Here are the 7 Golden Rules of public speaking to ensure a tight delivery in any situation.
1. Plan and practice your talk before you go near PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a presentation killer. The reason it kills so many speeches is that people don’t use it correctly. Slides are intended to be used as a support tool for the presenter, not as the main act.
To use your slide deck as a support tool it is important that you plan and practice your talk before you create your slides. If you have planned and practiced your speech, it is much easier to create slides that support what you will say.
2. Open with a hook
Opening your speech with a “Good morning, thank you for coming” is pleasant enough, but really, really boring.
When you open your presentation you want your audience to be sitting forward and eager to hear what you have to say.
You do this by using a hook.
Instead of the regular greetings and thanks for being here, try something different. Startle the audience with a question. Empathize with an issue they are having. Connect with your audience by explaining you’re experiencing the same problems as them.
“How many times have you thought xyz process is a waste of your time?” is a far better opener than “Good morning.”
INSTANT ACCESS! FREE PRESENTATION SKILLS BLUEPRINT
3. Push to the audience to overcome stage fright
To alleviate nerves turn the spotlight away from yourself and shine it on your audience.
When you are delivering a presentation it is normal to feel under pressure. To feel like you are being evaluated by the audience. If you turn the light on the audience you give yourself time to breath, collect your thoughts, and reduce anxiety.
Push to the audience by asking them a question. For example, “What’s your number one issue with process xyz?”
4. Use natural visual communication
The only thing worse than no gestures and stiff body language is practiced gestures and exaggerated body language.
To connect with an audience you need to talk to them the same as you would a colleague or friend standing next to you. Speak naturally and communicate with your body language naturally.
When you are describing or explaining something to a friend you never have to think about your body position or gestures. It should be the same in your presentation.
5. Make the audience comfortable
I was in a presentation the other day which was a huge success. Not because the topic was exciting or engaging. Actually the topic was bad news. Negative company policy changes.
The presentation was a success because the presenter reiterated over and over how he was doing his best to keep the policy changes from adversely affecting the audience. The audience responded well as a result.
INSTANT ACCESS! FREE PRESENTATION SKILLS BLUEPRINT
6. If you make a mistake or forget something, just move on
Mistakes don’t spell disaster.
Mistakes are part of life.
Making mistakes is an inevitable part of delivering a presentation.
When you make a mistake or forget something most times you are the only person that knows. So, try to avoid drawing attention to the error and just move on to the next point. If you made an obvious error, laugh it off or apologize and just move on.
7. You are the center of the presentation, not your slides
The audience are not there to see how many bullet points you can fit on each slide. Nor are they there to see what chapter you’re up to in Presentation Zen.
The audience are there to listen to you. To hear what you have to say. As such, don’t let the slides drive your presentation. Make sure you are in the driver’s seat.
READ THIS FREE REPORT
Step-by-step blueprint for your next presentation
* This is a FREE service, and no credit card is required.
Thanks for the insightful post! I really like the point of putting yourself in the center of the presentation rather than the slides. I would also add that what you put on your slides is important. Too often they are crowded with all sorts of text. Stick to a few words at most – a quote perhaps or less where possible.
I agree! An image may also add impact to what you’re saying and inspire visual learners.
Death by Powerpoint can easily be averted. Remember, if you’re training people, we all have a different learning style, make sure you mix up the training matter with various enriched media … videos, images, audio etc. Most important of all, keep your audience engaged through interaction with them.
Excellent advice for delivering presentations and applies equally to delivering training sessions.
Of importance also is To keep Control. This comes with experience and is harder than it sounds. When a group begins to run with a point raised during the session and discuss it among themselves or when there seem to be multiple conversations going on within the audience it is really important to stay on course and take back control of the session. Each situation is different and sometimes it can be beneficial to let them let of steam, however this needs to be done under the control of the presenter/trainer.
Some methods I find help are as follows:
1. Tell them that everyone benefits from listening to the conversation but that we can only have one going on at a time.
2. Ask a question related to the conversation and aim it at a member of your audience (Pose, Pause, Pounce!)
3. Empathise with their concerns (if any) and offer to deal with them outside of the presentation (Where possible).
4. Explain the importance of keeping to time and that it’s to their benefit if we stay on track so we can finish on time.
5. If preferred and possible explain that there will be time for questions at the end.
6. Look for an opportunity to re-focus the group on the presentation/topic by linking their conversation to a point you would like to cover in your presentation.
7. Be assertive but not aggressive or defensive. Don’t be a pushover, this is your presentation/session and you make the rules.
I hope they help.
One of my pet peeves is speakers building slides with fonts too small to read. As said in the article, slides such enhance, not be your presentation. All the fancy features, when over-used are also a distraction. Finally, if you absolutely must show a screenshot of a spreadsheet, don’t apologize, but make sure your presentation clearly explains what you are showing and why it’s important.
Good tips and good learning