What's wrong with that? Everything. Remember you have six seconds to grab the attention of the audience. If you spend the first four minutes thanking everyone in the country your audience rightly checks out and goes back to staring at their phones.
The first four minutes of your presentation must make clear:
- You are focused on them, and..
- You have specific and meaningful information they can use.
This is not the Academy Awards. You've been asked to speak presumably because people think you have information that will help the audience. Get to it.
"But, Daniel," one CEO asked, "Don't I need to say something nice about the people who've invited me?"
The short answer is no, at least not in the beginning. If you feel you must thank the people who invited you bury that praise inside your presentation, don't use it as the lead.
In most of my presentations there is a natural place to praise the event organizer and another place to praise whoever is paying the bills. So I might be on a section about communication and comment how the event coordinator is superbly skilled as a communicator. And speaking of leadership I might say, "Your CEO, Dan Gaithers, has long been admired in this industry for his leadership. I am proud to call him a friend and I'm humbled he has asked me to speak today."
This is what Winston Churchill referred to ask "Parenthetical Praise." It seems more natural and less forced when it's embedded in the body of you text.
And besides, if every other person you see speak begins their presentation with four paragraphs of thanking everyone when you fail to do so you will stand out. There is no upside to trite, cliched, predictable speeches. Be brave. Be bold. Bury your thanks inside your presentation.
0 comments:
Post a Comment