ifs presentation skills feb 2012 v17.1-1€¦ · you bring to the class the skills necessary to be...

Foundation Series®

Presentation Skills

inform – inspire – implement – improve

P R E S E N T A T I O N S K I L L S

iSpeak, Inc. 2012© i

Presentation Skills

iSpeakTM prepared this workbook for use in the area of Training and Development for continuing education. It is intended that these materials will be used to assist students in the learning process during a workshop, after the workshop for review, and continued learning as a reference guide.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Curriculum Developers: Russ D. Peterson, Jr. Kevin J. Karschnik Copyright Notice Copyright © 2012 by iSpeak™. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States. iFS_Presentation Skills_Feb 2012_v17.1 Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication, including additional handouts, reference guides, or any part thereof, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of iSpeak™. Disclaimer While iSpeak™ makes a sincere effort to ensure the accuracy and quality of the materials described herein, all material is provided without warranty, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. iSpeak disclaims all liability for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential, special or exemplary damages resulting from the use of this product or the products described in this workbook. Trademark Notices iSpeakTM, ispeak.com, Communicating4Success, Presenting4Success, Selling4Success, Servicing4Success, Managing4Success, Leading4Success and the iSpeak logo are registered trademarks of iSpeakTM. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are trademarks of their respective companies. No such use is intended to convey endorsement. Order More Books To order additional copies of this workbook, visit our online store at www.iSpeak.com/store. For any questions, please contact us at 512.671.6711 or by email at [email protected]. Thank You Thank you for your purchase. We are committed to delivering a successful training program in a productive, efficient, and positive manner. Enjoy the workshop.

W E L C O M E

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Welcome to Presentation Skills

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin

We have all seen, heard or know someone who can speak with expressiveness, and they made a tremendous impression on us. Think about a presentation at work, a sermon at church, a political speech, or even a public seminar you attended where the speaker made an impact on you. A well-executed presentation can influence how people think and can influence the decisions they make.

Presentations provide the opportunity to communicate information with impact to audience members. The ability to make a powerful, professional presentation has become a necessity at all levels of a business organization. Every time you speak you represent yourself and your company. If you are an effective and dynamic presenter, you will cast a favorable light on virtually all your business endeavors.

Research shows that participants who interact during this course will gain a superior understanding of the course content over those who passively read the workbook or listen to the facilitator.

You bring to the class the skills necessary to be a great presenter. Research shows that participants who interact during this course will gain a superior understanding of the course content over those who passively read the workbook or listen to the facilitator. Presentation Skills will challenge you to step outside of your comfort zone to learn new techniques. To become a skilled communicator, you will have to challenge yourself to improve these skills, and that means practice.

The information and inspiration will be provided by your facilitator, but the implementation is the single most important factor in your improvement. During the class, you will be asked to stand up and conduct various presentations.


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Exercise: Course Expectations

What do you want to gain from the Presentation Skills course?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

iv iSpeak, Inc. 2012© www.iSpeak.com

Table of ContentsWelcome to Presentation Skills ii

Unit One: Effective Communication 1 Effective Communication 2 Bad Presentations 3 Fear of Speaking 4 Presentation #1 Expectations 6 History of Public Speaking 8 Communication Factors 10 Using Your Voice 12 Effectively Using Body Language 15 Unit Summary 18

Unit Two: Presentation Foundation 19 Presentation Types 20 Presentation Objective 22 Audience Analysis 24 Unit Summary 28

Unit Three: Presentation Structure 29 Presentation Structure 30 Presentation Development 31 Conclusions & Closings 32 Introductions & Openings 34 Develop & Design the Body 36 Supporting Materials & Examples 37 Transitions 38 Unit Summary 40

Unit Four: Presentation Techniques 41 Room Logistics 42 Personal Motivation 43 Handling Questions 44 Using Visual Aids 46 Unit Summary 52

Implement to Improve 53 iSpeak After the Class 54 Satori 55 Kaizen 56 21-Day Habit 57 Foundation Series Curriculum 58 Corporate Ovations 59 iSpeak Success Series Workshops 60 Recommended Reading Materials 61


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Table of Exercises Exercise: Audience Annoyances ...................................................................................................... 3 Exercise: Biggest Fears .................................................................................................................... 5 Exercise: Transforming Fear ............................................................................................................ 5 Exercise: Presentation #1 ................................................................................................................ 7 Exercise: Tongue Twisters ............................................................................................................. 13 Exercise: Vocal – How you say it ................................................................................................... 14 Exercise: Body Position .................................................................................................................. 16 Exercise: Presentation Types ........................................................................................................ 21 Exercise: Presentation Objective ................................................................................................... 23 Exercise: Audience Analysis .......................................................................................................... 26 Exercise: Presentation Closing ...................................................................................................... 33 Exercise: Presentation Opening ..................................................................................................... 35 Exercise: Supporting Materials and Transitions ............................................................................ 39 Exercise: Personal Motivation ........................................................................................................ 43 Exercise: Potential Questions ........................................................................................................ 45 Exercise: Visual Aid Jeopardy ........................................................................................................ 47 Exercise: Using PowerPoint ........................................................................................................... 49 Exercise: Presentation #2 .............................................................................................................. 51


