If we all have something in common it is that we all suffer from stage fright, butterflies in the stomach appear when we have to perform presentations and speak in public because as Mark Twain said, “There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.”

However, speaking in public is something that we must master if we wish to succeed in our professional career: It’s always present, e.g. at job interviews, sales presentations, work groups, project presentations, etc. In many varied situations we must use our most valued tool – ourselves, together with other aids to get our message across and try to cause sufficient impression on our audience so as to cause them to carryout the action we propose.

Now apart from our nerves, which we must canalise in the right direction, we must consider many aspects in order to be successful public speakers and perform effective presentations:

• Plan. – First of all you must plan, by failing to plan you are preparing to fail… so you must have clear your objectives and decide what effect you want your presentation to have upon your audience. Define the key message based upon these objectives and make sure to take into account your audience; to reach your goal you must know what makes your audience tick.
• Design. – Once you have planned and carried out the necessary investigation you must design your presentation: what you are going to say? How you are going to say it? and with which aids? such as PowerPoint presentation, flipcharts or handouts. As you develop your speech you must provide it with a structure that helps you audience follow you and gets your message across. There are many structures from which you may choose, but you must have an opening, a main body and a conclusion. A good tip here is to consider that the most important part of your presentation is the first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds, plan these carefully.
• Rehearsal. – One way to get over your shyness is to relax by doing some relaxation exercises, but nothing beats being confident and this can be achieved by rehearsing your presentation again and again. Another thing you may also want to eliminate from your presentation are those annoying habits – Uh, ah or you know and even jingling keys… by rehearsing in front of friends or recording yourself you can minimise these habits.
• Delivery. – When the moment arrives, and although you may have other tools to help, remember that the most important aspect of your presentation is you. So, you must bear in mind various aspects: eyes, voice, expression, appearance and stance - all these make up your presentation and are much more important than your PowerPoint. I would also add that if you feel confident enough add some humour, this will create the rapport you need to get the audience on your side and destroy any barriers.
• A tip. – Pay attention to detail. I remember once that I had a very important presentation. I had prepared a detailed report to back up my presentation, and as this report had all the detailed information it was obviously crucial to achieve my objectives. Well, just before leaving my office I decided to confirm how many people would be assisting the meeting and to my surprise, they told me that there would be two more than I had expected. So, I hurriedly printed out two more reports before leaving for the meeting. This small detail, if omitted, would have caused an uncomfortable situation that could have damaged the outcome of my presentation.

So, only improvise upon a well prepared, organised and more than practised presentation and mainly to adapt to your audience’s reaction and develop a rapport, but definitely don’t leave anything to chance if the objectives you pursue are important.

Have you ver had any negative experiences with presentations?

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