|
|
Take it to the Web!
Take Your Small Business Online and Sell to Other Countries! Take your business online and start your own internet business to sell to people in other countries in their own language! Get export counseling, trade promotion, trade finance and...
Take Your Good Idea One Step Further
Whether you're an executive, manager, professional, or entrepreneur, you need to think ahead. When you do it in a formal sense, it's called it planning, when you do it informally it's something like speculating. Whether you're planning or...
The Key to High Productivity is Energy Management
One of the issues most often raised by my clients is better time management. People have tried prioritizing tasks, blocking out parts of their day for certain tasks, implementing new systems and getting better at delegation. While all of those...
Top 10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make Before They Even Start
So you want to start a business. You have an idea. Let’s say you want to be a carpenter. You print some brochures, some business cards, and take out an ad in the Yellow Pages. You pay $600 for a website and a domain name that tells everyone about...
What Sort of Training is Most Effective?
Organisations are turning more and more to external training
companies to develop the 'soft' skills of their staff. With so
much expertise available what do people need to look for to get
the best from the training they buy in?
At Impact...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ten Quick Tips for Outstanding Presentations
It’s that time again…the monthly meeting. You break out in a cold sweat just thinking about it. Whether you present to your managers or your employees you are saying to yourself:
What if I mess up? What if I repeat myself? What if the audience doesn’t like what I say? What if I forget a part of my speech? What if I look nervous?
It’s okay! You’re not the only one feeling this way. The Book of Lists states that the #1 fear is speaking in public. This fear is greater than the fear of death.
Well, I have the answers to your fears and can help you become an outstanding presenter. These 10 tips will help you become more confident making presentations that achieve results.
1. Start with an End in Mind Ask yourself, “Why am I speaking?” “What do I want the audience to do after listening to my speech?” This will help you focus on the message you want to share with your audience. It will help you focus on who is your audience, the key points, and what you want your audience to do after listening to you.
2. Keep It Simple Keep your presentation simple by learning to “speak to express instead of speaking to impress.” What I mean by speaking to impress is when you see speakers using $5 words for $2 situations during speeches and they look uncomfortable doing it. Another example of this is when presenters overuse PowerPoint. Your audience will soon lose interest in what you are saying.
Also keep it simple with the structure of your speech. An opening, body with tree major points, and a closing will help you connect with your audience. Just be sincere, concise, and simple in your presentation and you will always connect with your audience.
3. Practice, Practice, Practice Master your presentation by practicing. Here’s the secret to practicing…first read your speech to yourself 2-3 times. This allows you to work out the majority of the rough spots in your presentation before you start rehearsing.
Then rehearse in front of a mirror or even better a video camera or tape player. Also try to rehearse in front of someone whose opinion you value.
Then practice as close as possible to your speaking environment as possible. For example, if you will be speaking behind a lectern, practice with your notes on an ironing board.
4. Visualize Success Before going to sleep the night before a presentation I take time to visualize the success of the presentation. The key to making visualization work for you is involving as many senses (sound, touch, sight, smell, etc.) as possible in your visualization. Have you ever had a dream where it seemed so real you awoke in a cold sweat (You don’t need to tell me what the dream was)? It was because you used all your senses and that dream became so real to you that you needed to escape from it.
Visualize yourself giving a successful presentation where you see yourself as a confident presenter, hear yourself handling questions, etc. Visualize successful presentations so that it becomes real.
5. Eat the Elephant I ask the timeless question, “How do you eat an elephant?” Piece by piece. The same answer applies to presenting to a group. How do you present to a group? Person to person. Break the group into individuals.
“How do I present to a large group?” is one of the biggest questions people have when giving presentations. Get personal. Whenever possible, I will make sure I arrive early to the room I’m presenting in and plant myself by the entrance. I will then greet as many people as possible that walk through the door. I will shake their hands and let them know I am glad they came. Here’s a tip for guaranteeing a positive audience:
* As you greet, look for pleasant, upbeat people. Then say
something like, “I’m especially glad you made it today. As a matter of fact there’s a sit in the front row with your name on it. Please enjoy!” The audience member will usually chuckle and you started the personalization process. Also this allows you to stack all the friendly audience members in the front rows. It’s always nice to see friendly faces in the front row.
Remember, when giving a presentation, it’s not about your needs or concerns. It’s about the audience’s needs or concerns. Make it personal and eat the elephant!
6. Nail Your Opening It’s the first words your audience hears. Know your opening like the back of your hand. Know exactly what you are going to say. Once you get started and gain some momentum you will start to gain confidence for the rest of your speech.
It helps to pause for 3-5 seconds before you are about to start your presentation so that can focus on what you are about to say. 7. Nail Your Ending It’s the last words your audience hears and reminder about you. You can have a great opening and body and have a bad ending and your audience your always remember how you ended.
Ask your audience to take action, think about an idea, etc. so that they understand why they are there.
8. Backup if You Forget If you forget what you are about to say or lose your place in the presentation do the following:
* Stop speaking. Take two steps backward. Then take a deep breath. Collect your thoughts. Smile. Take two steps forward and proceed with your presentation. * Go back and repeat the last sentence. That will help trigger what comes next in your presentation. * If you really go blank, ask an audience member what was the last sentence you said. Also, if they have handouts of your speech, you can ask the audience what is the next subject we will discuss. You will be surprised how many people will volunteer this information to help you. This will give you time to collect your thoughts, involve the audience, and go forward with your presentation.
