Why are so many good accountants bad public speakers?

How can you be a brilliant accountant but a terrible  public speaker?

Having coached scores of CFOs over the years, I have come to the conclusion it is because of rigorous accountancy training.  In fact, there is a clear conflict between the principles that make a good accountant, and those that make a good presenter.

To be a great accountant you need to be honest, cautious and conservative. But to be a great public speaker, you need to be bold and clear. If you apply caution and conservatism when you put together a presentation, you will probably end up with unclear and confused messages.

How do you solve this problem?

It’s a process of re-education.  Fortunately, the skills you need to become a good public speaker can be learned.  Typically, when one of our coaches works with a CFO, it takes between 4 and 6 hours together to turn them into an impressive presenter.

First, there is a period of realisation – which we achieve with video playback.  We do a presentation audit – to identify where skills need polishing.

Then we show techniques for presenting effectively.

Finally we coach techniques to improve each aspect of the presentation.

It rarely takes more than a few hours to turn even the most reluctant accountant into a compelling presenter. We’ve done this for CFOs at some of the largest quoted companies as well as for CFOs of smaller privately-owned businesses.  We are particularly good at helping accountants who’ve recently been promoted into a new CFO role.

Do you want to become a better presenter?  Learn more below.

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