How to Improve Presentation Skills

How to Improve Presentation Skills

If you want to improve your presentation skills you need an approach that will give you a structured approach as well as presentation tips to ensure that you are making an impact. Thinking of your audience, thinking of what you want them to do or remember after your presentation will give you more focus. It will also help you to manage anxiety and nerves and ensure that your presentation will do you, and your organisation, justice.

Know your Audience

Think of your audience as a group of people who will want to be persuaded at the end of your presentation. A good presentation tip is to put yourself in the shoes of your audience-what do they think and know about your presentation before you start? Now think about what you want them to think, know and do after your presentation. What worries your audience-and can you help them with that in your presentation? What benefits might your audience get from your presentation? You can improve the presentation by making these clear.

Research your Topic

You can improve your presentation for your audience if you are offering them new information, or an existing idea explained in an engaging way. A good presentation tip is to avoid assertions. Every time you make a point, consider if you have the evidence or example to back it up. Your presentation skills will improve if you ask yourself these two questions; Do I have an example to back up what I am saying, and why should my audience care?

Practice Makes Perfect

A good presentation tip is to ask yourself “How do I know what I am going to say until I hear myself say it?”. Delivering a presentation to an audience is a physical and mental exercise. Stand up and say it out loud as often as you can. One way to improve your presentation and to manage nerves and anxiety is to get comfortable with language that you and your audience will understand. Walk around your house and practice different parts of the presentation in different rooms-that way you are more likely to remember the next part of your presentation as you can relate it to a specific room.

Audience Engagement

Remember this presentation tip-audiences do not want to be bored. So, make the presentation all about them. What are they worried about or have a problem with? Provide them with a solution in your presentation. What are the benefits that you can highlight to an audience during a presentation? Thinking hard about your audience will improve your presentation, engage your audience and help with your anxiety or nerves. Humour is useful-but humour should be self-deprecating as it will offend no one except the presenter!