action plan to improve presentation skills

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6 presentation skills and how to improve them

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What are presentation skills?

The importance of presentation skills, 6 presentation skills examples, how to improve presentation skills.

Tips for dealing with presentation anxiety

Learn how to captivate an audience with ease

Capturing an audience’s attention takes practice. 

Over time, great presenters learn how to organize their speeches and captivate an audience from start to finish. They spark curiosity, know how to read a room , and understand what their audience needs to walk away feeling like they learned something valuable.

Regardless of your profession, you most likely use presentation skills on a monthly or even weekly basis. Maybe you lead brainstorming sessions or host client calls. 

Developing effective presentation skills makes it easier to contribute ideas with confidence and show others you’re someone to trust. Although speaking in front of a crowd sometimes brings nerves and anxiety , it also sparks new opportunities.

Presentation skills are the qualities and abilities you need to communicate ideas effectively and deliver a compelling speech. They influence how you structure a presentation and how an audience receives it. Understanding body language , creating impactful visual aids, and projecting your voice all fall under this umbrella.

A great presentation depends on more than what you say. It’s about how you say it. Storytelling , stage presence, and voice projection all shape how well you express your ideas and connect with the audience. These skills do take practice, but they’re worth developing — especially if public speaking makes you nervous. 

Engaging a crowd isn’t easy. You may feel anxious to step in front of an audience and have all eyes and ears on you.

But feeling that anxiety doesn’t mean your ideas aren’t worth sharing. Whether you’re giving an inspiring speech or delivering a monthly recap at work, your audience is there to listen to you. Harness that nervous energy and turn it into progress.

Strong presentation skills make it easier to convey your thoughts to audiences of all sizes. They can help you tell a compelling story, convince people of a pitch , or teach a group something entirely new to them. And when it comes to the workplace, the strength of your presentation skills could play a part in getting a promotion or contributing to a new initiative.

To fully understand the impact these skills have on creating a successful presentation, it’s helpful to look at each one individually. Here are six valuable skills you can develop:

1. Active listening

Active listening is an excellent communication skill for any professional to hone. When you have strong active listening skills, you can listen to others effectively and observe their nonverbal cues . This helps you assess whether or not your audience members are engaged in and understand what you’re sharing. 

Great public speakers use active listening to assess the audience’s reactions and adjust their speech if they find it lacks impact. Signs like slouching, negative facial expressions, and roaming eye contact are all signs to watch out for when giving a presentation.

2. Body language

If you’re researching presentation skills, chances are you’ve already watched a few notable speeches like TED Talks or industry seminars. And one thing you probably noticed is that speakers can capture attention with their body language. 

A mixture of eye contact, hand gestures , and purposeful pacing makes a presentation more interesting and engaging. If you stand in one spot and don’t move your body, the audience might zone out.

3. Stage presence

A great stage presence looks different for everyone. A comedian might aim for more movement and excitement, and a conference speaker might focus their energy on the content of their speech. Although neither is better than the other, both understand their strengths and their audience’s needs. 

Developing a stage presence involves finding your own unique communication style . Lean into your strengths, whether that’s adding an injection of humor or asking questions to make it interactive . To give a great presentation, you might even incorporate relevant props or presentation slides.

4. Storytelling

According to Forbes, audiences typically pay attention for about 10 minutes before tuning out . But you can lengthen their attention span by offering a presentation that interests them for longer. Include a narrative they’ll want to listen to, and tell a story as you go along. 

Shaping your content to follow a clear narrative can spark your audience’s curiosity and entice them to pay careful attention. You can use anecdotes from your personal or professional life that take your audience along through relevant moments. If you’re pitching a product, you can start with a problem and lead your audience through the stages of how your product provides a solution.

5. Voice projection

Although this skill may be obvious, you need your audience to hear what you’re saying. This can be challenging if you’re naturally soft-spoken and struggle to project your voice.

Remember to straighten your posture and take deep breaths before speaking, which will help you speak louder and fill the room. If you’re talking into a microphone or participating in a virtual meeting, you can use your regular conversational voice, but you still want to sound confident and self-assured with a strong tone.

If you’re unsure whether everyone can hear you, you can always ask the audience at the beginning of your speech and wait for confirmation. That way, they won’t have to potentially interrupt you later.

Ensuring everyone can hear you also includes your speed and annunciation. It’s easy to speak quickly when nervous, but try to slow down and pronounce every word. Mumbling can make your presentation difficult to understand and pay attention to.

6. Verbal communication 

Although verbal communication involves your projection and tone, it also covers the language and pacing you use to get your point across. This includes where you choose to place pauses in your speech or the tone you use to emphasize important ideas.

If you’re giving a presentation on collaboration in the workplace , you might start your speech by saying, “There’s something every workplace needs to succeed: teamwork.” By placing emphasis on the word “ teamwork ,” you give your audience a hint on what ideas will follow.

To further connect with your audience through diction, pay careful attention to who you’re speaking to. The way you talk to your colleagues might be different from how you speak to a group of superiors, even if you’re discussing the same subject. You might use more humor and a conversational tone for the former and more serious, formal diction for the latter.

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses when it comes to presenting. Maybe you’re confident in your use of body language, but your voice projection needs work. Maybe you’re a great storyteller in small group settings, but need to work on your stage presence in front of larger crowds. 

The first step to improving presentation skills is pinpointing your gaps and determining which qualities to build upon first. Here are four tips for enhancing your presentation skills:

1. Build self-confidence

Confident people know how to speak with authority and share their ideas. Although feeling good about your presentation skills is easier said than done, building confidence is key to helping your audience believe in what you’re saying. Try practicing positive self-talk and continuously researching your topic's ins and outs.

If you don’t feel confident on the inside, fake it until you make it. Stand up straight, project your voice, and try your best to appear engaged and excited. Chances are, the audience doesn’t know you’re unsure of your skills — and they don’t need to.

Another tip is to lean into your slideshow, if you’re using one. Create something colorful and interesting so the audience’s eyes fall there instead of on you. And when you feel proud of your slideshow, you’ll be more eager to share it with others, bringing more energy to your presentation.

2. Watch other presentations

Developing the soft skills necessary for a good presentation can be challenging without seeing them in action. Watch as many as possible to become more familiar with public speaking skills and what makes a great presentation. You could attend events with keynote speakers or view past speeches on similar topics online.

Take a close look at how those presenters use verbal communication and body language to engage their audiences. Grab a notebook and jot down what you enjoyed and your main takeaways. Try to recall the techniques they used to emphasize their main points, whether they used pauses effectively, had interesting visual aids, or told a fascinating story.

3. Get in front of a crowd

You don’t need a large auditorium to practice public speaking. There are dozens of other ways to feel confident and develop good presentation skills.

If you’re a natural comedian, consider joining a small stand-up comedy club. If you’re an avid writer, participate in a public poetry reading. Even music and acting can help you feel more comfortable in front of a crowd.

If you’d rather keep it professional, you can still work on your presentation skills in the office. Challenge yourself to participate at least once in every team meeting, or plan and present a project to become more comfortable vocalizing your ideas. You could also speak to your manager about opportunities that flex your public speaking abilities.

4. Overcome fear

Many people experience feelings of fear before presenting in front of an audience, whether those feelings appear as a few butterflies or more severe anxiety. Try grounding yourself to shift your focus to the present moment. If you’re stuck dwelling on previous experiences that didn’t go well, use those mistakes as learning experiences and focus on what you can improve to do better in the future.

Tips for dealing with presentation anxiety 

It’s normal to feel nervous when sharing your ideas. In fact, according to a report from the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, public speaking anxiety is prevalent in 15–30% of the general population .

Even though having a fear of public speaking is common, it doesn’t make it easier. You might feel overwhelmed, become stiff, and forget what you were going to say. But although the moment might scare you, there are ways to overcome the fear and put mind over matter.

Use these tactics to reduce your stress when you have to make a presentation:

1. Practice breathing techniques

If you experience anxiety often, you’re probably familiar with breathing techniques for stress relief . Incorporating these exercises into your daily routine can help you stop worrying and regulate anxious feelings. 

Before a big presentation, take a moment alone to practice breathing techniques, ground yourself, and reduce tension. It’s also a good idea to take breaths throughout the presentation to speak slower and calm yourself down .

2. Get organized

The more organized you are, the more prepared you’ll feel. Carefully outline all of the critical information you want to use in your presentation, including your main talking points and visual aids, so you don’t forget anything. Use bullet points and visuals on each slide to remind you of what you want to talk about, and create handheld notes to help you stay on track.

3. Embrace moments of silence

It’s okay to lose your train of thought. It happens to even the most experienced public speakers once in a while. If your mind goes blank, don’t panic. Take a moment to breathe, gather your thoughts, and refer to your notes to see where you left off. You can drink some water or make a quick joke to ease the silence or regain your footing. And it’s okay to say, “Give me a moment while I find my notes.” Chances are, people understand the position you’re in.

4. Practice makes progress

Before presenting, rehearse in front of friends and family members you trust. This gives you the chance to work out any weak spots in your speech and become comfortable communicating out loud. If you want to go the extra mile, ask your makeshift audience to ask a surprise question. This tests your on-the-spot thinking and will prove that you can keep cool when things come up.

Whether you’re new to public speaking or are a seasoned presenter, you’re bound to make a few slip-ups. It happens to everyone. The most important thing is that you try your best, brush things off, and work on improving your skills to do better in your next presentation.

Although your job may require a different level of public speaking than your favorite TED Talk , developing presentation skills is handy in any profession. You can use presentation skills in a wide range of tasks in the workplace, whether you’re sharing your ideas with colleagues, expressing concerns to higher-ups, or pitching strategies to potential clients.

Remember to use active listening to read the room and engage your audience with an interesting narrative. Don’t forget to step outside your comfort zone once in a while and put your skills to practice in front of a crowd. After facing your fears, you’ll feel confident enough to put presentation skills on your resume.

If you’re trying to build your skills and become a better employee overall, try a communications coach with BetterUp. 

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

The 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills

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21 Ways To Improve Your Presentation Skills

Published: April 07, 2023

You know the feeling of sitting through a boring presentation. A text distracts you. A noise outside pulls your gaze. Your dog begs for attention. By the time the presentation ends, you question why you needed to sit and listen in the first place.

Effective presentation skills can stop you from boring an audience to oblivion. Delivering strong presentations can help you stand out as a leader, showcase your expertise, and build confidence.

Table of contents:

• Presentation skills definition
• Importance of presentation skills
• How to improve presentation skills
• Effective presentation skills
• Presentation skills for executives

Presentation Skills Definition

Presentation skills include anything you need to create and deliver clear, effective presentations to an audience. This includes creating a compelling set of slides , ensuring the information flows, and keeping your audience engaged.

Speakers with strong presentation skills can perform the following tasks:

• Bring together different sources of information to form a compelling narrative
• Hook audiences with a strong beginning and end
• Ensure audiences engage with their content through questions or surveys
• Understand what their audience wants and needs from their presentation

Importance of Presentation Skills

At some point in your career, you will present something. You might pitch a startup to a group of investors or show your research findings to your manager at work. Those in leading or executive roles often deliver presentations on a weekly or monthly basis.

Improving your presentation skills betters different aspects of your working life, including the following:

Communication: Improving your presentation skills can make you a better communicator with your co-workers and friends.

Confidence: 75% of people fear public speaking. By working on your presentation skills, you can gain confidence when speaking in front of a crowd.

Creativity: You learn to understand how to use imagery and examples to engage an audience.

