Archive for October, 2006

This past weekend I was at a conference that had all the participants at about a dozen tables introducing themselves to the entire group. What a disparity!

Some were powerful, some insightful, some funny – and way too many were long and a bit dull. Typical.

But what I found interesting was how only about a third actually used the room – and owned their space. This is essential whether giving a short introduction or making a long presentation. It makes a difference in how people experience your communications as posture and movement is the base:

• Own the Room – what the good communicators did was stand up and take the microphone and MOVE to a side of the room where they could see everyone, and vice versa. Far too many were in the middle of the room and were speaking in the round, but never turning around. So many people just saw his or her back. Not effective.
• Pause until positioned – then many who did go to the side began talking as soon as they got up. Best to take the mike, move to position, then begin. That shows confidence and authority.
• Stand and Deliver, but move – as in any presentation, it’s good to move. When we are excited, confident and enthused about our subject – our voice, face, hands and feet will show it. We are animated – after all if we aren’t excited about our subject, why should our listeners be even interested. And when you are introducing yourself, you should be excited.

Here’s more on the WEB for effective introductions.

Timing is critical to successfully communicating in the formal – public speaking – arena. Too many executives abuse the privilege of the listener’s ear. Even though they can often get away with it because their audiences often work for them and have to listen, they do it at their peril. Here’s why:

• Meet the audience’s expectation. It’s not how much material you have, it’s what time do you have to deliver it. If you go beyond their expectation, people will begin looking at their watch – either overtly or covertly – for they will know you are long. And get distracted. Perhaps annoyed. Even if you are interesting.
• Keep the audience’s attention. The attention span of an adult is 8 seconds. (The attention span of a child is 6 seconds BTW.) That doesn’t mean that you can only keep their attention for 8 seconds – it means means we can lose them in 8 seconds. But the longer you go, the more difficult it becomes – keep time on your side.
• Honor people’s time. Everyone’s busy, and unconsciously we resent it when someone uses our time beyond what we expect. Even if a speaker is good, it’s not as if the listener has nothing else to do with their time but sit and listen to them.

Other Timing Factors:

• Rehearsal time is shorter than real time. A good rule of thumb is that your rehearsal time will be about 75% of your actual speaking time. We tend to add things when we are live, and actually speed up our pace in rehearsing. Our mind does it to us, and this is even when we are experienced at speaking and rehearsing.
• We go long at the start, rush the end. I’m not sure why, but even the experienced do this. I think it may be because unconsciously we aren’t sure we’ll have all the content to fill all that time, and we are slow getting started. So we run out of time, leaving our best material to be rushed. Start off with a bang, not a whimper – hit the ground running.
• Use a clock, but don’t look at your watch. There is a famous incident when George Bush Sr.  was debating Bill Clinton and losing badly, and twice he looked at his watch. I doubt if he wanted to know the time, he just wanted it to be done – and he communicated that fact to the nationwide television audience. Whenever you look at your watch, the listener wants to look at his or her watch too – why distract them. Be sure to have a timepiece – I always use a large faced digital clock (not analog – you want to immediately grasp the numbers) that you can place on the lectern or table next to your notes or computer. Or take off your watch and put it where you can see it. Or use the clock in the back of the hall or meeting room if it’s there. But be sure to stay on time – only you need to know when you are checking your time.
• Timing in humor. I know many have looked up this post to see how to use timing in your humor. I’d tell you but I’m not funny.

What are your timing tips and methods – or questions?