Expert Advice on Improving Presentation Skills

Both aspiring and experienced leaders are often called on to give presentations. Whether they have to speak to a small group of colleagues or a large crowd of clients, it’s essential they know how to deliver an effective presentation. This requires the ability to command a room, speak with confidence, display in-depth knowledge and get others on board with their ideas.If you don’t deliver presentations frequently, you may need practice and training to become as comfortable and polished as you need to be. Even if you’re an experienced speaker, there’s always room for improvement, so listed below are several great articles and blog posts I’ve been reading this week about developing presentation skills. They offer specific guidelines and additional resources I think you’ll find helpful.How Can You Improve Your Presentation Skills? Fortune: “Understand the Bikini rule of life – Reveal enough and conceal enough to spark interest. Most of us have the temptation to dump all the stuff we got into the poor little Powerpoint. That leads to intimidation and confusion. The goal of the presentation should be to spark that interest in your work so that your target comes towards you. In essence it is a conversation starter by gaining their attention.”Top Tips For Improving Your Presentation Skills The Guardian: “Try and have a sense of energy in the room — is it very quiet? Do people seem to be fidgeting? Switch gears. If you're on a stage and standing still, walk across to the other side. Go into the audience — this is a great way of engaging the people at the very back as it makes them feel you're taking the trouble to speak to them directly. Ask questions if it's possible — get some interaction between you and the audience.”Business School Uses Technology to Polish Student Presentation Skills. The Vancouver Sun: “When the University of [British Columbia]’s Sauder School of Business got feedback from alumni and business people that its graduates lacked presentation and communication skills, it turned to technology to fix a problem. The result? A system of pop-up media labs where 400 students every semester deliver five presentations that are captured on video, indexed and uploaded to the university’s network for feedback and grading and for the students to review and polish their presentation skills.”7 Great Books for Boosting Your Presentation Skills. Inc.: “6. Death by Meeting. Subtitle: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business. Author: Patrick Lencioni. Why It's Worth Reading: This book isn't about presentations, per se, but about the context in which presentations take place. By describing a fictional situation that rings true on every level, the author helps the reader understand why some meetings change the world and others simply bore people to death. Warning: As far as fiction goes, it's not The Da Vinci Code. It is, however, more readable than you'd expect, considering it's a discussion of business meetings.”How Speaking Skills Turned a Common Man Into an Uncommon Success. Forbes: “[Darren] Hardy’s diligent pursuit to become better at public speaking carries a valuable lesson for all leaders. ‘Speaking for a fee has never been my objective. Speaking is a vehicle to drive my business enterprises,’ Hardy says. ‘When I think about the biggest contribution I make to the SUCCESS enterprise as publisher and editor, it’s not sitting in meetings, leading conference calls, editing copy, and meeting with advertisers. My greatest contribution is standing on stage at a large national conference and championing the message of success.’”Need help boosting your presentation skills or those of your team members? Contact us; we’re happy to assist.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.