 How to give a great presentation at work is a key skill to learn for any manager. You'll be giving presentations regularly, you know, informally to small groups of your team through to much more foreign presentations to larger audiences. Before we become experienced at presenting to others, typical fears include, you know, worrying about what other people think of us, being fearful of being boring or not keeping the audience's attention and not being sure of how to construct a presentation or what to put on the slides if we're using them and Fourth, worries about how we're going to manage our own body language during the presentation. I'll be sharing nine tips to help you improve your presentation skills so you can learn how to present like a pro at work. When you're presenting at work, there are three main areas to consider. Firstly, the purpose of your presentation and then therefore how to construct it. Secondly, how to manage your fears and anxieties before and during the presentation and then third, how to present ourselves while attention is on us. And at the end, I'm sharing three tips to help you practice the delivery of your presentation so you can present confidently and naturally, so stay for this. My name is Jess Coles and if you're new here in Hans dot training shares, people management expertise, resources and courses to speed up your journey to become a great manager. I've included links to additional videos and resources in the description below, as well as a video timestamps, so do take a look at these. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe when thinking about how to give a great presentation at work. The first thing you should be considering is understanding what is important to your audience. Start by thinking about your audience and the information that you'll share with your audience. What are they expecting from you? What language and reference points are they comfortable with? What stories might they relate to? The more in tune with your audience, you can make your presentation and the better your presentation meets their needs, the more likely they will take in what you're saying and do what you're asking. In what level of knowledge or understanding does your audience have about the subject that you're speaking about? Adjust your presentation to reflect this. For example, if you are presenting your marketing plan for the year to the leadership team, you'll probably focus on how it's going to drive revenue and strengthen the brand and identity of the company. If you are presenting the same plan to the marketing team, you might touch on these same points, but then you'll swiftly move on to focus on the tactics, activities and projects that will deliver these results. Then you might explain how each team member will contribute. Tell your messaging for the audience that you're presenting to. My next presentation tip is to be clear on the purpose of your presentation. You know, what are you trying to achieve with your presentation? For instance, is your presentation sharing information and insights? Or is it asking for a decision? Or is it sharing a preferred solution to a specific problem? Or is it selling a product? Or is it transforming your audience's perception? Or is it helping your audience learn? When you're clear about what you're trying to achieve, you are in a much better place to work out how you're going to actually construct your presentation to achieve your desired goals. So be clear on the purpose of your presentation. And when planning how to give a great presentation at work, think carefully about how you're going to construct your presentation. Construct your presentation well and your audience won't get lost, won't get bored or distracted and will have the best chance of taking your message or taking the action that you want them to. What is your key message? And what are the supporting messages? Keep the number of messages that you want to get across fairly small, maybe up to five say. If you have more, the audience will forget half of them. Link sections together logically so you can tell a story in a way that is easy to follow. If you're using slides, do not have large amounts of text on each slide. If your audience is trying to read it, they're definitely not going to be listening to you. Only have one to three bullet points on each slide, with a short phrase for each. Even better is to use pictures and diagrams rather than text. What you show on your slides should highlight your key points, nothing more. And during the presentation, do not read out what you have written on your slides. Your audience can and will read. If you're able to use personal stories to convey your message, this will increase the audience's retention of what you're telling them. I've got three great ways to start a presentation for you. The first is to tell a story and create curiosity. As a boy, I hated being the centre of attention. I would have that sinking feeling in my gut. I would stumble in my words and yes, people would laugh. As I got older, this all improved, yet the fear remained. This all changed about ten years ago when I had a conversation with a great presenter. She shared three simple secrets with me. They completely changed how I approached presenting. The second way to start a presentation is to share a fact that shocks. You want to present something to get your audience thinking ideally related to the theme of your presentation. Per a Forbes survey, 70% say presentation skills are critical for career success. The other 30% don't know it yet. The third way to start a presentation is to ask a question that matters to the audience. Present a problem for them to start thinking about. If you could remove your fear of presenting, how would that help your promotion prospects? The fifth of my presentation tips is to test the equipment before getting on stage. When you're doing a more formal presentation to larger audiences or to groups such as the leadership team, make sure everything is working