By: Phillip Mattie
Presentations are a difficult trial for even the most seasoned veterans. They require research, thought, and excellent organization. However, even when these things are thoroughly completed—your research carried out, your main idea concreted, your organization refined—your presentation may still be left wanting, absent of verve, void of entertainment. Presentations are difficult not because of the research behind them or the obvious preparation they require, but because you—you—are on public display, and any cracks in your presentation will seem like chasms, and your insecurity regarding public speaking will appear, to you, obvious to all who watch. However, if you follow the steps outlined below, you will find your presentation more effective, your ideas more easily absorbed by the audience, your nerves less of a factor when you need them most.
Embrace your nervousness
I have spoken at length about nervousness in previous articles, but I cannot stress how crucial it is to understand it, especially when the pressure is on you to perform. So, here’s my thought: Nerves are a completely normal part of your physiology. It is the body’s natural response to situations where you are under pressure. And nerves are there so that you are more aware and engaged during those important moments. Remember, these nerves are good nerves; they help you perform better—if you understand that fact. Once you embrace your nervousness, your ability to perform is vastly increased. For instance, take a hypothetical athlete. It’s the Olympics, and he/she is going for the gold medal. You can bet that this athlete is nervous but, for some reason, this athlete is able to perform at a higher level than at any other point in his/her career—and it’s because of the world stage the performance is taking place. Athletes know that, to peak their abilities, there must be something at stake, and however large that prize is, there are nerves they must conquer and embrace in order to perform at their fullest.
Highlight content words
Highlighting content words in presentations is among the simplest things you can do to improve the level of the audience’s information absorption and understanding of the material. Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The big words. What you want to do is slow down during these content words. Doing so brings attention to it, allowing your audience to better understand your message. A bonus effect of slowing down on these words is that it gives more time for information to be absorbed. A double-threat. What’s more, look to reduce the impact of the smaller, less important functional words like prepositions, pronouns, articles and the like. A triple-threat! Essentially, you want your audience focussed on the content of your message, not the function. Take a peek at any professional speaker and note the words he/she slows down on, emphasizes, and holds on their tongue for that extra moment, and try to do the same in your own presentations.
Improve your body language
Believe it or not, body language plays an important role in your presentation. Actually, it seems, once you stop to think about it, pretty obvious. If you are too rigid, too tight, with your arms locked at your side or held statically clinging your cue cards, your audience will undoubtedly notice. What’s worse, they may even misinterpret your rigidity as boorishness. You are not boring. You are an interesting person delivering a presentation on an equally interesting topic, so try some stretches before going on the stage. Whirl your arms about, do some dynamic stretches, whatever. But get loose. I had a great Canadian Literature professor who literally danced from one side of the classroom to the other—as he was speaking. He would direct his gaze this way, then that way, from different positions. He would even occasionally speak from the back of the classroom as we looked at an overhead. He kept us students on our toes, and it made him a very effective presenter, one that I admired. So, you can move about, speak from different positions, and engage your audience from different locations to keep them fully engaged.
Warm up your voice
OK, crucial point here. Consider your voice and vocal chords a muscle, and like any muscle, it needs to be properly stretched before heavy use. Personally, I like to start my vocal exercises front to back, beginning with the /p/ or /b/ sounds, moving next to /t/, and then rolling an R, finishing things off with the /g/ or /k/ sounds. There are some great resources on Youtube for vocal exercises. Find some that work for you, and spend about 2-3 minutes before your presentation warming your voice up.
If you have an accent foreign to the native one, I would really recommend highlighting any content words that are giving you trouble and looking them up in a dictionary—not for the definition, but for the phonetic spelling and pronunciation of the term. Figure out what phoneme is giving you trouble and drill the living daylights out of it. If you think it necessary, you can hire an accent or voice coach to help you identify and target problem areas with your pronunciation and stress pattern.
Honestly, there are a ton more things you can do to improve your public speaking skills. I’ve managed to list and discuss only four and present them in a decent length article, but I brainstormed about seven or eight more ideas I could have talked about. Just remember that the content and organization of your presentation can be outstandingly brilliant and outshine the sun, but if you lack the public-speaking skills, those glorious rays will never touch the Earth, never nourish it. Public speaking is an important—crucial, even—life skill that you cannot avoid, so you’d best prepare yourself early when there is less at stake. So believe in yourself, embrace your nerves, highlight important words, engage your audience, and warm-up!