A Geek’s Guide To Presenting
As a leader, it is your job to influence people outside of your team to take actions that benefit your team and the organization as a whole. Being a Geek most people really don’t like to do a presentation altogether and is terrifying to most. To me, a presentation is something that I would hate to do even though some people think that I did a good job I would say that I was ok. But in my mind, I hate every last minute of the presentation.
The purposes of a presentation and things you should do. you’ll feel empowered to get up in front of the room and be yourself. And all it takes is for you to follow five steps :
- clarify your goal- what you would want them to know what you are talking about.
- Get into their heads- make them believe in what you are trying to say.
- craft a transformation (write it) – show what your plan is and what you are trying to do.
- present, connect and resonate
- conclude with a call to action
As geeks, we organize our thinking around problems and solutions, and that’s a powerful framework for presentation. Start out by thinking carefully about what problem this presentation is intended to solve. The common purposes for presentations to business people are to:
influence decisions- you want a decision maker to make a choice that you think is best , or at least for her to understand the trade-offs.
manage expectations and share status- you want people to be aware of what’s going on with something so their expectations are line with reality.
leverage opportunities – you want people to focus attention on something you consider important.
leverage technology- you want a user to be able to use some sort of technology effectively.
How to make a good presentation
The experts all agree on one thing: too much text will kill your presentation. Rule number one in Seth Godin’s extremely popular post on how to make great presentations is: “No more than six words on a slide. EVER. There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken.
Making a presentation would be highly stressful because you are not used to being in front of people and talking to them in person. you are used to limited communication with others and being on your laptop.
4 tips for connecting with your audience
say it out loud- Make it to were people you are speaking to can hear you
let it show – there’s an important distinction.
diffuse nervous energy
pause and look – the most powerful way to truly embody the emotional are of the presentation is to pause and look.
The key point in evoking resonance are
- be yourself
- be present
- be aware of the importance of the substance of your presentation
- pause to look at your audience
as you can see the message of your presentation you want to convey the idea that your idea that you are turning the responsibility for the transformation you want over to the audience. Your last slide shouldn’t be generic. Think back at the common goals for the presentation. Each one might have a different call to action. And most of all know what you are talking about if you don’t know what you are talking how would you expect anyone else to know what you are talking about.