How to Present
www.howtopresent.com.au
September 2010
IN THIS ISSUE: 10 Fascinating Facts about Audiences How to Warm Up your Voice How to Rehearse The role of humour in business presentations Peak Performance as a Presenter
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SPECIAL FEATURE Presenting to the Board
PLUS... PowerPoint tips Photo Gallery Success Stories
How to Present your ideas and influence people www.howtopresent.com.au How to Present Magazine September 2010 1 using techniques that actually work!
How to Present
DIARY DATES Influential Presentation Skills (2-day Public Program) Join Michelle at her next public program IN SYDNEY on: September 7-8 (full) October 19-20 November 16-17 December 1-2 Join Michelle at her next public program IN MELBOURNE on: November 3-4 For details please email: michelle@michellebowden.co m.au
Come and see me speak... Expand your Horizons Women in Business Conference Date: October 14th, 2010 Venue: Crowne Plaza Norwest Further information: sperle@colemangreig.com.au
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Michelleʼs Update Welcome to the first issue of How to Present! A magazine designed to give you tips and techniques for presenting your ideas in business. We have a bumper first edition which I’m sure you will enjoy. Warming up your voice is a must if you want to sound strong and confident. We’ve included some tips on how to warm up your articulation for your next meeting. And sometimes it’s good to remind yourself what your audience will be thinking when you present to them - so we hope you enjoy our article on the 10 things about audiences that you may not know! Presenting technical information is something many people struggle with. How do you explain something it’s taken you years to become an expert in? And how do you decide what to explain and what to leave for later? And then, of course, there’s the inevitable seduction of PowerPoint slides - which in many cases make your technical information even more complex and harder to understand than ever. So what to do? If this resonates with you, you’ll enjoy reading my Tips for Presenting Technical Information. Plus we have some regular sections to help you Perform at your Peak and use PowerPoint wisely, as well as tips on how to rehearse, warm up your voice, connect with your audience PLUS some inspiring success stories and a Special Feature on how to Present to the Board. So grab yourself a ’cuppa’, put your feet up and have a read! And most importantly, make sure you put the invaluable advice into immediate action so you see some fast results. Happy Presenting!
Michelle How to Present Magazine
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POWERPOINT
TIPS
Keep the lights on! As an audience member, you know yourself that you will be more inclined to sleep in presentations when the presenter turns off the lights! So do keep the lights on. Unless of course you’d like them to ‘sleep’ while you are speaking! When the lights are on people feel more inclined to focus on you and your message. If the audience can’t see your slides with the lights on, then redesign them or replace them with a flip chart, whiteboard or some handouts instead.
Use The ‘b’ key It’s a great idea to press the ‘b’ key (or the equivalent button on your remote) to ‘blank’ your screen between concepts. This way, either your audience members are listening to you speak - engaged by you. Or they are looking at your slides and concentrating on the content they see. It’s called ‘managing split attention’.
