Practice

The Audience

Practicing in front of a mirror or before your housecat is great and serves a purpose. It helps you feel comfortable with your words and the structure of your presentation. However, the benefits of flying solo are pretty limited. As we discussed earlier, any presentation consists of you, your tools, and your audience. Practicing alone cuts you off from the single most important part of your presentation: the listeners.

A practice audience is a huge help, particularly if your presentation requires stepping out of your comfort zone.

• Who: Anyone can help you out here. A subject matter expert will be able to critique any technical information you are presenting, while laymen will be able to provide more general feedback about your tone, delivery, clarity, and style.


• How many: Since you will be taking up people's time, and your goal is honest feedback, select a small but diverse group. Rehearse with one to five viewers. Select people you trust.


• How: Be clear about what you want right from the beginning. When you ask your friends or coworkers to help you rehearse, make it clear that you want their honest feedback. Then, before you begin your presentation, be very specific about what kind of feedback you expect. You could even use a checklist like the one shown here:

Find a practice audience

Seek the help of your best friend, your mom, your spouse. But don't stop there: seek the help of people who are representative of the group you are presenting to, or people who you know will disagree with you. Ask their opinions. If they disagree with your argument, make sure you find out why. This will make your argument even stronger because you can address concerns your audience is likely to have before they even raise them as questions. It also helps you prepare for the Q&A session at the end and will help you spot parts of your presentation that do not come off as intended. Remember, if your audience does not understand some part of your presentation, it is not their fault. It just means you need to find a clearer way to express that part.

Taking criticism
You have worked hard on this presentation, and odds are you feel very strongly about it. Understand that your practice audience really wants to help you, and they are only doing what you asked them to. Avoid getting defensive or explaining your decisions too much when they point out things they would have done differently. It is critical at this phase that you understand everyone presents differently. Just because your choices aren't their choices doesn't mean you are wrong, it just means you should take some time to consider what they said. If you feel strongly that your first choice was right, then by all means, stick with it! But don't rule out your friends' suggestions without serious consideration.

What to keep and what to ignore

After many years of soliciting and receiving feedback on written and verbal presentations, I have found that if I ask two people for feedback, I will get advice that points in two totally different directions. If I tried to take all of everyone's advice, I would never finish anything. Here is the lesson I have carried away about feedback: when you are working on something, your subconscious is often providing you with little bits of advice that you may choose to ignore because your conscious and rational mind just "wants it that way."

When you solicit feedback from others, sometimes your advisor will tell you something your subconscious had already told you before, but that you had chosen to ignore. When you hear the same thing coming from another human (instead of from inside you), you recognize that what they are saying is right and that you knew it all along. Good feedback then, tells you what you already knew--you just didn't want to admit it.

A last word of caution

Only select people you trust for your practice audience. Having someone be overly critical or mean-spirited at this stage can destroy your confidence. To draw a pop-culture comparison, think of American Idol. During your rehearsal stage, you don't want Simon Cowell on your feedback team. Paula Abdul would be okay, but you really want Randy Jackson, who will give you constructive and thoughtful criticism, but will not leave your confidence shredded just for kicks. A Simon-esque character might show up at your final presentation, but by then you'll be ready.

The technology

When you do your run-through, use the same technology you plan to use for the real deal, if this is possible. This is particularly helpful if you need to get familiar with new equipment or work out any glitches in the system.

Record yourself

If you want to go the extra mile toward presentation perfection, recording your practice session can provide you with an excellent perspective on your delivery habits. A recording should not take the place of feedback from a practice audience, and for some people it is simply excruciating to watch themselves on video. If you do it, you will be forced to see all your personal quirks. You'll realize just how fast (or slow) you talk when you're nervous, how much you wave your hands around, how often you say the word "interestingly" and a whole host of other nuances. Video recording is a fairly advanced rehearsal technique, and it may not be a good option for those who are already nervous or who feel uncomfortable with the general concept of standing up in front of a crowd. However, if you feel that you want to take your presentation to the next level, a video will help you see many new areas for improvement.