Deliver Your Presentation
Once you’re in the room with your audience, focus on engaging people and projecting confidence. Here are some suggestions that will help:
• Retain the expressive, conversational tone you practiced in your rehearsal.
• Speak at a moderate pace. You’ll sound nervous if you go too fast; you’ll bore people if you go too slowly.
• Make sure everyone can hear you. If you have a microphone and sound system, test its effectiveness before you begin.
• Avoid watering down what you say with “kind of” and “sort of.”
• Make eye contact with audience members.
• Watch the audience for nonverbal cues, and use your facial expressions to convey interest in people’s reactions.
• Take a breath now and then. It helps you relax and reduces ...
Get Presentations (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
