Professionalism Series -2: Presentations
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Books could be written on this. In this limited space, I will be as concise and direct as possible.
The best way to a bad presentation is to think about a ‘presentation’ as a synonym to an ‘MS Powerpoint file’.
Without a doubt, in every level of every company of every profession you will be asked to ‘make presentations’ — whether they are meant for customers, in a seminar, as public speech, or quite often, just internally.
I have been surprised how often people consider ‘make presentation’ to mean ‘make a powerpoint file’.
Truthfully, there are some cases where it does literally mean that. It depends on the setting of the presentation, on what you will be doing to that presentation later on, and how many times that presentation will be reused.
Generally, though, you must understand that you will often be required to get on stage and present.
Thus it is important to focus on how to take the message you have to the people who will be listening to you. So focus on:
- Content — What you want to say; how many core messages do I have ; how many does my audience need to know right now.
- Speech — How you will say it. When will you pause, what your tone will be; what words you will choose (imp!)
- Aids — In addition to what you say, what would you like the audience to see / hear in order to believe you.
- Reactions — This is how to react to how your audience reacts to you.
- Relevance — how much of you are your audience willing to tolerate.
7:32 am
A few more posts on this topic requested.. especially the on the focus things ..