Presentation Skills PDF

## 2.1 Part One: How to Prepare a Good Presentation - Many think delivering a good presentation is a talent rather than a skill, but it's important to focus on enhancing presentation abilities. The title of this course is Presentation Skills because we believe it's a skill that individuals can deve...

## 2.1 Part One: How to Prepare a Good Presentation - Many think delivering a good presentation is a talent rather than a skill, but it's important to focus on enhancing presentation abilities. The title of this course is Presentation Skills because we believe it's a skill that individuals can develop through practice. - **Why do we fail to listen?** - Listening requires more effort than reading. - "Listeners" typically listen only 25% to 50% of the time. - Short-term memory holds only 5 to 7 points. - People remember only 10% of what they hear versus 50% of what they read. - **What are the reasons why your audience might not be listening?** - **Predict what is to be said and switch off.** - **The topic is very complex to catch.** - **The topic is extremely simple.** - **Tired or worried.** - **Physical noise.** - **Linguistic noise.** - **The speaker has problems in communicating with his attendees.** - **Elements of a presentation that have a direct impact on your audience:** - **Appearance and visuals** - **Voice** - **Content** - **Percentage Per Factor** | | Percentage | |------|-------| | Appearance and visuals | 7% | | Voice | 38% | | Content | 55% | - **Preparation:** - Preparing for your presentation thoroughly is essential. - Presentations that have been thoughtfully prepared are likely to yield better outcomes. - **Fail to prepare - prepare to fail.** - **Depending on the objective that you want to deliver, your target audience, level of formality, purpose of presentation, you should decide on the shape or form of your presentation.** - For example, showing a new line of production for the top management of your company would require a presentation that basically informs, while a presentation given to kids in a nursery is intended to entertain. - **Different presentation styles:** - **Persuade** - **Inform** - **Negotiate** - **Motivate** - **Entertain** - **Objective Clarification:** - Identify the required output of your presentation. - **Presentation Objective:** - **Select the proper presentation style that would best fit your objectives.** - Your objective should be **SMART:** - **Specific** - **Measurable** - **Achievable** - **Realistic** - **Timed** - **Identifying your target audience** - The success of your presentation hinges on how well your audience accepts and understands it. - The focus should be on your presentation **content**, not on the manner in which you deliver it. - **Your presentation content should be:** - **Clear:** - Instantly recognizable in context to your verbal message - Focus on one idea per slide - Directly relate to communication objective - **Visible:** - You have to be able to see it to believe it - Visuals should be legible to most distant viewers - **Simple:** - Eliminate extraneous information - **Think of and prepare your visuals:** - **Your visuals should:** - **Support your communication objectives.** - **Enhance your verbal message, not detract from it.** - **Set tone and emotional content of the verbal message.** - Good visuals are clear, visible, and simple. - **Map of Ideas:** - To do so, you should start by developing a "map of ideas". - A map of ideas is also often referred to as a “brain dump”. - Basically, what you would do at this stage is to arrange for yourself a number of sessions when you can have some quiet. Then place your objective written before you and allow yourself to think of all the relevant ideas to your presentation topic. - At this point, you should not rule out any ideas. Prepare a piece of paper and have a pen in your hand as you think, and once any idea comes to your mind, scribble it quickly on your sheet of paper. Your objective at this stage is to capture all the possible thoughts related to the subject. - **Selection:** - Having allowed yourself to dump all your ideas on paper, now comes the assessment and selection stage. - At this point, you will have to think very carefully of each scribble you have on your paper. You might find yourself grouping the ideas and then weighing them against one another. In any case, you will have to make sure that whatever you will include in your presentation will have to be relevant to your objective, your audience; and can be well-defended. - Remember that it is the “quality” not the “quantity” that counts. So do not try to put squeeze as many points as you can into the presentation simply because your map of ideas was rich enough to contain so many points. Be selective in what you will ultimately include. - At the end of the preparation exercise you should end up with a list of points that shall be discussed in your presentation. The next step would be to give them the context by building your talk. - **Building your presentation:** - When it comes to sharing ideas and information with a group, presentations and reports are both effective methods. - Presentations excel in capturing the speaker's personality and facilitating real-time interaction among participants. - **A quality presentation encompasses:** - **Content:** The information it holds is essential for people. However, presentations need to consider the audience's capacity to absorb information in one sitting, unlike reports, which are read at the reader's own pace. - **Structure:** The presentation should have a coherent start, middle, and finish. It needs to be organized and timed well for the audience to comprehend it. - The structure of any presentation consists of an opening, a body, and a closing. - The Opening is one of the very critical moments in a presentation. - It is common belief that first impressions always last. - If that is true, then nothing could be more important