Effective Presentation Skills » people

Presentations – Writing It Out

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:38:41 +0000

One area where people don’t agree is whether to write out your presentation completely or to just put the main points on cards.
If you write the main points on cards you will probably sound more natural, interesting and confident. However, you may blank completely during your talk and forget what you are trying to say. You need to make sure that your cards contain enough words to help you if you lose your train of thought.
Tips to using cards well:
Use postcard-sized cards.
Write neatly, clearly and in big characters.
Number your cards.
Write on only one side of the cards.
Practice with the cards several times until you feel confident.
If you write out your presentation completely, you won’t sound as natural without a lot of preparation with a voice coach. However, it’s a good solution if you are extremely nervous. You may also need to write out your presentation if the exact wording is vitally important or if you are required to give out a handout of your talk.
Tips to writing it out well.
Use short sentences. What you want to produce is good speaking not good writing.
Write on A4 paper. Don’t put too much on each page and make sure no paragraph runs over onto the next page.
Use a large typeface, at least 16pt.
Number each page.
Don’t attach the pages.

How to Beat Panic When You Present

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:40:04 +0000

If you panic at the thought of making a presentation, you are not alone. Several studies have shown that public speaking is the thing that people fear most – more than snakes, flying or even death. That means that, at a funeral, most people would rather be in the coffin than making the eulogy!

How can you get over this fear? Here are some tips:

Get there early. Make sure you get familiar with the room. Stand where you are going to give your presentation until you begin to feel relaxed standing there. Try out the audiovisual equipment you will be using.

Introduce yourself to as many members of the audience as you can before you start. This helps turn the audience into a group of friendly faces rather than a wall of strangers.

Whilst you are doing this, pick out a couple of ‘friendly faces’. During the presentation, maintain regular eye-contact with your ‘new friends’.

Keep a photo of a child, a spouse or a pet near you. Look at it from time to time for reassurance.
Breathe deeply and rhythmically. This will bring oxygen into your system, relax your throat and help you breath more slowly.

Act confidently even if you are not feeling confident. You will find yourself becoming confident.

Wear a rubber band around your wrist. Snap it if you are feeling negative thoughts.

Remember that it will soon be over. Twenty minutes is not very long in your lifetime!

Presentations- Your Opening Statement

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:39:26 +0000

Your opening statement is designed to grab people’s attention and tell them where you want to take them. However the real meat of your presentation is in the main body of your talk, the roads you will take them down.
You need to identify between three and five key points that you wish to get across. More than five and you will confuse your audience. These key points will determine if you accomplish the mission set out in your mission statement.
Your key points need to be clear, compelling and convincing. This is the time in your talk where you will persuade the audience or not.
You can arrange your key points in any order you wish, chronological, by categories, degrees of difficulty.
Once you have determined the order, you need to make sure that your ideas flow so that your listeners can follow and reach your destination. The way to do this is by using transitions. These link each of the main sections together. You are taking your audience on a journey and the transitions signal the road you are taking them down. Don’t expect your audience to be able to follow your leaps of logic and arrive at your destination without clear signposts from you.

