Presentation skills
Hello Reverse Charles Darwin Creatures,
Presentation skills are probably one of the top skills for a successful career in IB. What are some of your best practices that help you smash presentations like a boss? More specifically, how do you prepare for a presentation and then come off as natural as possible during the presentation? I am working on improving my presentation skills through practice in University whenever I get the opportunity. The number one thing I am trying to improve is speaking in a natural way and not make it seem like I am spitting out a bunch of sentences that I learned by heart.
Also, anybody have a funny presentation fail story they want to share?
Any advice is highly appreciated!
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1) Know your material inside and out. Do not read from a script. Pretend you are having a conversation.
2) There is a group called The Moth, which started in NYC. The whole purpose of the Moth was to have people tell stories. It's a great website because after hearing enough stories, you get to learn what works, and the group emphasizes three things when telling a story (1- give a brief overview of the story, 2) Tell the story, 3) get to the conclusion you talked about. https://themoth.org/
3) Toastmasters should be really helpful as well. Find a local toastmasters that has a good reputation, be upfront with the group on what you're looking to improve, and they'll definitely help you reach your goals.
4) I did improv comedy for a while. Even though I was out shined by those in my classes, all of my colleagues were professional actors, I was able to learn that failing is ok and that you have to let go of that pressure. Check if a UCB (upright citizens brigade) is in your area.
I present all of the time as a Credit Analyst at work, and the comedy stint definitely helped me with thinking of puns or other funny things to say on the spot, but of course keeping it professional.
I second that knowing your material is “yuge” because it will give you confidence. Practice is probably the second biggest thing.
Yes, you must know your stuff completely and well prepare yourself for any questions from the audience. Most of time fears come from that you are not confident in answering questions. Failing to answer questions is due to not knowing the material inside out.
Film yourself practicing, compare with videos of speakers you like. Watching yourself speak is generally excruciating but really helpful. I'm a mumbler so I have to force myself to over-enunciate to the point where it feels stupid but it comes out better than me just being nervous and rushing through everything.
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A cool Juul can keep you relaxed, and boost confidence
Don't read your slides. They are simply topic headlines. Comment on them in a conversational manner.
I think it really comes down to practice. As you progress throughout your career you will present more and more items internally (or walk through items with senior people, which is the same thing) and you will get better at articulate a piece of material or analysis. Then you will start to have small roles in presentations with clients (1-2 pages in a set of materials) or walking them through analyses. Often times, you have prepared these items so you know them well and you are presenting to a client that you already know a bit so it's comfortable. As you go through this, you slowly gain confidence presenting and you know IB better so it's easier to articulate items.
As far as general tips for presenting, here are mine:
Not in IB, but was/am an actor on the side for the last 7 years. One thing that helps me a lot that I'm not seeing here is warming up. Warm up the voice and body. Breathing exercises, mouth movement/stretching exercises, etc. This will help calm you down, will help with projection and filling the room, and people will take notice.
I know a guy who did improv acting and turned to luxury (Porsche) salesman making $150-$200K straight from acting making nothing. The dude was just good at talking.
How Now Brown Cow
I often think of the many ways to fail a presentation, but rarely fail at presenting. The main reason why is that I can speak from the heart with high subject knowledge. Knowing what you're talking about only leaves proper communication, which basically means dumbing down some technical jargon at times so you don't lose the audience. The first rule of communication is really "know your audience," and from there you can present effectively.
What I've come to learn over the years of giving dozens of presentations is that it comes down to one simple thing: know your shit.
Don't worry about memorizing an eloquent speech like you would in a high school english class, don't worry about implementing clever humor or vocabulary, just know what you are talking about and how you want to structure the order of what you are going to say, and you will be fine.
The night before a presentation, I type out exactly what i am going to say on one monitor, while having my slide deck on another monitor. This helps me ensure i know everything (what kind of HVAC system this building has, why are we lowering payroll costs in year 3, what is the ingress/egress for this property on the side street). I'll read the word document out loud while going through the slide deck. That's it. I don't worry about my flow, tone, eye contact, "ums" and "likes", those things are naturally optimized when you know the subject matter.
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