PRESENTATION SKILLS:

Dr Shailja Agarwal
 SESSION OBJECTIVES
• Understanding Informative and persuasive presentations
• Understanding the role, significance and elements of MAD during
formal presentations

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 INFORMATIVE PRESENTATIONS
• common request in business and industry
• Is the verbal and visual equivalent of a written report.
• serves to present specific information for specific audiences for
specific goals or functions.
• often analytical or involving the rational analysis of information
• At time, simply “reporting of the facts” with no analysis at all, but
communicating the information in a clear and concise format.

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 PERSUASIVE PRESENTATIONS
• Objective is to persuade the audience into desired action or behavior
• Is often a staged drama
• Needs to be contextually engaging

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THE THREE ELEMENTS OF PRESENTATION

Material

Audience

Delivery
MATERIAL
GATHER MORE MATERIAL; PICK A FEW POINTS

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AVOID TEXT: USE CAPTIVATING VISUALS

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understand-your-slides.html
HAVE 1/3RD NUMBER OF SLIDES AGAINST
AVAILABLE TIME

“In presentations or
speeches, less really is
more”
― Stephen Keague

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 PROVIDE AN OUTLINE AND SUMMARIZE
• Provide an outline after introduction & summarize towards
conclusion.
• Tell them:
• what you are going to tell them; (Introduction)
• Tell them; (Body)
• Tell them what you’ve told them. (Conclusion)
AUDIENCE
AUDIENCE RECALL SPAN
 KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE: WHAT YOU SAY AND WHAT
THEY HEAR.

The Friendly Audience. The Disinterested

Blah….blah…..blah…blah…blah Audience
Blah….blah…..blah…blah…blah
Blah….blah…..blah…blah…blah
Blah….blah…..blah…blah…blah
Blah….blah…..blah…blah…blah
Blah….blah…..blah…blah…blah
Blah….blah…..blah…blah…blah
The Neutral Audience The Hostile Audience
ESTABLISH YOUR CREDIBILITY WITH THE AUDIENCE

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DELIVERY
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE IS MY NAME…

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 1. OPENING THE PRESENTATION
• Narrating an anecdote – Reference to something that happened recently.

• An exhibit

• A quote

• How the topic affects the vital interest of the audience

• With shocking facts

 TELL A STORY, IF IT FITS
“Stories are just data with a soul.”
- Brené Brown, TED Speaker
“I’ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this: “Dad, I always told you I’d come back
and get my degree.”
I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I’ll be changing my job next year … and it
will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.
I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For
my part, I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me “Harvard’s most successful
dropout.” I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best
of everyone who failed.
But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of
business school. I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your
graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today…”
Source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/06/remarks-of-bill-gates-harvard-
commencement-2007/
OPENING THE PRESENTATION
2. STATE YOUR GOAL EARLY ON: INTRODUCE
THE PRESENTATION OBJECTIVE
 3. CLOSING THE PRESENTATION
• Summarize

• Appeal for action

• A quote

• Raising a laugh

• Ending with what you started.

USE HUMOR WITHOUT TELLING A JOKE

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IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE MECHANICS...
VOICE: SPEED & MODULATION

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GESTURES: KEEP THEM NATURAL

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USE CAPTIVATING VISUALS
BE PREPARED FOR DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

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 AN EFFECTIVE PRESENTER…
• Practices: Does NOT Learn or Read
• Asserts his/her points without being aggressive and uses the two Ps:
• Posture
• Presence
• Makes contact
• Uses voice effectively
 DELIVERY: DO NOT MAKE THESE
COMMON MISTAKES
• Reading from a script
• Hiding at the back of podium
• Ignoring time constraints
• Not using anecdotes sensibly
• Not knowing your audience
• Failing to grab your listeners’ attention
• Neglecting to provide a road map
• Presenting without passion/energy
 DELIVERY: DO THESE
• Believe you know more than the audience.
• Over-prepare.
• Memorize the first and last minutes of your presentation.
• Have a mental run-through of your presentation.
• Tell yourself that your not nervous but excited.
• Stick to “The rule of three.”: Three is the most powerful number in
communication theory. Three is substantial enough to support an
argument and short enough to remember.
 SESSION OBJECTIVES
• Understanding the role, significance and elements of MAD during
formal presentations

“Good speakers usually find when they finish that there have been four
versions of the speech: the one they delivered, the one they prepared, the one
the newspapers say was delivered, and the one on the home they wished they
had delivered.”
-Dale Carnegie