How to Use a Lectern or Podium.

How do you use a lectern or a podium when giving a speech or presentation? First of all, let's define our terms. A lectern is that thing that you put notes on. Your hands could go on it. The thing you stand behind, a podium is what you stand on. It's a raised platform. Now, I understand in common, everyday English usage, the terms are confused all the time. People call lecterns podiums all the time. But if you want to get it right, it's really a lectern. Podium is what you stand on. Now, most people in most organizations, businesses, conferences, conventions, will walk behind a lectern, put their notes on it, maybe their laptop, and they'll stay behind there the whole time. This is a horrible thing to do with a few exceptions, and I'll get into those in a moment. When you stand behind a lectern, you're telling the audience, I'm afraid of you. I'm scared of you. I'm afraid you're going to throw rotten vegetables at me. And I want a place to hide and duck. Horrible thing. That's why great speakers, the most professional speakers you see on stage at conferences, conventions, all the TED talks. You notice there's no lecterns at TED talks. It's because they're barriers between a speaker and an audience. So my recommendation, don't ever get behind Electrin. Now, I do use a lectern from time to time. Hear me out before you call me a hypocrite. I'll push it off to the side. I'll put my notes, which, if you've been following this podcast, know I keep on a single 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper that I folded in half. I'll have the notes on the lectern but caddy cornered so that I can see them as I walk near it. But I never have to stand behind the lectern, and I never touch the notes and I never touch the lectern. This creates the illusion that I'm just talking to people and having a conversation and speaking without notes and talking from the top of my head. The problem with getting behind a lectern is even if you really know your stuff, even if you're really conversational, people are going to see you standing in the exact same position that all the boring people who have their head down and just read in a boring way do. So why associate yourself with all those boring speakers? Now, there are a couple of exceptions, as I mentioned. If you are holding a press conference, if you're the President of the United States, and you're giving a speech and you've got all sorts of microphones there, yet you can't move around as easily. So there may be times when you have to stand behind a lectern and you can move from the waist up. You can still gesture. Now, interestingly, even political conventions, a forum where you think that you have to stand behind lectern, you don't really have to. Famously, in recent times with Elizabeth Dole and Ted Cruz gave speeches at the Republican conventions where they walked around and, folks, I'm not being partisan here. I'm not endorsing or de. Endorsing anyone. But I well remember the first time I ever saw Ted Cruz give a speech, and it was in fact at the 2012 Republican convention. And he decided not to get behind the lecterness. He put a wireless mic on, he moved all over the stage, appeared not to be using notes at all. And as soon as he finished his speech, my jaw dropped and I said, oh, my God, he's a fantastic speaker and he's going to run for president. And I'm obviously not the only one who saw something in him as a candidate. So that's why I recommend, if at all possible, don't get behind the lectern. If it's a standard kind of business meeting and there's 30 people in the room and the first four people all get behind the lectern, and the person introducing you gets behind the lectern, what do most people do? They get behind the lectern. You don't have to. Anytime you're different from what other speakers do, sure, there's a chance you make a bad impression and you're perceived as worse than the other speakers, but there's also the chance that you stand out as better, more confident, more interesting, more engaging. That's what you should strive for every time. One easy way to do it, get away from the lectern. It's the training wheels of public speakers.