Presentations can be nerve wracking.. specially if you are presenting after a long break. Read more to find out why it is scary and how to overcome and learn from your mistakes.
In the video: Presentation skills at Dubai College of Tourism
“ This experience made me understand that I need practice no matter how well reversed I am with the topic.”
Presentation skills are defined as a set of abilities that enable an individual to interact with their audience and transmit clear communication. Presentation skills are an important part of pitching a project at university or at work. “Giving an effective presentation means working with both the audience and the topic.” (MeetingTomorrow, n.d.) I work at Emirates Group under a project called ‘Priohub’ which is a B2B (business to business) department. I work as a content executive and I really enjoy working in this department. For my future career progression, I would potentially like to move to a B2C (business to customer) department which is called ‘My City Expert’ within the same group. After six months of working in the B2B department, I took an initiative to present on Social Media Marketing for the B2C team and share new ideas and strategies with the team.
I support around website management for the B2C team and I have a good relationship with the manager of that team. I casually mentioned to her about my ideas during lunch break and she encouraged me to present in front of the whole team. I had the next few days to create a decent looking presentation that would impress the team. I decided to host the meeting online on our office platform as I felt nervous presenting face to face in front of colleagues who are much older and experienced than I am. During the presentation, I felt confident presenting most of the information as I had done good research around the topic at hand. After the presentation, I got really good feedback and appreciation from the team which made me very happy and I finally felt at ease.
The benefit of having the meeting online was that I could speak confidently and my body language could not be seen by anyone except for my face. This made me think that the pandemic really has changed the traditional ways of hosting meetings and the way we interact or feel comfortable around people. The downside of having the meeting online was that I could not meet any one from the team in person or get proper feedback post presentation.
On reflection, the overall the presentation went very smooth, I talked about different strategies with relevant examples and insights. I added real life examples and that was a good way to grab the attention of my audience while keeping them engaged throughout the presentation. The meeting with the whole team was set for one hour, initially I allotted the first forty minutes for the presentation and the remaining time for questions and feedback. However, this did not go as planned since some of the team members started asking a few questions after each slide. As a result of that, I did go a bit over time but everyone understood and was patient enough to stay until the very end.
The team members were asking interesting questions during my presentation which was a different experience for me as I had to think of answers on the spot. I realize that this presentation was a stepping stone that will open many opportunities for me in the future.
Future presentations
I plan on starting my future presentations with interesting facts or a hook to grab the attention of my audience. I still don’t understand how closing of a presentation can be made effective so in order to develop that skill, I will spend some time researching about effective closing statements. According to the feedback, my words were sometimes not clear and came off as generic and so I need to work on improving my vocabulary. I plan on improving it by creating a list of new words that can be used in my speeches and presentation content. I believe all of these action plans mentioned above will help me deliver better presentations in the future both at university and work.
After researching for more tips on how to improve my presentation skills, I came across a very informative website called ‘Skills You Need’. (Conor , n.d.) I would like to share the top 5 skills that I plan on implementing in my future presentations:
1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience
2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs
3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message
4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience
5. Start Strongly
References
Conor , n.d. Skills you need. [Online] Available at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/presentation-tips.html [Accessed 03 03 2021].
MeetingTomorrow, n.d. Meeting Tomorrow. [Online] Available at: https://meetingtomorrow.com/blog/how-to-give-an-effective-presentation/ [Accessed 01 03 2021].
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