Increasingly professionals are being asked to make presentations in the workplace – whether face to face or online – for interview purposes, management meetings, zoom seminars, sales updates, strategy planning, team briefings, training sessions etc.
Isn’t it time you stopped to analyse your own skills and reviewed whether you are making any of these classic presentation errors?
- Thinking you can turn up unprepared, blag it and that people won’t notice…they will.
- Apologising for yourself at the start, especially if it’s your first presentation. Don’t kid yourself that people will make allowances for your mistakes…they won’t.
- Using jargon or high fallutin’ words to try to impress people…it won’t.
- Speaking in monotone. You MUST sound interested in your subject – if you’re not interested, why should anyone else be?
- Talking facts and stats all the way through. People are emotional beings – we want analogies, stories and anecdotes to bring cold hard facts to life!
- Showing closed body language – sitting down instead of standing up, folding arms and limiting hand movement – it’s difficult to hear a positive message when the visual one is so negative.
- Failing to smile – even if you’re nervous, a smile can put both you and your audience more at ease.
- Running over time – no-one likes being kept listening for longer than they’d been expecting. Remember: be sincere, be brief, be seated.
