- Acquire a toolkit of methods for getting the audience's attention
- Learn how to be self-confident when presenting
- Design high impact visual aids
Overview
Making presentations to customers, colleagues, and employees is an increasingly important aspect of many people’s work. Indeed, it is a core leadership skill, and in many organisations elegance in presenting is a required competency for promotion to senior positions. This course is also about having a real sense of confidence in yourself as a presenter and in the content of your message: it is about presenting with impact.
Learning objectives
By attending this highly interactive two-day course you will:
- Gain an insight into the ‘golden rules’ of dynamic presentations
- Master powerful techniques for developing your self-confidence
- Discover a simple, yet elegant, nine-step planning process
- Learn how to open and close a talk so that you make a good impression
- Develop a strong, flexible speaking voice that exudes energy
Who should attend?
This is a training programme for business leaders, managers, sales people, and others who have to make presentations as part of their job. The structure of the course makes it suitable both for people new to presenting and for experienced speakers.
Pre-course preparation
The emphasis of the course is on delivering material in front of an audience. In order to maximise the time available to do this participants need to:
- Read the Boulden booklet (sent by email) on how to plan a presentation using the ‘Masterful Presentation Planning Process™’. It takes less than five minutes to review and covers all the key element of good presentation design.
- Either (i) prepare two new, work related, five-minute presentation, or (ii) update an existing presentation in line with the notes in the booklet. If using an existing presentation, it may, of course, be longer than 5 minutes (which is perfectly fine) but we will only be using a five-minute section of it during the training.
Day 1
Initial presentations
Delegates deliver a presentation (in small groups) and get feedback on their performance as a way of ‘benchmarking’ their current skill level.
Masterful Presentation Planning Process™ - a review
Outstanding presenters plan and rehearse their talks thoroughly but quickly. The Boulden Masterful Presentation Planning Process™, which formed part of the pre-work, covers every aspect of effective preparation. Learning the method allows the design of the presentation to be fast and effective. Here we briefly review the method and make sure that the nine steps are fully understood.
Group exercise: understanding the planning process
Day 1 (cont)
Opening & closing the presentation
The opening and ending of a presentation are the most important parts of a talk. At the start people will make instant judgements on whether or not they think you’re worth listening to, and at the end they want it to end with a bang!
- Credibility statements
- Commanding the stage
- Seven-step introduction method
- Three-step closing method
Group exercise: practising the Seven-Step Introduction method
Day 1 (cont)
Voice development exercises
Excellent presenters speak naturally and with pride. Here we consider the postural, breathing, and voice projection aspects of speaking well to groups. The exercises are of the type that are taught to actors and singers.
- Correct posture & relaxation
- Diaphragmatic breathing
- Projection
- Resonance
Pairs exercise: breathing exercises
Day 1 (cont)
Building presenter confidence
Confidence in presenting is a key success factor and one that with the correct training is surprisingly easy to master.
- The conditioning process for developing self-confidence
- Building positive emotions - creating a Resource Anchor
- Using ‘triggers’
Pairs exercise: Resource Anchoring to build confidence
Day 1 (cont)
Delivering with impact
There will be a review of the Boulden Assessment Checklist, which highlights the key points that the speakers need to implement when giving their talks.
- Eye contact
- Pausing, pace and pitch
- Signpostinge
- Body language & gestures
- Using visual aids and lines of sight
Group exercise: discussion of key points
Presentations
Speakers take turns to deliver presentations in front of the group. They are then given feedback by the audience, who talk the presenter through their comments using the Boulden Presentation Assessment Checklist. Presenters also review a video of their presentation, which is filmed using their own phone or iPad etc.
Day 2
Handling questions
Methods for dealing with hostile, difficult or awkward questions.
- The 3 step technique
- Car parking
- Responding with a question
- Inviting audience participation
Group exercise: practising the question handling techniques
Day 2 (cont)
Advanced presentation techniques
Advanced presentation techniques are about ‘raising the bar’ so that not only are the basics covered but also the audience is entertained, enthralled and motivated to act.
- Attention grabbing techniques
- Case studies
- Tag questions
- Positional anchors
- Sensory based language
- Rhetorical devices (classic oratorical techniques, such as triads and anaphora)
Group exercise: practising the advanced presentation techniques
Presentations
Speakers take turns to deliver presentations in front of the group. They are then given feedback by the audience, who talk the presenter through their comments using the Boulden Presentation Assessment Checklist. Presenters also review a video of their presentation, which is filmed using their own phone or iPad etc.
Feedback
Numbers are limited to twelve per course to maximise participation in the programme. Presentations are videoed (using the delegates own phone) so that attendees can see for themselves how they come across to the audience. In addition each presenter is given a detailed assessment of their talks, which is prepared by their peers completing the Boulden assessment checklists.
Remote Training
All of our workshops can be delivered as Remote Training via e-learning modules plus Zoom based virtual workshops. Please see our Virtual Training page for more information.
