How To Present Yourself Well in a Presentation

How To Present Yourself Well in a Presentation

If you have a natural talent for making presentations and you can enjoy them once the nervousness has worn off, you put yourself ahead of the crowd. In some company cultures, indeed, you are pretty much on a slow track if your skills at presentations are poor or if you look scared witless at the end of the presentation as well as at the beginning. At an early stage in your career, volunteer to be the person who presents the results of a workshop, or makes a presentation on some new topic to the departmental meeting.

If you are not a natural at this game, go on training until you can at least survive, although I do know one senior manager who made it to the top and remained a complete liability on his feet. When asked how he did it he replied, 'Ducking and weaving, old boy, I avoided the things like the plague.'

Funnily enough the usual suspects are the best tips for making effective presentations. Set tight objectives and talk exclusively in the terms of the audience. Try not to talk to mixed audiences. It can be difficult to make the same presentation both to the marketing people and to research and development at the same time, even though the topic is of mutual interest.

It is a very good idea to announce the objectives at the start of the presentation. The audience then knows where you are going to take them. Some people avoid this since you do run the risk that someone in the audience will say that it will not be possible for you to achieve your objectives. Logically it is better to know this at the start of the presentation than at the end. Who knows, if you know what the audience's objections are, you may be able to use the presentation itself to overcome them.

Think about your preparation in three areas:

• the structure of the content or argument;
• the mechanics of the room and the visual aids; and
• your personal delivery.

Structure

Before you start, make sure that it is the right time to make the presentation in the first place. Quite often you could achieve your objectives in some other way that costs less and possibly has less risk. Mind you, if the point of the presentation is to raise your profile, then ignore this advice. Make sure also that you have done everything possible before the presentation that can help to achieve the objectives. Getting the most senior person on your side before you begin is a good idea. Finally make sure you know your audience well enough. What will motivate them to think your idea a good one? What is in it for them? Aim at making effective presentations as well as elegant ones, and use your performance on the day to give it a theatrical edge.

Mechanics

More can go wrong with the mechanics of a presentation than you would believe. I have seen people arrive with visual aids that the room did not have the facilities to show. I have seen piles of overhead projector slides
dropped and mixed up, flipchart stands falling over, overhead projector slides slowly curling up until they display nothing and so on. The main messages here are: keep it simple, know the room, and rehearse in it beforehand if possible.

Next get the timing right. People do not like presentations going on beyond the time allowed, particularly if you are one item on an agenda. Be prepared for the questions you will be asked and objections that will be raised. It is excellent technique to role-play the audience's questions with a colleague at rehearsal time.

Delivery

Strange as it may seem, if you set good objectives and get the structure and mechanics right, your delivery will not be the make or break of the presentation. This is why many people who do not regard themselves as natural performers can give effective presentations time after time. If you are using the right words in the right order and your visual aids work, most of the battle is done. But there are some rules of thumb that can be useful.

The first of these is to check that the talk is interesting - really interesting - to the audience not just to you. This rule tends to make presentations shorter rather than longer. The old comic's maxim 'always leave them wanting more' holds good in business life. Do not go on if you have achieved your objective.

Making the audience laugh is a good thing; telling jokes in the manner of 'I wonder if you have heard the one about ...' is bad. Always weave yourself into the story. You met the person who said ... or you were in the train with a man who ... Even if it is an outrageous gag that you could not possibly have witnessed, they will enjoy the story much more than if you raise a huge sign post saying 'Joke coming'.

Finally check your delivery for the abstract and avoid it. Talk in simple concrete terms and don't pad it out in any way.

Avoid the slow track of poor presenters by following these simple rules of persuasive communication.

How To Present Yourself Well in a Presentation