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Speaking & Storytelling

While any professional may occasionally speak to an audience, leaders are regularly expected to communicate on behalf of their team in various settings as a core responsibility of their role. You may be invited to present at a public conference, share your team’s collective work in an all-hands meeting, or give a decision briefing to a leadership group. Starting with the desired goal in mind, drafting a compelling narrative and materials, and making sure you convey your key points with confidence all fuel into effective presentations. Practice combining hard facts with persuasive stories to reach your audience in powerful ways.

Recommended Resources

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Speaking for Hackers: Ben Orenstein open-sourced his proven recipe to effective public speaking, and it’s not just for software engineers. Beyond covering various presentation tips, he also openly shares how to pick a compelling topic, get accepted by conferences, and acing each step before, during, and after a talk. (~60 min read)

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How to be Persuasive in a Presentation (Part 1 & Part 2): Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne share a powerful 2x2 persuasion matrix you can use in your business presentations. This technique will be most applicable for decision briefings where you map the strength of your relationship and how key stakeholders perceive your level of expertise in a given topic. (52 min listen)

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How to Present a Strategy in 6 Slides: Marketing executive Shea Cole shares a specific example of creating effective slides for a strategy presentation. Note how she enforces a brief, step-by-step format that ensures you stick to your goal and avoid overwhelming your audience with irrelevant information. (8 min read)

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Shapes of Stories: Kurt Vonnegut with a timeless and funny intro on different shapes of stories. It’s particularly surprising how a good story doesn’t necessarily have to follow a complex formula. A simple narrative may just be what you need. You can still use these formats today in your public speaking or business communication context. (4 min watch)

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The Shape of Story: Christina Wodtke offers a more timely introduction to storytelling and argues that there is only one basic shape with everything else being a variation. She doesn’t just write about this in theory, but also links two articles where she applied this approach. If this still seems too abstract for you, Christina even lays out how to use this when creating a presentation in a separate post. (9 min read)

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Start right before you get eaten by the bear: Wes Kao with an even simpler approach to storytelling. Many people can’t help but paint a rich picture with lots of backstory, but her advice goes in the opposite direction. Try starting your story just before a key event to captivate your audience while saving valuable time. (10 min read)

Toastmasters is an international network of support clubs that allow you to practice and hone your public speaking and presentation skills. This resource may not be free depending on your location. There are free trial options to get started virtually or in-person to see if this is something you’d like to get into more. (💰 paid resource)