Of the three million articles written about public speaking, isn’t it refreshing to read something useful in under three minutes? I think so, or at least that is what I would appreciate. So here are my three minutes’ worth for you.
It’s high time to get live presentations kicking again. But can we go back to them seamlessly like before? It can be a little daunting after such a long spell presenting virtually. We’re so used to seeing a wall of participants with cameras off and hearing the sound of compressed silence when we take a pause for thought. It’s now time to dust off our soft skills and get back in the ring in front of live audiences with clicker in hand, slides behind us and a sea of people waiting to be wowed.
The first words of a presentation are the most important. Your opening needs to grab the audience’s attention and hold it.
The philosopher Plato said: “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
Sadly, most business leaders don’t think carefully enough about the way they open their presentations. Instead, they focus on the main body of their presentation and leave the opening to chance.
Or they make the common mistake of opening with a boring agenda slide or by introducing themselves. Those openings don’t work and won’t capture the audience’s attention.
How a famous Bruce Lee quote can help presenters conquer fear by surrendering the outcome.
So this got your attention! Drawing on a 70s Kung Fu star to get some presentation tips! For those who don’t know Bruce Lee, he was an icon of the 1970s whose movies including Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury have inspired generations. He was both impressive and also rather eccentric. Crafting his own philosophy during his relatively short life, he was quoted saying some interesting things.
The greatest films, TV shows and novels are the ones with the best storylines. The same is true for presentations. A strong narrative can help you bring your presentation alive and make it memorable and successful. However, most business owners, leaders and professionals don’t pay enough attention to the way they structure their presentations. They fail to develop a clear storyline.
I’ve come across many presenters who simply improvise their presentation around some slides. Their ‘storyline’ tends to be a sequence of predictable slides we’ve all seen a million times before. There’s a title slide, an agenda slide and then a series of others.
It’s almost pointless asking if you feel nervous before a presentation. It would be strange if you didn’t. The vast majority of people are afraid of public speaking. It’s perfectly normal to have a fear of public speaking, also known by its technical name of glossophobia.
Research shows that more than 75 percent of the population has some level of public speaking anxiety. So you’re in good company.
I ask this question in order to answer it because clarity leads to serenity. We are bombarded daily with new concepts and trends, and Personal Branding is another one, albeit a little vague for most of us. People are taking what ideas they think they know from Personal Branding and applying them with gusto. Others are doing it instinctively. One thing is for sure: it’s here to stay and remains a key tool to get ahead in the landscape of opportunity.
When you watch the best athletes their movement seems completely natural and effortless. The reason they look so at ease is because of the years of dedicated practice they’ve put in. No one is born with the ability to excel—it requires work.
The same is true for business presentations. It’s impossible to deliver a great speech without rehearsing it thoroughly. You can spot a presenter who hasn’t rehearsed adequately. The giveaways are that they might:
As we emerge from a long period of working from home and online meetings, more and more organizations are bringing people back together. Some big firms are having difficulty forcing people back into the office, but one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Zoom is no substitute for face-to-face conferences or conventions.
Presenters are now having to face a problem they haven’t faced for some time: how to make presentations interactive in front of big audiences, without the benefit of online features like polls, chat or breakout rooms. And this is all the more important since if anything, our attention spans (read: our tolerance for boredom and mediocrity) dropped since 2020.
