Presentation Skills

How to give a lousy presentation in 15 easy steps

Giving great presentations requires skill, work and practice. So if you want to take the easy way out and look like a rank amateur, here are 15 surefire tips to guarantee that you leave a really bad impression.

5 ways to deliver a presentation Garth Brooks style

After watching Garth Brooks captivate a crowd recently, I realized that I had not watched a concert. Instead, I had witnessed a magnificent presentation of his “product”—his songs. I also realized that the way this showman delivered his material carries valuable lessons for communicators in any field.

Would Joe Biden doze in your meetings?

Vice President Joe Biden isn’t the only one who has dozed during an important moment. Sen. John McCain nodded off during George W. Bush’s State of the Union address in 2007. And in recent weeks, several air traffic controllers have been busted for sleeping on the job. To avoid leading a meeting that would put someone to sleep, drop the PowerPoint.

How to tell your story & make an impact

Behind every great business endeavor is a great story. “If you really want to create fans of your business who will become apostles and advocates for you, you have to use a narrative,” says Hollywood producer, executive and entrepreneur Peter Guber.

The 2-minute speech warm-up

The most important two minutes of your speech occur before you take the stage. Practicing nonverbal cues, or body language, will “optimally configure your brain to deal with a stressful situation," says Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy.

3 ways to be a Twitter-friendly speaker

Audiences no longer sit quietly, absorbing a speaker’s words and images, waiting to ask a question or make a comment. Instead, they use Twitter to text in real-time, usually adding a specific hashtag to their tweets. Any tweet mentioning a particular hashtag is part of the “backchannel” conversation among attendees and speakers.

Cut out the jargon and just say it

Jargon can complicate the most simple of messages. So why in the name of Web­­ster’s does the babble persist? “People use jargon because they want to sound smart and credible when in fact they … typically can’t be understood, which defeats the purpose of speaking in the first place,” says Karen Friedman, author of Shut Up and Say Something.

What we have is a failure to communicate

A leader’s ideas are only as good as his ability to cut through the noise. Consider how RIM CEO Jim Balsillie introduced the BlackBerry PlayBook—his company’s answer to the iPad. His words might be brilliant, if only anyone could understand them. And the PlayBook might be a superior product, if only leadership could sell it.

2-way presentation

When making a presentation, ward off audience boredom by making it interactive. Here are four ways to deliver, according to “5 Tips for Making Your Presentations More Social”:

Dread speaking? 6 ways to overcome it

The South by Southwest festivals and conferences each spring feature many experts, some of whom are not expert speakers. One of them, Thom Singer, has written a book, The ABC’s of Speaking, geared especially for the shy expert. He has six recommendations: