Sakshi Education
Why an Engineering student should possess the skills to make a paper presentation or to participate in a seminar or explain the project in review meeting? The answer is simple, but significant. It’s because the students of professional programmes are expected to lead the teams, organizations and the country in the future.
Simply picking some technical skills and being confined to work cubicle are not the only things they are expected to do. They should possess leadership qualities, the skills to drive the teams to turn their organisations into top performing power houses.
If you are good at technical skills, fine, however that is not enough. You should possess and demonstrate leadership qualities. They are expected to take the lead in the progress of the country. This is crux of the issue.
Guess, what a leader should possess, more than anything else?
Can you guess any leader? Have you come across any great leader without motivational speaking skills and presentation abilities? Presentation is an essential quality any leader should aspire for. Being a leader you need to motivate the team to complete the project in time. You can inspire your teams through your motivational speeches. Even in interpersonal communication, you need to be a real leader to address the problems faced by your team mates and motivate them so that they could focus on achieving optimised results.
As a leader, you can direct and lead the teams the way you want them to be driven.
Presentation of ideas is an art. Be it a team meeting or seminar presentation, you can master this most important skill effectively it by following the tips that are given in this article.
There is a saying, - “Audience does not care how much you know, until they know how much you care for them”. Yes this is a fact.
It has a direct bearing on your success as a speaker on any given day. Audience expect- ‘audience centric approach’ from the speaker. It is a fundamental rule and a universal truth. So in your speech, “YOU” is more important than “I & ME.”
For example, let us assume you need to address a gathering of people for a paper presentation, college anniversary or an interuniversity fest;
Give Importance to the audience
Your Speech/Presentation shall always be divided into three parts-
If you have 10 Min., divide it as mentioned below.
Your Question should be light in nature, don’t ask heavy duty questions, so that, to answer your question, some marathon research work should be commissioned.
Preferably ask close ended questions, where audience simply needs to give, mono syllable answers like “Yes or No”, that’s it.
Don’t complicate the atmosphere, by asking some controversial questions either.
Just observe the following questions.
“Some of the proven ways to open a presentation”
Need based/ topic based Questions
synergy noun [U] (ALSO synergism) SPECIALIZED
the combined power of a group of things when they are working together which is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately:
Team work at its best results in a synergy that can be very productive
Then you can link this with your topic, “Team Work” and continue your speech.
Simply picking some technical skills and being confined to work cubicle are not the only things they are expected to do. They should possess leadership qualities, the skills to drive the teams to turn their organisations into top performing power houses.
If you are good at technical skills, fine, however that is not enough. You should possess and demonstrate leadership qualities. They are expected to take the lead in the progress of the country. This is crux of the issue.
Guess, what a leader should possess, more than anything else?
Can you guess any leader? Have you come across any great leader without motivational speaking skills and presentation abilities? Presentation is an essential quality any leader should aspire for. Being a leader you need to motivate the team to complete the project in time. You can inspire your teams through your motivational speeches. Even in interpersonal communication, you need to be a real leader to address the problems faced by your team mates and motivate them so that they could focus on achieving optimised results.
As a leader, you can direct and lead the teams the way you want them to be driven.
Presentation of ideas is an art. Be it a team meeting or seminar presentation, you can master this most important skill effectively it by following the tips that are given in this article.
- Always main a positive outlook.
- Observe the mood of the audience; so that you can tailor make your presentation/talk.
- The skill of a leader lies in presenting even the complicated technical aspects also in a presentable way.
- First get all the data, contents and details of the topic ready and order them in a good sequence. Get the appropriate visual aids, slides, documents ready with you so that you can emulate the ideas that you are presenting.
- Remember the numerical data meticulously, memorize several times before the actual presentation.
There is a saying, - “Audience does not care how much you know, until they know how much you care for them”. Yes this is a fact.
It has a direct bearing on your success as a speaker on any given day. Audience expect- ‘audience centric approach’ from the speaker. It is a fundamental rule and a universal truth. So in your speech, “YOU” is more important than “I & ME.”
For example, let us assume you need to address a gathering of people for a paper presentation, college anniversary or an interuniversity fest;
Give Importance to the audience
- Do not hurt any individual during your presentation.
- Seminar Presentation is the ultimate test for your communication skills.
- It is an unwritten rule, that you do not have the right to hurt the feelings of any body, through your speech.