For everything you need to know about designing and delivering PowerPoint go to: www.howtopresent.com.au and buy your own copy of STOP! Your PowerPoint is Killing Me! www.howtopresent.com.au
MAKE ‘EM LAUGH. MAKE ‘EM LEARN. BY MARTY WILSON Marty Wilson was a full time Stand Up for 7 years on the brutal UK circuit, so he knows funny. He's a bestselling author, so he can write very plenty goodly, like. If you tell him you love his What I Wish I Knew books, he'll teach you how to be funny too. See www.martywilson.com.au
Is this article really just an elaborate attempt by a former class clown to legitimise his poor behaviour and prove he was right all along? Well, kinda! But this story begins long before I interrupted a maths class with an armpit fart or morphed an English teacher’s name from Mr Seamus to Mister’s Anus. The fact is, humour and learning have been at odds for quite a while. The problem seems to be that most people just don’t take humour seriously. Classroom humour also gets a lot of bad press, so much so that many of us had a negative view of humour drummed into us as an after class punishment: “The classroom is not the place for jokes”. “The classroom is not the place for jokes”. “The classroom is not the place for jokes”. But despite all this, humour has proven to be not only a powerful tool, with the capacity to render a potentially boring subject palatable, it also aids retention, lowers barriers to new thinking and helps teachers engage their students more fully. Want to teach men and women how to communicate better? You’re going to need a healthy helping of humour. Anyone who read John Gray’s Mars and Venus classic and didn’t laugh, didn’t get it. Training salespeople in building rapport? It helps if you can elicit an empathetic smile and help everyone relax with a shared laugh. Giving a lesson on indirect taxation and the changes to company reporting with regard to the 2007-2008 tax code? Well, good luck with that! (continued page 10)
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PRESENTING
TO THE BOARD By Julie Garland McLellan, FAICD, MBA, MICE, CEng
as a trusted source of good quality information and a pleasant presenter. 1. Don't be daunted. Presenting to the board is an important and onerous task. If someone has recommended you to make a presentation in the board room they have done so because they believe that you have what it takes to make a good presentation. Boards are important. Nobody is going to recommend a poor presenter, or presentation by somebody who has insufficient knowledge of the topic. To do so would reflect badly on them far more so than on you.
Julie Garland McLellan is a professional company director and corporate governance consultant. She is the author of the "Dilemmas Dilemmas" and "All above Board: Great Governance for the Government Sector". Her newsletter “The Director’s Dilemma” is read in 31 countries around the world. Boardroom presentations are an important part of every senior executive’s personal and professional development. Following the 10 tips outlined below will help you to present like an experienced professional and help your board to make the best and most appropriate decisions following your presentations. It is far easier to progress your career when you are welcomed into the boardroom www.howtopresent.com.au
2. Be prepared. Understand why the board wants your presentation. Do they need background information on a topic, or a report on progress, or is there a decision which the board must make? If you understand what your presentation is expected to achieve you will be able to develop your presentation so that it does achieve that. 3. Understand what boards do. The board is the ultimate decision making forum within any organisation. Individual board members have very little power but the board as a whole, acting in consensus, is empowered to perform or delegate all of the business of the organisation. The board should act on behalf of the shareholders. The aim of the board is to enhance shareholder wealth or, in a not-for-profit organisation, to How to Present Magazine
ensure that the organisation does what the people who founded it wished it to do. Make sure that your presentation helps the board to fulfill its aims. 4. Understand how boards work. Because boards work as a team, rather than as a group of individuals, it is important that they discuss issues thoroughly and as a group. When presenting to a board, even if you are giving them background information, your aim should always be to enable the board to have a good discussion of the topic, reach their own understanding and form a basis for future decision-making. 5. Understand board protocol. It is normal in most boardrooms for all information to flow to the board under the direction of the chairman. You can expect that experienced board members will address their questions to you through the chairman. The chairman will also manage the amount of time that the board can dedicate to anyone agenda item, and may ask you to spend more on less time on your presentation than previously envisaged. It is wise to enter the boardroom with the ability to present at least 20% more than you planned to present, but without an additional 20% more slides. You should also be able to achieve your objective even if your time is cut by 20%. September 2010
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PRESENTING TO THE BOARD 6. Boards need to discuss the information presented, and to do that they need to understand it. Try to provide a background paper or briefing report which can go to the board with the agenda and other meeting papers so that the directors are "up to speed" before you present. 7. Discuss rather than present. Boards sit through a lot of presentations. Rather than subject them to yet another presentation, try to summarise very briefly the information you have provided beforehand, and then facilitate a discussion with the board members. They will be much happier that the things they say them with anything you can say.
