Straight Talk Blog

Presentation skills: ending

March 1st, 2011

In a presentation you only have one chance to make a first impression so it is important that you get off to a good start. The ending to a presentation is equally important, because of the lasting impression that you leave.

The ending to a presentation has three elements.

The summary

If you planned the presentation well, you would have summarized each of the topics or key points as you went along. When you come to the end, you need only refer briefly to each of these points and drawl them together into a conclusion. Do not be tempted to use the ending to add in information you have forgotten up to then. You will only succeed in irritating and confusing your audience.

Connect to the beginning

At the start of the presentation you may have attracted the attention of your audience with an anecdote, some interesting facts or use of verbal imagery. When the ending reconnects with what you have said at the beginning it brings closure and a touch of elegance to the presentation.

Prompt to action.

Every presentation has a purpose. You may want your audience to accept your message, take action, change their minds or buy your product. More than anything, the ending to a presentation should make clear to the audience exactly what you expect them to do. You might say, ‘I hope I have left you with enough information for you to approve the project’ or ‘You will now understand that unless we…’ or ‘I hope you can now I see that…’

No matter how well, or how badly, you feel things have gone, be sure to end off on an upbeat and positive note so the last impression you leave with the audience is a good one.

Presentation skills: connecting with your audience

February 25th, 2011

If you’ve done any presenting at all you can probably think of moments when you could feel that your audience was completely absorbed by what you were saying. Most of us unfortunately have also had the experience of talking to an audience when we just couldn’t seem to make any connection.

When you have a good connection with your audience you are in rapport. You feel good about the presentation, the audience enjoys it and you are more than likely to achieve your objective. If you are not in rapport with your audience, you might as well be talking to yourself! The ability to develop rapport with an audience is what separates the memorable presenter from the merely competent. There are a number of ways to do it:

Lay the foundation for developing rapport by planning every presentation so you give your audience the information it needs and is interested in. When an audience feels you are aware of its concerns and are addressing its needs, you are well on your way to getting into rapport.

Confirm that you understand and can relate to the needs and concerns of the audience in the way you talk. Choose whether it is best to be conversational or formal; use the jargon that the audience uses; and hold their interest by putting variety into your voice and presentation style.

The layout of a venue can determine how easily you connect with an audience. You can choose to sit or stand, use a podium, and stay behind a computer or projector. At each presentation, check that the layout assists you in connecting with the audience.

At a more superficial level, the way in which you dress can also influence rapport. It would be wise to wear your newest, best fitting business suit for a presentation to a group of investment bankers. By contrast, wearing work boots and jeans when you are talking to an informal group of blue collar workers can be just right.

The more you connect with an audience, the more easily you will get your message across. Never underestimate the importance of developing rapport.

Click here for more information on presentation skills.

Presentation Skills: using humour

February 23rd, 2011

If you are a stand-up comic or a natural story teller, you may well decide to use humour as a way of making your presentations or public speaking opportunities memorable. For the rest of us, it is a high risk strategy.

There are three main reasons why attempts at humour in presentations and speeches can fall flat.

The audience does not understand

Humour often depends on colloquial use of words and expressions, or familiarity with cultural icons and references. Throwaway lines and punch lines may depend on speed and timing for their effectiveness. In a culturally diverse group of people where many are not native speakers in the language you are using, the subtlety or implied meaning of your words may be missed.

In preparing the presentation, consider the relevance of the content for the whole audience, and plan where you will pause for effect. During the presentation, have the punch line on a flip chart or PowerPoint slide for reinforcement, and enunciate your words very carefully.

The audience does not appreciate

Humour is often at the expense of other people, grouped by race, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender, age, profession…or simply the part of town where they live. A joke in poor taste can alienate people in seconds.

Play safe. Don’t make comments at the expense of others. You never know who might be in your audience.

You fluff your lines

It is tempting to use humour as an ice breaker at the start of a presentation. But effective humour requires confidence, clarity and perfect timing. At the start of a presentation you and your audience have not yet settled down. You may not have their full attention and they have not tuned in to your way of speaking. You may be nervous and most likely to speak too quickly or, dear forbid, forget your lines completely.

Only use humour when you are feeling confident and sure that you have rapport with your audience.

Click here for more information on presentation skills.

Presentation skills: watch your mannerisms

February 22nd, 2011

Many a good presentation has been ruined by a mannerism. A mannerism is a repetitive and distracting gesture, movement or use of words, and you’ve probably seen presenters use most of them.

