By Peter Paskale, Writer, Coach & Trainer, The Presenters' Blog
Every time you make a presentation, you commit a blatant act of opinion, and that's good. That's exactly as it should be. Opinion makes challenging. Opinion makes distinctive. Opinion makes memorable.
As business presenters however, we try to stick to the facts, and do all that we can to eliminate any accusation of speaking from opinion. Nobody wants to be accused of being "opinionated", and that makes us shy. To be seen as having strong opinions would make a person stand-out, and we'd rather not do that. We'd rather blend innocuously back into the wall.
Well, I have news. You're the one standing at the front of the room and speaking, while everybody else is sitting down and listening, so you already stand-out. While you're up there, why not enjoy it?
In this piece I'm going to argue that exercising and owning your opinion is a vital part of presenting. That it's an unavoidable aspect of presenting. And that when something is unavoidable, it's best embraced in a great big hug. That's my opinion anyway!
First of all, why as presenters do so many of us feel it's best to avoid sharing our opinions?
It's because opinions are comprised of our personal interpretations of the world around us. Others might disagree with those interpretations, and public disagreement is something that most presenters would rather avoid. Given this, it's easier to stick to the facts as much as possible. Plain and unadulterated delivery makes safe.
Facts are to presenters as raw ingredients are to chefs. A skilled chef will select the perfect ingredients in just the right quantities to produce the dish that they want to create for their audience.
When you make a presentation, you too chose ingredients from which you will create a dish for an audience.
Let's say that you're attempting to avoid the accusation of opinion, and therefore are keeping exclusively to fact-based raw-food. Fair enough. But how though will you select which food to include? You'll make a value call on it. In other words, you'll select the facts, that in your opinion, best serve the purpose.
Even when sticking to the facts, you can't help but exercise opinion.
Few chefs would prosper for long though if all they did was to take raw ingredients and just plop them onto a plate. Even beautiful garden-fresh vegetables need to be washed, maybe peeled, and then arranged to look appealing to the eye. A little olive oil is introduced. Maybe some fresh basil leaves.
This is the art of arrangement. Would you just dump a load of raw facts onto an audience? No. You would arrange them into a logical sequence that supports what you want the facts to say, and in doing so, you are expressing your opinion. It really is quite unavoidable you see.
But why did our chef add that drizzle of olive oil and those fresh leaves of basil? It was to bring out the flavor, to beat-off the bland, and that's what goes wrong with so many corporate presentations. We are afraid to get out the herbs and spices and to add our own signature to the dish; the signature flavor of our opinions.
One morning last year, I was in a Chicago hotel room, getting ready for a day on stage presenting at a conference. I have an odd habit in that I will wander around while cleaning my teeth, and my wanderings that morning took me past the TV. Four presenters were clustered cheerily on bar-stools around a counter and going hammer and tongs at each other about their interpretations of events in the day's news.
It made good watching, and after a quick trip back to the bathroom to rinse the Colgate from my molars, I took a few minutes to watch. I wanted to understand what made this discussion so compelling, and also to understand why this collection of non-journalists were undoubtedly being paid good bucks to appear on a news show.
The answer that I came to was that there, on national television, they were each completely uninhibited about stomping their personal opinions all over whatever the talking point might happen to be. It made the discussion meaty, and it made it dynamic.
I asked myself whom I would rather find myself sitting next to in the hotel bar that evening? One of these talking heads or the newsreader? Talking head every time! They were way more interesting. Even the ones that I disagreed with.
This exercise in unabashed opinion had captivated my attention, and was distinctive in a way that the fact-based newsreader wasn't.
Exercise of opinion is compelling to the audience. Opinion is the spice that takes a dish from wholesome but bland into something that people will actually come back for again and again, and then write a Grade A review about on restaurant.com.
