The Elements of Making Winning Presentations
General Information
- Over 30,000 business presentations are made every day
- Presentation skills are a key business ability
- Progress reports are especially common in business
- Informal reports are much more common than memorized speeches
- Promotions often go to the most verbal people in a company
Presentation Goals
Audience
- Your goal is to make a connection with your audience
- How can your audience benefit from what they are hearing?
- Ironically, rather than just hearing new information, people prefer to hear that something they’ve long suspected was true really is true (people like to confirm/get support for their beliefs)
Organization
- Use a well thought out structure for your presentation
- Chronological structure
- Geographic
- Problem, solution, benefits
Presentation Content
Introduction
- Draw your audience in
- Tell audience your key focus
- Preview main points
- Connect to earlier talks if possible
Main Body of Presentation
- Have a theme
- Reiterate this theme frequently
- Pick 3 key points to emphasize (no more than 5 points)
- If you list information, highlight the key information on your list
- Present yourself positively (even when giving negative information, say, “but, despite these problems, we still had success in this way)
- Overcoming problems looks better than an all rosy picture
Conclusion
- Summarize your key points
- Tell the audience what action they should take after your presentation
Speaking Style
Voice
- Project to the back of the room (aim your voice at a specific person in the back–talk loudly enough to keep that person in the back awake!)
Tone
- Speak extemporaneously (don’t memorize)
- Be knowledgeable about your topic
- Use humor ONLY if you are good at it (humor is NOT mandatory)
- Avoid risqué humor (never tell a joke that you wouldn’t share if one of your parents was in the room since it might offend someone else)
- Avoid putting others down (because it makes you look mean)
- Be humble but not incompetent
Eye Contact
- Speak to areas of the room, not only to specific people
- Pick areas where you feel you will cover the most people
- Pick 3 key areas around the room to rotate through
- Don’t play tennis (don’t get monotonous in moving from 1 area to the the other)
- Find a sympathetic audience to look at (this will make you feel more confident)
- For longer presentations (all day or half day), jot down a seating chart where you can note some key information to help you remember the people in the room
Gesturing
- Use natural gestures
- Don’t over grip lecterns
- Don’t pound the lectern
Presentation Attire
- Dress professionally
- This will make you feel more confident
- Audiences tend to be more trusting of well dressed speakers
Visual Aids
- Keep visual aids simple
- Pictures are often better than numbers (so use a bar chart rather than a numerical list)
- Use name tags when it benefits you to call on people by name (say for an all day workshop)
Handling Questions
- Most questions show interest on the part of audience members
- Answer questions as graciously as possible (don’t attack a questioner, even if they are annoying, because attacks end up making you look bad too)
- If you aren’t sure how to answer a question, simply say “I hadn’t thought of that,” and move on to the next question
- Keep control of the presentation (don’t enter into a debate with an audience member, even if they strongly disagree with you; it’s still your presentation, so you can always say, “thanks for that an interesting point; does anyone else have a question?”)
Presentation Handouts
- People like handouts
- Handouts take some of the pressure off you as the speaker, but they also can be distracting
- Handouts are useful for helping the audience to remember your presentation after it is over
- Always include your name and contact information (especially email and web addresses) on your handout
- It’s a good idea to list the date and forum (conference title, location) for the presentation
- Include the main title for your presentation
- List your main points, but don’t include all your presentation information (otherwise you have no reason to speak; people could just read your handout)
- It’s also helpful to include information on your handout that you won’t be presenting, such as references
Handling Presentation Stress
- Take a deep breath before you begin
- Don’t lock your knees, it can cause you to pass out
- Avoid caffeine before a presentation because it can make you nervous and also dulls your creativity
- To avoid having your mouth dry out, drink water right before and during your presentation
- If your mouth does get too dry as you talk, making it hard to speak, try gently biting on your tongue
- If your hands shake, make more gestures to distract from the shaking and to calm it
- If your voice shakes, speak up; try to project to a person in the back of the room
- If you tend to sweat a lot, avoid wearing polyester clothes to a presentation (cotton is a better choice) and bring a handkerchief with you
- If your legs wobble, move around a bit as you talk
- If your heart begins to race, take several deep breathes to calm yourself down
- If your skin turns red due to nervousness, wear red/orange/pink clothes with a high neckline or a bright tie to help obscure the coloring
- Stick to what you know: talking about topics with which you are knowledgeable will calm you down
- Keep looking at that one smiling, supportive face in the crowd to help you get through the talk (someone out there always wants to help you)
Sources for Presentation Guidelines
The above information about how to make effective presentations was drawn from ideas by:
- Dr. David Henningsen, Communications Professor, Northern Illinois University
- Michael Bacon, New York City Debate Coach
- I Can See You Naked by Ron Hoff
