Presentation Tips

Why Smiling is Good for You When Giving Presentation?

November 13, 2019 by Muhammad Noer Leave a Comment

Some of you might say, “Standing in front of audience without getting cold feet sometimes is already hard, let alone smiling.”

Well, the truth is smiling can help you reduce stress and shake off all your fears while talking in front of people, such as in a presentation.

A smile has its own strength. To your audience, a smile expresses warmth. For yourself, it gives a strong impression on how you see the world.

When you smile, you change the effect of the reaction on your body. The body releases dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, the hormones that responsible for calmness and pleasure. Aren’t these conditions you really need to overcome your fears and stage fright?

When giving a presentation, your smile is an important part of the instruments that exist in your body. Smiles can modulate your voice, thus enabling you to get more engaged to your audience.

Our body is a tool, just like a musical instrument. The design is important. Our mouth is the bell of the instrument, while smile determines its shape. When you change the shape of the bell, it also changes your voice.

When you smile, you can feel it changes the atmosphere, from your stage to the entire room.

There are so many reasons why you better smile when giving presentation. The release of the happy hormones was just one of the them.

It makes you look cool and credible

People say, the less emotion you how, the more you look cool and credible. Apparently, not really. The Journal of Consumer Research in 2018 reveals the opposite. Looking serious or credible has nothing to do with smiling.

Researchers found that public speakers who smile look cooler than less expressive ones. In addition, unable to smile risks the absence of connection with the audience. And we all know that connectedness is needed in effective communication.

It helps you to build connection with audience

This point is related to the previous reason. Giving a presentation is a form of communication that based on relationships. Presenters need to smile to help them develop connections with the audience.

People tend to mimic face expression their interlocutors. The mimicry often occur unconsciously. Basically, by mimicking, we want to express warmth and build connection.

So, when you stand in front audience and smile at them, there’s a big chance they will smile back at you unconsciously. This is the beginning of the formation of connections in the subconscious.

It helps your mind stay calm and makes your body relax

When you see the audience smile back at you, you can also feel the effect. You will be calmer, more relaxed, and more confident. It is triggered by the release of the hormones, like serotonin and dopamine in the brain.

Dopamine increases feelings of happiness, while serotonin tries to reduce stress. When you smile, your brain produces chemicals that tell you if you enjoy this activity (presentation, public speaking). It is telling you, “You are fine.”

These hormones relax your body. Smiling reduces the body’s response to stressful changes.

Research that has been done involves the act of biting chopsticks in the mouth, which gives a similar shape to a smile, giving the effect to heart rate. The beating is lower, so less stress occurs.

These findings suggest that smiling during brief stress can help reduce the body’s stress response.

It helps you to have longer life span

Well, this might be the long-term reason, but if you think your life is stressful since you have to give presentation a little bit too often, and stress leads to shorten age, therefore you better start to practice this smile.

In conclusion, smiling is a simple way to make giving presentation or public speaking less stressful, while helping you connect with your audience.

One thing that also important to keep in mind is public speaking is an industry of service. As speakers, we must find ways to form ourselves to become instruments of presentation, that will get the strongest response from our audience. Who would have think that the strongest instrument was a smile?(*)

Have to Give Online Presentation? Here are the Tips

February 20, 2019 by Muhammad Noer 1 Comment

This is the era of digital transformation and you still have no clue how to deliver online presentation? Oh-oh. What if next week you have to manage a large project and it requires support from many people, but they are spread in cities or places far away from your workplace?

The easiest way to engage with this kind of working team is through online presentation or online meeting using digital applications or software. Online presentations are very effective media to make everyone from different spot can work together collaboratively without leaving their places.

In this article, we are not going to give you the step by step on how to make an online presentation from scratch, but more on how to make it effective, efficient, and correct. Well, here we go.

1. Choose the right device

Using the right tool to provide online presentations is the most important thing of all. Make sure your team has installed online meeting software to their devices, such as GoToMeeting, join.me, and so on. These software allow you to monitor who is online and communicate about the same points. Send meeting notifications via e-mail. You should be able to make sure everyone engaged with your presentation receives an e-mail and confirms their presence.

