Lesson 16, Presentation Skills Anywhere, Job interviews or becoming entrepreneur

Lesson 16

 Presentation Skills Anywhere 

Job interviews or becoming entrepreneur

Presenting information clearly and effectively is a key skill to get your message or opinion across and, today, presentation skills are required in almost every field.

Whether you are a student, administrator or executive, if you wish to start up your own business, apply for a grant or stand for an elected position, you may very well be asked to make a presentation. This can be a very daunting prospect; our guide is designed to help.

Quick Tips for Effective Presentations

1.    Talk naturally to your audience – although it may be appropriate to read short passages avoid reading from a script for the majority of your presentation.

2.    Stand, rather than sit, and move around a little – but avoid pacing backwards and forwards like a trapped animal.

3.    Vary the tone, pitch and volume of your voice to add emphasis and maintain the audience’s interest.  Aim to speak loudly and clearly while facing your audience.  Avoid talking in a monotone voice or turning your back to the audience.  See Effective Speaking for more information.

4.    Make eye contact with your audience.  Do not stare at your feet, or the podium and avoid looking directly at any one person for more than a few seconds, gain eye contact with the individual members of the audience.

5.    Use visual aids where appropriate, graphs and charts, diagrams, pictures and video - but don’t overdo it.  Visual aids should help to illustrate and strengthen your points not be a distraction from what you are saying.

6.    Rehearse your talk and check your timings.  Always aim to finish you talks in time remembering to allow time for questions if appropriate.

7.    Prepare and structure your presentation carefully.  Introduce the subject – tell the audience what your talk is about.  Explain the points you wish to convey.  End with a summary of your points.

8.    Stay focused throughout your presentation – avoid irrelevance and unnecessary detail.

9.    Learn to channel any nervous energy, relax but stay alert.

10. Answer any questions as honestly and concisely as you can.  If you don’t know the answer then says so and offer to provide further information at a later date.

How Good Are Your Presentation Skills?

Six important things to remember when you are giving a presentation

1. Introduce yourself by name.
2. Bring back up visual aids in case your PowerPoint presentation fails.
3. Slow down when you are speaking.
4. Make eye contact with the audience.
5. Smile.
6. Ask for questions from the audience at the conclusion of the presentation.

Group presentations

Do:

1. Appoint a group co-coordinator and plan a timetable together.
2. Choose your subject together, and then support one another throughout the work.
3. Narrow your subject down to a manageable size.
4. Decide who is to speak, and allocate topic and time to each speaker.
5. Rehearse together and get the timing right.
6. Organize how you are going to answer questions between you.

Don't:

1. Allow a strong personality to make all the decisions.
2. Allow any individual to opt out of responsibility to the group.
3. Choose a topic which is too complex for the time available.
4. Forget to introduce everyone at the start of the presentation.
5. Make recommendations which are unrealistic, technically or financially.
6. Over-run the time you've been allocated.
7. Guess at an answer you don't know.

Using PowerPoint

Do:

1. Check that you have booked all the equipment you need well before your talk.
2. Plan what you want the audience to see and don't crowd the screen.
3. Use an appropriate font such as Arial, at least 22 point in size.
4. Use a good colour contrast for background and image, and project it to check.
5. Give handouts with details, which wouldn't be clear on the screen.
6. Rehearse with all your visual material and the equipment you will be using.
7. Always have backup in case of disaster.

Don't:

1. Show paragraphs or long sentences on the screen.
2. Use fussy and distracting backgrounds.
3. Overdo punctuation: very little is needed in a visual aid.
4. Use over-complicated diagrams, which the audience won't be able to see clearly.
5. Use unnecessary and distracting movement on the screen.
6. Watch the computer screen instead of the audience.
7. Assume that you can use the equipment without trying it out.

Tips For Public Speaking