Note: If you forget a piece of information, collect yourself, and then go forward. Never say, “I’m sorry.” Unless the audience has a copy of every single word of your speech they will never know you forgot something.
9. Realize Nervousness is the Tool of Great Presenters Believe it or not, all presenters, whether professional or occasional, are nervous when presenting. The difference is the best presenters use nervousness to their advantage by turning nervousness into positive energy. Here are some tips to control nervousness:
* Whenever possible walk from the back of the room to burn some of the nervous energy. * Slow your breathing * Stretch
10. Get Excited Get excited so that the audience is excited about hearing your presentation.
Some of the ways you can become excited is:
* Remember what you say is important and can make a difference for your audience. * Every opportunity to present is a chance for you to succeed. * Every time you speak you become better than the last time. * Presenting will expose me to countless opportunities I wouldn’t have by not presenting.
So the next time you have the opportunity to present apply the above techniques. You will have fun while presenting on a whole new level.
About the Author
Ed Sykes is a professional speaker, author, and success coach in the areas of leadership, motivation, stress management, customer service, and team building. You can e-mail him at mailto:esykes@thesykesgrp.com, or call him at (757) 427-7032. Go to his web site, http://www.thesykesgrp.com, and signup for the newsletter, OnPoint, and receive the free ebook, "Empowerment and Stress Secrets for the Busy Professional."
|
|
|
|
|
Oral Presentation Advice |
Your presentation should not replace your paper, but rather whet the ... Below I consider goals for academic interview talks and class presentations. ... |
www.cs.wisc.edu |
  |
Presentation Skills |
This site contains annotated links to resources concerned with presentation and communication skills. |
lorien.ncl.ac.uk |
  |
Presentation Helper - Free PowerPoint templates, help, advice and ... |
Resources on how to make effective presentations. Includes tips on PowerPoint and topic ideas. |
www.presentationhelper.co.uk |
  |
Neurobehavioral Systems, Inc. |
Neuroscience stimulus delivery software can be used for cognitive psychology, fMRI, erp and single unit research (Windows). |
nbs.neuro-bs.com |
  |
Why tables for layout is stupid: problems defined, solutions offered |
Why tables for layout is stupid:. problems defined, solutions offered. Tables existed in HTML for one reason: To display tabular data. ... |
www.hotdesign.com |
  |
The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation |
This presentation prepared with the help of Microsoft Powerpoint Autocontent Wizard. ... Permission is granted to use this presentation in any course or ... |
norvig.com |
  |
Presentation Zen |
I love the clear presentation of the ideas in the book and the fact that the ... In the context of presentations, moving info away can help you and the ... |
www.presentationzen.com |
  |
Presentation Tips for Public Speaking |
Better Public Speaking & Presentation - Ensure Your Words Are Always ... On the Job: Public Speaking Tips - Twelve Steps to Great Presentations by Elise ... |
www.aresearchguide.com |
  |
Presentation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Presentation is the process of presenting the content of a topic to an ... You should plan to rehearse your presentation out loud at least four times. ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
OSCON 2005 Keynote - Identity 2.0 |
“A barn-burner of a presentation. I loved this.” - Cory Doctorow. “I watched it twice, and greatly enjoyed it both times.” - Jon Udell ... |
www.identity20.com |
  |
Presentations - Effective Communication - Public Speaking |
Tips and tools for creating and delivering presentations: text, techniques and technology. |
www.presentations.com |
  |
Presentation Information Resources - Presentation Technology News ... |
Presentation Information Resources - Comprehensive presenter's resource providing instant access to up-to-date information on technology and techniques for ... |
199.249.170.231 |
  |
Effective Presentations homepage |
In addition, the skills needed to prepare an oral presentation can be used ... A spiffy presentation discussing Effective Teaching with Powerpoint from the ... |
www.kumc.edu |
  |
Impress |
Your presentations will stand out with 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, ... Slide show Animation and Effects bring your presentation to life. ... |
www.openoffice.org |
  |
PRESENTATIONPRO - experts for Microsoft PowerPoint |
A series of products and services to help enhance PowerPoint presentations with templates and backgrounds. |
www.presentationpro.com |
  |
Leadership - Presentation Skills |
Presentation, PowerPoint, and Leadership. ... Presentations and reports are ways of communicating ideas and information to a group. But unlike a report, ... |
www.skagit.com |
  |
Presentation: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with presentation on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
  |
Secretary of State Addresses the U.N. Security Council |
My friends, this has been a long and a detailed presentation. And I thank you for your patience. But there is one more subject that I would like to touch on ... |
www.whitehouse.gov |
  |
Rubric |
Organization, Audience cannot understand presentation because there is no sequence of information. Audience has difficulty following presentation because ... |
www.ncsu.edu |
  |
Presentation Skills |
Presentations are one of the first managerial skills which a junior engineer ... This article looks at the basics of Presentation Skills as they might apply ... |
www.see.ed.ac.uk |
  |
|