Presentation Skills in Today’s Changing Work Environment
Presentation skills is one of the most important yet marginalized skill set in the corporate world today.
Many supervisors, managers, and even executives are having a hard time expressing ideas and laying out information to their subordinates.
This is actually not surprising knowing that presenting something in front of a crowd can be naturally nerve racking.
Most people are petrified of public speaking.
This is why presentation skills training is one of the most sought after equipping programs today.
Presentation skills can be learned. That is the good news.
Through understanding the fundamentals and persistent practice, you can be an effective presenter faster than you thought possible.
This kind of training is usually a two phased program. The first part is introducing you to the basics of presenting ideas and concepts clearly and concisely.
This is often integrated with personality development and facilitation skills inputs.
To be an effective presenter, you need to learn the importance of looking your best in front of a crowd and projecting self confidence that will encourage listeners to pay attention to you.
Facilitating effective sessions must also be learned.
How do you ask questions to your participants?
How do you handle a difficult crowd without sounding too strict and uptight?
How do you encourage discussions and how do you lead them to your next way point?
These are all part of the presentation skills training.
The second part of the training is the workshop. Here you will be asked to apply what you have learned from the first part of the program.
Many people resist this chance to be better at presenting in public. But this is actually where “the metal meets the meat” – an avenue for people to get out of their comfort zones and dare to practice what was learned.
Topics are assigned, and time for mastery of the content to be discussed will be provided for. There will be some mentors in this process. They can objectively point out some areas of improvement for the practicing presenters.
Presentation skills training is ideally a 2-day program. 1 day for each phase (lecture and workshop). Follow through programs can be considered for this kind of learning interventions. This can be as simple as utilizing the trainees for some of the company’s meetings that needs some presenters in front.
Creating and maintaining a pool of presenters help the individuals who had presentation skills training to continually hone their skills. This talent pool can even be tapped to teach presentation skills to other people in the company. This passed-on approach can be an effective and efficient way of maximizing presentation skills programs.
Presentation skills training is now a necessity in today’s knowledge-based economy. For companies to be on top of their game, they must have people that can talk and eloquently present ideas and concepts to the whole organization.
In the individual level, employees who can perform their jobs very well and have exceptional presentation skills can go a long way in their career pursuits. If you want to keep your job and climb the corporate ladder successfully, do not just perform – invest in presentation skills training and get noticed!