to a presentation than those opening moments. - To make sure you have invested the Opening correctly, you will need to check that you will be including in it the list of the following elements: - **Attention** - **Benefits** - **Credentials** - **Direction and destination** - **Attention:** To make a slide stand out, change the font or background - **Benefits:** People will need to realize the benefit they will gain by listening to you. If you make it clear to them as you start your presentation what benefit they are to expect, that would be a good incentive for them to keep listening. - But always remember that, again, you will have to be very careful to mention a benefit that is relevant to this particular group of people. You should've found that out if you had researched your audience. - **Credentials:** People need to put their trust in you in order to listen to you. If you are approaching an audience who do not know you, they will be wondering who you are, and whether or not you are qualified to talk about the subject of your presentation. It is normal for them to question your knowledge and experience, in order to make a decision on whether to believe you. - **Direction and Destination:** Then you need to set their expectation on the content of your presentation. It is best for you and them to outline your presentation at the very beginning than to have them wondering by the end of the presentation why you have not discussed something they were expecting you to talk about. Not only that but giving your audience an outline helps them see the big picture, and so, they will be more relaxed throughout the presentation by knowing which part you have reached. - **Many speakers fall into the mistake of getting so caught up in the very fine details of their presentation, that they might forget to mention the purpose of the presentation to their audience, and they have everybody wondering halfway through the presentation what this is all about!** - **Presentation opening:** - **Question:** - How many of you have an idea regarding the inflation rate in the Egyptian stock market? - **Quotation:** - One may smile, and smile, and be a villain "William Shakespeare, Hamlet" - **Anecdotes:** Tell a short story (a personal one would be preferred) - **Shock Openings:** "Regardless of your respectable presence here, I am sorry to say,... you guys are wasting your time ....unless ...." - **Historical Background:** "20 years ago, when I last visited this place, this place was nothing but dessert area" - **How to overcome your tension?** - Before the presentation: Lie down on the ground with your back pressed flat against the floor. Bring your feet in towards you so that your knees are raised. Take a moment to unwind. Shut your eyes and notice your back spreading out to support your body's weight. Sense your neck elongating. Progress through your body, easing each part individually - starting with your toes, then your feet, legs, torso, and so on. Once completed, stand up gradually and aim to sustain the relaxed sensation while standing. - If you cannot lie down: Position your feet approximately 6 inches from each other, with your arms relaxed at your sides and your fingers open. Begin by delicately shaking each body part, commencing with your hands, followed by your arms, shoulders, torso, and legs. Focus on releasing any tension as you shake. Subsequently, make slow rotations of your shoulders in a forward and then backward direction. Proceed to your head and slowly rotate it in a clockwise and then counter-clockwise manner. - Mental Visualization: Prior to the presentation, imagine the space, the people in the audience, and yourself delivering the presentation. Mentally rehearse every step of your presentation, from the beginning to the end, before you actually start. - During the presentation: Pause for a moment and hydrate yourself with a refreshing drink of water. Inhale deeply and focus on easing the tension in your body. Then, come back to the presentation while saying to yourself", I can do it "! - You can utilize anxiety and tension to fuel your concentration and expressiveness instead of trying to eliminate them. - **Remember that your anxiety and tension are more apparent to you than to the audience.** - **Remember that even the most skilled speakers can make mistakes. The important thing is to carry on after the mistake. If you recover and keep going, the audience will too. Winners persist! Losers give up!** - **Tips for great presentation:** - **Do:** - Pause at the time when there would normally be punctuation marks - Use colored background and slides - Learn the name of each participant as fast as possible - Listen intently to comments - Encourage questions - Consider the length of the day and your presentation length with respect - **Do Not:** - Read from handouts - Put your hands in your pocket - Play with your hand keys - Wave a pointer in the air - Lean on the podium for long periods - Speak to your visual aids - Stand between your visual aids and your audience - Speak in a monotone voice - **The five P's for a powerful presentation:** - **Have a point** - **Support the point** - **Explore the point** - **Apply the point** - **Deliver the point** - **All 5 P's complement each other. Studies indicate that many speakers struggle to effectively convey their message because they frequently present large amounts of information without incorporating vivid mental images for the audience. It's important to note that when I refer to the 'audience,' this could encompass 2 or even 200 individuals.** - **One common mistake I often observe during presentations is the neglect to IMPLEMENT the main idea. This is when speakers share a story, anecdote, or example without demonstrating its relevance or practical application in the real world. Failing to debrief the main point or explain the reason behind sharing it is what I refer to as an FTD - failure to debrief.