Presentation Skills

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EMSA National Coordinators Meeting Romania 2012

Presentation skills Participants Handout

Irena Šoljid, IAAS

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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CONTENT

Preparation…………………………………………………………………………………………………..3

General preparation……………………………………………………………………………………..3

Preparation of the content……………………………………………………………………………4

Structure………………………………………………………………………………………………………4

Visual aids…………………………………………………………………………………………………….8

Voice…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….11

Eye contact……………………………………………………………………………………………………12

Body language………………………………………………………………………………………………13

Podium panic………………………………………………………………………………………………..16

Tips and tricks………………………………………………………………………………………………18

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Preparation You will need seven times more information than you will tell in your presentation.Be aware

that the preparation time of a good presentation exceeds far the presentation time itself! As

Wayne Burgraff said – “It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time”

General preparations

The five important questions for preparing a presentation are:

Why?

What are my objectives? What are the goals of my presentation?

There are a lot of different kinds of objectives: to explain, to inform, to train, to report, to

motivate, to thank, to self-promote, to define and solve a problem, …“Every presentation

should have a clear objective and every element of the presentation should support it.”

Who?

Who are the participants? What kinds of people are attending your presentation? What kind of

group is it (experienced and non-experienced mixed, all new people)? Do the people know each

other from before? What do they already know about the subject? What is their age? Position?

What?

What is the best way to deliver these objectives to these people? What techniques am I going

to use? What visuals am I going to use? Do I need any other facilities?

How?

How to structure the presentation? How to make sure the message gets through? How to

present yourself – e.g. what to dress?

Where?

In which room will I do my presentation? Is the room reserved? Is there enough space for the

participant? Are all the facilities that I need there and are they working?

Before you start you should know 3 things:

Yourself

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Your audience

Your subject

Preparation of the content

Collect and read information about your topic

You can use several techniques to collect and organize data and ideas e.g.: brainstorming,

4MAT, mind-mapping …

Select the information and stick the different parts together

Reduce the information you have to the essential things you need.

Put an order in which you are going to tell everything.

Some questions you can ask yourself to help you with this: Which anecdotes, examples,

… do I want to tell to make it more interesting? Can I use them as an introduction to get

people’s attention?

What parts can be tricky or difficult? How can I make them easier?

What content can I skip, in case of not enough time?

What can I tell more if I have too much time?

Make the definitive presentation out of it

What technique am I going to use? How am I going to explain things? How am I going to

visualize things?

Structure

A fundamental structure for good presentations:

1. Introduction: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them”

2. Body: “Tell them”

3. Conclusion: “Tell them what you’ve told them”

4. Questions and Answers

Don’t forget to use transitions!!!

Introduction

Welcome everybody

Introduce yourself

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Capture the participant’s attention (you can do this with an example, a little story, …) and give them a reason to listen to you.

Establish the subject; define the goal or purpose of the presentation.

Give the body/structure of the presentation. Have a look at the schedule together with your audience: write this down and put the schedule somewhere so that the participants can see it all the time. This can also be used as memory jogger for the presenter.

Set some rules and give some administrative details e.g. when to ask questions, switch of mobile phones, etc.

Body

Series of points (3 to 5 main points) in a clear structure. Memorize them or use a small support, like the schedule, or small cards.

Take care that the arguments are put in a logical order.

Put the most important arguments at the beginning and at the end.

Make a good connection between 2 points, but don’t mix everything.

Make clear which point you are talking about.

Explain the most important things very carefully; maybe use an example to clarify them.

Transitions

Transitions are an integral part of a smooth flowing presentation, yet many speakers forget to plan their transitions. The primary purpose of a transition is to lead your listener from one idea to the other.

Examples of transitions:

1. Bridge words or phrases - furthermore, meanwhile, finally, in addition, consequently 2. Trigger transition - same word or idea used twice: “a similar example is…” 3. Ask a question - “How many of you…?” 4. Flashback - “Do you remember when I said…?” 5. Point-by-Point - “There are three points…The first one is…The second one is…” 6. Pausing - Even a simple pause, when effectively used, can act as a transition. This allows the audience to “think“ about what was just said and give it more time to register 7. Use physical movement - Move or change the location of your body. This is best done when you are changing to a new idea or thought 8. Use a personal story - The use of a story, especially a personal one is a very effective technique used by many professional speakers. Used effectively, it can help reinforce any points you made during a presentation)

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9. Use the PEP formula (Point, Example, Point) – this is a very common format used and can be combined with the use of the personal story. Make sure stories or examples you use help reinforce your message

Three common mistakes

1. The most common mistake is that people don’t use transitions at all. Transitions help your information flow from one idea to the next

2. The second most common mistake is using transitions that are too short. Not enough time is spent bridging to the next idea. This is extremely important when changing to a new section of ideas within your presentation

3. The third most common mistake is that people use the same transitions throughout the presentation. This becomes very boring after a short while. Try to be creative with your transitions.

