Last month’s year-long ‘Do Your Presentations Suck? series overview garnered curious and enthusiastic reader reaction. That’s great. So, we start off this deep dive into Best Practices with a look at Audience Focus.
Presentation Skills
101 Tips for Presenters
‘’Making Presentations’, Tim Hindle, DK Publishing, Essential Managers series, NY, NY, 1998 Despite some pix of people in dated attire and old technology reference, the author provides 101 simple tips for creating and delivering effective presentations. Most still work today. Worth the quick read.
More Questions About Presentations
I’m pleased with your very positive reaction to this new feature. Several readers commented on how useful the short answers were and others offered new questions. So, here are more Questions About Presentations:
Hand It to Your Audience
(This month, we conclude our series of harnessing delivery skill best practices to mask Presentation Anxiety (PA) symptoms with the first of a two parts on gestures. What you do – and don’t do – with your hands can project confidence, credibility and competence – or not. So, let’s Hand It to Your Audience!)
Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect!
I hate to trash a childhood fantasy, but Practice doesn’t really make Perfect … it only makes Permanent. Only Perfect Practice makes Perfect. I’ve ranted before about why presenters shouldn’t try to memorize their presentations. They should learn them through practice and refinement of message content and structure. Some thoughts for your consideration:
I Don’t Get It – 3 x 5 Note Cards
A reader recently asked me about using 3 x 5 note cards to hold speaker notes. I don’t get 3 x 5 cards … at all!
Overcoming Stage Fright
A blogger was doing research on stage fright for speakers and asked me how people can overcome it. My short answer was ‘They can’t – it’s a perfectly normal human response to fear or stress.’ Here are the highlights from the rest of the interview.
An Audience-Centered Sport
‘Speaking is an Audience-Centered Sport – How to create and deliver presentations that make people sit up, take notice and beg for more!’, by Marjorie Brody, Career Skills Press, Jenkintown PA, 2001. I reread Brody’s book while traveling. It’s an excellent basic overview with some content contributed by her professional speaking colleagues. Well worth the … Read more
Two Smart Alternatives
Looks like last month’s piece on handling audience questions generated lots of interest, especially about the Two Smart Alternatives I said would be in this month’s ‘Communicate Confidently!’. So … here you go.
As discussed last time, choosing which audience question strategy – anytime or only at the end – is not easy because neither one works best for all presenters, all messages and all audiences. But here are two smart alternatives for this dilemma, … two hybrid strategies that involve the best features of both approaches.
Any Questions?
It’s time to add some Best-in-Class strategies for handling audience questions to your growing Workplace Presenter’s Tool Kit. What they ask and how you respond can make or break your credibility, impact your confidence and influence your outcomes.
If you thoroughly planned and prepared your presentation, that detailed process should help you anticipate 90% of the questions 90% of the audience will ask 90% of the time. Not bad odds for sure.