Tuesday 19 July 2011

Murdochs and Brooks should beware the simple questions - often the Achilles Heel for business people facing Q&As

The grilling of the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks by the Commons Select Committee promises to be riveting stuff, but it is likely to bring back vivid memories for any business people who have faced a Q&A session as part of a potentially career-changing presentation.


Just how do you prepare for for a Q&A session in which you know the questions are going to be penetrating and, quite possibly, hostile?  Clearly, time needs to be properly invested in the preparation process and you need to think of every type of question that might be asked.  Sample questions need to come from an objective viewpoint, so seek help from knowledgeable people from outside your immediate group.  The task then becomes one of sorting the potential questions into groups.  For almost any situation you will find that potential questions - however numerous - can usually be sorted into about four or five broad categories.  So, rather than attempting to develop, memorise and rehearse answers to, say, 136 different questions, you can develop, memorise and rehearse dialogue for a handful of categories that should cover almost anything you are asked.


Where many people fall down, however, is on the easy questions!  So much effort goes into preparing for the difficult questions that the easy ones tend to get overlooked.  For various reasons you will often be asked some pretty basic questions and you need to be word perfect and fully confident with these.  If you are not it will undermine your credibility for answering the more demanding questions, your confidence will take a knock, the questioners will 'smell blood' and then it gets really difficult!


Watch out Rupert, James and Rebekah for the simple questions.


Presentation skills coach Nick Fitzherbert is author of Presentation Magic, published by Marshall Cavendish

Monday 18 July 2011

It's Powerpoint Users who need a bashing, not Powerpoint itself!

Powerpoint has been coming in for another bashing this week, mainly due to a Swiss presentation skills coach who has gone so far as to form an 'Anti-Powerpoint Party'(A-PP).  In support of his 'international movement' he hits us with the sort of big percentages and huge revenue loss estimates that I used to calculate on behalf of clients back in my PR days.  And when you have absorbed all that, you are presented with the opportunity to buy a book on the subject.  Let me get my own plug out of the way right now - my book 'Presentation Magic' has just been published internationally by Marshall Cavendish and it has plenty to say about Powerpoint, both bad and....good.


Actually, as a PR stunt the A-PP is quite fun and the media certainly seem to be giving it due attention.  What saddens me a bit is that, like anyone who whinges about Powerpoint, it continues to miss the, er... point.  Just as alcohol abuse should be the focus of that particular problem rather than alcohol itself, it is the mis-users of Powerpoint who are the problem in the business presentation arena rather than Powerpoint itself.


At this stage I could go into all kinds of details from my coaching about how to achieve 'Powerful Powerpoint' - Powerpoint that actually supports you as a presenter, rather than potentially undermining you.  I could talk about the Rule of Five, creating Single Points of Focus, the B and W buttons, thickness of line and much else besides.  I could also go into a range of classic examples where non-Powerpoint presentations won the day, but I won't.  


Instead, I offer this one simple tip, which is actually much more than a mere tip. I believe this should be the guiding principle for whether or not to use Powerpoint, how much to use it and where to use it.  Construct your presentation - thinking what you want to say to this specific audience - without going anywhere near a computer.  Then have a run through, again without any kind of technology or even aids.  The first thing you will find is that you can manage without what for too long has probably been a crutch; what's more, you may well find that it flows more freely and naturally.  Importantly, the process will also help to identify where aids of some sort would actually be helpful - elements where some visuals would add clarity, communicate a lot of information quickly or help to punctuate your talk.  Then you simply need to decide what sort of aids would best provide that support and Powerpoint may well be the answer.


The crucial thing is that anything you put on a screen should only be to support what you as a human being are communicating to other human beings. Whatever you do, don't let Powerpoint drive you - you are the show; it should have a supporting role at most.

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Cameron's use of Autocue heralds good news and bad for Presentation Skills standards

The news that David Cameron is to start using Autocue for his speeches ('Cameron to be an Autocutie in bid to look less shifty on TV' - Evening Standard July 4) is both good news and bad news for those of interested in presentation skills standards.


The good news is that it puts the focus on on the importance of eye contact - the prime benefit of Autocue - which is too often overlooked.  Strong eye contact positions the speaker as more credible, trustworthy, confident and assertive, as well as more friendly.  The opposite is even more true.  When Tony Blair reportedly sought advice on presentation skills from Kevin Spacey prior to his final conference speech Spacey came back with two recommendations: build in some pauses and work harder at the eye contact.


The bad news is that is will send out the message to presenters everywhere that it is acceptable to deliver from a script and you don't really need to learn that script too precisely.  The fact is that you do need to start with a script - to ensure your presentation is crafted as well as it can be - but then you need to know the content of that script so well that you can deliver it naturally, without any prompts other than a simple 'map' to get you back on track should you be unfortunate enough to 'freeze'.  


There is a fundamental difference between writing for the page and writing for the ear.  The former tends almost inevitably to be more formal and will therefore sound stilted when said out loud.  It may even be difficult to say out loud.  Unless you have a team of speech writers and plenty of rehearsal time you are never going to achieve real success simply by reading off an Autocue.


I always say to those I am coaching that there is one single, very simple secret to successful delivery - and that is knowing what you are going to say.  That is the downfall of most failed presenters ("I thought it would be better off the cuff....I've been so busy I didn't really have time to rehearse etc etc") and truly knowing what you are going to say is what creates confidence, conviction and the subtle points of detail that contribute so much to a successful presentation.  


David Cameron has to deliver so many presentations on such a diverse range of topics - all within a punishing schedule - that he can be excused the use of Autocue.  Most of the rest of us should bone up properly on what we are going to say and step forward with little more than a simple 'map' to get us back on track if we need it.  I call this a 'Confidence Card" because just having it there usually provides enough reassurance to ensure that you don't actually need it.


Nick Fitzherbert's book Presentation Magic is published by Marshall Cavendish