If you’ve ever been through a presentation skills training program, you probably know what a difference it can make in just one day. You may have seen a significant improvement in your confidence, polish, and messaging—just between the morning and the afternoon. Delivering a presentation is a practical skill that can be taught. Like any skill, you can keep learning and practicing presentation skills until you are a master presenter.
Yet, if you’ve been through a few presentation skills training programs, they may start to feel repetitive. You’ve learned how to plan ahead, design your message, and apply strong delivery skills, but you know you could be doing better in certain situations. How do you develop the skills you need for your specific situation?
We’ve identified 9 presentation scenarios based on our clients’ experiences. By identifying which scenarios apply to you, you’ll be able to select a presentation skills training that fits your needs.
Do you need to improve in any of these Presentation Scenarios?
- Facilitative– Often used in small group presentations, facilitating discussion enables you to bring your audience members directly into the presentation. By gathering their feedback and questions in the moment, you can tailor your message in a way that resonates for each audience. Look for training that includes how to:
- Design presentations in a way that audiences wantto participate
- Facilitate discussion while keeping the presentation on track
- Effectively elicit questions
- Handle challenging questions and situations
- Think on your feet
- Senior Level– Usually, the person in front of the room controls the direction of the conversation, but the dynamics can shift dramatically when presenting to the C-suite and other senior-level audiences. That’s because senior-level audiences often want to get straight to the point—their A successful presentation to senior leaders involves designing a message that focuses on what’s most important and being prepared to pivot on a moment’s notice. Look for training that includes how to:
- Tailor your message to an executive audience
- Plan a clear and concise message
- Artfully diffuse challenges, interruptions, and difficult questions
- Remain focused with a strategically developed core message
- Master a delivery style that commands respect and attention
- Persuasive– There are many situations, outside of sales meetings, where you need a persuasive presentation. It may involve transitioning to a new system, changing a process, increasing a budget, or selecting the right solution to a problem. Presentations are made persuasive by design. Look for training that includes how to:
- Analyze your audience and potential areas of resistance
- Organize your message in a persuasive format
- Develop logical and emotional appeals to sell your ideas
- Handle challenging audience situations
- Inspirational– If your organization is going through a major change or challenge, leaders at every level need the ability to inspire their teams. As a speaker, you can create a vision of what the organization needs to accomplish and how everyone can contribute to that successful vision. Look for training that includes how to:
- Understand the role of storytelling in effective leadership
- Communicate values through stories
- Use stories to launch visions and inspire action
- Technical– If your presentation includes a number of tables, charts, schematics, or other data that looks like jargon to the untrained eye, then you may want to hone your ability to deliver technical information. Data-intensive and highly complex presentations can cause your audience’s eyes to glaze over very quickly. How do you ensure your audience members understand why this information is meaningful to them? Look for training that includes how to:
- Accurately assess the technical acumen of your audience
- Leverage visuals to assist the communication of complex ideas
- Increase audience comprehension and retention
- Field questions with answers everyone understands
- Ready-Made– Once you understand the fundamentals of good presentation skills, it can be frustrating to be handed a slide deck that does not follow best practices. Presentations may be created by people in a compliance role, a marketing team, or your manager (who didn’t go through the training with you). How do you turn a slide deck you didn’t create into an effective presentation? You need to take ownership of this slide deck! Look for training that includes how to:
- Identify key messages
- Analyze the presentation structure and create a narrative flow
- Develop strong introductions and conclusions
- Incorporate stories, quotes, examples, & humor to engage the audience
- Anticipate questions and plan your answers
- Virtual– We depend on reading people’s body language to understand them and to adapt our behavior accordingly. Presenting to a virtual audience requires different strategies to design and deliver information—strategies enable you to make an impact without being in the room. Look for training that includes how to:
- Optimize visuals: background, lighting, camera angle, body language, and facial expressions
- Modify vocal expression for virtual engagement
- Encourage audience participation, generating questions and feedback
- Team – Presenting as a team can be awkward. How do you transition between presenters? Who responds to questions? How do you ensure a cohesive message? It is important to consider all of these questions when planning a team presentation. Look for training that includes how to:
- Drive home a well-articulated central theme
- Create an easy-to-follow narrative throughout all team presenters
- Plan smooth transitions between presenters
- Facilitate the Q&A and tag-team answering questions
- Conference – Speaking at a large conference, whether it is an internal meeting or an industry association, can be a great opportunity for visibility. Hundreds of eyes are on you! It can also be unsettling and can easily devolve into a monotonous script. If you’ve ever attended a large conference, you’ve probably seen this happen. The speaker enters the stage to much applause and enthusiasm, but then the teleprompter turns on, and the audience’s attention turns elsewhere. When speaking to a large conference audience, even if you’re using a script, it is crucial to maintain energy and a strong in-the-moment presence. Effective conference speaking requires advanced speaking skills and demonstrates true mastery. Look for training that includes how to:
- Present with confidence and enthusiasm using a teleprompter
- Adjust your visual and vocal signals for a large venue
- Manage your simulcast delivery dynamics
Format
When we think of developing presentation skills, we may envision a presentation skills workshop. But that is only one format for developing your presentation skills. Depending on the situation, there are a variety of formats to consider:
- Full-day onsite with videotaped practice for fundamentals
- Small group for advancing specific presentation skills
- Virtual training sessions focused on how to present virtually
- Small group virtual coaching to develop virtual presentation skills
- One-on-one coaching for important meetings, keynotes or conference speaking
While everyone can benefit from a presentation skills workshop, there are so many ways to hone your skills based on your specific presentation scenarios. To learn more about BRODYpro’s presentation skills training options, contact us. We are ready to help!