3 proven tactics for giving more confident presentations


Posted on July 23rd, by Dr Rob Yeung .

I run a lot of workshops on how to give better presentations – for people ranging from junior employees who want some basic guidance to experienced executives who need to come across as more charismatic and leaderlike. But whatever the seniority and experience level of presenters, I typically find that most people can improve or polish their presentations by focusing on four main areas.

Broadly speaking, the four parts of presenting are to do with:
1) Content – the actual words, facts, stories, slides and handouts you use.
2) Structure – the order in which you assemble your content. For example, say you’re giving a longer presentation for an hour or so. Do you want to allocate time perhaps every 20 minutes or so for your audience to discuss how your presentation points might be relevant to them?
3) Performance – thinking about body language, movement, tone of voice and use of pacing, pauses, silence and other tools in order to draw an audience in.
4) Psychological factors – handling doubts and nerves so that you can come across in the best possible way.

On the following two pages are three psychological techniques that have been shown to help people to give more confident presentations. But if you’d like more guidance on content and performance, take a look at an earlier post (which also includes an interview I did on BBC Radio 2). And of course do check out other advice by clicking on the presentations tag.

Talent Doctor presenting 1

Talent Doctor presenting 2





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