Adroit Trainers & ConsultantsSF-6, Oxford tower, Mem Nagar, Gurukul, Ahmedabad

Preparing Effective Presentations

1. A good presentation is like a good building: both grow from a careful plan.

2. Define The WHY, WHAT, WHO, WHERE, WHEN & HOW of your
presentation.

Why are you making the presentation? Knowing the objective will keep
you on the track. The clarity of purpose (of the presentation) helps the speech
evolve positively.

What needs to be said? Deciding on this, prepares your content for the
presentation? Your defined timelines and the content get synchronized at this
point.

Who is likely to be the audience? Knowing them lends dynamism to your

presentation in terms of communication, content and style. Knowing this also
decides the success of your presentation a great deal.

Where is the presentation going to take place? This will prevent you from
any logistics failure. The quality of your delivery will depend a great deal on this
factor.

When is the presentation due? This helps you organize well.

How should the presentation be made? The actual dynamics of speaking

and delivering are covered here.

3. Mind mapping – Is an effective way of generating ideas by association and

organizing them. It uses symbols, colors and structures to put down the ideas on
paper thereby being creative. It uses both the right and the left mental faculties of
brain and therefore bringing out the best of it. Mind maps are seldom forgotten. In
fact after the first round of brainstorming is over a short period of incubation is good
for the brain to come up with more ideas.
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Trainer: Ms. Mandeep k. Kochhar

 Adroit Trainers & ConsultantsSF-6, Oxford tower, Mem Nagar, Gurukul, Ahmedabad

4. Know your audience as much as possible because successful presentations

mean gratifying the ears, eyes and minds of the public rather than the ego of the
speaker. Assess the age, sex, knowledge level and the status of your audience to
create an impact. The root cause of glossophobia (fear of speaking in front of people)
can either be you or the people sitting in front of you. And the good news is that
both can be taken care of to deliver results. So begin with yourself;

5. The basic presentation structure demonstrates the old aphorism for

speakers: “ Tell them what you’re going to say, say it, and then tell what you said.”
The standard structure is as follows: Introduction, body and the Conclusion.

6. Introduction: Four functions of the introduction in the presentation: (i) It

serves to capture the audience’s attention- refer to the audience, refer to something
familiar, ask a question, Use an anecdote, a quotation or tell a joke (ii) preview the
main points- after capturing the attention give the listeners an idea of the upcoming
main points. (Excerpt-1 Appendix) (iii) set the mood and tone of the presentation- in
Excerpt –1 notice how Alka ji began her speech by joking with her audience. She was
speaking before an all male organization and their wives were there to accompany
them. So to put all women audience at ease she begins by joking with them about
the traditional role of women. The beginning also demonstrates her wit and
intelligence (iv) demonstrate the importance of the topic – Remember the WIIFM
factor, which works every time and tell your audience how it is going to benefit
them.

7. Body of the presentation should stand to lend clarity, interest and prove
the point. Various tools for achieving these are: giving examples, hypothetical
examples (excerpt –2 Appendix), statistics, analogies/ comparison-contrast,
quotations, testimony,

8. Conclusion: It has 3 essential functions- to review the thesis, to review your

main points and to provide a memorable final remark. Do not ramble and end
abruptly, Don’t introduce new points at the end and don’t apologize for something
that you feel might have gone wrong.
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Trainer: Ms. Mandeep k. Kochhar

 Adroit Trainers & ConsultantsSF-6, Oxford tower, Mem Nagar, Gurukul, Ahmedabad

9. Styles of presenting your information: may be either a sequential order, a

past, present or future order, the order of importance, categorization, order of
analysis, a rhetorical question, problem solving formula or a survey.

10. Visual aids are highly effective in reinforcing your point of view, stimulating
additional interest and enhance the visualizing ability. They are the graphic devices
used in the presentation to illustrate or support ideas. The Media for presenting the
visual aids can be chalkboards, whiteboards, Flip Charts, poster boards, Handouts,
LCD, OHP.They show how things look, work, relate and how profound they are. Some
basics of the usage of VA are: (i) Simplicity, use keywords not sentences (ii)
Attractiveness, should be neat and visually interesting (iii) Appropriateness (iv)
Reliability, control your VA effectively and be ready with a back up plan in case of
exigency.

Condiments of Lip Licking Presentations

1. Appearance: The first visible impact is how you look. So dress neat,
formally or as the occasion demands. Take care of your clothes, shoes,
hair, nails and body odour. Avoid anything ostentatious. It’s your speech
that should bring the audience to its feet and not your outfit. use
comfortable, light clothes. Don’t have big bulging pockets. Keep them
arranged for whatever things that are there for the usage in
presentation.

2. Body language: The verbal and non verbal communication needs to be

aligned to achieve the desired result otherwise the Non Verbal becomes
more dominating. A few vital points worth mentioning are:

Eye Contact-Your eyes signal as well as receive messages. Make a good

eye contact with your audience; it reflects confidence and it also help
keep the audience alive. In a large group let it go in a MW manner.

