Because your audience will take their lead from you. If you believe it’s complicated (which, of course, implies that it’s difficult to understand and, possibly, not worth their valuable time), then who are they to argue with you, the expert?

You’re leading your audience in the wrong direction

Effectively what you’ve done is tell them that they won’t understand. Rather than you work out the wrinkles, the structure, the key points, the easy to follow narrative story, you’ve asked them to do the donkey work.

Of course, you might be lucky: you could be talking to one of the very few people who LOVE complications, whose soul soars at the chance to untangle the big issues from the details, the main theme from the variations. But more usually, you’ll watch the shutters drop over your audience’s eyes as they settle down for some enriching interior monologue time.

How to communicate with clarity

The solution is – naturally – not complicated. You just need to have untangled the knitting before you presented them with the cat’s cradle of the problem. Unravel the different bits of what you want them to remember and they’ll stick in their memories.

So how do you do this? Well, you can break down all the different points by numbers, for example: “There are five main points…”. So they always know how far along the journey they’ve travelled with you. You can order the different parts for them, for instance: ”The central idea is this etc…”

Then, once they’re happy with the main idea, you introduce your wrinkly points or counter-arguments, for example: ”However, some people consider this misses a key area of the data. They’d claim…” That sort of thing.

The benefits of clarity

And, of course, it’s not just your audience that benefits; it’s a great way for you to get straight what you think and feel about an issue.

About the author of this article

This article was written by Simon, one of Skillstudio’s consultant trainers. 

Simon is based in London and has designed and runs our in-company Persuasive Writing and Powerful Storytelling workshops. 

As well as being an experienced trainer and role-player Simon is an accomplished actor, writer and theatre director. He has worked as a writer, designer and film director for a range of large companies and organizations.

Simon has a MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University. He has a wide range of writing experience, in both the commercial sector, as well as for television, film and radio.

You can read more about Simon here.

Like some more information on our training?

To find out more about communicating with clarity and our:

• Persuasive Writing or
• Powerful Storytelling

in-house workshops then give us a call on +44 (0) 8456 444 150 and we’ll get Simon to touch base with you to discuss things further.

Skillstudio also offer a number of other communication and presentation training options. If you’d like some more details, please click here  and then get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss your training needs in more detail.

Why even complicated messages are always simple is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

You’re in the meeting that your colleague was supposed to have got the presentation ready for. But they’re conveniently sick. Instead, it’s you flustering your way through a mass of charts, graphs and figures that resemble nothing less than a Jackson Pollock.

As you speak, you find you’re floating above yourself. Your normal, direct way of talking has been replaced by a language invented by a management consultant in a Magimix.

What’s happened?

Physiologically we all recognise the signs: increased heart rate, dry mouth, difficulty breathing.

But what’s happening psychologically?

It seems that when we’re under pressure, we resort to ‘models of expertise’: the academic, the cultural critic, the surgeon. They use complicated, technical language, your brain says, so if I want to appear knowledgeable and in control I should mimic them.

Of course, you give exactly the opposite impression: as your confidence evaporates, you know just how a beached whale must feel as the tide slips further and further away.

So, how do you keep calm and keep your audience with you?

You can use various stress management techniques. But you can also use a quick and easy technique using clear English.

Focus on the words you’re saying. If they’re technical, jargon, many-syllabled, stop talking, pause for breath and concentrate on using simpler words.

The effort involved helps to calm you, but also to make clearer what you’re saying, both in terms of the content and the structure of your argument.

Your stress levels will go down.

The power of clarity

You may even be able to find the words to forgive your colleague for landing you in it.

But even if you can’t, at least you’ll be able to express clearly and calmly exactly what you think of them.

About the author of this article

This article was written by Simon, one of Skillstudio’s consultant trainers. 

Simon is based in London and has designed and runs our in-company Persuasive Writing and Powerful Storytelling workshops. 

As well as being an experienced trainer and role-player Simon is an accomplished actor, writer and theatre director. He has worked as a writer, designer and film director for a range of large companies and organizations.

Simon has a MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University. He has a wide range of writing experience, in both the commercial sector, as well as for television, film and radio.

You can read more about Simon here.

Like some more information on our training?

To find out more about using clear English and our:

• Persuasive Writing or
• Powerful Storytelling

in-house workshops then give us a call on +44 (0) 8456 444 150 and we’ll get Simon to touch base with you to discuss things further.

Skillstudio also offer a number of other communication and presentation training options. If you’d like some more details, please click here  and then get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss your training needs in more detail.

How to use clear English as your ’stressometer’ is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

It is also important to understand that effective presentation skills are not solely for the fortunate few who are naturally good communicators but that effective presentation skills can be developed in anyone and that we all have the ability to learn how to become highly effective presenters.

In this article we’ll be looking at some techniques to help you achieve more from your presentations.

Key Objectives of Effective Presentation Skills

The key objectives that underline a good presentation often include the following:

• To establish credibility with your audience
• To communicate information clearly to your audience
• To persuade and/or influence your audience

To achieve these objectives, there are a range of practical skills that you can develop to help you become an effective presenter.

We can categorise these skills into three main areas:

• The ability to create a clear message
• The ability to deliver your message effectively
• The ability to fully engage with your audience.

An effective presentation should cover all of these three areas, so let’s see how you can achieve this.

Presentation Skills – Create a clear effective message

A clear message is normally a simple one. You may feel that you have to go into a lot of detail to get your message across but more often than not – “less is more”. Your audience are only able to take in so much during a presentation, so the clearer the message the more powerful it will be. Keep your message clear and simple by using the following guidelines:

• Have one Key Message only – this should be the most important point that you want to get across to your audience. Restrict it to one sentence that is easier to remember.
• Restrict your content to three main points only – three is the magic number that people tend to remember things in – so if you restrict your presentation to three sections only, your audience will be more likely to remember it.
• Have a strong opening and ending – these are the moments when your audiences’ attention is at its highest so take the opportunity to state and re-state your key message at these times.

