Giving Presentations

Unit IV - Giving Presentations

4.2 Giving Presentations

4.2.1 Dealing with fears

The words "public speaking" cause fear and anxiety in the minds of otherwise competent and confident people. Does the thought of speaking in front of a group evoke fear, make you sweat, get your heart pounding? It's likely you have glossophobia - the fear of public speaking.

Stepping up to the podium not only positions you as an expert in your area of business but provides effortless referrals and improved sales opportunities.

Presenting a non-sales informative speech warms up your target market and builds trust. Unlike endless cold calls the people you present to and follow up with are more receptive to listening to your offering of products and services.

Overcome your fear of public speaking and boost your business with these 7 tips.

1. Start Small

If you're new to the world of public speaking, start small. Find a few friends and family to practice on. Begin by speaking to smaller groups and build up from there. The size of the audience makes no difference. If you know your topic, you're pre-speaking fear will quickly evaporate.

2. Prepare

Nothing helps ease the fear of public speaking more than knowing your material. The ability to connect with your audience comes from having the confidence you won't get lost during your delivery.

Rehearse several times before the big talk. Time your presentation and always have back up material in case time is left over.

3. Don't Memorize 

Mastering the art of public speaking comes not from memorizing word for word your entire speech. The real pros know their material by remembering key points and prompts on sub topics and examples to cover.

4. Avoid Bullets

The majority of business presentations and speeches are boring monologues filled with endless PowerPoint slides and bullet points. Trash the PowerPoint presentation and make your material the focal point of the talk. If you do use PowerPoint, take the approach of using visuals that quickly convey your message.

5. Reduce Stress

The most fearful moment of any presentation is the one minute before your stage entrance. Use the tactic of elite athletes by visualizing a positive outcome and using deep belly breathing to reduce stress and build confidence.

6. Find a Friend

Prior to your public speaking on stage introduce yourself to a few members of the audience in the front row. During your talk look these people in the eye to ease your nerves and connect with your audience.

7. Engage the Audience

Creating a monologue presentation puts the entire task of informing and entertaining the audience on you. Make your talk a two-way interaction with questions and participation to reduce boredom and speak with ease. Having the group involved also gives you time to reorganize your thoughts if things are going off track.

Make public speaking part of your marketing function and boost your business success.

Your fear will evaporate over time and you will wonder why you didn't start sooner.

4.2.2 Planning your Presentation

A presentation is a reflection of you and your work. It’s your opportunity to showcase your expertise, demonstrate your professionalism, and communicate information that will make a positive impact on your audience. There’s a lot at stake here, and the time you spend up-front, organizing your thoughts and creating a plan, will pay big dividends later on. To ensures that you meet your objectives and that you deliver a presentation that is meaningful for your audience.

Choosing Your Subject

When planning a presentation, it’s useful to start with a wide focus and then drill down to specific details that define your purpose and objectives. Otherwise, you won’t know what areas to focus on, and you’ll end up with a “watered-down” presentation that tries to achieve too much.

Therefore, your first step is to identify the subject of your presentation. Your aim is to be able to explain this in one concise sentence. For example, your subject could be:

Ø  Improving processes in the sales department.

Ø  How executives can manage stress.

Ø  Recruiting customer service staff.

At this stage, don’t be too concerned if your subject is quite broad, as you’ll refine it later.

Understanding Your Audience

You now know the subject of your presentation. Next, it's time to think about the people who will watch and hear it: your audience. Why is this so important? Imagine that you haven't thought about what your audience wants to see and hear in your presentation. Several minutes into your speech, you start to notice people looking bored. Halfway through,  some people start playing with their smart phones and reading other documents. Your self-confidence drops and you decide to wind up your presentation early just to get out of the room. No presenter wants to experience this! You can avoid similar situations by thinking about who your audience members are, why they have shown up to hear you speak, and what they want to learn from you. Remember, each audience is different, which is why you can't take a "one size fits all" approach to your presentations. The more you tailor your presentation to fit the wants, needs and expectations of your audience, the more successful you'll be.

Identifying the General and Specific Purpose

Once you’ve identified your subject and better understand your audience, you can determine the purpose of your presentation. What do you want to achieve and why? Every presentation needs a purpose. You decided to give it for a reason, and it’s important to understand what this reason is. After all, if you’re unsure why you need to talk to your audience, your presentation won’t be as effective and informative as it could be.

Here, it’s best first to identify the general purpose of your presentation. From there, you can develop a specific purpose that narrows down your objectives. Common general purposes include the following:

Ø  To motivate.

Ø  To inform.

Ø  To persuade.

Ø  To demonstrate.

Ø  To teach.

Ø  To entertain.

For example, imagine that someone asked you to open your organization’s town hall meeting. Your general purpose might be to inform the audience members about the program for the day so that they know what to expect and when. Or, maybe you have planned a presentation to your team about a new process. Here, your general purpose might be to demonstrate how the system works. precisely what you want your audience to get from it. You need to word it from the audience’s perspective. It also needs to be specific and realistic. For instance, if the subject of your presentation is how workers can manage stress, and your general purpose is to teach, it wouldn’t be helpful to have the following specific purpose:

After seeing my presentation, workers in my organization will know how to manage

all the stress in their life.