Three Ways To Bring The Spice Of Opinion Into Your Next Presentation
First, accept that merely by choosing the facts you will present and the order in which you will present them, you have already committed an unavoidable B-list act of opinion. Who wants to be a B-lister? Let's go for the A-list and add some spice! Here’s how:
1: Own It - It's Not "WE", It's "ME"
Unless you are taking part in a team presentation, make sure that the pronouns "I" and "my" are front and center. There's a sound reason why the sound of I's and My's are good things to go for: Skilled job interviewers are trained to listen-out for candidates who continuously say "We" rather than "I". "We" is used to conceal either a lack of conviction or a lack of evidence. After all, it's not "me" that's saying it, it's "we" that's saying it.
In this presentation, these are your opinions, so use "I":
- I believe that....
- I think that.....
- In my opinion....
- My view is that.....
2: Have an Emotional Intent
What is the emotion that you want to convey with these facts? Here are a few ideas. Do you want:
- To congratulate?
- To criticize?
- To encourage?
- To warn?
- To celebrate?
- To commiserate?
- To reassure?
- To make nervous?
In business presentations, your goal is to persuade others of a course of action, and the driver to action is emotion. Facts seldom drive anything. It's the emotional interpretation of those facts that creates intention. Therefore don't be afraid to use emotional words when presenting.
Share your feelings. If an opportunity excites you then say that you are excited. If a set of results delights you, then say that you are delighted. If a negative forecast concerns you then say that you are concerned. And if outstanding performance has amazed you, then say that you are amazed! Words like these give emotion, and emotion is spice. Spice is color. Color is paprika, bright red with a fabulous flavor. Flavor is opinion!
3: Bring Your Face Into the Act
If it's good news, smile. If it's bad news, frown. That might sound like common sense, but when we stand up to present, that urge to blend opinion-less into the podium can lead us to adopt a passionately bland expression. Many Chief Executives, completely unbeknown to themselves, will go onto the stage with their faces meticulously locked into neutral. They think they are expressing powerful opinions, and indeed, their scripts often do express powerful opinions, but the fact that the faces delivering those opinions remain as blank as storefront mannequins will rip the plasticky stuffing right out of the speech.
When planning your next presentation, go through your notes, and wherever a big smile would be appropriate, slam yellow highlighter across the page. If a frown or a look of concern would be better suited, use blue. Build those expressions into your presentation. They are part of the show.
The French philosopher Rene Descartes famously said "I think, therefore I am". Thinking is a process of interpretation. Interpretation involves opinion.
You are your opinions, and your business presentations are expressions of those opinions.
Own them. Enjoy them. Let them bring the spice that propels your presentations direct to the A-list.
Written by Peter Paskale, writer, coach, and trainer guiding presenters to be at their best when on the stage. Following a 15 year career within the technology sector that included 11 years working for Dell, Peter became a consultant specializing in training and coaching business presenters. Today he works with teams around America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to help multinational organizations to bring their message to their customers through the spoken word.Peter is based in the UK. In addition to training under his own Speak2All brand and as an Associate Trainer, he also writes a weekly blog of ideas for presenters, and can be followed daily on Twitter.
Do you have a question for Peter? Please visit our Workplace Communication Skills Community, he will be happy to help: Ask an Expert
Did you find this story informative? We would like the opportunity to keep you up to date on all of our training articles. Please register for our newsletter so we can do just that.
Here are some related articles you may be interested in:
Presentation Nerves & Solutions To Overcome Them
Does My But Sound Big In This?
7 Steps To Beating Pesentation Procrastination
Eleven Really Useful Techniques for Successful PresentationsA Model for Active Listening: Master a Skill That Can Boost Your CareerOvercome Complacency in the Workplace
Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace: How to Develop Yourself & Your Team
ManagingAmericans.com is a community of Business Professionals & Expert Consultants sharing knowledge, success tips and solutions to common job issues. Our objective is to mentor and develop professionals to be better leaders, managers, team players and individual contributors. Ultimately, helping people succeed in their careers.