Presentation Skills – Deliver your message effectively

So you now have a clear message and structure to your presentation and the next stage is to consider how you are getting it across effectively to your audience. The ability to express your ideas is as important as the ideas themselves and this is a fundamental requirement of effective presentation delivery.

Although not everyone is naturally expressive, we all have the ability to develop our personal resources to help us enhance those expressive qualities required to help us become more effective presenters.

The way you speak and look has a huge impact on what you say and how you come across to your audience and there are some simple techniques you can adopt to help enhance your overall image. Try to incorporate the following when you next give a presentation:

• Speak at a slower pace – we tend to speed up when we are nervous so by consciously slowing down you will end up speaking at the right pace and controlling your nervous tension.
• Imagine you are telling a story – by doing this, you will automatically increase the expression in your voice and sound more interesting to your audience.
• Make eye contact with your audience – it may feel awkward at first but if you actually look directly at people you will feel as though you are having a conversation with them and this will feel less intimidating

Presentation Skills – Fully engage with your audience

To deliver an effective presentation, it’s also important that you fully engage with your audience so that you can see things from their point of view and “speak in their language”. It’s therefore important that you have a full understanding of your audience. To help achieve this gather as much information as possible about your audience before you present. There are three main areas where you can gather information about your audience as follows:

• Audience Make-Up – this is who will actually attend. Ask yourself, from what departments/oganisations they will come from, what level of seniority they will be, what level of expertise will they have about my subject etc
• Audience Motivation – this is the attitudes of the audience and how they may react to you. Ask yourself what is their interest in my topic, their attitude towards me, any misconceptions or preconceived ideas they may have etc
• Audience Environment – these are the external factors that may influence you and your audience. Ask yourself how many will be in the audience, what will be the length of my presentation, what sort of room/venue will I present in etc

By considering these factors you will be able to plan your presentation to accommodate the attitudes and needs of your audience. This will make it easier for you to ‘buy in’ their trust in you and make it easier for you to engage with them.

Presentation Skills – The holistic approach

We have now looked at three areas where you can develop your effective presentation skills to enable you to be the effective presenter that you would like to be.

By addressing all three areas you will equip yourself with the confidence needed to communicate effectively with any audience and in any presentation situation.

Invest in your own presentation skills

There are no hidden secrets to being more effective and successful when you present. You can develop these skills through training and practice. By enhancing the ways in which you present and communicate you’ll be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audience and thus encourage them to respond to you in the way you want!

To get some expert advice and coaching and enhance your presenting, click on one of the links below:-

Presentation Skills Coaching – 121 coaching
Business Presentation Courses – Open to members of the public
Business Presenting – In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this presentation skills article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Effective Presentation Skills is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

A professional presentation style requires the confidence and ability to convey the right image that you want your audience to see. 

In this article we’ll be looking at some techniques to help you achieve more from your presentations.

Presentation Training can make all the difference

If you’re a company executive and want some expert coaching to help you enhance your presentation skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Professional Presentation Skills 121 Coaching
Half day of full day, 121 coaching in business presenting by an expert trainer. Held throughout the UK on a date and time to suit you and tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Introuctory Level Presentation Skills Training
These 1-day public courses are held regularly in Central London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and are ideal for any of your staff who are new to presenting.

Effective Presentation Skills (Intermediate level course)
These 2-day public courses are held regularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Presentation Skills in London
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our presentation skills courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

Creating a more relaxed style

It’s very hard to project a relaxed and confident image when your nerves have taken over and you are feeling anxious and flustered. So it’s important to have some key techniques at hand to help you control your nervous energy before you begin. Even the most experienced professionals have their own preparation rituals to help them achieve a calm and relaxed state before they present – although this is often unknown to their audiences.

There are lots of ways to help you to control nervous energy before your presentation and ensure that you start off the right way – relaxed, in control and confident. Nerves have a tendency to make you speed up which, in turn has a negative effect on your professional impact.

To help you calm your nerves before you start trying the following breathing technique:

• Take a deep breath before you start. Start by breathing out through the mouth for as long as possible and then breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth again. If you breathe out for as long as possible – this will help release any hidden tensions in the body.
• Breathe deeply – from the abdomen, as this creates a more sustained breath. To help achieve this keep the chest and shoulders relaxed – don’t raise them up when you breathe in.
• Aim to complete two full breaths in the 20 seconds before you present. This will help you to calm any nerves, release hidden tensions and encourage a more relaxed style.

Presenting a polished image

To convey a polished image it’s important that you use your personal resources to your full advantage. One important thing that can be overlooked but is crucial in creating a professional image is that you look and sound confident, even if you aren’t necessarily feeling this way. However, if you act as if you are confident, this can help you to feel more confident. But if you act in a nervous way then the opposite can happen.

Think about what you are doing when you are standing in front of the audience – especially the first few minutes when the nerves tend to be at their highest. Some of the typical habits that people can fall into are that they

• Fidget
• Fiddle with hands, a pen, clothes etc
• Look tense
• Look down at the floor

All these will give away the fact that you aren’t feeling that confident and you will not come across as professionally as you would like.

In order to make a strong first impression and project a professional image at the start of your presentation, try to do the following before you start to speak:

• Move forward towards your audience to address them at the start. This will help you build immediate rapport with the audience.
• Take two to three seconds to look at your audience before you start to speak. This gives the impression that you are commanding them to pay attention to you and conveys an image of authority.
• The delay in speaking also allows you to make a mental note of the size of the audience – how large the seating area is – so that you are more likely to look at different sections of the audience during the presentation.

Talking like a professional

It may be easy to talk about your presentation topic in normal conversation but as soon as you are standing in front of an audience, you may become more hesitant and sound less fluent.

To talk like a professional you must speak with enough clarity and confidence so that the audience hear every word you say. If they can’t hear every word they will soon start to lose interest and switch off.

