applaud and give standing ovations because they are a good speaker. Sadly, this is not always (actually, it’s rarely) the case. Here is a list of reasons why your audience might applaud at the end of you speech.
The speech is over… finally
The speech is short
You have a powerful story [...]
We have all been there… You work hard to prepare for the big day. The success of the moment rests on your shoulders. You are focused and determined to make this presentation powerful and persuasive. And then… something goes terribly wrong. It doesn’t work out the way you anticipated. You leave bewildered and in shock [...]
As I work with professional speakers and other business professionals wanting to become successful at giving presentations, the question of what makes a good presenter comes up quite a bit. They want to be good and polished, but not “canned” and fake. Therefore, here are 5 characteristics of a successful presenter:
1) They know their strengths [...]
Very often we become baffled by the fact that speaking in public is more difficult and uncomfortable than it should be. After all, we speak every day to people. Why should a group of people be any different?
What we must realize is that when we are speaking to a group we have to work hard [...]
