Category: Presentation Skills

Delivery Skills: A Key To Effective Presentations

Going up on stage and delivering an effective and impactful presentation or speech can give nightmares to many people. Stage fright is categorized by many as one of their worst fears. However, it is difficult for anyone to escape public speaking in today’s business environment.

The moment we think about giving a presentation we think about the delivery of the presentation. However, out of the time spent in preparing for the presentation, a significant amount of time goes in preparing the presentation itself – collecting the data and putting it up in a coherent form using various tools like PowerPoint. By the time we are done with this preparation the time for delivery is at hand we realize we have done no preparation for that! For the client or audience, all that preparation has no meaning if the delivery is ineffective.
Therefore it is safe to say that delivery of a presentation requires as much, if not preparation, than developing it. Without preparation we might find ourselves at a loss for words to explain our brilliant ideas, or still worse be caught off guard due to stage fright!

Since we understand the importance of delivering an effective presentation, there are some simple guidelines for ensuring effective delivery

  • Create strong presence – The first 30 seconds of any encounter are the most crucial. The same rule applies to presentations as well. Make the first impression count. Create a strong presence on the stage or the room. This can be achieved effectively by a string greeting, being appropriately dressed and having a positive body language.
  • Engage the audience – The next challenge is engaging the audience. The effectiveness of a presentation is assessed by audience engagement and this is not always easy to achieve. Some strategies for engaging the audience are – give them what they want, grab their attention by telling them how your presentation can help them and create a mental trigger for them. Creating a strong visual or a context for them to associate will ensure that your audience is hooked to what you have to say.
  • Establish Credibility – Coming across as a credible and dependable person can do wonders for your delivery skills. Interacting with confidence, providing correct information and facts and being well prepared will establish your credibility as a presenter.
  • Create an Impact – An impactful delivery creates a strong impression on the audience and ensures that your message is conveyed well. Impactful delivery can be ensured by connecting with the audience, empathizing with their needs and ensuring a high recall of your interaction.  Pause at the right moment, ask imperative and thought provoking questions and highlight the key features and benefits.

The PresentSmart Model of Strengthscape delves in-depth into the nuances of effective delivery.

Filed under: Presentation Skills

Visual Aids in Presentations

Visual aids add an integral dimension to a presentation. It helps to achieve its objectives at a much faster pace, through the use of clear pictures which enhance the comprehending capacity of the audience in multitudes. These are adapted for reinforcing the message in clear points and for creating excitement and enthusiasm amongst the listeners. They tend to encourage gestures and movements of the speaker by shifting the communication method from simply listening to visualizing as well.

The use of audio-visual concepts and ideas, which are a combination of words and pictures, ends up leaving a better, long lasting and lingering impact on the minds and retention power of the audience.
Several varieties of communication products come under the jurisdiction of visual aids like overhead transparencies, flip charts, audio slide shows video tapes and so on. To make your presentation most effective, it is highly essential to opt for the right mode of visual aids so as to have the maximum benefit therefrom.

Tips on preparing visual aids, some do’s and don’ts:

Choosing the right visual aid – The major points of the presentation, along with a rough outline of the objectives and goals of the same, should be prepared before going ahead in choosing the visual aids. Determining your accomplishments, the needs and expectations of the audience and the physical settings required would assist a lot in deciding which visual aid mode would work best for you.
Keep it simple – Every element  or slide of an audio visual product should contain only one single message in very simple, brief  and easy-to-understand language. More than one message per page creates confusion in the minds of the audience and ultimately reducing its potential impact.
Connection between the speech and the visual slide-The words spoken in connection to the point specified through the visual aid should be connected and interlinked but should not be the same. In other words, never read out straight from the visual aid script, there should be a difference in your speech and what is being portrayed through the clip.
Read or listen, not both – While delivering a presentation using visual aids, ask your audience to first listen to what is being said and then read. Doing both at the same time will lead to poor or no understanding of the message being delivered. Also, make sure not to provide reading material while you talk.It should be given to highlight and illustrate your points once the talking is over.
Provide paper copies of the various graphics used during the presentation to the participants for future reference
Calculate and analyze your cost constraints before selecting the visual aids. Also, try substituting with  the cheaper and less expensive alternatives if it fits into your needs.
Work on an extended schedule and account for production time in your planning and selection process so as to save on time, energy and money.
When discussing general problems, it is advisable to use local photographs and examples. It would connect more with the audience.
Charts and Graphs should be opted for in order to support numerical information delivered in the presentation.
Sketches and Drawings must be developed for conveying various plans and designs.
Do not overcrowd the graphics with too much detailing. The ,line-details, letters and symbols should be highlighted in bold so that they can be easily seen by the person sitting on the last row. Also, avoid using too many colors.
For persuasive statements, emotional requests, qualifying remarks or any type of rhetorical briefings, visual aids should not be brought into use.
Handouts, if any, should be distributed after you finish addressing the crowd so as to avoid distraction during the presentation.
Practice with the graphic materials and the audio-visual instruments in advance so as to completely become familiar with their use and order.
Ask for feedback from your audience regarding the clarity of your visual aids. This should be done in the initial stages of the presentation so as to have room for making necessary adjustments.
Filed under: Presentation Skills

How To Make Effective Presentations

Among the plethora of skills required by professionals in today’s business world, presentation skills are among the most important. A large chunk of business communication happens through presentations, be it a sales pitch for clients or presenting ideas to your own management.

