Why presentation skills training is a must for those not making presentations
In the first of our daily posts to mark the CIPR involvement in Learning at Work Week, discover how presentation skills can help with client meetings, phoning journalists and people talking over you
If you’ve ever breathed a sigh of relief because you don’t have to give presentations as part of your job, presentation training might be exactly what you need.
Whether you stand up in front of hundreds to give a TED talk or sit down to chat with a few people on Zoom, if you’re in the PR or comms business you’ll need to have great personal communication skills.
Without them, you might find people ignoring or talking over you in meetings, not taking your ideas seriously, or behaving in a demeaning and patronising manner towards you.
Presentation training provides you with the skills to be more influential in face-to-face communications – whether those are in the boardroom, on the stage, at networking events or in online meetings and calls.
Supported by an experienced and sympathetic coach, presentation training will give you a chance to learn and try out various techniques in a safe space.
These techniques include exercises to enhance your physical presence, improve your diction and project your voice, guidance on where to sit or stand in a room to literally present you in the best light, a checklist to ensure you look confident even when you’re feeling anxious, and simple methods you can adopt to manage nerves.
Comfortable or complacent?
Even if you never have to make formal presentations, being able to stand up and address a group of people confidently will prove to be a very useful skill – especially if the very thought of standing up terrifies you.
Many people say they feel more comfortable sitting down when talking or presenting. Some say they prefer online meetings as they feel less exposed.
But that’s the problem.
Just because we feel comfortable doesn’t mean to say we’re coming over well. In fact, very often, the more comfortable we feel, the more likely we are to look complacent, uninterested and even bored.
Feeling slightly uncomfortable when talking to people, especially those we consider to be more important than us, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
If, for example, we pick up the phone to a journalist and we’re worried that the call might not go well, that sense of anxiety can actually prompt us to be more aware of our behaviour and how we’re coming across. It might make us plan the call better or stand up while on the call to give our voices more authority.
If we think of a sense of anxiety as being more of a sense of self-awareness rather than self-consciousness, we are more capable of managing it. Self-consciousness has negative connotations. But self-awareness sounds positive.
Likewise, don’t let that rush of adrenaline that quickens your heart rate get the better of you. Think of it as giving you energy. With proper training, you can learn how to use that energy positively. You’ll also learn how to manage too much nervous energy so that you control the adrenaline rather than the adrenaline controlling you.
Perhaps the very fact that you are relieved you don’t have to do presentation training might be a sure sign that you need it.
From Monday 13 to Sunday 19 May 2024, the CIPR is taking part in Learning at Work Week. Hosted by Campaign for Learning, this week-long event aims to highlight the power of learning. Find out more about the host of activities that CIPR has to help PR professionals to learn, develop and grow.
Lorraine Forrest-Turner is a personal communication skills specialist and one of the trainers who runs the CIPR Public Speaking and Presentations Skills training course.