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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 presenting http://www.careerberg.com

1. 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. http://www.careerberg.com

7. Channel your adrenaline into enthusiasm

Stage fright is a negative term for excitement. No football manager tells his team to be calm just before kick off. Instead, control the physical symptoms of stage fright by breathing deeply from your diaphragm and by going through your presentation in your head imagining a positive outcome. Being well prepared will also boost your confidence.

8. Deliver with passion

It’s amazing how catchy enthusiasm is. If your voice is expressive and your gestures animated, you will appear confident and passionate.

9. Think ahead about all the questions you might be asked

The question-and-answer part of the presentation may be more important than the actual presentation — particularly the questions that could throw you. Remember to paraphrase the questions before answering them and take into account the questioner’s reasons for asking. When answering, keep looking around the audience – others may have had the same question. Treat all questions and questioners with respect.

10. Remember it’s about the audience

Avoid appearing too cocky or unprepared. As long as you stay focused on the audience, in preparation and delivery and during the Q&A session, you should be successful. http://www.careerberg.com

Sooner or later in your professional career, you will probably be called upon to deliver a presentation. This article offers 12 tips to ensure you present engagingly.

1. Plan a Brief, Interesting, Well-Organized Presentation.
The classic organizational structure for a presentation is to tell your audience what you plan to tell them, then actually tell them, then summarize by telling them what you told them. Audience attention spans have grown shorter and shorter in our media-glutted times, so unless you have been assigned a talk of a specific length, make yours as short as possible. About 10 minutes is ideal unless you are an exceptional speaker. Ask if your audience has questions when you conclude, or specify at the beginning that you will take questions as you go along.

2. Consider Fresh Approaches to Slides — or Eliminate Them Altogether.
Since Microsoft introduced PowerPoint in the late 1980s, PowerPoint slides have become such a staple in presentations that “death by PowerPoint” is not uncommon. The trend is toward minimalist slides with large, bold images and graphics instead of text-laden slides that are hard to read and absorb. The Japanese developed a technique called Pecha Kucha in which the presentation is limited to 20 minimalist slides to which the presenter devotes no more than 20 seconds each. You can see many excellent examples of well-crafted slides at Slideshare.net, the YouTube of slideshows. Especially review the site’s featured slideshows. Check out Presentation Alphabet, which not only illustrates bold, minimalist slides, but also offers great presentation tips.

Consider whether slides will really even add to your presentation. Could you add creativity and interest in another way, for example by sprinkling stories, humor (as appropriate), and startling statistics throughout the talk? Think of other ways you could be creative with visual aids. I once had a student who delivered a memorable presentation using a sock puppet.

If you are worried that your audience won’t get all the information needed if you use no slides or minimalist slides, create a handout with the key points.

If you decide on PowerPoint (or other slide-making application, such as Apple’s Keynote), don’t get text-heavy with your slides. Marketing guru Seth Godin recommends no more than six words on a slide. Stick to a simple design that is visually pleasing, typo-free, and has text large enough (at least 30-point type) to be read from the back of the room.

3. Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse.
Perhaps the most significant key to an effective presentation is to practice as much as you can. Rehearsal addresses many issues that can arise during a presentation. First, you’ll get the timing right if you rehearse, ensuring that your presentation is neither too long nor too short. Next, you’ll overcome any technical glitches if you are using audiovisual equipment. You’ll get more comfortable with your content, which will help you tackle your nerves. Practice is especially important in a team presentation because it enables your team to polish transitions among pieces of the presentation. You may want to rehearse in front of others to get feedback or even video-record yourself.

4. Nail Your Technology, and Have a Backup Plan.
If you’re using technology in your presentation be sure you know how to use the equipment in the room in which you’ll be presenting (your multimedia components might work on your own office computer, but be sure they’ll also work on the presentation computer). Practice with the actual equipment if possible. Always have a backup plan in case of a technical glitch. Your audience doesn’t want to hear you say, “It worked on my cubicle computer.”

5. Conquer Your Nerves.
A famous study showed that more people are afraid of public speaking than of dying, so if your heart starts pounding before a presentation, congratulations; you’re normal! Channel your nervous energy before your presentation by taking a walk and a few deep breaths. Visualize yourself delivering a flawless presentation. During the presentation, you can deal with nervous energy by walking around the front of the room — as long as you don’t get carried away and distract your audience. Transform your nerves into positive energy that makes you appear enthusiastic.

6. Don’t Set Up Negative Audience Expectations.
Never announce to your audience that you’re really nervous. Don’t apologize or say anything like, “This presentation isn’t going to be very good.” As soon as you put down your own presentation, your audience will begin to look for the worst.

7. Connect with Your Audience.
Do everything you can to make contact with your audience, and avoid barriers to connecting with the group. Make eye contact with the entire audience. Don’t turn your back and read your slides. If possible, avoid using a lectern that puts up a barrier between you and your audience. If you use notes, don’t depend on them by never taking your eyes off them. Ideally, lay your notes on the lectern and walk back occasionally when you need to refer to them.

8. If You Use a Lectern, Don’t Abuse It.
Some presenters are just more secure with a lectern, and that’s OK. But don’t rock back and forth, sway from side to side, lean heavily on the lectern, or tap your fingers on it.

9. Avoid Distracting Verbal Behaviors and Body Language.
One of the biggest problems in presentations is use of “pause words” — “um,” “uh,” “like,” “you know” — but it’s also one of the most difficult issues to overcome. Practice and knowing your material will help. Don’t fidget, chew gum, fumble with your notes, put your hands in your pockets, or jingle coins or keys.

10. Dress the Part.
Even if formal business attire is not the standard in the venue for your presentation, you will always make a good impression if you dress up at least to the business-casual level. Spiffy attire will boost your confidence and make you seem more authoritative and persuasive.

11. Be in Good Voice.
Be sure you can project your voice loudly enough to be heard (again, rehearsal will help). Speak neither too slowly nor too quickly (a normal speaking rate is 120-160 words per minute.) Modulate your voice so your pitch varies, and you are not speaking in a monotone. Be animated!

12. Take Special Care with Team Presentations.
Be sure everyone knows what his or her role is in the presentation. Develop smooth transitions from presenter to presenter. Decide on where team members will stand when not speaking; don’t have everyone clustering around the audiovisual equipment, for example. Team members should not talk among themselves when another member is speaking.

Final Thoughts
With preparation and practice, you can not only avoid dreading delivering presentations but turn them into compelling, engaging talks that keep your audiences spellbound and boost your career.