A Powerful Performance

This is what many people think I do as a speaker coach. Help people with their performance and presence on the stage. And I do. But it is only one part, an essential part, but a later part of what I do with my clients.

I have seen too many people rush to performance coaching before they have sorted out the prior things we talked about in this OTS series. This has the same effect as putting lipstick on a pig. Improving your performance is great, but you will still not accomplish your goals if your underlying message is a mess.

What is performance?

In this context, I mean performance in the same way you would talk about performing a play. Performance is imbuing your words with emotion, personality and human meaning. It is everything that your audience sees, hears and feels.

If you have ever watched a professional magician on the stage, you will note that everything is staged, crafted, practised and perfected. Not just the magic trick but also the entrance onto the stage. And the expression on the performer’s face when something doesn’t seem to go quite right.

-That is performance.

Why is it important?

A good performance is memorable, but more than that, a great performance draws us into the performer's world on stage. At times, we become them, as we can see or feel what they see or feel. This creates a powerful bond.

I still remember hearing that Robin Williams had died. I was gutted. I had never met Robin, and there was no chance I ever would. He certainly never heard of me; he didn’t know I existed. Yet we had a shared history. I felt things through his performances in Mork & Mindy, Good Will Hunting, Mrs Doubtfire, and countless talk show interviews.

You may not desire to be an entertainer, but even in the most serious board presentations, there are benefits to incorporating elements of good performance. Just a touch of performance magic can bond your audience to you and make them more likely to follow you on your journey.

What are the building blocks?

I intend to give you the basic building blocks of good performance so you can immediately apply some concepts to your talks, presentations or pitches. When you are aware of these things and try to use them, you will start seeing them everywhere in the world.

But before we get into the building blocks, I want to address the number one enemy of good performance and public speaking in general…

Time dilation

If you have ever seen a toddler about to tumble off a high chair, table or wall, particularly if it is your child, you will have experienced Time Dilation. Your mind becomes hyperfocused and speeds up so much that it feels like time has slowed down. You compute the probabilities, possibilities and your ideal reactions in a flash. Then you act.

The same phenomenon occurs for most of us when we go on stage. We get a burst of adrenaline, which kicks our mind into overdrive, and time appears to slow down. Unfortunately, the adrenaline makes us rush if we are not used to it. We spit out words quickly, and even a momentary pause seems too long, and we rush on.

This is what you need to fight against to perform effectively. My tournament fighting career spanned 10 years (‘86-‘96), and the key to success was to direct your adrenaline, to use it rather than let it use you. Beginners were easy to spot because they moved almost jerkily, rushing from one combination to the next.

The key is to practice enough that you are confident in your abilities, have put your words (or combinations) together well and trust that they will have the desired effect.

- Movement

So, let’s start the performance from the beginning and from the ground up. The way you walk up to take your place on the stage is part of your performance. You should confidently walk to the spot you will occupy on stage with a smile. Stop and pause, claiming the stage. This tells the audience that they are in safe hands.

Your stance is important. You should be balanced and steady. You must work to remove any swaying or nervous shifting of your feet. You want to be rooted to the ground.

In life, I am a pacer. I think better when I am walking, and as a child, I would drive my mother mad by furiously pacing around the coffee table while mentally working out a difficult problem. So, I understand the urge to pace on stage. But you must realise that it is distracting for the audience, and if it is being filmed, it is difficult for the camera crew and a nightmare for the editor.

-That is why TED has the Red Dot, to keep the speakers in one spot for better videos.

This is not to say that some movement is not warranted; it should be intentional movement tied to your point. The rule is that you stop talking while you move, and you start talking again when you are rooted in a new position.

- Gestures

“What do I do with my hands?”

It is a strange question. It isn’t as though they just appeared when you walked on the stage. What do you usually do with your hands?

And that is the rub because it turns out, day to day, we never think about what we are doing with our hands, but we become acutely aware of them when we are on stage, usually as a result of some well-meaning but unfortunate advice we have received.

Authenticity is critical to your performance. Even in a play or screenplay where you are pretending to be someone else, paradoxically, the authenticity of the performance makes the lie believable. Trying to be someone else with your gestures or trying to control them in a different way is obviously inauthentic.

My best advice to people concerned about this is to say, “You worry about your talk and the audience, and let the hands do whatever the hands do.”

Putting them behind your back or in your pockets isn't ideal, but it isn’t the worst that can happen, and most people usually don’t talk in those positions.

