Each part of your presentation is as important as the others. It is essential that we address delivery of our presentation in our journey towards improvement. In a previous post I covered the 5Ps of Presentation, the first and most important is Practise. Please read all the posts in this link.
The 2nd P is for Preparation. It is the most important too. Preparation is a vast topic but for this post I would like to consider a small aspect of preparation, mental preparation. Rather than go through a whole pile of psychobabble and mind tricks I want to give you one simple thought; the audience want you to do well. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less, the audience want you to do well.
The whole flight or fight thing that gets in your head before you start off? The audience want you to do well.
The possibility that you won’t be word perfect? The audience want you to do well.
You might momentarily lose your flow? The audience want you to do well.
Someone might not agree with your findings? The audience want you to do well.
I get nervous in front of strangers? The audience want you to do well.
I might forget something? The audience want you to do well.
Your voice might shake? The audience want you to do well.
They will know I’m nervous? The audience want you to do well.
The audience want you to do well.
They do! There is no audience that doesn’t want you to do well. If it is a scientific conference where you are presenting your research, they want you to be clear and consise and for them to understand your conclusion. The audience want you to do well. If it is a lecture where you have been asked to share your knowledge or insight into a condition or topic, the audience want to hear what you have to say on the matter, they are interested. The audience want you to do well. If it is a business case, a paper at a management meeting, a small teaching group, a huge TED audience, the audience want you to do well. There is NO meeting where you will make a presentation that doesn’t want you to do well.
The audience want you to do well.
Maybe you don’t want that? Maybe you don’t believe that? You’re wrong. When you stand up there, the most important part of your preparation is to remember that the audience want you to do well. Once you start to believe that everything gets better.
Go on then, they are waiting.
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