One of the key presentation skills that is lacking today is how to present with confidence. But why is confidence such an elusive quality when standing up and giving a presentation?
Typical reactions you may experience when presenting without the desired confidence are nerves / butterflies, mumbling, being inaudible, dry mouth. And of course, there are many more symptoms that people can suffer from when presenting. The strange thing is that many seemingly confident presenters also suffer from some of these symptoms!
So what do we need to do to become more confident? How can we enhance our presentation skills? What can we do to get into a more positive state?
There are many different techniques that people use. Some will work for you better than others. Below are 3 key tips that probably everybody can use.
Do your preparation. Know your audience, what makes them tick.Research your audience thoroughly. Make sure that your slides are likely to make an impact with them.
Ensure you have a succinct outline to your presentation. Always keep it straightforward with a definite beginning, middle and end. And restrict your main points to 3 in total. It will help you to remember what you have to say and make it simpler for the audience to follow you.
Try and be more controlled when you speak. Lots of people speed up when they present ? when the nerves kick in. So be conscious of this and make an effort to keep in control. The temptation is always to rush through things. But if you think ’slow is best’ when you first start you will star to feel more in control of things and this will give you self belief and confidence.
Try out these 3 simple ideas the next time you are asked to present. And as a result you should be more confident and successful.
Click the resource link if you want to find out more about confident presenting and how to present with PowerPoint.