2. Be on time

Make sure that each team member is present in the online meeting room at scheduled time. It is pretty irritated if we can’t start the presentation just because one or two people are late. To make it easier for you and your team, set a calendar along with an alarm that can be sent via e-mail as a reminder. For team members who really can’t attend the online meeting, let them see the meeting video record every time they have time. Online meeting software usually includes this recorder feature.

3. Simple

Simplicity is not only applies to offline presentations. Online presentations are also better delivered through simple slides. Too much text will confuse and going to be difficult for your team members to read. They also won’t remember long sentence or definition. Make simple headlines, with three or four points as explanation or supporter. The fewer, the better.

4. Clear and efficient

Just do a short online presentation. At the very least, make one slide to represent three or four materials. Limit your presentation duration 10 minutes at the most. If there is a lot of material that you want to convey, divide them into several parts during the meeting. It’s much better than to stuff your team member with so many information at one time.

5. Practice, practice, and practice

Everyone knew practice makes perfect. Make sure you deliver an online presentation with the right order and good articulation, also with normal speech speed. Your voice must be heard clearly by each member of the team through the device. After the presentation, you can review your online presentation through the video recorder feature.

6. Be visual

Images represent many words. Therefore, rather than lengthy with sentences, it is better to choose images, photos, or short videos that represent what you want to convey in the presentation. If not everyone can access the video, give them the URL, so they can download it whenever they have time.

7. Entertaining

Yes, business meeting is a serious situation, but working should be fun too sometimes, right? A business presentation certainly contains a lot of factual and informative things. It is possible for your team members to feel bored quickly, especially when they have to follow the presentation through their device screens. So, spread a little sprinkle to your presentation. Stories or humor are good stuff. Your team members will tend to listen to you carefully. Plus, they will remember more of what you said to them.

8. Fair and strict moderation

Though it’s online meeting, make it possible for team members to ask questions and chat with you or other team members after the presentation. There are online meeting software feature that allowed moderator to manage conversation and Q & A session, to let one team member talk, while others can only listen (muted), because it will sound annoying, if one speaks and the other immediately responds. Set the time that will be used for the Q & A session and discussion.

9. Planning a follow up

Write down points of follow-up that you will take from online meeting. The you can add up with other points came up from the meeting. This preparation of follow-up points is important to cut down meeting time. It will also help you and team member to get conclusions and follow-up plans.

10. Finish it on time

Finish it on time. If it starts on time, then you have to end your presentation on time, too. Your team members are busy people and they may also have appointments or other activities. Respect their time and tell them they can always be connected to you to submit questions that have not yet been reviewed in your online presentation or if they would like to gain more information.

Wow, there are a lot of points! But actually these preparation is similar as the one you do for an offline presentation. The difference is probably only in the use of software and time efficiency. Have a practice and good luck with your online presentation. (*)

Anaphora: World figures’ outstanding Presentation Technique

July 11, 2018 by Muhammad Noer Leave a Comment

Some world figures are widely known for their outstanding presentation act. For instance we can see some figures such as the late Steve Jobs, Al Gore or Barrack Obama. Each of them seems to have a specific and unique style, but when we try to observe them closer there is something emerging. All of them were united by a single exceptional technique, anaphora.

Anaphora is a Greek word for a repetition of a similar phrase or word at a beginning of a sequential sentence.

The world figures commonly use Anaphora as a technique to deliver a motivational or inspirational speech.

They bring into play the technique with the aim of persuade and encourage their audiences to remark upon the presentation.

A presentation with anaphora technique is widely confirmed as an effective method to inspire audiences. The well known world figures are prove of the technique’s effectiveness.

Undoubtedly their reputation was one of the reason of why many people were astonished by their presentation or speech. Nevertheless, a good result will not appear when they deliver the speech in a bad and uninteresting way.

By these following examples we can see how anaphora applied as the world figure presentation’s technique.

1. Barrack Obama

In his 2008 Berlin speech, Barrack Obama addressed, Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words ‘never again’ in Darfur? Wiil we reject torture and stand out for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands? This is our time.

In the speech Obama use anaphora when he replicated ‘will we.’

2. Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill was a book author before he became prime minister of Great Britain on the era of world war II. In the following speech we will look at Winston Churchill oration before the House of Common June 4, 1940.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight with growing strength in the air, we shall never surrender.

In this speech we learn that Winston Churchill constantly repeat phrase “We shall”.

3. Martin Luther King, Jr

Marthin Luther King, Jr was a central figure for African-Amrican equality movement. He was well known with his phenomenal speech I Have a Dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the the true meaning of its creed. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of the former slaves owner will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judge by the color of their skin but by content of their character.

You can see that King empower the phrase I have a dream to astound the audience.

Those three examples show us that the world figures in fact have several points they demand to deliver. They did it by constantly repeat a similar phrase. Draw on a specific phrase as their anaphora’s instrument they lead their audiences to focus on their demanded points.

The certain repetition conducts the audiences to go behind and convicted to the orator.

The anaphora technique was already confirmed as a constructive technique in order to inspire many people. However you have to remember that there are several detail to be pointed out in your presentation:

· Do not overuse

When you decide to use a repetitive to you have to carefully consider when you do it. You don’t want your presentation is just a bunch of meaningless repetition. When you overuse such repetition it will be a boring presentation.

· Use a simple and important phrase

Anaphore will be powerfull when you find a short and simple phrase. A long and complicated phrase will be uneasy to remembered.

· Point out a specific tone

A repetitive phrase will sound more familiar when you use a specific intonation each time you said it. The intonation compose a stimulation to the audience to feel a special message behind a repetitive phrase. Once you bring

master the intonation you have to manage your rhytm. Take a short pause before repeat the phrase. This way will create a wonderful anticipation to the audience.

You can learn from the wold’s figures to become an outstanding presenter or orator. Anaphora for sure, is just one of many presentation techniques, there are still many technique to learn.

Beside it you can try to use a short story or a joke to make an interesting presention for your audience.

How to be a Good Speaker in a Presentation

November 22, 2017 by Muhammad Noer 1 Comment

Do you want to be a good speaker and to impress your audiences at the same time? Well, there is no shortcut for such things. You have to practice and practice industriously and learn from the experts and also explore your speaking ability in every occasion.

Here are some tips you can practice in everyday life.

Learning by observing

The easiest thing for you to learn is observing how good presenters perform. You can learn from TED videos that you can watch for free. For instance, you can learn by watching global or local TED like TED Jakarta.

Besides TED, you can also watch Pecha Kucha videos. There is something interesting while you watch Pecha Kutcha videos. Each video shows a presenter performs 20 slides which every slide switches every 20 seconds automatically. Each presenter must make sure that his presentation corresponds to every change of the slides.

Learning by Practicing Together

You can also improve your speaking skill by following Toastmaster club near your place. Toastmaster is a non-profit organization that helps people to improve their speaking skill. You can learn further about it in this article.

Learning by Following Training Class

Besides doing autodidact learning from videos, observing other speakers or joining speaking club, you can also learn by joining training.

The advantage of joining training is that you will be managed to improve your presentation skill, from formulating your presentation’s material, transforming it to visual slides in instantly and delivering your presentation convincingly.

Now let us go back to our topic, how to baa good speaker.

1. Deliver a Story

A good presentation doesn’t only give facts and data but also wraps it with good story to make your presentation understandable.

2. Know Your Audiences

Knowing your audience is imperative. You will deliver a presentation to them so you must know who will attend to your presentation. You must know their position in their company. By this way, you will be well connected to them

3. Visualize What You Deliver

Delivering a good presentation needs a skill to elaborate complex idea into an intelligible visualization. That’s why besides you must learn how to speak understandable language, visual slides also help you to perfect your presentation.

4. Speak Naturally

A good speaker doesn’t pretend to be anybody else. He just becomes the way he is. By speaking with your own style, your audiences will see you as a confident speaker because you are the way you aye and not being exaggerate on everything.

5. Perform with Confidence

Show yourself! Deliver your ideas! Don’t hide behind your slides! Use a clicker to help you move from one slide to another easily.

