005 Tips for Successful Presentations 1

Transcript 

Hello, I’m Tim Simmons and you’re listening to Business Skills 360. We’re going tokick off the New Year with an insanely great show on presentations. But first, Iwant to wish you all an awesome 2011. Hopefully the coming year is unbelievablywonderful for you. I know it will be for me. Now, let’s get to all that awesomeness...Okay. Forget everything I just said. I’m not Steve Jobs, and I don’t have a shiny“new” gizmo to show you. If I keep using words like “awesome,” you’re going to getsick of me really fast. You might have heard that Steve Jobs gives greatpresentations. Well, he can wow a crowd of people who already love Apple, butshould we really try to copy him? His style and his adjectives don’t really workwhen English is not your first language. And they fall flat when you are an HRmanager presenting a new compensation plan, or an engineer reporting changeorders on a big project.So exactly how can you make an impact? How can you tighten up your presentationso that it connects to your audience?I’m sure all of you have heard of the mnemonic device KISS – short for “Keep itShort and Simple”. This is excellent advice for all types of business communication,and I completely agree with it. But KISS misses a couple of key points that you alsoneed to consider so I’ve added these and now like to use KISSER- which stands for“Keep it Short, Simple, Engaging and Real.”Let’s look at the first term: “short.” Many bad presentations have too muchrepetition or unnecessary information. People want what is important and relevant,and that’s what you should give them. Try this: after you prepare yourpresentation, go through and cut out 30%. You should be able to do that withoutdamaging your central message. What remains will have much more impactbecause it’s not surrounded by fluff. This applies to PowerPoint slides, charts, anddiagrams as well. As a general rule, try to limit slides to one per minute. And if yourboss gives you ten minutes to speak, make sure you can do it in just five.Next is “simple.” Simple means organized and clear. Start with the purpose of yourpresentation, which you should be able to summarize in one sentence. Somethinglike: “make people understand that expenses are too high.” From that purpose,organize your ideas into three or four points. If you want, you can frame thesepoints as questions, like this: “What expenses can we reduce? What expenses canwe eliminate? And what are the long-term savings?” And tell your audience whatthe outline is at the start. If your questions are good ones, they’ll want to figure outthe answers.“Simple” also applies to your language and visuals. Don’t try to impress people withtechnical lingo. It won’t work. And keep PowerPoint slides simple. No confusingcharts or graphs. Only the essential information, in simple form. The text on yourslides should not be too hard to see, no smaller than a 30-point font. This will forceyou to keep the text simple. I promise you, people will appreciate that.Okay, now we come to “engaging.” You need to catch and hold people’s attention.You want them to be interested. And how do we do that? In terms of what you say, there are a lot of great techniques that we’ll cover in our upcoming podcast serieson impact presentations. They include repetition, rhetorical questions, metaphors,and visualizing facts and figures. One thing that is not engaging is informationoverload. Don’t overwhelm your audience. Use pictures and other visual aids toillustrate your points. If you’re doing a PowerPoint, don’t put two “informational”slides right after each other. Mix it up. Give some information, then use a picture tohelp people understand what you’re saying, then give more information. Beingengaging also means being interactive. Ask questions. Look at people. Ask forinput. Get people to do something besides just listen to you talk.Lastly, you need to keep it “real.” If you start talking about things that nobody canunderstand, nobody can relate to, or nobody cares about, then you will lose youraudience. Guaranteed. Try using an anecdote or story - a story that everyone canconnect with, something that everyone experiences. Tell them why your topicmatters. Tell them how it affects them, their jobs, and their lives. Connect yourselfwith the people and connect the people with the topic. Another part of keeping itreal is working within your abilities. If you’re not comfortable telling a joke inEnglish, don’t tell a joke. If you have to keep the words simple, keep them simple.Presentations are hard enough as it is. Don’t try to push yourself too far outsideyour normal communication style.Right. Keep it short, simple, engaging, and real. If those words can describe yourpresentation, you’ll do great. You don’t need to use the word awesome. You can beawesome without it.

Vocabulary 

Gizmo – any small device or piece of technology; “Apple always releases a newgizmo at the start of every year.” 

To get sick of – to stop liking something seeing or hearing it too much; “Mostbusiness professionals get sick of PowerPoint presentations that are neitherinteresting nor informative.” 

To wow – to impress; “Brian was eager to wow his boss with his sales projections atthe quarterly marketing meeting.” 

To fall flat – to receive little or no result; “The biggest reason that job candidatesfall flat at an interview is lack of research about the position and the company.” 

To tighten up – to make something shorter, more organized, or more concise; “It isa good rule to tighten up your resume each time you apply for a new position.” Mnemonic device – a learning technique or trick that helps us remembersomething; “A common mnemonic device for remembering goals is SMART – shortfor Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.” 

To cut out – to remove or delete; “The best advice from Toastmasters for publicspeaking is to cut out the “ah’s” and “um’s” from your speech.” 

Fluff – unimportant or unrelated details; “I find it difficult to read cover letters thatare mainly fluff and not about the individual and his skills.” 

To frame – to arrange or adjust for a specific purpose; “My boss framed hisquestion in order to receive the answer he wanted.” 

Outline – a statement or summary of main ideas or points; “Frank gave me theoutline for the business plan and I did the necessary research.”

To figure out – to understand or devise the answer to a problem or situation.“Before we proceed with the plan, we need to figure out the cost.” 

Lingo – vocabulary related to a specific sector or field unknown to those outside it;“I was completely confused at the product development session because of thelingo they used.” 

Font – the style or typeface of the text. “Try to use a large font size for yourpresentations so all the audience can read your slides.” 

Rhetorical questions – questions to which an answer is not needed or expected;;“Some of the most common rhetorical questions include, “You know what I mean?”and “Are you kidding?”” 

Metaphor – a way to compare two things in order to show how they are alike; “Johnlikes using metaphors to encourage our team, such as calling our department atightly run ship.” 

To overload – to give too much information or work; “The CEO overloaded thedepartment by asking for an expense audit from each department within the week.” To overwhelm – to give too much or confusing information; “The three-day trainingsession overwhelmed the new employees.” 

To mix it up – to vary the content or method; “I always have to remember to mix itup when presenting to new clients.” 

Anecdote – a short and interesting or funny story; “John began the meeting with afunny anecdote about his fight with his printer.”