To help maintain a clear and confident style try the following vocal technique:

• Take your time over every word you say – don’t snatch at or merge words or syllables together.
• To do this you must open your mouth (it’s amazing how many people try to speak through a tense, closed mouth!) and move it enough to make all the word sounds.
• The consonant sounds are like the muscles of the word. They give the voice greater clarity and conviction. It is important to pronounce them clearly otherwise your voice can sound mumbled and you will look hesitant and unconvincing to your audience.

Taking care to look and sound more confident is something that can be overlooked when you are focusing intently on your presentation content. But by applying the simple techniques described in this article, you can develop a more relaxed, confident and convincing style to create a more professional image.

Invest in your own professional presentation skills

There are no hidden secrets to being successful when you present. You can develop these skills through training and practice. It is worth the investment. By enhancing the ways in which you present and communicate you’ll be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audience and thus encourage them to respond to you in the way you want!

To get some expert advice and coaching and enhance your presenting, click on one of the links below:-

Professional Presentation Skills Coaching  - 121 coaching
Business Presentation Courses – Open to members of the public
Business Presenting - In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this presentation skills article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Professional Presentation Skills is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

Presentation Coaching can really make a difference

If you’re a company executive and want some expert coaching to help you enhance your presentation skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Executive Presentation Coaching
Half day of full day, 121 coaching in business presenting by an expert trainer. Held throughout the UK on a date and time to suit you and tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Effective Presentation Skills 
These 2-day public courses are held regularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Presentation Coaching
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our presentation skills courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

Vocal coaching can increase executive influence

The executive presenter needs to influence their audience through the power of their voice. 

However, even if you are an experienced presenter, you may not be making the most of your voice when you are presenting.  You may feel passionately about your material but this may not be being effectively conveyed through your voice and so your audience is left uninspired.  Three of the most common reasons why this happens are:

• Your voice might lack variety and be a bit monotone
• You might be speaking too quickly so people dont always absorb everything
• or you might lack energy and conviction in your voice

However, the above faults can all be quickly addressed by working with an expert presentation coach. 

Is your body language executive or ordinary?

To make a strong impact on your audience, it’s equally as important for the executive to have a strong presence and use their body language effectively. 

Your stance says a lot about you – so make sure that it is strong, relaxed and engaging.  Negative body language can have an adverse effect on the way your audience sees you and this can reduce your overall credibility. 

Three key areas related to body language that can impact your executive presentations are:-

• Using eye contact
  We build rapport with people when we make eye contact with them.  So make sure you make eye contact with your audience when you are speaking with them. 
• Using gestures
  Gesture can help you to enhance your messages and make them more powerful.  It will reflect in your voice which will sound more dynamic and the overall impact will be more powerful and memorable to your audience.
• Using space to command your audience
  The way you use your space when you present says a lot about you.  The executive presenter who is at ease in their space conveys a strong presence and command over their audience. 

The language of persuasion

The words used in your presentation is also a key factor in helping the executive fully engage with and influence their audience. 

To present your message in a persuasive way you also need to speak in a way that’s easy for your audience to listen to you.  You need to ensure that your presentation uses the spoken word rather than just a written piece of text.  For example:

• Be informal
  Don’t use overly formal grammar that is technically correct and works well for the written word but will sound stilted to your audience when read out. 
• Be clear
  Highlight key points to your audience so that they become clear and so that your audience will remember them. 
• Be creative
  Use creative techniques which help engage with your audience’s imagination and help them to remember your message. 

Executive presentation coaching

There are no hidden secrets to being successful when you present.

You can develop these skills through training and practice. It is worth the investment. By enhancing the ways in which you present and communicate you’ll be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audiences and reap the business success that goes with that.

To get some executive coaching and enhance your presenting, click on one of the links below:-

Executive Presentation Skills Coaching  - 121 coaching
Business Presentation Courses – Open to members of the public
Business Presenting - In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Executive Presentation Coaching is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

Presentation Training can make all the difference

If you’re a company executive and want some expert coaching to help you enhance your presentation skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Executive Presentation Skills 121 Coaching
Half day of full day, 121 coaching in business presenting by an expert trainer. Held throughout the UK on a date and time to suit you and tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Beginner Level Presentation Skills Training
These 1-day public courses are held regularly in Central London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and are ideal for any of your staff who are new to presenting.

Effective Presentation Skills (Intermediate level course)
These 2-day public courses are held regularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Presentation Skills
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our presentation skills courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

The executive presenter

So – what skills does the executive need in order to be a successful presenter?  Well, let’s first consider the three main purposes of a presentation.  Broadly speaking we can categorize a presentation in to three key purposes:

1.  Inform – this is when you give your audience information – so it is a means of passing on facts to your audience

2.  Explain – this is when you need to explain something like a new procedure or process.  It usually involves giving information as well.

3.  Persuade – this may involve giving information and explanation but with a view of influencing and persuading the audience along a certain line.

The ability to persuade the audience is essential to the success of the executive presenter.  The executive presenter needs to be able draw upon a range of advanced presentation techniques to help them use their persuasive powers to influence an audience who may not be initially open to their ideas.  These techniques can be developed and three of the most common areas that influence your ability to be persuasive are:

The power of the voice

The power of body language

The power of the spoken word

The power of the voice

The executive presenter needs to influence their audience through the power of their voice.  However, even if you are an experienced presenter, you may not be making the most of your voice when you are presenting.  You may feel passionately about your material but this may not be being effectively conveyed through your voice and so your audience is left uninspired.  Three of the most common reasons why this happens are:

Your voice is monotone

You are speaking too quickly

You lack energy and conviction in your voice

However, the above faults can all be addressed by developing some simple but highly effective vocal techniques. 

The monotone voice

If you are speaking for any length of time – you can begin to lose energy in your voice so that it drops off and becomes dull and monotone with little variation.  So whatever you are saying the audience will switch off and you will lose the ability to deliver your message in a persuasive way. To help address this – imagine you are speaking in the role of the story teller telling your audience an exciting story.  This will automatically ‘lift’ your voice and give it more expression.  Don’t worry about sounding ‘over the top’ – this is very unlikely to happen as we always sound less exaggerated to our audience than we think we do.

