Ready to learn why presentation skills are so important? I would suggest you first watch this video on YouTube in which Steve Jobs is unveiling iPhone 1. I couldn’t stop watching the video, to be honest. It’s so engaging. Did you notice how Steve Jobs kept the audience in suspense? Did you notice the use of visuals in his presentation? Were you able to see the use of repetition in his talk? Why do you think Steve Jobs presented in this manner? Do you think he was able to convince the audience to buy the product? Read this article fully to know the answers to all of these questions.
If you want to communicate your thoughts on a project in a structured way to a larger group of people, that’s where presentation comes into play. Presentation is one form of communication. Let’s say you have been given a case study and you are asked to analyse and present your thoughts in front of a class of 50 students. You have been allotted a time of 20 minutes. What approach will you take to make sure people understand your analysis? It’s a presentation! You would need to make sure you can explain your analysis easily with the help of visuals such as graphs, images, etc. If you create a 10-page report of your case study and just try to explain with the help of that document in a time frame of 20 minutes, the majority of your audience will get bored and your whole analysis will go in vain.
I hope now you understand why presentation skills are so important and why many recruiters put so much emphasis on this. Now, let us understand in detail all the things we need to take care of to deliver an effective and fruitful presentation. I will also mention some of the positive takeaways from Steve Jobs’ presentation along the way.
Know your audience
Before you prepare your presentation, make sure you are aware of your audience. If you are preparing a technical presentation for an audience having functional expertise, you will likely make your audience bored and the real motive of the presentation will not be served.
Use less text
Try to keep texts minimal in your presentation. Use more visuals such as graphs, images, videos, etc. Your audience will get engaged more with visuals rather than too many texts. If you notice the presentation of Steve Jobs, he used a lot of images and that is one of the ways to get your audience engaged.
Rehearse
You would need to rehearse your presentation as many times as possible until you feel comfortable. Try to rehearse in front of a mirror or with your colleague. However, do not try to memorize what you have been practicing. If you memorize and talk during the actual presentation, it will sound very artificial. Never do that. Did you see how flawless was the presentation delivered by Steve Jobs in the video link shared above? There must have been a lot of preparation that went in the background to prepare such content and the execution was fantastic. Steve Jobs rehearsed excessively on the stage for hours to deliver this flawless presentation.
Don’t be nervous
If you are scared, you tend to get nervous and when you are nervous, you won’t be able to perform to your full potential. Mistakes happen when you are nervous. Nervousness can be reduced with great preparation and practice. The more you prepare and practice hard, the more relaxed you will be during your actual presentation. Also, if you get nervous during the presentation, you can take a deep breath. It will help you to relax and you can focus fully then. One of the reasons for being nervous is that you are unsure how your presentation is progressing. To tackle this situation, you can ask the audience some questions such as “Did this topic make sense?” Once you start getting inputs from your audience, it will make you feel a lot better and your rest of the presentation will definitely go better.
Tone and use of words
The tone with which you deliver your presentation matters a lot. There will be some places in your slides where you would need to put a lot of emphases. Make sure you can modulate your tone in that manner. If you keep on talking in the same tone, your audience will lose interest. Also, to engage your audience, you would need to plan your wordings in such a manner that you get feedback from your audience. Coming back to Steve Jobs’ presentation, did you notice how often he used these sentences- “Isn’t it incredible?”, “Isn’t it cool? “. When he was himself elated about the product, the audience was bound to love it as well. Also, Steve Jobs’ voice modulation was so great that it convinced people to buy iPhones and the rest as you know is history.
Humor
If you can bring some humor into your presentation, that will be really great. It will not only boost the interest of the audience but also you will feel more comfortable during your presentation. If you notice Steve Job’s presentation, he did use humor which entertained the audience and as a result, the spectators were more engaged.
Use of repetition
You should repeat the main points of your presentation often so that people remember those points. Also, try to summarize each section of your presentation before you move to the next. This again helps people to remember what you just talked about. Did you see how many times Steve Jobs used the words: “An iPod”, “A Phone” and “An Internet Communicator” in his speech? This is just to emphasize the features of the iPhone which he launched at that event.
Keep a track of your time
Note that when you are presenting in your office or any event, there will always be a time limit. You would need to stick to that time else your audience will get bored and some may eventually leave the presentation room as well. Time management is very crucial in your presentation. Practice your presentation in such a manner that you can finish within the allotted time.
Conclusion
Presentation skills will always be important especially in a business environment. Those who can master the art of presentation will go a long way in their professional career.
Did this article help you in delivering your presentation successfully? I am excited to know your feedback. Do drop your comments below.
