Written by: Anna Pasternak / Communication Coaching / November 17, 2021 / 8 minutes read

Many professionals come into the clinic wanting to work on professional communication. Some of the biggest challenges many clients face are presentations. Whether its nerves, getting a new role, or just general presentation skills. This is something that can be improved through time and practice.  If you are looking for some extra support we can also help you in this area here at well said, as we work on it all the time. But until then, here are some useful tips and tricks you can use to help get you kick started with your presentation skills:

• It is good to let your audience know when starting your presentations when it would be a good time to ask questions.  Do you want your  audience to ask questions throughout? Or would you rather wait until the end to answer questions? You want to make sure that you decide what would work best for your presentation and let your audience know. 

• Be sure to make eye contact with your audience. If consistently looking down at your notes or slides, you will appear less engaged and even nervous. When consistently make eye contact throughout you will appear to be more confident and show that we are comfortable with your material.  

• Making sure you are presenting with a clear and confident voice. That you are well paced and breathing throughout. Your volume is well maintained and of course you have a dynamic tone throughout. You want to make sure you are engaging your audience through your voice, and this can only be accomplished if you sound interesting. Having a monotone voice will put the audience to sleep, but having a dynamic voice can show your excitement and passion for the topic you are presenting. 

• Engaging the audience with relevant stories. People love stories. Especially stories where there was a big change, or something that they can relate to themselves. Sometimes stories can really clarify an idea for someone and be on board with what you are presenting. 

• Using video clips and audio clips is another good suggestion to help spice up your written slides. This will add a different element to your presentation, but make sure not to overdo it.  With the written slides it is also a good idea to show diagrams instead of bullet points when possible, for example when listing data that has been collected. Often people pay less attention to the written words, and more attention to a colourful simple diagram they can follow. 

• Find ways to engage your audience whether it’s asking some engaging questions throughout, using humor, and speaking more in a conversation style  with the audience rather than lecture style. This will allow the audience to become more engaged, and be more interested in listening to what you have to say.

• Using lots of filler words ( such as umm, uhh, you know)  throughout, will appear less confident and appear that you do not know the material well. 

• Reading the slides will keep your gaze away from the audience, this will make you appear less engaged and nervous, and guess what your audience too will become less engaged. 

• Though sometimes it is good to move around, you do not want to move around too much as this will appear fidgety and can become a big distraction for those listening. 

• Poor eye contact and reading can also make you appear like you don’t care about your presentation or topic and just want to get it over with. 

• Not explaining and providing definitions and examples of unfamiliar terms you use throughout. You have to know your audience, if you are unsure of the audience background it’s a safe bet to describe the new terms you are introducing. If the audience is understanding what you are talking about, you will be less likely to lose them as you move along. 

• When not knowing the answer to a question, do not try to answer it by giving poor information. Dancing around an answer you are unsure off will come through by the way you are speaking and the words you are using. If you do not know the answer, that’s ok. Let the person know that this is an interesting question, and that you will look further into it and get back to them at a later date instead. This will keep you from sounding unsure, and show the audience that you care by ensuring the question gets answered.

To speak with one of the speech-language pathologists or a psychotherapist at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.