Tip 1 for being a Fearless Facilitator

A few years ago, on a plane a seatmate asked what I did for a living. I said, “I’m a professional speaker.” He said, “Motivational?” My response even surprised me!... “I hope so!” We both had a good laugh! This series is devoted to a change I’m noticing in audiences - they may not be looking for what you think they are looking for. So here’s my tips for fearless facilitation.

Let’s start off with the definition of a facilitator: one who helps to bring about an outcome (including learning, productivity, or communication) by providing indirect or unobtrusive assistance, guidance, or supervision.

Think about the last time a presenter really helped open up a discussion and then made it easy for everyone to participate. For some presenters, it is much easier and seemingly safer to just keep talking. When have you felt safe in a meeting to say what you wanted to say and perhaps more importantly what needed to be said?

Presenters, participants, and leaders who engage in these situations are courageous because they give up the traditional control of an audience, or of a team, or even of a conversational partner, and allow the other to talk, question, and even disagree.

While this may not seem like a big deal, consider the last time you knew that what you were saying was about to be challenged, disagreed with, or even met with a sarcastic or caustic remark. How did you feel? More to the point, how did you proceed?

Those who facilitate a conversation take the courageous route, a fearless route, not without risk of course. Opening yourself to a contribution especially in a presentation can appear risky since you really don’t know what the other will say. Focusing closely on the other person whilst putting your own ideas on the back burner can require great focus and great patience. Even when we allow others to talk in small groups, do we really always have to know what they said? Or if they were on task? Or what they said about us? It is only important that they know.

If you want to assert your leadership with your team, or to be seen as a leader when you present, then facilitate your presentation to make conversation easy and useful. Help others think through solutions that need to happen rather than simply restating the problems that they already know exist. This is true whether you are presenting to one hundred or just to one.

It can be as simple as asking your team for input. Instead of asking a question of a large group where some will talk too much and others won’t speak at all, why not ask the large group to move quickly into smaller groups of two or three and discuss the question for three to five minutes. Then, you can initiate a large group discussion. You will be guaranteed a better discussion, a more robust list of ideas, and involvement even from your most introverted team member.

Thank you for reading this. What do you think?

How to Present Like a Pro - Presenting to a blind person

When presenting to an audience where some of the members are blind, use audio description techniques. In this situation it is useful to begin with a brief visual description of you… “I’m Kevin, your presenter today. I’m sitting with a green plant behind my right shoulder and behind my left shoulder is a picture of sailboats as well as the artwork of my 6-year-old grandson. I have grey hair that my stylist calls ‘platinum’…which is why I keep going back to him!”  This sets the scene for them. For each PowerPoint slide, I begin by describing that also, “This slide is divided into four squares, in the first square…” One way to understand the impact is to find a movie with “audio description” where a narrator fills in the action with words in between the dialog. This will help you get ideas that you can then use. For virtual presentations, most blind audience members are able to use the chat function easily with their adaptive software.

How to Present Like a Pro - The ATEM-mini

Keep your PowerPoint to a minimum, if at all. Do you really need it? Is it essential? Does it have to be that fancy? Would a word do instead? Or an image? When we present live, we have the PowerPoint as an added resource to the audience also seeing us in full view. On Zoom and other platforms, we are often reduced to a postage stamp image unless the audience knows how to make us bigger. I learned from Brian Walter to use an ATEM-mini which is a device that allows me to move seamlessly back and forth between my video and my slides. I don’t have to share the screen, I am never a postage stamp image, and it allows me to pick and choose my slides, which is helpful when I realize in the moment that they are out of order!

How to Present Like a Pro - Chat Box Waterfall

Initial interaction is easy if you make it so. If you are in person, it is easy to meet and greet ahead of your presentation. On Zoom you have faces just staring at you, not to mention babies, dogs, cats…or sometimes only the ceiling fan.

A “Chat Box Waterfall” is a great way to get everyone on record, to get them contributing. I learned it from Caelan Huntress and it works every time. Ask a simple question then say the following: “I’d like you to go to the chat box and I’ll give you 60 seconds to type your answer to this question but don’t hit enter until I tell you to…” There is always one who hits enter straight away (of course!) but when at the 60 second mark you say “Hit enter!” you will see a ‘waterfall’ of contributions come in. Then all you have to do is say, “Let’s take a moment and review these” and then as the host you find someone’s entry and ask “Bob, can you tell us about yours? Then when you are finished call on the next person” After a few of these you can say, “Jane tell us about yours and then send it back to me.” This is a guaranteed involvement technique that will forever end the agonizing silence accompanying, “Anyone have any ideas?”

