If you're an introverted business owner or leader, you may not have given much thought to developing your presentation skills. You may even avoid public speaking opportunities.
But avoidance may not serve you well. The ability to present with credibility and confidence can be a crucial skill. It can help position your company as an industry leader, attract positive attention to your products and services, and influence prospective customers.
If you're anxious about giving presentations but want to improve, read on for some powerful public speaking tips. These presentation tips can help you deliver successful and engaging presentations.
1. Be in charge of your fears.
Fear can hamper your ability to deliver effective presentations and make it difficult to articulate your thoughts clearly when submitting proposals or making a pitch. Addressing fears can be the first step in developing effective presentation skills.
Some of the nervousness a public speaker may experience can come from the fear that something might go wrong during the presentation.
While this can apply to an extrovert, the anxiety may be more pronounced for an introverted speaker.
You may not be able to prevent every possible mishap. However, you can lower your anxiety by asking yourself: "What can go wrong?" Then, try thinking of every potential mishap that may occur during your presentation, and plan accordingly. For instance:
Fear of Anticipated Questions
Are you anxious that you will not have the answers to all the questions? Try to prepare and rehearse answers to anticipated questions:
- Generally, if there's any cost associated with whatever you're proposing, questions on value can come up. Cost concerns can include not only monetary but time investment, extra resources, extra space, or additional human resources. Other commonly asked questions may include the feasibility or benefits of your proposal.
- Once you've identified all the questions, consider creating hidden slides with brief bullet points that address some of the more complex questions that might come up. Using slides to respond to the more complex questions that may be asked can show that you have prepared and went the extra mile to ensure you have all the answers for your audience.
- Consider noting the slide number of these hidden slides so you can easily pull them up when needed. (You can do this by typing the slide number and pressing "enter." This will take you to the desired slide without using the slide sorter to try to find the slide.)
- You can say: "I'm often asked this question." Or: "I anticipated you might be asking this question. Let me pull up a slide that will explain this point."
Fear of Technological Difficulties
Are you concerned that you'll run into technical problems? Technology difficulties come in many varieties:
- Is it fear that your presentation software won't work? Consider backing up a copy of your presentation slide deck on not only one flash drive but two or three, as flash drives can malfunction. You could also save your presentation to a cloud server.
- Try saving a copy of your slide deck as a PDF, which you can use in case your slides don't work.
- Other technical difficulties might include issues such as a malfunctioning projector:
- Staying calm and maintaining composure when you encounter projector malfunctions can be crucial.
- First, try to make sure the presentation laptop is connected correctly to the projector.
- If the problem persists, you can restart the projector and the laptop.
- If these don't work, consider having a backup plan ready, such as printed copies of your presentation or using a whiteboard or flip chart instead of the projector.
- Being connected to the IT team can help you to address any last-minute technical issues or troubleshoot any connectivity problems that may occur during the presentation.
- Consider going to the presentation room before the presentation to ensure you are familiar with the setup and any technical requirements or challenges that may arise. For example, try to preview the presentation on the TV, computer, or projector that will be used during the presentation so you can make any changes.
Fear of Forgetting
Do you worry that you won't remember what you have to say?
- Try to prepare well in advance by creating a detailed outline or script for your presentation. This can help keep you organized and ensure that you cover all of the important points.
- Practice, practice, practice! Rehearsing your presentation multiple times can help solidify the information in your memory and can reduce the chances of forgetting important points.
- Consider breaking up complex ideas into smaller, more manageable chunks to make it easier to remember them.
- By using the presenter view notes option in your software, you can help improve your presentation skills and better recall the presentation material. The presenter view will allow you to glance at some of your notes to refresh your memory without the audience noticing that you have a momentary blank.
- I spoke with Jennifer B. Kahnweiler, author of The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Quiet Strength, on how to improve presentation skills. This is what she said about managing the fear of forgetting your content: "Have a conversation with your audience," Kanhweiler advises. "Get out from behind the podium. You know your material and where you want to go, so connect. You can memorize your opening and close and think about the rest of your speech as having key talking points or 'beats' as the stand-up comics do. And when you get tense, just breathe slowly. Take that pause, as it lets your audience breathe too."
2. Focus on your content.
One way to improve your presentation skills is to avoid approaching your presentation as a performance. Leave that to the extroverts who may do this naturally and enjoy doing it. People can crave meaningful and valuable insights to improve their business or their life. If you focus on providing helpful content, the performance can take care of itself.
- I spoke with Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, about public speaking tips for an introverted speaker who wanted to gain credibility as a presenter. "Don't act like a motivational speaker if that's not who you are," says Cain. "As a speaker, it's not about you. It's about serving your audience. Ask yourself what your audience needs to hear and how you can share the knowledge they seek with them. Then you've done your job.”
- You're there to present your well-thought-out ideas or insights. Perhaps you're speaking to outline some valuable data the audience has come to hear. You may plan to unveil some new, essential initiatives for your company. You may want to share your unique insights on a topic of interest to your listeners. Try to focus on that.
- You don't need to tell jokes. Try to craft a clear exposition of your ideas the way you would do when conversing comfortably with another person. Consider crafting a simple story to illustrate your points and give examples to clarify your meaning.
- Try to spend time to organize your presentation content to avoid information overload. For example, a simple three-step structure can help ensure that your content is concise and easy to follow:
- Introduction: Try to start by introducing the topic and providing an overview of what you will present.
- Main body: Consider outlining your main points or arguments, presented in a logical order and supported by evidence or examples.
- Conclusion: Try to summarize the key takeaways and reinforce your main message.
3. Get rid of social anxiety in presentation skills.
As an introvert, you likely don't enjoy having to schmooze at cocktail parties. You may also dread small talk or chit-chat with many people at networking events, and large group discussions probably aren't high on your list of favorite activities.
Public speaking, however, can be different.
You may be the only one up there speaking, and you don't have to struggle to be heard in a noisy room filled with extroverts. Everyone is there to listen to you! Moreover, there's no chit-chat or small talk required. You are there to talk about what matters, about your knowledge and expertise.
Focusing on the difference between social events and presentations may help lessen your anxiety and improve your presentation skills.
4. Take advantage of technology.
Consider a few technology aids that can help alleviate your public speaking anxiety and boost your presentation skills.
Presentation Anxiety Apps
- Azumio: instant heart rate monitor prompts you to take a few deep breaths to lower your heart rate.
- Public Speaking HiveBrain: guided meditation to help you relax before the presentation.
- Virtual Speech: enables you to practice in front of a virtual mock audience.
Teleprompter Apps
Teleprompter apps may lower your anxiety about forgetting what you want to say.
Timing Apps
Timer apps can mitigate the fear that you will run out of time or speak so fast that you finish speaking too soon.
5. Use these presentation tips and enjoy a job well done.
After a successful public presentation, extroverted speakers may seek more contact with others to relax and savor the moment in the company of others.
Introverted speakers, on the other hand, may need some downtime. You may prefer being alone or in the company of a close associate to reflect on the event and replenish your emotional battery.
Knowing this about yourself, you may want to pre-plan an enjoyable après-presentation ritual to reward yourself for delivering a successful and persuasive presentation. By pre-planning this ritual, you can have something to look forward to which may help you reduce your anxiety before the presentation. You can have a plan in place for how to spend your time after the presentation that doesn't involve socializing with everyone in the room.
A version of this article was originally published on November 02, 2018.
Photo: Getty Images