- Let me give you one example. “You can win”, this apparently harmless statement gives negative intonations. In a subtle way, we are hinting that “At present you are a failure. You can win in future.” Listeners are mindful enough to get the message. That’s why, if you want to be an influential speaker, you should be careful in your selecting your words, phrases, ideas, examples and even the gestures that you make on the dais.
- “You can be even more successful”, try using this phrase, instead of using “You can win” and see the difference in the response. Because, here you are giving a strong message that “Yes, you are successful. You are in the right direction, with a little effort, you can be even more successful”.
- This is what I meant by saying “Audience centric approach.”
- You should understand the sensibilities of your audience.
- Among your audience, invariably there may be people from many backgrounds and with different career goals.
- Don’t take hard stands that could hurt the feelings of some of your audience.
- You are here to give a professional presentation, you should stick to it.
- Do not deviate from the subject matter of your presentation.
Your Speech/Presentation shall always be divided into three parts-
If you have 10 Min., divide it as mentioned below.
- The Head (2 Min)
- The Body (6 Min)
- The Tail (2 Min)
The Head
Greet the audience.
- An appropriate greeting like Good morning, Good evening etc, depending on the time. Based on the audience’s sensibilities you can customize the greetings. Be sure the audience will receive it positively, otherwise it may back fire.
Thank the audience, the organizers and the management. - Never miss to thank the people in the top order of the management, mention their names with respect and in the order of hierarchy.
Appreciate the audience whole heartedly. - The first few seconds are very crucial in getting the attention of the audience.
- Before you start, first take audience in to your friendly zone. Nothing clicks than a smile and a word of praise. So do it, whole heartedly. Dont sound artificial and rhetoric.
- Always try to find something to appreciate the audience.
- Add a word of praise depending on the nature of the meeting. If you are addressing the group of people who are participating as part of Campus Recruitment Drive, you can congratulate them for being selected into this particular round. You will be taken into the friendly zone by the listeners.
- If you are not very sure, you can appreciate them in general. Like, “I appreciate your interest level in attending this seminar, Or, I really need to appreciate you all for the fact that despite heavy showers, all of you made it a point to attend this seminar…etc.
- Make them relax with statements like “I will take just few minutes of your time.”
- Before you state the purpose, start with some interesting opening address.
- Avoid the temptation to start with a joke until and unless you are sure that all the audience are positive and they will take it funny and I repeat, E V E R Y O N E in the auditorium.
- Age
- Sex
- Knowledge level
- Sensibilities
- Political, religious, ethnic, sentiments
- Their likes and dislikes
Your Question should be light in nature, don’t ask heavy duty questions, so that, to answer your question, some marathon research work should be commissioned.
Preferably ask close ended questions, where audience simply needs to give, mono syllable answers like “Yes or No”, that’s it.
Don’t complicate the atmosphere, by asking some controversial questions either.
Just observe the following questions.
- Would you like to realize your dreams?
- Would you like to be a winner?
“Some of the proven ways to open a presentation”
Need based/ topic based Questions
- Ask some questions that are very much relevant to their seminar topic, branch, goal, objective etc.
- Mystery opener:
- What does 2 plus 2 equal to? (Synergy)
- Audience feel, it is very simple and harmless question, naturally with a smile on their face, they may answer that , it is 4.
- Fine, appreciate the person who gives the answer
- Then gently announce that there are different answers. Then explain the concept of Synergy
synergy noun [U] (ALSO synergism) SPECIALIZED
the combined power of a group of things when they are working together which is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately:
Team work at its best results in a synergy that can be very productive
Then you can link this with your topic, “Team Work” and continue your speech.
- Can you draw a Square with three lines (Lateral Thinking)
- All the audience naturally get excited and they start thinking. Some of them naurally come forward to make a trial. See, what an effective way to start the presentation?
- You are also guessing right?, the answer is at the end of the this article.
- Today in Hyderabad there are no diamonds available why? (A subtle, yet very strong way of appreciating the audience)
- You are also guessing right?, the answer is at the end of the this article.
- The Compliment:
- “Before I begin, I’d like to thank all of you for reaching the auditorium in time...
- It is indeed a pleasure to address the gathering like you, who have achieved very good fluency in less amount of time.
- Establish the Objective:
- Before you move on to next part of the presentation, establish the objective of your presentation during the opening address itself. This is a crucial beginning.
