Give that PUNCH to your Leadership Presentation!!

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Give that PUNCH to your Leadership Presentation!!

I attended Project Management National Conference 2015 (PMNC), held in Bangalore from 10-12th September 2015, and this was unquestionably the most popular and marquee event on Project Management in India. Speakers loved the hallowed podium inside the auditorium filled with enthusiastic crowd and volunteers. The 1000+ delegates carried back some great messages shared by the speakers. While every speaker did their best, I found some speakers were able to make more powerful impact than the others. You may have experienced a presentation where the speaker left you inspired, wanting more and excited to sign up for whatever they had to offer. I tried to reflect what made some speakers more impactful than others? Undoubtedly, the content has to be rich. For selling a product, we know, that ‘packaging’ is as important as ‘product’; similarly for selling YOUR ideas through presentation the ‘content delivery’ is as important as the ‘content’. The “impactful” speakers connects well with the audience, they express emotions through their pitch and voice intonation, they carefully time their pauses and most importantly use PUNCH LINES in their presentation. Good speakers will always have a handful of such PUNCH LINES in their repertoire which they execute very meticulously during their presentation. We may not remember the entire content after the presentation, but it is the PUNCH LINES or those key forceful (sometimes emotional) thoughts that gets imprinted in our minds. The PUNCH LINES are always SIMPLE with absolutely NO JARGONS, WELL RESEARCHED and purported to make QUICK CONNECT with the audience. Impactful speakers will build their point slowly and steadily, make sure audience gets emotionally hooked to the point, make a well-timed pause, then make sure they flash the right content on screen and off they will blow the audience with their PUNCH LINE. The audience will spontaneously reciprocate with a synchronized and deafening applause. Ms. Deepa Malik, Athlete (Paraplegic) used a powerful punch line during her presentation in PMNC on “Winning Against Odds – Ability in Disability”. She unfolded her life’s story on how she managed herself, and battled various challenges like debilitating tumor in spine, daughter’s accident, husband being away for discharging his duties for Indian Army. She mentioned that nothing could stop her from chasing her dreams and she went on to participate in beauty contest. When one of the jury members asked if she ever thought of her disability before participating, she responded with this powerful punch line “No medical problem can stop me from feeling beautiful”. Dr Devi Shetty, another keynote speaker, made a case on how he could develop affordable health care solutions for all, when the western world is looking with surprise and veneration. Then he made his statement with these two punch lines; “A solution is not a solution unless it is affordable” and “Charity is not scalable but a good business model is”. Similarly Nandan Nilekani, first explained the architecture solution used for the Aadhar project, (bio metrics to give unique identity to 1.1+ billion Indian population) then went on to say how innovative management practices were used to manage 30,000 people manning the bio metric collection centers with only 300 Aadhar staffs. And then used the punch line “Complex project cannot be managed by traditional tools. We need to collect data and use data analytics to manage the complexity”.

 Recently Honorable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi made a presentation on Digital India to a gathering of CEOs from Silicon Valley at San Jose on 27th September 2015. To state that world’s most innovative ideas germinate there, he opened his speech with this punch line “California is one of the last places in the world to see the sun set. But, it is here that new ideas see the first light of the day” and no prize for guessing how loud was the applause from the Titans of Technology and Innovations.

On the success of Mars Mission in 2014, where Indian Scientists put the satellite in Mars in the very first attempt with the least expenditure compared to all missions undertaken till date , Modi had famously remarked “A one-km auto rickshaw ride in Ahmedabad takes Rs 10 and India reached Mars at Rs 7 per km which is really amazing“.

Leader and Project Managers like us also need to use such PUNCH LINES during our business presentations especially where the stakes are very high, e.g. where the presentation will decide funding/no funding of our future project/s. Carefully crafted PUNCH LINES says a lot about you. It shows whether or not you’ve put any thought or effort (research) into the mission of your business presentation. It communicates whether or not you have a clear direction or vision about what you have to offer. Your PUNCH LINES gives your business a personality and it communicates your purpose. I call it a signature, because I believe that it should be personal and distinct and make your presentation outstanding.

 Well.. This is what I thought. Will be happy to hear what you think!!

 [Reference: This is also the editorial content of October 2015, edition of PM Essence , the journal on Project Management from PMI Bangalore India Chapter]

http://www.pmibangalorechapter.in/index.php/member-services/pm-essence-newsletter