Unit One:

Effective Communication

“I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they’d be up here on stage and I’d be out there watching them.” -Ethel Merman

he ability to present is vital to achieving advancement for yourself and for your ideas. Effective presentations provide the opportunity to communicate your ideas in an organized manner. They can inform your audience about a particular subject or influence your audience to take a particular action. Few skills in life will contribute to

your success as much as presentation skills, because they are integral in all other aspects. Many may claim that in regards to presentation skills “you are either born with it or you aren’t.” This claim is not true; presenting is a skill that can be learned. Just as a sports skill like baseball can be learned, so to can the skill of effective presenting. Just as highly successful baseball athletes add their own style to the skill to create an art form, so do highly successful presenters.

In this unit, you will learn:

Communication Importance

Fear of Speaking

History of Speaking

First Presentation

Communication Factors

Unit One

1

T

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Effective Communication

“Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or small, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle, and a victory.” - Gandhi

It does not matter if you are meeting one person or presenting in front of a large group, you have to prepare your message, develop it, and then deliver it. Having an effective communication process will help you develop all types of relationships, both personal and professional. The following studies are evidence that employers value the importance of effective communication and presentation skills. The Job Outlook 2012 survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and

Employers (NACE) indicates that good communication skills (written and verbal) are among the top attributes sought by employers evaluating a job candidate.

A survey conducted in 1986 by the Journal of Business Communication of Fortune 500 vice presidents shows that 97.7 percent “believed that communication skills had affected their advancement to a top executive position.”

In July of 2002, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business conducted a survey of MBA graduates and found that they felt that the ability to communicate effectively was the single most useful skill in their career.

A study conducted by the University of Michigan Graduate School in 1984 found that executives from 5000 U.S. companies from a wide range of industries and sizes found that communication played a significant role in their advancement to management.

In a 1989 study of CEOs by A. Foster Higgins and Company, they found that 79 percent of CEOs surveyed believe that better communication will benefit the bottom line of their company.

A study of the top 1000 advertising executives in 2001 stated that strong presentation skills (55%) was the single most important business asset to possess. Specific industry experience was ranked a distant second (23%) and management experience at only 3%.

In the 1984 book, How American Chief Executives Succeed, The American Management Association surveyed over 5,000 CEOs and asked “What is the most important thing you have learned in order to perform your role as an executive?” They ranked communication skills as number one.

In the 1991 edition of Supervision, 725 upper and middle managers were surveyed and sited the ability to communicate ideas and plans in front of an audience as the #1 skill in terms of upward mobility, surpassing negotiation, selling and persuasive talents.



Bad Presentations

“There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.” - Dale Carnegie

We have all seen presentations that were ineffective or poorly delivered. There are lots of reasons for a presentation to go bad. It might have been the communication style of the presenter, the content, or some combination thereof. Research conducted by MBA Dave Paradi identified the top three things that audiences find annoying about presentations:

1) Speaker reads the slides

2) Text was too small to read

3) Full sentences instead of bullet points

Exercise: Audience Annoyances

In the space below, provide other ingredients of a bad presentation.

Unstructured presentation

Poor communications skills

Presenters reading their slides

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________



Fear of Speaking

“The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.” - George Jessel

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Do the thing you fear and death of fear is certain.” The fear of speaking in public is the second biggest fear among Americans. It ranks ahead of the fear of heights, according to the Gallup News Service Poll conducted on March 19, 2001. The top four fears in America are:

1. ________________

2. Speaking in public

3. Heights

4. Death

This does indicate that speaking to a group in public can cause extreme anxiety. The Gallup Poll illustrates that over 40% of people have a fear of speaking, but other studies indicate that the number is closer to 75%. Virginia P. Richmond and James C. McCroskey, authors of Communication Apprehension,

Avoidance, and Effectiveness, believe that speaker anxiety is common. They suggest that between 70% and 75% of the adult population have a fear of public speaking.

Jeffrey Hahner, Martin Sokoloff, and Sandra Salisch, authors of Speaking Clearly: Improving Voice and Diction, state that 76% of experienced speakers experience fear before speaking.

