STEP 1

Understand the Role of a Presenter

Overview

• Understand your role.

• Understand the expectations of the audience.

• Determine the type of presentation.

• Clarify roles when presenting with a partner.

Delivering a presentation can be a scary experience. In fact, fear of public speaking affects about 73 percent of the population, according to The National Institute of Mental Health (Doyle 2018). This fear can manifest in many ways: People worry about feeling nervous, making a mistake, freezing on stage, or being judged negatively by others. Rather than face the fear of getting in front of a crowd, many people put off preparing their presentation and rehearsing it. Some procrastinate so long that they end up just winging it. Too often, people then deliver a sloppy and ineffective presentation, which naturally reinforces the initial fear of having to present. Thus a vicious cycle sustains itself.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Preparation, practice, and an understanding of what’s expected of you can help everyone—from the most novice speakers to the most experienced—offer a memorable presentation for their audience.

Your Role As a Presenter

Consider first why you were asked to deliver this presentation. There is a reason this topic was selected for this audience, and there is a reason you were selected as the presenter. You might be a subject matter expert with advanced degrees or exceptional professional experience. You might be in a position of authority or have personal events to share. Or you might be an eager volunteer who wanted to impress your colleagues but lack much public speaking experience. Whatever the reason, one of your most important jobs is to bring your knowledge to the audience, fully prepared. Your job is to know your stuff.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the expectations of the person who hired me?

• How can I personally relate to this topic?

• How can I personally relate to this specific audience?

• What is my goal for the presentation?

Your answers will help guide you as you plan and develop your presentation. Use Tool 1-1 to help you clarify your thoughts.

TOOL 1-1

UNDERSTANDING YOUR ROLE

In addition, your role includes the following:

Share Your Passion

As a presenter, rather than reader of a script, your job is to deliver the message in a compelling way. Let the audience feel your interest, enthusiasm, and expertise for the subject. Help them see why you were the best person to present this material. Use your passion to help people pay attention, absorb your ideas, and retain the message.

Perform

One way to deliver a compelling presentation that people remember is to consider it as a type of performance. While that may bring you anxiety, it’s important to note you do not have to change your personality. Great speakers can be soft-spoken and analytical, or they can be wildly funny and outgoing. Make sure your content fits the presentation topic and the reason you were selected, but stay true to who you are. Don’t try to be too serious or too funny, too formal or too casual, too methodical or too bohemian if that’s not who you are. Some people can’t tell jokes. It’s OK. Don’t feel your presentation style has to mimic someone you admire. Focus on your strengths and use them to enhance your presentation.

That said, use the tips in step 4 to add some performance aspects. It could be a personal anecdote about your pets or kids, adding impactful visuals, or just knowing when to pause for audience laughter or applause.

Keep the Energy Level Up

Delivering a presentation requires a level of energy and excitement about the topic. Your energy—or lack thereof—will be contagious. Show enthusiasm. Speak clearly and make sure your voice travels. Look out at your audience. Let your passion for your subject matter show as well as your expertise in a way that invites others to feel it. Let your audience in on why you’re interested, and they will be too.

Keep the Audience Engaged

Depending on the length of your presentation, you’ll have to maintain that energy and passion for the duration, and you’ll have to be the source of energy for your audience. Most adults can only absorb new information for 20 minutes at a time. After that, minds start to wander. A well-written presentation will offer breaks every 20 minutes, such as telling a funny story or asking the audience some questions. Your role is to be mindful of your audience and how long they have been sitting passively, and to keep them connected.

Logistics

Presenters are often in charge of some basic housekeeping. It’s their job to make sure the presentation doesn’t run over the time allotted, that enough time is left for questions, to remind the audience to fill out evaluation forms, or to thank hosts, other speakers, or co-presenters.

The Expectations of the Audience

Most people in the audience will have experienced a handful of presentation duds. Depending on whether the audience has chosen to attend your presentation or they’re required to be there, you might receive a cautiously optimistic crowd or a cynically pessimistic one. Their reluctance might stem from having endured too many speakers who were self-centered or ill-prepared. Strange as it may seem, this can be to your advantage!

Because many attendees anticipate a less-than-stellar presentation, you may overachieve simply by making it clear that you have taken the audience’s background and interests into account and are prepared to present your views logically and concisely. At the bare minimum, your role is to meet the audience’s expectations. Ideally, you’ll exceed them. Audiences want presenters who demonstrate mastery over the session, focus on the advertised content, demonstrate professional delivery techniques, engage the audience, and know the topic well.

