Have you ever sat in at a meeting and watched as the presenter was introduced and then he or she stepped to the front of the room and spent the next 10 minutes fiddling with their laptop and slides? I bet you have.

We have all witnessed this energy-killing scenario — probably dozens of times.

If you are a pro speaker, this situation is intolerable to you. Insist that your materials be ready for display from the first second you step in front of your audience. Your transition should be seamless. Your PowerPoint should begin as if by some special voodoo magic that your summon with the tiny clicker in your hand.

You are a pro. This is a performance. Let the magic begin.

While watching a video of leadership guru John Maxwell I almost missed a nugget of pure gold. When he first wanted to get better at speaking he developed this habit:

“I was starting to go observe communicators. When I would listen to someone speak, I wouldn’t listen too much about what the subject was. It really didn’t matter. I would ask myself one question the whole time I would listen to them speak. And the question was: ‘Are they connecting with their audience?’ ”

“And I would write down, if they were not connecting, why they were not. And if they were connecting, why they were.”

“In about two years I became a master at how to connect with an audience.”

His career success as a speaker and leadership trainer bears out the value of that strategy.

The next speaker you hear, ask yourself: “Are they connecting with their audience?” Consider taking a few notes.

As new speakers, we search for and try to lock in our style — the way we present ourselves and our content to the audience.

Early on in my career I received some very valuable advice from master coach David Greenberg. He had watched me present at a small workshop and simply stated I needed to be more conversational. I had been very professorial, after all I was the expert in the room. He said that if I really wanted to connect, I should have a conversation with my audience. I needed to loosen up.

Being more conversational doesn’t necessarily mean having an actual 2-way conversation with your audience, although that can be a great technique if handled well. What it does mean, I think, is to have a conversational tone. Think about how you would talk with a small group of friends about a great restaurant or movie you had experienced lately. That somewhat casual, real tone will be more intimate, more inviting than the formal lecturing attitude many of us have seen in the past.

Most of us develop our style in a constant, ever evolving process. Consider the idea of being more conversational in your delivery. You are letting go of some of your control but possibly opening up a closer relationship with your audience.

The default attitude for an audience before you begin might be said to be “show me.” They want to be entertained or informed or whatever. They expect you to do it. They might even be resistant to your first efforts to get them to respond.

But audiences love appropriate audience involvement — eventually. Start slow with a raised hand or a filed-in card or form. Then get them to interact with a neighbor. Then, when sufficiently warmed up, ask them to dance on the tables.

Audiences love to be involved even if they are reluctant to begin. Start slow and easy.

Thanks to Keith Schroeder, Master DJ for this idea.

Smiles are funny things (is that a pun?). They generally convey trust and happiness but in some cultures they can be seen as devious. In the Western world, however, a smile is usually a good thing.

As speakers, in our culture, our smile can be a most powerful tool to connect. A small genuine smile shows our audience we are comfortable with our message and the people we are speaking to. It can very effectively draw our audience into our words.

Many of us, myself included, don’t have a natural, casual smile when we speak. We default to serious. And that causes us to look like we are lecturing our listeners without any emotion. Add to that the very common effect that many of us have — we lose our smile when we begin to think or try to remember our material. It seems the smile is the first thing to go.

I have found two techniques to help remedy this:
1. Know your material cold. Don’t put yourself in the position of trying to search your brain for the next point. Your smile will evaporate if you start thinking.
2. Practice smiling. Get used to how it feels watching yourself in a mirror. Try different intensities. More genuine smiles also include the eyes. Video record your rehearsals and look for the appropriate smile at the appropriate time. Practice, as always, makes everything work better.

Even a serious presentation can benefit from a slight smile every now and then. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are taking your topic lightly. A small smile can covey your experience and familiarity while still showing respect with a weighty presentation.

For the naturally smile-challenged, a little experimentation and practice will go a long way.