The Power of Pause in Presentation

A moment’s silence is one of the most effective secrets of presenting and public speaking

Pause for Effect – The Power of Pause in Presentation

Reputable presentation training courses will teach you about the power of pause in presentation, which may seem strange as surely the power of a presentation comes from the words.

Mark Twain is credited with saying,

“The right word may be effective, but nothing is as effective as a well-timed pause.”
Mark Twain

His experience comes not from writing, but from the extensive amount of time he spent giving talks.

Twain’s initial dislike of being in front of audiences compelled him to explore the art of public speaking. He sought out opportunities to hear other speakers and learned many of the presentation training techniques that are still in use today. Among them, he learned about the power of pause in presentation and the value and versatility of interjecting a moment’s silence.

The Urge to Speak

Like Twain, anxiety can cause presenters to gallop through their presentation, speaking quickly and non-stop. In some cases, the presenter fears taking up too much of the audience’s precious time, or fears they might become bored.

Naturally, this is counterintuitive. Presentation training will tell you that audiences cannot handle a constant stream of words. Pauses improve your delivery as they allow the audience to absorb what you are saying.

By the way, if you need some foundation advice on presentations, don’t miss our seven laws of presentation skills.

Pauses are Paragraph Breaks

Think of pauses as the equivalent of paragraph breaks and try to use them accordingly. Both pauses and paragraph breaks help you separate concepts to add structure and clarity. They give people a moment to think about the meaning of one concept before moving on to the next.

Pauses also help you vary between primary and secondary messages, and between serious messages and lighter points. In the case of humour, a pause gives the audience an opportunity to laugh without missing anything important.

Place a Pause After Key Messages

Presentation training teaches you to split your content into short sections, and this gives you a perfect opportunity to build in pauses from the outset.

Ideally, structure your presentation so that the most important messages are at the end of each section, which means your pause comes just after you say something you really want the audience to understand and remember.

And of course, never forget that effective presentations need a great ending.

Pause More for Complex Content

If you need to convey complicated concepts, then try to include more pauses in these sections. Ideally, pause at the end of every sentence, and even after groups of words. This ensures the audience has one part of the concept in mind before you add another.

Similarly, pauses help you to present clear arguments. Provide one side of the argument and then pause before providing the other. This gives the audience time to understand the conflict and assess which side they feel greater affinity with.

Pauses also help you avoid overusing words such as “so” and “therefore,” which can become irritating for the audience if heard repetitively.

Watch Audience Reactions

Our presentation tips article on eye contact discusses the value of looking members of the audience in the eye as you speak. The pause is of course a perfect moment to do this, not simply for the added connection it provides for your most important messages, but also because it lets you assess people’s reactions.

As you pause, try to see if audience members are nodding, frowning, alert or asleep. This gives you an opportunity to tailor delivery for maximum effect, such as changing the pace or discussing the topic in a different way.

See How Others Use the Power of Pause in Presentation

A great presentation training exercise is to watch TED talks or speeches on YouTube. This will help you see the well-timed pause in action. You will see that different speakers use pauses in diverse ways. For example, Bill Clinton always used pauses to great effect. In some cases, the silence of his pauses can occupy as much as 30% of the total duration of the speech.

Practice Your Pauses

Pauses in a presentation are an essential part of presentation training that needs practice. You can do this on your own, but the best practice occurs in front of the audience. After a while, you won’t even need to plan your pauses as they will become an unconscious part of your professional speaking style.

One final tip is to never undervalue the usefulness of a pause in tricky situations. For example, a pause gives you time to think of a response to tough questions, and helps you avoid hesitation words such as “err…”

Check out our other presentation techniques for running a perfect Q&A session.

This article was originally contributed by J. Douglas Jefferys.