Plan, practice, perform, PERFECT!
Many psychological surveys rank public speaking as a greater fear for us than death. Rather than run from our presentations – we need to harness those fears. Here’s our three P’s of dynamic, persuasive presentations:
Plan
Probably the most important step, often rushed, when preparing a presentation. The planning stage does not just mean the order of your slides, it helps you to decide on and formulate the information, its order, and highlights the possible risks or objections you may experience.
Planning will help you make decisions like ‘which presentation software to use’ and ‘what duration is really needed’. If you are really effective when planning you will find that you will be spending less time preparing yourself to present.
Our workshop, The Skilled Presenter™ gives you the tools and techniques to present your ideas clearly and structure presentations in ways that match the message to the audience, presenting the information you want your listeners to understand and remember – without overloading them.
Avoid information overload by:
- Focusing on what your audience wishes to hear, to keep them interested.
- Keeping it simple, to be remembered.
Perform
Your non-verbal skills are your performing skills, you can maximise your impact by harnessing them. You can maximise on these skills even when presenting online by focussing on the way you dress, eye contact, gestures, your voice, stance and movement:
The way you dress – our friends at TM Lewin have provided an infographic to help you make an impression by choosing the right business suit. Click to enlarge the image, view their range of business suits.
Eye contact – shows you are confident and care about getting the message across.
Gestures – Relax… let your gestures follow your thoughts.
Stance and movement – stand squarely, move with purpose.
Voice – improve your voice dynamics and projection.
If, like many people, you dread that all important presentation here are some great tips to help you to overcome your nervousness:
- Get physical – take deep breaths, press your hands together to relieve tension, do muscle-relaxation exercises.
- Breathe – oxygen calms nerves and improves your voice projection – concentrate on taking full, deep breaths during the presentation.
- Turn nervousness into energy – nervousness is part of presenting, a little ‘motivational stress’ is a good thing.
- Surround yourself with friendly people – expert speakers routinely use this technique before they present. By surrounding yourself with people before your presentation, you reduce the impact of switching from being ‘off the stage’ to being ‘on the stage.’
- Plan – the big secret to overcoming nervousness is organising your presentation clearly. Research shows that the major reason people feel stage fright stems from worrying that they will forget what they want to say – i.e., suffer ‘brain cramps.’
- Learn from experts – learn top tips, tools and the secrets to mastering presentations from the experts by developing a structure that will help you survive. Find out more…
Practice
Bring together content, body and voice skills for the perfect, effortless presentation. To master your new found skills you need to practice, practice, practice.
More resources
You can be successful and be remembered by your audience whether presenting face-to-face, online or a mix of the two! The Skilled Presenter™ provides everything you need to become more confident when planning, performing and practicing your presentation skills, whether at a management meeting or an organisation-wide conference – this workshop will significantly help you get your message across. Find out more…
Download our top 10 presentations and PowerPoint® do’s and don’ts (PDF).