Speaking too quickly

Speaking too quickly is a common fault for many presenters, especially at the start of a presentation when even for experienced executive presenters, nerves can kick in.  But you need to speak at a slower pace to your normal conversational voice when you are presenting or the audience won’t be able to follow easily and you will lose the ability to command their attention.  So when you first start to speak make a conscious effort to speak more slowly than usual.  Practise your first three sentences out aloud beforehand and say them slowly with a pause in between.  The pause acts like a brake pedal and will help you to control your speed so that you don’t race ahead.

Lacking energy and conviction

Even for the experienced executive, if the voice lacks energy and conviction, this will weaken their ability to influence the audience.  To help address this – draw out the most important words in your sentences, the powerful words that carry the meaning of the sentence.  By emphasing these words you will influence the overall message and also inject a stronger passion and conviction in your voice.  It also helps to keep your sentences short – as it’s much harder to maintain energy when speaking in longer sentences.  So reduce the number of ‘ands’ you have in your sentences and replace with a full stop and a new sentence.

The power of your body language

To make a strong impact on your audience, it’s equally as important for the executive to have a strong presence and use their body language effectively.  Your stance says a lot about you – so make sure that it is strong, relaxed and engaging.  Negative body language can have an adverse effect on the way your audience sees you and this can reduce your overall credibility. 

Building rapport

We build rapport with people when we make eye contact with them.  So make sure you make eye contact with your audience when you are speaking with them.  Avoidance of eye contact or a flitting use of eye contact can reduce your rapport with the audience.  Maintain a confident use of eye contact – about 4-5 seconds on any individual – to ensure that you look confident and convincing.  Make sure you share your eye contact around the room at random – this also keeps your audience on their toes and maintains their attention, as they never know when you will look at them next.

Enhancing your message through gesture

Use of gesture can help you to enhance your messages and make them more powerful.  When you gesture on a particular word this makes you emphasize that word to your audience.  It will reflect in your voice which will sound more dynamic and the overall impact will be more powerful and memorable to your audience. 

Commanding your audience

The way you use your space when you present says a lot about you.  The executive presenter who is at ease in their space conveys a strong presence and command over their audience.  To help achieve this try to walk around the space before you present and before the audience arrive, to help you get used to it.  When you are presenting, try to move to different places in the space – whatever is possible.  This is not only relaxing to do but also helps to reinforce what you are saying as the audience tend to associate different messages with different points in the room where you are presenting.

The language of persuasion

The language of the presentation is also a key factor in helping the executive fully engage with and influence their audience.  In order to present your message in a persuasive way you need to speak in a way that’s easy on the ears of the audience.  It’s important therefore that your presentation is created to be spoken out aloud rather than just a written piece of text.  Here are some ways to help you achieve this:

Be informal

Don’t use over formal grammar that is technically correct and works well for the written word but will sound stilted to your audience when read out.  Keep your sentences short with one thought per sentence – so that your audience can follow easily.

Be clear

Highlight key points to your audience so that they become clear and so that your audience will remember them.  Use ’signpost’s that ‘flag up’ a key point and reinforce it at the end.  This will help to order the way you present your information which makes it easier for you to deliver in a fluent manner and which is easier for the audience to remember.

Be creative

Use creative techniques which help engage with your audience’s imagination and help them to remember your message.  Do this by incorporating stories or personal examples into your presentation that help to support your message.

Putting it all together

We have looked at three key areas to help you enhance the way you deliver your executive presentations with more persuasion and influence.

Using your voice

Using your body language

Using persuasive language

By developing techniques in these three areas, you will enhance the way in which you communicate with your audience and deliver highly effective presentations that are vital for your success in the executive business environment.

Invest in your own presentation skills

There are no hidden secrets to being successful when you present. You can develop these skills through training and practice. It is worth the investment. By enhancing the ways in which you present and communicate you’ll be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audience and thus encourage them to respond to you in the way you want!

To get some expert advice and coaching and enhance your presenting, click on one of the links below:-

Executive Presentation Skills Coaching  - 121 coaching
Business Presentation Courses – Open to members of the public
Business Presenting - In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Executive Presentation Skills is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

In this somewhat tongue in cheek article we’ll be looking at some techniques that can guarantee your audience will totally switch off during your next business presentation using PowerPoint.  Alternatively, you can always try exactly the opposite; get some training and learn how to engage with your audience and succeed!

Presentation Training can make all the difference

If you want some expert coaching to help you enhance your presentation skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Presentation Skills 121 Coaching (for all levels)
Half day of full day, 121 coaching in business presenting by an expert trainer. Held throughout the UK on a date and time to suit you and tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Beginner Level Presentation Skills Training
These 1-day public courses are held regularly in Central London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Effective Presentation Skills (Intermediate level course)
These 2-day public courses are held regularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Presentation Skills
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our presentation skills courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

Make sure that the room is as dark as possible

This is a great technique – especially if its late in the day.  You need to be able to read the slides out to your audience.  Its also quite nice for them to be able to relax in the relative darkness of the presentation room.  Just remember not to put too much energy or enthusiasm into your voice when reading out the slides.  Just keep up a good monotone voice - your audience will appreciate that the most.

Powerpoint slides are for you – not the audience

Remember that your powerpoint slides are there for your benefit only.  They are great prompts for what you are about to say – so remember to put all of your speech on them.  Most people cant remember the exact words they want to use in their presentation so include every word you want to say, just to be safe.

It just makes sure that you wont forget anything on the day.

Use at least 4 slides a minute

Remember to introduce your presentation by telling everybody how many slides you have for them today.  And as a rule of thumb try and have at least 4 slides for every minute of your presentation.

So if you’ve got a 25 minute presentation to give that means you’ve got a nice round number of 100 slides to entertain them with.

Remember to face the screen not the audience

Try not to face your audience when you are presenting.  You’ve got your whole presentation written on the slides and you dont want to miss any of the words. So make sure you face the screen at least 95% of the time.  Your audience will really appreciate the effort you are taking to ensure that you dont forget any of your message.

