A company is made up of many different people, and each is expected to play their role. Like a machine, everyone works together like an individual cog to pull off much greater feats. Normally, this scenario plays out normally and everyone settles into a routine. Sometimes, however, one of the people in the system recognize that something could be fixed or improved. There are many reasons why corporate protocol could have errors or mistakes in it that could be tweaked or fixed. One of the reasons is that many corporations have a wide array of people. There are older folks and eager newbies, or experts in the field and those who are just starting out. Someone who looks at a project with fresh eyes might have an idea on how to tackle a problem in a new way, or a co-worker with years of experience may be able to offer a new perspective on a roadblock. People bring their personal lives into work and each colleague has a base of ideas and knowledge to contribute to issues. Every co-worker has valuable insights and can help save the company and their colleague’s money, time, and frustration. So why isn’t every business a utopia? Having an idea is one thing, but convincing your boss that it’s in the company’s best interests is another. Many great plans fail before they even start because their advocates can’t convince their higher ups to adopt them. Avoid this fate for your own idea by taking presentation skills training. Learning to present your ideas in a positive light is key to get your boss on board with a strategy that will make everyone’s life easier. Here are three ways that presentation skills amplify your ideas and make them shine.
Remove the Dead Weight from Your Presentations and Leave Only the Best Behind
Presentation skills training is useful at helping you hack away at the chaff of your argument, so that only the compelling parts are left behind. Many people end up adding fluff to their arguments, or choosing to focus on things that they feel are compelling but are actually quite a bore. For instance, many speakers like to use statistics and facts. Grounding your argument in reality is great, but droning out percentage after percentage after percentage makes your argument feel like the listener is preparing for a history test. Part of learning presentation skills is figuring out when to drop a fact and when to use an anecdote instead. Training in these skills will teach you to drop the dead weight and leave only the necessary parts behind for a compact, convincing presentation.
Cut out the Ums and Errs and Replace Them with Facts and Charm
A common method that people use to improve their presentation skills is to force themselves to give a speech for a set amount of time (a minute at the lowest, ten minutes at the max). They then count how many times they used a word like ‘um’, ‘err’, ‘uh’, or ‘like’ to fill in a pause. These filled pauses make your presentation feel unprofessional and cluttered. Presentation skills training helps cut them loose and improves the way you present your idea.
Have Your Ideas and Rhetoric Flow Naturally Without Getting Tangled Up
Part of presenting your idea properly involves having it be easily understood. Imagine you go and see a movie. The movie begins with the characters winning the day, then it goes back to the origin story, and then the final hour of the movie is them preparing for the battle and earning each other’s trust. You probably wouldn’t think it’s a very good movie. The same logic applies to your presentation. Presentation skills training helps you get the rhythm and flow of your idea and how to demonstrate it down. Here’s an example: There’s a method of data collection that your office needs to do every day, but it takes a couple of hours. You’ve come up with a programming tool that will collect it much faster. You want to sell your boss on this idea. If you start off by going “I want to use this programming tool to collect data, it’ll take a week to set up and teach everyone the basics.” then your presentation has started off on a negative note, and it’s an uphill battle from there. Instead, explain the problem, show the effects it has on your company, offer a solution, then discuss the pros and cons. Explaining your problem in the right steps is crucial for winning other people’s approval.
Use Clever Presentation Tactics to Appeal to Your Boss’s Brain
There are little tricks that you can use during your presentation to activate parts of your boss’s brain and win their approval. For instance, asking questions is a great way to get people engaged, whereas talking continuously often leads to people dozing off. Another tip is to remember that the human brain is hardwired to pay attention to visuals over speech – but if the visuals contradict the words being said, they will forget the words and remember the images. Therefore, it’s important to remember that any graphics must work in harmony and reinforce what you’re saying, or your message will become muddled. Presentation skills training helps you understand how the human brain works and how to use it to your advantage.
Presentation skills training is an invaluable tool for the employee with an idea. When you see something around your office that could be improved, or there’s a barrier to productivity, then you’ll want to fix it – but first, you’ll want the boss on board. Presentation skills help convince your superiors and colleagues that your new strategy is the way to go. When you have an idea, get it across with style and prove its substance with the skills you’ll learn in a presentation skills course.
