Presenting You: How to identify your Communication SuperPowers

OR Why there needs to be a new approach to Presentation Training

“Listing people’s weaknesses is often a dead end. When someone holds a spotlight on weaknesses it often shifts the person’s confidence and focus from where their talent lies. This is counterproductive as you need to build skills and and encourage self-belief, not undermine someone at a time of critical development”

- When She’s in The Room, Edwina Dunn (The Female Lead)

There is a point in our LookUP sessions on Supercharging your presenting skills, where people feel really uncomfortable. It’s not, as you might expect, the first time they have to get up and talk in front of their peers (although they don’t love that part, no-one does).

It’s actually when we ask their peers to identify their superpowers in how they communicate with the room. They have to stand in front of the group, having finished their presentation, and receive positive feedback as to the particular qualities they possess that make their communication unique to them. 

“You’re really calm”

“I feel like you really know what you’re talking about”

“You have this warm energy”

It’s a very ‘British’ quality: finding positive feedback difficult. And yet, in presenting, it’s a game changer. The voices in our heads are already doing a good enough job of giving us the negative spin. “Do people really care about what I have to say?” “What if I forget something?” “What if I go red?”. We don’t need more negative messages, yet that is the approach that so many training courses use in this space. 

At LookUP, we believe an alternative approach is long overdue. One where we identify our unique SuperPowers, and hone in on them, focusing on what makes us different, and what comes naturally, rather than enforcing a cookie cutter approach to how we communicate to others.

Welcome to the LookUP approach: ‘Presenting You’ 

Why ‘Presenting You?’

We’ve talked before about the sweaty palmed moment we all experience when we’re asked to introduce ourselves to a room. It’s material that we’re all really familiar with (ourselves!) but it’s often when we feel our nerves come to the fore, particularly in the presence of our peers. 

Our approach starts with how to tell your personal story. We get you really good at crafting the killer elevator pitch for yourself, and then help you craft the best way to present it, leaning into your own Communication SuperPowers. 

You can find all of our advice and examples in our month of Personal Brand StoryTelling here:

What does a good StoryTeller look like? 

From here on, we’ll talk about ‘StoryTelling’ rather than presenting, because that’s what you’re ultimately doing. Whether it’s a killer TED talk, or pitching an idea to a client or your team, we are asking someone to buy into our story. 

Too often we think of the people in these situations as big, charismatic speakers. People who were born to stand on a stage and express themselves in a way which delivers a standing ovation. However, the opposite is often true. Many of the people we assume were born with confidence simply learned how to lean into their own style of communication, have been taught skills to supercharge their impact, and have practised, practised, practised. 

Let’s look at a few examples. For the purposes of comparison, these are all women. (depending on which report you read, anxiety about presenting affects anywhere from 40-78% of people would list public speaking as their number one fear, but women still come in at higher percentages than men). 

Greta Thunburg: Environmental Activist 

This is one of Greta’s first environmental speeches. You can hear from the start that she’s nervous (who wouldn’t be, she was a 12 year old girl at the time), but she regains her composure. Her rhythm and clipped style of speaking makes her all the more impactful, as does the ferocity of her message. Greta is known for having Aspergers Syndrome and selective mutism, but has learned to become one of the most revered speakers in the environmental space. 

Jacinda Ardern: ex PM New Zealand 

This is Jacinda’s last speech to parliament after her resignation from her position as Prime Minister of New Zealand. She isn’t a typical political communicator. She has a distinct lack of bullishness, and is known for speaking at a slow and deliberate pace. She shows empathy throughout, pauses to let her points sink in, and is open and transparent about things that may seem like weakness. 

Emma Watson: Actress and UN Ambassador 

You might assume that someone who has grown up in the limelight might be oblivious to the fear of public speaking. And yet Emma Watson has been very open about how terrified she was before her first major address on gender equality at the UN. This video shows a later speech, and you can still hear the tremble in her voice and she has to pause and gather herself before she starts. 

Kae Tempest: Author, Spoken Word Artist, Playwright, Poet 

Kae is known for her electrifying performances and her ability to connect with people via her words (I remember seeing her at Glastonbury for the first time years ago, and the tent was spellbound). Their drive to rap and develop language and lyrics was borne out of anxiety as a teenager and ever since they have crafted their own unique style of communication. 

4 amazing communicators. All of them leaning into what makes them, and only them, compelling. 

This shift of perception when it comes to what ‘good’ looks like in speaking is even more important when it comes to allowing the more introverted personalities in our teams and wider lives to have their moment to express their ideas. 

Susan Cain has become the poster child for this thought, known for the popular Ted Talk on the Power of Introverts (the full TED talk is well worth a listen).

As she points out, there is no correlation between how good an idea is; and how loudly someone expresses it, and we need to reframe who we value in communications as a result.

Our expert, Tracy de Groose, an experienced CMO and CEO, and deputy Chair of Cancer Research UK echoes this sentiment: 

So, we know that ‘good’ can mean many things in StoryTelling, and the loudest voices aren’t necessarily those with the best ideas of the most impact. In fact, so much of what holds us back with StoryTelling in public is in our own heads. So, how do we get out of our own way?

In our next piece, we’ll take you through the 3 R’s of SuperStar StoryTelling:

Reframe: 

There’s an assumption, particularly in business, that fear of public speaking is something reserved for those early in their career. And yet, we work with senior leaders with 20+ years experience who are still avoiding situations where this skill is brought into question. Recognising the commonality of the fear, and that this anxiety isn’t something to be quashed, but to be used in your favour is the first step to success. 

Reduce: 

The most impactful StoryTellers are those that can tailor their story to the needs of everyone in the room, create the ‘jaw drop’ moments, and refine their story to only the moments that people really need to hear. We’ll help you get there. 

Reveal:

The one element that makes your story different is you. Your Communication SuperPower is everything, and we’ll help you use energy shifts, multi-sensory storytelling, and skills like listening to bring these super powers to life. 

Before you go: Your SuperPower Mantra 

To prepare yourself for the next piece, have a go at identifying some of your Communication SuperPowers. As we said, leaning into your strengths is so much more powerful than focusing on your weaknesses. Find a simple presentation to practice, grab a few friends / peers, and stand back, ready for your compliments. 

See you later this week for our full guide on Presenting You. And if you’re interested in running these sessions for your teams, or taking part in one of our courses yourself, get in touch at caroline@wearelookup.com

Have a good week!

Caroline and Matthew