Management: Presentations involve pulling together information to form a succinct summary, helping you build project and time management skills.

How To Improve Presentation Skills

1. create an outline.

Before designing slides and writing a script, outline your presentation. Start with your introduction, segue into key points you want to make, and finish with a conclusion.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice

Almost 8 in 10 professionals practice their presentations for at least an hour. So, practice your presentation in the mirror or to a close friend.

3. Start With a Hook

When presenting, grab your audience with a hook. Consider starting with a surprising statistic or a thoughtful question before diving into the core information.

4. Stay Focused on Your Topic

You might want to cover everything under the sun, but information overload can overwhelm your audience. Instead, stay focused on what you want to cover. Aim for key points and avoid including unnecessary details.

5. Remember To Introduce Yourself

At the beginning of the presentation, introduce yourself. Kill any tension in the room by mentioning your name, your role, and any other helpful details. You could even mention a fun fact about yourself, putting the audience at ease.

6. Work on Your Body Language

55% of people look to nonverbal communication when judging a presentation. Straighten your back, minimize unnecessary gestures, and keep your voice confident and calm. Remember to work on these aspects when practicing.

7. Memorize Structure, Not Words

You might feel better knowing exactly what you want to say. But skip the script and stick to memorizing the key points of your presentation. For example, consider picking three to four phrases or insights you want to mention for each part of your presentation rather than line-by-line memorization.

8. Learn Your Audience

Before crafting a killer outline and slide deck, research your audience. Find out what they likely already know, such as industry jargon, and where they might need additional information. Remember: You're presenting for them, not you.

9. Reframe Your Anxiety as Excitement

A study conducted by Harvard Business School demonstrates that reframing your anxiety as excitement can improve performance. For example, by saying simple phrases out loud, such as “I’m excited,” you then adopt an opportunity-oriented mentality.

10. Get Comfortable With the Setting

If you plan to present in person, explore the room. Find where you’re going to stand and deliver your presentation. Practice looking into the seats. By decreasing the number of unknowns, you can clear your head and focus on the job.

11. Get Familiar With Technology

Presenting online has unique challenges, such as microphone problems and background noise. Before a Zoom presentation, ensure your microphone works, clean up your background, test your slides, and consider any background noise.

12. Think Positively

Optimistic workers enjoy faster promotions and happier lives. By reminding yourself of the positives — for example, your manager found your last presentation impressive — you can shake off nerves and find joy in the process.

13. Tell a Story

To engage your audience, weave storytelling into your presentation — more than 5 in 10 people believe stories hold their focus during a presentation. Consider ways to connect different parts of your slides into a compelling narrative.

14. Prepare for Questions

At the end of your presentation, your audience will likely have questions. Brainstorm different questions and potential answers so you’re prepared.

15. Maintain Eye Contact

Eye contact signals honesty. When possible, maintain eye contact with your audience. For in-person presentations, pay attention to each audience member. For online ones, stare at your camera lens as you deliver.

16. Condense Your Presentation

After you finish the first draft of your outline, think about ways to condense it. Short and sweet often keeps people interested instead of checking their phones.

17. Use Videos

Keep your audience’s attention by incorporating video clips when relevant. For example, videos can help demonstrate examples or explain difficult concepts.

18. Engage With Your Audience

Almost 8 in 10 professionals view presentations as boring. Turn the tide by engaging with your audience. Encourage audience participation by asking questions or conducting a live survey.

19. Present Slowly and Pause Frequently

When you get nervous, you talk faster. To combat this, remember to slow yourself down when practicing. Place deep pauses throughout your presentation, especially when transitioning between slides, as it gives you time to breathe and your audience time to absorb.

20. Start and End With a Summary

A summary at the start of a presentation can pique your audience’s interest. One at the end brings everything together, highlighting key points your audience should take with them.

21. Ask for Feedback

You will never deliver the perfect presentation, so ask for feedback. Talk to your managers about where you could improve. Consider surveying your audience for an unbiased look into your presentation skills.

Effective Presentation Skills

Effective presentation skills include communicating clearly, presenting with structure, and engaging with the audience.

As an example, say a content manager is presenting a quarterly review to their team. They start off with a summary. Their introduction mentions an unprecedented 233% growth in organic traffic — numbers their team has not seen in years. Immediately, the presenter grabs their team’s attention. Now, everyone wants to know how they achieved that in one quarter.

Alternatively, think of an entrepreneur delivering their pitch to a group of investors. They start with a question: How many of you struggle to stay awake at work? They then segue into an exciting product designed to improve the sleep quality of working professionals. Their presentation includes videos demonstrating the science behind sleep and surprising statistics about the demand for their product.

Both examples demonstrate effective presentation skills. They incorporate strong attention grabbers, summaries, and attempts to engage the audience.

Think back to strong presentations you viewed as an audience member. Ask yourself: What made them so memorable, and how can I incorporate those elements into my presentations?

Presentation Skills for Executives

Presentations take up a significant portion of an executive’s workload. Executives regularly showcase key company initiatives, team changes, quarterly and annual reviews, and more. Improving your presentation skills as a leader can help with different parts of your job, such as:

Trust: Delivering great, effective presentations can build trust between you and your team.

Confidence: Most people dread presentations — so a strong presenter projects the confidence needed by a leader.

Emotional intelligence: A great presentation taps into the audience’s perspectives, helping executives improve their emotional intelligence .

Expertise: Presentations help executives display their subject-matter expertise, making employees safe in their hands.

Delegation: At times, executives might need to pull information from different sources for a presentation — improving their ability to delegate as managers.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Blog Beginner Guides 9 Tips for Improving Your Presentation Skills For Your Next Meeting

9 Tips for Improving Your Presentation Skills For Your Next Meeting

Written by: Hannah Tow Feb 03, 2020

Presenting to an audience is one thing, but presenting ideas in a persuasive manner to the key stakeholders of your business is a whole other ball game.

The fact of the matter is that successfully presenting to a room full of people is a skill that’s mastered by very few. It takes practice, practice, and even more practice to start feeling comfortable with everyone’s eyes focused on you so you can effectively get your point across. 

The reality of presenting is that you can’t escape it. Especially as you start to move up in your career. If you’re yearning to improve, this article will walk you through the top nine tips to use to enhance your presentation skills for your next big meeting as well as throughout your life. Let’s get started.

9 top tips for improving your presentation skills:

• Practice speaking in front of others
• Use less text and more visuals in your presentation
• Leverage your personality
• Welcome questions and comments during
• Be passionate and engaging
• Maintain eye contact with your audience
• Obsess over your listeners
• Focus on confident body language
• Keep it as short as possible

Constantly practicing, refining and improving upon your presentation skills will not only make you a more confident individual, but you will find that you rise quicker to success in your career. However, having great presentation skills does not just affect your work-life. Great presentation skills are truly life skills that you should integrate into more areas than just the conference room.

1. Practice speaking in front of others 

Practice always makes perfect. 

It doesn’t matter how well you know what you’re talking about, the moment you have to persuade, engage, or teach in front of an audience, you will probably stumble a bit. This is a natural reaction that affects pretty much everyone when all eyes are pointed in one direction and the anxiety sets in. 

It’s important to remember that the overwhelming feeling of stress you probably feel is the result of your unfamiliarity with the situation, not from your lack of preparedness. The more comfortable you are with taking the stage and having everyone’s attention on you, the less nervous you’ll get. 

The greater confidence you have in your presentation skills will allow you to focus on what actually matters–which is the material that you’re presenting. 

The best way to implement this practice is by starting off small. Prepare a presentation to give to your friends, family, or closest co-workers. This sounds easy, but you will learn that it’s not necessarily who is listening to you that causes nerves, but it’s the fact that all of the attention is on you. 

You’ll become more comfortable with the attention when you begin practicing in front of others more often, which will allow you to effectively present your ideas next time it’s your turn to speak in the conference room.

RELATED: Learn the top ten public speaking tips to better prepare you for your practice sessions. 

2. Use less text and more visuals in your presentation

We’ve all been there before: sitting at the conference table trying our very best to stay interested and engaged with the presentation before us. The presentation lacks color, images, and all sense of creativity while containing an over-abundance of text and long-form paragraphs. 

These types of presentations are horrible for two reasons: 

The first reason being that the minute you have words on the screen, your audience will direct their attention away from you to begin reading and completely tune you out. 

The second reason is if your presentation skills are poor, not only will your presentation be dull to listen to, but it will be unbelievably boring to look at as well. You’ll quickly find out how easy it is to lose most of the room’s attention when you create a lackluster presentation. 

If you feel lost attempting to design your slides into an exciting work of art, try using creative presentation templates . PowerPoint templates make it simple to produce something beautiful, and they can also make you feel like an accomplished designer after seeing the outcome, such as this business presentation example . 

In addition to nicely designed slides, you should always try to use infographics and charts to help you better summarize the complex information you’re relaying to your audience. It will be much easier for your listeners to understand what you’re explaining when they have something to visualize it with. Plus, there are plenty of resources out there to help you craft these visuals.

Learn how to make an infographic in five easy steps or produce an impressive graph .

If you feel worried that your presentation doesn’t hold enough content, you must remember the main reason for visual aids: 

They are to enhance what you’re speaking about, not lead it! 

If you’ve done enough practicing, you should feel confident in your presentation skills to thoroughly explain your main ideas and you won’t need to rely on the screen anyhow.

TIP: If you’re looking for even more ways to engage your audience with your visuals, check out 120+ presentation ideas that are sure to wow and delight! 

3. Leverage your personality

As cliche as it sounds, you should always be true to who you are, especially if when you’re presenting. 

It’s incredibly easy to tell if someone is faking it for the sake of their audience, so you should never pretend to act in a way that you don’t typically do. Not only will you feel unnatural and uncomfortable doing it, but you can also risk embarrassment when you try to tell a forced joke and no one laughs or your new-found trait of sarcasm doesn’t sit well with your boss. 

It should bring you comfort knowing that most everyone in your meeting knows who you are. Use this to your advantage and start the presentation by playing up your best personality traits. Use your humor if you’re known to crack jokes or throw in your typical mannerisms.

These little additions will make your presentation feel much more relaxed for everyone involved. In addition to your own unique quirks, you should also bring a level of personability to your meeting.

Be empathetic, smile more, and look around the room.  Doing so will improve your presentation skills, make you more likable, and allow your audience to be more receptive to you. 

In many cases, you may be presenting virtually, rather than in person. You can still allow your personality to shine through and energize your virtual presentation. Lisa Schneider, Chief Growth Officer at Merriam-Webster, wrote for Venngage on how to adapt an in-person presentation into a virtual presentation . Check it out.

4. Welcome questions and comments during your presentation

Be flexible throughout your presentation. Answer questions and respond to any comments your audience may have either through hand raising or an audience response tool . Don’t worry if it veers you off your script. Chances are if one person has a question or comment, the others in the room are thinking it too. 

Use this as an opportunity to prove how well you understand the material you’re presenting–your audience will take notice.

Also, take some time out at the start or your presentation to ask your audience some icebreaker questions and slowly transition into the more important stuff. 

Taking this minute to talk through anything that your audience is thinking of is a good thing because it means they are engaged with you and really paying attention to the words coming out of your mouth. Doing so will also relax the format of your presentation, allowing you to feel more confident and relaxed as well.

5. Be passionate and engaging 

When creating your presentation, craft it in such a way that makes your audience curious and makes them have questions for you. A persuasive presentation is the best way to get the positive reactions you are looking for, so be as passionate as you can be about your subject matter to seal the deal. 

Remember that questions and comments during your presentation are a good thing, especially if you’re the one prompting them! 

