Chris Sawchuck Became the World’s #1 Procurement Thought Leader and You Can Too!

Chris Sawchuk gives his top tips for public speaking. Embrace the nerves and start your journey now.

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You’re a famous tennis player on holiday in the Caribbean. Your idols Jay-Z and Beyoncé just happen to be staying at the same resort. 

Jay-Z starts chatting with you, but you’re painfully shy and only manage one-word responses. Total conversation killer

That actually happened to Japan’s Naomi Osaka (current tennis world No.3). Though obviously embarrassing, Naomi said the experience was the catalyst for overcoming her shyness.

Does that sound like you too? Are you tired of letting shyness interfere with your career?

You can overcome shyness

The great news is shyness isn’t a permanent condition. 

You just need the right tools, says Chris Sawchuk, the world’s number one procurement conference speaker.

Years ago, Chris (the Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group) took a Myers-Briggs assessment that revealed he was a serious introvert. 

The engineer-turned-salesperson thought his introverted personality meant he would never make it in sales. 

But his employer IBM paid for him to receive a year of sales training. Chris recalls how stressful it was. 

“I remember the first time I had to make a speech,” Chris says. “I was scared to death!”

He even called his mum and said he was going to ask for his old lab job back. But he pushed through the discomfort and gave several presentations during the course.  

Through the training, he realised something surprising: introverts can be just as great giving presentations as extroverts.

“Being an introvert doesn’t mean you can’t speak or that you’re shy,” he says. “It simply means that you recharge your energy by spending time alone rather than extroverts who recharge by being around other people.”

How to overcome shyness at work

So how can you get the confidence to get up in front of people? Especially when your career success could depend on it?

“Procurement pros are often in a fortunate position of being in front of many different teams, stakeholders, clients and senior leaders,” Chris says. 

“We’re given a chance to stand out from the crowd and make an impression. Learning how to nail a speech and delivering presentations that hit the mark will be a determinant of your future success.”

Where do you begin? Chris says to embrace fear head-on through baby steps. Here are his 5 tips to get started:

1. Start practising as soon as you can. Pick a recipe book, a TV show, or a novel and prepare a 10 minute speech on it. 

2. Take a leaf from infamous TedTalk presenter Jill Bolte Taylor who practised her 18 minute speech 200 times! her  “Stroke of Insight” talk has been viewed 25 million times of the TED site alone.

3. Start with simple subjects that you know a lot about and keep it short. You can also start with an online presentation as a way to dip your toe in the water – even if your audience is only stuffed animals right now.

4. Use plain language; don’t try to be a fancy pants by using unnecessary words.

5. Be yourself. When faced with a high degree of nerves, any false version of yourself is just one more thing you will need to keep straight in your head. You are worthy enough for people to listen to, so back yourself.

Where to present

Now that you’re starting to get into the swing of it, identify something at work that will enable you to get in front of people to hone your craft further.

Here are some places that procurement pros can rock their presentation skills:

• Showcasing a negotiation strategy
• Presenting a go-to-market strategy to the c-level
• Convincing stakeholders why they need to change suppliers
• Presenting at industry events, or supplier days

Taking it to the next level

Now that you have your feet wet, it’s time to level up. The key to confidence is practice + structure, says Ellen Hendriksen, PhD. 

The clinical psychologist says ‘shy’ is just the everyday word for socially anxious.

“We all know (or are) a shy or introverted individual who lights up when performing on stage,” Dr. Hendriksen wrote for HBR. “Or we may work with a colleague who is awkward at small talk but is a top performer when set loose with clients. Why? There’s a clear role to play. 

“For a socially anxious individual, structure can set them free. Anxiety is driven by uncertainty.”

So how do you structure your presentation? Just steal Chris Sawchuk’s structure.

How to structure your presentation:

1. Create a catchy opener.  You want to create a reason for your audience to listen to you for the next 30 minutes or whatever period of time you have with them. The key is to know your audience. If you’re presenting to executives, then get their attention with something like, “I want to talk to you about a $50m opportunity.” Or if it’s salespeople, say, “Together we’re going to build a strategy that doubles your engagement ROIs.”

2. Provide justification for your idea. This is best done by reflecting on the current state, then quickly pivoting to your “idea”. This is the time to create excitement not only around your idea, but the future.

3. Be unique. Don’t roll out the same old industry terms and cliches, and don’t talk about the stuff everyone knows already. Tell them things they aren’t aware of, and share examples that demonstrate that. You can achieve a lot of buy-in when you provide honest lessons learned.

4. There will always be naysayers. Anticipate the objections your audience might have and build them into your presentation.  For example, “You might be thinking that our suppliers will never go for this, but in recent discussions with them, they pledged their support.” 

Adapting your presentation for Zoom

If you’re already in a team with adept speakers, then take advantage of the relatively new terrain of Zoom meetings, webinars and virtual summits, Chris advises. 

“Become the leading pro in how to nail successful presentations in this new digital format,” says Chris. 

Here are three tips:

1. Online presentations need to be shorter and the delivery needs to be punchier. 
2. Stand with a neutral background behind you so people don’t get distracted. Sure, virtual backgrounds are a fun novelty. But people won’t focus on your words if your ears keep disappearing every time you move your head. 
3. Build in lots of audience participation so they feel connected to you.

Do the nerves ever go away?

As you become more comfortable with nerves, embrace them, says Chris. 

“You can even incorporate it into your opening statement,” Chris says. “Opening with a joke or an informal remark can build a connection with the audience and when you laugh along too, you take several last minute deep breaths.”

Ultimately, Chris says if you’re not getting nervous there is probably something seriously wrong. “Reframe nerves not as a bad thing but as something that’s giving you energy,” Chris says. “Channel that energy and use nerves as part of your performance.”