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Top 10 presentation techniques
Whether you're asking your boss for a pay rise or updating an entire department on a project, presentations are often a nerve-wracking experience. Follow our 10 tips to ease the pain of presenting1. Know your P.A.L.
- Purpose: Know what your purpose is in giving your presentation. Is it to inform? To persuade? To entertain?
- Audience: Who is your audience? What age group are they, where do they live, what attitudes do they have?
- Logistics: These are things that have to be organised. You should know how much time you have to speak, what time of day it will be and how the room will be set up
2. Pay attention to timing
Plan, prepare and practice to fill 75 per cent of the allotted time you're given to speak. If you end early, no one will mind, but ending late is poor planning. If you expect audience involvement, plan on speaking for 50 per cent of the time and using 25 per cent for audience participation.
3. Keep it relevant
When preparing your speech, consider the ‘must know’, ‘should know’ and ‘could know’. Limit your presentation material according to your allotted time and the audience’s interest.
4. Push emotional buttons
Include stories, anecdotes, analogies and metaphors to reinforce the key points of your presentation. You’ll have more impact than by just using pure data.
5. Create user-friendly notes for yourself
As Winston Churchill said when asked why he carried notes but seldom used them, 'I carry fire insurance, but I don't expect my house to burn down.' Use bullet points instead of sentences. Make the text easy to read (use a felt tip pen or print out your notes in at least an 18-point font and make it bold). Only use the top two-thirds of the page to avoid having to look down, and use highlighter pens to indicate the must-, should- and could-know information.
6. Practise out loud, and say it differently each time
As management guru Peter Drucker says, 'Spontaneity is an infinite number of rehearsed possibilities.' Follow the example of great sports people, and practise.
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