But how do you NOT be boring when you’re speaking or presenting?
Medina tells us to be sure to introduce something emotionally relevant every 10 minutes.
At least every 10 minutes!
If we don’t, we risk losing the attention and interest of our audiences….because….
“We don’t pay attention to boring things.”
What can you do to shake things up for your audience?
Click on the video to discover 5 things you can do…in under 51 seconds!
Laura Bergells is a professional story finder. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning.
If you’re a LinkedIn Premium or Lynda.com member, these courses are free! If you’re not a member, you can either become a member or buy each of these classes à la carte.
While this site 👆👆👆 was designed with WEB accessibility in mind, you can use it for SLIDE DESIGN, as well.
Laura Bergells is a professional story finder. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning.
If you’re a LinkedIn Premium or Lynda.com member, these courses are free! If you’re not a member, you can either become a member or buy each of these classes à la carte.
Ah, Q&A. The “question and answer” portion of your presentation, where anything can happen!
Instead of dealing with a Q&A hog, let’s say someone in your audience asks you a brilliant question. It’s timely and topical! It’s directly related to your content! At this point, your answer can fall into three categories.
1. Hey, I know all about that!
2. I don’t know, but I can find out.
3. I don’t know.
Each category comes with its own set of challenges. Let’s explore each.
I know all about that! On its face, this category seems easy to answer, but it’s not. In a Q&A, you’ll need to be brief. You must curb any tendency to give a comprehensive, long-winded answer. Being brief can be difficult when you know something thoroughly. Deliver a concise and concrete answer, then move on to the next question.
I don’t know, but I can find out. Category two is a little easier. Your answer can be something like, “I don’t know, but I know I can find out. Give me your contact information, and I can get the answer to you after the presentation.” Move to the next question or closing, then follow up with the questioner when you said you would.
I don’t know. Category three should be the easiest of all. It contains 3 of the 4 short statements that lead to wisdom. You can say one to three of them, as appropriate. Practice saying this out loud, every day.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know. Does anyone else know?”
But why is “I’m sorry. I don’t know. Does anyone else know?” so difficult for so many presenters to say? I suspect it’s because they feel because if they are leading a discussion, they simply MUST know everything about it., or at least appear to.
But remember, you’re only leading the discussion. You’re not monopolizing it. You’re not expected to know everything. And no one likes a know-it-all.
Consider the four statements that lead to wisdom:
“I don’t know” is one of the four statements that leads to wisdom. Practice saying it every day. It can help ease any discomfort you may feel when tempted to pontificate on a subject you know nothing about. Audiences will appreciate your honesty and simplicity. It’s refreshing.
“I need help” is the second statement that leads to wisdom. Ask for help when you need it. “Does anybody else know?” might yield a helpful response from your audience or allies. If no one else answers, you might feel inspired to smile and say, “It looks like I’m not alone in not knowing the answer to your question!”
“I’m sorry” is the third statement that leads to wisdom. You may or may not feel inclined to preface your “I don’t know” with “I’m sorry”. If you’re not sorry, don’t say you are. If you are, do so.
Fittingly, “I was wrong” is the fourth statement that leads to wisdom. And it’s the one statement you won’t have to say during your presentation if you answer difficult questions truthfully and concisely.
Outside of Q&A, practice saying the four statements that lead to wisdom:
I don’t know.
I’m sorry.
I was wrong.
I need help.
Get comfortable saying these phrases. If you want to be happy and wise, you’ll be saying them a lot in a lifetime! Beyond wisdom, you’ll gain empathy and understanding through regularly saying these phrases.
Good luck on your next Q&A!
For your consideration: I go over responding to difficult questions in more detail in my Crisis Communications course at LinkedIn Learning. It’s under the section: “Developing Statements”.
Make sure you know what position you’ll be playing.
One of the biggest mistakes I see in team presentations is when one person on the team is speaking — and the others on the team don’t exactly know what to do with their bodies.
“Just because you’re speaking doesn’t mean you’re not presenting.”
Know your role in the team presentation:
💡Are you the team leader – acting as an MC or visionary?
🖊Are you the closer or subject matter expert?
🙌Are you supporting your team by being an ally?
👁Are you observing the body language of the audience and looking for unspoken questions?
When you know what role or position you’re playing, you’re more likely to really present as a team — instead of a rag-tag collection of individuals.
Get into a huddle before you present as a team. Know your position.
Support each other while you present. Go team!
Laura Bergells is a professional story finder. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning.
If you’re a LinkedIn Premium or Lynda.com member, these courses are free! If you’re not a member, you can either become a member or buy each of these classes à la carte.
“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
But what if you flipped this saying?
“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
Leaders need to share informed opinions and insights.
Any dashboard can spew data.
It takes soft intelligence, leadership, and communication skills to win hearts and minds.
