So You Think You’re a Presenter?

What makes you a presenter? Did your boss ask you to host an online webinar? Did one of your colleagues tell you that you’re ‘good with people’ and should talk with his team about personal communication at work?

What led you into the world of making presentations?

It could have been the simple act of sitting down and watching a presentation and thinking ‘hey, I could do that!’ Maybe it goes back to your early school years when you saw somebody at an assembly and thought ‘wow, you can do that?’

Whatever it was, it wasn’t long before you found yourself looking for opportunities to get up in front of people, whether to speak or to give a presentation. Not that the two are mutually exclusive.

A presentation is a more full-bodied speech with such elements as photos, text, graphics; maybe video and audio, too.

But somewhere along the way you passed a point where you don’t think much about it. You just present: piece together the information in a coherent way (you hope), cross your fingers, get up at the appointed time and start speaking.

Does that make you a presenter?

I ask because I recently sat through a tedious and lengthy online webinar. Yes, it had some information I deemed useful, even critical, to my business.

But MY OH MY! it was a chore getting through the presentation. Mind-numbing slides, a presenter with a flat-line speaking voice, and a presentation that could have been quickly and happily given in a third of the time.

No, that person was NOT a presenter in my opinion.

To move from that Unfortunate Position to becoming a True Presenter requires more than just a hodgepodge approach. It takes planning, rehearsal, craft and skill.

Without planning, your presentation will be disorganized and unprepared.

Without rehearsal, you can’t find the dead spots in the presentation; you’ll leave the lively sections limp.

Without craft, you’ll fail to pull it all together into a cohesive, fun presentation

And without skill, you’ll come off sounding amateurish.

Like anything, becoming a skilled presenter takes time and effort. Too often in today’s world it seems people expect to make the leap from beginner to expert in a short time. Uh-huh. Doesn’t work that way. But your time and effort will be well rewarded.

If you want to become a sought-after presenter, WORK at it.

( photo credit: Matt Ryall)