Statistically, people fear public speaking more than they fear death.
This can’t be right… People would rather die instead of talking in front of a live audience? Bananas!
ING DIRECT recently invited Dashboard down to the ING DIRECT Café at 221 Yonge St. to a Presentation Skills Workshop where together with the ING DIRECT team; we got tips and pointers on how to make our presentations more effective and efficient.
As a creative, it’s part of the job to not only come up with great concepts, and make things look cool, but you also need to effectively communicate your ideas with peers, bosses and most importantly our clients. Even though we are visual people who communicate through our work, we also need to be able to just as effectively communicate to people the good ole’ way, by getting in front of them and talking.
In the class we were asked to examine presentations. What exactly makes for a ‘bad’ one and how can you avoid it at all costs? Well after asking around it was pretty clear that ‘bad’ presentations all seem to have all the same qualities; boring, monotone, uninspired, not engaging and overall not very well prepared. It all actually comes down to confidence. If you don’t have confidence in yourself or your work, you’re destined to bomb.
So what can you do? It’s simple really. Practice is number one. Don’t wait till presentation day to see what comes out of your mouth. A good presentation starts with good notes and lots of rehearsing. So get over talking to yourself! Confidence comes with time and with great presentations. The other aha moment I had in the course was learning to go with the flow. Stumbling on a few words is a-ok. Try to avoid umms and listen and look at your audience. Jokes are great, so long as you know your crowd. Adapt with the flow. Be honest, but don’t be self-deprecating. Don’t preach, tell stories. Recount how you got to an idea, make it personal, make it memorable.
These are all good lessons I’ve been working on since the class. Every time a presentation comes and goes I try to make time post-meeting to assess how it went. So far so good!
So don’t forget: Preparation, confidence and practice. It’s all about storytelling. (And breathe for crying out loud, it’s just a presentation.)
Thank you ING DIRECT for inviting us along. It was a great day of learning, practicing and laughing.
Lowes says: