Principles of Effective

Presentations
Every time you stand in front of a group, you must achieve two basic goals. First, you
need to communicate a message. And second, you need to communicate your person-
ality — who you are as a professional and an individual. If “the medium is the message,”
your personality is the window through which the message must travel to be received,
understood and acted upon by the audience.

You convey your message and your personality every day of your life in relaxed conver-
sation. And relaxed conversation is, therefore, your best possible communication style.

By understanding the following principles, you can sharpen the skills youʼve acquired
one-on-one and transfer those skills to group presentations, thereby increasing your ef-
fectiveness in both.

1. YOUR BEST STYLE IS RELAXED CONVERSATION

2. BE YOURSELF
3. RELAXED CONVERSATION IS TWO-WAY
4. RELAXED CONVERSATION IS RECEIVER-DRIVEN
5. LESS IS MORE
6. PEOPLE CAN LISTEN OR THINK
7. PEOPLE WON'T REMEMBER WHAT YOU SAY
8. BE CONVERSATIONAL IN YOUR DELIVERY
9. THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK
10. SILENCE IS ESSENTIAL

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 PRINCIPLE #1 But worry less about how you "present" your-
self, than how you communicate with the
YOUR BEST STYLE IS RELAXED members of the group. Your body language
CONVERSATION must be natural. And what is natural for you
is probably not natural for someone else, or
Every day of your life, you convey your mes- vice-versa, which is why we hesitate in set-
sages and your personality while engaged in ting rules for gestures you should use or the
conversation. You should therefore emulate body language you should attempt to convey.
conversation in your presentations. Youʼre
not there to "download" information. You are To understand this, think of the gestures you
there to create understanding that is based make when you are enthusiastically explain-
on a two-way exchange, and to facilitate an ing a concept to a friend over the telephone.
environment in which people can apply what Who are these gestures for? The person on
you tell them to their personal or professional the other end? Understand that these ges-
life. tures are part of who you are as an individ-
ual. Bring them to your presentations and let
If you see a puzzled expression, donʼt wait them happen naturally.
for them to ask a question. Handle it the
same way you would in a conversation. Ask PRINCIPLE #3
them if there is something you can explain
more effectively. RELAXED CONVERSATION IS TWO-
WAY
Allow questions throughout your presenta-
tions. But be brief with your answers. Ques- To be effective, relaxed conversation must be
tions are an opportunity to create milestones two-way. Indeed, by definition, all communi-
of mutual understanding. But remember, you cation must be two-way.
pass milestones. You donʼt camp at them.
Even if one person does most of the talking
PRINCIPLE #2 in a conversation, he or she is looking for the
nods, listening for the "uh-huhs," and stop-
BE YOURSELF ping to answer questions. The sender
quickly recognizes that a blank look means
You are unique. You have your own way of the receiver is not listening. He or she will
speaking and your own mannerisms -- how respond by changing tactics -- pausing to let
you talk, how you stand, how you hold your the listener catch up or asking if there is a
hands. To convey your personality to a question.
group, you must express yourself in a man-
ner similar to the ways in which you express Your presentations, like your conversations,
yourself one-on-one. If you are expressive must be two-way. If you treat people with
with your hands one-on-one, it's OK to be respect, and create a two-way process in
expressive with your hands when talking to a which their questions are answered clearly
group. In fact, it's essential. and concisely, you stand a better chance of
You know it's important to be on your best having them use or act on the information
behavior. You know there are certain stan- you present.
dards that you must meet. You must dress
appropriately. You must be attentive when
someone asks a question. You must answer
the question.
 PRINCIPLE #4 PRINCIPLE #6
RELAXED CONVERSATION IS PEOPLE CAN LISTEN OR THEY CAN
RECEIVER-DRIVEN THINK,
BUT THEY CANʼT DO BOTH
In a relaxed conversation, the speed at which
information goes from sender to receiver is
driven by the receiver's needs, not the As human beings, we can listen or we can
sender's. During a conversation, if the per- think. But virtually none of us can listen and
son listening doesn't signal that he or she think at the same time. By definition, this
understands — with a "nod" or by saying "uh- means that you must “pause” when delivering
huh" — the sender stops to create a mile- your presentations. And those pauses must
stone of mutual understanding before moving be as full and as frequent in your presenta-
on. If the sender doesnʼt do this, the receiver tions as they are in your conversations.
will stop listening.
You want your seminars to be thought-
The same applies to your presentations. If provoking. You want people to think about
you talk nonstop, you will quickly lose your what youʼre saying and apply it to their per-
audience. Instead, make sure the informa- sonal situation. But while theyʼre thinking, if
tion youʼre sending is driven by the audi- youʼre talking, they wonʼt hear a word you
enceʼs needs, not yours. If you throw out an say.
idea that creates puzzled expressions, itʼs
probably a good time to stop and ask: “Are If you talk nonstop, members of the audience
there any questions?”. will miss large portions of what you say.
Theyʼll rush to catch up once or twice. After
that, theyʼll give up. And, if they give up, your
PRINCIPLE #5 chances of doing further business with them
LESS IS MORE decreases proportionately.

