Mr. RoeshinkFinance & Business Technology

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Effective Presentation Skills: IntroTo really succeed at presenting and build up

effective presentation skills, there are several key areas that you need to become skilled in.  And once you’ve mastered these skills, you’ll be able to create a presentation with a clear message and deliver it with confidence.These key skills areas are…

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5 Effective Skills 1. Planning and writing the presentation 2. Using visual aids effectively 3. Overcoming presentation nerves 4. Delivering the presentation confidently 5. Answering questions competently

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1) Skills for Planning & Writing the PresentationPlanning the presentation involves much of the work that

you’re going to do before you actually deliver the presentation. This is a very important area and its also one that many people should consider improving their skills in.

A key part of this planning is to research your presentation audience, since the more you know your audience, the more you can understand them and what their preconceptions might be.

You also need to get to grips with the purpose of the presentation – so that you are very clear about what you are trying to achieve from it. (This is a skill in itself.)

Then its down brainstorming what you’re actually going to say and then structuring this into “digestable” chunks within the beginning, middle and end.

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Planning cont.During planning think of these 6 things: 1.Establish the purpose of the presentation2.Build an audience profile3.Establish the key message of the presentation4.Develop the structure and content5.Edit your presentation content6.Sum it all up

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Planning cont.The first thing you need to do is to work out the purpose

of your presentation. What are you doing there. What do you want to achieve from your presentation.

The next thing you want to do is think about your audience.Where are they coming from?What level of expertise do they have? Are there any decision makers in the audience?What is their attitude towards the topic that you are

presenting on?Do they have any preconceived ideas or expectations about

what you will be presenting on?

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Planning cont.The next thing to think about is your key

message. Every presentation should have one key message which everything else ultimately links to. Ask yourself, “What’s in it for them?”

You now need to start developing the ideas for the presentation content. 

Think in terms of THREEs.1. Beginning 2. Middle 3. End

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Planning cont.Once you’ve got a draft, its then important to edit

that.  You need to consider the type of language you’re using, to help you keep the audience’s interest.

Summing it up relies on you taking the time to practice the presentation and get a feel for the language, timing, etc. that you will try to use when you conduct it in front of a live audience.

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2) Using Visual Aids EffectivelyOnce you’ve done your planning, you need to

consider what visual aids you’re going to be using.  (aka Powerpoint slides or artifacts)

Think about what you want to do here – why you actually need the visual aids in your presentation and what are they going to be used for.

Often they are fairly redundant – people put them in for the sake of it. So we are going to look at how to make visual aids effective and what types of visual aids are going to help you with your presentation.

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Visual Aids cont.For many people, the presentation content is

seen as the PowerPoint Slides.But slide after slide of bullet points with lots

of different transition effects is an absolute turn off for most audiences.

And this is only made worse when the presenter is just reading the bullet points on the slides or has their back to the audience much of the time!

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What’s the purpose of your visual aids?Visual aids can be a great way of enhancing a

presentation VISUALLY – when they are used sensibly and with a clear purpose.

You need to relate your visual aids to your audience and to the type of presentation you are designing. It needs to be suited to that audience.

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Pitfalls of Visual AidsYou’ve probably already heard the phrase “Death

by PowerPoint”.  You might already have experienced this yourself – as part of an audience.

Use the KISS rule  (Keep It Simple and Succinct), as far as your use of visual aids is concerned.Don’t over do things. Don’t use too many different transition effects. Don’t use too small font sizes Keep the number of slides to a minimum Keep it as visual and text free as possible

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3) Overcome Presentation NervesWhen most people when they hear the word

presentation – previously built “presentation skills” are often forgotten about and nerves kick in.  So we’re going to help you overcome your nerves and become more confident in your personal presentation skills.

There are lots of techniques and things you can do to help you to control your nerves and build your confidence even before you actually start your presentation as well as while you’re speaking and delivering it.

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Overcome Presentation Nerves cont.Physical Techniques:Control the rate of speech, don’t rush through itWhen you breathe out, try counting up to 20 out

aloud.  1 .. 2..3 ..4.. 5.. 6.. 7.. 8.. 9.. 10 .. 11.. 12.. etc. Just a couple of deep breaths can make a difference

Psychological Technique:Imagine that you have already completed the

presentation and it was a success!Rehearsing the Presentation:Experience is obviously one of the best ways to get

rid of your nerves.  The more presentation experience you have the more confident you will feel.

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4) Delivering the Presentation with Confidence **3 things to deliver the presentation with confidence

Speaking confidentlyBy speaking at the correct pace and pronouncing your words

clearly – especially the ends of words, you will sound more confident and convincing to your audience.

Sounding interestingTo sound interesting and enthusiastic you need to use more

expression in your tone of voice so that you avoid a monotone style. Injecting pauses into your speaking also helps to create an impact.

Engaging with the audienceEye contact is also very important to help you engage with your

audience. If you just stare at them blankly, you wont get the right connection with them.  So you need to use confident eye contact so that you really connect with individual members of the audience.

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5) Answering Questions Confidently

Finally it’s important that you have the confidence to interact with your audience and deal with any questions that your audience might throw at you.

So we’ll give you techniques to help you deal with the difficult questions – the different scenarios that you might face when you are actually having to interact with the audience

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Answering Questions Confidently cont.**3 things to answer questions confidently

Preparing for difficult questionsIt’s good to write down some of the most

difficult questions you may be asked.Then take the time to decide how best to

answer these.  Write down your answers. Then practice answering them out aloud.  If you’re unhappy about your response, rework it.

Controlling the audienceYou want to be in control of your audience and

not let anyone take over in the question section.

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Answering Questions Confidently cont.Ending confidentlyIt’s also important that you know how to end the

question and answer session confidently.It can be sometimes hard to bring the session to

an end if people have got  more questions to ask.   The last thing you want is to lose control of things right at the end, so plan how you want to end the Q&A session beforehand. 

Another key point is to always repeat questions asked from your audience so everyone can hear what was asked.

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In SummarySo these are the 5 key elements (or

presentation skills areas) for building and delivering a successful presentation.

Get to grips with each of them, build your skills and then apply them to you next presentation – and you’ll be surprised just how much you’ve progressed.

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