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Managers – brush up on your presentation skills!

They should be enjoyable, entertaining, and informative, and they certainly shouldn’t be dull boring or a waste of your time. However, a recent study has identified that presentations can be one of the greatest sources of office frustration.

A survey of 1000 workers by Opinion Research USA, revealed high levels of resentment from employees having to attend presentations. The main gripe was the presenters themselves, as many were seen as dull, directionless and disorganised. In addition, some presenters felt that it was alright to answer their phones mid presentation, totally alienating their audience in the process!

Dave Marchant from Developing People commented, ‘I’m not overly surprised by these findings’, with the development of sophisticated presentation aids such as Power Point a number of managers seem to think that anybody can present, and they forget the importance of basic presentation or management skills training. In reality people want to be entertained as well as informed, so it is important to think about how information is portrayed, and the language that’s used to describe it. After all a presentation is about winning hearts and minds.’

Here are a number of tips to keep your audience engaged:

1) Be clear about what you want to accomplish from the presentation. Is it about communicating information, gaining approval for a decision, or something else? If you are not clear about why you need to make the presentation you can be sure that your audience won’t be either!

2) Prepare your presentation thoroughly. How will you get your message across? What is the most appropriate media to use? What language will you use? How will you keep people interested?

3) Practice what you say - don’t just wing it – no matter how good you think you are your audience will see through you. Practice it before hand, in front of the mirror, friends or family. Get them to give you feedback. Time it so you know at each stage whether you are ahead or behind schedule.

4) Be clear about the ground rules before you start. Let your audience know what you will be covering, and if and when you want them to ask questions. Also, make sure all mobiles are switched off – including yours!

5) You need to get their attention quickly by doing something effective. Ask a question, include a relevant topic from the day’s news, play an inspiring piece of music or show an amazing visual – do anything creative as long as it is relevant.

6) Keep the audience’s attention by varying the pace and tone of the presentation. Use props or visuals, move about the room, try to exaggerate body movement and verbal emphasis. However, don’t read anything except quotations; keep your eyes on your audience.

7) Finally, be yourself, perform but don’t act. Give them some John Belushi and not John Major!