Whether you are addressing your investors, making a motivational presentation to your employees, or simply sharing information during weekly management meetings, knowing how to give a good presentation can help you get your message across more clearly and powerfully.
When speaking in front of a group of people, making a good first impression is important. Always start your presentation on time and dress and look authoritative. If you are later, appear disorganized or sloppy, you run the risk of losing your audience’s confidence in you before you even begin.
Provide a Central Focus
When it comes to effective communication, focusing your message on a single goal or message makes it easier for your audience to grasp what you are saying. Even if you have a wide range of topics you would like to cover, try to group them under a single heading so that they can be more easily absorbed.
Writing down your presentation ahead of time and reading from a script may be easier for you to cover all the information you want to present, but it usually makes for a dull, low-energy presentation for your audience. Instead, use bullet points to keep your talk on track, but rely on your personality to make an authentic connection with your audience.
Practice makes perfect, so whenever possible try to run through your presentation a few times in front of a mirror or someone you can trust to give you an unvarnished criticism of your performance. That way you can avoid making miscues and polish your presentation so that it sparkles when you go “live”.
Make a Personal Connection
It’s also important that you make eye contact with your audience as much as possible. This is not something that comes easily to many people, but the more experience you gain giving presentations, the easier it can become.
Visual aids can help get your points across more clearly. If you are adept at PowerPoint and have access to a laptop, projector and screen, these tools can make it easier for your audience to understand what you are trying to tell them.
Even something as simple as a whiteboard or chalk board can give your presentation more life. Jot down keywords and other important points you want your audience to remember. Using different colored dry erase markers is an effective way of distinguishing between different concepts and maintaining your audience’s interest.
Keep It Simple
Be sensitive to your audience. Not everybody understands industry terms and acronyms you may use everyday. You may even need to adjust the same talk for different audiences.
Be respectful of other people’s time by staying within the time period scheduled for your presentation. If you are running long, be prepared to condense portions of your presentation or eliminate the less important parts altogether so that you finish on time.
Leave time for questions at the end of your presentation. This gives your audience the opportunity clarify anything they don’t understand and also allows you to make a more personal connection with them.