Presenting – Using Visual Aids

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:37:59 +0000

You can get your message across much more successfully by using visual aids than you can by just talking. Your presentation will be more effective and more memorable. People will only remember about twenty per cent of what they hear and about fifty per cent of what they see. However, they will remember about eighty per cent of what they hear and see.
So using visual aids can be a very good thing. However, please remember that they are just an aid. We have seen far too many presentations go wrong where the speakers have clearly spent all their time producing attractive visual aids but not thought enough about what their mission statement was and how the visual aids could best be used to achieve the mission.
A visual aid can be something as simple as a flip chart or as complicated as a PowerPoint presentation with integrated audio and video. However the basic approach should always be the same; only use the aid if it helps you achieve your goal. Here are three questions you should ask yourself:
Are they appropriate for your audience?
If you are making the after-lunch presentation at a sales conference, you will want to have loud and brash visual aids that will keep your audience amused and awake. However, if you are presenting to the board of directors, you will want to have more sober visual aids.
Are they relevant to your mission?
Creating visual aids can be great fun. However, don’t get carried away. If it doesn’t help your mission, you shouldn’t use it. Just because you have information, it doesn’t mean you have to use it.
Are they visible to your audience?
Wherever possible, you need to check out the room where you will be giving your presentation in advance. In a large room, a flip chart is often unreadable from the back of the room. You’d be much better off using an OHP. If you write by hand, write big and clearly. If you type, use a larger font. If you are giving a PowerPoint presentation, check how they are going to be projected on the screen; stand at the back of the room and flip through the slides using your wireless mouse.

Make your presentation interesting

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:37:20 +0000

Find out as much as you can about your audience before you begin to prepare your presentation.
Who are they?
How many people will there be? What age range? Men or women? Friend or foe? Are they there by choice?
What do they want from your presentation?
What do they know already about my subject? Why have they come to the presentation?
The more you know about your audience, the closer you can pitch your presentation to suit them.
But what do you do if know very little in advance about your audience? Well the best answer is to try and find out more. However, here are some techniques that we have found will keep any audience interested.
Interpret your statistics. Give them figures and then explain what they mean. Is a five per cent increase in sales in China a good result or a great result? Tell them what you think. Put them in a context they can relate to.
Include some fascinating facts to illustrate your subject. For example, as English trainers, we often use the little known fact that the country in the world where the most people speak English is not the USA or India, it’s China.
Use one or two quotes if they reinforce your mission. You don’t have to name the person who said it, especially if they are obscure. You can say ‘As someone said…’
Native speakers can successfully incorporate jokes into their presentations. However, we have found that non-native speakers often can’t. A joke usually requires timing or pronunciation skills that a non-native speaker doesn’t have. Also different cultures can be offended by jokes that we might find funny.

Presentations – body language

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:36:47 +0000

Don’t underestimate the power of body language. When you are standing in front of a group of people, your body is communicating a message to them. How you sit, stand or project your voice can reinforce or sabotage your message. If you are using strong, powerful words but your body is communicating that you are weak and unsure, your audience will not accept what you are saying as well as if you were using strong body language.
Dos
Stand tall. Look confident.
Maintain eye contact with your audience.
Smile.
If you are using a podium, stand back a little so that you don’t bend your head to read your text.
Keep your arms by your sides but bend them from the elbow to gesture.
Use natural, conversational gestures. Remember you are talking to your audience.
Move around, but between your key points.
Don’ts
Don’t cross your arms or put them behind your back.
Don’t fidget. Don’t scratch your nose, jiggle things in your pocket or shuffle from foot to foot.
Don’t point at anyone in your audience, even when you invite them to answer a question.
Don’t force your smile. Let it come naturally.

Presentations – handling the questions

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:35:26 +0000

For many speakers, the most terrifying part of a presentation is handling the questions at the end. It is almost impossible to predict what questions will be asked. Many people find it hard to come up with a good answer to a question in these conditions.

Dos

Tell the audience how much time they have to ask questions.

Maintain eye contact with the person while they are asking the question.

Go back to eye contact with the rest of the audience when you answer the question. You are not just speaking to the person who asked the question.

If you are in a large room, repeat the question so that everyone will know what has been asked. Reformulate it if you wish. This will give you time to think about your answer.

If you don’t know the answer to the question, simply say that you don’t know but will find out and let them know.

As you come to the end of the time, tell the audience that you only have time for one more question.

Finish on a high. Wrap up your presentation with a strong conclusion reinforcing your mission.

Don’ts

Interrupt or talk over the question.

Ask if you’ve answered the question. Simply look to someone else for the next question.

Ask anyone else to answer the question without prior warning.

Say sorry if you don’t know the answer.