Ending every other sentence with the word ‘okay’ or ‘you know’
Fiddling with a ring, a necklace or a piece of clothing
Clasping the hands just above waist level
Jangling coins or keys in a pocket
Twirling a piece of hair or scratching your nose
Swaying from side to side

Mannerisms are nervous gestures that become distracting and irritating when you keep repeating them. They might not be noticed at first but once they are, you’re in trouble. As the twirling and fiddling continue they soon draw the attention of the audience completely away from the content of what you’re saying.

Chances are you’re unaware of your mannerisms so start out by becoming aware of how you look and sound. Ask a friend for honest feedback, and even better, watch yourself on video to see yourself as others see you. Once you know what you do that’s irritating, you can stop doing it. It’s often that easy.

If you need reinforcement or you’re scared you’ll relapse in an important presentation, ask a friend to sit in the back of the audience and give you a prearranged signal if your mannerism starts up again.

Fixing mannerisms is an easy aspect of presentation skills to get right, and yet many people allow them to destroy what would otherwise be good presentations. Don’t let them destroy yours.

Click here for more information on presentation skills.

Presentation skills: getting off to a good start

February 15th, 2011

In public speaking you only get one chance to make a first impression. In a presentation you may have no more than 10, and at the most 30 seconds to make an impression on your audience. The opening to a presentation is in many ways the most critical part and it always pays to plan it particularly carefully.

In the opening you need to set the tone for the presentation, attract the attention of the audience and orient them to the topic. From the very beginning you also need to start developing rapport, or a connection, with your audience. There are a variety of techniques you can use.

It is tempting to start a presentation by telling a joke or a funny story. If you are good at telling stories or jokes, and you get all the words right; and if the audience understands and appreciates the joke, then this can be a very successful way to get going. But the risks are high. If you are nervous at the start of a presentation, it is easy to forget the punch line. You also run the risk that some people in the audience may not understand or enjoy the joke.

Unless you are a highly skilled presenter, you will probably be safer using an alternative means of opening your presentations.

You could present an interesting news item, some facts that are not well known, or a quotation. These are all safe ways of making an impact at the start. Asking the audience a rhetorical question is an excellent way of gaining their attention.

Whatever technique you choose, keep it simple and safe so you get off to a positive start from which you can continue. There are few things worse than a joke that falls flat at the start of a presentation; leaving everyone embarrassed and the presenter lost for words.

Click here for more information on presentation skills.

Presentation skills: know your audience

February 11th, 2011

Do you dread having to make an important presentation? Do your hands sweat? Does your mouth go dry? When you start to speak, does your brain freeze up?

There are few people who don’t feel some nervousness when they speak to a large audience in a formal environment, but once you know how, you can control nerves in many ways. One of the most important things is to be well prepared, and to have confidence that your material will be well received by the audience.

Your first step should be to decide on the objective of any presentation. Are you informing the audience about something? Do you want to prompt a debate on a topic? Or do you want to motivate and persuade people to buy something, make a decision or approve a proposal?

Your second step should be to find out exactly who will be in the audience, and what they need to hear so that you can achieve your objective. Then you can design your presentation to meet the needs of the audience, and to anticipate their concerns, questions and any objections they might have to what you propose. For example, a presentation to raise awareness of HIV AIDS to a group of social workers would be very different from a presentation on the same topic to a group of teenagers, or to a group of their parents.

The more receptive an audience is to your presentation, the more people will nod, smile and send positive signals back to you. Their enthusiastic response and positive feedback will make it difficult for you to remain nervous.

Careful preparation of any presentation is one of the best ways of making a presentation more effective and dealing with nervousness.

Click here for more information on presentation skills.

Become more resilient: manage upward

February 7th, 2011

Speaking up to anyone in authority can be difficult and high risk. If you get it wrong, it could be career limiting. But it may be the only way to remove feelings of frustration and dis-empowerment at work and can be a powerful way to increase your resilience.

One of the conversations that most people avoid is asking for a pay increase. It’s a sensitive topic and you are speaking up to your manager with whom your relationship is important. Plan your strategy carefully.

Your relationship with your manager is based on the support, respect and assistance you offer, as well as on your performance. If the relationship is poor, think about delaying the conversation while you build it up.

Look at the situation from your manager’s perspective. You want to ask for a pay rise. The win for you is more cash in your pocket: the win for your manager is to reward everyone fairly. You may have to adjust your demands to take into account the need for fair remuneration for everyone and to safeguard your job in the longer term.

