Here are seven tips that powerful speakers use when delivering their presentations.
Tip 1: Speak to the audience. Great speakers don't focus on the slides. Instead they keep their focus on the audience. This allows the presenter to focus on the key message. By not looking at the slides, the presenter also shows that she has a very good understanding of the content.
Tip 2: Never read from the slides. This is actually a common mistake in presentations. The presenter has spent a lot of time preparing beautiful slides so now she wants to read them. If you read from the slides, your audience will feel cheated. They came to hear your speak, not read from slides!
Tip 3: Use handouts effectively. If you need to present a lot of information, make sure to provide handouts and let the audience know you will distribute them after the presentation. This means you don't have to show slides full of details, which might bore, confuse and annoy your audience.
Tip 4: Be careful with humour. Using humour is very difficult unless you are very good at it and unless you know your audience very well. In presentations where the audience is from another culture, it could be embarrassing to use humour incorrectly. Avoid using humour unless you are confident you can use it well.
Tip 5: Prepare questions. Most presentations include a Q&A [question & answer] part at the end. Make sure that you have a few questions ready to begin the Q&A. The people in our audience might be shy to ask the first question, so ask yourself a question to begin the Q&A session.
Tip 6: Don't use jargon. Some presenters try to use the latest business buzzwords to impress the audience. This seldom works. Using business jargon or buzzwords confuses or annoys the audience. Avoid doing this. Make sure you use language that everyone understands.
Tip 7: Be organized. Don't skip around in your presentation. Your audience will think you are disorganized if you skip over slides, then go back to previous slides, then skip forward to slides. Present your information in order.
These seven tips will help you deliver a strong presentation in English.
