Public Speaking Tips for Presenting to Colleagues
For many of us having to present to colleagues can be the most daunting task.
They may know us well– probably too well and so over-familiarity may lead to the necessary level of respect being lacking.
If we are friends, we have probably socialised together and it can feel hard trying to change that dynamic.
Suddenly trying to assert ones authority can feel forced and unnatural and can cause resentment if not properly handled.
It is therefore critical to establish an atmosphere where your colleagues are willing to listen to you.
However it is virtually impossible to assert your authority unless they are ready to listen to you.
Respect needs to be granted: it cannot be coerced.
I worked for an organisation where on a rolling basis different members of the team were required to take charge and run an event.
Usually everything ran without friction but occasionally there could be some resistance when that day’s team leader took on an attitude of:
‘I am the superior today and I intend to assert that I am the boss.’
There is a reason why many leadership coaches come from a church or volunteer background, because if you want to influence people without resorting to the positional power that you might have as a manager, you need to be able to make them want to follow your lead and that is usually won through tact and humility.
As Lao Tzu says:
‘all streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are.
Humility gives it its power.
If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them.
If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.’
And so if that is the aim -
How do we achieve that in Public Speaking?
10 tips for presenting to colleagues
-
Be humble
The very act of standing up in front of people puts you in a position of potential arrogance.
The layout can suggest that the speaker has placed themselves in a position superior to the audience.
And it can be jarring when someone seems to crave or enjoy that position a little too much.
Socrates when he was defending himself against the charge of corrupting the Athenian youth went out of his way to suggest that if his arguments were persuasive it was not because he is a superior speaker, it was because he was simply speaking to the truth.
In the play Julius Caesar, Shakespeare gives Mark Antony a speech calculated to win over the crowd.
He establishes his humility early on. Like Socrates he is a little disingenuous as he knows very well that he has the power of rhetoric on his side and uses his skills to ‘ingratiate’ himself with his audience
‘Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest…
…Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.’
He is respectful and submissive in acknowledging that he is being allowed to speak.
Brutus, who speaks before Marc Antony also delivers an excellent speech, but Shakespeare allows him to come across as a little more ‘entitled’, when he put forward the slightly circular argument of
‘believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe’:
He comes across as entitled, implying that the audience should automatically respect his honour and therefore unquestioningly listen to him.
We like Antony a little bit more than Brutus, because we feel he is not making any assumptions by putting himself above us as he addresses us.
-
Be genuine
There is a wonderfully cynical saying, oft quoted by sales people:
‘The most important quality in sales is sincerity and once you can fake that, you are made!’
Both Mark Antony and Socrates would need to be careful, because if the audience senses that their declarations of humility as insincere, rather than feeling positive towards them they might start to feel they are being manipulated.
In the novel David Copperfield, Charles Dickens creates a character called Uriah Heep, a name that has become synonymous with a form of grovelling insincere self-abasement.
Uriah Heep tells David Copperfield:
‘I'm a very humble person, Master Copperfield, I've no wish to rise above my place.’
and uses this persona to hide his scheming and manipulative personality.
I am sure we can all think of public and political figures who even though they seem to lack all humility, still succeed in their aims because at least they seem genuine.
As speakers we should try to find some point of reference that lets our audience know that we are not intending to lecture them from a position of superiority, instead our aim is to share with them from a position of empathy.
-
Be confident
For most of us when we are speaking confidence is a projection rather than a feeling.
It is possible to be humble and confident at the same time. There is no contradiction.
‘I am confident of the value of what I have to share with you.’
When we took turns in team leading most of us would start the briefing with words similar to:
‘Any one of us could take charge. It just happens to be me today.
So bear with me as I run through the team duties.’
With an attitude like that, delivered with a degree of confidence there was never any objection.
As long as those words were genuine and sincere, there was not even a glimpse of resistance from the other team members.
-
Understand your position
On top of everything above, you may still be aware of underlying friction.
Maybe you are younger than the others, or have less experience (added to that, it seems these days there may even still be elements of racial or sexual prejudice that could affect people’s attitude to you).
A convention in the House of Commons is that when a new speaker of the house is elected, that person is pulled ‘reluctantly’ to the chair.
The pantomime portrays an attitude of:
‘I am not worthy, but if you insist, reluctantly I will comply.’
-
Separate the task
If you still sense resistance, try separating the specific task from the general situation.
if you have been asked to lead a specific project, let the colleagues understand that their co-operation is requested for this specific area; you are not suggesting that in any general sense you are superior.
-
Set clear boundaries
If you have taken note of all the suggestions above, then the next step is to clearly mark out the boundaries around your position.
Without coming across as dictatorial, politely let people know what your responsibilities are, where and how you will need support and if possible or desirable let them know that your position of authority ends at the boundaries of the given project.
Strangely if you establish this, you will find that over time your authority in this one area will start to spill over into other areas and because of your character, your colleagues will start to feel more comfortable granting you authority in other areas as well.
-
Establish distance
Finding the right posture will be an exercise in balance: not too familiar to undermine your authority and not too distant to seem aloof.
The truth is that when the balance of a relationship is redefined, things change!
One witting description of a manager trying to have it all (maybe think David Brent) is:
‘Don’t think of me as your boss, think of me as a friend who is always right!’
On some level we know that is never going to work out.
Be realistic.
You can still go the bar with the team, but how they view you might have shifted, so you should neither unnecessarily assert your new status, nor try to continue as if nothing has happened.
And maybe much of learning to become a leader is dependent on understanding how to handle the new status within old relationships.
-
Your CV
It is important that you understand why you are in this new position.
Maybe, as in the rolling team leader roles that I described above, it is due to chance fate or circumstance. In which case acknowledge that and move on.
Maybe it is because of some specific experience that you have won.
In which case let them know you are there not because of some general superiority, but simply because you have a level or knowledge or experience in this specific area.
It may be enough for you just to remind yourself of these reasons, so that you can feel more confident and come across as humble and genuine.
On the other hand you may find it necessary at the beginning of the presentation to lay clearly out your credentials and experience, particularly if there is a danger that through over-familiarity, your colleagues have lost sight of the justice of your position.
-
Ask for support
Support that is asked for and granted will always be more freely given than support that is demanded.
It is not by chance that Mark Antony says:
‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;’
while Brutus starts with:
‘Romans, countrymen, and lovers! Hear me for my cause’
At first glance they are similar calls for attention, but while Mark Antony is asking for ears to be ‘leant’, Brutus is demanding that his audience ‘hear me for my cause’.
In classic films the power hungry king is often portrayed as grabbing the crown and placing it on his own head, while the worthy candidate waits to be crowned.
(Don’t snatch – it’s rude, especially in matters of authority.)
-
Talk to individuals
If after all of the above you still sense a resistance in your audience, it will probably be down to one or two individuals. It might be worth identifying them and speaking to them on an individual basis and by taking on board all the above, and using the speaker’s all important ‘eye-contact’ to establish confidence, belief and honesty, address any outstanding issues and ask them for their support!
Let them know how they can help and how appreciative you would be.
