How to Build a Keynote. Follow the tips below the next time you are preparing to deliver a keynote. 1. Make only three main points. If you can, give each point equal time. Additionally, make all of them tie back to the one Big Idea of the keynote - an opening belief/concept/philosophy/etc. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. How Does Your Personality Impact Your Presentations? Being an authentic communicator requires a firm understanding of who you are (Authenticity Rule #1 - Know Thyself) and how you are received by others. Your personality is a major factor in both. Today's post matches the four major personality types and their potential strengths and weaknesses in the area of speaking/training/teaching.
The first key is to know what type you are and understand how it helps you and hurts you as a presenter. The second key is to understand that you have all four personality types in your audience all the time. This is probably one of the most challenging tasks of the authentic presenter - to be the best of yourself and to be empathetic enough of your audience to say, do and show things you know they will enjoy. Let's dive into the personality types. Directors - Are primarily interested in Function. For those of you that have taken either the DISC or True Colors instruments, the following are the close (but not perfect) correlations between the three.... Make a Boring Topic Engaging. The question every professor, teacher, lecturer, speaker and corporate trainer should be asking is, “How do I turn a boring topic into an engaging presentation?”
The reason for asking this question is simple: just because the data is inherently dull doesn’t mean the transfer of it from you to the audience has to be. All one-on-one of one-on-many presentations need to be engaging or the audience is going to lose interest and thus the presentation is a waste of everyone’s time and energy. The goal here isn’t to turn every presentation into a rock concert or three-ring circus. The goal is to be engaging as a presenter so you can earn the attention and trust of the audience. The next time you are called to deliver a presentation over a boring topic (parliamentary procedure, last quarter’s sales report, tax law, etc.), incorporate a few of these techniques: Share your personality with the audience.
Building Presentations with F.O.R.C.E. Next time you are developing a presentation, build it with F.O.R.C.E... Focused - Keep your presentation's deliverable simple and focused. Do not try to cover too much ground on one topic or a few things about many topics. A famous trial lawyer once said, "If I give the jury ten great reasons to vote for my client, I might as well have given them none. One or two compelling reasons is the best approach. " Organized - I recently spoke at a high-powered leadership event in San Diego and the biggest gripe by the conference organizers of one of the other presenters was that they were all over the place. Rememorable - If you don't want your words acted upon, then a presentation is not the best delivery method for your message. Connected - So many components of effective "speaker to audience" moments are driven by this concept of connecting. (Download an awesome poster version) Masterfully Answering Questions.
I work with student leaders every year who are preparing for competitive events where they must answer questions from judges - pageant contestants, competitive speakers, etc. The following strategies are the bedrock of everything we work on together to help them shine answering questions. 1. Talk in a conversational tone. The Q&A portion is essentially a formal conversation. Without being too casual (using slang, filler words, etc.), be conversational with your answers. Change the pace of your voice. Look the judges directly in the eye. 2. 3. 4. Good luck! Authenticity Rules Main Page. 7 Authenticity Rules Lessons. A few quick lessons for applying each of the seven Authenticity Rules. 1. Know Your Self - What is your unique take on your content? Give them your opinion, your viewpoint, a story from your life, etc. Quotes from famous people work, but anyone (and everyone) can do that. Give us something new, fresh and, therefore, more interesting. 2.
Know Your Content - Prepare your material early. 3. What specific action(s) do you want your audience to take after the presentation? 5. 6. C - Change your perspective. 7. Small Moves. One of my favorite movies is Contact. It is a movie about a message sent from outer space containing instructions for building a vehicle to visit the message sender's planet. In the opening scene, a young girl is searching for a response from extra-terrestrials by scanning radio frequencies and sending out messages of her own. She is getting frustrated from not hearing anything and her dad instructs her to stay after it. He says to her, "Small moves, Ellie. " Later in the movie, the grown-up version of the girl is the discoverer of the actual ET message. This phrase, small moves, Ellie, came to my mind again at a recent coaching session with 30 young leaders in Wyoming.
Following are a few of those small moves: - Be nice. . - Use inclusive language. . - Positive wording. . - Get everyone ready to listen. . - Give instructions for passive involvement. 20 Tips from My Mentor. My mentor in the speaking business is Mr. Bill Cordes (www.billcordes.com). Bill is not only a great friend of mine (he asked me to be the Godfather of one of his sons), he is also a phenomenal speaker, trainer and teacher. Here are 20 tools Bill has employed throughout his almost 30-year career: Bill Cordes' Strategies for Effective Speaking(I have seen him speak many times, but I compiled this list from just one program I watched him do.) 1. Coaching to Performance. If you are in charge of coaching speakers, trainers or facilitators, you need to consider your approach.
Are your strategies designed to get them ready for perfect or for performance? Coaching to perfect means getting them to talk and look exactly how you want them to today. Coaching to performance means getting them to master the most important elements to use tomorrow. Coaching to perfect is judging readiness based on a rigid metric. Coaching to perfect is easier on the coach because the target is the same all the time. If the presenters are going to be delivering in unpredictable environments (which every presentation is except those where the speaker simply walks on stage, talks at the audience and sits down), then coaching to perfection is actually doing more harm than good. A prime example of this is some of the national and state student organizations I work with and their facilitation coaching strategy for elected student leaders or in-house presenters. 1. 2. 1. 2.
6 Tools to Engage Any Audience. Your audience needs you to be skilled at earning, managing and maximizing their attention. Whether they pay attention to you and/or retain your message or not is primarily your responsibility. The following six tools are invaluable resources for highly effective trainers, speakers and teachers needing to engage any audience of any demographic - students or adults. Especially in today's noisy world, just asking your audience to sit and listen is not enough. If you want them to hear, process, retain and take action on your material, you must be skilled at getting them actively involved in the experience of the moment, not just the content of the message. 6 Audience Engagement Tools 1. Turn to a partner and... The audience members interact with someone next to them. 2.
High-level interaction doesn't always mean getting up and moving around or doing an experiential activity with a partner or a team. 3. 4. 5. 6. For Student Leaders Posts. (This post is specifically written for students preparing for competitive speaking events. However, professionals and non-competing students WILL get some utility from it.) I work with student leadership organizations at over 150 events every year and have for almost 20 years. These organizations include BPA, DECA, FBLA, FCCLA, FFA, HOSA, NHS, SkillsUSA, Student Council, TSA, and 4-H. One of the most beneficial elements of these organizations is all the public speaking they require their students to do. These can range from competitive events to community presentations to serving as an elected student leader and presenting in a myriad of ways. Today’s post is a top ten list for students involved in competitive speaking. TOP TEN LIST OF COMPETITIVE SPEAKING EXCELLENCE (Disclaimer – these coaching points do not guarantee success. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. 10.