Mostly when we talk about presentations skills, the first notion that comes to mind is knowing PowerPoint well.  What we need to remember is that Powerpoint is just a tool used for presentations and all presentations do not rely on this tool. Presentation skills should be adaptable to a variety of tools and should come in handy even when no external presentation tools are available. As we have already stipulated presentation tools include Power Point, some other commonly used presentation tools are flip charts and personal one-to-one discussions.

The key to an effective presentation lies in effective handling of the various steps involved in designing and delivering the presentation.

The first step to a presentation is understanding why and the how of the presentation. Answer a few pertinent questions and you will understand better how to design an effective presentation. You should know the purpose of the presentation and the audience thoroughly. Understanding these will help you in designing a presentation appropriate for the audience and the occasion.

Once you have understood the purpose and your audience, design the presentation by carrying out thorough research. Find out facts and figures and always use reliable and credible data. The effectiveness of a presentation depends on how well credible your information is.

When the research is done on what needs to be presented we must decide on how to present. This is where the design of the presentation takes place. We must decide on whether the presentation will be all about facts or will we weave a story to string the presentation together. We must also decide on whether we will concentrate on presenting the slides or chart or use them only as an aid. The style of presentation will take shape at this stage.

After all the background work is ready, we then move on to the delivery stage of a presentation. This is considered to be a very critical stage since the outcome of the interaction will depend on this stage. In the delivery stage we need to establish our credibility and rapport with the audience. We create an impression on the audience just with our appearance and body language. Ensure that this impression is positive be dressing appropriately and maintaining a positive and confident body language. Know what you want to say even without the presentation tools, use them only as a reference.

Be thorough in your preparation and present confidently. Your style of presentation will largely depend on the type of audience. Practice delivery before the D Day. No matter how seasoned you are rehearsing is always a good idea.

These guidelines can assist you in making effective presentations using a variety of tools. Following a structure and process while designing and delivering any presentation is the key.

The PresentSmart program of Strengthscape equips you with effective presentation skills.

Filed under: Presentation Skills

Delivery Skills: A Key To Effective Presentations

Going up on stage and delivering an effective and impactful presentation or speech can give nightmares to many people. Stage fright is categorized by many as one of their worst fears. However, it is difficult for anyone to escape public speaking in today’s business environment.

The moment we think about giving a presentation we think about the delivery of the presentation. However, out of the time spent in preparing for the presentation, a significant amount of time goes in preparing the presentation itself – collecting the data and putting it up in a coherent form using various tools like PowerPoint. By the time we are done with this preparation the time for delivery is at hand we realize we have done no preparation for that! For the client or audience, all that preparation has no meaning if the delivery is ineffective.

Therefore it is safe to say that delivery of a presentation requires as much, if not preparation, than developing it. Without preparation we might find ourselves at a loss for words to explain our brilliant ideas, or still worse be caught off guard due to stage fright!

Since we understand the importance of delivering an effective presentation,

there are some simple guidelines for ensuring effective delivery

  • Create strong presence – The first 30 seconds of any encounter are the most crucial. The same rule applies to presentations as well. Make the first impression count. Create a strong presence on the stage or the room. This can be achieved effectively by a string greeting, being appropriately dressed and having a positive body language.
  • Engage the audience – The next challenge is engaging the audience. The effectiveness of a presentation is assessed by audience engagement and this is not always easy to achieve. Some strategies for engaging the audience are – give them what they want, grab their attention by telling them how your presentation can help them and create a mental trigger for them. Creating a strong visual or a context for them to associate will ensure that your audience is hooked to what you have to say.
  • Establish Credibility – Coming across as a credible and dependable person can do wonders for your delivery skills. Interacting with confidence, providing correct information and facts and being well prepared will establish your credibility as a presenter.
  • Create an Impact – An impactful delivery creates a strong impression on the audience and ensures that your message is conveyed well. Impactful delivery can be ensured by connecting with the audience, empathizing with their needs and ensuring a high recall of your interaction.  Pause at the right moment, ask imperative and thought provoking questions and highlight the key features and benefits.

The PresentSmart Model of Strengthscape delves in-depth into the nuances of effective delivery.

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