Giving great presentations is an art. While your content is important, it is just as important to make your presentations memorable. The won’t be remembered if your delivery falls flat. You must engage your audience to get your message across. Here are three key principles to engage your audience and ensure they have a great experience.
- Balance. Great presenters walk a tightrope between structure and improvisation. Prepare in advance by thinking about what your audience needs to know, and organize your content into sections by topic. You must leave room to respond to their needs during your presentation, even if that means going off script for a while. Pay attention to what is going on in the room before your presentation. Integrate what is going on. Even if you prepare the comments movements before, they can appear off the cuff.
- Generosity. Your goal should be to offer your audience something new and valuable. Let this principle guide the content you choose to present. People should leave your presentation with an idea, information, or inspiration that they didn’t have before.
- Humanity. Rehearse to familiarize yourself with your content, but don’t memorize it. Being too polished can actually be counterproductive — your audience wants to connect with a real human being. If you go blank for a moment, don’t apologize or act flustered. Just pause, take a breath, collect your thoughts, and continue on. Don’t read your presentation. If all you are doing is reading what is on the slide, you are not offering any value to the audience. You might as well just give them a hand out. Your slides should give a brief idea and the details should come from your talk.
To see how a Modern Observer Group coach can help you make better presentations, schedule a call here or contact us at the information below. Modern Observer Group programs are based on the Businetiks system as detailed in the book, “The Businetiks Way.”
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