Introduction
Oh no … I’ve got to give a presentation; I hate giving presentations.
Have you ever had a thought like that?
So many of us need to give presentations – not necessarily a formal 45-minute talk from a stage but often a short 5-minute convincer in a meeting, an update on your work on a regular basis or a sales pitch to a prospective customer. The business world today also demands more online presentations, webinars and video conferencing.
Yet having to give a presentation can strike dread into the heart of many and has been said to be feared more than death itself; though that is a rather extreme reaction to the thought of standing up in front of a group of people.
Who is this book for?
If you need to give presentations, in whatever form, this book is for you.
But can presentation skills be learned from a book?
First of all, you really do need to take every opportunity to stand on your feet in front of people to increase your skills as a presenter. But, whatever type of presentation you are giving, there are ground rules that will make every one of your presentations more effective and there are many tips, tools and techniques that you can learn in advance. These are covered in this book, together with exercises to help you increase your knowledge and skills.
Most of the references are for face-to-face presentations, but you can adapt the ideas for both online webinars and video conferences, and there are some specific tips relating to those in Part 2.
The aim of this book is to offer something for everyone, from the nervous, novice presenter through to tips to tweak and polish confident performances.
In my many years of experience in training people in presentation skills, workshop participants tend to fall into one of four categories:
| High confidence Low(ish) ability Thought they were good presenters, but have been told that their skills need to be improved |
High confidence High ability Seeking a tip to make a 1% difference to effective presentations |
| Low confidence Low ability Novice presenters looking for techniques and tips, especially on how to handle nerves |
Low confidence High ability Wanting ways to boost their self-confidence before making presentations |
My guess is that you as a reader will recognise yourself as fitting into one of those categories.
Whatever the type of presentation you are giving, to whatever audience, there is always something that will make your communication even more effective. Read this book with that in mind and it will help you to give your next presentation the extra polish that it deserves.
Ready to learn?
You will get the greatest benefit from this book by practising as well as reading.
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
To assist you in learning the art of making effective presentations you will be encouraged to take time out from reading to create your own presentation, practise a concept and pay a visit to the online content, where you will find video examples, interviews and blog posts.
I will be using a few icons in this book to guide you to the relevant activities. These are:
The book starts with 10 ‘how to …’ steps. These provide you with the knowledge that an effective presenter needs. Inside each step you will find exercises and checklists to help embed your learning and encourage you to incorporate it into your next presentation. These steps do not have to be completed in order; depending on your knowledge and the type of presentation you are preparing for, you may find that some steps are more relevant than others.
Next, the 10 skills, in Part 2, cover how to use this knowledge in action by examining some of the different situations in which you may be required to give a presentation. You will then find 10 challenges in Part 3, covering some common presentation challenges that you may face – for instance, how to manage your nerves. Finally, the ‘putting it into action’ section provides you with a guide to using your skills in action, in conjunction with a mentor, to enable you to really embed your learning and gather useful feedback on your progress.
In addition, there is a pre- and post- self-assessment questionnaire to help you assess your progress. It is a little like going to the gym and calibrating your heart rate, blood pressure and BMI at the start of your exercise regime and then again in 6 months. You might not see big changes at the beginning, but if you keep going, one idea at a time, you will see a cumulative effect.
I have had the pleasure over many years of not only training people in presentation skills, but in making countless presentations myself, both for work and competitively (yes, just for fun!). I continue to learn each time I make a presentation, and I hope this book encourages you to take your own presentations to the next level, wherever that might be.