“Rather than subject them to ʻDeath by PowerPointʼ, summarise your information and faciliate a discussion. “ 8. Provide good quality information. Boards need information that is comprehensive, relevant, in perspective, timely, provided an appropriate frequent intervals, and reliable consistent, coherent and easily comparable with other data, and above all, clear and easily understood. Be sure to name your sources, quote www.howtopresent.com.au
CONT. references, and alert the board to a n y inconsistencies between different data sets that you might have incorporated into your information. 9.Set the content at an appropriate level. What goes i nto a report depends upon what the board already know, how important this report is to the board, whether the report is in a written or verbal form, any supporting information, etc. Do not gloss over the risks involved. Boards need to understand the worst possible outcome, the most likely outcome, and the best possible outcome in order to make an appropriate decision having full awareness of the risks involved.
words in your presentation. If a board member interrupts interjects, rather than react to their rudeness show your good manners, and pause politely to listen to their comment and deal with it before moving on. Of course, you must also be a polished presenter. These tips do not obviate the need for expertise in presenting. They add to you presentation skills and allow you to take them to the most important and discerning corporate audience, the board.
10. Be punctual and polite. Board members are important people, they should not be kept waiting. Be sure to attend the meeting a few minutes before your appointed time and to allocate sufficient time so that if the board is running late you do not have to rush your presentation or leave before the board has finished the discussion. Remember that manners are important and that people will respect you if you respect them. Please and thank you are the two most important How to Present Magazine
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15 TOP TIPS FOR PRESENTING
TECHNICAL INFORMATION By Michelle Bowden
Most technical experts find themselves presenting to gain acceptance of their proposal, continued support for their project or endorsement for their recommendations. Unfortunately, many technical experts believe that if they create lots of slides full of tiny words, numbers, diagrams, charts and graphs they will be a first class presenter. If you think about it, we really do know deep down that a hundred slides with eight point font and diagrams that we couldn’t read in an hour (if we had a spare hour) isn’t going to make anyone worth listening too, much less engaging or persuasive for an audience. As a presentation skills trainer over the past 15 years I’ve seen thousands of technical presentations that you’d be lucky to stay awake for even with Red Bull or a No Dose at the ready. And I think it’s such a shame because in the majority of cases, the presenter was a true subject matter expert, they just didn’t know how to showcase their professional expertise in a way that was exciting for their audience. Anyone can be an exceptional presenter. It’s just a matter of knowing what to do and doing it. Here are my top tips for presenting technical information:
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1. Know your audience. IT affects virtually every aspect of business and knows no boundaries. But just because you know what it takes to keep computers and applications up and running doesn't mean that the people you're speaking to know about the topic you're addressing. You must appreciate the level of knowledge and the roles of the people you're presenting to so you can tweak your message and put things in terms that your audience understands. 2. Build rapport. People like people who are like themselves. So find a way of using your dress, body language, voice and language patterns to be as similar to as many people in the audience as possible and that way you’ll be in rapport from the start. 3. Motivate your audience. Most people go to way too many meetings that a complete waste of time. Be sure to remember your role is to motivate your audience to listen ñ otherwise they may not! 4. Manage any objections. Spend some time thinking about all the objections your audience may have to your content. What questions will they ask and what are the different answers you could give. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. How to Present Magazine
5. Set the guidelines. Make sure your audience knows the boundaries for your presentation. What will be
covered and what won’t? How long will it go for and when should they ask questions? Setting the boundaries can help you avoid chaos. 6. Rehearse. Exceptional presenters rehearse the opening and close of their presentations many, many times. 7. Use a whiteboard as well or instead of slides. Draw pictures. 8. Love your content. People often say to me that they don’t know how to make
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15 TIPS FOR PRESENTING
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
10. Evoke emotions and motivate. People are more likely to change their thinking or behaviour if you tell stories or use analogies that evoke emotion. And it’s particularly effective if you can find a way to weave the same analogy or metaphor throughout the entire presentation. 11. Don't assume you need slides. A common assumption is that when you're giving a presentation, you must use PowerPoint. That's not true. A short talk with a bit of drawing on a whiteboard or flip chart may be the best way to get your point across. My advice is to use PowerPoint as an aid for your audience to remind them of your three key points. 12. Use illustrations, not bullets. It's easier to tell a story when you use pictures as opposed to bullet points. Pictures and graphics, pie charts and tables provide a better way to convey your message, and they help your audience to listen, rather than just read your slides.
