Lynn Espinoza is a broadcast news veteran with more than a decade of media, presentation and executive coaching experience. She has developed personal coaching sessions for Fortune 100 C-level executives, corporate communicators of all kinds, doctors, lawyers and leaders in non-profit.
On Oratory and the Power of Preparation
Posted on April 28, 2008. Filed under: Latest News
You may rightly accuse me of starting the week by snagging low hanging fruit. Before reading on, spend a few seconds with this video.
One thought that has been occurring frequently for me is how nice it is to have three presidential candidates who can speak. Each is doing his or her part to bring back a form of classic oration. You may have a style preference: Obama’s silky sound and stunning choice of emotional prose; Clinton’s ability to distill intense policy language into something easily understood; McCains ability to sound like a ‘real guy’ - albeit a smart one. Whichever candidate appeals to you, you are likely to agree that their presentations are well prepared, and well practiced.
Then up comes a clip from President Bush. If he prepares for his speeches and press conferences, it doesn’t show. When he’s not on TelePrompTer, he appears to shoot from the hip. That gives him the appearance of being unprepared - whether or not that’s true.
There are executives in every industry who are gifted orators - but most of them are not. There are some executives who spend a significant percentage of time preparing and practicing in advance of a presentation. Most of them do not. The result is that too many, like President Bush, are ready for youtube.
Here are some before-the-presentation tips to help you prepare and succeed:
- Make sure that you are comfortable with the messages in your presentation - and that they are in your own words. Think of President Bush: don’t you get the sense that he’s least comfortable when he’s trying to articulate messages that his advisors designed? Speak authentically, or don’t speak.
- Get in on the ground floor of the presentation. If others are helping, make sure that you are checking in and adding your input at the beginning. It will help to make it feel like ‘yours’.
- Start practicing a week out, and practice out loud. It’s best to practice in front of people, but a mirror will do in a pinch.
- If, during practice, you keep getting stuck on a word, slide or prop - drop it or change it. If it’s messing you up in practice, it will do the same during the real thing.
- Anticipate the negative. This is where the president seems to struggle most. If you will be interacting with audience members in any way, anticipate the ways that they might throw you off, and practice getting back on track. If the video above doesn’t convince you of the importance of this, I don’t know what will.
- Remember that preparing for the audience is respecting the audience. They will instantly notice the difference, and they’ll respect you back.
And a tip for you, Mr. Bush: Silence always trumps a litany of “uhhhh”s. Slow down, breath, pause. Please. We still have the balance of the year to listen.
2 Responses to “On Oratory and the Power of Preparation”
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I am a nightly David Letterman watcher. A true fan. One of my favorite segments is a frequent bit called “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches.” In it, we frequently see FDR, JFK, Reagan, and Clinton waxing poetic. Then the segment always ends with some of the drivel you see in the video clip in this post.
I talk for a living. So it amazes me that the Leader of the Free World would not have CONSTANT COACHING on his delivery. I’m aghast and have been for years.
You wonder why we have lost the respect of most nations in the world-you can look to our president and realize that he doesn’t understand the material let alone what he is doing to the nation.