Presentation Skills for the Less Confident Speaker

Like it or not, one experience that we all share is the requirement to stand up in front of an audience and talk, and for many this is a moment to be avoided. This special course focuses on actions and strategies that help steer the more nervous presenter to a stress-free positive conclusion.

Suitability and duration

Suitability: All levels

Duration: 2 days

Who should attend

This intensive course is open to all-comers, although staff with less successful speaking experience will find it of greatest value. The heart of the course is in the build up from short speaking exercises lasting no more than a few seconds to longer controlled sessions. The result is a course where participants learn how to reduce their anxieties through positive reinforcing experiences.

Benefits

Skills

After completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Analyse the reasons why you become nervous
• Plan a talk in small logical stages
• Use beneficial psychological processes to reduce tension and nerves
• Deploy step-by-step tactics that generate the right tone and mood
• Make use of strategies that ensure that you stay in control of your presentation

Support Materials

This course is accompanied by a slim manual that includes briefing notes. The focus of this course is on improved outcomes for the speaker.

Programme

Presenting to people

• Why bother presenting?
• What makes you nervous?
• From fragment to part and from part to talk

Talk planning

• Deciding what you are going to say
• Deciding the order in which you say it
• Deciding on the words you use
• Pitch, pace and projection
• Committing talks to memory
• Saying it aloud – voice care rules

Dealing with nerves

• Drills and processes that calm
• Successful patterning and modelling behaviours
• The adrenaline rush and drop

Influencing mood

• Posture, dress and occupation of space
• Words and actions that shift audience mood
• Creating empathy and communicating sincerity
• Intelligent audience observation
• Staying in control

Structure and strategy

• Talk preparation and rehearsal
• Continuity and losing the plot
• Running out of time
• You don’t have to be brilliant
• Nothing bad happens