NLP for people who like to think for themselves!
The latest Pegasus NLP Newsletter is the first in a new series on using NLP in the workplace.
Being able to present our ideas confidently, clearly and professionally is an important career skill because whether we are presenting to a small meeting or to a large gathering we are on show and are being judged by our audience.
Most newbie presenters focus on gathering their facts, organising these, and spending hours preparing the almost inevitable PowerPoint presentation.
The most skilful presenters, on the other hand, also recognise the critical importance of their own non-verbal communication. They, too, gather and organise their information. But they also pay close attention, in their preparation and in their delivery, to their appearance, mannerisms, eye contact, gestures, stance, voice tonality, etc. knowing that these are the factors which subliminally/emotionally impact people and form their impression of the speaker.
And, if the skilled presenter is NLP trained, they will be using a huge range of other tools for additional impact – including ensuring that both message and manner of delivery style meet the needs of the different thinking styles which different people in their audience will be using: thinking in pictures, thinking in sounds, thinking in feelings, as well as the more widely recognised factual and analytical thinking.
Skilful presenters know that ‘people by people first – and only then do they buy their ideas, products, or services’.
I think that all these ideas are excellent and if you can make them work for yourself, you will do a great job. People become Presidents just because they master these things.
There is something I would like to add, which for me was a critical turning point, and that is belief in what I was saying, at least at the time I was saying it. If you really believe in what you are saying, and you present your material in a genuine way, your audience will be on your side.
I had all the training you could find on things such as eye-contact, pacing, tonality and so on and I tried hard to use it but I never felt right. It was only when I decided to put all this know-how to one side and talk about what I really believed that it came together. And then a strange thing happened – all the know-how came back and fell into place.
I think Reg is exactly right when he says that people buy people first. I think the key to that is to be genuine and if you are seen as such then all the stumbles and stutters in your presentation will not even be noticed.
You’re absolutely right, Graham. Walking your own talk makes a huge difference.
It moves the tips in the newsletter from being just at the Behavoural and Skills levels of the Personality Map (Neuro-Logical Levels) to being at the Beliefs and Identity levels.
If you believe in what you say this comes across non-verbally and impacts your audience – if you don’t… ditto!
So that’s got to be a given – the bottom line.
Yet, even if you believe in your message, missing out on the other practical skills points makes it more difficult for your audience to buy you – and therefore more difficult for them to buy your message.
We often have a very finite time slot in which to make a good impression so let’s use everything that helps. Perhaps it’s not a matter of ‘either or’ but of ‘and and’ – i.e. walking the talk… and doing it skillfully.
In response to the request for other presenting ticks, I had the dubious pleasure of a day long presentation designed for new school governors earlier this week.In addition to being a great demonstration of poor tonality, pace, eye contact and so on, the (ex-teacher) presenter insisted on clicking his fingers repeatedly to get a response to questions he was asking. It was like being back at school, in a rather poor lesson…
I’d also like to offer my support to Graham’s comment – feeling passionate about a subject generally leads to much more engaging delivery, as passion is hugely infectious. I believe that presenters can get away with a few of the “obvious” errors if they are personally excited about their topic.