I can't stand the way you deliver

I recently spent time regaling postgraduates with stories of presentational horrors I’ve witnessed over the years and why they happen in the context of their own presentation skills.

Some people can present. Others can't. You can give advice regarding do's and don'ts but you can’t teach great communication and presentation skills, people either have them or they don’t. Indeed some get to present for a living and on hearing and seeing them do so you find yourself thinking how the hell did that happen?

Comedians are the ultimate presenters. They live or die, succeed or fail by virtue of their delivery. Their material coming from the mouths of others (other than an impersonator) wouldn't work, because their act is an amalgam of them, their delivery style and their words and silences. They all come together to form their brand of comedy.

From the freewheeling mercurial surrealism of Eddie Izzard, to the signature paean to the weather of Morecambe and Wise, to the bawdy bowdlerisation and belligerent, blistering alliteration of Les Dawson. Knickers! Knackers! Knockers! Personalities, attitudes and behaviours, sights and occasions, all hermetically sealed in words and the way those words are delivered. The Blackpool Comedy Carpet, by Why Not Associates and artist Graham Young, is a fantastic celebration and crystalisation of the above. Not to mention the craftsmanship, which is very impressive indeed.

The way information is presented will either enhance its understanding or diminish it and occasionally destroy it. Take Robert Peston, Business Correspondent at the BBC. He's a prime exponent of the latter. Confession: I can't stand the way he delivers. Can't bear to listen to him or even watch him. He irritates and annoys the hell out of me. His verbiage is on elastic, every word and invisible punctuation mark stretched and disjointed to such a degree that the thread of meaning is lost. It always sounds like he's winging-it. He may know his stuff, but he sure as hell can't present it. The err's and ahh's.......and gaps leaving you banging the crystal set wondering if it's finally croaked.

And it seems that I'm not alone in my incredulity  regarding his current status, since he has acquired his very own website, which is a forum dedeicated to discussing his shortcomings in the delivery stakes. As Father Jack would say, "How did that gobshite get on the television?" Fame indeed, but for all the wrong reasons, since many of those posting confess (like me) to turning him down whenever he's on the box, or off when he's on the radio. Not quite the effect you want one of your key news presenters to have on your viewing and listening audiences, is it?

How many times have you been on the receiving end of a presentation or been part of a team fielding a presentation and knowing that one or more of your number really shouldn't have any role greater than introducing members of the team or asking if they should be mother? 

The best ideas are doomed if delivered badly and, conversely and perversely, mediocre ones able to sail through under the auspices of a consummate presenter. And that's what your audience remembers, that's what they talk about well after the fact – your communication skills and the dynamics of the team.



We all know a bit about body language so don't imagine that the squirming in chairs; shared looks of terror as the duff one(s) mumbles and drifts; or the hurried and frequent interjections by others to undo the perceived damage that the duff ones are inflicting are going unnoticed. They are not. So don't let them do it. 
Always let the communicators communicate. Don't give anyone a reason to switch off.