Last week, I had the honor and privilege to conduct a 90-minute video interview with Mike Williams, president and CEO of the highly successful Community Hospital Corporation headquartered in Plano, Texas. Mike is the founding president and CEO—in fact, the very first employee—and has now served Community Hospital Corporation for 18 years!
In addition to his excellent leadership of CHC, Mike Williams is a superb public speaker. Whether 30, 300, or 3,000 people in the audience, Mike is absolutely excellent in his preparation, content, delivery, and engagement of the audience.
Over the span of my career, I have personally booked hundreds of professional speakers and have heard thousands of presentations. Without question, Mike is one of the best I have ever heard.
During the interview, one of the many questions I asked Mike was: “What advice or suggestions would you offer to healthcare leaders across America who would like to improve and become excellent public speakers and presenters?”
As usual, Mike offered some very practical suggestions, describing his own habits when preparing and delivering a presentation:
- “I try to never use a script… and I prefer not to use slides. I think they are too restrictive.”
- “I learned a long time ago to talk from my base of expertise. If you do not have a base of expertise in a certain area, don’t include that concept or point in your presentation—stick to your strengths.”
- “Speak from your heart.” (Mike expanded on this point, which will be featured in a future America’s Healthcare Leaders video).
- “I like to go into the space where the presentation will be made, before anyone else is there. I familiarize myself with the space, the lights, where the cameras might be, where the people will be sitting, etc. I like to feel the space and imagine truly connecting with the audience on both an individual and collective basis.”
- “I never want to be restricted to a platform or podium. I like to move around and have great interaction with the audience—again, both individually and collectively.”
- “Most significantly, when I speak I like to facilitate dialogue and thought more than just presenting information.”
Great suggestions and advice from a superb public speaker who is definitely one of America’s highly successful healthcare leaders.
