Why your presentation shouldn’t flow

When I ask people on our courses how their presentation went they often say “It didn’t flow.” I ask them to elaborate and they say “I stumbled, I had mind blanks, and I had to start sentences again because they didn’t make sense.”

I then ask the audience how they found the presentation – they often don’t notice the issues which loomed so large for the presenter.

It’s not pleasant to be stumbling your way through a presentation. You’d like to feel that your brain and mouth are perfectly in sync and that words are just flowing effortlessly out of your mouth. That may feel good to you when you’re presenting, but it’s not necessarily good for the audience.  Don’t aim to replace your stumbles with a continuous flow.

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How Obama could eliminate his ums (and so could you)

A number of high-profile presentation bloggers and authors have commented recently on Barack Obama’s speaking style – when he doesn’t have his teleprompter in front of him.

Bert Decker

In interview settings particularly, and other informal communication situations he has a lot of non-words (ums and ahs) and his eyes cast down more often than not. These are not the hallmark behaviors of a leader. Pausing and looking directly, always, will correct these confidence leaking distractions.

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You don’t have to slow down to be an effective presenter

Have you been told to slow down when you’re presenting?

There’s only one legitimate reason for slowing down. That’s if you go so fast that your words get blurred. Otherwise there’s nothing wrong with speaking fast. Watch this video of Gary Vaynerchuk – would you want him to slow down?

This is the way Gary speaks. He’s being himself.

If you’re a naturally fast speaker and you try and slow yourself down, you won’t be being yourself. It will be an effort for you and you’re unlikely to come across as natural and conversational. Speak the way you normally would in a conversation.

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