1. Know your topic.
Assuming that you perform your job well, buy into your company’s mission and stay abreast of new trends and developments, you’ve already won half the battle. You know your business, care about it and have something valuable to offer listeners. This bit of knowledge can go a long way to boost your confidence and eliminate fears of failing.
2. Develop Strong Content.
A speaker can claim success when his or her message has enlightened or helped someone. Take ample preparation time to make sure everyone in the audience will be inspired and learn something new. Determine why you are giving the presentation and what you would like the outcome to be. This will help you determine the contents of your speech. Strengthen your talk with support information such as new research, important statistics (used sparingly and only to make a critical point) and industry projections.
3. Know your audience.
Who are you speaking to and what do they value? While it is important to keep your overall message consistent from one group to another, different audiences may care about your topic for entirely different reasons. Your job is to help ensure that the corporate mission is carried out in each presentation. You may not be able to make everyone happy all of the time. But by tailoring your message to acknowledge the needs and concerns of your audience you demonstrate that you genuinely care, which results in greater buy-in.
4. Present with poise, passion and energy.
There is nothing worse than being trapped in the captive audience of a monotonous speaker. Practice, practice, practice to ensure that you can deliver with ease. Maintain good voice control; use real life stories to illustrate your point; inject a little humor—maybe even a joke or two (if you’re not good at telling jokes, make sure you practice on a few friends to get the timing right); avoid distracting habits such as twiddling your thumbs, stalling phrases (“uh, um, you know”) and shifting from one foot to another.
5. Relax!
The best way to ensure that you connect with your audience is to enjoy the ride yourself. Not because you get to be the center of attention, but because you have prepared well to make sure that no one leaves disappointed. When your delivery says you are confident, knowledgeable and determined to make a difference your listeners will follow your lead and absorb every word.
What’s your greatest challenge when it comes to speaking in front of a group?
