Presentation Skills
The content of your presentation could be impeccably researched, and your slides could be perfectly designed—but without proper preparation for the speech that goes along with the slideshow, your points may fall flat.
Presentations and public speaking in general are almost an inevitable experience for people in school or the workplace. Learning to give an effective presentation is a valuable skill that can benefit you for years to come. Public speaking is a very common fear that affects approximately 25% of the population, so its normal to feel some anxiety surrounding presenting. While there is unfortunately no quick fix to cure a fear of public speaking, some of the strategies in this tutorial may help you sound, and feel, like a natural.
Rehearsing with just yourself and with a test audience is key for confidence, timing, flow, and more. The better you know your content and your overall presentation, and the more eye contact you can give your audience, the better the presentation.
Here are some suggestions while you rehearse:
Often you will have a time limit you need to work within. Some presentation software show your elapsed time, but you can also use your phone or computer's timer function to keep on top of timing.
Go through the presentation in full to identify flow issues, spots where you can tighten it up, or spots where you need to flesh it out. Speaking through the full presentation will help sort that out.
Rehearsing with a test audience in the circumstances you will be presenting is a crucial step. Find people like friends and family who will be kind but also provide constructive criticism.
Whether you are presenting in-person or online, practice with technology as much as you can. In your rehearsals, you will want to identify possible tech issues, what to do during switch-overs, if the technology available will work for your purposes, etc.
Record yourself rehearsing and rehearse with a test audience (friends and family) who can provide positive support. There are huge benefits to seeing yourself present. Once you have a recording, review it, and ask yourself (or your test audience):
Having the recording will allow you to reflect on your content and style and adjust as needed. Use these tips and attempt the exercise below!
Turn on a camera and get recording! You can use your phone, tablet or computer, but it is best to mimic your presenting environment as best as you can. If you will be presenting online, this will likely be using your computer. If you are presenting in person, try using your phone propped up so you can move around your space.
It will likely make you uncomfortable to watch yourself at first, power through!
Watch back your video and look for:
For online presentations, are you well framed? Is your head cut off? Are your shoulders and hands visible?
For online, are you well-lit so your audience can see you?
How well did your presentation flow? Did you repeat yourself too much? We want a little repeating to reinforce our important points, but not too much.
How fast or slow were you speaking? Were you projecting or whispering?
For in-person, did you move around your space enough to engage the audience, but not so much you appeared nervous?
Were there any distracting actions? For example, were you playing with your hair, spinning on your chair, picking your fingers?
Did you go over your time limit, or are you under your goal time?
Your voice and body language convey a lot during a presentation, regardless of whether you are presenting in-person or online. Learning to work with these elements will help you appear confident and in control, even when you are feeling the exact opposite!
Some helpful tips for regulating your speaking pace during presentations.
Watch the video below to learn about why your voice tone and speed can impact your presentation, why speaking faster is a mistake, and what you can do to improve how you speak when delivering presentations.
Presenting both online and in-person have their challenges with what to do with your body. You are communicating with your audience with more than just your words; your body is also communicating. Your body language can change everything.
| In-Person | Online | |
|---|---|---|
| When you are presenting in person you will be more visible to your audience, so use your body language to show enthusiasm for your topic. | Presenting online takes away a lot of our ability to make that audience connection, so we need to work a little (or a lot) harder to communicate on that same level. | |
| Look at the audience and try to make eye contact. The better you know your content, the less you will need to look at your notes, and the more you can connect with your audience. | Eyes | Eye contact can be made by looking at the camera. It is a little awkward, but your audience will appreciate it. You can also get the audience laughing. Laughter will help your viewers connect with you. |
| Use your hands! Showing your palms signals nice feelings in other peoples' brains. Your hands can help reinforce your ideas. We can point when we make a very important point, we can ask a question with our hands, we can reinforce big ideas, little ideas, and so much more. | Hands | You can still use your hands and gesture. Gesturing can be used an important part of your presentation. Set your camera angle so that your audience can see your hand gestures. |
| Keep your body open, so try not to hunch over and close yourself off. If there is a podium or table, move out from behind it. You will likely have a little space to move around, so use it. This further engages your audience and makes your presentation more interesting and dynamic. | Body | Lean in. It might be a little awkward, but lean into the camera, or take it up a notch and stand and lean. Your camera should be positioned at arm level. Try not to lean too far in; you will appear to be towering over the camera. You can find out more about camera positioning in the tech section of this tutorial. |
Watch the video below to learn some body language tips from Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, a Toastmasters International world champion of public speaking!
Being nervous is common. To help conquer your nerves, try rehearsing with a friend and ask them to note any nervous habits you might have.
For example, do you bounce around on the balls of your feet? Consider moving around your space, this will prevent the bouncing and make you more engaging. If you play with your hair, perhaps you can pull your hair back or style it to keep it out of the way. For online presentations, do you spin in your chair? Swap it out for a non-swivel chair for the presentation.
Being aware of your nervous behaviours will help you find ways to work around them.
We all respond differently to relaxation and confidence boosting techniques. Identifying what works best for you will be useful. Two methods we recommend are deep breathing and the superhero pose. You can also find lots of guided breathing on YouTube, Spotify, and through apps like Aura and Smiling Mind.
A few minutes of deep breathing can help you feel more in control and reduce your stress. There are a number of breathing exercises you can try, and they can be done anywhere, any time.
Believe it or not, standing in a superhero pose, or a power pose, can help us feel more powerful and confident. Before your next presentation try standing with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width, hands on your hips, chest out, chin up. Do this for two minutes.
Looking for more ways to conquer your nerves? Here are some other methods to try:
In the first half of this video, you will see a presentation with some common issues and some feedback given by the audience. In the second half, our speaker adjusts his presentation based on the feedback.
Which simple tricks can you take away to improve your own performance?
