Legally speaking: Carmie McCook is Featured Speaker at Hogan Lovells’ Global Conference

Law firms are realizing that learning outstanding presentation skills are as essential to building their business and their brand, as the ability to expertly analyze legal issues.

This weekend I had the honor of speaking at Hogan Lovells’ annual conference in Baltimore to their team of attorneys from around the world practicing in the field of life sciences. In my talk, Presenting Like a Pro, I shared key insights and tips guaranteed to make their content more compelling and their delivery more dynamic.

There are hundreds of techniques that must be used to take public speaking skills to a higher level, but here are three big “dos” and three big “don’ts” that I addressed at the conference:

• Don’t use a data dump approach and address every aspect of a topic. Information overload buries your key message points, and the audience recalls little to nothing.
• Don’t use slides filled with rows of text unless your goal is to bore your audience to death.
• Don’t “wing it.” Great presentations require taking the “3 Ps” seriously: Prepare, Practice, Perform.
• Do speak a bit slower and louder than you typically do. Give the audience time to hear and “digest” every sentence.
• Do tailor every presentation to each audience. “One-size-fits-all” never fits anyone well.
• Do practice several times and video record yourself. We never see ourselves the way others see us. The video camera is a great teacher!

Today, competition is fierce, not only in the legal world but every field. So, how do you set your self apart from everyone else? Globally respected business magnates from Sir Richard Branson to Warren Buffet have said the same thing: The art of communication is the most important skill any business leader can possess.

I couldn’t agree more!