Some “do’s” for when you’re giving a training session or speaking to a group:
- Prepare 100% – be well prepared and rehearse
- Acknowledge and accept your fears
- You don’t have to be perfect
- Trust yourself
- Be in the moment
- Partner with the audience
- Do deep breathing and relaxation exercise
- Stay calm, confident and comfortable
- Don’t rush it
Quick tips to make great presentations
- Slow down your speech
- Alter pace and pitch of voice
- Use an icebreaker – joke, cartoon to break the ice
- Watch nonverbals
- Don’t talk to the whiteboard or screen
- Don’t move around too much or too little
- Make the room yours
- Look the part
- Involve the whole group, “Has anyone…”
- Use activity-based learning
- Practice your introduction and your summary
- Check to see that everything is working
- Do you have enough variety
- Don’t leave your overheads or slides on for too long
- Don’t be scared of silence
- Once you’ve written your speech, cut it down
- Group similar ideas together and establish themes
- Stay relaxed, but alert and enjoy your presentation
- Tell the truth
- Wait for any questions coming
- Find some common ground with the audience.
- Stand up during your presentation to assert your authority
- Back up facts with evidence
- Don’t stare at your audience
- Hostility is aimed at your opinions, not you
- Prepare yourself for one or two lengthy answers in advance to questions raised
- Don’t patronise your audience
- Win over your audience with your expert knowledge and experience
- Address answers to the whole audience, not just the questioner
- Direct hostile questions back to the questioner or audience
- Say “good point” to encourage the shy ones
- Remain calm whatever the tone or intention of the questioner
- Practice learning to answer tough questions with a friend
- Watch your audience’s body language for boredom
- Watch for audience hands moving up to stifle a yawn
- Involve the audience by asking questions at intervals
- Let your audience know that you’re aware of their feelings
- Listen to as many of the previous speakers as you can
- Pause between your Question & Answer session and your summary
- Always close with a good strong close
- Don’t rush as if you’re in a hurry to leave
- Use big gestures and long pauses
More quick tips
Hold your head up
Open your mouth
Consonants, pronounce them properly
Slow down!
Tips on better voice control
- Start with a POW! Emotional zest when the right context is required
- Minimise secondary energy or extraneous movements/fidgets/habits
- It’s the pause that refreshes, it stops gulping and running out of breath
- Make it full of zest when the occasion demands it
- Breathe through nose, exhale through mouth – smoooothly
- Keep throat open as if yawning
- Whenever mentioning figures, slow down the delivery so that the audience can work it out
- Work according to the size of the room and audience
- Apply relaxed, controlled, effortless power!
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