​PowerSpeaking Blog: Tips and strategies for crafting presentations

After you’ve taken a workshop or engaged with a professional speaking coach, you may have improved a lot, but you will continue to fine-tune your skills as you apply them at work. Becoming a compelling presenter is a learn-by-doing process, and it’s never-ending. So it’s important to know how to be a good coach for yourself going forward. Fortunately, we have tools close at hand and we have some experience of what makes coaching effective. We just have to apply those to ourselves. Here are some ideas:

At the core of every insightful presentation is a story. Human beings naturally seek out a narrative.

But the process of becoming a storyteller doesn't start with writing and rehearsing the presentation; it begins in observations of everyday life.

For decades, people of all backgrounds have sought to break through what they consider a "glass ceiling" to live up to their full potential at work. Often referring to the struggle for highly qualified women to break through an invisible, unspoken barrier and achieve the highest echelon of executive leadership, the question is what gets in the way. 

There are multiple reasons that quality candidates aren't promoted when they should be. While this glass ceiling may be in response to socially held prejudices and misconceptions (relating to gender, race, sexuality, and background), the basic obstacle that stands in the way of the promotion of many to senior and executive positions is simply the culture of power that permeates the highest levels of business leadership.

You’ve been asked to present to upper management. You’ve done the research. You’ve worked hours to get everything to logically flow and the numbers to tie. When a subject matter expert is asked to present to decision makers, the hurdles can be a challenge. These spaces are typically "by invitation only," meaning that — regardless of how innovative your idea may be — you need someone on the inside to help steer the way. 

This is where a sponsor — another high-level decision maker who acts as your guide within these rooms — can be an invaluable asset. When making steps to put yourself in front of executives, business leaders, or other managers, a sponsor can be the difference between a cold, indifferent presentation environment and a warm room full of decision makers who are open to your ideas.

We live in a world of immediate gratification, constant engagement and the never-ending pursuit of comfort. From our abiding attachment to the smartphones we collectively check nearly 8 billion times a day to the streaming music and video services that provide us 24/7 access to the media we love on demand, effective presentation skills rely on pulling people's focus from these distractions and getting them to actively listen. If it is a topic built around data knowledge and subject matter expertise, this can be a significant challenge.

Coming soon, PowerSpeaking will be releasing its latest eBook "Narrative Evidence: Bringing Your Data to Life with Storytelling." The eBook is designed to act as an introduction for subject-matter experts to the importance of constructing a compelling, engaging narrative to aid in presentations. In anticipation of the eBook's release, we wanted to explore one of the central concepts of both the eBook and our HighTechSpeaking® program: the value of narrative evidence to support the value of anecdotal evidence to provide greater understanding and meaning of dense data.

If you are feeling apprehensive about public speaking or presenting, typically at the root of the anxiety is fear of embarrassing yourself. With careful preparation and focus on delivery, it can be easy to avoid embarrassment in a monologue style presentation. But what about when you open up the floor for questions and comments?

Audiences can be tricky: Even if they're your peers, co-workers, or experts in a certain field, everyone has their own agenda and emotional logic. By giving a presentation and soliciting feedback, you are inviting a variety of different personalities to listen and comment on your work. Audience member responses can range from boredom to outright hostility for reasons that may be unclear to you. To conquer a difficult audience, follow these tips:

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."

 It's one of Shakespeare's most well-known lines, taken from the play As You Like It. While many may or may not have seen the play itself, the words have taken on a life of their own owing to the core truth buried in them: In our everyday lives, we take on roles and put on performances for our peers while trying to make ourselves understood.

Nowhere is this a more apt metaphor than when giving a presentation. You may not be an "actor," but many of the techniques that actors use to convey emotion and captivate audiences can be used to make executive and technical presentations more compelling. Here are few proven acting techniques that can enhance your next presentation:

Since the start of this election cycle, we've all seen several debates between various party candidates leading to the current slate of Presidential and Vice Presidential debates.  One crucial figure that sometimes gets overlooked in these debates is the moderator.

Whether it is part of a debate or panel discussion, moderators ostensibly are tasked with overseeing and facilitating a conversation — without overtly contributing their opinion or being a central part of the dialogue. They ask questions, solicit audience feedback, keep an eye on how much time remains and try and keep the conversation balanced between all panelists and experts. They're essentially the ringmasters, keeping dialogue moving and emphasizing major points.

While this may seem like an easy task, the truth is that the moderator often has the hardest job on the panel. It requires strong listening and comprehension skills, patience, and focus. Here are a few tips to help when you take on the role of moderator in a panel discussion: