Rehearsal is extremely important.  Everyone on the team must feel they are in a safe environment to rehearse.  Safe means that they can fumble through ideas and concepts without people jumping on their every word. Safe means the leader is not trying to micro-manage the entire presentation. Safe means that people can experiment with what they want to say and change what doesn’t resonate without feeling like a dope.

Professional athletes practice. They practice all of the time.  Even after playing 6 or 7 games in a row, basketball players come out the next morning to practice.

If you’re making a presentation you need to practice.  You need to think through all of your plays. How are you going to open?  What is the single big message you want people to take away? How will you summarize and what action will you ask of the audience?  Then you need to rehearse all of this in front of real people.

Now you’re ready for game day.

The best way to rehearse your presentation is in front of people. Any people.  Half of the reason we’re all so anxious about speaking in public is — the public. We worry about how our comments will be received, and if we look goofy saying them. So, while rehearsing in front of a mirror can help a bit, the best practice is in front of real people;  colleagues, spouses, children, strangers on the subway. On Zoom, you have the advantage of being able to connect with someone easily so that you can rehearse in front of them, and, you can record the session.  Watching yourself present will be an eye-opener. You’ll feel more confident.

One of the many reasons everyone needs to prepare and rehearse is to have intelligent transitions from one thought to the next.  You may know the subject matter cold, but unless you’ve planned the flow of your remarks, you can fall into an awkward pattern in which you repeat the same things over and over as you search for a bridge to the next part of your comments.

If you have properly revised your PowerPoint to make it works more effectively on Zoom, then you absolutely need to rehearse to coordinate with the various animations you inserted into the slides. 

Don’t assume because you know the topic that you know the presentation.

Prepare and rehearse every time.

Much of the work that goes into presentation skill training has to do with very basic techniques – volume, eye contact, posture, smiling, enunciation, etc. Don’t assume you are doing those things correctly.

After a student saw themself on video tape, they realized they didn’t do any of these things.  In fact, they scowled and mumbled. The only eye contact was with the ceiling.

“Watching myself on tape changed my presentation style dramatically.  It was amazing.”

You’ll become a better, more powerful speaker fast when your training includes taping every exercise and using the Zoom record system.

Everyone needs to rehearse. And everyone hates rehearsing. But you got to.  If you are presenting with others, they should also be at the rehearsal.  Pay particular attention to how each person opens and closes their segment and how each person hands over to the next person.  If possible, rehearse without notes so you get to know the material and not memorize the script.

Try to rehearse your entire presentation, not just the words.  Rehearse how you will stand, gestures, pauses, theatrical embellishments. Rehearse how you will work the room with your eyes.  If you will be presenting seated, rehearse seated. Duplicate as much of the real situation as possible.

And always rehearse in front of others.

“The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare”. Said Bobby Knight, Basketball Coach.

 Behind every great presentation are lots of hours of preparation.  Lots and lots.

If you are helping someone rehearse a presentation, follow Alex Haley’s advice: Find the good and praise it.

It’s more important to make the speaker confident than to nitpick a word or two.

I’ve found it’s best to learn a speech point by point, not word for word.

–George Plimpton

When I was in advertising, I saw that most teams spent weeks putting a campaign together and minutes thinking about how to present it to the client.

If you create brilliant work but have a dull presentation, it isn’t the client’s fault if they don’t buy it.

Your presentation should sound like you, not like a formal, structured thesis.  You are best when you are you.  As you rehearse the text out loud if it doesn’t sound like the you we all know and love…start over.

When helping a colleague rehearse a presentation, the more positive the discussion, the more positive the outcome.  The closer the rehearsal is to the actual presentation; the less critique and the more praise usually makes for a happier outcome.

Rehearsals are valuable. The last rehearsal, the dress rehearsal, is particularly important.

Here is how to make that dress rehearsal more productive:


• Once you start the rehearsal, it’s game conditions. You don’t stop until the end.


• If someone flubs, they must keep going. In a real presentation you can’t start over.


• The time for comments and fine tuning is over. Be careful of changing any speakers content or role too close to the actual pitch.


• If you are presenting as a team, rehearse as a team.


• Rehearse in similar physical conditions to the real location. Sit and stand as you would in the real pitch. Ditto handovers.


• If using PowerPoint and other presentation visuals, who, on the pitch team, will control the remote and set-up.


• Everyone says their entire part, no shortcuts.


• Have people sit on the other side of the table to present to. If you are going to have a Q&A session, have those people ask questions.


• Check your timing when finished. Allowing for the Q&A period, your total time should never exceed the time allotted.

Finish the rehearsal feeling positive and charged. Avoid laundry lists of criticism. If you are the pitch leader, smile, be upbeat and everyone will join you and think good thoughts.

The legendary cellist Pablo Casals was asked why he continued to practice at age 90. “Because, I think I’m making progress,” he replied.

You want to make a great presentation?

Practice. Practice, Practice, Practice.

Practice.

A former student wrote recently that during a presentation he was giving, the computer crashed. No PowerPoint! Luckily, he’d been taught how important rehearsing is. Not only did he nail his presentation, but afterward a number of colleagues congratulated him on one of his ‘best presentations yet’. This is an important lesson about presenting: Tech will always fail us; rehearsing never will.