Ask yourself how good are your presentations actually are and answer yourself honestly! Most people think they’re a good presenter. Unfortunately usually they’re not. The evidence is all over LinkedIn – people hiding behind lecterns or other physical barriers, text heavy slides, presenters staring over their shoulders at the screen, auto-cues and scripts and my personal hate, endless bullet points.
If you want 5 things you could do differently to immediately improve the way you present, they are:
1. Remove all physical barriers (i.e. the lectern) and get closer to your audience. It makes engagement much easier.
2. Bin the notes. You don’t need them! If you forget to say something it doesn’t matter, your audience will forget 90% + of what you say anyway but they won’t however forget you …or the fact you just stood up there reading.
3. Replace text and boring bulletpoints with photographs, graphics, cartoons, quotes, charts and diagrams. No subject matter is so dry that there is not a more creative alternative.
4. Tell stories. People relate to stories, case studies and real life examples, not theory.
5. Involve the audience. Ask questions, get people to talk to their neighbour and run exercises.
These 5 tips will help you answer the question ‘how good are your presentations?’ much more positively.
If you’d like to discuss how we could help improve their presentation skills (or any other aspect of BD), email us and we’ll find a time to chat. Or, if you’d like some more practical BD tips why not catch up with our CoffeeCast?