Presentation Skills

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What Would You Do?

Barbara watched the videotape of her speech and shook her head in frustration. How could her presentation have been so dull? She had studied her audience, researched her subject, and worked for hours to develop a talk that was clear and concise. As she was watching the videotape, she noticed some trouble spots: Her head was buried in her notes, the audience seemed lost, and she came off as—well, not particularly charismatic. She wondered how she could inject her own witty and outgoing personality into a presentation so she could better engage her audience.

What would you do?

In hindsight, Barbara realized that it was not enough to have strong content. She needed to give an award-winning performance to capture the audience's attention. For starters, she could have made more eye contact with the audience, used a conversational tone, and referred to her notes only when she needed to. Next, she could have prepared a few visuals to illustrate the key points of her talk. Visuals would have helped the audience stay focused. Finally, she could have incorporated relevant stories or examples that supported her material, yet didn't distract from her overall message.

In this topic, you'll learn how to prepare, practice, and present information to achieve the results you want.