Presentation plays a important part in everybody’s life . From winning a successful election campaign like that of Barack Obama to the street vendor next door selling ice-cream everybody needs to present his ideas and his thoughts to the audience. Its how other people often judge your effectiveness. We are doing it every minute from the moment we are describing to our friend of a movie or giving a speech post-lunch after parent teacher. In the corporate world it is perhaps the bread and butter of most of us. This article tries to provide the key factor students and beginners of presentation needs to take care.
A good example of a good presentation can be found at http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/.
Purpose of a successful presentation : Where you can apply this skill ?
To start of lets outline the reasons why the ability to present well is treated as a special quality:
It will help you to be persuasive, It can be useful in the following : Briefing a group, Conducting a training, Customer Care, Making a speech, Obtaining a job Interview, Leading a team, Problem Solving, Making a decision, Running a meeting, Selling a product or service, Getting action, using phone, teleconference, Pitching for a business, Getting a rise, promotion etc.
The five P’s of Perfect Presentation:
- Preparation
- Purpose
- Presence
- Passion
- Personality
Preparation: This concerns everything about being ready for delivery and includes :
i. Research of the audience
ii. Devise the presentation
iii. Organize presentation aids
iv. Check the venue
v. Rehearse
vi. Ready yourself
Purpose:
Every presentation has a purpose , sometimes there may be more than one purpose. Ideally it is used to explain a new product or feature, report, or achieve a decision. There may be various other purposes like:
i. Grabbing attention
ii. Explaining who you are
iii. Establish Credibility
iv. Make people smile or laugh
v. Reassure them
vi. Alert them into something
vii. Manage expectations of people.
Presence
By this we mean being present at the moment. One need to make the session lively, interactive, a quality of “being here” that’s generates interest and seeks attention from the audience. One need not be a charismatic leader to make this happen, but by tinge of humour, interesting graphs, witty reference to stories and other interesting topics you increase the ability to convey your presence.
Passion
Passion is about caring , if we have observed different speakers and analysis their effectivetionness one thing that will come out clear is that they really care what they say and they really mean it. This makes others interested in the content of the presentation and the outcome of the presentation . For example if you are listening to Al Gore’s presentation on Climate Change, you can easily make out the amount of passion and energy in his expression. Remember if you are yourself not believing and caring in the content of your subject why should your listeners be?
Personality
Personality is all about bringing yourself into the presentation. If you are a nervous person outside the room you need to motivate yourself to leave your fear outside of the room before entering a presentation room.
Research the Audience:
One need to put himself in the shoe of the audience and ask the questions
Who am I talking to ? What they want ? How much time do they have ? What information are relevant for them ? How many people are attending ? Who is the speaker before me ? What are the special factors ?
Based on the answers of the above questions :
Judge audience knowledge
Decide on appropriate presenting style
Identify suitable presentation aids
Few Special factors to note:
- Who presents before me ? What are they likely to say?
- What presentation aids will they use ?
- How will they leave the audience for the follow on?
- How can I tailor my presentation to built on or anticipate their expected impact.
Devising the presentation
Using POWER
P : Produce something worth by using metaphors, similies, analogies etc.
O : Organize : Structure your presentation into Introduction, Body and Conclusion
W: Write : Allow a writing flow to come, try to continue with the flow
E : Edit : Once written, better to review with someone knowledgeable and review
R : Refine :Based on your feedback from colleagues, friends.
- During writing categorize topics into must know, should know and nice to know. It is advisable not to use jargons and complicated words.
- Don’t start talking if you have nothing to say.
- To start of a presentation start with something about which you feel very strongly and then build on it.
- At the end of the presentation summarize : the top three points you want the audience to know.
- It is recommended to learn your presentation , rehearse it, then you can be free to concentrate in the audience and not get interrupted to the material of the presentation
Energy level during the presentation:During presentation the presenter needs to demonstrate a high energy level. One need to demonstrate a great deal of vigour and dynamism. Be alert continuously.
Voice modulation: This plays an important role. Your voice should show the enthusiasm at the same time it should not sound over confident. The tone should not be monotonous but rather there should be variations.
Face and Body Language : Your body language should give a comfort feeling to the audience, It has to be natural, instinctive and smart. Your facial expression should match your body language and overall generate a positive appeal.
Dress sense: Remember to dress appropriately for the presentation , if you are not sure of the correct dress , please ask other presenters. Generally formals and suits are the common attire used for a presentation.
Timing : The timing of the presentation is important, the audience mood may change according to the time of the day. If your presentation is scheduled before lunch time or end of day, it is suggested to keep the presentation to the point without going to detail and give ample time for question and followup discussion. A stop watch can be handy during the presentation, you can keep a track of time you can allot for each section beforehand.
Pace of presentation: You may be a fast speaker , but remember you need to give the audience time to assimilate the information and absorb the information. So you need to take pause and keep ample time in between your presentation for questions and summarizing your key points.
Spontaneity: If there are questions you may answer that or courteously inform the audience that you will respond to that at the end or at a appropriate time. But make sure you react to the question in a positive manner. If you are not aware of the answer you can convey the audience that you are not aware of the same and will get back soon.
Self awareness: Be aware of your sense of humour, integrity, drive, intelligence, and level of knowledge and make yourself prepared for the presentation accordingly. Focus on reducing the gaps by periodic review and constant feedback from others.
Conclusion: Once your presentation is over , remember it is important to do a self analysis of the presentation . This will help to improve your next presentation. Its better to be a self critic and rate yourself in the 5 P’s. Ask yourself the questions, What went well or what went badly? What had most impact ?What was memorable? Was there anything that was confusing ? What annoyed or distracted me ? Did I seem well prepared ? When did I lose or gain people’s attention ? But whatever be the condition don’t get focussed in too much of your judgements, rather focus on the material and the audience. Take planned risk and make the desired impact on your audience.
Life is either a daring adventure or its nothing – Helen Keller.
It would be a good idea to listen to the speech of Mr Barack Obama on his recent Cairo visit and observer his pace of presentation, voice modulation and all the 5 P’s as discussed above.
Please do post your personal experience during any presentation you have delivered and any questions if any.
(Compiled by Balakrishnan , Editor GSG)
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