Everything is a Presentation - Chapter 1 from Teach Yourself Presenting

In this chapter you will learn:
• Why presenting is an essential business and life skill
• That everything is a presentation
• About the ten faults audiences hate most

A crucial business skill

No ifs. No buts. No maybes. If you want to be successful in business these days you need to be able to present effectively. It’s not optional – a nice-to-have – it’s an essential professional skill.

That’s because everything’s a presentation. Unless you’re an artist holed up in a garret, or Robinson Crusoe with no Man Friday, you’re constantly interacting with other people – putting forward ideas and trying to influence and persuade them to do what you want them to do.

Maybe you’ve always thought of presenting as someone standing in front of a group, perhaps using PowerPoint. It’s certainly that. But such formal presentations are only part of the picture. Just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, most people give many presentations during the course of a day – but they don’t always put them in that category

Every interaction is a presentation. Whenever you’re in a professional situation, with one or more person, and you’re speaking, you’re presenting. That means meetings and discussions, chatting to colleagues and customers, telephone and face-to-face conversations, pitching and selling, inspiring and motivating a team – and a whole lot more.

Meetings in particular are important arenas where presentations are given. For many business people, especially those at a senior level, the working day consists of one meeting after another. And the talent and ability of those attending will often be judged on the basis of their contributions – ie presentations – they make. Often these will be informal, unplanned – ‘Hey, Sarah, what do you think?’, ‘Give us your perspective on this, Simon’ – but they’re presentations nonetheless.

Presentations of any type are your opportunity to showcase your skills, talents and knowledge. When you can command an audience you’re also demonstrating your leadership ability. If you’re in line for promotion and there is someone else vying for the position, the decision may just swing in favour of the person who can demonstrate the best communication skills.

That’s why an increasing number of people are coming on the presentation skills training courses we run. They recognise that to get on in business and be a success you need to be able to communicate your ideas clearly, concisely, credibly and compellingly. It’s not just a matter of connecting a USB cable from your head into the heads of those in the audience and downloading data. You need to interest, engage and inspire them.

And, most of the time, when you’re presenting, what you’re actually doing is selling. You may not think of it like that, but that’s the reality. Sometimes you’ll be selling products and services, but more often you’ll be selling ideas – looking to gain commitment and buy-in.

As one CEO of a global household brand said recently at the beginning of one of our courses, “If you can’t present effectively you won’t get very far in this company”.

An essential life skill

Actually, we’d go further than saying presenting is an essential business skill. It’s also an essential life skill. If you can’t present effectively, many doors will be probably be closed to you in your personal endeavours as well. So the benefits you gain from reading this book will almost certainly improve your relationships, enhance your communication skills and increase your confidence in all areas of your life.

What you’ll learn in this book

Our aim in this book is to give you a thorough grounding in the theory and practise of presenting – to prepare you to be able to go as far as you want in any company. We focus primarily on formal presentations, but the content will be relevant to informal presentations as well.

In the next chapter we start by asking you to consider what it means to be a competent presenter. We look at what good presenters believe and how that drives their behaviour. You will also be able to find out where you are on the journey to becoming a competent presenter.

The importance of preparation is highlighted in Chapter 3. You’ll discover why preparation is essential for success and why it’s important to prepare not only the content but also your delivery style.

Being clear about your outcome and having measures of success are crucial when it comes to presenting. Chapter 4 not only explains this but also goes on to discuss why good presenting motivates people to change.

Chapter 5 tells you how to carry out effective research on people who will attend your presentation. How do you go about ‘getting inside’ the collective mind of your audience? We also look at how understanding different behavioural styles allows you to analyze your audience and adapt your approach.

Being able to create a clear structure that’s easy to follow is one of the principal skills of successful presenting. Chapter 6 introduces a tried and tested way of doing this and goes on to explain how to manage the audience’s attention span.

Different ways of opening your presentation with impact so you grab your audience’s attention from the outset are described in Chapter 7. We also advise on how best to conclude your presentation effectively.

Chapter 8 includes innovative and creative ways of bringing facts to life and making them memorable –  such as stories, anecdotes, case studies, examples, metaphor and humour.

When should you use a script and when are notes better? And how do you present successfully and remember what you’re going to say if you don’t use notes? These are just some of the questions we answer in Chapter 9.

Death by PowerPoint – that’s something too many presenters inflict on their audience. In Chapter 10 we show you how to get the best for this programme, as well as a range of other visual aids.

Chapter 11 is all about rehearsing and timing – part of the preparation process that’s often neglected, but which is essential if you’re to deliver well.

Many people get nervous when presenting – some have full-blown panic attacks. How do you cope with nerves and develop a feeling of confidence and ease? We reveal all in Chapter 12.

Final preparations can make all the difference between success and failure, so in Chapter 13 we give you a checklist of things to think about – including how to work with different room layouts and how to handle logistics.

Chapter 14 is all about getting off to a good start and engaging the audience. How do you build rapport with a group and get them on your side? By using eye contact, smiling and being personable.

What do you do with your hands? And how should you stand and move?  Chapter 15 will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about posture, body language and movement but were afraid to ask.

Using your voice well is central to communicating your ideas well, but what exactly does that mean? In Chapter 16 we look at how to sound interesting and engaging by varying your volume, pitch, rhythm, pace and intonation.

Language matters. It’s not just the way that you say it – it’s what you say as well. Chapter 17 is all about the words we use, and how to make them as concise, clear, credible and compelling as possible.

Any questions? That’s what most presenters say when they’ve finished speaking. But what do you say when you don’t know the answer? And how do you get people to ask questions in the first place. Find out in Chapter 18.

Into every life a little rain must fall – but you don’t want problems when you’re presenting. In Chapter 19 we help you deal with some of the common challenges you’re likely to encounter when speaking in public.

And in Chapters 20 and 21, we look in more detail at how to get the best from a range of presentation situations and provide a list of resources for those who would like to take things further.

Ten faults audiences hate the most

But before you turn the page, and as a way of getting you thinking about presenting, we would like you to reflect for a moment on presentations you’ve seen. What turns you off? What really drives you crazy? How many of the items on your list match our top ten faults.

1 No clear purpose This may seem obvious, but all too often presenters leave their audience wondering what it was all about
2 Not knowing your audience Delivering a presentation that’s not appropriate or relevant to the audience leaves them wondering why they wasted their time. There has to be a benefit to them in listening and you need to make this clear
3 Death by PowerPoint Many presenters fall into the trap of having too many slides filled with too much information.
4 Monotone delivery There’s nothing worse than a voice that drones on at the same pitch, pace and volume. This fault’s guaranteed to send people to sleep
5 Lack of preparation If you haven’t prepared it shows and they think you can’t be bothered to make the effort
6 Lack of structure If there’s no clear path to follow, or flow of information, your audience will switch off
7 Not connecting with the audience Some presenters are so focused on themselves they don’t build rapport with the audience
8 Offering weak evidence If you don’t support your ideas with evidence you’ll lose credibility – so do your homework
9 Running over time If you go on too long boredom sets in and they stop listening. Prepare something slightly shorter than the time available and make sure you leave time for a proper ending
10 Using jokes inappropriately When in doubt leave jokes out. Use humour instead

If you avoid these classic errors you’re on the road to delivering successful presentations. The chapters to come reveal ways to ensure you don’t fall into these traps and set you on the path to becoming not just competent but a great presenter.

Key Messages

• Everything is a presentation
• Presenting is an essential business and life skill
• Avoid the top ten faults that turn audiences’ off