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How comfortable are you speaking in front of a crowd?
If you’ve been asked to give a presentation, this is an excellent opportunity to showcase your professional expertise and impress your colleagues and superiors. Learning to give a presentation that leaves an impression can help advance your business and your career. Unfortunately, the prospect of speaking in front of a group can be intimidating and anxiety-provoking for many people. Take a look at these four tips to help improve your presentation skills, impress your audience, and build your business!
Related: The Art of Listening: Why Confident Communication is a Two-Way Street
1. Get Feedback: One of the simplest and most effective ways to evaluate your abilities and improve your speaking style is to get feedback from your audience, friends, and colleagues. Ask them to give you their candid observations of your talk. From this, you can gather a lot of information about your strengths and challenges as a presenter. With this information, you can get a greater understanding of what to do to improve your areas of weakness.
2. Record Yourself: Before your presentation, practice at home while recording a video of yourself. Watching the video will help you to see your talk with fresh eyes. You will notice first-hand what is working well and what you need to do to make your presentation more engaging and compelling.
3. Practice: Practice makes for a perfect presentation! Always look for opportunities to improve your presentation skills by volunteering to speak during staff meetings at work or your church or civic organization. This will sharpen your presentation skills and provide a great opportunity for you to be seen as someone who has the potential to become the next big talent in in your organization.
4. Get Formal Training: Working with a communication professional like a corporate speech-language pathologist or communication coach can work wonders in enhancing your communication skills. It can help build your confidence and arm you with a toolbox full of techniques and strategies. When we get started with a client, we do a ten-point assessment to pinpoint the areas that need improvement. You may think you understand your strengths and weaknesses, but almost all of our clients are surprised by what they discover during this process. This feedback paired with the insights into the areas that need improvement are the first step to taking your presentation skills to the next level. Our goal is to help you pronounce, project and present with greater impact as well as executive presence.