Causes of Fear

Presentations are almost certain to create different fears in different people. The most common causes for fear of public speaking are forgetting what you will say and embarrassing yourself in front of peers. If you can focus your fear of speaking it can serve as energy or fuel for your presentation. The goal is to use your anxiety or fear to propel your speech to higher levels. As you learn how to harness your anxiety and fear, you will discover that your butterflies are always present before you go on stage, but that your pre-presentation butterflies will turn into a controlled energy to use towards a successful on-stage presence. Art Linkletter said it best: “Fear is part of being a speaker. You just have to get your butterflies flying in formation.”



Exercise: Biggest Fears

When you stand up to speak to a group of people, what are your biggest fears?

Not being able to speak or forgetting your subject matter.

Having a heckler or someone in the audience who knows more than you do.

People noticing your anxiety.

Delivering a presentation so awful and embarrassing that your social or career relationships are negatively affected.

Not being able to answer a question from the audience

The audience walking out of your presentation

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Exercise: Transforming Fear

What can you do to transform your fear into energy for your presentation?

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________



Presentation #1 Expectations You will be taking part in a number of practical exercises throughout this course. All participants will have the opportunity to progressively build their speaking self-confidence during the workshop as they deliver multiple presentations.

Your first presentation will be a 5-minute introduction of yourself. It will allow you to receive feedback on your current delivery skills. Your objective is to share three things about yourself that participants may not know about you. You will be evaluated on the following components of your presentation.

• Evaluate presentation organization

• Evaluate presentation objectives

• Evaluate communication skills

• Evaluate presentation delivery At the conclusion of your presentation, you will be asked to answer two questions. It is required that you give three responses for each. What do you feel were your strengths?

1)

2)

3)

Where do you feel you could improve?

1)

2)

3)



Speed

Your voice is a powerful tool and the speed at which you speak can either make that tool work for or against you. When speaking in front of an audience, it is easy to incorporate an everyday speaking habit of talking too fast, which causes babbling and speaking in broken and incomplete sentences. It is important to slow down when you are delivering your presentation to an audience and focus on communicating a clear and concise message. A good technique is to speak very slowly and articulate your every word in rehearsal. Then allow your nervous energy when you begin speaking help you achieve an ideal speed. If you time yourself during rehearsals, you can adjust your speed as well as other aspects of your voice.

Pauses

A well-timed pause is one of the most powerful tools any speaker can use. It grabs the attention of your audience and demands respect. The speaker can reach out and grab the attention of every single person in the audience by doing one thing - nothing! If you have a habit of speaking fast, you need a variety of ways to punctuate your speech. An often overlooked technique is inserting pauses in your presentation. A pause can represent a short break that allows both the speaker and the listener to improve communication. A pause between 1-3 seconds will appear normal to your audience, but the effects can be dramatic.

According to The Social Issues Research Center in the United Kingdom, the length of the average pause during speech is only 0.807 seconds.

Exercise: Vocal – How you say it

Practice the following message, incorporating some of the vocal techniques you learned.

I would like to share three reasons why you should purchase our product. First, it has more features than any other product on the market. <3-second pause> Second, it represents a great value when compared to our competitors. <3-second pause> Finally, our technical support is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

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Presentation Types

“The difference between success and failure is the ability to recognize an opportunity when one presents itself.” -Russ Peterson

There are many different reasons for giving a presentation. A speaker’s purpose may range from informing to persuading to entertaining an audience. It is important to not only know the purpose of your presentation, but the desired result or outcome. In order deliver the most effective presentation, you need to determine the type of presentation you will give. For example, if you are asked to speak at a team meeting to update management on the status of a project, you would present an informational type presentation.

In November of 2005, Infommersion surveyed 382 business managers and found that 71% admitted to falling asleep. In order to stay awake, managers said they need presentations that are 'animated and enthusiastic' and 'interesting and interactive'.

Although presentations can be broken down into many sub-categories, most can be consolidated and categorized in to one of three groups: Persuasive, Informational, or Entertaining. One could even argue that all presentations are persuasive by nature. Dictionary.com defines a persuasive presentation as one that causes somebody to adopt a certain position, belief, or course of action.

Type Sub-Types Description Outcome

Persuade Decision-making or Recommendation

Influence the decision-making process, behavior, or attitude of the audience

Take specific action or make a commitment as stated in the presentation

Inform Instructional or Reporting

Share information on a new topic, demonstrate something, or update on a familiar topic

Understand topic, know enough to talk to others and be able to ask questions

Entertain Motivational or humorous

Gain and keep audience’s attention while sharing an inspiring message

Have audience leave motivated, excited, and in high spirits



Exercise: Presentation Types

Provide presentation examples for each of the following presentation categories.