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HE: The data speaks for itself. SHE: It really doesn’t. It’s why we have analysts. And data scientists. And leaders who interpret the data…
Because data on its own doesn’t say much.
We need to put the data into the context of story.
What story does the data inspire us to tell?
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Laura Bergells is a professional story finder. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning.
🔥🔥 Laura also teaches “Presenting On Camera” – a live, interactive group class for sales and training professionals who need to shift from in-person to on-camera presentations. Why not schedule a complementary 30 minute consult so that you can ROCK your next online presentation?
Perhaps the hardest part of telling a business story is resisting the temptation to finish your story yourself. I call this “The Power of Shhhhh.”
It’s where you stop talking. Be quiet. Let your story and its lessons sink in.
People hate a vacuum, and will often rush to fill it with their own conclusions. When people jump in at the end to tell you what they’ve learned from your story…and then recommend the next steps to take — you’ve told the right story to the right audience, at the right time.
The next time you tell a story, take your moment of silence. Try using the Power of Shhhhh to let your audience finish your story for you.
Being quiet can be a storytelling power move.
Laura Bergells is a professional story finder. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning.
If you’re a LinkedIn Premium or Lynda.com member, these courses are free! If you’re not a member, you can either become a member or buy each of these classes à la carte.
How can you develop a culture of storytelling at your organization?
Four quick tips:
1. Meetings: get into the habit of starting each meeting with a story. Ask for others to share stories.
2. Contests: you might have an “employee of the month” contest: why not try a “employee story of the month” contest?
3. Channels: if you use Slack or Team, open a channel to capture and collect stories.
4. Conferences: when you go to conferences, go with the intention of collecting industry and other stories you hear.
How else do you develop a culture of storytelling at your organization?
Laura Bergells is a professional story finder. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning.
If you’re a LinkedIn Premium or Lynda.com member, these courses are free! If you’re not a member, you can either become a member or buy each of these classes à la carte
What if we started learning food prep and cooking in elementary school? And I’m not thinking about food prep as an elective course or two. No, my vision is much bolder:
Learning to cook needs to be mandatory. Food prep needs to be integrated into every class you take in school. You must demonstrate ongoing cooking competence to pass classes and graduate.
Think about it. What might change if food preparation was used as the foundation for every STEM course you take in school? How might it change society and the economy?
For example, imagine if the only STEM education we received in school was food preparation. As you learn to cook, you more deeply learn every STEM subject.
Science. Nutrition, health, chemistry, experimental design, and anatomy.
Technology. Knives, ovens, stoves, sous vide machines, freezers, and refrigerators.
Engineering. Spacial relations, temperature, land use, processing, and packaging.
Math. Calculating and charting: temperature and time and portions and servings.
Gee whiz. A student can learn almost every topic by learning through food and cooking. It’s a solid STEM education, and then some.
Food is social and cultural. It’s finance and budgeting. It’s art and history and drama and presentation and…
…well, food is actually integrated into everything. It is literally fundamental for human survival. It’s the basis for a wide range of metaphors.
So why isn’t cooking used as a foundation for teaching every STEM subject we learn in school? How is it that you can graduate high school without demonstrating you know how to prepare, serve, and fund a month’s worth of nutritional, well-balanced meals?
Honestly? I suspect one reason food prep isn’t considered worthy for a complete STEM curriculum is because cooking is traditionally viewed as “women’s work” and thus “not science-y or math-y or tech-y or manly enough”.
Maybe someone is thinking, “No, wait, how dare you? I need my STEM to be wrapped up in more important concepts than lowly food prep. My boy has an interest in computers and wants to work in the auto industry, so STEM means computer labs and an auto shop. He can pick up nutritional knowledge in the streets or at home.”
But why can’t a boy take what he learned about food prep and apply it to whatever field he wishes to pursue? Isn’t taking knowledge from one field and applying it to another a key creative and critical thinking skill?
Critical thinking. Creative thinking. You need both of these skills to write decent code.
And before you code one single line? You need to learn to think. And you need to eat.
Computer programmer, car mechanic, art historian, athlete, teacher, writer — whatever. Every field involves food and nutrition. Because everybody’s gotta eat. It’s timeless.
While students pursue their career fields, they need the wherewithal to keep themselves healthy and financially solvent. Instead of touching a computer screen all day, they can learn to navigate the real world with the tactile sensation of handling food.
Teach people to cook, and you’re teaching them to think. You’re giving them a useful skill and a shared language. You’re giving them metaphors along with nutrition. You’re also exposing students to a broad range of educational and cultural topics.
Who’s with me? Let’s all get fired up about learning to cook!
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Laura Bergells writes, coaches, and teaches. Check out her online courses at LinkedIn Learning. You can also find Laura on Twitter and at YouTube.
