Presentations are something that we’re all familiar with. Unfortunately there are estimated to be over 50% of the 1.3 Million presentations delivered every day, are rubbish (conservative estimate).
To help you get the best from your presentations here are just a few tips that will help you achieve the goal of any presentation. The effective transfer of information from you the presenter to the audience in a way they understand and use your information.
Don’t abuse your visuals – Always, always use quality images. Avoid clip art go for quality. If you want to use a cartoon get a cartoonist to draw one for you! Whatever your visuals may be, keep them simple and try to use three or four words only. The audience isn’t there to read your slides, they are there to listen to your presentation.
Eye to eye with the audience – A fantastic technique for engaging the audience
is……….Look them in the eye. Don’t spray your eyes round the room look at one person, deliver a sentence then move on to the next person. If no one is looking at you, stop talking. When they look up, look the next person in the eye, deliver a sentence and move on.
Show your personality – It doesn’t matter if you are presenting to a corporate crowd or to senior citizens, you need to show some of your character when presenting. When you just stand and deliver you become wooden and any enthusiasm you have for the topic is lost. Be yourself, be natural and you will deliver better presentations.
Make them laugh – Although you want to educate your audience, humour will help your presentation be better remembered. No this doe not mean you have to become a stand up. Tel your story and lighten it up with humour or an anecdote. This keeps the audience alert and they’ll learn more from you than someone who just educates.
Talk to your audience, not at them – Don’t you just hate it when people talk at, so don’t do it. You need to interact with your audience and create a conversation. An easy way to do this is to ask them questions as well as letting them ask you questions. I know someone who asks one person in his audience “What do you expect to achieve from this presentation”?
Honesty is your best Policy – A lot of people present to the audience what they want to hear, instead of what they need to hear. Make sure you tell the truth even if they don’t want to hear it. There are lots of words you can use to prepare your audience for bad news. It will help you if you collect a library of these words and phrases for when you need them. Oh and if you don't know the answer to a question, tell them you don't but you will get back to them with an answer.
Please Don’t over prepare – If you rehearse your presentation too much it will sound like it (in a bad way). Granted, you need to be prepared enough to know what you are going to talk about but make sure your presentation flows naturally instead of sounding memorized. Usually if you ask experienced speakers what you shouldn’t do, they’ll tell you not to rehearse your presentation too much because then it won’t sound natural.
Get out of the Grow Bag– You probably know it’s good to move when you are presenting. The phrase motion comes from emotion is key here. Don’t stand in one spot, like you are trying to take root, (in your grow bag) a little movement and encouraging gestures help when making a point. People are more engaged with an animated speaker.
Watch what you say – You usually don’t notice when you say “err”, “ah”, or any other filler word frequently, but the audience does. It can get irritating; so much that some members of the audience will probably count how many times you say these filler words.
Differentiate yourself – If you don’t do something different compared to all the other presenters the audience may have heard. You are branding yourself when you speak, so make sure you do something memorable. I find your own enthusiasm for your subject is a great place to start.
Catch up with you again soon!
Paul Johnstone is the founder of
The Paradigm Shakers
Providers of Thought Provoking Training
Delivered by Subject Matter Experts
©Paul Johnstone
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