aspects and to program your subconscious regarding the flow and general message of your presentation. Doing so, you'll find that your delivery will sound more natural and uncontrived. 14. You don't need to be a showoff. Don't worry about being charismatic or a comedian. Be yourself and talk about what you know. This will help you connect with your audience so they buy your concept or idea. You'll also be more comfortable with yourself, you'll be able to relax and you'll deliver a stronger presentation. 15. Make your presentation a discussion with your audience. In most situations, people would rather be part of a discussion than be talked at. Don't rely entirely on your slides and don't just read what's on the screen. Remember you are a real live human being and your role is to connect with the other real live human beings in your audience.
13. Prepare, prepare, prepare! Effective presentations have to be planned out, thought through and refined for days, if not weeks, leading up to your presentation. Preparing your material well in advance gives you time to fine-tune certain
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How to Present Magazine
CONT.
THE 15 TIPS 1. Know your audience. 2. Build rapport. 3. Motivate your audience. 4. Manage any objections. 5. Set the guidelines. 6. Rehearse. 7. Love your content. 8. Use a whiteboard. 9. Be yourself. 10. Evoke emotions and motivate. 11. Don’t assume you need slides. 12. Use illustrations, not bullets. 13. Prepare, prepare, prepare. 14. You don’t need to be a showoff. 15. Make the presentation a discussion with the audience.
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MAKE ‘EM LAUGH. MAKE’M LEARN The thing about learning is, it’s not just about memorising a series of facts by rote or absorbing information. Learning at its most powerful is about creating understanding. Shifting perception in such a way that it makes sense not just to your mind, but in your body and soul. Learning in a peak state Many of our modern teachers and peak performance coaches will tell you that you learn and retain more in a peak state, that the information isn’t just recorded, it becomes part of your neurology. New research also suggests that memory is cellular, that the mind and body are not separate entities operating independently of each other. They act in concert. Laughter is one of those rare moments when body and mind are aligned. It’s an involuntary response where new ideas and information can enter the system while the defences are down. Watch how quickly kids learn the rules to a game and you’ll get an idea of how learning might be accelerated with laughter. Entertaining new ideas is easier with a smile Laughter also has the ability to break down resistance to new ideas, and just as importantly, to challenge old beliefs. I am quite confident that at some point in the 1400’s Columbus slipped into a comedy club and saw a Stand Up Comic doing a routine about the ‘round earth theory’ and thought, ‘Hey, that’s not a crazy as it sounds!’ Whether critiquing or evaluating current beliefs or raising possibilities with ‘Imagine if’ statements, humour helps the mind stay open. How often do we
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say ‘Humour me’? And what seems funny in one time sometimes seems possible in another. Creating empathy and understanding When people like John Gray and Allan and Barbara Pease talk about relationships, the lessons, analogies and even the tragic stories they tell are peppered with humour. It seems both sexes have evolved in precisely the right way to maximise both the opportunity to learn and to laugh as well. You need look no further than the fact that men hit their sexual peak in the late teens and women in their thirties, or watch a woman read a map while a guy refuses to ask for directions. The comedy is exquisite and universal. Humour is often a sure sign that there is a lesson here to be learned and when a room laughs together, it’s because an understanding has been reached. An unspoken truth has been revealed or a common experience has been acknowledged.
CONT.
likely to be recalled at a later date. Laughter has the ability to make ideas sticky. Humour helps you connect When I co-wrote What I wish I knew at Eighteen I interviewed over one hundred people and was greeted with equal doses of laughter and tears. People opened up about the most painful experiences of their lives; being interned at a Siberian work camp as a child during World War II, being shot at by pirates (no kidding), and being diagnosed with breast cancer. But when they shared the information, they instinctively knew to build in a few gags to make subjects that were often heavy going accessible, inspirational and memorable. Shared laughter creates an almost instant rapport. The reason humour is so critical to learning is that it makes you think - a head full of facts does not make you intelligent, it makes you a library. We think the capacity to imagine, empathise, analyse and apply is a truer measure of intelligence. Honest Mr Seamus.
