A client, Bill, recently came to me to help him sort out a problem he was having with his presentations not being understood by the audience. Bill is a highly respected executive manager for a large international finance organisation here in Belgium, and he has many presentations to give, so this was a serious problem and he was very concerned about the situation. In fact it was his boss that had pointed out the problem to Bill in the first place. Bill knows exactly what the message is he wants to get over in his presentations, but his audience was ending up confused because he spoke too quickly.
Some Cutting Remarks
Making a presentation is about delivering a clear, coherent, concise message to the audience. Its about communicating. Its a bit like laser eye surgery! The laser in eye surgery is an incredibly precise cutting instrument. Its purpose is to make incredibly fine, accurate and precise cuts in the eye in order to alleviate or remove impediments to clear vision.
When a laser beam is focused, it cuts precisely, neatly and cleanly. It does this because the beam of light it sends out is coherent, its all going in the same direction at the same time. If the beam is not focused, it does not cut, it simply acts more like a torch and illuminates an area of the eye. The unfocused light beam is said to be incoherent when it is in this unfocused state, the beam is not tight, it is scattered.
After talking a while with Bill about the problem it soon became apparent that speaking quickly was just a symptom of a deeper issue. It turned out that Bill was not really 'focused' on the presentation. His focus was scattered, he was so keyed up he kept looking forwards to what were going to be the expected outcomes of the presentation during the presentation. So just like the incoherent laser, Bill, illuminated a great deal of what was being presented, but failed to make the precise, accurate cuts that a coherent presentation would have made. In other words Bill's incoherent presentation was coming from the simple fact that he was not 100% 'present' to the delivery of the presentation, he was, at least partly, in the future somewhere with a bunch of expected outcomes.
Not being 100% present to the presentation came through as the sped up delivery and the audience picked this up. If you're not '100% present' to deliver the presentation why should your audience be there?
Being Present - By being 100% present to what you are doing, you become more authentic, genuine about the thing you are engaged in doing, in this case delivering a presentation. There is a very simple but powerful technique that I use in order to develop this ability, its called conscious breathing, and here's how to do it.
- To start with you'll need a quiet place where you will be undisturbed for 4-5 minutes. When you are there and sitting or lying comfortably then;
- Close your eyes and simply focus your attention on the physical sensation of your breathing. Allow your self to become 100% focused and aware of the cool air moving into your body on the in-breath and the warmer air moving out of the body on the out-breath.
- Do this for 4-5 minutes.
Its OK if you go off focus from your breathing. As soon as you're aware that you are off focus, just gently bring your attention back to the sensation of your breathing.
You may find that your breathing wants to speed up or slow down, become deeper or shallower, that's all OK, just let the breathing do what it wants to do, try not to control it at all. Similarly the body too may want to relax, so just let it. All you have to do is stay as focused and aware as you can of the physical sensation of your breathing.
This is a great technique to do regularly. I suggest that you do this for example just after waking up in the morning and just before going to sleep at night. Of course you can do this where ever and as often as you want, in fact the more you practise this simple technique, the more you will find yourself doing it automatically during the day.
Of course, take a few minutes to do this before a presentation, and then notice the difference in your delivery.
Bill practised twice a day for a week and started to see some real positive benefits from the technique. His presentations are now being delivered at a normal, slower and more relaxed pace. This in turn is being felt by his audience who are relaxed by his calm approach and equally engaged with Bill's material and presentation skill. His audience is now starting to see the point Bill wants them to see.
Two or three weeks into the using this technique Bill told me of other changes that the technique had allowed him to make, most significantly is his calmer, more mindful approach to his work, colleagues and his family. He is getting feedback from his colleagues and most importantly his boss about how much better things are, and Bill attributes this to the conscious breathing technique.
The Point
Breathing this way actually brings us incredibly close to the present moment. Our breathing is a very intimate, here and now process that we have been doing, largely unconsciously, since we were born.
Being in or close to the present moment makes us more like the coherent laser beam, we can simply be with what is, rather than de-focusing to the future or past. When we are present to what we are doing, we do it with greater clarity, presence, authenticity and mindfulness. So breathe yourself to clearer, sharper, authentic, coherent presentations and be open to the other benefits that this technique will bring you.
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