Do you have to make presentations and speeches? Would you like to get better at it?
Here is the first of my “tutorials” to help you. It covers assessing your skills and preparing your speech. Hope you enjoy it!
Speaking to a group of schoolchildren about St Columba's Hospice
Presenting is about communicating and as a presenter you need to focus on the audience who will receive the communication. At the same time, you need to make a realistic assessment of yourself as a communicator – evaluating your natural style and its strengths and weaknesses.
The objective is not to mould everyone into a rigid and inflexible “house” style but rather to help you be the best “you” that you can when presenting, through the use of some tried and tested tips and techniques.
Here are a few things to think about when preparing to speak:
WHY?
Why are you doing this? Are you persuading, educating or informing? Are you aiming to demonstrate your knowledge, get feedback or stimulate discussion?
Probably a mixture of all or some of these but always keep them at the forefront of your mind. EVERYTHING YOU SAY AND DO SHOULD MOVE YOU TOWARDS ACHIEVING THESE OBJECTIVES.
WHO?
Who are you speaking to? What do you need to know about your audience? How many of them are there? Are they strangers or do you know some of them? What do they already know about your subject? How much personal involvement have they had? How comfortable will they be listening to the language in which you are presenting? Are gender and/or age range relevant?
Why is information about the audience important? Because you need to be able to tailor your presentation appropriately.
HOW?
Content, timing and structure: having thought about why and who, your content should be much clearer. However there are still a number of considerations: how much should you include and at what level of detail? Naturally, your first consideration is practical – how much time will you have? Whether it is two minutes, ten minutes or half an hour (unlikely!) the crucial point is to keep within your allotted time. This means preparing the right amount of material and definitely no more than you need to fill the slot. In fact, this is a situation when less is definitely more. You will probably take longer on the day than in rehearsal in any case.
Poor timing displays a lack of professionalism and of respect for the audience and other presenters and will also lead to a rushed presentation which will not do your material justice.
Inexperienced presenters often try to cram too much information into their talk in an attempt to show their knowledge of the subject, so consider what is absolutely essential to your talk. Is it giving a sense of what the organisation is and does; is it thanking the audience for their fundraising efforts so showing where their money will go or maybe the importance of new research?
Detail which reads well in a leaflet does not always come across so well in a talk. Paint with a broad brush, not a fine pen and try to leave your audience with a strong impression of the single most important thing: for example, when I speak about St Columba’s Hospice, my key memorable fact is that every minute of care costs £11 and their fundraising has bought xx minutes.
Expect the unexpected: you may have prepared meticulously and timed your talk to the second but on the day, someone else may have overrun or something has happened which makes it impossible for you to have your full ten minutes, so be prepared to shorten your presentation without losing the sense of it.
Coming next: Golden Rules 1 and 2 – why you have to KISS your audience.
Are you presenting soon? Have a question? Ask me what you want to know and I’ll do my best to help.
Tags: presentations, public speaking
