When presenting data or analysis to senior executives or committees it’s obvious that if they don’t understand your message then they won’t your concept. But something equally important is the issue of actually understanding the presenter e.g. the speed at which you talk, the way you pronounce words, or a strong regional accent can all influence the clarity of your message. One easy way to fix this problem is to articulate every word.

I’ve presented at a small conference – 90 people – the presenter before me was a Doctor. She was presenting some very important research about the need to use sustainable materials in the construction of public sector housing. A very important message; Al Gore, after-all, got a Nobel Prize for work on a similar theme.

But she mumbled her way through the presentation, mostly with her back to the audience reading her slides. Despite having a microphone the audience struggled to hear or understand what she was saying. Amongst her worst faults were dropping the ends of her words, especially when the letters, T or D, or ING were involved. This had the effect of making her mumble even more difficult to understand. And then when she noticed that the audience were losing interest she started to rush, which made comprehension even worse.

If she’d asked here’s the advice I would have given her: ANNUNCIATE! Specifically, pronounce every single word properly. The effect it has is to:

1. Slow you down so that you are better understood by your audience
2. Allow you to breath properly because you have slowed down, hence you don’t swallow your words
3. Allow you to think, so you can go off-script and really react to your audience
4. Make your facial muscles congruent with what you are saying.

Don’t underestimate the power of proper pronunciation it can have a dramatic effect on your presentation. Here’s how you do it.

The minute you close this article go to your nearest bookshop and buy “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr Seuss. Read it out loud for at least three consecutive nights before a presentation. Re-read it again just before your presentation. Then marvel at how much more time you seem to have and how much better your audience rates to what you say.

Remember if they can’t understand you, they won’t buy your ideas.

The real secret to giving a good presentation is for the presenter to be “up” and have a great deal of energy. Under the best of circumstances, this can be a challenge to do, if you’ve had a really bad day it can appear to be darn near impossible.

So what’s a presenter to do? Fran Capo is a motivational speaker / comedian who has had to face these types of situations. Ultimately it’s all mental – you’ve got to get yourself into the right frame of mind. Sounds easy doesn’t it? In reality if you don’t know how to do this, it can be quite hard.

Fran has a number of suggestions for how we can gather our wits about ourselves on the worst days of our lives and still deliver a knockout presentation:

1. Breathe Correctly: when things start to go bad for us we screw up our breathing – we take many short breaths. Realize this and stop, take a moment to focus on your breath, and take a few deep, long breaths. This will start to calm you down.
2. Adjust Your Attitude: How you choose to view a situation is entirely up to you. No matter how bad the day has been so far, you are in control of how the rest of it turns out. Realizing this and forcing yourself to think positively is the key to making your presentation come off perfectly.
3. Put It In A Box: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten bad news just before I was to go on and give a presentation. In order to prevent life’s little hand grenades from destroying your presentation, you need to learn to put your negative emotions in a box and slam it shut when you don’t have time to worry about them. However, be sure to open it later on and process your emotions when you have the time.

We can’t prevent life from handing us lemons before, during, or after our presentations. However, with a little care and some understanding of how we deal with bad news, the show can still go on.