Recently I had the opportunity to attend a leadership conference hosted by the Mountaineers in Seattle. I looked forward to the event of speakers and networking - on of the speakers is a idol of mine, John Graham, who wrote the book on Outdoor Leadership. Through his book I began to understand the type of leader I wanted to be. Other outdoor leaders and educators would also be presenting and I was expecting a day filled with sharing information and refining our goals and objectives within ourselves and our activities.
I wasn't wrong. Each of the speakers I was privilege to listen to spoke with passion about their vocation and a desire to share what they knew. However, not all of them came prepared.
One presentation entitled Training Trainers and Coaching Coaches looked to be right up my alley. Excitedly I sat down to hear what words of wisdom the two speakers had for us. Within the first 5 minutes I knew they were going to be wasting my time and if I hadn't sat down in the front of the room, I would have quickly escaped.
They were sea kayakers. Not that there is anything wrong with sea kayakers as I am a novice one myself. But they spent most of their presentation talking about the specifics of gaining skills within the sport.
Ummm, how does this related to training trainers or coaching coaches?
Not to say they weren't experts in their field and have had years training kayakers and trainers and coaches. In fact, they were quite knowledgeable. Within the framework of their field. Try to expand out of it and they were lost. I actually began to feel sorry for them and so did other members of the audience who spoke up to try to help make the connections.
There are a few things they could have done to better prepare themselves for the presentation or to know whether or not to do it. And these are the same things you can do when invited to speak.
1. Ask questions. When asked to give a presentation, ask a barrage of questions about the venue, the organization, the audience. What does the organization represent? How big of an audience will you be speaking to? Who are you speaking to? What is there experience with this topic? Why do you want me to speak? How much time will I have? A/V equipment, will you run it or me? Do I need to bring it or you? Get as many details as you can so you can frame your presentation better.
2. Start your planning and writing with a topic. Your topic is why the organization asked you to speak. You're the expert. Based on what you know about your audience, you should be able to frame the topic/subject to help the audience better understand your presentation. Make it relate-able to THEM! You are not up there for yourself, you are up there for them.
3. And practice. Practice. Practice. Grab a few experts in the topic and ask them to listen and give you feedback. Grab a few novices in the topic, ask them to listen and give you feedback. Ask a few folks who know nothing about the topic, ask them to listen and give you feed back. Each time you are practicing. But also don't ignore the feedback. If someone has advice to make the presentation better, use it. Work with it. Then practice some more.
These are simple ways to give an audience the presentation they deserve. I wish more speakers would go back to the basics. I'm hoping you will.
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