Stand Up and Be Counted Enhance Your Career with Effective Presentations - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / Stand Up and Be Counted Enhance Your Career with Effective Presentations - Introvert Whisperer Stand Up and Be Counted: Enhance Your Career with Effective Presentations If you were to conduct a survey of your colleagues asking them if presentation skills are important, then chances are that everyone would answer, “yes”. In fact, whether you’re looking to get promoted or to change jobs, then effective presentation skills can be the difference between success or failure. It’s not an accident that employers are looking to hire people with excellent communication skills. You might think that the need for presentations is limited to just a few scenarios, such as presenting a proposal, or speaking at a seminar, but nothing could be further from the truth. Presentation skills can be useful every single day, for example, when you’re in a meeting trying to get an idea across, when you’re on the phone with a client, and even when you’re giving a status update to your boss. Now that we’ve established the importance of good presentation skills, what are some of the ways you can go about honing your skills? Below you’ll find 5 strategies that can help take your presentations to the next level. 1. Be Prepared  It goes without saying that you need to be prepared if you’re giving a presentation to a large group of people, but it can also be useful to be prepared for common scenarios that happen during your working day. If, for example, you regularly attending meetings where you have to introduce yourself, then it can be really helpful to have prepared a short elevator pitch describing who you are and what you do. This short script is a great way to introduce yourself to new people, and has the secondary benefit of helping you relax more quickly around unfamiliar people. But this idea doesn’t just apply to an introductory elevator speech, it can also be applied to any topics you have to cover regularly as part of your job. 2. Practice  The more you practice giving presentations the better you’re going to get at them. One problem faced by people who are apprehensive or just plain terrified about giving a presentation, is where to start? If you’re not yet confident enough in your skills to give a presentation at work, then the easiest place to start is within a safe environment outside of the office. This could simply mean practicing your presentation skills in front of your partner or spouse, or it could mean joining a club, such as Toastmasters, where you won’t be judged and will be given lots of encouragement.  3.  Learn the Craft of a Good ArgumentPersuasive speaking and writing have been around for a long time. In fact, the first book about creating a persuasive argument was written over 2,000 years ago by Aristotle. If you’re looking to increase your persuasive speaking skills then this is great news, as it means there are literally thousands who have gone before you that have passed what they have learned. Some of the more popular techniques include Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, agitate and solve, prognosticate, and storytelling. 4.  Pre-empt ObjectionsThere are two parts to pre-empting objections. The first is to think of objections or counter arguments people are likely to have to your presentation and address them during your presentation. The second is more time consuming but very effective where you need to get approval for an idea, and that is to speak with each person who will be attending your presentation on a one-to-one basis, before the presentation takes place. This way you get the chance to ensure that their success criteria are met, and if not, there’s still time before the meeting to adjust your presentation so that their success criteria are met. In doing this you hugely increase the chances of your presentation going smoothly and your ideas being accepted. 5. Stand Out from the Crowd Let’s be honest, most presentations, particularly those in the workplace, are boring. They follow the same path of starting with a quick introduction, jumping into the main bulk of the presentation, and then finishing with a quick summary and obvious recommendation. Is it any wonder that people can’t resist the urge to look at their phones or use their laptops? To stand out from your peers think about what you can change up. Maybe you could start with the really big picture, or perhaps it might be interesting to start with the detailed facts and figures. Perhaps there is a personal story you could share. Maybe you could open with a question and then not answer that question until the end of your presentation. Whatever it is, try to make your presentation stand out from the 99% of presentations that all follow an identical format. Summary We all know when we’ve seen a good presenter, and when we’ve seen a poor one. Most of us also know that building a reputation as someone who gives great presentations can enhance our careers. However, despite knowing that presentations are important, most of us don’t know how to improve our skills. In this article, we’ve presented five tips to enhance your presentations, namely, be prepared, practice, learn how to construct a compelling argument, think about the objections people might have in advance, and structure your presentation to make it stand out from the crowd. Bio: Denis Geoghegan @epmgmt, is the founder of Expert Program Management, a site dedicated to helping people improve their leadership, management, and personal development skills. Go to top Let me emphasize that Self-Promotion doesn’t have to be obnoxious to be effective.  But, if you don’t Self-Promote you, who will?  If you ever want to get ahead, you have to learn how to Self-Promote. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my video that shows you simple, yet effective ways to Self-Promote. Start watching now by clicking here! Brought to you by Dorothy Tannahill-Moran â€" dedicated to unleashing your professional potential. Introvert Whisperer