Use Powerpoints Features to the full

One of the greatest powers of PowerPoint are the ways in which your bullet points can be animated. You can have them coming in from the left; gliding in from above; being fired out like a machine gun, letter by letter; in fact there’s simply no end to the permutations you can have.  Eespecially if you use the sound effects as well. 

So turn up the volume and make use of every possible feature to keep the audience on their toes.  And if you’ve got 100 slides to present – just think of the fun you can have!

Keep your font size small

You can probably read your slides quite quickly – so remember to make sure that the font size you use is small enough so that you can get enough text on the screen for every slide.  Otherwise you might need to have more than 4 slides a minute! 

Dont worry if the audience cant read them – you’ll be reading them out to them anyway.  Plus you dont want your audience to be reading them ahead of you. 

Minimise the visuals – its text that’s important

If you must use images in your slides – and we’d certainly argue against that – then try and keep to the fantastic cartoons and images that ship with Powerpoint.  Everybody knows them so they will feel at home when they see them on the screen. 

Its probably best to use lots of these images on just the one slide – say half way though the presentation – to add some real visual impact!  But dont keep the slide up too long as you’ll need to get the presentation flowing again.  So 10 seconds maximum.

Use all your PowerPoint Slide Fonts 

The audience need variety – especially of they are actually trying to read your slides.  So one great way to add some additional impact is to use a different font for every bullet point or sentence.  You’ve probably got about 100 fonts on your computer so that gives you a good selection to choose from.  Be bold – in even a 10 minute presentation you can probably go through every one of these fonts at least 3 times! 

Experimenting is key to your success.

Use as much colour in your slides as possible

You’ve got an almost unlimited number of colours on your computer – so try and make use of as many striking colours in your slides as possible.  Try alternating colours on successive words for real impact.  Use a different background colour for each slide. 

Variety is the spice of life!

Remember to tell the audience that you’ve finished

When you come to the end of your presentation and are just about to put up your 100th slide, your audience (if they are still in the room) are probably asleep.  So you need to be kind to them. FAnd of course, fom a health and safety perspective its very important that you dont just leave the room with the audience still asleep in the darkness. 

So turn up the volume as far as it will go for your final slide transition.  And remember to use the machine gun letter by letter display feature for your final bullet point .. to tell everybody that The End Has Come.  And if that doesn’t wake all of them up nothing will.

Then remember to put on the lights and leave quickly. 

Alternatively, you can invest in your own presentation skills

You dont have to inflict death by powerpoint on your audience.  In fact, there are no hidden secrets to being successful when you present. You can develop these skills through training and practice. It is worth the investment. By enhancing the ways in which you present and communicate you’ll be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audience and thus encourage them to respond to you in the way you want!

To get some expert advice and coaching and enhance your presenting, click on one of the links below:-

Presentation Skills – 121 coaching
Business Presentation Courses – Open to members of the public
Business Presenting - In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

How to Inflict Death by PowerPoint is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

It’s therefore time to take stock and remind ourselves “what exactly is the purpose of PowerPoint – this supposedly supportive presentation skills aid?”

In this article we’ll be looking at some techniques to help you achieve more in your next business powerpoint presentation.

Presentation Training can make all the difference

If you want some expert coaching to help you enhance your presentation skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Presentation Skills 121 Coaching (for all levels)
Half day of full day, 121 coaching in business presenting by an expert trainer. Held throughout the UK on a date and time to suit you and tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Beginner Level Presentation Skills Training
These 1-day public courses are held regularly in Central London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Effective Presentation Skills (Intermediate level course)
These 2-day public courses are held regularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Presentation Skills
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our presentation skills courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

Is Powerpoint really a Quick-Fix Solution?

At first, PowerPoint seemed to be the answer to all our presentation concerns. To the less experienced presenter it became a great way to put together a presentation. With its neat gadgets and easy-to-follow structure, PowerPoint provided a ‘quick fix’ solution to our presentation anxieties. All the presenter needed to do was to ‘deliver’ their slides.” 

However the verb ‘to deliver’  has become replaced by the phrase ‘to read out aloud’ and even by the phrase ‘to hide behind’ which results in a total switch off for our audiences.

Audience-Friendly Powerpoint Slides

In order to help create a more postive experience for our audiences, we need to look at what we put on our slides to ensure that they are audience friendly – ie designed for the audience’s benefit. Slides should support our message, not to be the message. They are meant to be a visual aid – visual being the operative word.

Less is more

You may think that the more information you put on a slide, the easier it is to remember and present the information.  However, the more text you have on a slide the more you are restricted by the text. It means that you have to present all the information on the slide and this hinders your ability to be spontaneous or conversational with their audience.

Attention grabbing slides

Fewer words say more and have far greater impact. Punchy phrases grab attention and are easy to read at a glance. By reducing the amount of information you have on a slide you give yourself more flexibility to interpret the slide and relate the information to a particular audience.

A few key words or phrases will give you the necessary prompts you need. You can see these prompts at a glance which means that you will be able to spend more time engaging with your audience. Your audience are less likely to read ahead and therefore more likely to listen to you and maintain concentration.

Keep it clean!

Slides need to be ‘clean’ and not over-fussy.  They need to be easily read or seen by the whole audience. You shouldn’t have to ask the audience if they can ‘read it at the back’ – it’s too late to find that they can’t read the slide when you start your presentation – you need to have worked this out before!

Use a font size that is easy for the audience to read – if the audience can’t read it then it shouldn’t be there. Keep your fonts consistent – to one or two varieties at the most. This is much easier for the audience to read and follow.

What Visual Aid to use?

A visual is an immediate way of conveying information to an audience. Visual slides are also easier to talk around.

Simple and clearly labelled graphs  are excellent means of simplifying the presentation of data. Graphs are effective ways of showing historical trends and patterns at a glance. Remember to use a large enough font size for any numbers / words on the axes of the graphs so that the audience can read easily them.

