In our final lesson, we're going to tackle the very challenging task of presentation skills. To us today, studies show that more people fear presenting in front of others than there are people fearing death itself. So if you're to become a financial executive and build your executive presence, you got to get over that hump, you've got to be able to present effectively and persuasively in front of others. When you're present with executive presence, you are connecting with your audience by building rapport before getting into the meat of your presentation. rapport comes from making strong eye contact, engaging the audience, responding to their cues, and adapting your delivery to the room. As we discussed in an earlier lesson on building rapport.
We're also going to emphasize a few key messages. Think of yourself more as a sniper and not a hunter with a shotgun executives present with a few key message and build their positions and themes around These key messages, you don't go rambling on about a whole laundry list of items that have no connection between them and their different pieces of content. Thirdly, use effective visual aids, which rarely means putting text on a PowerPoint slide, and then using your PowerPoint projector as your de facto teleprompter. Instead, you're using PowerPoint to bring a truly visual perspective to your message. in finance, that means converting tables and numbers into charts and graphs, perhaps using a picture to bring a visual sense to your financials. If your retail sales suffered because of a snowstorm in winter, well show a picture of one of your stores under a mountain of snow.
Sometimes your visual aid might be a prop, say a product sample. For instance, if you're pitching to a venture capitalist for funding, if you can show them the product, let them feel it, let them taste it if it's something that's edible, obviously And then finally, wrap up your presentation with a really strong call to action. Make your presentation meaningful, make it action driven. And that's how you become a persuasive presenter. Let's talk about a few specific areas that will help you come across with executive presence The next time you have to speak, whether it's at a staff meeting, or in front of the board of directors. First of all, conciseness is critical.
As an executive, you need to know how to cut to the chase, you need to know how to encapsulate a decision quickly and get to the bottom of the line immediately. You can then use the remaining time you have available to persuasively position your recommendation. As an executive you are adept at staying out of the weeds. This is a hallmark indication of an executive versus a technical specialist. Audiences tend to get quickly lost in the details when technical specialists present this around rises because as a technical specialist, we often feel the need to tell everything. As we feel each piece of information is important to tie together the whole picture.
As you develop executive presence you have a good feel for distinguishing between what information is tactical in nature in one hand, it doesn't need to be conveyed unless asked and what information is strategic in nature, ie is must know information. Now strategic information answers the questions of why and what if, whereas tactical information on the other hand really answers that kind of what sort of conventional thinking. So not only do we need to be concise with our words when we present, but the tone we take and the body language we show is just as important, how you say it is often more important than what you say, how you say it includes both your tone of voice as well as your body language, socio ologists Albert memoriam famously determined that our message comes from 7% only 7% from the words that we actually convey in our message 38% of the message comes from the tone of voice that we use, and 55% comes from those nonverbal cues and body language.
Your audience listens instinctively to how you speak your words, your voice, inflection acts as a highlighter of your content. So when your voice rises, they pay more attention to those words. Using vocal inflection also holds the interest as you're making your way through your message and avoids a dull and boring monotone. Consider these examples. How does this message change by simply emphasizing different words in a sentence set in a monotone The competition is stealing our customers. How about this one?
The competition stealing our customers. And this is now focusing people's thoughts on the competition. Try this one. The competition is stealing our customers. Now people are focusing on the act of losing customers. Or how about this one, the competition is stealing our customers.
Okay, so here we're focusing on the loss of our customers as opposed to other customers that are getting lost by other players. And then finally, the competition is stealing our customers, focusing people's thought on the fact that they're beating us on our customers, perhaps not our operations, or distribution or our product, but on the customer. We use our voice to allow the audience to feel our energy and drive home our key points. There's a quote here by Brewer that says if your listeners look bored, it's because you sound boring. So bear in mind that when you speak, and you speak too fast You tend to convey nervousness and inexperience. When you speak too slowly, you tend to convey that perhaps you're a slow thinker.
When you speak too softly, you imply that you're possibly bored, tired or just shy. And when you're too loud, you come across as aggressive, angry and defiant. In fact, many great presenters will vary their pace and vary their tone throughout their presentation to hold an audience's interest. Now, your message and your tone of voice should follow your body language and not the reverse. Begin with your breathing. Breathing comes from a proper posture, recall our discussion or presence, stand tall and take up space.
Body language includes your facial expressions, as well as what you do with the rest of your body during your presentation. Your body language should be consistent with your message. If you want to convey confidence with your recommendations, you must act confident listeners get completed. When you're speak one thing and the body language you present and the tone you use, or something else entirely and not in sync, body language is conveyed through the gestures that we use. What do we do with our hands as we speak. This is one of the most common unknowns for new executives.
Because gesturing is every bit as important as the tone we use and the posture we assume. gesturing however needs to come across as natural to be effective. Think of gestures as silent, but strong parts of your vocabulary. And you should feel your message and let it come through your body language. Let's practice a couple of gestures. Now.
Quite simply say the following statements using gestures using your hands. Statement number one, revenues have increased threefold over last year. Okay, so you make gesture that something like have increased three fold over last year. The cost of the lawsuit has A small impact on the financial results this quarter. The cost of the lawsuit had a small impact on the financial results this quarter. And finally, we're going to aggressively launch our new product into eight new markets the next quarter, we're going to aggressively launch the new products into the eight new markets the next quarter.
So keep in mind that is good to get your hands outside of the narrow box frame by the width of your shoulders. So anytime we're able to get out here or up here, it's conveys passion. It conveys enthusiasm, because small gestures have little impacts. So make them large enough so that they matter. When you're gesturing there are some do's and don'ts when it comes to posturing. So do keep your hands out in front of you.
Keep your palms out to the audience as this invites trust. Move towards people to become more persuasive, passionate or sincere. Do not slowly to communicate understanding listen Encouraging when you're getting feedback from someone in the audience, on the other hand, avoid clasping your hands behind your back. As this comes across as arrogant or in front of you. As this comes across as meek or even putting your hands in your pockets, which comes across as being disengaged, avoid a slouching posture, because this can obviously reduce your executive presence. It makes you come across as a victim, a loser, poor me or feel sorry for me.
On the other hand, crossing your arms in front of you, or distracting behaviors such as chewing gum or twiddling something like an elastic or a bracelet or a watch, or covering up your vital organs. These are indications of nervousness, and then finally fast knots as someone's communicating to you from the audience. This really has sent the non verbal message back to the person who is speaking to hurry up already or some impatience that you may be feeling Feeling rolling your eyes comes across as patronizing and raising your chin indicates arrogance, whereas lowering it indicates negativity and disapproval. memorizing how all these gestures and expressions can unwilling in answer destroys your executive presence, not the point that I'm trying to get across here. But the point is to remain self aware of how your body language and your tone and effect amplify or diminish your message. Because perfecting presentation skills can take a long time, years in fact, and the quickest way to build these skills is through formal education and simulated practice.
So join a speaker's forum like a Dale Carnegie or Toastmasters. Seek out his many speaking and presentation opportunities as you can find around the office, volunteering for nonprofits or other community based organizations because the more you present, the more comfortable you're going to become. And the more you will build your executive presence.