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Communication Skills- Part 3 Presentation Skills
This final part in this trilogy on Communication skills will deal with the skills needed to present in public or amongst your peers.
So what makes a good communicator? I well remember my school days and certain teachers were able to captivate their classes yet others found it a struggle. Attention spans were often directly related with the ability and enthusiasm shown by the teacher to communicate their subject.
Ronald Reagan was called “The great communicator”. There is no doubting the magic and captivating power of Churchill’s speeches. Yet conversely I was in an audience that was being addressed by Gene Amdahl where half the audience voted with their feet after twenty minutes!
So what is it that can captivate or alienate an audience? What skills do speakers in public need to have?
The fear factor
If you are unfamiliar with speaking in public, to be suddenly thrust in front of an audience can be one of the most daunting and terrifying experiences if inadequately equipped. All eyes and ears will be on you, so how can you prepare ?
Preparation
Let us suppose that you have to give a 30 minute presentation on one of your products to a mixed audience of management and technologists.
As a rule of thumb a 30 minute presentation will initially require 300 minutes of preparation ! particularly if the presentation is new. This may surprise many but as any sports person will tell you,.practice makes perfect
1. Know your audience
Good speakers will always have a rapport with their audience because they will have taken the time energy and effort to find out what their interests and needs are and geared the presentation to meet them. A good way of doing this is to explain in your first slide or opening remarks what it is that they should hope to learn from your presentation.
Another good tactic is to engage your audience before your presentation on a one to one basis and find out individual requirements and if possible, refer to them and the individual during the presentation.
2. Prepare appropriate content
The flow of your presentation should follow a sequence:
- What the audience will learn or be informed about in a single sentence
- Why this is important for them to know (relevance)
- Examples of where this is relevant (value)
- Supplementary information (prepared but may not be used)
- Summary of what they have informed about
If using slides, overheads, flip charts or any other visual aids some basic rules should be observed. These are:
- Pictures should convey the ideas and information that reinforce your content and not distract from it.
- Each sentence in a presentation should convey one idea only
- Avoid too many sentences on one slide
- KNOW the content of each slide and commit the sequence to memory
- If it helps to use cue cards; memorise these
- Practice your timing. Believe it or not it is harder to speak concisely for shorter presentations. Time yourself. Try not to overrun
- Work on the theory the less slides you have the better.They are there to reinforce the content knowledge and confidence emanating from you the SPEAKER.
3. Delivery tips and practice drills
It is perfectly normal to become nervous before any presentation and the adrenaline that is generated can be used positively. Take deep breaths to make yourself more relaxed.
Be aware that you are communicating with your body as well as your voice. Some of the key things to remember are:
- Make eye contact. Each idea should be presented to a single individual by eye contact.The next idea should then be to someone else. This is extremely powerful when you have a larger audience as you will involve and get their participation because they will know you are speaking TO THEM.
- Equally do not speak to the slides (That is why you learn your presentation) so that you KNOW what comes next.
- If you want to illustrate a point on a slide stand to the side of the screen..Use your hand or pointer while still facing the audience.
- Use space and silence. If you have made a key point, leave a space or remain silent. Watch the audiences reactions and use body language to reinforce your messages.
- If you lose the plot,forget where you are or suddenly freeze,do not panic!! Easy to say ,I know when you are presenting to an audience.However,this tip works every time. Look at any person in the audience. Image they have bright red underware. Refocus on another person and continue. It works every time !!
4. Handouts
A very simple rule. Do not give out handouts of your presentation until after you have finished. Never give them out beforehand as they will read them during, or worse, before your presentation.
5. Handling questions
There are two approaches that you can adopt,either of which will be best determined by the type and personal style of your presentation. Basically you can either encourage an interactive “ask any questions at any time approach” or questions at the “end”. As a rule of thumb, if your presentation is time constrained it is better to field questions at the end.
Of course the secret is tohandle questions and keep to your agenda. This is quite a skill and never be afraid to say “I do not know” or answer off-line if you determine that is the appropriate strategy.
Giving presentations can be extremely demanding both physically and mentally yet also enormous fun and certainly producea major adrenaline rush. The key is preparation. This will enable you to present in a natural and personal style, which in time you will develop.
Speak slowly and clearly and only use humour if you are comfortable in doing so. Never underestimate the very short attention span that most people have. Get to the point make it succinctly and yes... have fun.
SSP is continuing to help companies grapple with the challenges that confront software companies in today’s markets and further details on our training courses and other services can be found at www.sspltd.com
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