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Presentation skills top tips

1) Know your audience

  • Think who they are – what they will want to learn from your presentation
  • What will excite them and help them in their job role?
  • What barriers can you help them overcome?
  • Think when presenting “so what this means for you is…….”

2) Demonstrate you care about the audience

  • If you are presenting face to face/or have a few minutes before presenting virtually ask them what their challenges are, what they would like to get out of the session and tailor the session accordingly
  • eg. I was speaking to [name] before the session and they asked if I could cover details on how we overcame [ x problem eg incompatibility with IT systems]
  • or, [name] mentioned you would like to understand how we measured achievement when it was too early to get clear outcomes

3) Demonstrate competence

  • Give examples from your own experience

4) Connect

  • Use real stories that also demonstrate you learnt through the experience, be transparent when you did need to make a change, or met a challenge
  • Stories have a theme, attention grabbing moments and a satisfying conclusion
  • Use pictures, if an audience hears information they recall 10%, if they hear information and see a picture they may retain 65%

5) Consistent and authentic

  • When presenting on the subject – have consistency in story, words and actions whoever is the audience – ie don’t change the story if presenting to GP practices rather than commissioners. They may need different detail, but be consistent and open about the challenges faced.

6) Keep it simple

  • Ensure you are clear, not overly complex or technical
  • Don’t assume everyone knows the acronyms and abbreviations, avoid using them if possible.

7) Get engagement

  • Instead of asking for questions try asking if others have experienced something similar asking for:
  • Their advice based on their experience
  • Or their opinion
  • If online ask what people have learnt from their experience/your presentation – and for them to type it into chat, you could then invite some of them to speak
  • Set a task – eg, type 10 ideas on how this concept could be used in chat (having a target encourages engagement as it feels like they are completing a task)

8) Finally, enjoy the session, remember to breathe, pause and allow the audience to engage, if on line, perhaps encourage engagement in chat or ask people to raise their virtual hand to interject.

PCC provides a range of personal and team development sessions or contact events@pcc-cic.org.uk to discuss how we can support you.

Last Updated on 1 August 2022