Although the considered public speaking fills me as many as 77% of the population experiences anxietythis is often an unavoidable fact of building a successful profession, especially for high-level managers who act as intermediaries between their company or product and the remainder of the world.
Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that some of the most admired business leaders are recognized not only for their visionary minds, problem-solving and decision-making skills, but also for their presentation skills.
One of them was Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. During his leadership role at the now trillion-dollar technology company, Jobs had to communicate effectively with audiences of consumers and investors—sometimes about ideas or products that they had never encountered before.
Thirteen years ago, on June 6, 2011, Jobs did just that when he delivered his final speech, commonly referred to as “Stevenote,” at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. He took the stage to publicly introduce iCloud, a service that permits users to store and sync data on Apple devices, for the first time.
In his last presentation, Jobs used three tricks to increase the power of public speaking, and anyone hoping to improve their communication skills – no matter audience or topic – can learn from them.
1. Jobs at all times got here prepared and understood that practice was the key to success
As Jobs began his iCloud presentation, it was clear that he knew exactly what he wanted to say to his audience, and at the same time, he was so familiar with it that it seemed almost spontaneous and smooth. Of course, Jobs was Apple’s biggest advocate, and that zeal also helped persuade listeners who couldn’t wait to see what he had to say next.
Practicing delivery under the same conditions you may experience on competition day will enable you to “mimic” the feeling of a high-pressure moment and higher prepare for success, said cognitive scientist and Dartmouth College president Sian Beilock Entrepreneur in 2022. According to reports from people close to Jobs, he used this strategy.
– said Ken Kocienda, who was a chief software engineer at Apple for 15 years and worked on the original iPhone Inc. in 2018, Jobs didn’t even wait for the presentation to end and began practicing it in the auditorium on the Apple campus. Then, on the Saturday and Sunday before the event, he held an on-site “dress rehearsal,” wearing his signature black turtleneck and jeans, and ran the entire presentation twice a day.
2. Jobs knew the story he wanted to tell and didn’t rely on overloaded slides to tell it
Jobs didn’t just jump on stage and start throwing technical jargon at the audience. Instead, he told a story that allowed people to discover with what he was saying AND higher understand the implications of the product. Research shows that when you share a story, listeners are often more likely to be convinced because you take them from one perspective to one other, according to VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab at Stanford University.
During his last keynote, Jobs established the need for iCloud by first describing a relatable problem: the tedious technique of transferring photos, files and other content between different Apple devices. He then presented a solution. With iCloud, people don’t have to worry about transferring photos from their phones to their iPads or laptops because the technology does all of it robotically.
Throughout the speech, the slides behind Jobs displayed only easy images and minimal text. To display the simplicity of iCloud, a cloud symbol flashed at the top of the screen, with iPhones belonging to “mom” and “dad” below them; lines sparkled from one phone to the cloud to one other phone and vice versa, highlighting how technology had made it possible to seamlessly transfer calendar events from one device to one other – to the applause of the crowd.
3. He didn’t take himself too seriously, which adds an element of humor and builds trust
Jobs wasn’t afraid to make jokes at his (and Apple’s) expense. Before iCloud, the company introduced MobileMe, a $99-a-year subscription-based collection of online services and software that launched in 2000 and was discontinued in 2011. It was one of Apple’s “rare product mishaps” with a difficult-to-recognize process, an initial delay stopping people from accessing data and several downtimes, CNET reported.
So Jobs used it as fodder for his presentation. After discussing iCloud, which might be read as a more advanced version of its flawed predecessor, Jobs joked: “You might ask, ‘Why should I consider them?’ They created MobileMe for me». Cue loud laughter and applause.
Jobs’s injection of humor not only improved the mood and entertained the audience, but also served a practical purpose: We know we failed with MobileMe and you most likely see similarities between it and our recent productJobs mainly said it, and this self-deprecating admission helped people consider that Apple actually did higher this time.
Nowadays, anyone with even a passing knowledge of Apple products knows that the company has kept that promise – it’s hard to remember a time when the now ubiquitous iCloud didn’t keep all of a user’s devices in sync.