The more excited you are to present your ideas and show off your expertise, the more excited and engaged your audience will be. Own your subject matter and know what you’re talking about, it’s one of the most important presentation skills to have.

6. Maintain eye contact with your audience

This is a very obvious tip that will go a long way with your audience. 

When the people you’re speaking to feel like you’re taking notice of them, they are much more likely to take notice of you and pay better attention to everything that you’re saying. 

It’s important to remember that losing eye contact and looking everywhere but at the people that you’re presenting to is a common nervous behavior. Pay extra close attention to whether or not you’re guilty of that, and work to ensure you have your eyes on at least one person.

7. Obsess over your listeners 

Be receptive to your listeners. You can’t forget that what you’re presenting is for the audience, and it has nothing to do about you! 

Focus on the value you can provide to the people in the room. The more serving you are to them, the greater chance you have at driving your point home and nailing your presentation. 

It’s also important not to forget about those listening to you remotely over video conferencing . Make sure they know you’re aware of them and engage them as well! 

8. Focus on confident body language 

Smiling, hand gestures, eye contact, and a powerful stance all exude confidence. 

If you don’t have strong body language and are showing physical signs of nervousness (ie. tapping, bouncing, shaking, darting eyes, and more) your audience will have a hard time focusing on the material you’re presenting and hone in on the fact that you’re nervous and probably don’t know what you’re talking about as much as you say you do.

No matter how nervous you are, take a deep breath and pretend otherwise. You might actually start to believe it!

9. Keep it as short as possible

Every single person’s time is valuable ( especially at work), so don’t waste precious meeting time. If you can say everything you need to in half of the time that is allotted, you should do so. 

Ensure that you’re only sharing the most important information. All of the extra fluff will bore your audience and you will lose their attention very quickly.

It’s a great idea to wrap up your presentation with key takeaways and action items. Doing so will ensure that no matter how quickly your meeting ended, your team understands their next steps. You can send out a quick, summarizing slide deck or an easy to read one-pager for their reference later. These visuals will make sure all of your bases are covered and that everyone is on the same page upon leaving the meeting.

A good presentation makes all the difference. Check out the top qualities of awesome presentations and learn all about how to make a good presentation to help you nail that captivating delivery.

Never stop refining your presentation skills 

Possessing great presentation skills doesn’t come naturally to most people–it’s something that’s learned and practiced over time. As with most things in life, you must continuously work on refining your skills to get better and better. 

Use these nine proven presentation tips that we covered in this article to improve your presentation skills and ace different presentation styles . By doing so, you will find that presenting at your key meetings becomes easier and easier and you’ll begin to nail it every single time.

More presentation guides:

How to Make a Persuasive Presentation

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Home Blog Education Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Getting the perfect presentation design is just a step toward a successful presentation. For the experienced user, building presentation skills is the answer to elevating the power of your message and showing expertise on any subject. Still, one can ask: is it the same set of skills, or are they dependable on the type of presentation?

In this article, we will introduce the different types of presentations accompanied by the skillset required to master them. The purpose, as always, is to retain the audience’s interest for a long-lasting and convincing message.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Presentation Skills

Persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, informative presentations, inspirational presentations, basic presentation skills, what are the main difficulties when giving a presentation, recommendations to improve your presentation skills, closing statement.

Effective communication is the answer to reaching business and academic goals. The scenarios in which we can be required to deliver a presentation are as diverse as one can imagine. Still, some core concepts apply to all presentations.

 We define presentation skills as a compendium of soft skills that directly affect your presentation performance and contribute to creating a great presentation. These are not qualities acquired by birth but skills you ought to train and master to delve into professional environments.

You may ask: is it really that evident when a presenter is not prepared? Here are some common signs people can experience during presentations:

• Evasive body language: Not making eye contact with the audience, arms closed tightly to the body, hands in pockets all the time.
• Lack of interest in the presenter’s voice: dull tone, not putting an effort to articulate the topics.
• Doubting when asked to answer a question
• Irksome mood

The list can go on about common presenter mistakes , and most certainly, it will affect the performance of any presented data if the lack of interest by the presenter is blatantly obvious.  Another element to consider is anxiety, and according to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, 73% of the population in the USA is affected by glossophobia , which is the fear of public speaking, judgment, or negative evaluation by other people.

Therefore, presentation skills training is essential for any business professional who wants to achieve effective communication . It will remove the anxiety from presentation performance and help users effectively deliver their message and connect with the audience.

Archetypes of presentations

Persuasive presentations aim to convince the audience – often in short periods – to acquire a product or service, adhere to a cause, or invest in a company. For business entrepreneurs or politicians, persuasive presentations are their tool for the trade.

Unless you aim to be perceived as an imposter, a proper persuasive presentation has the elements of facts, empathy, and logic, balanced under a well-crafted narrative. The central pillar of these presentations is to identify the single factor that gathered your audience: it could be a market need, a social cause, or a revolutionary concept for today’s society. It has to be something with enough power to gather critiques – both good and bad.

That single factor has to be backed up by facts. Research that builds your hypothesis on how to solve that problem. A deep understanding of the target audience’s needs , concerns, and social position regarding the solution your means can offer. When those elements are in place, building a pitch becomes an easy task. 

Graphics can help you introduce information in a compelling format, lowering the need for lengthy presentations. Good presentation skills for persuasive presentations go by the hand of filtering relevant data and creating the visual cues that resonate with what your audience demands.

One powerful example of a persuasive presentation is the technique known as the elevator pitch . You must introduce your idea or product convincingly to the audience in a timeframe between 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. You have to expose:

• What do you do 
• What’s the problem to solve
• Why is your solution different from others 
• Why should the audience care about your expertise

For that very purpose, using engaging graphics with contrasting colors elevates the potential power of your message. It speaks professionalism, care for details, and out-of-the-box thinking. Knowing how to end a presentation is also critical, as your CTAs should be placed with care.

Therefore, let’s resume the requirements of persuasive presentations in terms of good presentation skills:

• Identifying problems and needs
• Elaborating “the hook” (the element that grabs the audience’s attention)
• Knowing how to “tie” your audience (introducing a piece of information related to the hook that causes an emotional impact)
• Broad knowledge of body language and hand gestures to quickly convey your message
• Being prepared to argue a defense of your point of view
• Handling rejection
• Having a proactive attitude to convert opportunities into new projects
• Using humor, surprise, or personal anecdotes as elements to sympathize with the audience
• Having confidence
• Be able to summarize facts and information in visually appealing ways

You can learn more about persuasive presentation techniques by clicking here .

In the case of instructional presentations, we ought to differentiate two distinctive types:

• Lecture Presentations : Presentations being held at universities or any other educative institution. Those presentations cover, topic by topic, and the contents of a syllabus and are created by the team of teachers in charge of the course.
• Training Presentations : These presentations take place during in-company training sessions and usually comprise a good amount of content that is resumed into easy-to-take solutions. They are aimed to coach employees over certain topics relevant to their work performance. The 70-20-10 Model is frequently used to address these training situations.

Lecture presentations appeal to the gradual introduction of complex concepts, following a structure set in the course’s syllabus. These presentations often have a similar aesthetic as a group of professors or researchers created to share their knowledge about a topic. Personal experience does tell that course presentations often rely on factual data, adequately documented, and on the theoretical side.

An example of a presentation that lies under this concept is a Syllabus Presentation, used by the teaching team to introduce the subject to new students, evaluation methods, concepts to be learned, and expectations to pass the course.

On the other hand, training presentations are slide decks designed to meet an organization’s specific needs in the formal education of their personnel. Commonly known as “continuous education,” plenty of companies invest resources in coaching their employees to achieve higher performance results. These presentations have the trademark of being concise since their idea is to introduce the concepts that shall be applied in practice sessions. 

Ideally, the training presentations are introduced with little text and easy-to-recognize visual cues. Since the idea is to summarize as much as possible, these are visually appealing for the audience. They must be dynamic enough to allow the presenter to convey the message.

Those key takeaways remind employees when they revisit their learning resources and allow them to ruminate on questions that fellow workers raise. 

To sum up this point, building presentation skills for instructional presentations requires:

• Ability to put complex concepts into simpler words
• Patience and a constant learning mindset
• Voice training to deliver lengthy speeches without being too dense
• Ability to summarize points and note the key takeaways
• Empathizing with the audience to understand their challenges in the learning process

The informative presentations take place in business situations, such as when to present project reports from different departments to the management. Another potential usage of these presentations is in SCRUM or other Agile methodologies, when a sprint is completed, to discuss the advance of the project with the Product Owner.

As they are presentations heavily dependent on data insights, it’s common to see the usage of infographics and charts to express usually dense data in simpler terms and easy to remember. 

Informative presentations don’t just fall into the business category. Ph.D. Dissertation and Thesis presentations are topics that belong to the informative presentations category as they condense countless research hours into manageable reports for the academic jury. 

Since these informational presentations can be perceived as lengthy and data-filled, it is important to learn the following professional presentation skills:

• Attention to detail
• Be able to explain complex information in simpler terms
• Creative thinking
• Powerful diction
• Working on pauses and transitions
• Pacing the presentation, so not too much information is divulged per slide

The leading inspirational platform, TEDx, comes to mind when talking about inspirational presentations. This presentation format has the peculiarity of maximizing the engagement with the audience to divulge a message, and due to that, it has specific requirements any presenter must meet.

This presentation format usually involves a speaker on a stage, either sitting or better standing, in which the presenter engages with the audience with a storytelling format about a life experience, a job done that provided a remarkable improvement for society, etc.

Empathizing with the audience is the key ingredient for these inspirational presentations. Still, creativity is what shapes the outcome of your performance as people are constantly looking for different experiences – not the same recipe rephrased with personal touches. The human factor is what matters here, way above data and research. What has your experience to offer to others? How can it motivate another human being to pursue a similar path or discover their true calling?

To achieve success in terms of communication skills presentation, these inspirational presentations have the following requirements:

• Focus on the audience (engage, consider their interests, and make them a part of your story)
• Putting ego aside
• Creative communication skills
• Storytelling skills
• Body language knowledge to apply the correct gestures to accompany your story
• Voice training
• Using powerful words

After discussing the different kinds of presentations we can come across at any stage of our lives, a group of presentation skills is standard in any type of presentation. See below what makes a good presentation and which skills you must count on to succeed as a presenter.

Punctuality

Punctuality is a crucial aspect of giving an effective presentation. Nothing says more about respect for your audience and the organization you represent than delivering the presentation on time . Arriving last minute puts pressure on the tech team behind audiovisuals, as they don’t have enough preparation to test microphones, stage lights, and projector settings, which can lead to a less powerful presentation Even when discussing presentations hosted in small rooms for a reduced audience, testing the equipment becomes essential for an effective presentation.

A solution for this is to arrive at least 30 minutes early. Ideally, one hour is a sweet spot since the AV crew has time to check the gear and requirements for your presentation. Another benefit of this, for example, in inspirational presentations, is measuring the previous presenter’s impact on the audience. This gives insights about how to resonate with the public, and their interest, and how to accommodate your presentation for maximum impact.

Body Language

Our bodies can make emotions transparent for others, even when we are unaware of such a fact. Proper training for body language skills reduces performance anxiety, giving the audience a sense of expertise about the presented topic. 

