Taking the pain out of presentations

Media release 27 March 2007

Taking the pain out of presentations

Calling all reluctant business presenters - help is at hand to take the anxiety out of speaking in front of an audience.

Robert Half Finance & Accounting has come to the aid of the many professionals who have to present to an audience, without receiving any training on how to do so.

The podcast How to deliver powerful presentations is now available for download from Robert Half’s website, www.roberthalf.co.nz , to help business people prepare effective, anxiety-free and memorable presentations.

Denis Orme, international speaker, performance leader of the Leadership Success Institute, and former CEO of Bartercard New Zealand, and Kim Smith, division director of Robert Half Finance & Accounting, give simple rules for effective presentations.

The first rule of an effective presentation, says Mr Orme, is that thorough preparation is vital. “For every one hour of presentation you probably need 10-12 hours of preparation.”

That includes allowing sufficient time to practise in front of different trial audiences, honing your presentation depending on the reactions you receive.

Secondly, it is vital to focus on the audience and what they need from the experience. That includes knowing “who they are, what they care about, what do they fear, why are they there?”

As both Mr Orme and Ms Smith point out, presenters need different strategies depending on whether most of audience are passionate about the subject, or whether many of them are there only because they have been instructed to attend.

Reluctant audiences are the most difficult, says Ms Smith. “If they aren’t expecting anything, they may be a bit cynical about the content.

“These are the audiences you totally have to wow up front.”

Both agree that giving an effective presentation involves storytelling.

“People love stories,” says Ms Smith, who has presented to audiences as diverse as accounting professionals, real estate investors and not-for-profit groups. “Even accountants prefer good stories to a bunch of dry facts and figures.”

“Stories are so, so powerful when people are delivering a presentation,” says Mr Orme, whose experience includes international consulting and delivering a programme to Samoan business people as part of Australia & New Zealand Foreign Aid.

“Signature stories - incidents or events in your life - are even more powerful, because people can relate to you and what’s going on.”

And knowing your subject matter inside out is “absolutely critical”, says Mr Orme. If you don’t “you are very, very quickly transparent to your audience once you go beyond your prepared presentation. You’ll get into some of the questions and you won’t be able to answer them”.

Other tips include how to use PowerPoint and other visual aids effectively, how to control last-minute nerves, how to engage an audience’s attention at the start of the presentation, how to refocus an audience during a lengthy presentation dealing with dry subject matter, and how to deal with difficult questions or interjectors.

“Presentations are theatre,” says Mr Orme. “You are engaging all the senses of the audience the moment you stop on the platform or podium.”

How to deliver powerful presentations is available at www.roberthalf.co.nz . Follow the links on the home page to the podcast.

Ends

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