5 Steps to a Great Presentation

Some presentations are like Chinese food; a couple of hours later you can’t remember what you had or heard. It does not have to be that way. We can learn from the great leaders in sports, politics and business who have the powerful ability to influence and inspire action while leaving a lasting, positive impression with their audience.

Here are 5 tried-and-true steps for preparing and delivering a powerful and memorable presentation::

1. Begin Strongly. Begin with a quote, illustrative anecdote or description of danger. Hook your audience with a great opener.
2. One Theme. A speech is like a spotlight –  be focused. What is the message that you want the audience to take away?
3. Conversational Tone.  Don’t use sentences that are unnatural to the way you would normally talk.
4. Analogy. Use metaphors, analogies or anecdotes to illustrate your main theme or subject.
5. Close Dramatically. End with a strong call to action – an inspirational anecdote and/or an appeal to human emotion –  for example, hope, fear, pride.

To illustrate these points, I would like to share a speech by Yankee great, Lou Gehrig, as he bids farewell to baseball on July 4,1939  He speaks sincerely, deeply and with passion….in a way that engages and moves us.

Opener/Hook: 

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got.

Theme/Message:

Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

• I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement.
• Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert; also the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow; to have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins; then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology – the best manager in baseball today – Joe McCarthy!
• Sure, I’m lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift, that’s something!
• When everybody down to the groundskeeping and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that’s something.
• When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter, that’s something.
• When you have a father and mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, it’s a blessing!
• When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dream existed, that’s the finest I know.

Closing

So I close in saying that I might have had a tough break; but I have an awful lot to live for!

Try this winning formula the next time you are asked to give a presentation or speech. Your audience will never forget you, or your message.

 About the Author: James Saik is the founder and Principal Consultant of Saik & Co, a leading management advisory firm focused on talent, compensation, and human resources strategy. James is a passionate advocate of servant leadership, having served both large and small organizations throughout his corporate career and in his consulting business. You can contact James on Twitter @james_saik and follow him on LinkedIn. James’ personal blog is at www.saikhrconsulting.com