Transitions and team presentation

Transitions become extremely important when a team presentation is involved. The transition from one speaker to the next must be planned and skillfully executed. Each speaker should use a brief introduction of the next topic and speaker as part of this transition

Conclusion

Summarize.

Repeat the main points.

Call for action (if this was the purpose of your presentation) and explain the participants clearly how they should proceed if they are interested.

Explain what is going to happen after the presentation. E.g. handouts, discussions, mailing lists, etc.

End with a positive note.

Thank the participants for attending the presentation and for their attention.

Always put a clear end! Even if you run out of time and you have to skip some points: always end!

Note that the main points are told three times to the participants: once in the introduction of the topic, once in the body, and once in the conclusion.

Questions and Answers

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1. After inviting questions do not rush ahead if no one asks a question. Allow the audience to gather their thoughts.

2. Listen to the entire question

3. Pause and allow yourself to evaluate the question and the listener

4. Repeat the question in your own words: this way you check if you understood the question right and you make sure the whole audience heard it.

5. Acknowledge the question or comment, “this was a good question”, “glad you asked that question” to motivate others. Be sure to credit everyone for asking a question if you don’t want people to feel their question was not as important.

6. Answer to the whole audience.

7. Always respond.

8. If you don’t know the answer now: admit it. Write the question down, this show you care about a questioner. Promise to look it up and answer later. Be specific: tell when and how exactly the answer will arrive. Keep this promise!

9. Prepare yourself with for the Q&A session:

Guess those questions you are likely to get. If you made your homework and know both your topic and audience, this will be easy.

Write them down on cards; one question per card (preferably coloured, not to mix it with your other papers). Leave about five to six lines below each question.

If you have more then 20 questions, it is likely that your presentation contains too many holes and needs to be reconsidered and/or restructured. Rework your presentation until the number of questions goes below 20.

Answer to each question on the card.

Read the answers to a tape recorder.

Listen to the cassette. Satisfied?

Where you are not satisfied with your own answer, add additional notes, facts, gimmicks to the card, but this time with a different colour.

Record your answers again and play it back. Better isn’t it?

Ask people to stand up when they are asking a question.

Have a pencil and paper available for you to write down questions you can’t answer

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Visual aids

Visuals must only support your presentation, and not replace it. Visuals can be useful to bring some variety and colour in your way of presenting.

Visuals are used to:

help the group to concentrate on one point

support the structure of the presentation.

summarize and reinforce information.

serve as a memory jogger to the presenter as well as the audience and help him/her to gather his thoughts.

present figures, graphs

General considerations

Write approximately 5 +/- 2 main points per slide/flipchart.

Do not write and speak at the same time

Do not read what is on your visual. Your audience can read and you lose eye contact.

Show detailed data charts

Make your visuals colourful, but do not overdo it (3/4 colours)

Make the visuals dynamic but be careful PowerPoint will easily over-perform you. Try to use catchy things but only with a limited movement to avoid loosing eye contact for a prolonged time.

If you use colour background on slides or colour letter always make a test print and check if it is readable from the back of the room.

Make sure you are not standing in the way while presenting.

It is better to have charts then matrixes since they are easier to understand.

In the case you have a chart , here is the order you should present it in order for the audience to understand it better:

Present the title

Present the horizontal axe

Present the vertical axe

Explain the graph itself

Draw the conclusion

What to check before the presentation?

It is the best to go through this list on the day before your presentation and check the place by yourself.

Make sure nothing hangs in the middle of your projected picture. E.g., lamps, cables, chandelier.

Check for bobbing heads.

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Make sure there is no other event going on in the next room that causes too much noise or distraction.

Get the feeling of the room. Walk around. Get familiar with distances, place of switches, electric plugs, etc.

If possible, go there with a friend. Let him verify if he can hear you well at the end of the room while you are speaking.

