Powerful Presenting

How to embrace your audience, gain confidence, and take your presentation to a whole new level

Photo by Matthias Wagner on Unsplash.

I get it: Presentations are daunting. Some love them, some hate them. Unfortunately, I find that powerful presenting as a software engineer is somewhat of a rarity but a truly incredible skill to have. If you’re one of the lucky ones who have it, I can guarantee it has not gone unnoticed.

These tips have transformed both my mindset around presentations and my technique. I’ve become more confident than ever, so what better way to embrace it than to share it with you?

Consider Your Audience

Before starting any presentation, consider these questions:

• Who are they? Are you presenting to an internal/external audience? Are you presenting up/down/across the organisation? What speaking style is better (formal or informal)?
• Why are they here? Is it mandatory for them to be here? Is it optional? Do they want to learn or are they looking for answers to some important questions?
• What makes them care? What are they hoping to get out of this? Why do they care about the content? Why should they?
• What do they fear? Do they fear not understanding the information? Do they fear being misinformed? Do they fear making the wrong impression or not paying attention? Maybe they are fearful of asking questions? How can you help with those fears?
• Why might they resist? Is the content too complex? Is it not getting the point across? Do they have a different view or opinion on things? Do they simply not agree? Maybe you’re trying to “sell” them something. How can you make that worth their while? More enticing?

Clarify Your Objective

Now let’s consider the following:

• What have I been asked to present/share? What is the key information you need to provide? What’s my point here?
• What is my goal? List three main points you want everyone to walk away from your presentation knowing. Whether it’s a two-minute or two-hour presentation, what do you want your audience to walk away remembering?
• What transformation do I want to see in my audience? What do I want my audience to think, feel, and do? Do you want your audience to think about the problem? Do you want them to feel inspired? Understood? Motivated? Do you want them to engage? Ask questions? Sit in silence?

Write Your Content

Consider these questions about your content:

• What can you tell your audience that is new? Surprise your audience. They came to learn something new, so what can you tell them that they have never heard before? Maybe you can present your content in such a way that an old concept suddenly is seen in a new light.
• How can you convey that it matters? Really get your point across here. Why is this important? Why is it crucial to understand?
• What is your viewpoint? Personalise it. What’s your opinion?
• What should they do? Tell them! Should they look up some extra resources you’ve provided? Should they think about a particular aspect?
• What will they gain? Tell them! Make their time seem valuable. Tell them what they would gain from adopting your approach if you are trying to persuade them to your idea. How are you making this worth their while?

Enhance Your Message

And some guidelines to represent the cherry on top of the cake:

• Choose the right content. Know what to cut out. No one likes a long-winded presentation. Only keep the most important bits.
• Place information in a strategic order. Order, order, order. Don’t make the audience try to decipher where the story is going next.
• Share your points in a compelling way. Tell a story! Make it personal. Show the meaning of data in a compelling and powerful way. Think outside the box!

Craft the Perfect Visual Aids

Simple but so important:

• Reduce the amount of content. Treat slides like billboards!
• Break up slides with multiple points. Presentation length is based on the length of content — not the number of slides. If your slides make more than one point, break them up.
• Format items and text consistently. Consistency is the key here.
• Visualise information whenever possible. The audience is focused on you and not the text on the screen.

Convey Confidence

• Breathe in and out! Get in the right state of mind. Relax and enjoy it.
• Adjust volume and speed. Slow down and speak clearly.
• Maintain eye contact. Slowly scan the room and meet the eyes of different people.
• Refrain from using filler words. Get rid of “umm,” “like,” etc.
• Reduce distracting body movements. No slouching or fidgeting. Act confident.
• Adjust to what your audience needs. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and practice.
• Vary pace, volume, and tempo of voice. Over-articulate key words and phrases. Slow down in dramatic sections and pick up the pace when speaking about something exciting.

Conclusion

Give these tips a go just for one presentation and thank me later.