Professionally Speaking...

Are Presentation Skills Like Riding a Bicycle?

From time to time, I get the following question from prospective clients and participants in workshops:

"What should I do, if I have been away from presenting for a while, to refresh my skills?"

Perhaps you've had some presentations skills training in the past. Perhaps you even previously presented with some frequency. But you haven't presented in some time -- because of a job change or having been out of the workforce. Now you want to get back to feeling comfortable speaking in public.

Should you start all over with basic presentation skills courses? Should you just jump back into presenting, assuming it's like riding a bicycle and all your former skills will come back to you?

I think the best advice is a combination of both.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO REFRESH SKILLS

1. First, assess your current presentation skills. This may require the help of a professional coach or trainer who, by videotaping you delivering a presentation, can help determine the key areas you need to address.

2. Depending on what your assessment uncovers, there are a variety of presentation skills workshops and books you can use to refresh your skills. Do some homework so you choose ones that focus mostly on your deficit areas rather than on a broad spectrum of beginner skills, many of which you may still be reasonably competent in.

3. If presentation nerves are bothering you, here are a couple of good books to give you some perspective on that anxiety and tools to deal with it: It's Your Time to Shine: How to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking, Develop Authentic Presence and Speak from Your Heart by Sandra Zimmer and The Confident Speaker: Beat Your Nerves and Communicate at Your Best in Any Situation by Harrison Monarth and Larina Kase.

4. Update your knowledge of how to use slideware (PowerPoint or Keynote) to support your presentation. This is one area where there has been significant change in best practices. Search out blogs like PowerPoint Blog, PowerPointology and PowerPoint Ninja and books like Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds and slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte.

5. Other resources that can educate and inspire you are the TED presentations, where speakers are challenged to give the presentation of their life in 18 minutes and PechaKucha presentations where speakers streamline their talk to 20 slides, each forwarded automatically after 20 seconds. Listen to brilliant orators like Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Don't ever underestimate the value of watching and listening to skilled speakers as a way of incorporating techniques into your own style.

6. Speak frequently. Look for opportunities to present to groups whether it's staff meetings, customer briefings or sitting on a panel. The more you get back up on that presentation bicycle, the smoother and more comfortable you become.

7. At the end of the day, whether you embrace all or some of the above recommendations, it comes down to practice...and more practice. If you're just rusty...practice. If you are acquiring new skills...practice. If you're refining and updating previously used techniques...practice.

Practice is truly the one thing that will make a significant impact on your confidence and ability to deliver presentations and speak in public.

So presentation skills are indeed a lot like riding a bicycle...you'll always have them. You may just need to take a few spins around the block to once again feel comfortable.

This post is part of a blog carnival at The Eloquent Woman blog -- surf on over and check out some other perspectives on how to revitalize rusty speaking skills.

Photo Credit:
www.flicker.com CC 2.0 
Kyle Gradinger/BCGP

Presentation Lessons from the Tonys

Award shows are filled with presentation lessons thanks to the quantity of presenters and variety of styles. The 2010 Tony Awards were no exception. They provided equal measure of emotional exuberance, stilted thank-yous and 'what was he thinking' ramblings.

THE PRESENTERS

The award presenters had limited ability to be creative or engaging as their job was to read the words on the teleprompter accurately and in as little time as possible. However, even within those parameters, certain presenters excelled.

Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane clearly had chemistry [granted, they're working together in The Addams Family] and humorously sparred back and forth to the delight of the audience, while still accomplishing the task at hand [reading the award nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical]. Contrast that interaction with Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Holmes who were robotic, appeared nervous and looked like they were both in need of a magic wand to whisk them somewhere far away.

Lessons for the Business Presenter

When introducing someone or presenting an award:

• let your personality shine through
• make eye contact with the audience
• even if you're reading from a script or teleprompter, put expression in your voice -- sound like they're your words, not someone else's
• smile
• if there are two of you doing the introduction or presentation, acknowledge and interact with the other person

THE RECIPIENTS

The award recipients had much more ability to be creative and engaging in their acceptance remarks. Fortunately, they were not scripted; unfortunately, some of them were not prepared. The acceptance speeches that stood out were the ones that told a story and showed some emotion...not the ones that were a boring recitation of a long list of names being thanked.

Winning the Tony for his role in Fences, Denzel Washington, a brilliant actor, was the poster child for how to come across as unprepared, inarticulate and just plain unimpressive. Maybe not so surprisingly, I couldn't find a YouTube video of his acceptance non-speech to show you. He claimed he hadn't expected to win [hello, everyone who is nominated has the possibility of winning] and stumbled through some disjointed remarks and poor attempts at humor.

As a dramatic contrast, Katie Finneran, winning for her role in Promises, Promises, was poised yet filled with emotion, personal, poignant and funny. She was even inspirational as she encouraged young people to follow their passion, assuring them that if they did, the right people and opportunities would appear. [Her remarks start at about 1:00 of the video] 

Closing off the evening, Catherine Zeta-Jones, winner of the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical [A Little Night Music], gave a brilliant acceptance speech -- funny, quirky, gracious and infused with an authentic exuberance. She was equal parts humble, outrageous and charming. Certainly bending the rules of "traditional", Zeta-Jones' remarks were refreshingly entertaining and engaging for the audience, both in Radio City Music Hall and at home.

Lessons for the Business Presenter

When accepting an award or some sort of recognition:

• let your personality shine through
• smile
• make eye contact
• dare to do something different
• as you prepare your remarks, think about the audience and what they would enjoy hearing -- more likely a story or anecdote about your path to your achievement than a list of thank yous
• don't come unprepared, assuming you'll think of something brilliant to say in the moment

Most of us probably won't be asked to give or accept a Tony award anytime soon...but no matter what award stage we stand on, these lessons from the Tonys will prepare us well.

Photo Credit: www.flickr.com Eda Cherry CC 2.0