The Essence of Good Presentation Skills

We’ve all sat through those meetings. Meetings that make us wonder “how much longer is this going to last”, “is this meeting really necessary” or sometimes even, “Is this job really worth it”! The truth of the matter is that it may not necessarily be the content that gets us bored out of our skulls but rather the way it is being presented. Good presentation skills can make even the dullest of content sound invigorating and interesting. While there is a ton of material out there that has plenty of advice for what presenters should do to churn out a good presentation, there are also some key things that they must avoid to not jeopardize their presentation. In this article we will look at three such aspects:

Insufficient Preparation

It happens even to the seasoned presenters. Life along with all its challenges and urgencies can get busy and cut into preparing for a presentation. But presentations require hard work and foresight. They require thinking ahead of the listeners to understand what they’re expecting from the presentation. A poorly prepared presentation usually shows in the scrambled manner of output or the lack of flow in the content. And listeners are usually perceptive enough to pick up on it.

Information Overload

Once in a while the presenter can do quite the opposite of underprepare and fire-hose his listeners with too much information and data. During preparation tis can seem like a good idea because one tends to think that they’re giving the listeners whatever they can and that’s a good thing. But sometimes this can be so overwhelming on the receiving end that listeners may walk away without catching the majority of what was said instead clearly understanding a few things said efficiently. Just as we do better attempting to catch one ball instead of five coming at us, the brain handles few pockets of data better instead of large volumes of it.

Lackluster Delivery

It is a sad but true fact – some presenters can be just boring. It may be one or many factors that contribute to the dullness. Presenters must not make the mistake of assuming that interesting content will carry over just as interestingly regardless of the delivery style. Body language, voice modulation, eye contact, hand gestures and enthusiasm all play a vital role in communicating the message. But it goes deeper than this too. If listeners don’t see an underlying conviction or passion in the presentation, they’re not going to be inclined to ‘buy’ a message that the presenter himself doesn’t seem to have bought into.

Presentation Skills Training is an important aspect of training that companies want to invest in for the sake of their employees. This equips them to communicate the vision and agenda of the company in an effective manner.

MMM Training Solutions conducts Soft Skills Training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad.