On Cue with Kafui Dey: Final whistle

The referee glances at his watch. Ninety minutes are up. The fourth official raises the electronic board. Five minutes of added time. Suddenly, everybody becomes aware of the clock. Players who spent the previous ninety minutes strolling now sprint as though somebody has announced free waakye outside the stadium.

Coaches become animated. Fans start calculating. Commentators begin saying things like, “There isn’t much time left.” Time has a funny way of becoming important only when there isn’t any left. The same thing happens in public speaking.

One of the most common mistakes speakers make is running overtime. It starts innocently enough.

“I’ll just tell one more story.”

“Let me quickly explain this point.”

“Oh, before I forget…”

Fifteen minutes later, the conference organizer is standing at the back of the room making hand signals that look suspiciously like someone directing aircraft at Accra International Airport. The audience has stopped taking notes.

The next speaker has stopped smiling. The caterers are beginning to lose hope. Running overtime is one of the quickest ways to lose goodwill. Ironically, most speakers do not overrun because they have too little to say. They overrun because they have too much to say and no plan for deciding what to leave out.

Football offers a useful lesson. A World Cup match has a fixed duration. Imagine if one coach turned to the referee after ninety minutes and said, “Excuse me, I still have three attacking moves I’d like to demonstrate.” The referee would not be impressed. Neither would the opposing team. Time limits exist for a reason. Your presentation deserves the same respect.

One of the best habits you can develop is rehearsing with a stopwatch. Not estimating. Timing. There is a huge difference. Many speakers confidently announce, “This should take about twenty minutes.” It takes thirty-eight.

Others promise a brief five-minute update that somehow develops into a historical documentary. The stopwatch is wonderfully honest. It has no interest in protecting your feelings. If your twenty-minute presentation takes thirty minutes, the stopwatch will politely expose the truth.

The second technique is creating time checkpoints. Think of them as halftime scores. If you have a thirty-minute presentation with three major sections, decide where you should be after ten minutes. Where should you be after twenty? Where should you begin your conclusion?

Then monitor yourself. If you reach the halfway point and discover you’ve used two-thirds of your time, you know adjustments are necessary. Perhaps shorten an example. Skip a story. Move directly to the conclusion. Great speakers manage time while speaking, not after they have already exceeded it. Football coaches make tactical substitutions during the match. Not after the final whistle.

The third exercise is one I recommend to every professional speaker. Prepare multiple versions of your presentation. Have a sixty-minute version. A thirty-minute version. A fifteen-minute version. Even a five-minute version. Conference schedules change. Flights are delayed. Previous speakers overrun. Technical problems appear without invitation. One day, an organizer will walk over to you and whisper those famous words every speaker eventually hears:

“We’re running behind. Can you reduce your presentation from forty-five minutes to twenty?”

That is not the moment to panic. That is the moment to smile confidently because you prepared for exactly that situation.

Many years ago, I watched a speaker insist on delivering every single slide despite being repeatedly reminded about time. The poor master of ceremonies looked increasingly uncomfortable. The audience became restless. Lunch became late. The speaker finished proudly. Nobody else was celebrating. A presentation should never become an endurance competition.

One of the marks of professionalism is finishing slightly early rather than slightly late. Audiences appreciate it. Organizers remember it. Fellow speakers silently thank you for it. There is another hidden benefit.

When you finish on time, you leave room for questions. Questions often create the most memorable part of a presentation. Run overtime, and the first thing sacrificed is usually the audience’s opportunity to engage. That is rather unfortunate because communication should be a conversation, not a hostage situation.

As the FIFA World Cup continues, every team understands that matches are decided within a fixed amount of time. Nobody receives bonus points for playing longer. Public speaking follows the same principle. The goal is not to say everything you know. The goal is to say everything your audience needs to hear within the time you have been given. Leave them wanting one more story. Not one fewer.

Stay on cue.

Kafui Dey is a media and communications trainer. Email him at [email protected]

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