Presenting
Giving a formal talk (sometimes with the help of visual aids) to get a point across or to explain something to an audience.
Making effective presentations is an essential skill, certainly as people climb the managerial ladder, and every presentation generates masses of learning opportunities. Many people find the prospect of making presentations daunting, if not traumatic. The answer is to give them a push and initially provide relatively 'safe', low risk opportunities to present and gradually step up the odds. Presenting is a clear case of 'if you do the thing you fear, the fear will disappear'.
You can easily make opportunities for you to present. Start with talks to outside organisations where, should things go wrong, the people in the audience need never be seen again. Then progress to 'parochial' presentations within the compass of bigger departmental meetings. Gradually increase the challenge by presenting to larger audiences, to more senior people and to people who really matter, like customers. Likely lessons learned from giving presentations include:
- the importance of knowing your audience, who they are, their level of knowledge, what they need to know
- the need to plan the talk carefully and to leave nothing to chance
- the importance of structuring the talk in three segments; the beginning, the middle and the end
- the need to rehearse and not be over-dependent on written notes
- the usefulness of visual aids, however primitive
- the importance of personal anecdotes and jokes to enliven the talk and capture and retain the audience's interest
- the importance of spreading eye contact around and not looking at a fixed person or spot
- the importance of movement and gestures to emphasise a point but not to distract or irritate the audience
- how to sound enthusiastic and in control even when you are not
- how to judge what amount of material will fit into a given amount of time
- how to handle questions from the audience.
There is no doubt that presenting is an invaluable aid to learning and development. The sooner you can start, the more confident you will become.