PRESENTATION SKILLS COURSE - Diagnostic Tutorial

Presentation skills are a key tool in the executive’s leadership toolbox. Effective presentation skills at this level are a combination of skill, knowledge and psychology… getting your head round critical presentations.

Let us take some of the pressure off you and help you improve your executive presentation skills by attending our initial ‘Diagnostic’ tutorial.

Our presentation skills course starts with a ‘Diagnostic’ tutorial. This is often the first contact you will have with us on your journey to improve your effective presentation skills. We will assess your presentation skills and how well you communicate – both strengths and weaknesses - and recommend a tailored presentation skills improvement tutorial programme.

One of The Aziz Corporation’s Executive Presentation Skills Consultants will coach you through the presentation skills ‘Diagnostic’ session. Presentation skills tips are given through the half-day session, and, after giving feedback on communication style, the Executive Presentation Skills consultant will recommend a range of further executive presentation skills tutorials, depending your specific needs. Some examples include:

Executive Presentation Skills tutorials:


• Business Image – to develop a crisp image and dress with intelligence for business presentations
• Voice Development - how to control your voice for maximum impact in business presentations
• Influencing Skills – how to influence strategically whether in the board room, the City, with peers or subordinates

For our full range of effective presentation skills tutorials, please click on our Services page.

PRESENTATION SKILLS TRAINING: DIAGNOSTIC KEY LEARNING POINTS


• The Aziz Corporation's unique effective presentation skills process: The Aziz MethodologyTM
• Presenting Skills tips: how to prepare a ten minute presentation in just half an hour
• Effective presenting: the relationship between the message, the audience and the medium
• Presenting with and without scripts: fundamental differences between the print environment and the spoken word
• Presenting to an audience: how to convey your chosen message to a range of audiences
• Presenting to gain buy-in: how to empathize with your audience
• Presenting to achieve change: speaking with impact and passion
• Presentation tips: effective use of props and visual aids including Power Point
• Executive presenting: the power of effective timing
• Effective presenting:using body language and gestures to best effect
• Presenting to an audience: the art of mirroring
• Effective presenting: use of positive language
• Presenting skills: how to take jargon out of your presentation

Preparing for your presentation, the following tips would help to improve your presentation skills.
See below a part of article: Perfect Presentations - By Dawn Smith - trainingzone.co.uk

Improving presentation skills

Whether giving presentations is the thing you dread most, or just another day at the office, it’s skill that can always be improved. Dawn Smith gathers some tips and advice from public speaking gurus on how to overcome stage-fright, engage the audience and make your presentations shine.

The New York Times famously reported in 1984 that speaking in public was most people’s biggest fear, ranking higher than death.

For a trainer, presenting to delegates is likely to be daily bread. However, even those experienced at talking to groups can choke when faced with an unfamiliar scenario. “Most people are capable of presenting one-to-one, or even one-to-ten, but various things can conspire to make them nervous,” says Gavin Ingham, a speaker and author who also teaches “Powerful Presenting” courses for Britain in Business. The fear-inducing factor may be how important the event is, how many people will be there, who else will be listening, whether it’s being recorded, or even (gulp) televised.

Whatever sets the nerves jangling, getting over them is the key to successful presentations, says Gavin. “70 - 80% of giving a good presentation is down to mindset,” he says. “Get that right, and you can make the most of the communication skills you already have.”

Power of the mindset

The reason state of mind is so important is fairly obvious - a nervous presenter is likely to flunk the delivery, and that’s going to fatal for the message. “Poor delivery = poor retention + little action,” says Elizabeth Clark, founder of presentation skills training company Rapport Unlimited. She believes presenters should work on the entertainment value of their sessions. “Imagine your presentation is a TV programme,” she says. “Would you want to watch it?”

Knowing that your nerves are getting in the way of a powerful performance can pile up the pressure even higher, so how do you break the vicious circle?

Of course, practicing the real thing is the best way to boost confidence and improve performance: our gurus are agreed on that. “There is no substitute for flying hours,” says Khalid Aziz, chairman of training company
The Aziz Corporation, and author of Presenting to Win. But until the hours have been built up, anxiety busting-tactics could be called for.

Visualize success: Stephen Palmer and Cary Cooper, in their book How to Deal with Stress, point out that “prior to stressful events people tend to have negative images or pictures in the mind’s eye about how they are going to cope - or, to be more accurate, not going to cope.” This imagery can be replaced with something more positive. The trick is to think about the aspects of the situation you're most worried about, decide on ways to deal with them (for example, how you're going to handle difficult questions) and then “slowly picture yourself coping with each anticipated difficulty as it arises”. Then keep practicing that positive imagery prior to the event.

Rehearse the scary bits: Practice walking up and standing in the space that you'll present from, until you feel easy about it, says Gavin Ingham. In his training courses, he asks people to stand in front of an imaginary audience, and then stand in front of a real group of people - but without saying anything. “A lot of people are not comfortable with that,” he says. “It’s important to hold them there until they are comfortable - because that’s the worst thing that can happen: getting up there and not having any words.”

Breathe: Slowing your breathing combats the physical symptoms of nerves. There’s a deep breathing exercise for warming up before presentations on the Aziz Corporation website. (See ‘Useful links’, below).

Making the message stick

Useful links

Free Download - Presentation TIPS

Perfect Presentations. By Dawn Smith - trainingzone.co.uk

Books

Presenting to Win: A Guide for Finance and Business Professionals. By Khalid Aziz. Oak Tree Press

And death came third! The definitive guide to networking and speaking in public. By Andy Lopata and Peter Roper. Bookshaker

How to Deal with Stress. By Stephen Palmer and Cary Cooper. Kogan Page. (See page 81: Changing your imagery)

Successful Presentation Skills. By Andrew Bradbury. Kogan Page

The Jelly Effect: How to make your communication stick. By Andy Bounds. Capstone. (See chapter 7: Presentations)