Give your presentation and the audience the respect they deserve by watching over these potential mistakes:

• Turning your back to the audience for extended periods : It’s okay to do so when introducing an important piece of information or explaining a graph, but it is considered rude to give your back to the audience constantly.
• Fidgeting : We are all nervous in the presence of strangers, even more, if we are the center of attention for that moment. Instead of playing with your hair or making weird hand gestures, take a deep breath to center yourself before the presentation and remember that everything you could do to prepare is already done. Trust your instincts and give your best.
• Intense eye contact : Have you watched a video where the presenter stared at the camera the entire time? That’s the feeling you transmit to spectators through intense eye contact. It’s a practice often used by politicians to persuade.
• Swearing : This is a no-brainer. Even when you see influencers swearing on camera or in podcasts or live presentations, it is considered an informal and lousy practice for business and academic situations. If you have a habit to break when it comes to this point, find the humor in these situations and replace your swear words with funny alternatives (if the presentation allows for it). 

Voice Tone plays a crucial role in delivering effective presentations and knowing how to give a good presentation. Your voice is a powerful tool for exposing your ideas and feelings . Your voice can articulate the message you are telling, briefing the audience if you feel excited about what you are sharing or, in contrast, if you feel the presentation is a burden you ought to complete.

Remember, passion is a primary ingredient in convincing people. Therefore, transmitting such passion with a vibrant voice may help gather potential business partners’ interest.  

But what if you feel sick prior to the presentation? If, by chance, your throat is sore minutes before setting foot on the stage, try this: when introducing yourself, mention that you are feeling a bit under the weather. This resonates with the audience to pay more attention to your efforts. In case you don’t feel comfortable about that, ask the organizers for a cup of tea, as it will settle your throat and relax your nerves.

Tech Skills

Believe it or not, people still feel challenged by technology these days. Maybe that’s the reason why presentation giants like Tony Robbins opt not to use PowerPoint presentations . The reality is that there are plenty of elements involved in a presentation that can go wrong from the tech side:

• A PDF not opening
• Saving your presentation in a too-recent PowerPoint version
• A computer not booting up
• Mac laptops and their never-ending compatibility nightmare
• Not knowing how to change between slides
• Not knowing how to use a laser pointer
• Internet not working
• Audio not working

We can come up with a pretty long list of potential tech pitfalls, and yet more than half of them fall in presenters not being knowledgeable about technology.

If computers aren’t your thing, let the organization know about this beforehand. There is always a crew member available to help presenters switch between slides or configure the presentation for streaming. This takes the pressure off your shoulders, allowing you to concentrate on the content to present. Remember, even Bill Gates can get a BSOD during a presentation .

Presentations, while valuable for conveying information and ideas, can be daunting for many individuals. Here are some common difficulties people encounter when giving presentations:

Public Speaking Anxiety

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, affects a significant portion of the population. This anxiety can lead to nervousness, trembling, and forgetfulness during a presentation.

Lack of Confidence

Many presenters struggle with self-doubt, fearing that they may not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to engage their audience effectively.

Content Organization

Organizing information in a coherent and engaging manner can be challenging. Presenters often grapple with how to structure their content to make it easily digestible for the audience. Artificial Intelligence can help us significantly reduce the content arrangement time when you work with tools like our AI Presentation Maker (made for presenters by experts in presentation design). 

Audience Engagement

Keeping the audience’s attention and interest throughout the presentation can be difficult. Distractions, disengaged attendees, or lack of interaction can pose challenges.

Technical Issues

Technology glitches, such as malfunctioning equipment, incompatible file formats, or poor internet connectivity, can disrupt presentations and increase stress.

Time Management

Striking the right balance between providing enough information and staying within time limits is a common challenge. Going over or under the allotted time can affect the effectiveness of the presentation.

Handling Questions and Challenges

Responding to unexpected questions, criticism, or challenges from the audience can be difficult, especially when presenters are unprepared or lack confidence in their subject matter.

Visual Aids and Technology

Creating and effectively using visual aids like slides or multimedia can be a struggle for some presenters. Technical competence is essential in this aspect.

Language and Articulation

Poor language skills or unclear articulation can hinder effective communication. Presenters may worry about stumbling over words or failing to convey their message clearly.

Maintaining appropriate and confident body language can be challenging. Avoiding nervous habits, maintaining eye contact, and using gestures effectively requires practice.

Overcoming Impersonal Delivery

In virtual presentations, maintaining a personal connection with the audience can be difficult. The absence of face-to-face interaction can make it challenging to engage and read the audience.

Cultural and Diversity Awareness

Presenting to diverse audiences requires sensitivity to cultural differences and varying levels of familiarity with the topic.

In this section, we gathered some tips on how to improve presentation skills that can certainly make an impact if applied to your presentation skills. We believe these skills can be cultivated to transform into habits for your work routine.

Tip #1: Build a narrative

One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people .

Don’t waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience. It feels unnatural, and any question that diverts from the topic in discussion certainly puts you in jeopardy or, worse, exposes you as a fraud in the eyes of the audience. And before you ask, it is really evident when a presenter has a memorized speech. 

Build and rehearse the presentation as if telling a story to a group of interested people. Lower the language barrier by avoiding complex terms that maybe even you aren’t fully aware of their meaning. Consider the ramifications of that story, what it could lead to, and which are the opportunities to explore. Then, visualize yourself giving the presentation in a natural way.

Applying this technique makes the presentation feel like second nature to you. It broadens the spectrum in which you can show expertise over a topic or even build the basis for new interesting points of view about the project.

Tip #2: Don’t talk for more than 3 minutes per slide

It is a common practice of presenters to bombard the audience with facts and information whilst retaining the same slide on the screen. Why can this happen? It could be because the presenter condensed the talk into very few slides and preferred to talk. The reality is that your spectators won’t retain the information you are giving unless you give visual cues to help that process. 

Opt to prepare more slides and pace your speech to match the topics shown on each slide. Don’t spend more than 3 minutes per slide unless you have to introduce a complex piece of data. Use visual cues to direct the spectators about what you talk about, and summarize the principal concepts discussed at the end of each section.

Tip #3: Practice meditation daily

Anxiety is the number one enemy of professional presenters. It slowly builds without you being aware of your doubts and can hinder your performance in multiple ways: making you feel paralyzed, fidgeting, making you forget language skills or concepts, affecting your health, etc.

Meditation is an ancient practice taken from Buddhist teachings that train your mind to be here in the present. We often see the concepts of meditation and mindfulness as synonyms, whereas you should be aware that meditation is a practice that sets the blocks to reach a state of mindfulness. For presenters, being in the here and now is essential to retain focus, but meditation techniques also teach us to control our breathing and be in touch with our body signals when stress builds up. 

The customary practice of meditation has an impact on imagination and creativity but also helps to build patience – a skill much needed for connecting with your audience in instructional presentations.

Having the proper set of presentation skills can be quite subjective. It goes beyond presentation tips and deepens into how flexible we can be in our ability to communicate ideas.

Different presentations and different audiences shape the outcome of our efforts. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how to connect, raise awareness, and empathize with people can be key ingredients for your career as a presenter. A word of advice: success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and patience to build communication skills . Don’t condition your work to believe you will be ready “someday”; it’s best to practice and experience failure as part of the learning process.

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• PRESENTATION SKILLS

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Presentation Skills:

• A - Z List of Presentation Skills
• Top Tips for Effective Presentations
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• What is a Presentation?
• Preparing for a Presentation
• Organising the Material
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• Deciding the Presentation Method
• Managing your Presentation Notes
• Working with Visual Aids
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Presentation Skills

Presenting information clearly and effectively is a key skill in getting your message across. Today, presentation skills are required in almost every field, and most of us are required to give presentations on occasions. While some people take this in their stride, others find it much more challenging.

It is, however, possible to improve your presentation skills with a bit of work. This section of SkillsYouNeed is designed to help.

Many people feel terrified when asked to talk in public, especially to bigger groups. However, these fears can be reduced by good preparation, which will also lay the groundwork for making an effective presentation.

There are Different Types of Presentations, but They’re All Presentations

There are any number of occasions when you may be asked to speak in public or to a group of people. They include:

• Presenting or making a speech at a conference or event.
• Objecting to a planning proposal at a council meeting.
• Making a speech at a wedding.
• Proposing a vote of thanks to someone at a club or society.
• On behalf of a team, saying goodbye and presenting a gift to a colleague who is leaving.
• Seeking investment or a loan to help you set up a new business.

These can all be considered presentations.

They do not, however, all require the same approach. You would not, for example, use PowerPoint to thank a colleague who was leaving. It would be unusual (though it has been done) to use it in a speech at a wedding. However, a conference audience would be somewhat surprised NOT to see slides projected onto a screen.

It follows, therefore, that there is no single set of rules that apply to all presentations. There are, however, some things that every presentation opportunity has in common. These include:

You will present better if you have prepared effectively . This does NOT necessarily mean that you have written out your speech verbatim and rehearsed it until you know it off by heart—although that might work for some people. It does, however, mean that you have to be confident that you are saying the right thing, in the right way, to the right people.

You need to be clear about your audience and your message . Every presentation will be better if you have clearly considered the message that you want or need to convey, and how best to convey it to your audience. These two pieces of information drive your style, structure, content, and use of visual aids.

You must never overrun your allocated time .  In other words, don’t outstay your welcome. Almost every speech or presentation is better if it is shorter. Nobody minds going for coffee early or finishing before they expected to do so. Everybody minds being held up.

Generally speaking, your audience starts on your side. As a rule, your audience is there (more or less) voluntarily. They have chosen to listen to you, and they want to enjoy your presentation. The occasion is yours to lose.

An Important Point

There is one very important point to remember: if what you’re doing or saying is not working, do something else.

One of the worst feelings as a presenter is that you have lost your audience. You know that’s happened, but you continue to stumble through your remaining PowerPoint slides for the next 15 minutes, as your audience checks their phones and wishes it was coffee time. You think you have no choice, but that’s not actually true.

When you present, you are in charge of the room . The audience has effectively handed you control and is sitting back waiting for you to do something. You may have prepared a specific talk, but if you see that isn’t working, you can always change it. You are, after all, the expert.

You can, for example:

• Skip through some slides to a section that they may find more interesting;
• Ask your audience whether there is particular information that they were expecting that you are not providing;
• Suggest that everyone looks a bit sleepy, and maybe it would be better to start questions early, or have a discussion; or
• Ask the audience at the start of the presentation what they are expecting and what they want you to cover. That way, you can tailor the presentation to fit their expectations.

Just as when you are facilitating, you want to help your audience get the most out of your presentation. The best way to do that is to accept feedback—which may include smiles, nods of interest, or people getting their phones out.

Quick Guide to Effective Presentations

If you need to improve your presentation skills quickly, then a really good place to start is with our Top Tips for Effective Presentations .

This will give you some ‘quick wins’ that will help you improve your presentations. If you’re already an experienced presenter, this page should be a useful refresher, or even take your skills from good to great.

Our tips include general ideas about connecting with your audience, information about the importance of voice and body language, and detailed tips about preparing slide-shows.

The most important tip of all, however, is to remember that it's all about your audience.

Keep that in mind, and your presentation skills will almost instantly improve.

If you have more time to develop your presentation skills…

…then the Presentation Skills section of SkillsYouNeed is designed to help.

Our Presentation Skills section is split into two parts.

• The first gives you a step-by-step guide to putting together and delivering a professional and effective presentation .
• The second provides more detailed information about presenting and communicating in particular circumstances .

You can either use our step-by-step guide to walk you through the presentation preparation and delivery process, or you can focus on particular areas that are an issue for you.

Preparing for Your Presentation

The guide starts by explaining What is a Presentation?

We define a presentation as a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team. Effective presentations usually require careful thought and preparation—although this preparation need not take very long.

