According to studies (which unfortunately I can’t cite), public speaking is something that elicits a great fear in many people, greater than many situations of graver danger.
I like presenting, and if I am offered to do a speech in front of an audience about a subject I know well enough, I usually take it. The biggest internal audience I presented to was 200 people (on the introduction of the HR intranet); the biggest external audience 150 people (to psychology students at the University of Berne, about internal communications). I have copywritten many presentations for the my employer’s HR leadership, and a good friend of mine is a presentation coach – so I know a little bit about the subject.
There are three tips I can give you about preparing a good presentation:
1. Know your audience
The fear of public speaking stems mainly from a stress caused by uncertainty about the audience’s expectations. For this reason, you should be aware who is listening to your presentation, and what they expect from you.
- Write down a description of who you are presenting to, and why they are in the audience (out of curiosity? does their boss want them to be there?)
- Try to figure out what kind of questions you would have, if you were one of your listeners.
- Answer the most important of those questions in your presentation.
2. Structure your presentation
A good and easy model to structure presentations of almost any length is the WHAT/HOW/WHY model:
- WHAT is it you are talking about? – e.g. “Performance Management”
- HOW does that work? – e.g. “By setting goals, measuring achievements, and rewarding accordingly”
- WHY is it relevant to the audience? – e.g. “Because it motivates people to work well”
WHAT states; HOW explains; and WHY convinces. Make one slide for each of those questions, and you will have a neat, short deck you will be able to talk to. If you have more time, you can add sub-slides for each of the three parts.
3. Tell the audience 3 things to remember
The most common mistake in presenting is to confront the audience with too much information. You can present 20 different things to your listeners and tell them those are all important facts to remember. But guess what: If you’re lucky, they are going to remember one or two – and you have no control which ones they are going to be.
For this reason, summarize your presentation at the end to three things, and ask your audience to remember them. When I present, one of my final sentences is always: “In summary, there are three things I want you to remember – don’t forget them, even if you forget all the rest I have told you”. Not only does it make your message more effective, it also makes for an excellent wrapup.