Increase your retention Almost all of us have forgotten passwords and key codes on our personal bank accounts important stuff to forget. But even the least funny of us can recite a knock knock joke or two or tell you why a chicken might want to cross the road or regale a dinner party, in exquisite detail, with the story of what happened to them while they were backpacking in Peru and what they learned as a result. Humour often builds an analogy, or a consequence or a vivid example into a lesson, making it not just more potent, but more
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8 TOP TIPS FOR REHEARSING by Michelle Bowden
It is literally frightening what people can say when they speak without first rehearsing. Take are look at some of my favourite ‘Bushisms’:
their objective. As presenters we should do the same. Here are some tips so that you rehearse as productively as possible.
"I don’t particularly like it when people put words in my mouth, either, by the way, unless I say it.”
1. Get up and do it! Stand up and deliver the presentation out loud as if it’s the real thing.
“I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office.”
2. Don’t rote learn it. Use different words every time you rehearse. Don’t try to memorise every single word. Just be sure to get the ‘gist’ of it each time.
These ridiculous statements occur partly due to a complete lack of rehearsal of the key messages! So many people say to me that they think they are not as good at public speaking as they should be. When I quiz them I often find that they throw together their presentation at the last minute and rarely rehearse. Exceptional presenters rehearse. And they rehearse and rehearse and rehearse. “But”, said a participant in one of my programs last month, Seinfeld doesn’t rehearse, he does those jokes off the cuff. Really? Are you sure? Most comedians I know put an extraordinary amount of effort into their comedy and they rehearse the same skit or line over and over so that their voice, body language, and facial expressions are congruent and make it as funny as possible. They rehearse so that they achieve www.howtopresent.com.au
3. Rehearse your opening and close. Spend more time on the opening and close as this is where you’ll embed your key messages for an audience. The opening is also where you feel most nervous so if you’ve rehearsed this part you’ll get off to a strong start. You know your content (the body of the presentation) and the body or middle is also where your slides will help you, so the opening and close is where you should focus your rehearsal. One of the executives I work with rehearses as she walks between meetings in the city. She’s admitted that people stare at her but she says she doesn’t care if it helps her nail that million dollar pitch! 4. Do it in different places. Rehearse your presentation in as many places as possible so that you’ve done it in so many different places that by the time you get to the meeting
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room or conference venue it’s just another location. 5. Do it in front of people. Many of my clients collect a group of key stakeholders from different teams to be their audience. For example, someone from each of the following: sales, customer service, marketing, human resources, accounts, technical. Each person will give feedback from their area of expertise which will help broaden your perspective. 6. Rehearse the questions. Brainstorm all the questions you think you’ll have to answer and be sure to plan and rehearse the answer in advance. Ask your audience to ask you your planned questions as well as any other questions they can think of when you rehearse in front of them. 7. Do it to time. The cardinal sin of public speakers is going over time. It’s self indulgent and makes life hard for the next presenter. As a general rule you should almost double the time it takes to practice. That means if your presentation takes 10 minutes to rehearse it will generally end up going for about 20 minutes with questions and the usual interaction that occurs in a presentation (unless you are experienced at rehearsing real time). So rehearse your presentation with this tip in mind so that you don’t go over your allotted time frame. September 2010
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10 FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT AUDIENCES THAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW by Michelle Bowden 1.
Audiences don’t want you to fail. Remember this – it will help you to feel more confident.
2.
Audiences want you to motivate them so they are excited to hear what you’ve got to say. They 5. won’t motivate themselves most of the time! Make sure you express what it is they will ‘get’ from listening to you somewhere in your opening.