Preparation is the most important part of making a successful presentation.  Our page on Preparing For A Presentation explains what information you need before you can really start to plan your presentation and decide what you are going to say. The most important aspects include the objective of the presentation, the subject, and the audience.

Irrespective of whether the occasion is formal or informal, you should always aim to give a clear, well-structured delivery. To do so, you need to organise your presentation material . You can either do this in your head, or use a technique like mind-mapping to help you identify links and good flow.

By the time you come to write your presentation , you should know exactly what you want to say and the order in which you want to say it. You may want to use one of the standard presentation structures, such as ‘What, Why, How?’. You will also find it helpful to consider how to tell your story most effectively, and to use stories in your presentation to illustrate points. There is more about this in our page on writing your presentation .

You also need to decide on your presentation method . Presentations range from the formal to the informal. Your choice of presentation method will depend on many factors, including the audience, the venue, the facilities, and your own preferences.

Visual aids can add another dimension to your presentation, helping to hold your audience’s attention, and also act as a reminder of what you wanted to say. However, they need handling with care. Only use visual aids if they are necessary to maintain interest and assist comprehension . If visual aids are not used well, they can ruin a presentation.

See Working with Visual Aids to avoid falling into the trap of the dreaded ‘ Death by PowerPoint’ .

A particular case of visual aids is the use of data in a presentation.

There are times when using data in a presentation can really help you to tell the story better. It is, however, important not to blind your audience with statistics. You also need to remember that many people find numbers difficult to understand. Our page on Presenting Data gives some hints and tips about using data effectively in a presentation situation.

On the Day of the Presentation

There are a number of aspects to delivering your presentation on the day.

The practicalities of how you manage your presentation can make a significant difference to its success, and to your nerves! For example, turning up early means that you have will have a chance to see the room, and ensure that you can operate all the necessary equipment. There is more about how to cope, including managing sound systems, audio-visual equipment and lecterns in our page on Managing the Presentation Event .

Many people also feel very nervous before and during a presentation. This is entirely normal, and can even be helpful if you can channel it in the right way. There are some tried and tested strategies and techniques to manage your nerves so that you can concentrate on delivering an effective and engaging presentation.

See Coping with Presentation Nerves for some ideas that will help.

How you present yourself can also affect how your audience responds to your presentation.

You need to fit with your audience's expectations if they are not going to spend quite a large chunk of your presentation dealing with the differences between expectations and reality.

For more about aspects of self-presentation, see our page on Self-Presentation in Presentations .

You also need to consider how to manage your presentation notes .

Few people are able to give a presentation without notes. You will need to know your own abilities and decide how best to make the presentation. You might manage your talk by using full text, notes on cue cards, keywords on cue cards, or mind maps. There is more about this in our page on Managing your Presentation Notes .

After the presentation, you may be faced with a question-and-answer session. For many people, this is the worst part of the event.

Decide in advance how and when you wish to handle questions. Some speakers prefer questions to be raised as they arise during the presentation whilst others prefer to deal with questions at the end. At the start of your presentation, you should make clear your preferences to the audience. See our page on Dealing with Questions for more ideas about how to make the question session pleasant and productive, rather than something to dread.

Presenting Under Particular Circumstances

You may find that you need to give a presentation under certain circumstances, where your previous experience is less helpful.

Circumstances that may be new to you include:

• Giving a Speech , for example, at a wedding.

One particular special case is attending public consultation meetings.

Our pages on Attending Public Consultation Meetings , and Managing Public Consultation Meetings provide information to help whether you are a concerned member of the public, or responsible for organising a public meeting.

You may also find yourself required to organise or manage a press conference.

Although this may not strictly be what you would describe as a ‘presentation’, it is nonetheless an event at which you are required to present your organisation in a particular light.

Our page on Managing a Press Conference gives some ideas about how best to do that.

Finally, should you be unlucky enough to be involved in a serious crisis or disaster that affects your organisation, our page on Crisis Communications gives some ideas about how to manage press and public relations on these occasions.

Start with: What is a Presentation? Top Tips for Effective Presentations

See also: Personal Appearance Interpersonal Communication Skills

Ideas and insights from Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning

Powerful and Effective Presentation Skills: More in Demand Now Than Ever

When we talk with our L&D colleagues from around the globe, we often hear that presentation skills training is one of the top opportunities they’re looking to provide their learners. And this holds true whether their learners are individual contributors, people managers, or senior leaders. This is not surprising.

Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way.

For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget, or explain a new product to a client or prospect. Or you may want to build support for a new idea, bring a new employee into the fold, or even just present your achievements to your manager during your performance review.

And now, with so many employees working from home or in hybrid mode, and business travel in decline, there’s a growing need to find new ways to make effective presentations when the audience may be fully virtual or a combination of in person and remote attendees.

Whether you’re making a standup presentation to a large live audience, or a sit-down one-on-one, whether you’re delivering your presentation face to face or virtually, solid presentation skills matter.

Even the most seasoned and accomplished presenters may need to fine-tune or update their skills. Expectations have changed over the last decade or so. Yesterday’s PowerPoint which primarily relied on bulleted points, broken up by the occasional clip-art image, won’t cut it with today’s audience.

The digital revolution has revolutionized the way people want to receive information. People expect presentations that are more visually interesting. They expect to see data, metrics that support assertions. And now, with so many previously in-person meetings occurring virtually, there’s an entirely new level of technical preparedness required.

The leadership development tools and the individual learning opportunities you’re providing should include presentation skills training that covers both the evergreen fundamentals and the up-to-date capabilities that can make or break a presentation.

So, just what should be included in solid presentation skills training? Here’s what I think.

The fundamentals will always apply When it comes to making a powerful and effective presentation, the fundamentals will always apply. You need to understand your objective. Is it strictly to convey information, so that your audience’s knowledge is increased? Is it to persuade your audience to take some action? Is it to convince people to support your idea? Once you understand what your objective is, you need to define your central message. There may be a lot of things you want to share with your audience during your presentation, but find – and stick with – the core, the most important point you want them to walk away with. And make sure that your message is clear and compelling.

You also need to tailor your presentation to your audience. Who are they and what might they be expecting? Say you’re giving a product pitch to a client. A technical team may be interested in a lot of nitty-gritty product detail. The business side will no doubt be more interested in what returns they can expect on their investment.

Another consideration is the setting: is this a formal presentation to a large audience with questions reserved for the end, or a presentation in a smaller setting where there’s the possibility for conversation throughout? Is your presentation virtual or in-person? To be delivered individually or as a group? What time of the day will you be speaking? Will there be others speaking before you and might that impact how your message will be received?

Once these fundamentals are established, you’re in building mode. What are the specific points you want to share that will help you best meet your objective and get across your core message? Now figure out how to convey those points in the clearest, most straightforward, and succinct way. This doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be a series of clipped bullet points. No one wants to sit through a presentation in which the presenter reads through what’s on the slide. You can get your points across using stories, fact, diagrams, videos, props, and other types of media.

Visual design matters While you don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too many visual elements that don’t serve your objective and can be distracting, using a variety of visual formats to convey your core message will make your presentation more memorable than slides filled with text. A couple of tips: avoid images that are cliched and overdone. Be careful not to mix up too many different types of images. If you’re using photos, stick with photos. If you’re using drawn images, keep the style consistent. When data are presented, stay consistent with colors and fonts from one type of chart to the next. Keep things clear and simple, using data to support key points without overwhelming your audience with too much information. And don’t assume that your audience is composed of statisticians (unless, of course, it is).

When presenting qualitative data, brief videos provide a way to engage your audience and create emotional connection and impact. Word clouds are another way to get qualitative data across.

Practice makes perfect You’ve pulled together a perfect presentation. But it likely won’t be perfect unless it’s well delivered. So don’t forget to practice your presentation ahead of time. Pro tip: record yourself as you practice out loud. This will force you to think through what you’re going to say for each element of your presentation. And watching your recording will help you identify your mistakes—such as fidgeting, using too many fillers (such as “umm,” or “like”), or speaking too fast.

A key element of your preparation should involve anticipating any technical difficulties. If you’ve embedded videos, make sure they work. If you’re presenting virtually, make sure that the lighting is good, and that your speaker and camera are working. Whether presenting in person or virtually, get there early enough to work out any technical glitches before your presentation is scheduled to begin. Few things are a bigger audience turn-off than sitting there watching the presenter struggle with the delivery mechanisms!

Finally, be kind to yourself. Despite thorough preparation and practice, sometimes, things go wrong, and you need to recover in the moment, adapt, and carry on. It’s unlikely that you’ll have caused any lasting damage and the important thing is to learn from your experience, so your next presentation is stronger.

How are you providing presentation skills training for your learners?

Manika Gandhi is Senior Learning Design Manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at [email protected] .

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12 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills [for Work & Life]

According to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, around 75% of people list public speaking as their number one fear , even higher than their fear of death! 

At the same time, though, presentation skills are among the most in-demand skills for just about any job out there . 

Want to get over your fear of public speaking, improve your presentation skills, and give your career a huge boost?

You’re in the right place! This article is here to tell you everything you need to know about presentation skills from A to Z: 

• 9 Types of Presentations and Delivery Methods
• 12 Steps to Giving Better Presentations
• 5 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills

How to Add Your Presentation Skills to Your Resume

And more! Let’s dive in. 

What Are Presentation Skills?

Presentation skills are soft skills that allow you to present information clearly in front of an audience.

As such, these skills come in handy in all kinds of situations, including:

• Work. For example, giving a presentation in front of your team, pitching a new idea, etc.
• School or university. E.g., giving an oral presentation about a subject or presenting a master's thesis.
• Personal life. E.g. giving a speech at your best friend’s wedding or a toast at a restaurant.

No matter the situation, people with strong presentation skills typically possess the following skills:

• Body language
• Public speaking
• Communication skills
• Emotional intelligence

Why Are Presentation Skills Important?

But, what exactly makes presentation skills so important in basically every life area? 

Here are their most noteworthy benefits: 

• Increased employability. Presentation skills come in handy for many positions across all industries. 70% of respondents in a Prezi study said that presentation skills are critical for career success. As such, presentation skills are transferable skills that can instantly make you more employable.
• Higher academic performance. In the US, most university classes involve a presentation assignment or two. As such, being good at presenting is essential if you want to succeed academically.
• Effective networking. Having great presentation skills translates into great communication skills, which, in turn, helps you get better at professional networking .
• Improved confidence. Being able to speak in front of an audience can be a serious confidence booster, easily translating to other areas in life.

9 Types of Presentation and Delivery Methods

There are several types of presentations out there. 

Some presentations are meant to inspire the audience (such as motivational talks), while others are simply meant to instruct or inform (HR giving a presentation about company policies to new employees). 

Here are the five most common types of presentations, explained: 

• Persuasive presentations are meant to persuade the audience to make a decision, support a cause, side with a particular argument, and so on. A salesman pitching a product to a potential customer is an example of a persuasive presentation.
• Informative presentations aim to inform the audience about a topic, procedure, product, benefit, etc. An example of an informative presentation is a weatherman reading the weather report on TV.
• Inspirational presentations are meant to inspire the audience and potentially boost their confidence or morale. In a business setting, inspirational presentations are meant to motivate employees to perform better or get through tough times. In day-to-day life, on the other hand, an inspirational presentation could be trying to motivate a friend to do better at school.
• Educational presentations , just like the name implies, aim to educate the audience. Professors giving a lecture or tour guides speaking to museum visitors are examples of educational presentations.
• Instructional presentations are about instructing or guiding the audience on a set of guidelines, a new policy, a certain law, etc. An example of an instructional presentation is a flight attendant instructing passengers on what to do in case of an emergency.