How to Present Like a Pro - When it's all over

How do you handle comments after your presentation? When people come up and thank you, consider saying: “I appreciate you saying that. What did you like/notice/appreciate the most?” That will quickly get to the essentials of what they are taking away, which commonly is less about what you said and more about what they got. This is terrific feedback for us!

Also, whenever you finish any presentation, however short, ask yourself: “What did I do well and what is one thing I might consider doing a bit differently next time?” We can only build on our strengths so don’t be the hardest judge of all.

How to Present Like a Pro - 3 key questions

The audience has a key question on their mind: “Can you help me solve my problem?” Followed closely by “Can you improve my condition?” And of course, the ever-popular silent audience question, “So what?” These are rarely spoken out loud, but they are front and center within the minds of those staring at you. Make sure your presentation clearly answers these questions and you’re on to a winner!

How to Present Like a Pro - The rugby move

In rugby the ball is tossed backwards as the player moves forward. Keep this in mind and get your audience interacting with each other not just with you. In an earlier post I mentioned the ‘@Lester Holt technique’ where his correspondents send the story back to him by using his name with a question mark after it. That is a rugby move. Another might be you, as the presenter, saying: “Jack give us your thoughts then you can send it to Amy and she will send it to Sharita.” Before Sharita begins, you say: “After Sharita we’ll go to Sam, Agim, and finally to Lilibet.” This allows some preparation for a quieter, more reserved audience. Pulling names out of hat works too!

How to Present Like a Pro - Script the smiles

Always have someone else introduce you with the script you have written for them. On Zoom make it short and sweet…in person a little longer is OK. Audiences do not need to know the companies you have worked for, how much other audiences loved you, or how much this audience will love you. Yikes! Have the script say who you are, a bit about your qualifications, and then something personal that adds a bit of fun. Mine says that “Kevin’s lifelong goal is to ride horses bareback though he has not yet found a horse with the same goal.” You ought to see the smiles and hear the questions I get on that one! We want a smiling audience when we begin, not a bored one.

How to Present Like a Pro - Elegant Simplicity

Keep it simple! Even, actually ESPECIALLY, when the material is exceedingly complex. Never ‘dumb things down’ but always go for ‘elegant simplicity.’ The goal here is to get to the heart of the matter and to create a memory of its essential elements. Often using complicated or unreadable spreadsheets and wiz-bang graphics can hide our essential message.

Dale Carnegie advises “Tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.” Every speech, update, homily, sermon, even wedding toast or eulogy would do well to use this formula.

Making it look complicated does not make you look smart. Your one and only job is to help the audience leave with the essentials of the topic, not to be impressed by you. Work for clarity. If newspapers are written for the average person, so too can any of our technical or scientific presentations, especially if to a tech audience. Don’t mimic your professors, go beyond them. Think of the famous quotations you are reminded of from Dr. Mardy Grothe or Bartlett’s…they are wisdom packed into few words that the many can understand.

How to Present Like a Pro - The camera, the camera, the camera!

Every time you present or respond (or simply want to look alive!) on Zoom, look at the camera rather than the image of the person, especially if you are using two monitors. This is crucial to connection. Imagine if the news people on television looked away from the camera to give their report! This is a very, very difficult skill but a vital one. We are naturally drawn to images, to people, to the face. On Zoom, unlike in person, we are not speaking to an audience or a group, we are speaking to only one person…the one looking at us. As an audience member respond by doing the same and watch your connection…connect!

How to Present Like a Pro - The ‘Lester Holt technique’

I have to thank Lester Holt from NBC evening news for this one. Lester’s gang uses it regularly and every time, I am reminded how useful it can be for us. Whenever Miguel Almaguer, Hallie Jackson, Andrea Mitchell, Richard Engel (who is usually far, far away!) and all the others finish their report, it always ends with “Lester?” He then has his cue and picks it up from there. You can do this with your Zoom presentations, asking the audience to do the same…simply choose another attendee’s name and add a question mark to keep the discussion rolling.

