When we ask students what courses or workshops, they would most be interested in, they always put presentation skills on the list. Delivering a great presentation is a key skill not only at university but especially in the workplace. As Lee Iacocca said “you can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” So we have put together a few tips to help you improve your presentation skills.
1. Know who you are presenting too:
Before you start you need to understand who you are presenting to and make sure your presentation targets their requirements. Remember your audience are there to learn something from the information you are providing.
2. Make sure you rehearse your presentation before delivering it.
By rehearsing your presentation you can ensure you know your content well. If you know your content well you can really focus on connecting with your audience and have an engaging conversation with them instead of getting lost in the content and your slides. There is nothing worse than sitting through a presentation and the presenter just reads the slides word for word and never engages with you and therefore delivers a flat and dull presentation. So stand in front of a mirror and deliver your presentation so you can see how you look and speak. A great idea is to video yourself doing the presentation and then watch the video afterward and see what you need to improve on. Maybe you stutter or fidget or uhmmmm a lot or maybe you are the boring presenter who just reads the slides.
3. Stop telling yourself you are a bad presenter or public speaker
We all have a mental image of ourselves, negative self-talk breaks your confidence and is a major barrier to public speaking. You need to stop telling yourself your cant give a presentation or a speech. You can do anything you set your mind on. With preparation, practice and believing in yourself, you can be a great presenter. Be open to people’s advice and ask someone you can trust to give you pointers on where you can improve.
4. Overcoming fear and anxiety of public speaking
The key to managing anything is to understand it, what is causing your fear and anxiety? Could it be a lack of confidence? Maybe you are worried you won’t remember everything? That feeling that you are being judged, or maybe you have just had a bad experience. Once you understand what your fear and anxiety are based on, you can start working at overcoming these.
5. Preparing your presentation
Presentations and public speaking are the same as storytelling. Remember a good story always contains a beginning, a middle, and an end. Write down the introduction, set the stage for your main content and then conclude on what you would want the audience to take away or do after the presentation. You then want to write down the main points of your presentation as headings for your slides. Once you have your main slides you will put summary bullet points on the slides. Don’t write out your entire presentation on the slides as the audience will read the presentation instead of really listening to you. Make sure to add a few pictures or graphics to make your slides interesting. Save your presentation once you are happy as a slide show as it looks more professional on the day.
6. Timing your presentation
Find out how much time you are being given and while rehearsing, time yourself. Most people make the error of trying to cover too much in the allocated time. This means you are rushed to complete your presentation or worse you are cut short and don’t get to complete it. Don’t ever speed up the pace of your speech to make up for timing, rather cut out information and pace your speech at a comfortable speed. Always allow your audience to ask questions. There is nothing wrong with suggesting to your audience that you will present and then allow for questions if you are nervous about being interrupted whilst delivering your speech.
7. On the day
Find out beforehand what technology will be required i.e. laptop, cables, screen or projector. Arrive early and test out all the equipment to make sure your presentation is working. Have your presentation saved on a memory stick in case you are required to use someone else’s laptop. Remember to relax, breathe and make eye contact with your audience. Smile while you are speaking and look like you are enjoying your presentation, the audience will feel your positive energy.