Facial Expression – A Smile  breaks all the barriers, and puts everyone
at ease. A grim look alienates the presenter from the audience.
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Trainer: Ms. Mandeep k. Kochhar

 Adroit Trainers & ConsultantsSF-6, Oxford tower, Mem Nagar, Gurukul, Ahmedabad

Gestures – People who are clear about their message and in tune with
their audience – automatically reinforce what they are saying. Gestures
are a natural movement of our limbs, including hands, head and
shoulders. So when we interact our body behaves in coherence with the
thoughts and words communicated. Illustrated below are certain hand
gestures that need to be avoided and followed.

Body Posture-
 Be relaxed
 Stand Straight yet not stiff
 Don’t be a shifter, sprawler or Pendulum like in your movement
 Avoid leaning on the lectern or the side wall
 Avoid any movement that is repetitious. Place your index cards or
notes in such a way that it is easy to glance through.
 Beware of any distracting movements that distracts the audience.
For e.g. Rubbing the nose, scratching the head, Pulling at the
cuffs, Waving the hands as if directing the orchestra, Fiddling with
things.

3. Taking care of your Nerves: A small amount of fear is always good and
facilitative as it keeps you alert and forces you to perform whereas utter
casualness takes a toll on the performance. This fear when gets on a
higher side, becomes debilitative. The fear of Speaking is the frequently
stated fear in a survey conducted by the Chicago Tribune. As good
presenters we need to make sure that we are in perfect control of our
nerves and turn the debilitative fright into facilitative.

All trepidation regarding handling yourself can be set aside by the great wonder
drug ‘ Confidence’. A few simple tips to boost the self-confidence are:

 Think and talk positively about yourself and your speaking skills.
Do not feed your brain with negative comments about yourself.
 Separate your behaviour/actions from yourself. If at a certain
occasion you goofed up in presentation then cover up for the
folly, and all other major areas and then go ahead.
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Trainer: Ms. Mandeep k. Kochhar

Adroit Trainers & ConsultantsSF-6, Oxford tower, Mem Nagar, Gurukul, Ahmedabad

 Seek feedback for your work. Accept compliments and criticism

gracefully and work for improvisations.
 Step forward to speak when asked to. Being proactive will only
add a feather to your cap.
 Appreciate yourself for the good work you did. Feed your brain
about your qualities and it will pump up your confidence level.

4. Verbal Communication:
 Use the language of the audience.
 Avoid Jargon if it is incomprehensible for the audience.
 Avoid using the bombasting vocabulary.
 Use active voice rather than passive. E.g. This is how the Piston
pumps Nitrogen in the Balloon. Rather than This is how the
balloon is filled by nitrogen through the piston.
 Use parallel Construction E.g. I love sleeping, eating, dancing,
watching T.V and to play video games throughout the night.
 Use Power Vocabulary (may I, Could I, Thank You, Please, Excuse
me……..)
 Avoid redundancy e.g. totally free, past history.
 Use Metaphors and similes. The use of similes offers a technique
to compare ideas using words like and as. A metaphor makes the
comparison by replacing the word. For e.g. ‘all the world’s a
stage’ as a simile it can be rewritten as ‘All the world is like a
stage’.

5. The power of voice:

Controlling your voice means appropriate volume, rate, pitch and
articulation.

Volume- You need to make sure that you are audible to all and sundry. If
required Use a capsule microphone tugged to your collar or else just make
sure everyone is able to hear you clearly. Make sure you do not variate
your volume with the sagging energy level.

Pace- match and Mirror with the general audience. Speak at an average
pace and keep a track of your alignment with them. You can occasionally
keep asking the audience if an adjustment is needed.
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Trainer: Ms. Mandeep k. Kochhar

 Adroit Trainers & ConsultantsSF-6, Oxford tower, Mem Nagar, Gurukul, Ahmedabad

Pitch- The highness or the lowness of your voice is the Pitch. It makes you
emote, sound interesting and genuine. The lack of pitch makes you a boring
and monotonous speaker.A high Pitch voice is more of a drama rather then
a subjective presentation. A low pitch sound reflects muscular tension as
pitch is a result of the movement of vocal folds.

Articulation- It means pronouncing not only every word but also every
single phoneme in the word. Become aware of your tongue, teeth, lips, and
jaw and speak with your mouth wide open. Try this; ‘ Some others do have
them’ if you don’t speak correctly it will sound as if you are saying ‘ some
mothers do have them’. Or ‘ An ice house’ may sound like ‘ A nice house’.

Now, If you have taken enough dose of the wonder Drug, Organized your
work carefully, have practiced enough, taken care of all the back up failures
plus as a person you have good countenance, a cheerful smile and pleasant
smile, there is no reason that you are going to be a roaring success.

Franklin Roosevelt once said, “ The only thing we need fear is fear itself!” so
let this be a facilitative Fear which helps you perform grand.

So remember:

Visualize Success not defeat. Feed your brain with power, positive signals.
Remember the 3P’s. Plan, Prepare and Practice.
Breathe Deeply to feel relaxed.
Maintain Eye Contact.
Anticipate questions and handle them smartly. Make sure YOU are
controlling the audience and not vice versa.
 Be natural; do not indulge in any unnatural, conspicuous body movement.
 Use the power Vocabulary and your perfect sound system.
 Keep to the Time line.
 Take a feedback from the audience.
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Trainer: Ms. Mandeep k. Kochhar