4.2.3 Structure/Outline of the presentation

When you provide information in a well-structured format, and you use appropriate techniques to keep audience members engaged and interested, then they’ll remember what you said and they’ll remember you – for the right reasons. There is no “best” structure to use, as this will depend on the type of presentation that you need to give, and your level of experience. That said, it’s often most effective to structure a presentation in three distinct but simple stages:

i.        Introduction.

ii.      Body.

iii.    Conclusion.

Introduction

Now that you’ve identified what you want to cover in your presentation, you can develop your introduction. Your introduction establishes the overall mood of your speech. This impression stays with the audience throughout your presentation. Ways to create a strong first impression with your introduction include the following:

ü  Asking a rhetorical question (a question that you ask to make a point rather

ü  than to solicit an answer).

ü  Making a very strong, startling or unexpected statement.

ü  Using a quote.

ü  Telling a story.

ü  Using an example or illustration.

ü  Issuing a challenge or appeal.

ü  Requesting a specific action.

ü  Referring to a recent incident.

ü  Using suspense.

ü  Appealing to the audience’s self-interest.

Your introduction should give an overview or a short summary of your presentation. You can also explain what the topic is and why you want to cover it, and you can highlight what you hope to accomplish with your presentation.

Body

The body consists of the key points that you will make. It is the main part of your presentation. Clearly, the body comes after the introduction. However, it’s useful to plan it first, so that you can summarize your main points in your introduction. When you plan the body of your presentation, it’s important to remember that the more points you make, the less information your audience is likely to remember. Therefore, it’s best to cover just three to five main ideas or points, if possible. This concept stems from the Chunking principle, which says that information is easier to understand when you present it in small, well-organized units. It’s important to present your points in a logical order so that you don’t confuse your audience.

How you structure the body depends on what you want to achieve. If the purpose of your presentation is to persuade or motivate, it’s useful to structure the body of your presentations so that you convince your audience members that they need to deal with a problem, before you tell them about the solution. For instance, if your specific purpose is to excite team members about your organization’s new strategy, your main points might be as follows:

Ø  Problems with current strategy (current problem).

Ø  Description of the new strategy (solution).

Ø  Advantages

Ø  Disadvantages.

Ø  Next actions.

Conclusion

Along with a strong introduction, you also need to end your presentation on a high note, with a powerful conclusion that sums up what you’ve said. In your conclusion, you should summarize your main points one last time.

Research suggests that people only remember about 25 percent of what they hear or read, so you increase the chance of people retaining information when you highlight the key message again at the end of your presentation. Your conclusion should also make it clear to your audience members what they should do next, regardless of whether this is a specific action or a change in their outlook. To come up with a strong conclusion, you can use the same methods that you use to create a strong introduction. For instance, it can be very effective to end your presentation with a quote, an example or an amusing story.

4.2.4 Delivering an effective presentation

 An effective presenter needs to be flexible, energetic and enthusiastic. This guide will help you turn your written presentation into an imaginative public performance. Other useful guides from Student Learning Development: Planning an effective presentation, Using visual aids

Presentation as performance

Making a presentation puts you on public display. An audience not only listens to your ideas, it also responds to the way you use your voice and your body. You need more than a well written presentation to make an impact. You will also need to deliver it in a lively, flexible and interesting way. In this leaflet we suggest many ideas for invoking energy in your presentation style.

To begin with, imagine that you are in the audience for your presentation. What might:

Ø  grab your attention?

Ø  stimulate your imagination?

Ø  inspire your confidence?

Ø  develop your understanding?

Six steps to becoming an effective presenter

1.      Practice

The more familiar you are with your material the more you will be able to inspire your audience’s trust and confidence. Do more than practice reading through your material to yourself. If possible, stand up in a room and deliver your presentation to the walls. Get used to hearing your own voice filling a room. Familiarize yourself with the words and phrases in your presentation. Play around with different volumes and see how well you can hear your own voice. Above all, familiarize yourself with the main thrust of your argument and explore how the individual elements of your presentation piece together. This will help you to keep to your chosen objectives and avoid distractions when it comes to your actual delivery.

Find a way of making notes to support your presentation style. The most common form of note making is to use index cards. These can be read at a glance. Use them as visual prompts to guide you through your presentation. Use one card for each main idea, including details of the supporting information for each point. Connect your cards together with a tag or a piece of string so that they can't get out of order.

2.            Assert yourself

An effective presenter needs to be assertive, not aggressive. There are two important Ps.

Posture

 It is important to appear confident at all times. Different postures create different moods. A very formal, upright and still posture will create a very different atmosphere from a relaxed and active one. Remember to match your physical behaviour to the objectives underpinning your presentation. If you want to be either formal or informal, make deliberate choices about your physical style and stick to these.

Presence

 Have the confidence to fill your space in front of an audience. Avoid apologising for your presence by saying “sorry” (although you must be polite if circumstances so demand – e.g. the session is running over time, or the microphone has stopped working). Also, avoid physical apologies by hiding behind a desk or lectern. You must be confident that the audience wants to listen and that you have something interesting to tell them. Don’t be afraid to wait for an audience to settle down before you start speaking or to ask for quiet if this does not happen.