Aside from that, there should be some key gestures in your talk. Big gestures at key moments.

If you are on stage, they should be big gestures. Spread your arms wide. Cock your head to the side. Step and lean forward as if whispering conspiratorially. The occasional big gesture grabs the attention of the audience. These should be given with, or precede, a major point you want to make in your talk.

The same can and should be included in a virtual presentation, but the scale of the movement or gesture is limited by the camera and the screen. There are also different options that you can use in virtual presentations, such as changing the camera, zoom or switching from slide view to speaker view at key moments.

- Elements of Delivery: Pace, Pitch, Power & Pause

Our spoken language has a rhythm of its own, in the same way that a song does. A monotoned song does not do well, neither will a monotone talk. You need to vary the pace, pitch, and power of your words in context, or occasionally in contrast, with your content.

Pauses are incredibly effective from the stage and probably the hardest to master. They feel longer for you on stage than they do for the audience. But a pause focuses the audience, they are willing you to continue, while wondering what you will say. Pauses are the most powerful weapon in your armoury.

In a previous issue of this OTS series, we discussed the importance of contrast in emotion. There also needs to be some contrast in your Pitch, Pace & Power. It must change throughout your presentation or become boring for the audience.
-Regardless of how important the content is.

How to improve performance

It can be difficult to improve your performance because what you think is happening in your mind is not exactly what others see. This is why a trusted coach who knows what you want to achieve and has the experience to help you is invaluable.

If you don’t have a coach, you should record yourself and critically watch your delivery, looking at how well the performance matches the content and if it is taking the audience on the journey you want to take them on. From there, it is just iterating and refining until you are happy.

It also helps to play with these things.

When you know your talk well try to say it as fast as you can. Try to slow it dooowwwnnn. Try interspersing the speed.

Do the entire talk in a high pitch. Low pitch. Do over the top gestures. Do it as a robot or statue might.

This all sounds silly, and it is, but you will be surprised at the insights that come out of playing with your talk like this. It is also a great tool to help you memorise and become comfortable with your topic.

Bonuses of practising performance early

As soon as I have some of the elements of my talk worked out I am using gestures or movement when rehearsing it. Our memories are wonderful things, and the more we can attach to something, the better we remember it.

A significant part of our memory is in our body. So often, I forget what I was supposed to say next, but because I practised the movement, I felt the body move, and the mind remembered its lines. So, I encourage you to play with gestures early in practising your material. Your gestures will be refined as your words are refined through the process.

Props and PowerPoint

These are part of performance but because PowerPoint in particular is such a big subject, I have left them to an issue of their own. And too many people lean on PowerPoint as a crutch for structure, memorisation and performance, so it is one of the last things I go through with my clients.

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I look forward to seeing you at the Virtual Speakers Success Summit!

Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section where I dive into a famous (or not so famous) quote and explore how this can apply to the Compelling Communicator.

This is a more philosophical quote than I usually wrestle with here, but I couldn’t help thinking about the inverse and it’s relevance to speaking from the stage.

First at face value, there are some lessons we can glean. If you try too hard to come across as The Authority or The Expert, then the chances are you will be seen as a try-hard or want-to-be.

The more you lean into trying to portray yourself as something more than you feel you are, the less authentic you will become to the eyes of your audience.

But the inverse is also true:

“Vulnerability is strength disguised as weakness”.

When used properly, vulnerability proves your strength by showing that you do not fear your own weakness. Vulnerability can be a small admission, such as, “I struggle with spreadsheets.” Or it could be the story of a major event in your life.

But you don’t want to share sob stories for sympathy. This is a mistake I see far too often. The story is only as good as its relevance and the lessons learned that you can share with your audience.

Admitting something shameful in your past must be attached to a lesson and should not be used for shock value. Similarly, a privileged story of something you were fortunate enough to experience should not come across as bragging but as an honest sharing and reflection of the event.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

I am looking forward to the Virtual Speakers Success Summit this week and am working on my presentation. Please register for the event, even if the time isn’t ideal. the first part of the week I am out of town filming for another project.

Recreationally:

My regular D&D group is switching to Pathfinder 2, and I am having teething issues with the new format and action-oriented turns. But I am confident that when we have it sorted, it will be great.

What I am watching:

I finished watching The Fallout Series, which I was very impressed with. I also spent the last few weeks watching Harry Potter movies. I wasn’t sure I had seen them all, but the final two are left to go. It was interesting to see the characters grow up through the series.