Rehearse Your Material Well

There’s no such thing as overrehearsing your delivery. Not that you should memorize your talk—if you do, you’ll come across as stiff and struggle to connect with the audience. But know your material inside and out. That way, you can adapt more easily if the environment, audience, or technology suddenly changes on you (something often does). Also, audiences can tell if you try to wing it—and they feel slighted. It sends the message that you don’t value them or their time. Perhaps most important, rehearsing frees you up to be more present in your talk and fully engage with the people in front of you. When you rehearse, leave plenty of time to:

• Get honest feedback from a skilled presenter: As the presenter, you’re so familiar with (and probably attached to) your ideas that you may think you’re making each point more clearly and persuasively than you are. So ask a skilled presenter to give you honest feedback. Give her a printout of your slides and have her jot down what you say well, what you don’t, what’s essential to keep, and what’s distracting. She might say things like: “When you put it that way, people won’t follow you,” and “That term sounds derogatory to me,” and “I thought you expressed it better last time, when you said . . .” The extra set of eyes and ears helps you see and hear yourself as the audience will.
• Prepare a short version: Many variables in a presentation can go wrong, leaving you with less time than you expected. The technology doesn’t always work. Other speakers might cut into your time slot by running long. An impatient executive may interrupt you with lots of questions. Prepare a presentation that fits your scheduled time, but also craft and rehearse a version that’s much shorter, just in case.
• Fiddle with your slides: Continue to tweak your slides until the day you present. Refining a bit of text here and adding an image there is a form of rehearsal. You become more deeply familiar with the content as you engage with your slides—so when you present, they feel seamlessly integrated with your message, not tacked-on or disruptive.
• Rehearse a few times in slide-show mode: Because slide-show mode doesn’t allow you to peek at the notes view, it forces you into an even greater familiarity with the material and allows you to focus on pacing and visualize the flow. Look for choppy transitions from slide to slide, inconsistent graphics, and awkward builds as you reveal new bullets, so you can smooth things out.
• Practice on camera: Record some of your final rehearsals on video. You don’t need a professional setup. Use a webcam or the camera on your cell phone or tablet. Pretend you are in front of an audience, and address the camera as if it’s a person. When you’re done, review the video to assess not just your content but also your stage presence, eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, and ease of movement. Identify where you don’t appear natural, relaxed, or in command of your material—and work on those areas.