Well, my time with the Victorian State Government is at an end and in my final day I had to present to the Head of Investment and the rest of the Investment Team on my findings from the project. I quickly discovered no matter how much presentation experience you are subjected to at university it is a different ball game presenting in a professional context.
Being a psychology student, and having briefly dabbled in Presentation Skills 101 during my Professional Skills module at Glasgow, and taking on board my experiences for preparing my presentation that I gave yesterday then I can hopefully offer a few of my own thoughts that work when preparing for presentations:
1. Always maintain eye contact with the most senior person in the room - we have all heard the cliché of maintaining eye contact with everyone in the room, but at the end of the day the most senior person in the room is the decision maker and if you impress them congratulations you have their heart – and more importantly their ear…
2. Find your style – if having notecards tickles your fancy or you love making a script for a presentation – great - stick to a style that works for you. Most people preach that having sheets of paper is a barrier to your audience and you don’t engage with them, but at the end of the day an audience will be more impressed if you have stuff to say and sound intelligent rather than freezing on the spot and not knowing what to say because you don’t have a script or notecards.
3. Bon Jovi or that song from Baywatch? I tend to find, like most people, that giving a presentation to a group can be a little bit daunting so before my presentation yesterday I indulged in a bit of Living on a Prayer – coupled with a bit of air guitar to settle my nerves. If you are nervous before a presentation and find yourself sweating in places that aren’t meant to sweat then find a song to give you a psychological edge - something upbeat like Bon Jovi, 50 Cent or Tina Turner (Simply The Best). However, do avoid Celine Dion or Lady Antebellum as these tend to accentuate the nerves and are not good for making you get in the zone. My personal favorite is the theme song from Baywatch – those words are magical.
4. There is a time and a place for PowerPoint animations, choose wisely: If you are Steve Jobs and are unveiling the latest Apple product, then great, having a presentation adorned with multiple animations is a good thing, however if you are sitting down with civil servants presenting your findings on government efficiency then animations are not welcoming in this party. Know your audience, if you are presenting something cool use animations - if not stay clear.
Hopefully these are some useful presentation tips to help you reach presentation heaven, I use some of these rules depending on the presentation and they hold me in good stead but at the end of the day presenting is a game: people want to hear what you’re saying, otherwise they wouldn’t be in the presentation - so enjoy it…
Anyway that’s enough from me, I’m off to enjoy my last weekend in Melbourne…