The Importance Of Presentation Skills For Managers
Presentation skills are essential for any corporate job, but it is all the more important for a managerial one.
A manager needs to convey their ideas to the team, discuss challenges faced, find the solutions to these challenges and motivate the group occasionally.
And the best way to achieve that is to give an effective presentation.
In this post, you’ll learn more about how you can work on your presentation skills and how it can be a game changer for you.
Our presentation skills course and private workshop include these topics and more, and are led by expert trainers.
Recognising The Context Of A Presentation For A Manager
Audience Dynamics
A manager may present to different audiences, including his team, subordinates, external shareholders, senior executives, etc. For an effective presentation, they will need to tailor their content and style according to the public in front of them.
Managers have to talk to their audience in a way they will best understand.
For example, when presenting to your peers, you can have a casual tone and even employ humour to a certain extent.
But when you are showing presentation slides to senior executives, it is safer to have a more relaxed and formal tone and save those jokes for after the presentations.
If you would like to go deeper on the topic of knowing your audience, read our article on this topic.
Purpose And Objectives
If you set clearly defined goals, whether trying to inform the audience, motivate, persuade or a combination of all these, it will help guide you through the process.
Having a clear purpose for the presentation will dictate every aspect of it, from visual aids like compelling slides to nonverbal communication like hand gestures and smiles.
Giving a clear purpose to your presentation before even starting is an excellent way to begin your preparations on the right foot.
5 Top Tips For Managers
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Structure Your Persuasive Presentation
Give a proper structure to your presentation with a compelling introduction, followed by a detailed but concise run-through of the main points and concluding with a call to action or a summary. This presentation format will give a logical flow to the talk, making it easy for the audience to follow. It will also simplify the process of preparing for the procedure.
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Use Visual Aids
Visual aids like graphs and pie charts can help you break the monotony of written texts and make your presentation engaging and more effective. This is why visual aids are an essential aspect of a PowerPoint presentation. Remember not to overdo it and only use it judiciously when and where required.
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Use Storytelling
Stories are an effective tool to engage your audience and delight them. They help you make the message more relevant and memorable. Use relevant stories and examples so that your presentation is not a snooze fest with random ideas thrown at the audience.
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Interact With Your Audience
As the presenter, the onus of talking is on you, but that doesn’t mean you should be the only person talking in the room. A good presentation will always include interacting with the audience. Ask them questions, seek feedback and foster conversations. You don’t need to ask them insightful questions; even the one that requires a simple nod from their side would be enough.
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Practice, Practice, Practice
Unless you’re naturally good at it, you won’t be great at public speaking in a day. But this is precisely where practice comes in. So, practise in front of friends and family. Take their feedback and incorporate the suggestions to develop effective presentation skills.
Overcoming Common Managerial Presentation Challenges
Dealing With Nervousness
It’s okay to feel a little nervous before your presentations but don’t let it get the better of you and spoil all your preparations.
A great way to relax your nerves is deep breathing. Do it a few times before you present.
Another easy method of dealing with nervousness is visualisation. When you practise for the presentations, visualise your audience and present to them.
This will help you get better of your anxiety and calm you down. Remember, body language is important for anyone trying to improve presentation skills.
The more calm and composed you look, the better it is for you.
Managing Difficult Audience Members
When presenting to a large audience, you might encounter some difficult ones. People who can ask random questions, interrupt you while you are speaking, and, in general, make it difficult for you to deliver an effective presentation.
You must be prepared to handle that situation.
One way to minimise interruptions while presenting is to set expectations early. Tell the audience that you’ll be taking questions at the end, and if something is unclear during the presentation, they can raise their hand to ask.
If you’re asked off-topic questions, promptly mention the same and try to bring back the conversation to your topic. It is also advisable to prepare for the FAQs related to the subject of your presentation.
Adapting To Technical Difficulties
You can be well prepared and feel confident about the presentation, but a minor technical issue can still undo it.
This is why it is important to double-check every piece of equipment you’ll be using during the presentation.
Better still, have a backup plan for any unforeseen technical issue involving the presentation tools.
Technology can be unpredictable at times, but with the proper preparation, you’ll minimise the chance of any untoward incident happening.
Conclusion
Presentation skills are a must-have for a manager.
Because you might have to present to a wide variety of audiences, presentations can be uniquely challenging.
But with the proper preparations and practice, it is one skill that can provide you with a great return on investment.
It helps you in networking, leadership, and decision-making, and builds effective communication.
This is why any manager should be constantly looking for opportunities to become the go-to manager for presentations.
If the top worldwide public speakers can serve as an inspiration, check out our list of the top 10.