Is there a visible clock? If not, bring your own one.

Make sure you have the phone number of the person who handles/responsible for the audio/visual (A/V) equipment.

Check your flipchart easel. Sturdy enough? How can you fold out the extra arms? Is there enough paper in?

Check the lighting level. Know which light you have to switch off when you start using your beamer and where are the switches.

If you use local equipment make sure it is compatible with your systems/materials. Is the PC Windows, or Mac? Is the video VHS or BetaMax? The TV Pal or Secam? Make sure the necessary cables are there to link your PC with the beamer.

If you have too many cables on the floor, tape them down.

If you are using a cordless microphone, make sure you know where the “hot spots” are. How close you can go to the loudspeakers? Which direction you have to stand. (Hot spot is where the microphone makes and incredible noise due to the positive feedback between the microphone and the loudspeakers.)

Check how can you switch on/off the microphone, and have far you have to keep it from your mouth to have optimal sound?

Ask how many people are coming to see the presentation. Remove the excessive chairs.

Sit in to the audience’s place for a while. How does it feel? How is the air conditioning? The background noise level?

If there is a bar in the presentation room, make sure it is shut down.

Invest into a small pocket size electric torch. You may need it to find your notes while the lights are off for the beamer presentation, or eventually the fuse might blow off due to an overload of using all A/V equipments together. You don’t want to stand in the dark there.

Flipchart

Use capital and normal letter instead of only CAPITALS

Close writing instead of w i d e w r i t i n g

No optical SHOUTING or whispering

Use dark colours (blue and black) for writing

Use light colours (red) only to emphasize something

Write the thick part of the marker

Have a title for each flip chart.

Number your pages

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Write down only the essential (no novel)

Use symbols and graphics Positive aspects:

Actual and active

Output of discussion immediately visualised

Very easy to prepare

Easy to rehearse and add things Negative aspects:

Limited amount of participants

Eye-contact broken when writing

Impossible to hide information

Overhead projector, beamer, computer based still images, slide projector

Positive aspects:

You get the big picture of the presentation

For any number of participants

Hiding information is easy

Easy to transport

Beamer connects directly to a PC, you can edit your presentation in the last minute Negative aspects:

Facilities needed

The projectors make noise

Amount of information on a slide is limited

You can’t show all slides at the same time

Obscure room needed

The more complicated the technology is, the more likely it will break down. If you are using a beamer for an important presentation, always have printed slides with you as a back up.

Video, film, animated computer-based presentations

Positive aspects:

Make presentation lively, dynamic

Make visualization easier

Have a great demonstration effect

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Negative aspects:

Draw your audience’s attention completely away from you.

Professional actors on video over-perform you.

Too much computer animation can be annoying and slows down presentation.

Voice

Your voice has the following features:

Volume is how loud the sound is. The goal is to be heard without shouting. Do not mumble, or whisper. (Even if you don’t want your audience to hear it – they will.) Also, don’t speak while writing on the flipchart.

Tone is the characteristics of a sound. (eg. An airplane has a total different sound than leaves being rustled by the wind)

Pitch describes how high or how low a note is.

Pace is how long a sound lasts. Talking too fast causes the words and syllables to be short, while talking slowly lengthens them. People on average talk 120 words per minute. The human brain can interpret words up to the speed of 480 words per minute.

Colour is the richness of a voice, some people have e.g. a warm voice Your voice has certain characteristics you are born with. You can’t change some of them (like colour, pitch, tone), but you can learn to use your voice by playing with most things you can influence (like articulation, speed, volume, intonation). Tips for using your voice

When presenting

Avoid being monotone

Intonation: increase, decrease.

Avoid using jargon, abbreviations, foreign words

Use appropriate speed, pauses (not in the middle of a sentence), and articulation.

Silence for 10sec. is OK, sometimes even good.

