Typically, I don’t like my clients to present while standing behind a podium. It constricts their ability to connect with the audience, it literally places furniture in front of the speaker, and it limits their movement, making them stiff.
However.
I had occasion recently to watch a video one client sent me of a presentation she gave while standing behind a podium. I expected to hate it for all my usual reasons, but then…I didn’t.
In this particular case, the speaker has lots of energy, and often isn’t quite sure what to do with it while presenting. She paces and wanders, and this diffuses her energy.
The podium kept her one place. She intuitively had to figure out what to do with the energy she would normally have spent walking around, and that helped her channel that energy into her voice and her focus on the audience.
Constraints may seem negative, but those limitations can often open up other avenues we wouldn’t have explored otherwise!