Pie charts and bar charts are very effective ways of conveying information by use of colour and shading. Keep it simple though, as too much colour or shading soon makes it difficult for the audience to read at a glance. Restrict the colour to 3 colours maximum – this is enough to add variety but  avoid becoming confusing and messy.

Pictures are very effective for communicating concepts and conveying emotion. They encourage the audience to use their imagination hence helping them maintain interest and stay switched on throughout the presentation.

Avoid PowerPoint feature abuse!

Avoid over-doing the technical wizardry in PowerPoint or using too many ‘fly in’ bullets in PowerPoint presentations – they soon become very predictable. If you adopt the ‘less is more’ approach to using text then you will not need to rely on fly-ins to gradually reveal information.

Simple dissolves in-between slides can look professional but overuse of some options quickly becomes very distracting. The audience will end up paying more attention to the gimmicks than to the message that you are trying to convey.

Are you a Polished Presenter or just a PowerPoint Operator?

The slick and polished nature of PowerPoint, whilst adding value to a presentation when used appropriately, can also weaken the human input in presenting. The presenter’s role can easily become reduced to no more than the ‘PowerPoint Operator’. If a presenter lacks confidence they may use the PowerPoint to ‘hide behind’. Public speaking is in fact one of the most common public fears – almost as strong as fear of death!

Good delivery skills are very important to help provide us the much desired confidence needed for us to be a polished and professional presenter. We have to re-learn the meaning of ‘delivery’. It is not reading off the slide or hiding behind your laptop, it is all about the art of communication and the ability to command and engage with your audience.

Delivery skills can be learnt – in fact most good presenters spend a lot of time practising their delivery techniques to help them develop into confident and effective presenters.

Project a strong personal presence

A strong personal presence is very important especially when you are competing with a large screen behind you.  Poor stance, irritating habits, lack of eye contact will all inhibit your ability to engage with your audience.

A common mistake is that the the PowerPoint presenter ‘anchors’ themself to their laptop throughout the presentation. This gives the impression that they are saying to their audience “Don’t look at me – I’m not important – I’m just an accessory to the equipment.”

Define your space

To avoid feeling insignificant by the technology and the large screen behind you, move to a space away from the equipment when you first start your presentation. This should ideally be nearer to the audience. This will help you build rapport with the audience at the start. It will also give the impression that it is you who is controlling the presentation rather than the PowerPoint controlling you.

Make a strong last impression

Likewise, at the end of the presentation, move away from the equipment – towards the audience – to establish a strong final impression. Make sure that your last slide is the image that you want to leave your audience with or, alternatively, leave a blank slide or switch off the PowerPoint before you finish.

Slowdown the PowerPoint slide changes

Another common contributor to the PowerPoint ‘Switch-Off’ is the endless stream of rapid slide changes that can occur in a presentation with too many slides delivered too quickly. When this happens it doesn’t take long to see that fixed glazed expression on the audiences’ faces.

To avoid this, take your time to change slides – pause and allow the audience to take in what is on the screen before speaking. The audience need this time to assimilate what has just been said and to absorb the information on the new slide before you start to speak. It will also give you time to gather your thoughts before you begin to speak.

Edit your slide show

Don’t feel that you have to have a slide for everything you say. You can deliver messages without any use of visual aids and it will be a nice contrast to move away from the PowerPoint at certain times in your presentation. When you have created your presentation it is a good idea to eliminate the least important slide and do this a few times until you only keep the most essential slides.

And remember to look at your audience!

Avoid showing the back of your head to the audience – by looking back at the screen for your prompts. If you do this your voice will trail off as you turn your head away from the audience and this will reduce the impact of your message.

We need to look at people – give them eye contact if we want to fully engage with them. Use your laptop, rather than the screen to take your prompts.

Ensure that your laptop is arranged carefully in front of you so that you are facing the audience when you look at it. Alternatively, use easy-to-read notes or prompt cards to give you the necessary prompts.

Polish the PowerPoint Practicalities

You also need to think about the practicalities of presenting your PowerPoint presentation to ensure a polished, professional performance.

Five key points to consider are:

1. Clearly state the length of your presentation at the start so that your audience know exactly how long it will be. You must then stick to your times – to keep your audience’s attention.

2. Be conversational with your audience – ask them a few questions at the start to ‘open them up’ before ‘plunging into the slide show. This will help encourage a more personal environment and you will be able to pitch your presentation more effectively to those present.

3. Identify the key benefits of your presentation to your audience . Ask yourself “why should your audience listen to you?” Make it clear at the start what your audience will gain from your presentation.

4. Ensure that you are properly set up before you start. Set up the equipment in good time and make sure that you have tested it out so there is not danger of things going wrong once you have started your presentation.

5. Finally – try to enjoy your presentation – a presenter who looks as it they are going to enjoy their presentation will send out the right signals to their audience. And – if your enjoy it your audience are also more likely to!

Invest in your own powerpoint presentation skills

There are no hidden secrets to being successful when you present. You can develop these skills through training and practice. It is worth the investment. By enhancing the ways in which you present and communicate you’ll be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audience and thus encourage them to respond to you in the way you want!

To get some expert advice and coaching and enhance your presenting, click on one of the links below:-

Presentation Skills – 121 coaching
Business Presentation Courses – Open to members of the public
Business Presenting - In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Improve Your Powerpoint Presentation Skills is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

In this article we’ll be looking at some key advice to help you achieve more in your next business presentation.

Presentation Skills – a natural gift or skills you can develop?

You may think that the ability to be a successful presenter is a natural gift that you are either born with or not. But this is rarely the case and most successful presenters spend time developing their skills and techniques.

So there is no reason why you can’t do the same.

