I’m sure many of us have the confidence to easily tell a joke to friends and family even with all eyes on us, but just as many fear the idea of talking to a crowd in a more formal setting.
Of course telling a joke to people you’ve know all your life is different to delivering a high quality and engaging presentation but at the end of the day, in both cases you’re just talking to people about something you know.
Here are a few more little pointers that will help make your ‘conversations’ a bit easier.
Be yourself
Your parents were right. You’ve got the personality, you’ve got the ability, and you just need to be you. People don’t want you to pretend to be someone you are not. I can’t stress this enough – try not to fall into the trap of going into “presenter style”. Be natural by being yourself.
Tell a story
You want your audience to feel confident and believe your message. To achieve this you have to believe, be passionate and be confident. A presentation is like a good book – the beginning builds to the crescendo – the action in the middle – then the pace changes towards the end. If you deliver in a mono-tone style, your audience will likely tune out. But if you deliver with feeling, you will have them engaged. I recommend planning and rehearsing the presentation, thinking about where you can inspire excitement, serious thought, and passion.
Language is powerful
Choose your words and phrases carefully. Words like; might, maybe, I think, I suspect – all create doubt. Go for confident and bold words; ‘we are’, ‘this will deliver’, ‘we empower…’
You’ll be communicating with your body language too, even if you’re not fully aware of it. Good posture exudes confidence. Some movement is good but avoid pacing as it can be distracting. To help manage the inevitable nervous energy, I often lift off my heels and subtly rock onto on toes.
Warm up
Just like an athlete, you are going out to perform and you need to warm up before you present. Here is my warm up routine (yes I do this every time before I go out to present):
- Face stretch – I do as big as a yawn as I can. I do this three to four times. It really helps to relax the facial muscles
- Tongue warm up – repeat the following over and over: ‘Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather’. Once you’ve got the rhythm of this, change the intonation
- Body stretch – put your arms in the air and stretch as high as you can. You could touch your toes, or whatever – just warm up and get the blood flowing
Practice makes perfect
Think about how you will deliver the content, in what order and how you will set the scene. Try not to assume your audience will know what’s in your head. Practice on your own and even better, in front of a small group of colleagues. They can provide honest and constructive feedback (especially if you tend to say ‘um’ and ‘you know’ a lot). It’s important that you stick to your presentation structure too – if you lose your focus, a deep breath and quick glance at your notes will bring you back on course and help you feel at ease.
Your presentation slides are there to prompt you
Your audience has come to have a conversation with you and to listen to you, not read or watch you read off the slides. Where possible, simply talk to the key messages or points from the slides to help provide flow and direction and to also emphasise key points. If I’ve included a client testimonial on the slide, l will read it out because I want to make the point. Don’t turn your head and talk to the screen unless you absolutely have to. The best presentation slides are visual, not loaded with text.
No-one knows you’ve made a mistake
If you happen to forget something or add something you hadn’t planned to, so be it. Your audience don’t know the script. Forget about it and move on. No need to apologise and backtrack – it breaks the flow and you will likely feel flustered.
Presentation skills is a development journey that never stops. Be open to constructive feedback as this will help you improve. Good luck!
