Sam was about to enter the room to give his 3rd quarterly presentation to the Board of Directors of a $50 billion multinational corporation.
The presenter before him had 45 minutes and came in with 79 slides. No surprise, they ran over their time. By the time Sam walked in they said, “Hurry up, come on in, we’re running late, let’s get started.”
Sam walked in thinking he’d find the same room he’d experienced in his two previous Board meeting presentations. He was completely unprepared to find four times as many people in the room.
Apparently, a number of VIPs and spectators had been invited and all the Board members showed up in person instead of appearing on video.
The room configuration was completely different. The large official Board room was packed with people. There was only one chair available around the large conference table, all the way at the end of the table.
Sam’s back was to the camera that was projecting to the virtual audience watching via video, they could only see the back of his head. He was very far from the person sitting all the way in the far end of the room.
All of the faces looked impatient, restless and more than a little cranky, they’d been sitting there too long.
The person ushering Sam in was trying to move him to his seat very quickly. Sam started to ask a question, someone cut him off and said, “Let’s just get started, we’re running late.”
Sam felt off kilter, but started anyway, rushing, going a little too fast, talking too much, trying to get it all in, looking around, trying to find faces he knew to connect with in the crowd, feeling totally off.
A CEO of a major corporation, new on the Board, interrupted Sam and said, “I want to challenge one of the points you just made.” and asked Sam a somewhat hostile question. Sam knew the answer, but he stumbled and was awkward. The CEO said, “That’s not a good enough answer, I need more specifics.” Sam recovered somewhat and answered with more specifics. The CEO didn’t say anything, but he didn’t look satisfied either.
A week later Sam showed up for Executive Coaching with me and asked, “How should I have handled this? It was dreadful!”
If at the moment you start your presentation, you don’t own the room, you will have some version of this scenario happening in your own presentation. You will feel uncomfortable and off kilter.
The very first thing that you have to do is own the room. This is something participants learn in master in our workshops. (What goes on during a workshop is something few people have experienced.)
The difference between a presenter who gets intimidated and a great presenter is a big one. They both will have people rushing them, telling them to hurry up, pushing them to present a lot of material in a little bit of time.
The difference is that the person who gets intimidated listens to all of this and goes faster. Great presenters hear it, but they make their own decisions. They don’t let anything interfere with the quality of their communication. This makes a huge difference because when the quality of your communication is high, everything goes well.
A person who gets intimidated just gets up there and starts talking. It gives them a rough start. Sometimes they get oriented as they talk and that enables them to get more comfortable as they’re speaking. And that’s why people often say, “The first five minutes are horrible and then I’m okay”. Because they orient as they’re talking. A great presenter does it before they start.
Sam could have heard everyone telling him to hurry up, he could have thanked them for letting him know they wanted to end on time, and then done what all great presenters do:
Own the room.
A great presenter will do it in less than 60 seconds, but the point is they take their time and do it. If you skip this step, you will look confused and disoriented.
Sam told me, “You’re right, that’s all I needed to do. Because they were the Board, I let myself feel small and let myself get pushed around.”
That’s a very important issue: reducing your own authority.
ANY time you do that, you are sunk.
You have to realize that you are always the only one who is responsible for the quality of your communication.
One question that will determine whether you are a great presenter is: Are you adjusting yourself to your environment and the people in it in a way that diminishes you?
To be causative is exactly what it means. Causative means to cause.
You have to be very clear on what you are intending to cause, and then adjust your environment and the people in it to make it happen.
Owning the room means you have to look around and really see your environment. So that you see what needs to be adjusted.
Then you must create the emotional tone of the room.
All great presenters know: You adjust your audience to you.
It’s up to you. If you want to fast-track these skills, our 2-day workshop will help you create the transformation in your ability to talk to others that you’ve been hoping for.
When Sam was put in a similar situation again, he took his sweet time, he made sure he owned the room all the way to the far corners, and then he looked over the audience, established his connection to them so it was nice and solid, and then when he was completely oriented, he began.
Sam was smiling the whole time he was doing this because, with his new skills, he felt quite friendly toward both the room, and the people. The audience visibly relaxed and smiled at him. It took Sam less than a minute to change the emotion in the room. Less than a minute and it established Sam as a polished, professional, and even great presenter.
They now love him. They are very ready to love you too. Do it and you will win.
Be the cause!