New thought, new pitch – vary your pitch to convey a new point r message

Don’t read, no excuses For improving 1. Record your voice on an audiotape. 2. Play it back. Listen to it. Try to describe it. 3. Watch for stopwords like the “you knows”, “eeeeers” and “ands”. 4. Make three resolutions on improvement. 5. Record and listen again. 6. Look after your voice! – Drink plenty of water the night before – avoid red wine and cheese and anything with caffeine

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Eye contact

“If you are not going to use eye contact in your presentation you might as well FedEx your message to the meeting.” Why? Eye contact is the cement that binds together speakers and their audiences. It is the best and easiest way to keep in touch with your audience and to get feedback from them while presenting. Eye contact makes the speaking situation a two-way communication process. While you are talking, your listeners are responding with their own non-verbal messages. Use your eyes to seek out this valuable feedback.. It will tell you if they are interested, bored, tired, need a break. How? Good eye contact is not a matter of how long you look into someone’s eyes. It is a matter of punctuation. It is a registration of an idea, phrase, or even a word, by the continuous linking up of the eyes.

Look into the eyes; if you don’t dare to look into the eyes look between the eyes

Don’t look at the floor, the ceiling, outside, …

Look at everybody:

If your audience is big: divide in parts and look at the centre of every part

Don’t forget the sides when participants are sitting in a U-shape!!

Look long enough: not just 1 second per person

Maintain eye contact throughout your whole presentation

Select one person at the beginning – a friend, or a friendly face – and use him/her as a start-up point.

Look more or less 5 seconds in people’s eyes.

What prevents it?

Too much light. You are standing on a stage and a reflector points at you.

You are too far from your audience.

Handouts. Think twice before you give them away during your presentation.

“Cocktail Party Eyes” Your eyes tell your audience that you are not interested in them and wish to be somewhere else.

How to concentrate on eye contact and the presentation at the same time?

Be very well prepared. Be the master of your material. This will give you confidence and will show in your eyes.

Practice.

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How to control a person’s gaze?

Research shows that of the information relayed to a person’s brain:

87% comes via the eyes,

9% via the ears, and

4% via the other senses. While you are delivering a presentation or a training, if, for example, the person is looking at your visual aid as you are speaking, he will absorb as little as 9% of your message if your message is not directly related to what he sees. If the message is related to the visual aid, he will absorb only 25-30% of your message if he is looking at the visual aid. To maintain maximum control of his gaze, use a pen or a pointer to point to the visual aid and at the same time verbalize what he sees. Next, lift the pen from the visual aid and hold it between his eyes and your own eyes. This has the magnetic effect of lifting his head so that he is looking at your eyes and now he sees and hears what you are saying, thus achieving maximum absorption of your message. Be sure that the palm of your other hand is visible when you are speaking.

Body Language

According to Mehrabian the total impact of a message is about 7 % verbal (words only), 38 % vocal (including tone of voice, inflection and other sounds) and 55 % non-verbal. Birdwhistell in a similar research estimated that in a face-to-face conversation the verbal component is less than 35 % and over 65 % of communication is done non-verbally. Body language can: emphasize, complement, substitute or contradict what you originally meant.

What carries the message?

Eye contact

(See Eye Contact section.)

Facial expressions

Leave that deadpan expression to poker players. A good speaker realizes that appropriate facial expressions are an important part of effective communication. In fact, facial expressions are often the key determinant of the meaning behind the message. People watch a speaker’s face during a presentation. When you speak your face – more clearly than any other part of the body – communicates to your audience your attitudes, feelings and emotions.

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Gestures

Support your presentation

Keep people awake

Show enthusiasm

Use your hand

Don’t exaggerate

Don’t repeat Gestures are reflections of the speaker’s personality. What’s right for one speaker may not be for another. Here are some guidelines to help you become a dynamic effective speaker. 1. Respond naturally to what you think, feel and see – Don’t inhibit your impulse to gesture, you will probably become tense 2. Create the conditions for gesturing, not the gesture – When you speak you should be totally involved in communicating – not thinking about your hands. Tour gestures should be motivated by the content of your presentation. 3. Suit the action to the word and the occasion – Your visual and verbal messages must function as partners in communicating the same thought or feeling. Every gesture you make should be purposeful and reflective of your words or the audience will note the effect, not the gesture itself. 4. Make your gestures convincing – Your gestures should be lively and distinct if they are to convey the intended impressions. Effective gestures are vigorous enough to be convincing yet slow enough and broad enough to be clearly visible without being overpowering. 5. Make natural, spontaneous gesturing a habit – the first step is to determine what, if anything, you are doing now. Hands often reflect the nervousness of the speaker. Here’s a method to overcome on that:

o Record a presentation on video or ask a friend to watch you o Get feedback only on your hand gestures. o Take two heavy books (dictionaries) into each of your hands. o Repeat the presentation. The gestures you see now are the real ones. The rest is

nervousness and should be eliminated.

