Presentation warriors, now that you’ve chosen a topic and created slides using one of the three ways I mentioned in my previous article,  Planning a Conference Presentation, you must use effective presentation strategies to give a high performance workshop or talk. Delivering a presentation can be scary, especially in front of other education professionals like yourself.  Public-speaking does not come easy for many of us.

 

Most great speakers have one common characteristic – authority.  They are able to speak with authority about their topic because of their confidence and self-efficacy.  Here are four (4) strategies to help you build authority and deliver a great talk.

 

Effective Presentation Strategy 1 – Know Your Purpose

Simon Sinek speaks often about knowing your “why.”  “Why” is a good place to start when planning a presentation.  

 

What is the purpose of your talk?  Why would listening to you be helpful to someone?  How can they use the information you will be sharing?  What problem are you solving for them?

 

I have known many great educators who floundered during a speech simply because they’ve been unclear about the purpose of their talk.

 

This situation is similar to my writing blog posts.  When I forget my primary purpose – helping other central office administrators – my posts tend to wander off track.  These posts require much more revision and editing – thus more time to craft.

 

While it is good to give a presentation so that you can showcase what your district is doing, it is more important to provide something useful to your audience members.  Can they replicate what you are talking about? Can they re-purpose some of your strategies or data?

 

Shine the light on your district by helping your audience.

 

Effective Presentation Strategy 2 – Know Your Topic

 

In addition to knowing your purpose, you must know your topic.  Be the expert.

 

If you aren’t the expert on your topic, then that begs the question of whether you are the right person to be giving that particular presentation.  Knowing your topic forwards and backwards means that you don’t have to rely on your notes or on a slide deck.

 

Have you ever found yourself just reading your slide deck to your audience?  Yikes! Don’t do that. Ever. Please, I’m begging.

 

When you truly know your topic, then you can speak with authenticity.  Authenticity means you have put in the work and your audience will respond to your genuineness.

 

Yet professionals from all professions fall into the trap of reading slides to their audience.  

 

Why does this happen?  One reason this painful phenomenon occurs, I think, is the speaker may not be the expert on the topic.  If you don’t have thorough knowledge of your topic, then it is difficult to talk about it. So the slides are read to the audience.

 

So what happens if your superintendent asks you to prepare a presentation on a topic or program that is not really in your wheelhouse?  You have three options in this situation.

 

Option One

You might suggest to your superintendent a colleague who IS the expert on the topic.  Most superintendents would be open to this suggestion, I believe, since they want the presentation to go well and reflect positively on the district.  

 

But you know your district leadership best, so one of these other suggestions might work better for you.  

 

Option Two

A second option is to use a collaborative approach.  Build a team with co-workers who can speak knowledgeably about the topic.  In this situation, your role might be to provide an overview or introduction, synthesize the various parts, and provide some final thoughts at the end.  

 

Option Three

If neither of these options are acceptable in your situation, then you need to become the expert.  Talk with all the colleagues who are experts and read all the relevant documents and research.

Effective Presentation Strategy 3 – Pre-empt

the Nerves

Few people are comfortable in front a group of strangers.   Who might judge you. Or laugh at you. Or not laugh at your jokes. Or….perhaps worst of all…discover you are a fraud (see note above on being the expert).

 

What can you do if you get nervous?

 

Location, Location, Location

Previewing the room where you will be presenting is important.  Finding the room a day or so ahead of your talk will ensure that you aren’t scrambling around trying to find the room minutes before your presentation is to begin.  

 

I know most of our presentations will most likely occur in buildings with which we are familiar.  Perhaps the conference room down the hall, or one of the schools in your district.

 

However, when you present at conferences, especially national-level events, then you will most likely be at a large convention center.  

 

My experience is that there are rooms tucked around every corner in those venues.  Recently, I presented a session at a conference being held at the San Antonio convention center.  The place is huuuuuge.

 

After entering the front doors, I had to take an escalator up, then another escalator up.  Walk the length of a city block on the third floor, then take an escalator back down to the second floor.  Since the exhibit hall was closed, this was the most direct path to my session room. Crazy.

 

Imagine my panic if I had not scoped out the place prior to my presentation.

 

Room Arrangement

Another reason to find your location before the day you are giving your talk is to see how the room is set up.  You may need to make changes if you find a less than ideal situation.

 

A few months ago, I presented a concurrent session at a state conference.  The room set-up was not good. First of all, it was way too big – a ballroom, actually.  With a stage. Where the podium was. Where the laptop was LOCKED down. And no presentation remote (disclaimer:  I had to Google that term since I just call it a clicker).

 

I was tied to the podium in a ballroom to deliver a talk to a small group of people.  

 

The next time I presented at a conference, the room set up was virtually the same.  Big room, stage, laptop on stage podium. The difference was that I was prepared and had the presentation remote, which allowed me to move away from the podium while presenting.  

 

Bodywork

In addition to scouting your session location, it is important to do a bit of bodywork before beginning your presentation. (I am not talking massage here, although that isn’t a bad idea).

 

Body language often reflects our mental and emotional states.  I can sometimes tell if a co-worker or family member is upset or angry simply by looking at their body language.  

 

Are hands clenched?  Is the stance aggressive?  Are shoulders slumped and chest caved?

 

I learned this nugget of wisdom from Amy Cuddy’s TedTalk, Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are.  In her talk, Cuddy suggests prior to every talk or presentation, we should a take a moment alone to make ourselves BIG, aka “power posing.”  Do this in the privacy of another room. Take a bold and wide stance, arms up, chest lifted, head high.

 

Practicing this stance several times before starting your presentation will allow you to exude a body confidence.

 

Note:  Since Cuddy’s talk, some criticism around the replicability of the study has been occurred.  You can find more information and Cuddy’s response on the video’s TED page.

 

Effective Presentation Strategy 4 – Voice

Voice is another tool that great speakers use to their advantage during presentations.  A technical area, a full discussion of voice is a post in its own right.

 

Voice typically includes such techniques as pace, volume, pitch, prosody, timbre, register, and even silence. Julian Treasure discusses each of these and more in his TedTalk, How to Speak So That People Want to Listen.

 

If you are just beginning to make presentations, I suggest concentrating first on only two areas – pace and silence.    Pace is how quickly or slowly we speak. Often, when we are nervous, we tend to talk quickly.

 

Being comfortable with your topic will go a long way  to allowing you to speak at a normal pace when presenting.  Then you can use pace to add emphasis or to enrich your presentation.  Speeding up or slowing down for effect.

 

Which brings us to silence.  If we are nervous, we tend to be afraid of silence while making a speech.  And that often leads us to commit the faux pas above of speaking too quickly(or reading our slide deck).  

 

Think of silence in a talk in the same way that we do white space on a page.  White space provides a break for our eyes when we are reading. Silence provides the audience with a respite during a talk.

 

Silence is a gift  you can give your audience.

Making a presentation is not easy, especially for new speakers.  Knowing your purpose and your topic builds the authority that is necessary for developing solid presentation skills.  Acknowledging and addressing basic stagefright allows you to develop voice skills that can also build that authority and authenticity that great speakers have.  

 

Being cognizant of these four strategies – know your purpose, know your topic, pre-empt nerves, and voice – can help newcomers and seasoned presenters alike.  

 

Do you have some tips for making presentations?  Is there more that you would like to learn about delivering great presentations?  If so, please let me know in the comments section.

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If you are interested in learning more best practices for making great presentations, TED has pulled together a great playlist.  For more on planning a presentation, see my previous post.