before your presentation starts. Don't spend the first 30 seconds of your presentation in finding your slides, checking if you're connected to the big screen, for instance, or your mic is working. This is distracting. Your audience will switch off or get bored and you'll set a poor first impression. So get everything ready and organized before you start so you can start your presentation with impact. My sixth presentation tip is to make use of the power of smiling and making eye contact. Smiling during your presentation transforms your face, your tone of voice and your connection with the audience. Smiling also reduces your nerves and make you appear a lot more relaxed. So smile during your presentation in a natural way. I once had a lecturer who used to come in and then literally look at the ceiling all the way through his presentation. We were so distracted checking what was actually up there and making comments that we missed a good bit of what he was saying. So making eye contact with your audience is very important. Look at individual members of the audience as if you're speaking to just them. Don't stare at one person or select a few and then kind of rotate around those few. Or don't generally stare out into space without picking an individual person. Try to make eye contact with each member of your audience during your presentation. Make your eye contact brief and friendly. This helps your audience connect with you and stay focused on you and what you're saying. My next tip is to pay careful attention to managing your voice and body language. We communicate with a lot more than just the words we say. Our tone and pace of voice, how we use our eyes, how we stand and what we do with our hands all communicates messages to our audience. Match your tone of voice to the message that you're giving. Communicate your emotions in your voice, your excitement, your thrill of talking to this audience. Change the pace of your voice to communicate your feelings too. Be careful not to speak too quickly or too quietly. Make it easy to understand what you're saying. Stand up straight, tall and confidently. Keep some attention on yourself and your body language. Don't allow yourself to get smaller. Shake or fidget or pace around much. Use arm gestures that go out and upwards towards your audience as if you're welcoming them in. Also pay attention to your breathing. Big deep breaths calms you down. And pauses are good, particularly after a key point that you've just made. It lets your audience take in what you said before paying attention to the next point that you're making. The eighth presentation tip is to show your passion and energy. If you show your energy, your interest in your subject and why you feel strongly about it, your audience will be emotionally involved. We like listening to people because of the emotion. Great singers include a lot of emotion and feelings in their songs. Great speakers do too. If you're excited about what you're talking about, your audience will be too. It's hard not to get sucked into a person that obviously really believes what they're saying. And don't be afraid to show your emotion and your energy without going overboard of course. Finally, let's talk about finishing your presentation in style. To finish your presentation, think about the key message that you want your audience to take away with them and repeat that message. If you have more than one message, include a quick summary of your key messages or key insights that you have shared during the presentation. And repeat the call to action if this is appropriate. You can also end your presentation with an open question to keep them thinking to create further food for thought. So they're more likely to remember your presentation and the key message. And lastly, don't forget to thank your audience with a smile. Thank you. And as promised, here are three tips to practice your presentation. Practice your presentation from an outline. Do not read a script or try to stick to a script in your head. If you start with a script, keep cussing it down until you only have a few bullet points covering each key section of your presentation. Practice your presentation using these bullet points. It will sound a lot more natural and you won't get stuck trying to remember what word to say. Secondly, each time you practice, only change one or two points in your presentation. And don't make lots of improvements in one go. Too many improvements makes it a lot harder to remember the changes and also can damage the practice that you've already put in. Thirdly, spread your practice sessions out over time. This gives you plenty of time to subconsciously and consciously think about what you're presenting. Better ways to say parts of your presentation will pop into your head. So in summary, we have gone through nine tips for how to give a great presentation at work. Plus three tips for how best to practice your presentation skills at work. Being able to present well is a core skill that will impact your ability to progress your career. Reasonable presentation skills are needed to progress through middle management and into senior management. Make the time to practice how you present at work and you will be a lot more confident. Plus you'll more likely be seen as leadership material by those above you. The key presentation tips we have gone through today are, Firstly, understand what is important to your audience. Secondly, be clear on the purpose of your presentation. Third, constructing your presentation. Fourth, three great ways to start a presentation. Fifth, test equipment before getting on stage. Sixth, the power of smiling and making eye contact. Seventh, managing your voice and body language. Eight, show your passion and energy. And nine, finishing your presentation in style. After learning about how to give a great presentation at work, what is the one action that you're going to take away to improve your presentation skills? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.