On the same note, there are also 4 common ways presentations are delivered: 

• Extemporaneous presentations. These presentations are planned, but you deliver them without preparation.
• Manuscript presentations are presentations you deliver based on a script or notes.
• Impromptu presentations aren’t planned but rather delivered on the spot.
• Memorized presentations are those you learn by heart from start to finish.

11 Tips on How to Give Better Presentations

Looking to improve your presentation skills?

There’s good news and bad news.

The good news is that, with enough practice, you can get really good at delivering presentations.

The bad news, though, is that just like any other soft skill, in order to get good at delivering presentations, you’ll have to practice a lot.

To help get you started, below, we’re going to cover 12 of our best tips on how to improve your presentation skills, starting with:

#1. Prepare your presentation in advance

Impromptu presentations don’t happen that often in real life. Most times, you’ll have enough time to prepare for your presentation. 

Needless to say, you should use that time to your advantage. Don’t just make mental notes of what you’ll say during your presentation and call it a day, but actually plan it out from start to finish. 

When preparing your presentation in advance, make sure to consider the following points:

• What type of presentation are you making?
• What is your speech delivery method?
• How are you going to grab the audience’s attention from the get-go?
• What are the main points you need to cover?
• What is the best way to make the conclusion memorable?
• How much time do you have at your disposal?
• What visual aids and multimedia can you use?
• What does the audience expect to see/hear?

#2. Practice as much as possible

Just like with any other soft skill, the best way to hone your presentation skills is to practice as much as possible.

Some ways you can practice your presentation skills are:

• In front of a mirror or in front of your friends and family.
• Watch TED talks to get inspired and learn what good presentation skills look like.
• Read books on communication, presentation, and public speaking.
• Take extensive notes of what you need to improve. 
• Record and time yourself when doing presentations.
• Hire a public speaking coach on Fiverr or another platform.
• Take a public speaking course at your local community college.

The more you practice, the better your presentation skills are going to get.

Also, when practicing, make sure to pay attention to your tonality, body language, and whether you’re using a lot of crutch words .

#3. Exercise

Yes, really.

Exercise can help improve your presentation skills!

Some ways it does so are:

• It boosts the levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline, all of which are known to improve your mood and regulate your anxiety. 
• It improves your ability to focus and pay attention, benefits which can last for up to two hours after your workout .
• It strengthens and protects your memory, making it easy to recall words. 

Now, when it comes to how much you should exercise, that can differ from one person to the next.

We say - find a golden mean that works best for you. If you’re not big on exercising, you can always start small with something casual like biking to work or playing a sport once or twice a week. 

#4. Arrive early

By arriving early for your presentation, you can deal with any possible setbacks (e.g. mic not working, USB failure, wardrobe malfunction, etc). 

This will give you plenty of time to start your presentation on your terms, instead of running around trying to fix things at the last minute. 

Not to mention, in certain situations arriving early can also help you to prepare mentally and emotionally for the upcoming presentation. 

Obviously, a casual presentation in front of coworkers won’t require much emotional preparation. But if you have to, say, pitch a marketing idea to your clients or address a room full of strangers, getting to exchange some words with them before the presentation could break the ice and make it easier to engage with them later on. 

#5. Know your audience

You should always keep your audience in mind when making (and delivering) a presentation. 

At the end of the day, if your message is not tailored to its audience, chances are, it’s going to fall flat.

If your audience is a group of 50-somethings, high-level executives, chances are they won’t get your Rick and Morty references or appreciate any attempts to keep the presentation light, casual, and humorous. 

Instead, stick to talking about facts and figures without any joking around, use straightforward language, and avoid over-the-top body language while delivering the presentation. 

If on the other hand, you’re delivering a presentation to your class of 20-somethings, then you’re a lot more likely to make an impact if you joke around, make references, and make the presentation more casual.

In short, if you want your presentation to carry as much impact as possible, make sure to think about who you’re presenting to. 

#6. Use Relaxation Techniques

Even the most seasoned public speakers experience some level of anxiety before giving a presentation.

To make sure nerves and anxiety don’t throw you off your A-game, you can take advantage of relaxation techniques. 

One of the simplest (and most effective) ways to relax before a presentation is to breathe.  

When we say breathing, though, we don’t mean the automatic in-and-out we do to stay alive. We mean taking deep, relaxing breaths from your stomach while being mindful of what you’re doing. 

Here’s how breathing mindfully before your presentation can help you give a better presentation: 

• Calms your nerves
• Reduces stress 
• Helps with anxiety 

To practice mindful breathing, focus on breathing from your stomach and push your stomach out each time you inhale. When you’re inhaling and exhaling, count to at least three for each breath. 

Keep doing this and you’ll soon start feeling more relaxed. 

#7. Acknowledge That You’re Nervous

People appreciate honesty. 

If you go on stage feeling extremely nervous, use this neat little trick:

Instead of trying to play it cool, simply acknowledge that you’re feeling nervous by straight-up saying it.

Chances are, a very large chunk of your audience feels exactly the same way about public speaking, and you’ll build up some rapport just like that!

This same exact tip even applies to job interviews. You can simply tell the recruiters that you’re feeling nervous and need a minute - that’s totally acceptable!

Unless you’re applying for a job in sales, the job interviewer is not going to be evaluating you on how good you are at passing interviews.

#8. Tell stories

Storytelling is a powerful presentation tool. According to the Guardian, 63% of presentation attendees remember stories , while only 5% remember statistics.

That’s because a good story can take the audience on a journey, intrigue them, inspire them, and motivate them. In turn, they’re much more likely to remember your presentation.

There are several ways you can go about incorporating stories into your presentation. 

One is to tie your own stories, along with what you experienced, learned, or observed, to make your argument more impactful and relatable. Alternatively, you can also create a story for the sake of the presentation that can be just as impactful in driving your point across. 

Keep in mind, though, that not every presentation requires storytelling. If your presentation is packed with data and stats showing how you managed to improve profits by 20% in the last quarter, for example, then you don’t really need to include a story in there to make it impactful. 

#9. Be humorous

This one’s quite self-explanatory; as much as you can, be humorous during your presentation. It helps ease tension, get the attention of everyone in the room, and connect with them more effectively. 

Now, some people are born with humor. If you’re one of them, cracking a joke here and there should come very naturally to you. 

Otherwise, you can practice your presentation in front of your friends and family and prepare your jokes in advance. If your mock audience laughs at your jokes, chances are, so will your real audience!

#10. Use visual aids and media

Using visuals and other media forms (e.g. music, videos, infographics, etc.), can make your presentation significantly more engaging, memorable, and striking. 

Say, for example, that your presentation consists entirely of numbers and data. You can use data visualization (e.g. charts, graphs, and maps), to make the data stick with your audience better. 

Or, if you’re a lecturer at a university, you’ll want to use as many pictures, videos, and even music to help your students remember the information you’re transmitting. 

Some of the most popular ways to make your presentations as visual as possible involve using:

• Whiteboards
• Presentation applications 

#11. Engage the audience

To give a truly memorable presentation, engage your audience as much as possible. 

Instead of speaking to your audience, try to speak with your audience.

What we mean by this is that you should be very proactive in getting your audience involved in your presentation. Ask questions, get them to share stories, and so on. 

Some examples of how you can effectively engage an audience are: 

• Asking a random audience member to share their experience on a topic.
• Doing a count of hands (e.g. “Has anyone done X? Can I see a count of hands?” or “Which one of you guys likes Y? Raise your hands.” )
• Do an on-the-spot poll (e.g. “How many of you guys do X?” or “how many of you guys think Y?” )
• Making time for a Q&A at the end of your presentation. 

6 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Just like any other skill, presentation skills can be learned and improved. So, if you’re looking to improve your presentation skills, follow the tips below: 

• Take every public speaking opportunity you get. The best way to learn presentation skills is by doing it. So, take every opportunity you get. E.g. volunteer to present a project, say a toast at your friend's wedding, etc.
• Check these TED talks. Is there anything TED talks haven’t covered? Check out these talks that can teach you how to give awesome presentations: “ Giving Presentations Worth Listening To ”, “ the secret structure of great talks ,” and “ the science of stage fright (and how to overcome it) ”. 
• Take public speaking classes. Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn all have great public speaking courses. Or, even better, take a class at your local college. This way, you’ll get a lot more practice than by taking an online class. 
• Attend other presentations. This one’s pretty self-explanatory. The more presentations you attend, the more you can learn from others’ successes or failures. 
• Grow your confidence. Speak in front of friends and family, film yourself, and accept constructive criticism. Soon enough, you’ll be confident enough to give excellent presentations!
• Ask for feedback. How can you improve your presentation skills if you don’t know where you’re lacking? After your presentation, ask one or two members of your audience for personal, one-on-one feedback on how you did. 

If you want to show a potential employer that you’ve got presentation skills, you’ll need to highlight them on your resume.

And in this section, we’ll teach you just how to do that!

Before you do that, though, make sure to grab one of our free resume templates!

#1. List Your Presentation Skills Under Your Soft Skills 

The first and most obvious place to list your presentation skills is under your skills section . 

This part is pretty straightforward. Your skills section should be divided into “soft skills” and “hard skills” and look something like this: 

Simply add “Presentation Skills” under the “Soft Skills” section, and you’re good to go.

#2. Mention Your Presentation Skills in Your Resume Summary 

If presentation skills are super important for the role you’re applying for, you can also include them in your resume summary : 

In a nutshell, the resume summary is a short paragraph on top of your resume that typically mentions: 

• Your title and years of experience 
• Your most noteworthy achievements
• Your top skills and qualifications

Done right, this section should highlight all your strong points right from the get-go and get the hiring manager to go through the rest of your resume in more detail. 

Here’s an example of a resume summary that effectively mentions the candidate’s presentation skills: 

• Sales professional with 7 years of experience in sales presentations and lead generation. Excellent public speaking skills. Track record of converting prospects into loyal customers.

#3. Prove Presentation Skills Through Your Work Experience 

Lastly (and most importantly), you should use your work experience section to prove that you’ve got the presentation skills you mentioned in your skills section.

Here’s exactly how you can do that: 

• Keep your work experience section relevant. List recent and relevant positions. Omit outdated and irrelevant ones. For example, if you’re applying for a customer service position, you can mention the time you worked, say, as a receptionist. Your teen job mowing lawns, on the other hand? Not as important. 
• Focus on achievements instead of responsibilities. Instead of telling the hiring manager what they already know (your responsibilities), focus on showing them how you made an impact with your achievements. A way to do that is to write down a couple of achievements for every presentation skill that you include under your soft skills. 
• Make your achievements quantifiable . Adding numbers to your achievements makes them significantly more impressive. “Delivered a presentation that closed a 6-figure client” is a lot more powerful than “Delivered client presentations,” right?
• Use action verbs and power words. Presentation skills are also about how you present yourself in your resume. Avoid dry and unimaginative language and go for these action verbs and power words instead.

Key Takeaways 

And that’s about all you need to know to improve your presentation skills!

Before you go, though, here’s a quick recap of everything we covered in this article:

• Presentation skills are soft skills that allow you to present information clearly and convey your message effectively. 
• Some important presentation skills include public speaking, communication, persuasion, creativity, humor, and emotional intelligence. 
• Presentation skills can increase your employability, improve your academic performance, make it easier to network, and help you grow professionally. 
• Some steps you can take to give better presentations are to prepare in advance, practice as much as possible, exercise regularly, be humorous, use visual aids and multimedia, engage the audience, and accept that you’re nervous. 
• To improve your presentation skills, watch videos that teach you how to give great presentations, attend public speaking classes and other presentations, and grow your confidence. 
• List your presentation skills under your skills section, mention them in your resume summary, and prove them with your achievements in the work experience section.

