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Body Language
The use of body language is the most dramatic way to get your message
across. It accounts for 55% of your ability to relay your message!
Use it to your advantage. Use your personality to vary your body language
with arm and hand gestures, facial expressions, eye contact and movement.
Keep your arms open, avoid being static. A warning gentlemen –
if you are tall and you are giving a presentation to a small audience
you must avoid being to expansive with your gestures. You may intimidate!
Avoid standing behind a podium – you just cut off 27% of your
ability to persuade.
Work on your eye contact. This will draw your audience in. This is
always harder than we think. When giving a presentation we always
tend to spend too much energy worrying about our own performance.
Focus on your audience.
Voice (modulation)
The tone of your voice accounts for at least 38% of effective message
delivery. It may feel artificial but concentrate on:
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Varying your modulation. Let your voice go up and down to
stress a point. This will keep your audience alert. |
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Altering the volume of your voice. Delivering an important
point more quietly can be very powerful. |
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Exploiting the pause. A few seconds can feel like an eternity
when you are in front of your audience but they are effective
at maintaining their attention. |
Content
When you are designing your content always consider:
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What’s in it for them? You will only persuade if your
message is relevant to your audience. |
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What is your objective? Don’t try to demonstrate how
much you know by telling your audience everything. Keep your
material to a level that will achieve what you want. |
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What questions will my audience ask? Prepare your answers. |
If you are passionate about your subject, your audience will forgive
a great deal. Don’t try to be word perfect. The actual words
that you speak only account for 7% of effective message delivery.
Don’t use your slides as a support for yourself. This is a common
mistake. Don’t hold notes. This prevents you from using your
body language to persuade. If you need a prompt for the key points
then write them on one “cheat” sheet and keep it close.
There is no harm in pausing, walking back and referring to it before
you move on. This helps to act as a natural pause.
Remember that people forget 75% of what they have heard within 24
hours. They will remember the overall impression that you have made
far longer than your words.
Preparation
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Define your objective. |
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Design the close. Your close is the most important part of
your presentation. People remember best what they heard last.
You only have one chance at your close so think about it, plan
it, write it out and memorise it. |
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Create the opening. You have 90 seconds to make an impression.
Introduce yourself, make a one-to-one connection with your audience.
Link with the previous speakers. Memorise the first two minutes.
Set the scene by telling them “what’s in it for
them”. |
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Outline the body of the presentation. Use human interest stories
whenever possible. Don’t tell the audience more than they
want to know. Use three part lists. |
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Design visual aids. Use at least two if possible. Never plan
to read from them. There should never be more words on a slide
than you would have on a t-shirt. Avoid using too many slides.
Don’t use visual aids such as cartoons that may insult
your audience. |
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Tailor your material to your audience. |
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Create your “cheat” sheet. |
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Rehearse! Make sure that you rehearse at your venue. Ask your
colleagues to sit at different places in the room during the
rehearsal and ask them if they experienced eye contact from
you and could hear you clearly. Make sure that your equipment
is working. Don’t use any equipment unless you are confident
that you know how to make it work. If anything does breakdown,
you must be able to continue without it – don’t
rely on it. |
Visuals
Plan the visuals:
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Keep it short and simple. |
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Use big, bold lettering. |
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Use colour to emphasise. |
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Avoid too much information. |
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Use diagrams and illustrations whenever possible. |
Rehearse the visual presentation:
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Get to know the equipment. |
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Know your running order. |
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Mark on your “cheat sheet” when a visual is to
be used. |
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Check your audience can read and see it. |
The most important element of any presentation is your ability to
communicate your passion in your subject. If you don’t feel
passion in what you say then neither will your audience. |
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