Worst Public Speaking Mistakes - And How You Can Avoid Them

Presentations can be boring!

You have sat through your fair share of boring

presentations. You've probably even sat through

presentations where you thought the presenter

was wasting your time. You've probably thought,

"Why am I here? I could just read through the

Powerpoint on my own!"

If you want to avoid being that presenter, then

avoid this public speaking mistake that most

other presenters make:

• Public Speaking Sin: Reading The List

Take a quick look at Professor Wrong's slide.

During the lecture, after she'd asked her question,

you would have heard Professor Wrong say something along

the lines of:

"There are three types of knowledge structures. The first

one is Correlated Association. This means...

The second one is Hierarchical structure. This means...

The third one is Goal derived categories. This means...

Now you see how severe [and boring] the 'Read the List'

syndrome is? Unfortunately, most presenters who use

Powerpoint presentations suffer from this sickness.

They love to ask their own questions and then listing

out their solutions. Thankfully, since you've read this

blogpost, you won't be one of them.

While the 'Read the List' syndrome still allows for

information imparting, it's not a very effective way

of educating your audience. You'll most likely bore your

audience and put them to sleep. And the few who do remain?

After several slides, they'll forget most of what you've said.

And no one will walk away feeling inspired and feeling as

though they've learned something.

Imagine being victim to the 'Read the List' syndrome

for the above slide. Now imagine 30 such slides over

the course of one and a half-hours. And yes, that's

a real slide from Professor Wrong's lecture.

So, what's the cure to the 'Read the List' Syndrome?

For one thing, allow learners to discover the answers by

asking them questions. Give them hints and get

them moving in the right directions, but don't

immediately read the whole list of solutions.

• Public Speaking Tip: PARTS Formula for Powerful Presentations

Next, instead of simply reading through the list and defining the

terms, make the talk interesting by adding your own stories,

anecdotes and opinions. [Read more about the power of stories

here] Add value to the Powerpoint by providing interesting,

memorable anecdotes.

The best structure to do this - to avoid Reading The List Syndrome -

use the PARTS Formula for Powerful Presentation [Read it here]

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Foolproof Formula for Powerful Presentations

Here's a powerful public speaking 'formula' that I picked up from Craig Valentine's book, World Class Speaking. If need to deliver an important presentation, and one which 'sticks' in your listeners minds long after you've finished speaking, then use the PARTS formula - Point, Anchor, Reflection, Technique, Sale. Let's have a look at each of the elements in turn...

Point:

Give the main point/message of the speech/presentation. Boil your entire speech down to just one main point by asking yourself the following question, "If my audience was to remember only one thing I'd said today, then what would I want them to remember?" Find your most important point and state it explicitly.

Anchor:

After giving your main point, you need to "tie it down" with an anchor? "What's an anchor?" I can hear you asking. An anchor is basically a tool which will hook the Point into the listener's memory. There are four anchors that you can use. You don't need to use all of these, but make sure that you use at least one:

• Anecdote - Tell a story that illustrates your main point. A well-told story acts like a memorable testimonial. Checkout more about the power of stories in this post (click here)

• Activity - If you can create some sort of quick game/role-playing activity that will solidify your point, then be sure to include it. Just make sure that the purpose of the activity is clear to everyone.

• Acronym - Acronyms are a useful memory tool. For example, the acronym PARTS will you help you remember the public speaking formula you're learning here (Point, Anchor, Reflection, Technique, Sale)

• Analogy - Here's an example of an analogy from the book The Mars and Venus Diet and Exercise Solution by John Gray

Think of your body as an old-fashioned steam engine. You need to feed the fire with coal. When there is no coal available, the stoker slows down so that all the available fuel is not consumed. Likewise, your metabolism slows down for the rest of the day when you don’t eat breakfast.”

Reflection

After anchoring your point, you want to get the audience to reflect on the point you just made by asking them a question. Here's an example from Craig Valentine.


In one of his speeches, he talks about the power of visualization. Specifically, he talks about how he mentally stepped on the stage at least a 1000 times before he ever became a champion. To get the audience to reflect on his point, he asked the question,

"What stage are you stepping on mentally at least 1000 times?". After asking the question, allow for enough silence for them to be able to answer the question in their own minds.

Technique

If you can, then give the audience a technique that they can use to apply your main point. For example, if you're giving a speech about the importance of time-management, then you would want to make sure that you're audience can apply your point by giving them this technique: "Before you go to bed each night, take a pen and a piece of paper and write down all the things you need to accomplish the next day. List all the tasks according to importance, and when you wake up in the morning, start with the most important one first"

Sale

Finally, you've made your Point, you've Anchored it down, you've got them to Reflect, you've given them a Technique, and now you need to Sell the benefits. Remind the audience in just a few sentences the benefits they will receive from applying the technique you've just given them. Carrying on from the time-management principle above, you can say something along the lines of: "If you manage your time well by applying these techniques, then you will be more productive, experience less stress, and lead a happier life overall".

P.S. It's my birthday today! Go ahead and Share this post because it'll make me happy ;)
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