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11 SMART Goals Examples for Your Public Speaking Skills

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Public speaking is one of the most common fears. It is not easy to get on stage with people looking straight at you, and give a speech.

But by working on your public speaking skills, you can get better at it, and start to appear more comfortable when on stage.

One strategy that can help is to set SMART goals that provide milestones you can use to overcome the specific challenges you have related to public speaking. 

So, in this article, we will briefly discuss what smart goals are, why they are important for public speaking, and finally we’ll look at 11 SMART goals that you can apply to improve your public speaking .

Let’s get to it.

Table of Contents

What Are SMART Goals?

If we don’t have a compass or a compass that is constantly spinning around, we will probably end up getting nowhere. SMART goals help us set a target and draw a roadmap to get there. The clearer our vision of the target, the easier it is for us to achieve them.

We hear about SMART Goals nearly every day; everyone talks about them. Setting goals is one of the most crucial steps to achieving what is important for you in life; they help us acknowledge and define our objectives, give us a sense of direction, and help us align our compass.

Not All Goals Are as SMART as They Seem

Have you ever made a list of vague goals that ended up in your drawer, never to see the light of day again? How about a list of goals about getting organized that you found in your huge pile of papers lying on the floor beside your desk?

According to  Jack Canfield , an American author, “Vague goals lead to vague results.”

Take one common goal that many people set, chase them for a few days, and eventually give up on; “I want to be a better public speaker.” Before we get on stage and speak our hearts out, we need to have a specific objective. Being a better public speaker is a term that is too vague to be a SMART goal.  

Without a precise and clearly defined objective, all our plans are likely to fail. SMART goals help us define our objective and allow us to focus on it. The acronym SMART expands into:

• S pecific: Must be narrowed down, focused, and clearly defined
• M easurable: Must have some quantitative factors that help track progress
• A ttainable: Must be achievable
• R elevant: Must be important and have a significant value in our life
• T ime-Bound: Must have a timeline and a deadline

If you are looking for a more detailed overview of SMART goals and how to set them with a few easy steps, then be sure to check out our step-by-step build for setting and achieving SMART goals.

Why SMART Goals Are Important for Public Speaking

Public speaking is a vast field. Setting a goal like “ I want to be a better public speaker ” is too vague to address and work on.

Every public speaker has some room for improvement. So if you want to get better at speaking in front of crowds, then you could set SMART goals that help you focus on:

• Confidently delivering the message
• Maintaining eye contact
• Stop using filler words such as um, ah, like, actually, etc.
• Improving  body language
• Improving vocality
• Making your presentations more engaging

Each one of these goals will make you a better public speaker. Working on these more specific tasks will be much easier than working on a vague goal of becoming a better public speaker.

Public speaking  is a skill that will take time and practice to improve. If your goals aren’t in the right order, you will not make much progress, exhaust yourself, and eventually give up. It is important to be specific with what you want to achieve.

So let’s dive into 11 examples of SMART goals you could set.

11 SMART Goals Examples for Public Speaking

1. improve stage confidence.

I want to improve my stage confidence and learn how to deliver my message more confidently. I will record my speeches and make it a habit to go over my presentations the next day and list all confidence flaws I find. I will try to eliminate them in my next presentation and aim to have less than five flaws in all my speeches by six months.

Specific:  Improve stage confidence, and reduce confidence flaws to less than five

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by counting the confidence flaws, and when the flaws drop below five, I will know that I have achieved the goal

Attainable:  Using the recordings from the speeches, I can determine if the goal is attainable or not. Also, there is good room for error, and adequate time has been provided to practice and improve.

Relevant:  I want to deliver the message more confidently because it will persuade more people. I will also feel better after presenting confidently.

Time-Bound:  Since I have set a deadline for this goal, I know that I have to reduce the flaws to less than five in six months.

2. Overcome Stage Fright

I have a big presentation coming up in three months. I want to learn how to manage my nerves. I will practice speaking to small family audiences to overcome my nerves and increase my speech time from 3 minutes to 15 minutes by the end of two months.

Specific:  Overcome stage fright and increase speech time to 15 minutes

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by measuring the time I stayed on the stage

Attainable:  With the help of the family audience, I will be able to speak more easily, and

Relevant:  I have a big presentation coming up and want to do well in it

Time-Bound:  I have set a timeline that I want to get comfortable by the end of two months and also increase my speech duration to 15 minutes by then.

3. Control Filler Words

I want to eliminate the use of filler words like uhh, umm, so, etc. I want to sound more confident on stage. I hope to minimize the usage of filler words by rehearsing my speech at least five times before delivering it. I plan to have a maximum of two filler words for every ten minutes of presentation by the end of four months .

Specific:  Sound more confident by eliminating filler words

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by counting the filler words in the speeches. When they are down to two for every ten minutes of speaking, the goal will be achieved

Attainable:  With ample time, and room for error, the goal is made attainable

Relevant:  I want to sound confident and not waste my efforts in preparing and delivering the speech

Time-Bound:  The timeline is clearly defined at four months

4. Build Rapport with Audience

I want to refer less to my notes during my presentation because I would like to build a rapport with the audience. I will rehearse my speech six times before it is due in two weeks.  

Specific:  Build rapport with the audience, minimize the usage of notes, and rehearse the speech at least six times.

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by counting the times I referred to the notes.

Attainable:  With proper rehearsals and practice, it is attainable

Relevant:  I would like to build a rapport with the audience and make a good impression.

Time-Bound:  The timeline is clearly defined at two weeks.

5. Improve Posture

I want to improve my posture and look more confident when on stage. I have to stop myself from slouching when standing up during my presentation. I will consciously correct my posture every time I slouch over the next 30 days .

Specific:  Stop slouching and maintain a good posture.

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by checking the number of times I slouched during the speech. And also, by the number of times I had to correct my posture consciously.

Attainable:  Since the slouching habit can be eliminated within a few days, this goal is attainable

Relevant:  I want to look confident and leave a positive impression on the audience

Time-Bound:  The timeline is defined as 30 days

6. Control Purposeless Movement

I want to control purposeless movement on stage as it distracts the audience. I will work with my friend and ask them to count the times they think I unintentionally fidgeted on stage. I want to control and eliminate purposeless movement with practice over the next ten presentations .

Specific:  Control purposeless movement.

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by checking the number of times I fidgeted or moved unintentionally on stage.

Attainable:  With practice, purposeless movement can be eliminated, as many novice public speakers have done.

Relevant:  I want to look confident and not speak to a distracted audience

Time-Bound:  The timeline is ten presentations. This means that I hope to have significantly minimized purposeless movement by the time I start my eleventh.

7. Improve Audience Engagement

I want to improve the audience engagement by adding humor to my speech. After every ten minutes of my forty-minute presentation, I will add a joke to keep the audience alert and engaged. 

Specific:  Improve audience engagement

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by checking the reaction of the audience and the number of times a joke was told during the presentation.

Attainable:  Several speakers add humor to their presentations to keep the audience engaged  

Relevant:  I want to keep the audience engaged and not feel like a television or a radio.

Time-Bound:  The timeline is defined as a joke every ten minutes during a forty-minute presentation

8. Improve Eye Contact

I want to improve my eye contact with the audience and improve my credibility. I will practice making eye contact with every audience member for five seconds. I will start by practicing with small audiences of 8-10 people and hope to be comfortable with larger audiences by six months. 

Specific:  Improve eye contact

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by checking the number of times I stared blankly at the floor, ceiling, or wall. It can also be measured by the audience size that I am comfortable with

Attainable:  Several speakers can make eye contact with their audience members. If they can, so can I.  

Relevant:  I want to improve my credibility with the audience

Time-Bound:  The timeline is defined as six months’ worth of practice

9. Design Eye-catching Slides

I want to be able to design eye-catching and intriguing presentation slides. I plan to attend an online course on presentation design for two weeks and hope to make professional-looking slides by the end of the course.

Specific:  Learn how to design eye-catching slides

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by the number of days the course has been attended and also by comparing previous slides to ones after the course

Attainable:  The goal is easy to attain

Relevant:  I want to impress the audience and keep them intrigued with my presentations

Time-Bound:  The timeline is defined with the course of two weeks

10. Improve Voice Modulation

I want to work on adding voice modulation to my speeches. My monotonous voice often causes the audience members to doze off. I will work with a public speaking coach for two months to learn and apply modulation. I will also keep an eye on the members dozing off to know how effective the coaching is.

Specific:  Improve voice modulation and keep the audience alert.

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by checking the number of audience members who doze off during the presentation and comparing it with previous presentations.

Attainable:  The goal is easy to attain with a public speaking coach

Relevant:  I want the audience to listen to what I am saying

Time-Bound:  The timeline is two months to minimize the number of dozed-off audience members.

11.  Improve Hand Gestures

I want to add emphasis to my speeches by adding proper hand gestures. I will take an online public speaking course to learn the skill. I will then record myself during rehearsals and on stage to determine how much I am improving during the course. I hope to be fluent with the gestures within four months .

Specific:  Improve hand gestures

Measurable:  The progress can be measured by checking the number of times hand gestures were used

Attainable:  The goal is easy to attain with practice

Relevant:  I want the audience to understand the importance of what I am saying

Time-Bound:  The timeline is defined as four months.

Final Thoughts on SMART Goals for Public Speaking

Public speaking is a broad topic. So it’s essential to narrow down the areas you want to improve related to the current challenges you’re facing.  Hopefully these 11 examples will provide that spark of inspiration for setting goals that will help you become a more effective public speaker.

Just remember that the key to accomplishing SMART goals is to have them written down and revisit them every day. To get started, you can use one of the SMART goal worksheets and templates that are provided on this page .

And if you want more SMART goal ideas and examples, be sure to check out these blog posts:

• 5 SMART Goal Examples for Your Musician Career
• 6 SMART Goals Examples for Event Coordinators
• 7 SMART Goals Examples for Churches or a Ministry

Finally, if you want to take your goal-setting efforts to the next level, check out this FREE printable worksheet and a step-by-step process that will help you set effective SMART goals .

14 SMART Goals Examples for Public Speaking

Public speaking is a critical skill in many contexts, such as job interviews and presentations in the workplace. It may be intimidating to present in front of a crowd, but with preparation and practice, anyone can become an effective public speaker.

Having SMART goals encourages you to focus your efforts on specific outcomes and make progress toward being able to deliver presentations confidently.

Table of Contents

What is a SMART Goal?

Your public speaking goals should be created in tandem with the SMART strategy. In case you are unaware, SMART is an acronym standing for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based.

• Specific: Ensure your goals are as detailed as possible.
• Measurable: Public speakers should make their goals trackable; this component is essential to success.
• Attainable: You want your goals and objectives to be both challenging and reasonable.
• Relevant: Try to align your goals with your personal core values.
• Time-based: You need a specific end date for accomplishing your goal . This will keep you accountable and create a feeling of urgency.

By following these 5 SMART criteria, you can speak confidently and assertively on stage.

Let’s cover 14 examples of SMART goals to improve your public speaking skills:

1. Increase Confidence

SMART Goal: To become a more confident speaker, I’ll practice public speaking exercises every day for the following two months. I want to become more comfortable speaking in front of large groups and build the confidence I need to be a successful public speaker.