I watched a video recently of ten or so professionals having a discussion where rather than using hand offs, they used resounding periods. Almost every time someone finished speaking, there was an awkward moment of silence as they wondered who would speak next.

You can use this same tactic when you are presenting with a partner. I work twice yearly with professional speaker Conor Cuneen, IrishmanSpeaks in a back-and-forth format of lecturettes. Conor is known far and wide as a well-rehearsed presenter…except when he works with me! We both like to present ‘in the moment’, especially for this audience, so use the ‘Lester Holt technique’ and hear our dear names called out with a question mark at the end, keeping the flow going. It works every single time even when I have no idea what Conor was going to say…and maybe he didn’t either!

How to Present Like a Pro - 7 things not to say or do

Here are some things that you should never ever (ever!) say or do in your presentation because they will be hated or ignored by most audiences:

1)      “You probably want to know a little about ME!” (No, they don’t.)

2)      “Before I begin you have to understand that…”(Just begin already!)

3)      “How are you all doing?” (Thought to be an involver, often experienced as an embarrassment by both sides.)

4)      “Can you hear me OK?” while tapping the microphone. (Audio checks should happen with the sound professional, not the audience.)

5)      “Today we are going to….” followed by a list of objectives usually on PowerPoint that everyone can read faster than you can speak. (Next time just get right to #1 without identifying it as such and conclude with “We just finished our first objective for the day.”)

6)      “I can’t hear you!” as a way to have the audience repeat the speaker’s key phrase. (Do you want everyone to feel like they are back in second grade!?)

7)      “Shhhhhhhh…” attempting to get control back from an audience group exercise. (Try this next time: “If you can hear me, please raise your hand.” As they do others will notice. This usually only needs to be said twice and then a sincere thank you allows you to continue.)

How to Present Like a Pro - Early and Often

Welcome to a series of tips dedicated to helping you to Present Like A Pro. Although we are told by our psychologist and pastoral friends never to ‘judge’ someone, we can’t help but judge people’s presentation skills. We critique the movies and television shows, why not our colleagues?! I am sharing this series of advice to make you just that little bit better in the eyes and ears of those you seek to influence. Regardless of your rank or expertise you can Present Like A Pro every time.

Engage and involve the audience early and often, especially on Zoom. Conor Cuneen, IrishmanSpeaks also asks the audience a question as attendees are entering the Zoom room, before he has even been introduced. One of his favorite questions to ask: “What was the first live concert you went to and how was it?” Simple enough but wait till you see the energy, excitement and connection that happens as you respond to the audience’s answers with questions such as, “Jack, were there a lot of drugs at that concert?” or “Mary, so your father went with you?” This is a better icebreaker than any staged one.

Next time, vary the question: “What was the first wedding you attended, and what do you remember?” or “What’s your favorite city and which one do you hope to go to some day?” or “Which movie would you gladly watch over and over again and why?”

Just like Conor, jump in and talk to your audience even before you are introduced, and prime them for a good time! Just make very sure you are not focusing on only one of your buddies. Nobody likes to hear ‘in jokes’…it reminds them of high school!

How to be the #1 interview candidate - Can I see Myself Working with you?

A physician CEO told me that throughout the interview all he was thinking about was what it would be like to work side by side with the candidate. In every interview you attend, know that your answers are important but even more so are your human relations skills, your energy, and your likeability factor. Most candidates are qualified, but only a few (or perhaps only one - you!) know that you have to show the interview panel more than just what’s in your head. They want to know your heart, and they want to get a feel for your leadership, even with them! Connect with their style, their names, their energy and be very attentive to their attention toward you. This is why stories are so vital in your answers. Take them into the story as you answer their question. In doing so you have their attention with their ears, but also with their heart. Don’t just tell them how many ambulatory sites you opened, without first beginning with the story of how your neighbor knocked on your door panicking about living so far away from the emergency room at the hospital.

So…I’m interested, what’s been your experience?

How to be the #1 interview candidate - To thank or not to thank

I get this question all the time: do I thank the interviewer? The answer is “YES!” But definitely not by text. Not by email either. I suggest that a handwritten thank you note will make a memorable impression – it’s so much more than just a thank you. Make it as genuine as you can by considering the following questions:

Did they fully acquaint you with their mission?
Did they take you on a tour, treat you to lunch or dinner?
Did they seem to care about your spouse or family?

