A Confusion of Aims

That seems to the main problem with a lot of public speaking training as well.

There is no shortage of books, CDs or DVDs on presentation that will show you how to deepen your voice, improve your body language, calm your nerves, increase your eye contact, tighten your structure, sharpen your writing or simplify your PowerPoint.

There is advice on what to wear, where to stand, when to pause, how to gesture and who to look at.

There are coaches, trainers and gurus of every stripe and persuasion, all willing to help you manage your image, heighten your charisma and project your authority, for a modest fee, of course.

But few people seem to have much to say about the aim of your presentation. It’s almost as if that is too obvious.

And yet, while most of the speakers I see could use some coaching on how they present themselves and their material, the most obvious failing of the vast majority of them is a confusion of aims. They simply don’t seem to have given much thought to why they are speaking or what they are trying to achieve.

It’s as if they were going on a trip and ended up packing a goose down coat, a swim suit, a tuxedo and a pair of hiking boots. A little thought to their intended destination would have clarified what they needed to take and what they didn’t.

A little thought about where you are going – the aim of your presentation – before you start writing or creating PowerPoint slides, will go a long way towards clarifying what you need to put in and what you ought to leave out.