Whether you want to work as a high-level executive or an administrative assistant, improving your presenting skills is a crucial step. Most businesses rarely change their minds without first viewing a convincing presentation, and leaders base their judgments on the information presented in the presentation format. Therefore, any employee would do well to understand the procedures involved in making an effective presentation as well as which presenting abilities are most valued by employers.
Whether it be in your job search or you have been assigned the task of presenting to your team at work, highlighting these abilities will also make you stand out from the crowd.
What Do Presenting Skills Entail?
All the characteristics you need to design and execute a compelling presentation are referred to as presentation skills. Employers value your ability to provide supporting documentation, such as slides, in addition to your presentational skills. Delivering briefings and reports to coworkers, leading training sessions, delivering information to clients, and doing a variety of other jobs requiring public speaking may all be requested by your potential employer.
Strong communication skills are necessary for various occupations, and one of them is the ability to deliver speeches that are interesting and simple to grasp. Presentations don’t always occur in a formal meeting. One-on-one consultations or sales calls might benefit from several presentation techniques.
How to Create a Presentation for Your Workplace
There are three stages to any presentation: planning, delivering, and following up. Each of these three phases can be applied to the success of anyone’s presentation skill set.
Planning a Presentation
Research and presentation construction is part of planning. Think about the people you’ll be presenting to and their areas of greatest interest. This could entail writing the full text (or at the very least the outlines), making any slides, and producing any additional audio-visual assets. Additionally, you should practise your presentation as often as necessary to be confident and at ease in delivering it throughout the allocated presentation time.
Delivering a Presentation
The element of your presentation that the audience sees is your delivery. A successful delivery relies on thorough planning, assured delivery, and a special set of skills. Giving an attention-grabbing start for a talk is one example of a delivery skill. Another is summarising the presentation’s content to introduce it and set the scene. Another is expressing enthusiasm and confidence using body language and eye contact. You may convey confidence to your audience by using these strategies, so don’t be afraid to use humour or to speak with excitement and animation.
After your presentation, sum up your main points. You should also have a strategy in place for answering any audience queries.
Following Up
Following up on a presentation includes properly dismantling and storing any equipment, getting in touch with any audience members you made an agreement to keep in touch with, and asking for, gathering, and analysing comments.
Making an evaluation form to collect input from attendees, interpreting it, and adjusting the presentation’s content and/or delivery for subsequent presentations are all examples of follow-up skills. Creating a database of attendees for use in future presentations, speaking with influential attendees to get further input, and forwarding presentation slides to attendees are all examples of other follow-up abilities.
Need Help Making Your Presentation Skills Stand Out?
We assist executives of all levels in developing their presenting skills at The Broadcast Institute. Together, we’ll design a special programme that takes into account the demands and objectives of your company. In our course, you’ll discover how to confidently and prepare, script, and execute a corporate pitch or presentation. The important skills are identifying the precise requirements of the customer and reflecting those demands in a polished and interesting address, brought to life by the numerous approaches our professionals have mastered over decades in the corporate sector.
Paul Connolly, the lead trainer and founder of The Broadcast Institute, is a highly skilled public relations professional, keynote speaker, and corporate communications specialist who can change your pitching and presentation skills. Click here to book a free 15-minute consultation with Paul to discuss how presenting skills could benefit your business and employees.