The Body
Now it is time for you to work on the body of the presentation. This is the most important aspect because your very purpose is to deliver the chosen stuff.
The whole effort will go waste, if you do not work properly on your material or the content of your speech.
Be well equipped with the main points. Sort them in an attractive fashion. Keep all the scientific data, with relevant papers, documents and supportive references.
Almost all the modern speakers choose to narrate interesting stories and anecdotes in a crisp and attractive style. They relate these stories with the content that they planned to emphasize. So, gather suitable anecdotes and examples, which you can quote to make your point more cogent and get the attention of the audience.
You can involve the audience by giving suitable pauses, lowering the pitch of the voice, creating tempo and asking few suitable questions in between.
The audience will get spell bound with the charm of your contents as well as with the presentation style.
Audience shortly forget what you speak, but they do remember how you delivered it.
In Seminar Presentation, the presentation skills count a lot.
That is the reason why you just cannot afford to miss the mock presentations before you go for the real one. Do as many mock presentations as possible, in front of your friends, relatives, closed associates and observe their feelings, feedback. Improvise further, in every mock presentation.
Gather the related information; gather supportive documents, photographs, etc to support your chosen topic.
The point to be remembered for ever:
The content is very important; it is the crux of your presentation, no doubt about it. However, with your practice, planning and attractive presentation you can make it a memorable experience. Honestly speaking, do you like to listen to boring seminars and lectures?
Then why do you expect your audience should?
The Tail
A tail is as important as any other aspects of the presentation.
Just let me tell you one thing. Let us imagine that we watched a movie. The total movie is average and not so well crafted. However, the director has taken special care in designing the climax; he gave a fantastic twist at the end.
He has captured the attention of the audience and he gave a spellbound treatment to the movie in the final few minutes of the movie.
All the audience generously forgets the flaws and pit falls in the initial parts of the story narration. They leave the theatre with a positive bent of mind frame. They even give very good word of mouth publicity among their friends and relatives.
The vice versa is also true. The whole movie is good, the climax is not impressive. The bad word of mouth spreads like a wild fire.
You can recollect your own experiences with the movies that you watched.
That is the power of climax.
Thus you need to be very careful, in crafting the tail of the presentation. In this section you have to give Summary of the whole presentation in a quick recap style.
Again involve the audience by asking some questions like ‘What one single point you liked very much’- kind of questions, ‘what one single decision you took’-kind of questions.
Encourage the audience to ask questions
Finally give a thanking note.
Hey, wait…
Don’t you want the answers for the puzzles?
The Answers:
First Question: “Can you draw a square with three lines?”
Now, simply draw a square as usual with four lines. Inside the diagram put three lines.
This is a question based on English language. Of course a square cannot be drawn using 3 lines.
Here we are using the word “with”, with its one of the meanings.
‘With’ has got many meanings, one among them is, ‘having or possessing’.
Examples:
A house with three rooms.
A woman with white hair.
But the people take the other meaning, ‘Using something’.
Examples:
He shot him with a gun.
She wiped off her lipstick with a tissue.
Lateral thinking is a part of science where we train the people to develop the habit of creative thinking, so that they can come out with innovative thoughts and results.
Second Question:
Today in Hyderabad there are no diamonds available why?
(A subtle, yet very strong way of appreciating the audience)
We can prolong this discussion for some time, naturally the audience gets wondered, how come diamonds are not available in such a big city?
Then, slowly you can announce, “All the diamonds in the city are sitting right in front of me, how anybody can expect the diamonds to be available anywhere else?”
This is a strong yet subtle way to win the attention of the audience.
Presentational Skills and Employability
Your presentation skills would have direct impact over your employability. Of course, you know this. But, have you ever thought about how your presentation skills could yield dividends from your very first presentation itself. Think about the following scenario -
Placement officers of the colleges closely watch the seminar presentations and it is needless to say that they will definitely form an opinion based on your seminar presentation.
They are the ones who do shortlist the students for the upcoming campus drives. So, you could be one those first guys whom the placement officer would like to select.
So, all the best.
In the coming article let us see how to answer the questions of the audience and other finer points.
For the previous article “Seminar Presentation Skills - Key to your Success”, visit
www.sakshieducation.com/ENGGGStory.aspx?nid=62817&cid=12&sid=75&chid=41&tid=321
Now it is time for you to work on the body of the presentation. This is the most important aspect because your very purpose is to deliver the chosen stuff.