Standing

Presentations are delivered standing.

Stand unsupported, don’t lean on a table or a wall, …

Don’t hide behind table, flipchart easel, even avoid using lecterns

Before you start your presentation spot the place where you will stand. Keep your both feet on the ground while sitting. Stand up fast and go to the place quickly, this will show confidence.

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Pay attention not to stand in front of visuals.

You can have a ‘strong’ position: standing on 1 place, not or very little moving with the legs. The energy and focus is concentrated on the upper part of the body (face and hands), be sure to use them in a good way.

You can have a ‘free walk’: moving around naturally. Be careful not to move too much and to move in a good way (not up and down, don’t turn around, …)

Posture and body orientation

Turn towards the audience. Always face the audience.

Don’t speak while writing on a flipchart. Try to write on a flipchart while you are standing besides it. You can ask someone else to write on the flipchart if necessary.

Hands and arms not crossed. Crossed arms or hands are a sign of being closed, not crossed arms show openness, confidence.

Movements

Never move without a reason! Moving your body in a controlled, purposeful manner creates three benefits: 1. Supports and reinforces what you say 2. Attracts an audience’s attention 3. Burns up nervous energy and relieves physical tension The eye is inevitably attracted to a moving object, so any body movement you make during a speech invites attention. Too much movement, even the right kind, can become distracting to an audience. Bear in mind the following types of body movement:

Stepping forward during a speech suggest you are arriving at an important point

Stepping backward indicates you’ve concluded an idea and want the audience to relax for a moment

Lateral movement implies a transitional action; it indicates you are leaving one thought and taking up another.

The final reason for body movement is the easiest; to get from one place to another. In almost every speaking situation you must walk from the location you are addressing your audience to your props, especially if you are using visual aids. Always change positions by leading with the foot nearest your destination. Use three positions with visual aids. Your “home” position is front and centre. The other two positions should be relatively near the “home” position. You can move to the right of the lectern and then to the left. Using and varying these three positions prevents you from

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favouring one side of the audience. If you are speaking on stage , these three positions are called front centre, stage left and stage right. Never stand in front of any visual aid.

Remember:

Moving, changing places keeps the attention up.

Don’t start marching up and down if not necessary

Your walk should show confidence.

Find the right place. Not too slow, not too fast.

Use your arms and hands; never leave them in your pockets.

Support your speech by using your arms and hands: show enthusiasm, support words but be careful for contradictory signs (e.g. saying ‘high’ but showing low)

Podium panic

Did you know that public speaking tops the list of phobias for most people? Surveys show that fear of speaking in front of groups is the greatest fears people have – not dying, not spiders, not heights – public speaking! So what exactly are people afraid of when it comes to public speaking?

‘Drying up’ or nor being able to speak

Your mind going blank - forgetting what you are talking about

Having someone in the audience that knows more than you

People noticing that you are nervous

Having to run screaming from the room

Looking foolish

The presentation being so awful and embarrassing that your social/career relationships are forever ruined

The impossible to answer “question from Hell”

The audience talking over you or walking out

What can you do about this fear?

Firstly, accept that you need fear. We wouldn’t be here today if our ancestors didn’t rely on this fear to survive bigger, stronger and fast predators. We don’t have predators nowadays but our body still reacts as though we do(shaking knees, butterflies in the stomach, sweating palms and so on ).

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Anxiety and nervousness

When presenting you need a little anxiety as this will improve recall, raise energy levels and make for a more focused, dynamic speech. An overly laid-back speaker can easily bore! So you don’t want too much anxiety and you don’t want too much relaxation. You need enough tension to give you energy, and enough calmness for clear thinking and recall. You need the right balance.

The ‘pattern of fear'

1) You have a presentation coming up. 2) You think about it, imagining things going wrong and so feel anxious. 3) Unknowingly, you build up an association between the thought of the speech and the feeling of fear. 4) You go into the actual situation and get a fear response! Repeated often enough, this will cause the two to become very closely associated. This is ‘negative mental rehearsal’ for the event. Not surprisingly, when you go into the actual situation you feel terrified!

Dogged by an Ancient Brain

As Ivan Pavlov showed, dogs that are repeatedly fed whilst hearing a bell can eventually salivate when just hearing the bell without food. People who repeatedly feel fear coupled with imagining something, find they feel fear when the situation arrives. However, people can learn to associate tightrope walking, fighting in battles or defusing a bomb with a state of psychological calm. You can learn to change an association!

