Communication Skills - Giving a Management Presentation
Presentations are part of everyday life for a manager and being able to communicate effectively in this way is indispensable. Before focusing on your delivery style you will need to plan your presentation. This is dealt with in the eBook 'Planning a Presentation,' which explains how to identify your aim, analyze your audience, define your key message statement, and outline the scope of your presentation.
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The second eBook in the series, 'Preparing a Presentation,' explains how to decide exactly what you are going to say and how to structure the points that support your key message statement. It recommends a five-stage format for your presentation, as shown below.
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An effective presentation requires a certain amount of repetition in order to get the message across to the audience. You should 'tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them, and finally tell them what you've told them.'
The first iteration serves to orientate the audience as to who is presenting what, and why.
The second represents the substance of the presentation.
Finally, you need to review the most important points, restate why they are relevant to the audience, and bring the presentation to a logical close.
You need to be aware of this need for repetition and to factor it in to your time allocations.
This eBook concentrates on the three key elements of delivering a presentation:
1) Your style of delivery
2) Understanding your audience
3) Ensuring the venue supports your message
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Using natural conversational language assisted by pre-prepared cues is almost always the best way to present as it allows you sufficient flexibility in your delivery to take account of the needs of the audience. Presenting in this way allows the audience to view you as someone who owns the information and is knowledgeable about it. However, the effectiveness of this approach is directly related to the amount of time you devote to preparing and rehearsing.
Rehearsal is important because it gives you the opportunity to see if your points are clear when spoken aloud, to perfect your transitions, and to check your timings. If you rehearse in front of a colleague or video yourself, you can also eliminate any annoying verbal mannerisms you may have. Many people do have these, and whilst they may go unnoticed in conversational speech they tend to become more apparent in a presentation when people are nervous as a result of being the sole focus of an audience.
This 'Delivering a Presentation' eBook also describes how to stay in control and to manage questions that come up whilst you are speaking. It also covers managing the Q&A session, which is important because it is the last thing people remember. A poor Q&A session can undermine an otherwise excellent presentation.
You may also be interested in:
Styles of Presenting | Cue Card Guidelines | Developing a Persuasive Delivery Style | How to Rehearse | Reading Your Audience | Retaining Control in a Presentation | Question and Answer Session | Importance of the Presentation Venue | Presentation Venue Layout.
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