It is a cardinal sin of public speaking. It can destroy everything you otherwise build as a communicator. It is the easiest way to undermine your own credibility. In other words, don’t go over your time. Please!
Consider this situation I witnessed while sitting in the audience at a conference where I was due to speak later…
There is a speaker on stage who has been speaking for a while. As I process the message the speaker is conveying, my gaze momentarily shifts towards another person who has made a move. Is someone in the front row getting up to leave? No, it’s the moderator who has stood up, likely to indicate that the speaking time is about to end or has perhaps ended already. Nothing unusual.
A few moments later, with the speaker continuing, the moderator begins to pace. It now definitely seems like a signal to the speaker.
A few more moments pass. The pacing becomes a bit more frantic and the moderator’s body language exudes agitation. He looks at his watch.
I look around the room and it’s not just me noticing the moderator. It seems as if, one by one, people’s attention is being pulled away from the speaker and towards the unsettled moderator. There is almost a nervous energy settling into the room.
The speaker has clearly gone considerably beyond their allotted time.
A few more minutes go by, and now it seems everyone is aware of the situation. Everyone… except the speaker.
When the speaker finally wraps up, you can almost feel the moderator’s relief.
I make a note to myself. Don’t go over when you go up to speak. And keep an eye on the moderator.
In the world of business, I often see very knowledgeable people who have done a lot of great work on a subject feel compelled to put everything they know on display. This is why slide decks are bloated and jam-packed with information. This is why people feel that if they don’t communicate everything, their audience will miss crucial bits of information. And so, they run over.
Here are my top seven suggestions to help you stay on time the next time you speak.
1. Tailor your message
How often do you see presenters skipping over slides because they have brought a standard deck and decide, while presenting, to skip some of the material? This simply means the presentation has not been tailored to the event.
Regardless of whether you have slides or not, the message must always be tailored to the speaking engagement. Who is the audience? How long do you have? What is your goal? What messages do you want to convey? Can you deliver an hour-long presentation in 20 minutes? Can you deliver it in five minutes? The answer must always be yes. And it’s doable if you simply tailor your message.
2. Say more with less
You don’t need to share everything you know. In the age of AI, knowledge is easy to acquire. Anyone can get hold of information. What you bring as a speaker are your insights.
I would be amazed if someone spoke for an hour when they had been allocated 40 minutes and all they shared throughout their presentation were insights. There is always a way to trim down one’s message. Focus on the most engaging bits. Remove the details.
3. Declutter your slides
If you are using slides, each slide must contain a single message. If there are four charts and 200 words on a slide, it will naturally take the speaker a while to get through everything. If every slide is like that, the moderator will certainly be pacing frantically. If you build cleaner slides, you give yourself a simple framework to work with.
4. Reduce the number
If I see someone bringing 50 slides when they have 20 minutes to speak, I see a red flag. Of course, they will run over. And if they don’t, they’ll be flicking through slides and speaking at 1,000 words per second. It won’t be pretty.
The way to reduce your slides is not to start deleting. If you’ve built a slide deck after doing a lot of work, would you be able to delete slide number 37? Of course you won’t. Slide number 37 is like your baby.
So, instead of deleting, start with a blank slate. What messages do you want to convey? Again, how much time do you have? What slides will help you convey your messages? Build those rather than trying to delete slides from an existing deck.
5. Prepare by speaking out loud
If we only prepare in our heads, the real thing always ends up taking longer. Our articulation may not be as smooth as it seems in our heads. There may be nerves.
And so, the best way to practise is to speak out loud. Create, as much as possible, the conditions of the actual speaking engagement. Then, if you do that and time yourself, you will know how long it will actually take.
6. Don’t add new things on the day
Adrenaline can get the better of us sometimes. We get into our material and start adding new details we didn’t initially plan to include. This, of course, will eat into your time. And if you add more things in each section, or on each slide, it will take much longer. Resist the temptation.
7. Be aware and respectful of the clock
I once spoke at a company event. The speaker before me was from the company. Before the event started, he told me jokingly, in front of his colleagues, that they might have to drag him off the stage.
I giggled, but also thought to myself, wow, that really isn’t funny. Why would you want to be in that situation?
Awareness of time is step one. But we must also respect the clock. We must know that when our time is over, our time really is over. And we need to end it there.
When a speaker goes over their allocated time, it tells the audience that they are either unaware of the time, don’t know how to tailor their message or haven’t bothered to curate something bespoke for the situation. Whatever the case may be, the speaker’s credibility is undermined. And there is also a pacing moderator somewhere stressing over keeping the conference on track.
Be mindful. Never go over your time.
