Presentations: Part 3 of 3
Making Presentations: The Day of the Presentation
by Elizabeth Pass
The Day of the Presentation
The day of the presentation you will be ready. You have researched and practiced your presentation, created your visuals aids, know where you are presenting, and checked out the room (if possible). The day of the presentation, most people experience nervousness in the form of increased heart rate, faster breathing, increased adrenaline, and tightening muscles. All this can cause people to have shaky hands and problems speaking at a natural rate from the muscles tightening around the chest and neck. With a few exercises, you can lessen most of these symptoms.
Nervousness
Most people breathe from their chest, the top part of their lungs, which is the smallest part of the lungs. (Take a deep breath. Most people, if they aren't thinking about it, will breathe shallowly, and their chests will rise). This means that they are not getting the most air in as possible, which isn't usually a problem when sitting in a resting state. However, when people become nervous, usually the muscles contract around the upper body—chest, shoulders, and neck. This means that when they try to take a breath, they can't get as much as they usually do because the muscle are contracted, keeping the top part of the lungs from filling.
To fill your lungs completely, when you breathe, push out your stomach, allowing the largest part of your lungs to expand. If you can't expand your lungs while sitting or standing, try lying on the floor and breathing. By lying on the floor, you are forcing the lungs to expand outward and keeping the chest wall in place.
Now that you know how to breathe properly, you can do a simple exercise to loosen the contracted muscles. Not all of your muscles are contracted, but in order to loosen the muscles you want to tighten all of them. By contracting all of them you will then loosen all of them.
While sitting in a chair, put both feet flat on the floor, sit up straight with your hands by your side, and grip either side of the seat of the chair. While breathing in slowly on a 5 – 10 count, tighten all your muscles, starting with your toes and working up (i.e., toes, heals, calves, thighs, buttocks, hips, back, stomach, chest, fingers, forearm, biceps, shoulders, neck). Once you have tightened all your muscles, breathe out slowly and release your muscles. This will release any tightened muscles.
Right before you present, take a few deep breaths so that you can calm yourself and be ready to speak with a strong voice. You can also do the muscle relaxation exercise unobtrusively, followed by a few deep breaths. Then you should be ready to present.
When you stand up to begin speaking, remember that nothing happens until you start. So, take your time to prepare your visuals, your notes, and anything that you need. Take a few deep breaths, then begin. If you begin talking as you're walking to the front of the room, to the lectern, etc., you will be breathless and rushed when you begin. Most people tend to speak too fast because of the heart racing and increased adrenaline. You want to make sure you breathe, focus your adrenaline, and set your pace.
Content
At the beginning of the presentation, set the tone and what you want audience to do. If you are going to speak and then have a Question & Answer period, let them know. Or, if it is more informal and you want to encourage the audience to ask questions or comment throughout your presentation, let them know and create the environment for that informality (e.g., don't stand behind a podium but walk around more, arrange the room in a more informal way and not in rows).
Be careful with humor. If you're not usually funny then you aren't going to be funny now. Also, be aware of culture, race, gender—what may be funny to you may not be funny to someone else. You do not have to start your presentation with a joke—there are many ways to be effective and memorable without telling a joke.
Visuals
When working with your visuals, maintain eye contact with the audience. Many of us have suffered through the endless PowerPoint presentation in the darkened room with the presenter staring at the screen, reading slide after slide to the audience. Think of PowerPoint slides as electronic overheads; all the rules of presenting with visuals still apply: look at the audience and not the screen; if possible, try not to present in a totally dark room so eye contact can be maintained; keep the presentation going between transitioning from using visuals to not using visuals to maintain a smooth flow; and turn off or put away visuals when not using them.
Interpersonal
How we interact with the audience when we present is important because that is a large part of what makes us persuasive and credible. When we are nervous, we tend to exhibit verbal behavior, such asverbal pauses: "um," "uh," "like," "you know," "but um," and "and." Our everyday language is littered with verbal pauses, but in a presentation you want to limit those verbal pauses.
Actions speak louder than words, and nonverbal behavior is important. When we are nervous, that nervous energy usually comes out in some form of nonverbal behavior: rocking back and forth, not making eye contact (i.e., staring at notes or at the back of the room), repeating the same hand gesture, playing with rings, playing with hair (women), and hands in pockets and jingling change (men).
Now, there's no way you can try and remember your presentation, work with visuals, and run through a long list of nonverbal and verbal behaviors you are not supposed to do. What you want to do is find out what you do when you're nervous: what are your nervous behaviors? Do you say nonverbal pauses such as "um" and "and" throughout a presentation? Do you rock back and forth?
To find out what you need to focus on, you need to create a presentation situation so that you are nervous; presenting in front of a good friend or spouse will not create the anxiety needed to bring out the nonverbal and verbal behaviors you tend to do so that you can practice and alleviate them. Find a few colleagues who are willing to listen to you and help critique you; find a presentation environment and present to them. This will give you an opportunity to improve your presentation skills and learn to focus your energy.
A few more tips for presenting: we all make mistakes, and especially during presentations. Most of us in an audience don't see or hear the mistakes the presenter knows he or she did. Never apologize; keep on going. The audience almost always does not see or hear the mistake, and to draw attention to it will lessen your persuasion and credibility. If the mistake is noticeable, to continue will actually put you in a positive light with the audience—you could keep going and not get rattled despite the interruption/technical failure, etc.
Many people tend to mumble, swallow, or slur their words. Make sure you articulate when you speak so that the audience can understand you.
Make eye contact and smile. Eye contact improves your persuasiveness, and smiling shows you to be more trustworthy and likeable. These are all traits that you want your audience to see in you.
Remember: Practice so that you find your nervous ticks and can work to alleviate them. Nothing starts until you begin: relax and set the pace. Make eye contact, smile, and never apologize. You are in charge of the room. I hope you've enjoyed this 3 part series of Making Presentations.
Resources
Gurak, Laura J. (2000) Oral Presentations for Technical Communication. Allyn and Bacon: Boston.
Hindle, Tim. (1998) Making Presentations. DK Publishing: New York, NY.
Murray, Angela. (1999) Business Presentations. Teach Yourself Books: London.
Peoples, David A. (1992) Presentations Plus. Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons: New York, NY.
Templeton, Melody and Sparks FitzGerald, Suzanne. (1999) Schaum's Quick Guide to Great Presentation Skills. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY.
Weissman, Jerry. (2003) Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Woelfle, Robert M., Ed. (1992) A New Guide for Better Technical Presentations: Applying Proven Techniques with Modern Tools. IEEE Press: New York, NY.
Elizabeth Pass is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Technical & Scientific Communication at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. She is also the Membership Chair for PCS.