Include anything in the thank you note that engages them with a memory of you. I understand this is easier said than done because you’ve not done it before. Write it in advance with a blank section to add the unique message. Have it stamped and ready to go so on your way home it goes right into the mailbox and lands on their desk within two days.

If you want to make it even more effective say something positive and real about their administrative assistant. Nothing pleases a boss more than giving praise to their assistant and you will make that individual’s day as well. Plus, remember that the admin assistant met you as well and the boss always goes to them and says, “What did you think of that one?” Admins can make you the #1 choice!

So…I’m interested, what’s been your experience? What do you think?

How to be the #1 interview candidate - Always End an Answer with...

The worst thing the hiring manager can tell you after an interview is that you were great, but you were #2. This series of ideas is devoted to making you the #1. I’m basing it on my many years of experience working with American Association for Physician Leadership® and American College of Healthcare Executives.

Make sure that any ‘experience’ question is always followed with some form of: ‘and what I learned from that was….” Or “The capability I developed from that experience was….” Or “I was able to discover even more about the skill of ….”

Interviewers like that you have experience, but they see themselves as different. With an experience-only answer, they will silently say to themselves, “Yes that’s nice but we are different.” With the capability answer, they find themselves saying, “That’s what we need!”

So…I’m interested, what’s been your experience? What do you think? What would you add to increase our understanding of this together? And, of course, thank you for reading this!

How to be the #1 interview candidate - Key Questions

Turning the tables: what if you were the interviewer? From experience, we often have a list of standard questions that even our interviewees know in advance. Here are some great questions to get to the heart of the interviewee:

· What is one thing you’d like us to know about you that is not on your resume, anything from birth to now?
· What is one thing you learned as a child from an important adult that you’ve found useful in your career?
· Tell us about a co-worker who you admire and why.
· What is an area where you are likely to make a snap judgment if you are not careful or aware?
· How many years can you anticipate giving to us?

If you are the interviewee, you might (depending on the mojo present in the room) give some of these answers in the context of another answer. This humanizes you and when that happens you are creating connection.

How to be the #1 interview candidate - The Psychology of the Interviewer

CEOs repeatedly tell me that once you are in their interview, they are less interested in your resume or experience and more about how you think, what it would be like to work with you, how quickly you can onboard yourself etc. Basically, the questions they ask are a way for them to fantasize about a future with you.

Like the old Speed Dating scenario, answering the questions is secondary; making a lasting impression is the key. Focus your preparation not on yourself but on the person you meet. How do you understand their work, especially the uniqueness of their work? What differentiates them? What is exciting about them?

So…I’m interested, what’s been your experience? What do you think? What would you add to increase our understanding of this together?

How to be the #1 Interview candidate - Energy in the Room

In your last interview did you create and sustain interview energy or did you absorb it? Think about this for your next interview: keep up your energy with alert eye contact, engaging stories, varied tone of voice, and a deep resonant understanding that you are a gift to these people. Your uniqueness and your view of the world is now in this moment a chance they are giving to you for free…and they are even listening! This is a conversation not a final examination. They need help and are getting desperate to find the right person, and you are right in front of them with your enthusiasm and knowhow. You need not be perfect, but you do need to be the solution. Don’t let the energy slip away and don’t worry if they look blankly at you: that is their job. Trust me, internally they are having a party with your ideas, your stories, your expertise.

What's been your experience with this?

How to be the #1 Interview candidate - A new twist on the 90-day plan

The worst thing the hiring manager can tell you after an interview is that you were great, but you were #2. This series of ideas is devoted to making you the #1.

By now many interviewees have read Michael Watkins book on the 90-Day plan and refer to it in their interviews promising that they will get to know everyone, detail a list of projects, etc. So, if everyone is doing that…don’t be the next one to do the same thing! What if you said, “I have read the book but I have a slightly different strategy - mine is 45-45-Day Plan. When I am new to the role, my first 45-Day plan will reflect my research, my expectations, and frankly some of my assumptions about the work. My next 45-Day plan is the booster rocket meant to propel that learning at a faster and steady pace. Each succeeding 45-Day plan helps me align with my boss, my colleagues, and with the changing market which, I believe doesn’t wait for 90 days anymore!”

So…I’m interested, what’s been your experience? What do you think? What would you add to increase our understanding of this together? And, of course, thank you for reading this!