Presentation Skills- Need of the Hour!
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As a professional trainer ,I have across so many people in a training tying to understand how to develop better presentation skills.
It amazes me, in fact,that the batch sizes for these trainings are increasing day by day. I have even been to educational institutes and it never fails to surprise me how much our education system fails to develop these skills. Go to any B-School of management and you would find that students are increasingly complaining that these skills are not developed in college.
Unfortunately I believe,these skills are developed from home and from school.Ask anyone in the audience why they are not good at presentation and they all will give the name of the number one deterrent : STAGE FEAR !
Why are people so afraid of public speaking or presenting publically? When I throw this question to the batch of any age, everyone has no answer to it. But I believe that stage fear exists because we have the fear of being humiliated if we make a mistake.And it all starts with us laughing on others who are presenting,that why when its our turn,we know we would be laughed upon.
The second most common answer I get is that THE CROWD WILL NOT LISTEN !
Again to my understanding,the roots come from the same point mentioned above.If you don't listen,you are under the impression that others will not listen as well.
And the third most common obstacle is the actual one- LACK OF PREPAREDNESS!
In simple terms,lack of practice.
In all cases I have noticed,we all take criticism as a sign of humiliation,a sign that is negative-Why I fail to understand.
There are simple ways we can improve our presentation skills, and mark my words, we all will need it at some level or the other.The sooner we learn the better and easier it gets.
A . Be prepared and confident with the topic,Get all the relevant information and write it down.Know it very well before you hot the spotlight.
B. Structure your presentation. Prioritize which information you would like to say first and then chalk out the flow.
C. Time it.Time your presentation.Make sure you know what is the time limit of your presentations.In fact,make sure you know what would be the time you would require for all sub-topics.
D. Practice alone and in front of friends as much as possible to get relevant feedback.If possible ,go to the venue a day before or prior to the presentation and practice.It will help you to make required altercations if necessary.Do maintain eye contact with audience and have a positive body language.
E. Be positive while receiving criticism and understand it is just feedback that will groom you further.You need to know what went wrong and improve it and also what went right and replicate it.
There are a couple of things you can do to improve things to strengthen your presentation like :
1. Read a lot and aloud so that your fluency and tone will increase.
2. Watch presentation videos to see the body language speakers display through news channels or on the YouTube.
3. While you are on the stage,forget what people think and maintain eye contact whether they are listening or not.
Presentation Skills are not developed overnight.To develop confidence and the appropriate body language,one has not other choice but to practice.Encourage your young ones to develop this at an early age by helping them available platforms like elocution or debate competitions,stage plays and group discussions and you participate too. Hope this helps you.