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7 Top Tips – Presentation Skills

19 October 2014

It doesn’t seem to matter whether we are a manager, or a supervisor or a skilled worker lurking in the background – at some point in our professional lives we are going to be invited to present to customers, colleagues or at a panel interview.

When this happens it is likely we will experience a mild panic attack, anticipating a stumbling delivery and the hot gaze of people able to see our internal discomfort.

However, it doesn’t have to be like this – we can take care of ourselves and can set ourselves up for success. So, this week here are my favourite presentation skill top tips and I used them recently to support a client group who ended up delivering a great set of presentations back to their colleagues.

7 TOP TIPS

1. I’m Ok – we have a right to be here and can do this!

2. Take 3 deep breaths – we can hold our breath and breathe out slowly in order to get control over rising panic.

3. Practice – spend time rehearsing to hear the words and gain confidence.

4. Don’t read – write out our presentation as a list of key words to avoid reading paragraphs of text.

5. Sip water – if we get stuck we can take a sip to ground ourselves.

6. Meet the brief – check and check again…have we really answered the questions posed?

7. Less is more – use the ‘rule of 3’ to focus our presentation on 3 key messages to avoid overwhelming people with information.

Presentations can cause a surge of adrenalin in us and they don’t have to lead to incapacity and embarrassment. Good presenters are made not born and we can all learn how to control our voice and our nerves in order to deliver our slides competently.

The key to success is to choose to be successful – so this week make a good choice and decide which tips work best for you!

Next week: Do You Back Yourself?