MIPRO’s Pam Brown on Tips for a Successful Presentation
I’m a principal consultant, and have been for many years. I do a lot of public speaking: at seminars, RUGs, PUGs, OUGs, client offices, you name it. I’ve learned a lesson or two about public speaking: some easy, some hard.
Year after year, the fear of speaking in public or in front of a group makes the list of top fears for Americans. There is an entire industry that offers classes, workshops, seminars and books to help people overcome this natural fear. However, sometimes we find ourselves having to speak publicly without being given months of lead time to go and learn from the experts.
Even without expert help, there are things within our control that we can do to make sure that our presentations go as smoothly as possible. Here are my top tips:
- Know your materials – I know this seems obvious. However, the more confident you are about your content the more energy you can put into polishing your presentation. If there are areas that you aren’t completely comfortable with then try to do some additional research. If this isn’t helping then see if you can get a co-presenter to deliver that part of the presentation. If a co-presenter isn’t possible then try to have a subject matter expert in the room who can speak up and provide detail or answer questions when necessary. Many people are more comfortable speaking up when necessary than being the one in front of the room. If you do get someone else involved be sure to work out how you will handle the tough areas; a great way to do this is to introduce them up front as the subject matter expert.
- Learn about your audience – In some cases this is easy. If you are presenting to management, fellow employees or executives in your company, you should be able to get some good information about preconceived notions they may have about your presentation topic. If you know audience members personally you may want to talk to them ahead of time. Another good place for information is your HR person. They will typically will be more than happy to help you and will most likely know your audience members.
- Connect with all of your audience – Sometimes when we are tense, nervous or scared the last thing we want to do is look people in the eye. Staring at the ceiling, computer screen, floor or emergency exit is not the way to instill confidence in your audience. Look at and talk to your supporters. Those are the people who are nodding or smiling as you talk. It is equally important to look at and speak to your detractors. They may have legitimate reasons for disagreeing with your content and you want to get their input and address it. If you engage your detractors you have the possibility of walking out of the room with them and your supporters on your side. If you ignore them chances are they will leave with the same number of supporters and possibly fewer.
- Rehearse from an outline, not a script – I’ve learned this the hard way many times. Make a good outline for yourself and practice from that. As your get better and better your outline should get less and less detailed. I admit that I script out presentations the first time but then I read it and toss it. You want to have a good solid memory of the order of topics and know your content well enough that you can speak to it from any angle. The minute you try to memorize a script you will sound unnatural. If you work from an outline your inner ear isn’t listening for a specific thing to say and you are less likely to get yourself turned around or tongue-tied.
- Practice in front of an audience – No, not your mom, dad, significant other and Memaw who will love whatever you do. Get coworkers and managers who can spot a single hair out of place, who typically like to debate whatever you have to say. If you think talking to strangers or near strangers is hard, it will be a cake walk after this group. Ideally, they will point out areas that confused them, thought were less than smooth or they flat-out disagreed with. Use that feedback.
- Make peace with your nerves – I had a great professor who taught public speaking. The first thing he told us is that this fear is natural, it never goes away and that we should make peace with it. He also told us to figure out what our nervous reactions are and then look for ways to handle it. (Notice I did not say figure out how to make it go away.) Mine is that I get so much pent up energy that I can’t think coherently. I still get knots in my stomach and super wired whenever I have to speak to a group of people. My “trick” is to pace, tap my foot or tap my fingers to help burn off some of the nervous energy. And no, I’ve never imagined my audience in their underwear. Not yet, at least.
With the proper preparation you can overcome your nervousness and deliver an excellent presentation. It does take work beyond just putting a PowerPoint together, but it is nothing that a professional can’t handle. And, if you see me in a hallway frantically pacing with a nauseous look on my face, just punch me in the arm and remind me of this post. I’ll be sure to do the same for you.
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More links:
MIPRO Consulting main website.
