Incentive Magazine

Making promises we can’t keep is a bad habit that’s easy to fall into. Often in our everyday lives we’re tempted to promise things we know will be difficult – whether we’re promising to spend more time with our families or to deliver something at work or to meet a friend. Sometimes the reason we do this is because promising is easier than facing the truth of the matter – that we might not have time, can’t get the job done in time, or don’t want to meet the friend. Think of how many times you’ve been in a jam for promising a friend or family member more than you could deliver!

The temptation to promise more than you can deliver in a presentaion is at least as strong as in everday life. After all, you can really dazzle your audience with an opener that promises to answer all their questions, keep them entertained, and make them rich. However, audiences are very shrewd. They’ll start to catch on quickly that you’re not backing up your promises – that you’re failing to deliver value. Once that happens, you’ll have a hard time keeping your credibility level high. Solve this problem by not promising too much. If you keep the level of expectation within reason – by not overpromising – then your audience will be thrilled when they get more than they expected!

Overpromising is like charging up a credit card: It feels good for a moment but later you have to pay up – sometimes more than you can afford. Here are a few common situations where the temptation to overpromise will be strong.

Don’t promise to deliver more value than you can. “By the time you’re done with this presentation you’ll know more about this topic than your bosses do.” (Try this: “I promise to use all the skills I have to make this information easy to understand and to make this presentaion fun.”)

Avoid promising things you can’t control. Don’t promise a great lunch or an early ending time or great future success unless you can guarantee it.

Avoid promising that things will occur at specific times. If you promise that lunch will be at noon and it’s 10 minutes late, you have failed. If you under-promise by saying we’ll get to lunch as early as possible, depending on how much material we cover, then no one will know lunch was 10 minutes late, and you’re still a hero.

When asked, be conservative in your estimate of the length of your presentation. Even people who want to listen to you like to know when the talk will end. Create your presentations so that you have plenty of extra time. If you know your talk will last until 2 p.m., then announce your scheduled closing time as 3 p.m. That way if you’re 10 minutes late finishing, your audience will feel they are getting out 50 minutes early.

Don’t build up jokes or segments of your talk beyond what you can realistically deliver. Many a good joke has been killed by too great a build-up. When you say something like, “Let me tell you the funniest joke I ever heard in my life,” you set the bar very high indeed. Just tell the joke. An unexpcted one. Likewise, use short transitions between sections of your talk. Avoid the temptation to “build up” the next topic you’re going to talk about.