Prepare for the conversation by defusing your feelings as best you can and becoming aware of how your body language might be seen as aggressive. If you go into any conversation being critical, accusing, sarcastic or disrespectful, you will create a defensive response from the other person. You may be unaware of how you convey your feelings in gestures or tone of voice until it is too late.

Do your homework. Be sure you have all the facts before you open the conversation. Allow for the possibility that there is information to which you do not have access. Start with the facts you have, then pause and check that you are correct.

Then explain how you feel about the situation. Choose your words carefully. Your intention is to get into conversation around the issue, not to start an argument.

Do not try to push your boss into doing what suits you. There must be a win for both of you in the negotiation. You can influence, but not coerce or instruct. One outcome might simply be to plant some ideas to which you will return later. In a negotiation around a sensitive issue patience can be a virtue.

Become more resilient: learn to accept feedback

February 2nd, 2011

The old saying that ‘practice makes perfect’ is inaccurate. The only way to do things better is to obtain feedback. This holds true whether you’re trying to play better golf or improve your performance at work. Using feedback effectively is a key element in building up resilience.

Everyone needs both positive and negative feedback. Unfortunately, our cultures do not encourage praise and we are generally socialized to play down our successes. There is even research showing that people who are critical are deemed to be more intelligent than those who give positive feedback!

When you need to find out what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong, it is essential that you know how to obtain and use feedback. Use these tools.

Notice all feedback

All data on how you are doing is useful feedback. If you label some outcomes a success and some a failure, you limit your ability to notice and learn. Notice and use all of it.

Be curious about the detail

Learn to ask questions. What exactly did you do that worked? What exactly did you do that did not work? Get down to the detail. The best feedback is hard, factual data. Ask questions until you have all you need.

If it’s not working, change it

You know the saying, ‘if you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got’. When you want different results, start by changing the way you behave.

If it is working, do more

Learning about what really works for you is just as important as finding out what does not. Question your successes until you know exactly what makes the difference. Then do it some more!

Use positive models

Look out for people who are successful in the way that you want to be and model your behaviour on theirs. Look for the details so you can create similar successful performances.

Feedback is often called the ‘breakfast of champions’. When you learn to ask for and use it effectively you too can be a champion.

Become more resilient: re-frame the problem

January 26th, 2011

You can choose how you look at things. You can say: I failed. Or you can say: I did not pass this time. You can say: losing my job was the worst thing that could happen to me. Or you can say: losing my job gives me the chance to start my own business.

Re-framing your perspective does not change an event, but it helps you hold a more positive attitude toward it. You’ll have more energy, be more creative, and give yourself a better chance of working through the problem.

You can train yourself to explore different ways of looking at events. For example, you might want to improve your education, but you believe you’re no good at writing exams. When you re-frame this belief into: I need to learn about writing exams as part of my studying; you are already on your way to a more successful outcome.

Re-framing helps you cope with failure.

If you respond to failure by blaming yourself, feeling worthless and becoming depressed, you become angry, bitter and cynical. If you step back from the situation and ask what you can learn from it, you create an opportunity to learn how to cope better in future.

Re-framing helps you look at failure differently. You can be curious. You can look into the details of what you did and why, and how you could have behaved differently. When you understand fully what happened, you are in a better position to take control over your life, and to manage things better in the future.

Resilient people use re-framing to hold onto positive attitudes and stay motivated. It helps them keep their bounce even through the toughest times.

Become more resilient: change your state

January 25th, 2011

When you get into a negative state, like the way you feel after a bad sales call, or a disagreement with someone you love, you feel depressed, miserable and without energy. When you know how to put yourself into a positive state you can bounce back with energy and resilience.

1. Make a physical change

If you are sitting; stand. If you are inside; go outside. If you feel tense; stretch. Identify the physical change that most helps you back to a positive state.

2. Step out

Think of yourself as an observer to the situation and look at it from a different perspective. It helps you be more objective and able to see things from other viewpoints.

3. Put it in context

Put your current state into a broader perspective and it is less likely that you will over react. A disagreement with a good friend pales into insignificance when you put it in the context of twenty years of friendship.

4. Look ahead

In a year’s time, when you look back on current events, you will see that the problem has been solved one way or another. You may even have forgotten about it!

5. Create a positive state

When you have a problem, anything that helps you get into a more positive state and feel stronger, helps you deal with it better. Learn what works for you. It might be as simple as writing a list, or making a cup of coffee before you start a difficult task.

Changing negative states into positive ones helps you maintain your energy and your resourcefulness. It helps you keep your bounce!