Presentation Training can make all the difference

If you want some expert coaching to help you enhance your presentation skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Presentation Skills 121 Coaching (for all levels)
Half day of full day, 121 coaching in business presenting by an expert trainer. Held throughout the UK on a date and time to suit you and tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Beginner Level Presentation Skills Training
These 1-day public courses are held regularly in Central London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Effective Presentation Skills (Intermediate level course)
These 2-day public courses are held regularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Presentation Skills
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our presentation skills courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

Three key steps towards a successful presentation

There are three key steps that you need to consider to help you deliver a successful presentation:

1. Content – creating a clear message

2. Delivery – communicating your ideas with confidence

3. Audience – relating to and engaging with your audience

Step One – Creating a clear message

You may feel overwhelmed when you first start planning your presentation. You don’t know where to start, what to include, how to organise your ideas etc. But with all presentations, it is important that you are clear in what you want to achieve from it.

Your first task is to consider the following three questions:

• What is the main purpose of your presentation?
• Who are your audience and what are their needs?
• What is the key message of your presentation?

What is the main purpose of your presentation?

In order to identify the purpose of your presentation, ask yourself the following question:

What is it that you want your audience to do or think?

Your response to this question will provide you with the main purpose to your presentation. Write it down in a short sentence and in direct language, as though you are speaking directly to your audience – eg “I want you to agree to my new initiatives”.

Who are your audience and what are their needs?

You have just identified what you want from your audience but in order to create the desired effect, it’s important to understand them and to see things from their point of view.

To help achieve this, you can build an audience profile in order to gather as much information about your audience as possible. Here are some things to consider when you build your audience profile:

• What is their level of expertise on the subject matter
• Will there be key decision makers present?
• Are they an invited audience or do they have to attend?
• What are their expectations – do they have any concerns about any of the issues you may be raising
• What will be the environment you will be presenting in. For example Number of people; Length of presentation; Seating arrangement (theatre style, boardroom style, informal meeting style)

You can use the information you have gathered to assess the audience and environment that you will be presenting in. You can then plan your content around this . For example:

• If the audience is not very knowledgeable, you should keep the detail restricted and your language clear. Support your message with examples that are easy to understand.

What is the key message of your presentation?

Your key message should provide the audience with a clear motivation to listen to you. It will give your presentation a clear focus and this will help you to feel more confident when you start to speak.

To create your key message you must consider the main benefit for the audience to listen to you. You can brainstorm several benefits first and then select the one you think is the most powerful and relevant to your audience. Having done this you should write it down and learn it off by heart so that you can deliver it confidently at the start of your presentation.

Structuring your presentation content

Regardless of the length of your presentation, your structure should contain the following main sections:

• The Introduction
• The Main Body
• The Conclusion

The Introduction of your presentation

You are probably going to be feeling at your most nervous at the start of your presentation. A strong opening will help you to feel more confident. To help you achieve this, structure your introduction so that you are clear about what you want to say.  This should include the following:

• Personal Introduction
• Your Key Message
• Any other important information (such as when you will take questions etc.

The main body of your presentation

It’s important to keep your main body clear and focused so that your audience can follow easily. To help achieve this, aim to restrict your main body to three key points. You can then divide these points into sub points to develop your ideas.  For each point it’s important to have

• A beginning
• A middle
• An ending

This will help you to break up your presentation into more digestible sections, rather than one stream of information. This makes it easier for you to deliver it and easier for your audience to follow.

The ending of your presentation

This is when you want to leave a lasting impression on your audience. They are more likely to remember your final words so take the opportunity to include the following important points:

• Your Key Message – reinforce the benefits to your audience
• Action Step – tell the audience what you want to do or think now
• Final Thought – end on a strong note – with a final thought or interesting fact that the audience will remember.

Step Two – Communicating your ideas with confidence

No matter how well you plan and structure your presentation, the ability to be able to deliver your message with confidence and to communicate your ideas with enthusiasm is also very important.

There are three key areas to address to help you develop a confident delivery style:

• Controlling your nerves
• Speaking with confidence
• Creating a strong presence

Presentation skills to help you control your nerves

When you first start to speak it’s inevitable that nerves will kick in. This is natural and common amongst even the more experienced presenters. However, there are many ways to help over come nerves and develop a confident style when you are speaking.

The most common trap people fall into when they first start to speak if they are feeling nervous is to speak too quickly. This results in a lack of control of your voice, body language and thought processes – and ultimately makes you feel hesitant and lacking focus.

Here are some ways in which you can help to control your nerves before and when you first start to speak.

• To help you slow down before you speak – take two slow breaths – focusing on breathing out for as long as possible – as this will encourage you to take deeper breaths in.
• When you first speak – take your time over the first few words you say. Remember you will have a tendency to speak more quickly than usual so make a conscious effort to slow down – so that your audience hear every word you say
• Learn your introduction off by heart and practise before you present. If you know exactly what you are going to say you will be less likely to sound hesitant and include um’s and err’s at the start of your presentation.

Presentation skills to help speak with greater confidence

Your voice says a lot about how you are feeling. It’s therefore important to convey the right kind of emotion to your audience when you are speaking.

To sound more confident and enthusiastic to your audience here are three vocal techniques to use:

• Speak in shorter sentences – these are easier to deliver and easier for your audience to follow
• Pause for a couple of seconds at the end of your sentences – this may feel unnatural but it will sound very natural to the audience and allow them time to absorb what you have just said
• Emphasise important words in your sentences – this will inject energy and enthusiasm into your voice and it will help your audience remember your key messages.

Presentation skills to help develop a strong presence

Your body language will also say a lot about how you are feeling and your audience will pick on the vibes you send out. So it’s important that you send out the right vibes in order that you convey a confident style. To help achieve this here are three body language techniques to use:

• Adopt a strong stance before you start to speak – so that you look confident and you are less likely to resort to fidgeting or use of negative gesture
• Take a couple of seconds to look at your audience before you start to speak – this gives the impression you are comfortable in your space.
• When you speak – give specific eye contact to individuals in the audience. Share this around the audience at random – this helps you to appear more assertive and will increase your overall presence

Step Three – Engaging with your audience when you present

You have already created an audience profile, as part of the planning process and the information you have gleamed from this profile will help you select the most appropriate content that relates to your audience and stimulates their interest.

You have also considered how to create a confident manner, how to sound enthusiastic and how to use eye contact to make contact with your audience. All these techniques can help you to engage more fully with your audience. However you can also enhance your relationship with the audience further by considering techniques that can help your audience stay focused and interested in your presentation.