Persuasive

Sales Presentations

Budget Request Presentation

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Informational

Financial Presentation

Technical Presentation

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Entertaining

Lunch keynote presentation

_________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

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Exercise: Audience Analysis

In the previous exercises, we identified the SMART objectives different presentations. Now we will identify the audience for your presentation.

Analysis

Understanding

Demographics Interest

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Introductions & Openings

“A good beginning makes a good ending.” - English Proverb

In addition to a strong closing, a dynamic opening is critical to establishing the tone of your entire presentation. You want to open your presentation with style and confidence, giving the audience a great first impression. As with the closing, it is a good idea to have your opening memorized. A good opening summaries what you are about to present (Tell’em what you are going to Tell’em). Developing the introduction before the body of your presentation ensures that it is aligned with your presentation objective.

You want to make your audience “WAIL.” WAIL is an acronym that stands for Why Am I Listening?

Your introduction should be created so that you answer the question “What’s in it for me?” and the audience's response is, “I want to listen.” It is your job to let the audience know early in the presentation why they should sit and listen to what you have to say. It is also good to answer another question every audience member has, “Why should I believe you?” You want to establish your credibility and good will. You can do this by sharing your experience on a particular subject. There are lots of ways to capture the attention of your audience. The following are a few methods you can incorporate into your presentation introduction.

• Ask the audience a question

• Begin with a quotation

• Startle the audience with a fact or figure

• Tell a story

• Develop suspense

• Relate your main points to the audience

• Create curiosity with the audience

• Emphasize the importance of your subject



Exercise: Presentation Opening

From the previous exercise, write your opening for one of the following presentations.

Presentation #1 - a presentation to your supervisor showing last quarter’s financial results

Presentation #2 - a presentation to your best customer introducing a new product that would make their employees more productive

Your Presentation

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Handling Questions

“There are no dumb questions—only dumb answers.” - Marshall Loeb

The ability to facilitate a Questions & Answer segment in your presentation is the opportunity to enhance your audience’s understanding of your topic and make the information relevant to them individually. You will also find that the participant’s involvement with asking questions will increase their level of attention and retention.

Prepare

According to Lee Iococa, “You’ll never know 100% of what you need to know”, but it’s always better to be as prepared as you can. If you plan to answer questions during your presentation, you need to prepare for the types of questions your participants might ask. You cannot prepare for every question, but you can anticipate most of the questions that audience members might ask. It would also be beneficial to have someone observe your presentation and express the questions they might ask if seated in the audience. It is best to practice answering these questions out loud, so when they surface during the Q&A session, you’ll be able to answer them with ease.

1) List general questions that might be asked by audience members

2) Write out your answers with supporting data for the questions

Types of Questions

You will come across all sorts of questions when you facilitate a Q&A session. The following is a table that shows the most common types of questions. Question Description

Challenging A challenging question is one that directly attacks a statistic or comment from your presentation. Challenging questions are not always an attack on you or your speech.

Informational Some people don’t have questions; they just like to let everyone know that they know about your subject. Acknowledge the person’s comments and move on.

Hostile Under all circumstances, smile and be friendly. A hostile question is usually an attack on the speaker or the topic.

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Using Visual Aids

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” - Napoleon Bonaparte

When properly prepared, visual aids can be a valuable asset to your presentation. They can liven up and enhance your presentation by making your ideas more understandable and more interesting, while adding to your overall credibility. A presentation with visual aids is more persuasive, as you can see from the two studies below.

• In 1981, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business found that presenters who used visual aids were rated by listeners as:

better prepared

more professional

more persuasive

more credible

more interesting • In 1986, statistics from the University of Minnesota show that when a speaker stands up

to give a presentation and uses visual aids:

The audience is 43 percent more likely to be persuaded.

The audience will pay 26 percent more for a product or service. As much as visual aids can make you more credible, they can also quickly drop your credibility. As a warning, other studies and research show that if listeners or audience members think that visual aids are poor, their confidence in the speaker declines. In other words, you are better off using no visual aids at all than poor ones. Back-Row Comprehension

The best way to achieve comprehension by everyone is to design every visual aid for the audience in the back row. If all lettering and details cannot be seen easily and comfortably by a person in the rear of the room, do not use the visual or make the appropriate changes. As you prepare a visual aid, make sure the letters, numbers, and graphics are much larger than you think necessary. The following chart is a good guide for designing and developing your visual aids.

Room Size Flip-Chart PowerPoint

Conference Room 10-15 people 1 ½” high 1/3” high or 33-point

Classroom 15-35 people 2 ½” high 1/2” high or 48-point

Lecture Room 35-100 people 4” high 3/4” high or 72-point

Auditorium 100+ people n/a Project on giant screen

ifs presentation skills feb 2012 v17.1-1€¦ · you bring to the class the skills necessary to be...

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