How to Give a Presentation with Confidence and Flair Prepare Practice Peace.

By Kim ā€¢

How to Give a Presentation with Confidence and Flair  Prepare Practice Peace.

Iā€™ve talked about what an important element effective communications is at work.

Whether you are an executive who must drill corporate strategies into the psyche of the company, or you are a mentor, acting as a guide for a young employee, or your are just having an average conversation with your boss.

But the one area of communications I have not pursued here is the presentation ā€” most likely because I have such bad memories of my own performances.

I can tell you that at least twice a Sr. manager told me I needed to go to classes to improve my skills. I never had the time to do that, but I did teach myself a few things ā€” and they have helped me as a business owner.

I know there are thousands of books, articles, blogs and other resources on this subject ā€” not the least of which is Dale Carnegie.

But I wanted to share my own ideas to keep things uncomplicated and genuine for you:

Preparation is king in speech-giving ā€” lest you want to be compared to the person who gave the horrible toast at a wedding.

Preparation means a few things to me.

ā€¢ First, if you donā€™t know how to use PowerPoint or whatever presentation software your company usesā€¦you must learn or get someone to teach you.
ā€¢ Trust meā€“this is half the battle. Plus you get to play graphic designer for a little while ā€” designing strong and stylish images and messages.

ā€¢ Know your subject matter ā€” i.e. your company and your business ā€” inside and out.

ā€¢ If there is time, prior to the presentation, begin to take good notes at meetings, talk to colleagues about important aspects of the business or strategic plan that you are presenting.

ā€¢ Scour the internet about your industryā€¦find relevant facts about your company, your competition and about new trends that may impact your company.

ā€¢ No idea is really ever new (seriously) donā€™t try to write the whole thing from scratch.

ā€¢ Dig through files and find previous presentations to see what is relevant to yoursā€¦and then edit, re-write, cut and paste into your presentation.

ā€¢ And just like you did for your college term papers, reference experts.

ā€¢ And speaking of writingā€¦use everyday languageā€¦no one is going to care that youā€™ve chosen to use the word postulation, as opposed to concept.

ā€¢ Keep your slides or images very conciseā€¦bullets, bullets, bullets! You want people to commit to memory your key points.

ā€¢ Which brings us to timing. A solid presentation really shouldnā€™t be more than 12 minutesā€¦15 minutes tops ā€” unless your Steve Jobs giving the annual Apple presentation.

ā€¢ Be mindful of your attendees schedulesā€¦they will appreciate it.

ā€¢ Find impactful images: graphs, charts, even photos if it will help strengthen your ideas.

ā€¢ Practice! Take your presentation home and practice in front of a mirror, before friends, maybe even video tape yourself so that you can see what you look and sound like.

ā€¢ Speak up ā€” speak clearly and slowly. Women can sound shrill if they speak to quickly.

ā€¢ Check your overall appearance: no dangling pendants, no shiney broochesā€¦you want your audience to be listening to YOU, not be distracted by your jewelry.

ā€¢ Try to limit your hand movementsā€¦but if you canā€™t help yourself, make sure youā€™ve gotten a manicure.

ā€¢ If you have to give a presentation out of town, be sure to have a general sense of your audience in terms of office wardrobe. NYC Vogue does not fly in Des Moines.

ā€¢ When presentation day comes, be sure to thank your audience ā€” especially senior members of management.

ā€¢ And lastly, try to stay on point ā€” my biggest faux pas usually happened when I began to notice the audience fidget (often when I digressed and tried to throw in a giggle.)

I would stutter and really get so off topic that Iā€™d forget where I was in the presentation ā€” which eventually led my management to pull me aside and tell me I needed classesā€¦ick.

We all know that public speaking is difficultā€¦but believe meā€¦if you prepare and practice ā€” you will present with confidence.

Technorati Tags: Apple Computer, PowerPoint, presentations, Speech making, steve Jobs

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