Benefits of nervousness

th a bit of a drama

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The moment when nervousness takes over the presenter and instead of being a life-sign, it becomes a dark cloud hanging above him/her. The audience starts feeling the nervousness and concentrates more on that than on the presentation itself. The nervousness of a presenter who is over the crossover point reflects back in the audience. In fact the audience becomes nervous.

Tips and tricks

Don’t fight it! Accept it as a positive influence. There are several steps of tricks to use to overcome the fear of making a mistake or looking foolish when you speak to a group: 1. Be well-prepared before speaking to a group 2. Practice your speech 3. Have a backup, in case you forget what you want to say 4. Reduce the fear of your audience 5. Relax yourself just before you speak

Be well prepared

Leave nothing to chance – chances of failure or goof-ups are greatly reduced

The 9 P’s rule : Prior Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance of the Person Putting on the Presentation

Know your material – Create a picturesque presentation map, a visual description of what your main topics are and how they are connected to each other. Memorize the picture. It is easier to memorize pictures than words. – Do not learn your script by heart. At most learn some important keywords by heart. – Memorize the first and the last part of your presentation. It’s a psychological known fact that when you know well how to start and end you will feel more confident. Don’t learn everything by heart !!

Know the audience – You can use the A.U..D.I.E.N.C.E Analysis A nalysis – who are they? How many will be there? U nderstanding – What is their knowledge on the subject? D emographics – What is their age, sex, educational background? I nterest – Why are they there? Who asked them to be there? E nvironment – Where will I stand? Can they all hear and see me? N eeds – What are their needs? What are your needs as the speaker? C ustomized – What specific needs do you need to address? E xpectations – What do they expect to learn or hear from you?

Know the conditions under which you will speak (You can read more about what to look after in the Preparation and Visual Aids sections.)

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Practice

You should practice your speech many times before you give it. Even if you know the material very well, the more you give a talk, the more automatic it becomes and you gain more confidence

Practice alone – say the speech out loud, it is good to get the material ingrained in your memory

Use a mirror – this way you get an idea of how you look when speaking. If you must refer to notes, it allows you to practice eye contact with the audience

Stand in the corner – Say your speech while standing in the corner. The sound reflects back to you, and you can get an idea of how you sound when you speak.

Record your practice – use a camera or a tape recorder. This forces you to avoid pausing to try to remember things. It allows you to play the presentation back and study how you move, how you sound, your timing, your phrasing, and the content of the material.

Use your friends – practice in front of them. It is a very important way to practice, because it’s getting closer to the ”real world”. Even an audience of one person is good for this type of practice

Have a backup

Bring along a “security blanket” or “safety net” in case something goes wrong

Outline – it’s good to have your presentation outlined on small cards. You can refer to them in case you forget something. It is acceptable to an audience, as long as you are not reading everything word-for-word from a script

Reduces anxiety about forgetting what you were going to say or having your mind go blank. You may never use the cards, but the fact that you have them – just in case – can reduce the butterflies

(Check also the Eye Contact section)

Reduce fear of your audience

The more important the audience or the occasion, the greater your fear can be. You don’t want to look like a fool in front of the bosses at work, your peers, or even your friends and relatives.

1. Not that important – one method to overcome is to visualise the people as not all that important. An old trick is to imagine that the audience is naked. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visualised his audience on the porch, at the dinner table – it created a feeling of intimacy and trust.

2. Individuals – Visualise your audience as individuals, not a mass of people. Imagine that the only person listening is your best friend . Your audience listens to you as one person at a time, so speak to them as individuals, never as a group. Create a prototype audience member and make up a story about his life, his problems, and his needs.

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3. Use positive approach – they are on your side. They want to hear what you have to say and to see you do well. They are not there to see you fail.

Relax before speaking

While you are waiting for your presentation on the spot do some simple unnoticeable exercises to increase your blood circulation.

Take a brisk walk. Walk about 5 minutes around the block, or at least outside the meeting room. It will loosen up your body and prevent later on from knee shaking. It also burns off excessive nervousness and gives both physically and mentally a feeling of moving forward.

Don’t sit with your legs crossed before the presentation. One of your legs may go to sleep and will not function when you have to stand up fast. Keep both feet on the floor, lean a bit forward while sitting and exercise your legs by wiggling your toes. (Nobody will realize it).