The whole effort will go waste, if you do not work properly on your material or the content of your speech.
Be well equipped with the main points. Sort them in an attractive fashion. Keep all the scientific data, with relevant papers, documents and supportive references.
Almost all the modern speakers choose to narrate interesting stories and anecdotes in a crisp and attractive style. They relate these stories with the content that they planned to emphasize. So, gather suitable anecdotes and examples, which you can quote to make your point more cogent and get the attention of the audience.
You can involve the audience by giving suitable pauses, lowering the pitch of the voice, creating tempo and asking few suitable questions in between.
The audience will get spell bound with the charm of your contents as well as with the presentation style.
Audience shortly forget what you speak, but they do remember how you delivered it.
In Seminar Presentation, the presentation skills count a lot.
That is the reason why you just cannot afford to miss the mock presentations before you go for the real one. Do as many mock presentations as possible, in front of your friends, relatives, closed associates and observe their feelings, feedback. Improvise further, in every mock presentation.
Gather the related information; gather supportive documents, photographs, etc to support your chosen topic.
The point to be remembered for ever:
The content is very important; it is the crux of your presentation, no doubt about it. However, with your practice, planning and attractive presentation you can make it a memorable experience. Honestly speaking, do you like to listen to boring seminars and lectures?
Then why do you expect your audience should?
The Tail
A tail is as important as any other aspects of the presentation.
Just let me tell you one thing. Let us imagine that we watched a movie. The total movie is average and not so well crafted. However, the director has taken special care in designing the climax; he gave a fantastic twist at the end.
He has captured the attention of the audience and he gave a spellbound treatment to the movie in the final few minutes of the movie.
All the audience generously forgets the flaws and pit falls in the initial parts of the story narration. They leave the theatre with a positive bent of mind frame. They even give very good word of mouth publicity among their friends and relatives.
The vice versa is also true. The whole movie is good, the climax is not impressive. The bad word of mouth spreads like a wild fire.
You can recollect your own experiences with the movies that you watched.
That is the power of climax.
Thus you need to be very careful, in crafting the tail of the presentation. In this section you have to give Summary of the whole presentation in a quick recap style.
Again involve the audience by asking some questions like ‘What one single point you liked very much’- kind of questions, ‘what one single decision you took’-kind of questions.
Encourage the audience to ask questions
Finally give a thanking note.
Hey, wait…
Don’t you want the answers for the puzzles?
The Answers:
First Question: “Can you draw a square with three lines?”
Now, simply draw a square as usual with four lines. Inside the diagram put three lines.
This is a question based on English language. Of course a square cannot be drawn using 3 lines.
Here we are using the word “with”, with its one of the meanings.
‘With’ has got many meanings, one among them is, ‘having or possessing’.
Examples:
A house with three rooms.
A woman with white hair.
But the people take the other meaning, ‘Using something’.
Examples:
He shot him with a gun.
She wiped off her lipstick with a tissue.
Lateral thinking is a part of science where we train the people to develop the habit of creative thinking, so that they can come out with innovative thoughts and results.
Second Question:
Today in Hyderabad there are no diamonds available why?
(A subtle, yet very strong way of appreciating the audience)
We can prolong this discussion for some time, naturally the audience gets wondered, how come diamonds are not available in such a big city?
Then, slowly you can announce, “All the diamonds in the city are sitting right in front of me, how anybody can expect the diamonds to be available anywhere else?”
This is a strong yet subtle way to win the attention of the audience.
Presentational Skills and Employability
Your presentation skills would have direct impact over your employability. Of course, you know this. But, have you ever thought about how your presentation skills could yield dividends from your very first presentation itself. Think about the following scenario -
Placement officers of the colleges closely watch the seminar presentations and it is needless to say that they will definitely form an opinion based on your seminar presentation.
They are the ones who do shortlist the students for the upcoming campus drives. So, you could be one those first guys whom the placement officer would like to select.
So, all the best.
In the coming article let us see how to answer the questions of the audience and other finer points.
For the previous article “Seminar Presentation Skills - Key to your Success”, visit
www.sakshieducation.com/ENGGGStory.aspx?nid=62817&cid=12&sid=75&chid=41&tid=321
Published date : 24 Dec 2013 01:36PM
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