It’s easy for an audience to switch off in a presentation especially if they are passively listening throughout the time you are speaking. So it’s important to turn them into active listeners. To do this you want to actively engage with them mentally and emotionally.

To help achieve this here are three key techniques to use:

Ask your audience questions

These may be direct questions – where you actively encourage a spoken answer, or indirect questions – where you ask them to consider something. Audiences don’t expect to have to react in a presentation but by involving through questions – it will help to keep them alert and concentrated.

Help your audience follow the presentation

Incorporate ‘signposts’ into your delivery. This is when you tell the audience what you are going to say, then reinforce what you have just said after. It helps keep the audience on track of where your presentation is going.

Engage with your audience’s imaginary powers

Include stories in your presentation. Stories help to lift dry facts and illustrate abstract ideas in a colourful way that will help the audience to remember your messages.

Summary of the Three Key Steps for Successful Presentations

We have now looked at the three key elements that help to create a successful presentation:

• The Content of the Presentation
• The Delivery of the Presentation
• The Engagement with the Audience

You have seen that there are many skills within these three areas that you can develop to help you to become a proficient and successful presenter.

By developing effective structuring techniques, strong delivery skills and powerful ways to engage with your audience, you will be more prepared, feel more confident and communicate more effectively with your audience when you present.

Invest in your own presentation skills

There are no hidden secrets to being successful when you present. You can develop these skills through training and practice. It is worth the investment. By enhancing the ways in which you present and communicate you’ll be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audience and encourage them to respond to you in the way you want!

To get some expert advice and coaching and enhance your presenting, click on one of the links below:-

Presentation Skills – 121 coaching
Business Presentation Courses – Open to members of the public
Business Presenting – In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Presentation Skills is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

In this article we’ll be looking at some techniques to help you achieve more in your next business presentation.

Presentation Training can make all the difference

If you want some expert coaching to help you enhance your presentation skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Presentation Skills 121 Coaching (for all levels)
Half day of full day, 121 coaching in business presenting by an expert trainer. Held throughout the UK on a date and time to suit you and tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Beginner Level Presentation Skills Training
These 1-day public courses are held regularly in Central London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Effective Presentation Skills (Intermediate level course)
These 2-day public courses are held regularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Presentation Skills
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our presentation skills courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

Your voice can make a big impact on your presentation

You probably rely on your voice as one of your main vehicles for clear communication. You may spend a large amount of your working life using your voice to make an impact – whether it is speaking in meetings, on the telephone or giving presentations. So it’s important to invest some time in developing your vocal skills in order to make the most of your voice in every opportunity. In doing so you will learn to:

• Convey greater confidence
• Sound more convincing
• Become more persuasive
• Assert greater influence
• Create more interest

Controlling nerves at the start of your presentation

For many – speaking in public in front of an audience is a daunting process. Nerves are one of the most common hurdles people face and they will inevitably kick in when you first start to speak. However, you can learn some simple vocal skills that help you to use the adrenalin created by nerves in a positive way to help you speak with more energy and clarity.

• Think Slow Motion when you first start to speak to avoid racing ahead and losing track of what you are saying. We tend to speak more quickly when we are nervous. But by consciously slowing down you will be more likely to speak at a controlled pace that your audience can easily follow.
• Make sure you start with a Strong Stance – with both feet firmly on the ground. Nerves can often cause us to fidget and shuffle our feet. But if you adopt a strong stance before you start to speak, you are less likely to fall into these traps. Instead, your strong posture will help to support you and help you to convey a more confident image in front of your audience.
• Start your opening with 3 Short Sentences. When we are nervous we have a tendency to speak in long winded sentences. These are much more difficult to deliver, especially when we are nervous and we often end up hesitant and using lots of ums and errs. If you plan your first three sentences, keeping them succinct and easy to say – you open strongly and quickly capture the attention of your audience at the start of your presentation.

Engaging with your audience through eye contact

The way in which you look will also have a strong impact on your audience. If you look impassive or you lack any interaction with your audience, they are unlikely to maintain their concentration or remember what you are saying.

Confident use of eye contact will help you to engage with your audience and maintain their interest in you. If you don’t look at people when you are speaking to them you are losing a huge opportunity to build rapport with them. If you use eye contact in a confident way when you are presenting you are more likely to:

• Appear more personable and conversational
• Maintain the attention of all your audience
• Convey great enthusiasm
• Read your audience and adapt accordingly
• Project your message with greater conviction

Eye contact doesn’t always come naturally to us when we are standing in front of an audience. No matter how well we know our material, there is a stark contrast between talking informally and having to present in a formal situation. However the effective use of eye contact is a skill that can be developed through practice. To help you develop a more confident use of eye contact try the following:

• Share your eye contact around the audience. You can achieve this by imagining that you are giving individual members of the audience ‘nuggets’ of information as you speak. In this way you will feel as if you are having personal conversations with your audience and this will help you to engage more with them.
• Hold your eye contact for a few seconds. If we are too rapid with our use of eye contact or we flit from one person to another, we can look hesitant and uncomfortable. So once you have directed your eye contact to a specific member of the audience stay with them for a few moments before moving on to someone else. This will help you to look more authoritative and in control of your presentation.
• Maintain your eye contact at the end of your sentences. When we are feeling nervous we can have a tendency to look down particularly at the end of a sentence. This create a lack of conviction in what we are saying. If you look at the audience at the end of your sentence you will reinforce your message and deliver it with greater conviction.

Invest in yourself

There are no hidden secrets to looking and sounding confident and successful. Good communication skills can be developed through training and practice. It is worth the investment. By enhancing the ways in which you communicate you will develop a stronger influence on your audience and thus encourage them to respond to you in a positive way.

To get some expert advice and coaching click on one of the links below:-

Presentation Skills – 121 coaching
Business Presentation Courses – Open to members of the public
Business Presenting – In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

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Personal Presentation Skills is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.