6.
3.
Audiences don’t notice all the little details about what you’re wearing unless 7. you decide it’s not important and lose your attention to detail. For example they’ll only focus on your hair if there’s a bit sticking out! Make sure you look smart.
4.
Audiences don’t notice 8. your movement or body language unless you do something incongruent or odd. So keep your body under control. if you are
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tall, make sure you don’t sway like a willow tree. Try the natural stance with your feet under your hips and your brace muscles 9. engaged so your torso is strong. Audiences want you to look like you’re calm and in control! They don’t want you to be nervous. So remember to breath right down into your tummy, warm up your voice and focus on really connecting ‘with’ your audience so you feel calm and enjoy presenting!
or ‘better’ than them. In a functional presentation everyone is equal. Audiences want you to speak clearly and succinctly – they don’t like it when you repeat yourself, rave on, or go off topic! So plan your message and rehearse a number of times so you can express yourself clearly.
Audiences don’t want you to apologise if you make a mistake – they just want you to keep going! So if you make a little error, don’t mention it and they probably won’t notice 10. Audiences don’t want either. you to show them a slide with 8 point font Audiences want you to that they can’t read – engage them with eye it’s just cruel! Make sure contact. Really ‘see’ your you have a minimum of audience. Focus on them. 30pt font on your slides. A Connect with them. They few slides with your key will respect your attention messages is engaging. A and give you their lot of slides with attention in return. everything you want to say is called Death by Audiences want you to PowerPoint! make them feel clever a n d s p e c i a l a n d Keep this in mind the next time respected. So be careful you need to present – it will not to act like you’re help you tremendously. You smarter, more experienced can even ENJOY presenting!
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WARM UP YOUR VOICE - ARTICULATION by Michelle Bowden
Some people stand out when they present because their voice is like liquid chocolate. As an executive coach in presentation skills I frequently observe that those people with fantastic voices are more likely to get what they want. In our society we do tend to associate credibility and authority with people who have a rich resonant vocal quality. And you may have found yourself wishing that you could enhance your vocal quality and projection so you were more compelling, influential and persuasive in your life. Well you know it’s possible and it’s easy to have the voice of your dreams! It’s my experience, that creating a rich, resonant, influential voice is a very rewarding journey. This article will help you to warm up your articulation. Articulation is the crispness and clarity of your words. Clear, crisp articulation is possible when you warm up your tongue, lips and face. Jaw relaxation Having a relaxed jaw is incredibly important for great articulation. Breathe through your mouth and let your lower jaw drop open. It's a bit of a dead-fish look I know. You'll probably feel your jaw doesn't want to open too far because it's full of tension. With each out breath, imagine that the
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tension is leaving your jaw so that it can drop down just one more millimetre. Don't force it. Just picture your jaw getting heavier with each out-breath. Kiss/grin Kiss your lips in a pout - stick the lips right out in front of you. Go on! Pucker up! Now grin stretch your lips into a cheesy grin, showing all your teeth and feel your cheeks almost touch your eyes. Repeat this over and over again! Pea/Orange Make your lips into a green pea - you know the little green vegetable? Purse your lips together and make the opening at the tips of your lips into the shape of a pea. Then, with a surprised face, make the shape of an orange. So your lips are going from tensed together in a pout to a big open round shape. Do this 5 times and really exaggerate! Horse neigh Neigh like a horse! What more say I say? Tongue in cheek Place your tongue against the inside of your left cheek and say: “I am an amazing presenter with beautiful vocal quality and commanding stage presence”. Then, swap and do it three times with your tongue in the other cheek. If you’d like to check how well you are warmed up consider trying a variety of tongue
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twisters. Tongue twisters are another effective way to warm up your articulation and to test your degree of vocal warmth. Especially if you do exercises that have a mix of different consonants and vowel combinations like p/c, and k/d. Tongue Twisters A proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee cup! I need unique New York, but does unique new york need me? Rush the washing Russell, Rush the washing Russell. The bootblack brought the black boot back Lift the ladder later, lisped Lester, Lester lisped, lift the ladder later. So do these warm ups before a sales meeting, internal presentation or any other important event where you need to sound credible and authoritative. Warm ups help to create a strong voice. If you don’t warm up, you may harm yourself or at least not perform at your best. If you do warm up, you’ll come across as credible and persuasive and be more likely to get what you want. The effects of the warmup last about an hour. So find somewhere to do these exercises or take my tip. I often find a quiet place away from the conference room at the hotel where I’m presenting a key note speech and I do all these exercises. I urge you to do the same. How exciting! I wish you every success with your presentations.
