How to Give a Stellar Presentation by Rebecca Knight.
From the post:
Speaking in front of a group — no matter how big or small — can be stressful. Preparation is key, of course, whether it’s your first or your hundredth time. From preparing your slides to wrapping up your talk, what should you do to give a presentation that people will remember?
What the Experts Say
Public speaking often tops the list of people’s fears. “When all eyes are on you, you feel exposed,” says Nick Morgan, the president and founder of Public Words and the author of Power Cues. “This classically leads to feelings of shame and embarrassment.” In other words: fear of humiliation is at the root of our performance anxiety. Another problem “is that speakers often set a standard of perfection for themselves that they will never live up to,” Morgan says. “And then depending on how neurotic they are, they’ll spend the next few hours, weeks, or years thinking: ‘I should have said this,’ or ‘I should have done that.’” But presenters shouldn’t “fear a hostile environment” or second-guess themselves says Nancy Duarte, the CEO and principal of Duarte Design, and the author of the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations. “Most often the audience is rooting for you,” she explains. They “want to hear what you have to say” and they want you to be successful. Here are some tips that will help you deliver.
More good advice on how to give a great presentation.
I often wonder what the ratio of material on giving good presentations is to actually bad presentations? My gut feeling is that the former outnumbers the latter, by one or more orders of magnitude.
We can all give better presentations but we don’t see ourselves presenting do we?
The best suggestion in this post is to film yourself. It can be YouTube quality filming for that matter.
Being a better presenter isn’t a guarantee of success but it is another factor in your favor!
I first saw this in a tweet by Doug Mahugh.