Presenting skills

[Logically4]

Hi everyone,

I’m presenting in front of an audience of about 20 people at the end of the month. I reckon it will be a tough and critical audience too. I don’t really know anyone there. Some staff are more senior than me, others are junior but applied for my job & didn’t get it. So any advice on public speaking/making this work? I feel a bit nervous and anxious. The presentation is on team building/better ways of working so it’s a bit wooly - not sure how it might land with audience

Whatever you do, do not read out your slides!
I don’t know your audience, so feel free to ignore as you see fit:
Give them a few numbers / stats why team building is important and give them real life scenarios and concrete things to do.

Thanks! To be honest, I could probably have more detailed slides on my monitor in front of me, and a different more empty set of slides on the big monitor behind me. So I get a prompt that the audience doesn’t see

Have you got a work colleague you can practise on?

YouTube is your friend here... generally, practise, time your presentation, breathe and slow down your speaking, be prepared for the questions you might get, don't have too much detail on one slide, and don't be afraid to say you'll get back to people if you don't know the answer.

Lots of presenters use notes to help them, cue cards or index cards or similar.

Maybe watch a few TED talks on the topic as well, many are given by brilliant speakers.

You got the job so there must be something about you. I've seen a tendency recently to use stories a lot more than when I started in the workplace; depending on how long you're going to talk for you could have some activities.

I'm picking up that you might encounter a bit of resentment from those who didn't get the job, be courteous and smiley and use eye contact to incorporate as many of those in the audience as you can. Also keep your tone of voice neutral if possible.

Best of luck with it, I'm sure it will go fine.

How are you delivering your presentation, Powerpoint or some other format?
Is this face-to-face or remotely?
Have you checked that you are using the latestest company/corporate template?
If face-to-face have you checked that any equipment needed is available, functioing correctly and you know how to work it?

There are loads of YouTubes on presenting, but I would advise a clear structure such as introduction, points you make, summary.
Max. 5 bullet points per page, if using PPT you can include any references or supporting material on the notes page.
As already said, time presentation, speak slowly, lowly and clearly, remember to state whether you welcome being interrupted for questions or whether there will be a Q & A session at the end.

Smile and be friendly. Work on the basis that people want to hear what you are saying and ae looking to get something for themselves from the session.

Set the language to do spelling and grammar checks, then check it yourself, then get it peer-reviewed. Keep language simple and explain any jargon or abbreviations in your supporting notes.
If this is going to be a long talk, equip yourself with a glass of water!

Good luck

Practice.
Go into a room, and pretend you have an audience. Do it out loud, properly, it will help you see where you don't now what you're saying.

Look just over the head of the person at the end of the room.

There's a BBC Maestro course on public speaking.

Prep and practise, lots. As few words as possible on each slide. Maybe do a menti or similar to prompt discussion and get a feel for your audience at the start?