3.      Make contact with your audience

One of the key challenges faced by the presenter is to establish links with her/his audience (a poor presenter appears to be speaking to an empty room). Making contact helps to maintain an audience's interest and encourages them to believe that you are genuinely interested in talking to them. You can make contact with your audience in a number of ways, including:

Ø eye contact;

Ø gestures;

Ø spoken contact;

Ø your use of language.

Eye contact

 Eye contact is part of everyday communication and an audience can feel uncomfortable if they are denied it. Making eye contact with individuals gives them a sense of involvement in your presentation and helps to convey your objectives on a personal level. Make sure that you share eye contact with all members of a small audience and all areas of a large audience. Regularly shift your focus around the room, not so that you look nervous, but to help involve as many people as possible in your talk.

Gesture

People use their arms and hands in every day conversation to add emphasis or to help describe events. Presenters will therefore look rather awkward if they keep their hands in their pockets or rooted firmly at their sides. Use gestures to welcome your audience, to add emphasis to your main points or to indicate an ending. Try to use open gestures which move away from your body, extending them out to your audience. This helps to break any audience/presenter divisions. Make sure that all gestures are controlled and precise; too much movement will appear nervous and unfocussed. Always watch against distracting your audience from the content of your presentation. You should continually be trying to find ways to help them listen and understand.

Spoken contact

Acknowledge your audience by making verbal contact with them. At the beginning of your talk ask if they can see and hear you, or check that lighting and sound levels on audio-visual equipment are satisfactory. During your presentation, ask rhetorical questions that you can then answer (e.g. “How do we know this was true?” or “So, what does this prove?”). At the end of your talk give the audience an opportunity to ask questions or to clarify detail— this encourages them to take ownership of your material.  The use of questions is an important tool. Questions involve your audience’s mind in a more stimulating way than simply asking them to sit and listen to your talk. Draw an audience in with clear, focused questions.

Language

Your use of language is particularly important in developing and sustaining a relationship with your audience. Try using language that involves your audience. For example, asking questions such as “What can we learn from this?” or “How did we arrive at this conclusion?” involves your audience in an exploratory process or discussion. When looking at visual aids, introduce them by saying “If we look at this slide we can see that ..” or “This slide shows us that…”. Use language that is welcoming and involving throughout your presentation.

Use your voice

 Your voice is a very flexible and effective tool. You can use it in many different ways by varying the:

· volume

· pace

· pitch.

Volume

Make sure that your voice is loud enough for your audience to hear clearly. Speaking too loudly or too quietly can make it difficult for your audience to follow your presentation. Listen to people speaking in normal conversation. They tend to raise or lower their volume for emphasis. For example, they may speak loudly when giving an instruction but softly when apologising. To add energy to your presentation, use these colourful changes to your best advantage: a conspiratorial whisper can draw an audience in; a loudly spoken exclamation can make them sit up and listen.

Pace

 Make sure that the speed of your delivery is easy to follow. If you speak too quickly or too slowly your audience will have difficulty following your talk. To add life to your presentation, try changing the pace of your delivery. A slightly faster section might convey enthusiasm. A slightly slower one might add emphasis or caution.

Pitch

 The pitch of your voice also varies in day to day conversation and it is important to play on this when making a presentation. For example, your pitch will raise when asking a question; it will lower when you wish to sound severe. Play around with the volume, pace and pitch of your voice when practising your presentation. Find different ways of saying the same sentence. Explore different ways of adding emphasis to your main points. Always try to convey enthusiasm and energy through your use of your voice.

4.      Breathe

 Always remember to breath steadily and deeply. If you are anxious about making a presentation your breathing will become fast and shallow. This will affect the quality of your voice and your ability to speak clearly for extended periods of time. Try to take a few deep breaths before you make your presentation, making a conscious effort to slow your breathing down and taking in more air with each breath. During your presentation, use pauses after questions or at the end of sections to allow comfortable breathing patterns. Don’t be afraid to slow down the pace of your presentation if your breathing becomes uncomfortable.

5.      Drink

 It is a good idea to have some liquid to hand to quench your thirst if you are speaking for a long time. However, be careful not to gulp ice-cold water before you go on as this constricts your throat and affects the quality of your voice. Drink a warm (not hot) cup of tea to relax your throat and ease your speaking voice.

And finally ... a note about humour

Only use humour if you know it will work. Humour needs to be relaxed and confident - if used badly, it will only heighten senses of awkwardness and anxiety if these are already present. Use humour if you know you can and if you feel it is appropriate to do so.

Conclusion

Continually explore your personal style using any or all of the above suggestions in different combinations for different effects. Above all, remember two main points:

·         be yourself— even in the most formal of surroundings you will need to be yourself. No one will be impressed if you try to perform like a classical actor or act like a stand-up comedian;

·         avoid any behaviour that might be off-putting to your audience— always be deliberate and clear in your use of your voice and physical actions.