Presentation attendees possess various motivations for attending. You probably won’t know all of them prior to stepping up to the podium. Anticipating what they might be, however, will help you to effectively prepare, structure the presentation, and expect certain questions. For example, some audience members may attend because they were told to do so. Others may willingly attend to increase their knowledge of the subject. Regardless of their motivation for attending you need to consider their WIIFM—what’s in it for me—since the participants will be asking themselves this question. By the end of your presentation, you do not want them to still be wondering about the answer.

Some participants will be highly motivated to hear something new, get clarification on questions, or have the opportunity to network. As a presenter, keep in mind that these participants may also ask the most challenging questions because they are taking the content seriously. Starting with what the audience currently knows and building on that information helps you to thwart audience boredom brought on by covering rote information.

The power of advertising also plays a role in setting the appropriate audience expectations long before they walk into the presentation room. The title of a speech or presentation is often one of the best marketing tools you can develop. Frequently, the title of a presentation is needed immediately—even prior to creating or refining the presentation—so that the presentation can be publicized and listed in agendas or programs.

Answer these key questions to identify audience expectations:

• Who is sponsoring or holding the event at which you are to speak?

• What gave rise to this opportunity to present?

• If a topic was provided to you, why was that particular topic chosen for the identified audience?

• What are participants expected to do as a result of attending the presentation?

• Why are participants coming to the presentation—is it mandatory or voluntary?

• Is an organization hosting or paying for the presentation? If so, why are they hosting the event (for example, continuing education needs or mandatory regulatory requirements)?

Answering these questions and the audience analysis questions in step 2 will prep you to tailor your presentation. In fact, this goes hand in hand with understanding what type of presentation you’re preparing to give.

Determining the Type of Presentation

The type of presentation determines the speaker’s role. Presentations can range from a brief talk before management, to a series of webinars as a form of training, to a keynote speech kicking off an event. You may be asked to present on a topic that requires you to do some research. At other times, you may be scheduled to deliver a knock-out presentation at a conference or to the board of directors. It could even be as simple as introducing another speaker or accepting an award. No matter which situation has given rise to the opportunity to speak, asking the right questions and planning for the presentation should always be your first steps.

Effective presenters plan every detail and tailor for the type of presentation. Planning also includes understanding the audience—that is, performing some sort of analysis by asking questions and creating an audience profile, which we will detail in step 2—identifying the presentation’s objectives or goals, researching the topic, and ensuring the facility is equipped for your presentation’s requirements.

The word “presentation” means different things depending on the context of the situation. The following descriptions explain each type of presentation and highlight the key differences.

Briefings

A briefing is a condensed, highly focused information session on a specific topic. The goal of a briefing is information transfer, which often involves covering the most material possible in the least amount of time. Briefings often occur in an office or conference room and are delivered to one person or a small group. For example, think of a White House press briefing or a briefing of senior executives on the latest regulations for bringing a new product to market. Participants often ask rigorous questions to understand the topic with thoroughness and depth. Briefings usually include visuals (slides, charts, and models), handouts of reference materials, and supplemental information.

Lectures

Lectures are educational talks with the presenter speaking in front of a captive audience for an hour or two (sometimes longer). They occur most frequently in a higher education setting, though forms of lectures appear in K–12 or community groups. Lectures are meant to impart knowledge to an audience with little or no prior understanding of the topic. The audience might have chosen to attend if it’s outside an education setting, or may have been forced to attend as part of a class requirement.

Teachers and professors will be familiar with delivering lectures, even though they may not think of them as presentations. This causes lecturers to speak at an audience, usually from behind a lectern or a computer monitor, rather than speak to and engage with their listeners.

Speeches (Including Keynotes)

Speeches provide information with the purpose of inspiring or motivating the audience to act on what they heard, and the topic often reflects a common interest. Audience sizes may range from fewer than 50 to more than 1,000 people. Speeches may last 20 to 60 minutes, with 40 minutes as the average. They may also require the presenter to be flexible since time limits can be rigid and speakers may be required to shorten or extend their presentations to fit the agenda. Speakers are often in the spotlight and may use microphones, stages, or platforms to ensure that all the participants can see and hear them.

