Chapter 1
The Key Behaviors of (Almost) All Successful Presenters
Be sincere, be brief, be seated.
UNITED STATES PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Roosevelt’s recommendation is smart advice for any presenter, whether English is your first, second, third, or tenth language. The most successful presenters speak from their hearts, get to the point, and wrap it up before the audience gets bored or overwhelmed. Of course, this is usually easier said than done. Before we get into specific detail about how to make an effective presentation in English, we think it would be very helpful to review the common characteristics of effective presentations in general. Here are ten behaviors exhibited by the most successful presenters inany culture:
1. They deliver a message with credibility and sincerity. No matter what the actual topic is, most presentations are persuasive; the goal of the presentation is to convince the audience of the validity and value of what you are presenting to them. (Even if you are presenting an informational status report, you want your audience to believe that the details you are providing are both true and useful.)
Therefore, it is critical that the audience buys in to your main points. In no other media of communication is the person delivering the information as important as the message itself. If the audience does not believe inyou, they’re not going to believe in your ideas. A good example of this is a medical professional who hosts a TV show about new advances in medicine. Even though this doctor may be selling products that have no real medicinal value (and no scientific support to back up their health claims), if the doctor comes across to the audience as believable, credible, and sincere, people will line up to buy the product. The same holds true in reverse: If the doctor appears to be a quack or a phony, the audience will have nothing to do with what he or she is selling, even if the products are actually effective.
Never doubt that the messenger is equally as important as the message.
If you want to get across an idea, wrap it up in a person.
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER RALPH BUNCHE
2. They speak in a way that is easy to understand. It goes without saying that if the audience cannot understand you, they’re not go
