Project Your Voice

How do you go about providing information to your team or your stakeholders? Do you ever consider how to be effective when informing? Not that long ago I would have simply said “I put the information in an email and I send it.”

Let’s step back and see what we need to understand when informing people.

First, you must consider that the people you address are usually adults. You must understand how adults learn. Adults learn when the material is relevant to them and relates to what they already know. You need to present in an interesting manner and involve your audience. You must repeat your key points.

Second, you must decide how you will organize your presentation. You can organize your material base on the time sequence, where one thing is done first then followed by a second, then a third. This would be appropriate when presenting a project schedule. You can organize your material by function, presenting each part. This would be appropriate when presenting a WBS. You could also structure the presentation around deduction from principles, where you build an idea from general principles. Presenting risk action plans could make use of this approach.

Finally, your delivery is important when imparting information to your audience. You must appear knowledgeable about the subject. You must also appear confident and at ease. To convey this impression, you should avoid reading from notes or slides. If standing, move around. Make eye contact with each person.

By following a structured approach, your stakeholders will want to learn from you and, more importantly, they will retain the information you present to them.

You might be comfortable managing your stakeholders, the audience, during a presentation. Do you manage your presentation material properly?

Visual aids are great tools to support a point and increase understanding. From PowerPoints to props, visual aids may even be time savers.

The right visual aid will depend on the information you wish to convey and the size of your audience.

Visual aids need to enhance, not detract from, your delivery. Keep your visual aids simple and consistent. Don’t speak while you’re writing on a white board or flip chart.

A visual aid should support one main point. In the case of PowerPoint, that means you want each slide to represent one idea. Leave lots of white space. You want your audience to be looking at you, not your visual aid. If need be, give them a copy of the slides, after the presentation. It’s probably a good backup plan to have paper copies on hand, anyway.

Remember that a presentation is about you and the message. It is never about the visual aids. Plan your presentation like a project and your message will be understood and appreciated by the audience.

When you address your project team or stakeholders, it is important that the language you use be appropriate and correct.

Your language is appropriate when the words used match your purpose and your audience. For example, if your purpose is to inspire people, you will need to use words that bring about emotions in your audience. If you are sharing a story, use plenty of names and descriptive words.

Your language is correct when your audience pays attention to what you say, not how you say it. Be careful about grammar and how you enunciate your words. Take care when stating people’s names. Keep your words, sentences and paragraphs short.

Make the language work for you and your audience.  The message will come through loud and clear.

When communicating with others, make sure to use more than just your voice. Yes, you can do phenomenal things with voice variety but that’s still only one weapon in your communication arsenal. Don’t forget that you have a whole body that speaks volume to your audience.

Consider your stance. Do you slouch? People will think you are shy. Do you shift your weight from one foot to another? People will see you as uncomfortable and nervous. Make sure you stand straight with your feet apart. When sitting down, make sure to take space by keeping your arms open and leaning back in your chair.

If you plan on moving about while talking, make sure that each location represents a point or story in your presentation. When you are repeating or adding to the point, come back to the same spot. When you have to say something important, move closer to your audience.

Your gestures can greatly help in making physical attributes, such as size, weight, shape and direction, more visual. Hands, such as closed fists, can also help impress your audience on important points. Arms can also be balanced to help with comparisons.

Your face is what will set the emotional tone for your audience. They will pick up your expressions before they get your verbal message. When using facial expressions, think like a theater actor: the bigger the audience, the bigger your expressions must be.

Finally, use eye contact to build rapport with the people. If you are speaking to one person and don’t feel comfortable looking that person in the eyes, look at the bridge of their nose. You can look up and down but as soon as your gaze moves left or right, you will break the connection with the person.

While all this body language can and should be practiced, your goal is ultimately to look natural. Using your full body will make your communication much more effective, entertaining and enjoyable.

When you conclude, you have to leave your audience restless. You want them wanting more. Even better, you want them starting something new.

Start what?

Start a new way of thinking, a new journey, or even a new action.

When you speak to people your words should never be an end. They should always produce something new.

Yes, you can review quickly the points you presented in the body of your speech. This is a good way to entrench your message into their mind. Just don’t leave it at that.

If you plan on persuading and inspiring people, consider leaving them with a challenge. The challenge should be, SMART, like a goal: specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound.

In my blood donation speech mentioned before, I ended with a challenge that each person make one blood donation in the next two weeks. Do not water down your challenge with words like “consider” or “suggest”. The next time you see them, ask them if they have met your challenge yet. If not, offer them support and encouragement.

Like a finish-to-start dependency, when you conclude your speech your audience starts working on your message.