Speeches often occur at organization meetings, conferences, conventions, banquets, or award ceremonies. They can be held in hotels or convention centers. Speakers use eye contact to help engage the audience, but for large groups, speakers may need to magnify their gestures, voice inflection, and other presentation dynamics.

Sales Presentations

The goal of a sales presentation is to lead the buyers to the next step, whether that means getting other people in their organization on board with a project or getting a buyer to sign on the dotted line. Either way, this type of presentation should involve your audience as much as possible. More than any other, this presentation needs to be tailored to your specific audience. Provide new insights and ask good questions.

In certain industries, especially software, sales presentations are product demonstrations. Many of these are done virtually. With this type of presentation, it’s important to make it a conversation. Involve the buyers by discussing their business problems. Avoid the temptation to do most of the talking. Even if you can’t see the people in your audience, they still need to be heard.

Training Sessions

Training sessions are structured programs designed to increase knowledge and skills and promote change. They often take more time to accomplish the goals than do briefings and speeches. Sessions take place in training rooms, hotels, conference rooms—anywhere that participants can see and hear.

Lengthy training sessions may include breaks and lunch planned at appropriate points in the material. Strong trainers focus the facilitation on the group, use two-way communication, and aid the learning process. Visuals are usually prepared ahead of time as well as on the fly to clarify points, gather ideas from participants, and illustrate processes. Training sessions usually involve exercises, role play, discovery activities, and many other types of active training techniques to engage participants and facilitate learning and knowledge transfer. Handouts and reference materials are often provided for notetaking and post-training reference.

Conference Sessions

A conference session is often a hybrid, combining the elements of the briefing, training session, and the speech into one program. Since conference sessions usually last for an hour or more, presenters have more time to engage participants with some sharing activities, role play, and exercises related to the information presented. Group size, seating arrangements, and other logistics often dictate the dynamics of the presentation—which need to be carefully planned since they greatly affect the speech. The most successful conference sessions include:

• carefully planned content

• a strong opening and closing

• a microphone and prepared dynamics (eye contact, voice, variety, pacing, gestures, visuals, and so on)

• an action-planning step either during or at the conclusion of the session.

The Role of a Co-Presenter

Occasionally you may be called on to co-present. This simply means you will share the stage—and the job of delivering information—with one other person. Co-presenting rarely goes beyond two people, unless you are part of a panel discussion. In that case, there will be another person facilitating so your role is just as a subject matter expert (but good presentation skills still apply!).

Co-presenting offers some unique benefits and challenges.

The Benefits

Benefits of co-presenting include:

• One person can focus on speaking, while the other controls visuals, monitors the audience for understanding and engagement, tracks time, and manages other tasks.

• Co-presenters can share the speaking role, giving each other a chance to catch their breath.

• Speakers can divide subject matter according to their expertise.

• During Q&A sessions, if one speaker doesn’t know the answer to a question, the other may.

• Co-presenters can feed off of each other’s energy throughout the presentation.

• Co-presenters can balance out each other’s personality. If one of you is funny, have that presenter tell a joke to break up your serious tone. Enhance each other’s strengths.

The Challenges

Challenges of co-presenting include:

• If one speaker makes a mistake and offers incorrect or incomplete information, it may be tempting for the other to jump in and correct. But that will undermine the credibility of both speakers. Instead, wait until it’s the second speaker’s turn and say, “I want to quickly return to your point about ____. Here’s one other way to look at it.” Offer the alternate view, and move on.

• If you and your partner can’t foster real trust with each other, your chemistry will be off and the audience will notice. Trust is an important component of co-presenting. If you know your co-presenter and do not have a good working relationship, put it aside during the presentation. As long as you both sincerely want the presentation to be a success, focus on working together. Who knows, the pressure of co-presenting—and doing it well together—may actually improve your relationship.

• Practice is doubly important when you’re presenting with someone else. Decide ahead of time who will present which sections, the role of the person not speaking (such as time management or displaying visuals), and how you will handle transitions. Develop signals to indicate to speed up, slow down, speak more loudly, repeat information for clarity, or answer a question from the audience.

The Next Step

The difference between great speakers and average or poor speakers largely depends on recognizing your role. You may have written the most enlightening speech in the world, but if you stand in front of an audience and read it, people will most likely remember it as a bad presentation. Once you understand the parts to be played by you and your audience, it’s time to plan your presentation.