** - **Presentation body:** - The Body of your presentation is the first thing you should give some thought. With your Map of Ideas at hand, you are set to start. The Map of Ideas should set the framework for your talk. Do not stray into side issues that would waste time and confuse your audience. - During your talk, it always advisable to summarize your point after spending some time on developing it. This way you will ensure that you have driven the message correctly. - You will also need a structure to follow in your presentation. - There are many different possible structures to base a speech or an argument: - **Problem/Solution Structure:** Present the problem then it is solution. Very common. - **Chronological Structure:** By order of time - **Topical Structure:** Each topic is discussed independently with clear cut lines and announcement by the speaker - **Spatial Structure:** “General to particular" or "Particular to general" - **Theory/Practice Structure:** Present the theory first and then show how it can be applied. Very common in scientific lectures and presentations - **In your presentation body, certain factors need to be taken into account:** - **Organize- provide structure and framework for the data you will present.** - **List points to be covered and provide a "road map" of how you will get there.** - **Illustrate- help listeners to visualize- convert data to information** - Paint a picture - Tell a story - Make comparisons - **Repeat- improve audience reception of data** - Remember that "listeners" listen only 25 to 50% of the time - Repetition often suggests importance - **Presentation closing:** - **Question** - **Quotation** - **Anecdotes** - **Summarize** - **Ask for action** - **Presentation delivery:** - **Most common delivery methods are reading, memorizing, and speaking.** - **Reading:** Many people will revert to Reading as the most obvious and easiest method of delivery. Yes, it will ensure that you have not missed a word you have prepared for your presentation, but will it ensure that each of those words will be communicated effectively to your audience? - **The answer is NO.** - **By reading you will miss out on a lot of important factors of a presentation: Eye contact, Body language and Expressive voice** - **Memorizing:** Memorizing might seem like a good alternative to reading because it allows more freedom of movement and body language by not having a paper in your hand. However, the truth is that Memorizing is just another form of reading. It is no better when it comes to natural interaction and good expression because you would be reading from the back of your mind. You will still sound mechanical; and even worse, you will not have the flexibility to make any spontaneous adaptations to your presentation. - **Speaking extemporaneously is the recommended method of delivery.** - **It means that you are in fact, not following a very well-defined script through your presentation, but more conveniently you are following an outline that guides you through the points to talk about but does not dictate the words you shall be using.** - **Factors affecting quality of the delivery method include location, culture, duration, number of audience, audience knowledge, physical conditions** - **Improving your voice can be achieved through two methods:** - **Practice listening to your voice.** - **Listen to your voice.** - **Nerves:** - **The main enemy of any presenter is TENSION** - **Symptoms of a nervous speaker:** - Shaking knees - Shaking hands - Sore throat - Mind blank - Voice ruin - Sweat - Nervous laugh - **First, do not fight nerves, welcome them ! Instead of fixating on nervousness, focus on delivering the presentation. Actors understand the importance of nerves as they can enhance the performance due to the release of adrenaline, a remnant of our ancestors' "fight or flight" response. Embracing nerves turns the presentation into a challenge and helps you improve, while succumbing to them leads to withdrawal from the audience. Embrace your nerves, acknowledge them, and use them to your advantage. Don't succumb to the flight response. When feeling tense or anxious, remember that everyone experiences these feelings, but winners leverage them to their advantage, whereas losers are overwhelmed by them.** - **How to overcome your tension? Here are a few relaxation exercises that can help alleviate tension. Below are a couple to help you begin :** - **Before the presentation: Lie down on the ground with your back pressed flat against the floor. Bring your feet in towards you so that your knees are raised. Take a moment to unwind. Shut your eyes and notice your back spreading out to support your body's weight. Sense your neck elongating. Progress through your body, easing each part individually - starting with your toes, then your feet, legs, torso, and so on. Once completed, stand up gradually and aim to sustain the relaxed sensation while standing.** - **If you cannot lie down: Position your feet approximately 6 inches from each other, with your arms relaxed at your sides and your fingers open. Begin by delicately shaking each body part, commencing with your hands, followed by your arms, shoulders, torso, and legs. Focus on releasing any tension as you shake. Subsequently, make slow rotations of your shoulders in a forward and then backward direction. Proceed to your head and slowly rotate it in a clockwise and then counter-clockwise manner.** - **Mental Visualization: Prior to the presentation, imagine the space, the people in the audience, and yourself delivering the presentation. Mentally rehearse every step of your presentation, from the beginning to the end, before you actually start. ** - **During the presentation: Pause for a moment and hydrate yourself with a refreshing drink of water. Inhale deeply and focus on easing the tension in your body. Then, come back to the presentation while saying to yourself", I can do it "!** - **You can utilize anxiety and tension to fuel your concentration and expressiveness instead of trying to eliminate them.