Want to give better presentations? Here are a few ways you can improve your presentation skills in order to come across more confident and engaging.
Focus On Your Audience
Looking at your audience is important – eye contact makes us more willing to trust and relate to people. You can’t look every single member of the audience in the eye at the same time, so the best strategy is to look at people one by one at random. If you need to use notes as a prompt, make sure to only give these glances. Don’t ever rely wholly on your notes and avoid reading of the slides of your presentation at all costs.
Turn Your Nerves Into Enthusiasm
It’s natural to be nervous when giving a presentation. However, you can channel these nerves into enthusiasm rather than letting it affect you negatively. When we get nervous, it’s because our body is churning out the stress hormone cortisol, which energizes our body in preparation for fight or flight. By letting that energy out, you’ll feel a lot better – you can do this by speaking loudly, walking around and using hand gestures. Your audience will also interpret this as passion and will be more engaged.
Visually Engaging Slides
If you’re using slides as a visual aid, it’s important that these are more than simply walls of text. Strong images can help to make your presentation more memorable. Try to avoid generic stock images that don’t add anything to what you’re saying – instead use images to build metaphors or to add extra information. You should also try to avoid using generic slide templates. Try experimenting with themes – you can get free Google slides templates here. Meanwhile, keep the fonts legible and above size 30.
Balance Hard Data And Emotion
The best presentations offer facts and figures whilst also connecting on an emotional level. You don’t want to be reeling off stats with no emotional link, otherwise, people will zone out. Similarly, you don’t your presentation to feel like an emotional plea without any hard evidence to support what you’re saying, otherwise you won’t come across as credible. Use quotes from other people, read studies and always provide sources. Similarly, tell stories and use relatable situational examples to put things in layman’s terms.
Rehearse Your Presentation
When it comes to important presentations, it’s worth always rehearsing them. You’re best doing this the night before as it will give you a chance to make any changes (for big presentations you may want to practice for days beforehand). Try to time yourself so that you know how long your presentation goes on for – unless you’ve been given time to fill, you should ideally never present for more than twenty minutes. When rehearsing you may be able to use a mirror or you may be able to record yourself in order to get an idea of ways to improve your composure. Feel free to also ask friends and colleagues whether you can rehearse in front of them.
Arrive Early
You should aim to arrive early to your presentation so that you have enough time to prepare. If you’re using slides, you’ll want enough time to set up your slides – if there are any tech problems, you can then these out promptly. If you start late you could also have to rush your presentation, which could throw you off if you’ve been rehearsing your presentation within certain time restraints.
Consider Hiring A Coach
If presentations are a regular part of your job, it could be worth hiring a public speaking coach to help offer advice and help you perfect your presentation skills. Public speaking coaches are used by professionals of all levels – in fact, many politicians and sales executives will invest in public speaking coaching from time to time in order to fine-tune their presentation skills. Do your online research to find a local coach that is credible.
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