Effective presentation skills, for both in-person and virtual presentations, are a key component of your success, whether you’re an individual contributor, manager, entrepreneur or student. Here are 22 ways to improve your presentations in 2022:
1. Focus
on the why. Why are you giving this
presentation? How is it connected to your overall strategy?
2. Have a clear message and make sure that all your statistics and stories support it.
3. Stay
within your time limit.
4. Think
about your topic from your audience’s point of view – what do they need to
know?
5. Make
sure your body language (on camera or in person) matches your message.
6. Smile.
Unless you are delivering bad news, a smile is a great way to demonstrate warmth
and engage your audience.
7. Practice
more than you usually do, especially if it’s a high-stakes presentation.
8. If you
don’t have enough time to practice everything, practice your opening, closing
and transition between points.
9. Practice
out loud (looking at your slides and notes is not practice).
10. Stay in
the moment, focused on your audience, rather than fixating on any negative
thoughts in your head or worrying about what’s next.
11. To
eliminate overuse of pause words like “um” and “ah,” speak in complete sentences.
Finish a thought and put a period at the end of the sentence. Take a breath and
pause while you think of the sentence you want to say next.
12. If you’re
using slides, include high-quality images rather than just bulleted long lines
of text.
For virtual presentations:
13. Position
your camera at eye level so it’s easier for you to make eye contact with your audience.
14. Make
eye contact with your audience by looking at the camera more rather than looking
at the videos of audience members on your screen.
15. If
your software allows it, move the audience’s videos right below your camera on
your screen so you can easily switch between the camera (you making eye
contact) and their faces (you looking at their reactions).
16. If you
need notes, position physical or digital Post-its on your screen so you can
easily read them without needing to look down.
17. Set up
good lighting from behind the camera so your face can be seen.
18. If you
have to sit in front of a window, close the blinds, shades or curtains to block
the light so you are not backlit.
19. Wear
glasses? Angle the lights so they are not directly pointing at your glasses and
causing glare.
For in-person presentations:
20. If you’re
presenting in a large room or to a big audience, use a microphone so you can be
easily heard.
21. If you’re
using slides, face the audience and speak to them rather than turning your back
on the audience and talking to the screen onto which your slides are projected.
And most importantly:
22. Be
confident. Once you’ve done your preparation
and practice, trust yourself to do a good job.
(C) Gilda Bonanno LLC