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PEAK PERFORMANCE- BENEFITS OF NAPPING By Andrew May
reduced risk of dying from heart disease. How little, how long? Professor Leon Lack from Flinders University in South Australia led a study into the effectiveness of power naps. He says it is the length of sleep that is crucial to our post-nap performance.
Andrew May is a Peak Performance Coach, Speaker, Author and an expert in integrating your Physiology, Productivity, Recovery and Psychology. Siestas, nana-naps, power-naps call them what you will, but they have major benefits to brain function and wellbeing. Benefits to the body include better heart functioning, hormonal maintenance, and cell repair. It is believed naps help you live longer, stay more active, and look younger. They recharge the brain resulting in greater alertness, improved memory retention and creative insight. Napping can make you a faster typist, better dancer and improve motor skills and coordination. Effects on mental health include improved mood, decreased stress and greater psychological balance. Power naps increase memory by almost 20% during the remainder of the day. Researchers tracked 23,681 Greek men for 6 years. Those who napped 3 times a week had a 37%
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“Ten to fifteen minutes of sleep seems to be the optimum period in terms of improving performance, reaction times and subjective feelings of alertness” he says. “And that improvement in performance and alertness seems to be maintained for up to two hours after the nap. Interestingly, the five-minute nap just didn’t produce the same amount of improvement, while longer naps of 25 to 30 minutes led to subjects being drowsy and less alert for up to an hour after the nap.” Generally, naps are best taken 6 to 8 hours after waking time. So if you’re an early morning person nap between 1pm and 2pm and if you are more of an afternoon/ evening person nap between 2pm and 3pm. Will napping make me feel groggy? Have you ever fallen asleep on a lazy Sunday afternoon then woken up an hour or so later and felt like you’ve been whacked across the face with a wet fish? Well, that’s probably because you almost have. . . A full sleep cycle lasts between 90 and 100 minutes, so waking up after 40 to 60 minutes will put you in phase 3 or 4 of the sleep cycle, also called Slow Wave Sleep (SWS). This groggy feeling is
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called sleep inertia and in terms of brain activity, is the polar opposite of wakefulness when the brain’s electrical activity is busily multitasking and operating on many frequencies. During SWS, we have almost completely tuned out the external world and our entire brain rhythm synchronizes into a slow, uniform pattern. Sleep Inertia can be minimised by either shortening (20 minutes) or lengthening (greater than 90 minutes) the nap to avoid waking up in SWS. Otherwise, it can be quickly dispelled by physical activity, noise or other sensory stimulation (such as a shower). Do naps interfere with night time sleep? No, as long as your nap lasts less than 3 hours and is completed at least 3 to 4 hours prior to your normal bedtime. Light sleepers are advised to nap 7 to 8 hours before bedtime. Working under fatigue
Research conducted at Harvard highlights a 20minute nap significantly improves performance on repetitive perceptual and cognitive tasks. When you’re sleepy, you are seven times more likely to make an error. Some of the worlds greatest disasters have been directly attributed to fatigue including Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez and the Challenger space shuttle disaster. So the point? Make sure you take time to rest in the lead-up to an important business presentation.
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SUCCESS STORIES! Sarah Boyce VP Alexion Pharmaceuticals
In general, what positive outcomes have you achieved from improving your presentation skills?