While you are sitting let your arms dangle at your sides. Let your arms just hang there. Make believe that your fingers and arms are supported by the carpet.

Twirl your wrists so that your fingers shake loosely. Just be gentle. Slowly you are shaking the stress out of them.

Pretend that you are wearing an overcoat and you can feel it resting on your shoulders. Shoulders “hunch up” when you are cold or nervous, making your whole body feeling tense. This imaginary heavy coat will make them relaxed.

Waggle your jaw back and forth 3…4 times. It will protect you from the “tight jaw syndrome”. If you hear your bones grinding probably you are tense.

Do the old trick: deep breathing. When you inhale, your stomach goes out, when you exhale your stomach comes in. Find a good ventilated spot and do this exercise for two minutes.

Say “let go”. Say to your brain, nerves, muscles, and arterial system to ease off and let go.

Design a warm-up routine (e.g. like the one above) that suits for you the best and follow it rigorously each time. The secret is to have always the same routine.

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Tips and tricks How to make an interesting presentation

An average news anchor (the guys who reads the news in the evening news) does not spend more time on the screen than 4, 5, 6 minutes out of the 45 minutes show.

A news story in the evening news is covered in 2.5, 3 minutes at maximum.

An average executive has 6 minutes of on the job attention span.

The “information age” taught us to absorb and process more and more data and information. Life becomes faster. People cannot concentrate long to the same thing anymore. Think about it when you design your presentation.

Imagine your presentation as zapping on the television or surfing on the net

Think in segments.

Make difference between segments, visually and verbally

Use “flags” to point out the key learning in each segment. E.g. “Let me make a point here” or “Let me nail this down”

Give headlines to your segments

Use different audiovisuals, and change them more than once during the presentation.

Make your presentation dynamic. This will create an illusion that things are moving; people are not stuck in that meeting room.

Design your “perfect moment”. “The perfect moment is a burst of incandescence that ignites the entire presentation and gives an everlasting impression on the audience’s memory.” (Ron Hoff)

How to attract attention in the beginning?

Shout

Silence

Hammer

Hello and welcome

Joke or catchy sentence(only if you know your audience are quite sure about yourself)

Don’t beg for attention!

Practice

1. Parties are the perfect opportunity to practice your public speaking skills. So the next parties you attend make sure you bring your bag of tricks.

If you find yourself standing alone in a corner of the room, don't just eat all the crab dip: Initiate a conversation with the next person who walks by.

Introduce yourself to two new people

Participate in a group discussion, but do not dominate the conversation

Have a conversation with someone you may have not seen in a while.

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Presenting in groups You can make your presentation more colourful and dynamic if you team up with others and create a presentation in group. Here are some tips that will help you.

Choose a “shepherd” up-front. His/her task will be to coordinate and oversee the preparation, and make sure all information is gathered, everyone’s task is clear, all points are covered and everybody made his/her homework.

Choose an A/V person. This person will be responsible that every equipment you are using is in place and operational. If something goes wrong, he will fix it. If everything goes perfect, your audience will not even recognize his existence.

Choose a director. A director is somebody standing in the background behind the audience, and helps in your presentation from outside. He/she can give signals when you are over time or you became flat. He can handle the lights/ventilation in the room, and solve troubles before those would reach you. He will watch you on your rehearsals and give feedback.

Work as a team as much as possible on the preparations. Kick off with a brain storming session

Practice, practice, practice…together. Rehearsal is even more crucial if you don’t work alone. Give feedback to each other.

To make your presentation dynamic, change your team members in every six minutes.

Use different visuals for each member.

You can also position your team members in different locations throughout the room and switch between them, just as in a live coverage in the TV. This will give a feeling that your presentation is rolling, moving. It’s your theatre use it!

“Together” is the keyword if you do presentations in group.

While another group member is presenting, pay attention to what that person is saying. If you are listening to your partner, you invite the audience to do the same.

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REFERENCES

- Herve Tunga, Cristina Dumitru, Dan Bozgan, Sophie Deprez, Krisztian Stancz, Antonio Martirradonna,

BEST Trainers

- Kurtus, Ron – Overcome the fear of Speaking in public

- Lenny Laskowski – several articles

- Allan Pease – Body Language

Presentation Skills

Documents

Transcript of Presentation Skills