The less you say, the more your audience

remembers. If you try to cram too much in-
formation into your presentations, you will not PRINCIPLE #7
create a two-way exchange. And you cer- PEOPLE WONʼT REMEMBER WHAT
tainly wonʼt be receiver-driven. How can you YOU SAY
be? The speed at which information travels
from you to the audience is not driven by Participants at your presentations will not re-
their need for understanding, but your need member your exact words. Instead, they will
to get through it all in time. remember what they thought about what you
said — how they took your information and
If you have one hour for your presentation, applied it to their frame of reference.
bring 30 minutes of information. This leaves
plenty of time for questions, enables you to But this process can only occur in silence,
finish on time or a bit early, and allows you whether you give them that silence, or they
time for networking at the end. take it for themselves. And remember, if they
take that silence while youʼre talking, they
wonʼt hear a word you say.
 PRINCIPLE #8 speaking is a question or two that you can
answer clearly and concisely.
BE CONVERSATIONAL IN YOUR
DELIVERY

If youʼve ever read the transcript of an inter-

PRINCIPLE #10
view or conversation, youʼve probably noticed SILENCE IS ESSENTIAL
that people rarely talk in complete sentences.
And if you participated in the conversation
There are two types of silence. The first is
from which the transcript was drawn, you
for you to think. This is the first pause. In a
were probably shocked at what you saw writ-
conversation, after you express each idea,
ten down.
you look to see if the other person has “got-
ten it”. Again, you do so while pausing. We
There is a basic pattern in relaxed conversa-
call this the second pause. The first pause is
tion. In the first step, which we refer to as the
for you to think. The second is for them to
first pause, the sender thinks about what he
think.
or she is going to say. Once the idea is
formed, the sender expresses it. If the
During your presentations, remember that
sender is enthusiastic, the words come tum-
youʼre not there to prove that you can talk
bling out at a rapid rate of word delivery.
nonstop. Youʼre there to provide information
that people can think about and apply to their
Once the idea is delivered, the sender stops
own personal circumstances. But remember,
talking and allows the listener to absorb the
they can only think in silence — whether you
idea and relate it to a meaningful frame of
provide that silence or they take it for them-
reference. During this second pause, the
selves.
sender watches and listens for the receiverʼs
reaction. Once there is a nod or “uh-huh”,
the sender forms the next idea. And so on. If you lose your place or your audience,
pause. If youʼre lost, the pause allows you to
think about where you are, where youʼre go-
ing, and what you need to say. If theyʼre lost,
PRINCIPLE #9 the pause will help them find their way back
THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK so they can listen to your ideas again, and
relate those ideas to their personal frame of
reference.
In a conversation, you take time to form each
thought before you say it. You should at-
tempt to do the same thing at your seminars,
although that can be much more difficult be-
cause of the impact of adrenaline. But stop
talking. Think through the thought. Start
talking again.

Use good notes. Focus on delivering one

idea at a time. This will get you off to a
strong start. And, as for nervousness, by en-
couraging questions, you take the emphasis
off a presentation and switch it to an ex-
tended conversation. Never forget that the
greatest reducer of nervousness in public