What kind of presenting do you do at work? A whole range from presenting to the board to presenting to the entire global sales force, to team meetings, to strategic planning and presenting in many different countries. What prompted you to work with Michelle in the area of Influential Presentation Skills? Simply put, I was told she was the best, she is. How did Michelle's executive mentoring change your attitude to presenting in business? I have always enjoyed presenting and with Michelle's mentoring it became a passion. I was challenged by the art of language - how to be as influential as possible and how to build rapport through clever words I also can't help myself coaching others now. She increased my effectiveness and helped me make my messages stick in the minds of my audiences. www.howtopresent.com.au
I have done a lot since I started working with Michelle. My increased confidence on stage has helped me drive even greater results for me personally and also for my business. I have been promoted a couple of times and now I work in the US as a VP. I am more engaging and my messages are simple and easy to follow - which means people are more likely to remember what I say. Michelleʼs lessons are always in my mind. What were your top three take aways from Michelle's mentoring? ★Less is more. ★H o w t o s t r u c t u r e s o t h e a u d i e n c e understands you key messages and ★How to deal with the elephant in the room and manage objections so they become a ʻnon-eventʼ in the minds of the audience. __________________________________
TESTIMONIAL
"My pe ople loved M ic hel le's I nf luentia l Presentation skills program. The feedback was consistently fantastic and the team were glowing!" Fiona Barr, Training Manager, Marsh (Aug. 2010)
How to Present Magazine
September 2010
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How to Present
SUCCESS STORIES! Stacey Martin CFP, Dip FP
Question: What prompted you to attend Michelle's Influential Presentation Skills program? Michelle suggested that her program was different to past training I had attended and she was right! It has given me a simple framework on how to structure my content for maximum impact. I now don’t feel overwhelmed when asked to present because I know it won’t take long to pull together! Question: How did Michelle's program change your attitude to presenting in business?
Stacey Martin has been providing strategic planning and wealth advisory services for more than 15 years. Working with the clientele of NAB Private Wealth she helps senior executives, company directors and business owners make smart financial decisions so they can achieve their lifestyle objectives. Question: What kind of presenting do you do at work? In terms of formal presentations, 20-30 minute key notes at events to provide inspiration and information to existing and prospective clients. On the informal side, regular education sessions to private bankers who are our referral partners, and of course I present strategic advice one-on-one to our high net worth clients.
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Being aware your objective is actually to influence and have the audience change a behavior or buy into your concepts, as opposed to just presenting the information and hoping they will pick it up. The structure ensures you cover the benefits for the audience, potential objections, risks of not taking up your ideas and the steps required to implement. Question. In general, what positive outcomes have you achieved from improving your presentation skills? Positive feedback from clients that explanations of technical information such as trusts and superannuation are clear and easily understood. Building profile in the organisation and being invited to present at different events. Being sought out to support and coach colleagues in their presentations.
How to Present Magazine
Question: In what specific ways have your presentation skills improved since completing Michelle's training? The biggest change for me is presenting without referring to my notes. Whilst I still write out the content, having prepared using the 4MAT and story board visual processes, then inserting into the 13 steps framework, I am much more confident to discard my safety blanket! Question: What were your top three take always from Michelle's program? 1. Using the Shift State preparation - what is the audience currently thinking, feeling, doing and what do you want them to think, feel, and do as a result of your presentation? You then pretty will have the closing comments done! 2. How to position your credentials in a way that is relevant and beneficial for the audience and how to get the questions you want i.e. to allow you to elaborate on a point or bring in additional information. 3. The confidence to do away with the ‘death by PowerPoint’ and engage with the audience in a structured way that allows your passion and enthusiasm to come through. I realised that the PowerPoint is just an aid to the ‘real’ message. After all, for me it is all about connecting with an audience and building confidence in my expertise as well as building trusted relationships.
September 2010
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How to Present
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How to Present Magazine
September 2010
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