Four minutes into our presentation to mechanical contractors at their conference in Kansas City, I turned to my daughter Katy, who was presenting with me, and put her in an impossible situation. I skipped over part of the presentation we had carefully outlined together and led her to an entirely different topic than she thought she was going to be talking about at that point.
Here’s what makes Katy a pro: No one but Katy and I knew that I had blown it.
The audience never knew because Katy didn’t advertise my mistake, instead she followed the first rule of improv: Flow with whatever comes before you.
Powerful presentations are not perfect presentations.
Whether it’s your partner who throws you a curve (like I did) or a projector that crashes, a microphone that dies or a disruption you can’t control like slamming doors or a noisy environment, you always have two basic directions to go as a presenter:
1. Keep your poise and never let the audience know there was a mistake or a mishap.
2. Address the situation immediately and bring your audience in on it quickly.
Here are the key criteria to determine which path to follow: If the audience isn’t aware of the glitch, there’s no reason to bring it to their attention. Keep your poise and move on. If the audience can tell there is a glitch of some sort—a power outage, a slide that doesn’t work, a loud crash somewhere outside of the room where you are presenting, then don’t pretend it didn’t happen. Address the situation immediately.
No matter what the glitch is—human, technical, or environment—how you handle the glitch is more important than the glitch itself. The audience takes its cues from you, the presenter. If you look ruffled, they’ll feel ruffled. If you keep your poise they will either never know a glitch occurred or the glitch won’t make them feel uncomfortable.
How to Make it an Audience Engagement Opportunity
When the situation is obviously a glitch that everyone can see or hear, own it. And then use it as an opportunity to create an engaging presentation.
One way to do that is to ask the audience simple questions like, “Don’t you hate when you take all that time to prepare for something and what goes wrong is something you really couldn’t imagine?” You’ll get head nods and a few smiles. Then take the glitch and put it to use. Whatever the topic of your presentation, pivot from the glitch and ask your audience how they would suggest handling a glitch in (insert the topic of your presentation here).
For example: Sales presentation. “How would you handle a surprise in the sales cycle from a new competitor or an unanticipated price drop from a competitor?”
Organizational presentation. “As prepared as we hope to be in the fourth quarter, something unanticipated is going to happen. What do you think the two or three most important things we can do when something unanticipated comes up?”
Product demonstration. “I know you might be thinking I should be embarrassed since the product isn’t working the way we told you it would, but this is actually when we are at our best. Our products are awesome, but our people are better. If things don’t work exactly the way you expect we’ll be there for you to correct it. What’s the biggest product fail you ever experienced? How did your organization handle it?
In each of those scenarios you use the glitch to draw the audience into your presentation instead of blocking them out and pretending it didn’t happen. Those ad-libbed Q&A sessions can produce great engagement for the audience and great insight for you as the audience members share their perspective.
We would all love to give a perfect presentation, but trust me, that’s not going to happen. Your audience doesn’t expect you to be perfect. They expect you to be professional and they expect you to handle whatever comes up without panicking. The goal is connection, not perfection. Improving executive presentation skills means improving flexibility while giving presentations.
The Safety Net
A good way to maintain poise is to give yourself a safety net. For every presentation I give, I make sure I have low-tech options available like a flip chart, a whiteboard, pen and paper, Post-It Notes, along with the high-tech options like video and PowerPoint.
High-tech tools will fail sometimes. Low-tech tools won’t (unless you forget to bring markers for the flipchart or white board).
As you practice your presentation, try a run through where the technology does fail and you have to do the entire presentation using only low-tech tools. It will give you the confidence that you can handle what comes up—even when it’s something you don’t expect.
The Shift
When you handle glitches with poise, when you learn to decide on the fly whether to sail through the glitch or to draw your audience’s attention to it, you will discover that the glitch can become your ally. How you handle the glitch will tell your audience everything it really needs to know about you. Are you the kind of pro who doesn’t come apart under pressure? Are you the kind of pro who can think on her feet? Are you the kind of professional who shows up prepared and then shows the ability to adjust on the fly?
It's one thing to tell your audience that you are that kind of pro, it’s another thing to demonstrate that with how you handle the unpredictable problem, the glitch. Since most people don’t handle glitches very well, it’s another opportunity for you to stand out from the crowd, just like Katy did without hanging her father out to dry!