Quick notes – Structuring a presentation
Quick notes – Evaluating your presentation performance
This article is a 4 minute read. Enjoy!
What do Postman Pat and the greatest speakers have in common?
They are both great at delivery!
This is a quick recap of some of the key points that we discussed to ensure that we present confidently and clearly to an audience. You will also have had the chance to practice them during our time together on the developing your presentation skills.
If you are here and haven't yet taken part in the course, then firstly, well done for finding this post! Secondly, what are you waiting for? Find out more about our foundation presentation skills course here.
Key thoughts on presentation delivery
The way that we use our voice and body to deliver our message can impact how it is perceived.
Voice
Remember the 4Ps?
Pace, Power, Pause, Pitch
Consider the parts of your next presentation that you want to sound genuinely excited by?
Increase pace, power and pitch (intonation) for more energy and excitement.
Which parts of your presentation need to sound more important, or focused?
Slow it down and reduce pitch and power for more gravitas and to highlight key points.
Confidence and engagement
We might not always feel supremely confident when standing up to present. In fact, I would recommend a healthy dose of mild nerves to ensure that you are taking it seriously and perform at your best.
However, if we want our audience to engage with us and believe what we have to say, then it is best that we appear confident.
Confidence is a smile, and eye contact with audience members all around the room.
Confidence is open body language, no hidden hands (avoid pockets and placing hands behind your back - it's a huge giveaway of nerves or having something to hide).
Confidence is you being your most natural self, like you might be when speaking with a friend or colleague. Avoid distracting movements like rocking, swaying or repetitive pacing.
The best way to quickly understand how you appear to your audience, and to improve your public speaking appearance, is to film yourself speaking.
Yes, it may feel uncomfortable, but 60 seconds of video can easily save you 60 hours of appearing unconfident and unengaging throughout your various presentations and speeches!
Get moving
A good presentation isn’t just voice, it has a visual element for the audience too.
What hand gestures can you use to add to your message?
Count out key points on your fingers?
Welcome everyone with open arms?
How’s your nervous energy?
Let it out by taking a few steps around the stage area when presenting. This movement will help to hold attention and can add to your message, if you plot your movements to link to different sections, arguments or the timeline of the story within your presentation.
It’s all in the planning…
Delivering with confidence might feel awkward to begin with. It takes some conscious planning and practice before it becomes natural. When drafting your presentation, map out how your voice might vary during your performance, as was well as some hand and feet movements that will add to your message.
You will quickly move from nervous statue, to confident communicator in the eyes of your audience.
Want more inspiration and instruction on how to deliver with presence?
I would highly recommend reading 'Presence' by Amy Cuddy.
But you don't have time for that, right?
If you're after a quick fix, download a quick overview of some key points from 'Presence' by Amy Cuddy here.
Want more great public speaking insight, tips and techniques?
This is just a small part of our treasure chest of public speaking tips and advice. You can find more resources and insight like this one on our downloadable public speaking resources page here.
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