founder of naked leader

Preparation Is The Key

PREPARATION, preparation, preparation. Anybody who has seen Dragons’ Den will appreciate how daunting standing up in front of a gathering can be. The key is to be yourself. To be yourself you have to be relaxed. To be relaxed you have to be confident. To be confident you have to be prepared. Simple!

Making a presentation can be a great opportunity to get known while making an impact on people. So it is important to make the most of your opportunity in the limelight.

Approaching the task in a positive frame of mind will make it more likely for you to succeed. The audience will want you to do well as you have something to say and they want to hear it. You don’t need all the facts and figures at your finger tips. Just the essentials, putting them across as clearly and concisely as you can.

Giving careful thought to what you are going to say, and how you are going to say it, is important. Try to structure your script. Focus on the audience. If need be, do some research. Who are they? Where are they from? How many are there? Why are they attending? How much to they already know about the subject matter? What will they want to know? What are their expectations? All these are questions you need answers to, before you even think about the content you are going to use.

If the opportunity arises try and talk to them beforehand. Most people feel more relaxed speaking to people they know rather than a group of strangers. A brief chat beforehand will be an added bonus. A last-minute clue, perhaps, of what individuals are expecting. And an informal word or two can bring the human element into focus, transforming a mass of humanity into individual human beings with feelings. Gaining this kind of comfort before you take centre stage is invaluable.

(Based on an extract from (The Greatest Management Tips in the World)

3 Responses to Preparation Is The Key

  1. Without preparation in a presentation you are doomed, simple as that.
    Know your audience, know your objective, do your homework and make it work. Or fail!

  2. Presentations just don’t work if the preparation isn’t done first. Not many people can stand up and do one off the cuff. Any anyway, you might not even know who you are performing in front of.

  3. Of course presentation preparation is the only thing that makes them work. To go into one without research is pure folly.

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