Effective Presentation Skills: Visuals, Body Language, and Oral Delivery
Visual Aids
Design
- Start Strong: Engage your audience from the beginning.
- One Point at a Time: Help your audience focus by presenting one idea per slide. Keep it concise and avoid wordiness. Never simply write out your entire speech on the slides; it’s disrespectful to your audience’s time and reading ability.
- Contrast: Use font colors that contrast sharply with the background for easy readability. Simplicity is key.
- Consistent Text Appearance: Maintain a consistent and effective text style throughout your slides.
- Font Size: Ensure the font is large enough for everyone in the room to read comfortably, even those in the back.
- Relevant Pictures: Use images that are directly related to your topic and enhance your message, not just serve as decoration.
- Clear Graphs: Always title your graphs and provide a clear summary of the results on the slide. Analyze the data and present it in the simplest way possible.
- Transitions and Effects: If you use transitions, keep them simple and consistent throughout the presentation. The focus should be on your message, not distracting animations.
- Strong Closing: End with an impactful closing statement, as your audience is more likely to remember your last words.
Body Language
Eye Contact
- Maintain eye contact to keep your audience engaged. Connect with individuals in the room.
- Avoid being a “tennis umpire presenter” who only looks back and forth.
Facial Expression
- Keep a natural and friendly facial expression.
Posture
- Stand straight but relaxed, avoiding slouching or leaning.
- Keep your feet apart and shoulders square, facing the audience. This conveys confidence and authority.
- Avoid these negative postures:
- Standing on your heels
- Crossing your legs
- Lowering your head
- Crossing your arms in front of you (conveys weakness)
- Folding your arms across your chest (transmits rejection)
- Placing hands behind your back (shows lack of energy)
- Putting hands in pockets (can appear overly confident or apathetic)
- Standing with hands on hips (defiant or condescending)
- The “T-Rex” posture (elbows close to the body, forearms raised)
- Instead, maintain open and confident body language.
Gestures
- Use a pointer when necessary, but avoid fidgeting with it.
- Use fingers to emphasize points (e.g., “three advantages”).
- Use vertical or horizontal hand movements to compare, illustrate timelines, or show stages.
- Show your palms to convey openness.
- Adapt gestures to your content.
- Avoid touching your nose, face, hair, rubbing your eyes, or biting your nails, as these convey insecurity.
Movement
- Avoid swaying back and forth.
- Move slowly and purposefully.
- Establish a “power position” when stationary.
- Move closer to the audience for emphasis.
- Don’t pace aimlessly like a “lighthouse presenter.”
- Plan your movements in advance to ensure they make sense.
Oral Skills
Albert Mehrabian’s Rule (Face-to-Face Communication)
- Words: 7%
- Tone of Voice: 38%
- Body Language: 55%
The 4 Ps
• Pitch • Intonation – voice modulation • Word stress • Pace • Speed • Pause • Projection (volume) • Enunciation (clarity of articulation) • Pronunciation What ‘s Pitch? Pitch refers to the ups and downs of your voice when you speak. Why is pitch important? A monotone voice bores the audience and a bored audience is less likely to recall your key points or to take action. It’s very important to pay special attention to concepts such as Intonation and word stress. What ‘s Pace? Pace refers to the speed at which you speak. A good speaker knows the value of changing the pace as they speak. For example, when you are introducing a topic that is exciting you can speed up the pace of your voice. On the other hand, when you want people to focus their attention you may slow down for emphasis. The overall point is that variation is the key to success here.