** - **Remember that your anxiety and tension are more apparent to you than to the audience.** - **Remember that even the most skilled speakers can make mistakes. The important thing is to carry on after the mistake. If you recover and keep going, the audience will too. Winners persist! Losers give up!** - **Therefore, you need to make a conscious effort not to fall into any of the following mistakes of excessive movement of the feet:** - **Hopping from one foot to another** - **Taking two steps forward and two steps back** - **Rocking to and fro** - **Swaying from side to side** - **Standing on the sides of your shoes.** - **Any of these movements will be irritating to your audience and will cause a distraction to their attention.** - **Voice:** - **The presenter's most valuable tool is likely their voice, as it conveys the majority of the information that the audience retains. An interesting aspect of speech is that while we can readily point out what's wrong with someone else's voice, such as being too fast, too high, or too soft, we struggle to listen to and modify our own voices. Vocal qualities are typically described using five main terms:** - **Volume:** Being heard without shouting is the objective. Skilled speakers modulate their voice to engage the audience by lowering it and to emphasize a point by raising it. - **Tone:** The sound of an airplane is distinct from the rustling of leaves by the wind. A fearful voice can scare the audience, whereas a laughing voice can make the audience smile. - **Pitch :**Pee Wee Herman possesses a high-pitched voice, Barbara Walters has a moderate pitch, and James Earl Jones is known for his deep, low voice. - **Pace:** When you speak quickly, it shortens the words and syllables, but speaking slowly makes them longer. It's crucial to vary the pace to keep the audience interested. - **Color:** Practicing projection and tone variance involves taking the line "This new policy is going to be exciting" and expressing it with surprise, irony, grief, and anger in succession. It is important to exaggerate emotions while doing so. - **Proper delivery method:** - **Prepare the presentation** - **Adopt a proper plan** - **Implement your thoughts** - **Memorable closing** - **Rich and clear content** - **Strong opening** - **Presenter's characteristics:** - **Body language:** - One of the easiest ways to create a good first impression is by making use of Body Language through a "Smile" - A sincere smile delivers a message of a warm welcome, as if to say: "I am happy to here and I am glad you are here too" - However, you need to be careful. - Sometimes a forced smile can have an adverse effect on your audience. If your smile is not sincere it shall not be a "Felt" smile. - It might fall into the category of the "False" smile or the "Miserable” smile. - So don't push yourself too much on smiling if you don't feel like it. - **Eye Contact:** is another very effective element of Body Language. By being able to look your audience in the eye, you will be giving the message that: - You have an interest in reaching out to them and communicating with them - You are confident and you have things under control - You are sincere. The expression in your eyes will help convey whatever message you're making very effectively - **But what do we mean by “looking your audience in the eye"?** - Your audience is not one person. There are typically quite a few people in the presentation. Thus, you will have to try to establish eye contact with as many of them (usually collectively in one direction then in another). - **In all cases you should not allow yourself to fall into the common mistake of looking at a single person during your talk... even if looking at them gives you comfort or reassurance. The rest of your audience are entitled to the same interest from you.** - **Avoid eye movement that is short and jerky. Eye contact is considered established when it lasts for 2-3 seconds.** - **Jerky glances will project an unconfident and apprehensive character.** - **Your hands are another prominent aspect of your Body Language. For starters you should avoid the following:** - **Playing with anything in your hands. Such motion of the hands will only serve as a distraction to your audience. They will watch the movement of your hands attentively rather than try to understand your speech... Route 350!** - **Other hand motions might seem provocative, such as touching your face or running your hands through your hair excessively. Even worse is scratching!** - **To make sure you will not be misusing your hands; it is advisable to do the following:** - **Try to keep them empty. If you use a pen or pointer at a certain point in the presentation, get rid of it once its function is over.** - **Do not sway your hands or move them nervously. Instead, use them to add expression to what you are saying by gesturing.** - **When you use gestures, try to make your movement noticed. So do not move your hands at a low level. Instead, you should be stretching your arms at full length from the shoulders.** - **Position and posture: In many presentations you may notice a speaker who walks excessively along his stage. That is because it is easy to fall into such a state of hyperactivity when you are nervous, which is only typical in a presentation.** - **If you apply the techniques described in this presentation, you will be able to master the art of a great presentation and captivate people with your compelling ideas. You will be able to move people with your passionate delivery, and you will be able to inspire and motivate them with your engaging and informative content.** - **Remember, a good presentation is a powerful tool. It can change minds, shape perceptions, and ignite action. So go out there, prepare well, and deliver a presentation that will make a difference.** This is a condensed and structured breakdown of the document you provided.