These days delivering a presentation is a key business skill, with the ubiquitousness of applications like PowerPoint, it’s meant that everyone has the tools around them to create a presentation but tools aside whether everybody can deliver an excellent presentation is another matter.
What is a presentation?
A presentation is perhaps easiest to think of as a speech with a purpose. The purpose for one presentation to another can vary for example it might be to convince your business to go ahead with a particular project or to deliver a performance review on a supplier or it could be to be used as a training aid. Presentations usually contain a number of ingredients they always include a presenter and an audience but also might include things like artifacts (handouts), audio/visual support, questionnaires, there are no hard and fast rules on this – you use what you think is applicable.
How you can improve your presentations.
The first rule has nothing to do with tools it’s down to you.
Relax
Presentations are learned skill, don’t expect to be an expert on day one. Great presenting skills come from tonnes of practice. The more presentations you give the better at it you’ll get.
This doesn’t mean you have to present to an audience every time, practice might involve an empty room but the fact is the more times you rehearse giving presentations the better at it you’ll get.
So here is our 5 pointers to better presentations.
1. Presentations are not PowerPoint
Remember the PowerPoint is just a tool to help you convey your presentation it is not the presentation. PowerPoint has its good points and bad points.
Used in the wrong way, PowerPoint can help you lose your audience quickly. Don’t overload with fancy graphics at the loss of information remember what you’re therefore and use your software as a tool to put across the information not just as a mechanism for showing how good you are at creating slide shows.
2. Remember the audience
Your audience is your customer. Putting yourself in the audience’s perspective can be vital in helping to convey the information correctly try and think what the audience needs from you and understand the basis of the problem or the concept that you’re trying to put across. Don’t try and run your opinion down the audiences throat but stick to the facts and data in the first instance.
3. Slowdown
Take time to put across the information, remember to breathe. If you try and put the information across to your audience in breakneck speed you will lose them. Become calmness personified take plenty of breaths and pauses and allow your audience to take in the information you’re presenting.
4. Don’t be too wordy
There are 100 ways to convey a concept think about things from your audience perspective and don’t bore them to tears. Clever use of pictures like infographics which can convey information can help you convey information in a very simple if done well.
Think about what works well for you and build on that.
5. Get the audience to participate
The worst presentations are just one person reading to an audience. Boring situations do not help information sink in. Getting the audience to become engaged and participate in the presentation perhaps through questions or alternative methods of participation can help you build enthusiasm within your audience and help you convey your information more collaboratively.
So there are our top five methods for improving your presentations now. If you have your own ideas we would love to hear your feedback in our comment section below.