When it comes to effective communication, establishing your message and delivering it with gusto and confidence is key, says Mary Gannon, executive vice president at Edelman Media & Presentation Coaching. Decide up front that your delivery will go well, and remember: your audience wants you to succeed.
Read the full transcript of Gannon’s interview below:
Number one, you’ve got to have your messages up front, and a lot of people don’t think like that. They think well, “I can just react to what’s happening.” Number two, you have to deliver with gusto. You’ve got to show your passion. I coach a lot of clients mostly in industries around the country and their delivery isn’t up to … They’ve got to have that passion or forget it.
Then you’ve got to answer questions in a way that drive back to those messages. There are obviously a lot of elements and there’s no one solution, but it’s [about] confidence. Showing your confidence even if you don’t feel it.
I think final thoughts are to put yourself in the shoes of the audience more than you might think is necessary. As CLOs, learning is your thing, but I think oftentimes we’re in that mode of, “I’m going to tell you everything there is to tell you” instead of what’s important for them to walk away with.
Then walking in with whether you like to present or you like to communicate to an audience, you’ve got to fake it a little bit. Not fake it until it isn’t authentic, but perform instead of thinking, oh, that didn’t go too well. It’s up to you to decide it’s going to go well. So it’s a little bit of telling yourself a different story. Final thought, remember, the audience wants you to succeed. The audience wants you to be a good presenter, so when you look at it that way, it’s a little bit different from an “Am I going to screw up?” mode. That will fail inevitably.
