When you think of the term presentation skills, how do you react? with happiness and gratitude? fear and loathing?
Comedic genius Jerry Seinfeld sums it up best when he say, “I guess this means that most people at a funeral would rather be in the coffin than delivering the eulogy.”
Let’s begin our quest for Thinking Outside by debunking some common myths about presenting to audiences.
Myth #1
A presentation has to be perfect.
The reality
Your audience can’t tell if a presentation is perfect; they only know that what they are hearing and seeing is worthwhile and keeps them interested.
Myth #2
PowerPoint is all you need to make a great presentation.
The reality
Relying solely on your visual content to carry your presentation is a boring, tedious experience for your audience. Worse if the slide content is being read out to you!
Myth #3
Good presenters are born, not made.
The reality
Presenting information to an audience is a learned skill. Some people have a more natural ability to communicate, but all of us are able to acquire the knowledge and means to be very good presenters.
Myth #4
I’m a good communicator – I don’t need to know more.
The reality
Fair enough – would you consider yourself an effective communicator? Do you shape presentations, speeches, even written documents to be persuasive, audience-friendly and get the go ahead on your proposals?
The Thinking Outside Reality
There is a science, a discipline behind effective communication that is yours to embrace and integrate into your professional life. Once you have the knowledge on how to communicate effectively, you have the tools to continue building successful presentation experiences throughout your career. A few hours of your time and focus makes all the difference easily becoming a worthy lifetime investment.
Communicating your ideas to achieve positive responses and actions requires framing the information in a manner that your audience wishes to receive it and not in the way in which you know it. We have singular experience and talent in these areas, having taught this in leading business schools and working with individuals/small teams within organizations.
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