• Specific: This goal outlines what you need to do (practice public speaking exercises) and how often you need to do it (every day).
• Measurable: You could count the days you’ve practiced public speaking.
• Attainable: Practicing public speaking exercises daily is absolutely doable.
• Relevant: Taking advantage of these exercises is an excellent way to boost confidence when speaking in front of large groups.
• Time-based: Goal achievement is expected after two whole months.

2. Improve Vocal Delivery

SMART Goal: I want to improve my vocal delivery when I give presentations. To do this, I will practice speaking in front of a mirror for 30 minutes every day for the three months ahead and record myself during practice sessions to review my progress.

• Specific: The SMART goal is explicit because it details how the individual will improve their vocal delivery.
• Measurable: They can record themselves speaking during practice sessions.
• Attainable: Practicing speaking in front of a mirror is achievable within three months.
• Relevant: Vocal delivery is instrumental in enhancing your public speaking skills.
• Time-based: Goal attainment is expected within three months.

3. Expand Repertoire of Presentation Materials

SMART Goal: I will develop new presentation materials for my public speaking engagements by the end of two months. This will include creating slideshows, animations, videos, and interactive resources to capture my audience’s attention.

• Specific: The statement is clear and concise, outlining what materials need to be created.
• Measurable: You can determine how many new materials have been developed.
• Attainable: This goal can be accomplished by dedicating time to developing the materials.
• Relevant: This is essential for public speaking because it will help engage the audience and make presentations more interesting.
• Time-based: There is a two-month end date for accomplishing this goal.

4. Conquer Your Fears

SMART Goal: I’ll aim to improve my public speaking skills and conquer the fear of speaking in front of a large audience. I will attend one public speaking event each month for the next 6 months and practice my skills by presenting at least two talks during this time frame.

• Specific: The person has a particular goal to conquer their fear of speaking in front of a large audience.
• Measurable: Attend one public speaking event each month and present two talks.
• Attainable: Given the timeline of 6 months, this statement is achievable.
• Relevant: This is pertinent to the person’s needs and interests in becoming a successful public speaker.
• Time-based: Six months is required to reach this particular target.

5. Develop Stronger Storytelling Skills

SMART Goal: By the end of 5 months, I will work to develop stronger storytelling skills. I’ll practice my oral presentation skills with friends and family, work on writing stories to use for presentations, and attend workshops that focus on storytelling techniques.

• Specific: This goal is focused on improving storytelling skills, which will be helpful in public speaking.
• Measurable: Make sure you actively follow the listed action items for success.
• Attainable: This is a relatively achievable goal if you are dedicated and consistently practicing.
• Relevant: Storytelling skills are essential for public speaking and will help you convey your message more engagingly.
• Time-based: There is a deadline of 5 months for meeting this goal.

6. Practice Nonverbal Cues and Gestures

SMART Goal: To become a more confident speaker, I will practice my nonverbal cues and gestures for 10 minutes daily for one month. I want to use my body language better and clearly convey what I’m saying.

• Specific: You will practice nonverbal cues and gestures for 10 minutes each day.
• Measurable: The individual could record the time spent practicing their nonverbal cues and gestures.
• Attainable: This is possible because it requires a small amount of daily effort.
• Relevant: The goal is appropriate because the person wants to become a more confident speaker, and using nonverbal cues can help with this.
• Time-based: This goal is time-bound because you want to complete it in one month .

7. Focus on Audience Involvement

SMART Goal: I will design each presentation to involve the audience, allowing them to participate. By the end of two months, I will strive to ensure every presentation I give includes an interactive element that encourages participation.

• Specific: The goal details the objective and how it will be achieved in two months.
• Measurable: You could measure audience involvement by looking at the number of questions asked and audience participation during each presentation.
• Attainable: This SMART goal is doable because it focuses on integrating audience participation into each presentation.
• Relevant: It is crucial to engage with the audience and ensure they participate in the presentation.
• Time-based: There is a two-month timeline for accomplishing the goal.

8. Enhance Visual Aids and Slideshows

SMART Goal: My goal is to be able to create visual aids and slideshows that better engage the audience in my presentations. I plan to create a template of custom visuals that I can use for all my future presentations by the end of three months.

• Specific: The goal is specific since this person wants to create better visual aids and slideshows.
• Measurable: You can check off the boxes after creating the template and visual aids.
• Attainable: This is a realistic timeline to create a template of visuals for future presentations.
• Relevant: This goal is relevant to public speaking as it will help engage the audience better.
• Time-based: You’ll achieve this goal by the end of three months.

9. Boost Knowledge of Topic Areas

SMART Goal: For 7 months, I’ll spend two hours each week researching and learning more about the topics I’ll discuss in my public speaking engagements. I want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and regulations to give my audience the best information possible.

• Specific: The goal is clear. The public speaker wants to become an expert in their field.
• Measurable: You will spend two hours each week researching and learning.
• Attainable: This is achievable and achievable with time and intentional effort.
• Relevant: The goal aligns with the speaker’s desire to become an expert in their field.
• Time-based: You will gain more knowledge over the duration of 7 months.

10. Speak with More Assertiveness

SMART Goal: To improve my public speaking, I’ll practice and implement powerful communication techniques in each of my speeches by the end of 6 months. I want to enhance my message to the audience and speak with more authority.

• Specific: The goal is clear and concise, stating precisely the objective and how it will be accomplished.
• Measurable: By practicing communication techniques and implementing them in speeches, the speaker can measure their success with audiences.
• Attainable: This goal can be accomplished through practice and research on powerful communication techniques.
• Relevant: This is relevant to public speaking because it helps the speaker enhance their message and gain more authority.
• Time-based: There is a 6-month end date for reaching this goal.

11. Refine Time Management

SMART Goal: After four months, I’ll have established a time management system that allows me to schedule and manage tasks better without sacrificing the quality of work. This will make me more organized and efficient when preparing for my speeches.

• Specific: This goal includes the time frame for completion and outlines what you need to do (establish a time management system).
• Measurable: Measuring this goal could include tracking how you manage your tasks and if they are completed promptly.
• Attainable: Creating and refining a time management system is something you can definitely do.
• Relevant: Managing your time will encourage efficiency while preparing for your speeches.
• Time-based: Goal completion is expected to take four months.

12. Increase Self-Awareness

SMART Goal: I will increase my self-awareness to better understand how I express myself in public speaking by taking an online course on communication within two months. When addressing an audience, I plan to be more mindful of my body language and tone.

• Specific: The SMART goal is explicit because it outlines precise steps toward increasing self-awareness.
• Measurable: The speaker will determine how well they can identify their body language and tone of voice.
• Attainable: This goal is achievable as long as the person puts in the effort and time.
• Relevant: The goal relates to increasing self-awareness regarding public speaking.
• Time-based: Goal achievement is expected by the end of two months.

13. Study Audience Dynamics

SMART Goal: I want to enhance my public speaking skills by studying audience dynamics on a deeper level. I will dedicate at least an hour each week for the next 6 months to studying how different demographics interact with each other and how my messages can be tailored to reach them.

• Specific: The goal is to study audience dynamics and build public speaking skills by tailoring messages.
• Measurable: Dedicate at least an hour each week to studying audience dynamics.
• Attainable: The timeline is reasonable, so this should be achievable with the proper focus.
• Relevant: The goal is appropriate to the task at hand because it focuses on honing public speaking skills.
• Time-based: There is a 6-month time frame for pursuing this goal.

14. Learn from Your Mistakes

SMART Goal: In the following three months, I want to improve upon any errors I made in the past and ensure I make fewer mistakes each time I present. I’ll be more confident in my speaking abilities and know I can give an effective presentation.

• Specific: The statement is to improve upon any errors made in the past and make fewer mistakes each time speaking.
• Measurable: You can track the number of mistakes made in each presentation.
• Attainable: This is achievable because the individual actively seeks ways to improve and shows confidence in their abilities.
• Relevant: The SMART goal is appropriate because it focuses on personal growth and improvement as a speaker.
• Time-based: The goal is time-bound because it has a deadline of three months.

Final Thoughts

Public speaking may be an overwhelming experience, but creating SMART goals will make it more manageable. Knowing what you want to achieve and planning are vital to reaching success.

Start developing realistic, measurable objectives that motivate you to do your best. Take note of how far you’ve come and celebrate the small victories. With some preparation and practice, you’ll be ready to hit the stage confidently.

• Presentation Science

Set SMART Goals for Better Presentations

• By: Amy Boone

It’s the season of wish lists. What is it that you are wishing for this holiday season?

It’s not something you can get on Amazon, but many of us wish we were better at public speaking. But wishing to get better at giving presentations is like wishing to learn to play the piano. Or wishing to improve our golf swing. Presenting is an art form. A skill. It’s something that takes time and training and practice to improve. It takes intentionality.

If becoming a better presenter is on the list of things you’d like to accomplish, set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. It’s a theory that has been adapted by different theorists. But it’s largely attributed to George T. Doran who wrote about SMART goals in his 1981 article “ There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives .” Some of his original terms have been adapted over the years, but the concept remains the same.

Let’s use Doran’s theory to help us move from wishing we were better speakers to actually achieving our goals.

First, “I want to be a better presenter” is a great goal, but it’s too broad. You need to zoom in. What is it specifically that you want to improve on? If you have a presentation coming up, record it. If you don’t, simply think about the things you feel you need to get better at. Then, make a list of at least 5 specific goals. They could be things like, make better eye contact with my audience members . Or develop content that flows more smoothly from the beginning to the end of the presentation . Or reduce the number of filler words (um’s, uh’s,) and use pauses more thoughtfully . Or increase my volume and vocal variety .

Once you have a targeted list of things you will work to improve, you can move on to examining how to measure them.

How you measure your goals will depend on the specific goals you’ve identified in the first step. Many of them can be measured by simply recording yourself every time you present and then going back to watch yourself and assessing your progress.

Other goals will take a little more work. You might need to enlist the help of audience members to give you feedback via an anonymous survey using a tool like SurveyMonkey. Or you might find it helpful to enlist the help of a presentation skills coach who can give you expert feedback on your progress.

I’m tempted to leave this letter blank. Why? Because I wholeheartedly believe that every single person who wants to get better at public speaking can. Are there some people who are naturally more gifted in this field? Sure. Just like there are some people who have natural music abilities or natural athletic abilities. But no one gets great just on natural abilities. Every skill takes work.

So yes , any goal you make toward improving your public speaking skills is achievable. In an article for NBC News, Sarah DiGiulio cites Marjorie L. North, a speech pathologist and lecturer at Harvard University who has been teaching public speaking for over 35 years. North says that everyone, regardless of personality traits, feels nervous when they are in front of a large crowd because it’s not a natural activity. And everyone can improve with preparation and practice. This is because public speaking is “a skill, not a talent.”

This is another letter that it’s tempting for me to want to skip over. Very few things are more valuable than strong communication skills. In fact, the CNBC article “ The 10 Most In-Demand Skills of 2019, According to LinkedIn ” lists persuasion (the ability to communicate in a way that influences and moves) second. Second. So if you are wondering if your goals to improve your presentation skills are relevant, they are .

This last element of SMART goals holds you accountable. For goals that seem scary or unattainable, you can delay progress indefinitely. If you don’t start, you don’t risk failing, right? But to get serious about achieving a goal, you need to instill progress markers and deadlines.

SMART goals can help you stop wishing and start working. Begin now. Write out specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals about what you want to accomplish as a presenter.

If you want some support in reaching your goals , check out our full line of presentation design and training services today .

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