Churchill Recipe for Presentation Impact

Giving powerful presentations multiplies your influence as a leader. The former Prime Minister Winston Churchill teaches us the recipe for giving impactful messages when public speaking. I learned this from Dr. Tim Elmore in his Habitude leadership lesson called “The Poet’s Gift.” There are 5 ingredients to Churchill’s success as a public speaker:Strong Beginning. Always begin your talks with a positive start. This can include being unpredictable. Give the audience a reason to sit up and listen to your talk.  Show you are happy or honored to be with the audience. Connect with a strong attention-grabbing beginning.One Theme. Have a singular objective for your talk. This keeps you and the audience focused. State it clearly. Your theme may be to inform, to persuade, or a call to action.Simple Language. No need to impress with fancy language. Keep your communication clear and simple. The intent is to get your message across not to wow the audience with your linguistic capabilities. This is especially important when speaking to cross cultural or global groups. Pictures. Rather than just giving an information dump, employ pictures for the audience to grasp meaning. Pictures connect to their hearts and minds. Pictures in presentations can be stories, metaphors, analogies, quotations or visuals. Make sure they support your theme and message by being credible.Emotional Ending. Audiences crave for an emotional ending to your talk that is inspiring and satisfying. Give them reason to move forward, the heart and willingness to change that connects their minds and hearts to your presentation objective.The Churchill Recipe for Impact rests on the foundation of “prepare and share.” Having trained thousands of people in public speaking, I have observed the most influential presenters do two things very well before they present employ the Churchill recipe. Both revolve around your attitude.Firstly, “Being Prepared Shows You Care.” Audiences have made a choice to listen to you. Don’t waste their time. Lower your stress, and motivate them and yourself by being prepared. Being prepared shows you care about serving them. You are more likely to achieve your presentation objective by being prepared. You are more likely to get audience attention and connection by being prepared. Spend that time to prepare to care as “winging it” rarely works.Secondly, “When You Want to Share, You Care.” The presentation is not about you. It is about sharing to serve the audience you are addressing. When you want to share to help and serve the audience, you are inspiring by your helpfulness. I have observed presenters that want to “share to care” are much better presenters because of reduced nervousness and more animated voice and gestures. This “share to care” attitude is best described by Dr. John Maxwell in his short 2 minute You Tube video on Public speaking.Click here to watch this informative video by Dr. Maxwell.Be the best you can to multiply your influence as a presenter: Employ the Churchill Recipe for Impact, Be Prepared, and Share to Care! Michael J Griffin ELAvate Master Presentation Trainer John Maxwell Team Founder