6. Do an Eye Contact

Among many tips to perform in front of audience, eye contact is one of the most important things. Eye contact shows that you care. It is a prime stage to create connection between the speaker and the audience.

7. Don’t Do a Blocking towards Your Audience

It’s a sin if you do this thing: block the audience. Don’t block your audience even though your presentation is over. Can you imagine what you feel when someone is not facing towards you while you have conversation with him? You will feel that you are abandoned. That is exactly what the audience feels. That is why don’t make a long and gobbledygook slides. Instead, you make visual slides which are more interesting and evoking the audiences.

8. Don’t apologize

Apologizing is a good thing. But apologizing to the audience as an excuse of your imperfect presentation is bad because it just shows that you are not a credible presenter. So, make sure you avoid such thing!

You are a star in your presentation. You are the one who manage the scenario of your presentation. So, take control!

Preparing A Good Presentation With Mind Map Techniques

August 2, 2017 by Muhammad Noer Leave a Comment

Brainstorming techniques using the post it could be one way to prepare your presentation. It collects your ideas and you can compile them into a presentation framework.

You can also use another way, that is using Mind Map techniques. According to Tony Buzan, Mind Map is a graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlock the potential of the brain. It suits the way the human brain works. It will make

it easier for you to remember and compile information.

In this way, we make notes that connect one information with others, along with pictures and colors to help the association in the brain.

This technique is popularized by Tony Buzan, an education expert.

Mind Map Techniques For Presentation

Similar to brainstorming, we can started from the main topic, then look for anything related to that. If brainstorming is initially unstructured, Mind Map makes the ideas have structured from the beginning.

For example, if I want to design the material on how to build a learning organization, then I can make streaks of mind maps as follows:

Pembuka: Opening; Buta huruf abad 21: Illiteracy in the 21^st century; Ubah sikap: Change attitude;

Langkah: Steps; Isi: Content; Masalah: Problems; Komponen: Component; Tantangan: Challenges

Tidak sulit: It’s easy ; Ringkasan: Summary; Penutup: Closing; Solusi: Solution; Paradigma: Paradigm;

Pendukung: Support; Pendekatan: Approaches; Contoh: Examples; Mulai: Start; Kompetisi: Competition;

Komunikasi: Communication; Atraktif: Atractive ; Provokatif: Provokative

Step One: The Title

The first step in creating a Mind Map is to set the title of your presentation. Create a big headline in the middle of the page and give an illustration to represent it.

Step Two: Determine Main Branches

Mind Map will help you recognize and create presentation structures from the very beginning. In this example, the presentation structure is made very simply by consisting of three main branches. The branches are: Pembuka (Opening), Isi (Content), Penutup (Closing).

Step Three: Develop Each Branch With Required Details

Now you have a big picture with three main branches. Next develop each branches. For example, for the Opening branch, I will start with a quote from Alvin Toffler about ‘buta huruf abad 21’ (illiteracy in the 21st century). Then how to change the attitude from lazy learning to spirit and what steps are needed.

You can see that these three steps are created with concise keywords and sentences that represented them.

After that, I developed a second branch of the content. Here you can see what the Mind Map will discuss about the organization’s learning issues: why it happens, what components in the learning organization and the challenges it faces.

The problems are answered with solutions that will discuss: learning paradigm, supporting factors for learning organizations, approaches that can be done, and actual examples.

Finally, the closing branch is developed very simply in the conclusion that build a learning organization is not difficult. Any organization can do it as long as it has a strong desire. The presentation ends with a statement and a summary.

Step Four: Use Mind Map As Your Presentation Flow

Once the Mind Map is complete, you can check whether the plot is strong enough and coherent. If there something is not logical, you can make the necessary changes. Once you are comfortable, then you can turn the mind map into a presentation slide.

Step Five: Use Mind Map As Your Powerful Reminder and Notes

The Mind Map that you have created is not only help in making the presentation slides. It can also be used to help you remember when delivering presentations in an actual session. In the example above, I just remember the Mind Map I made, move it into my head, and I will remember the entire flow of the presentation.

It makes you look cool and credible

It helps you to build connection with audience

It helps your mind stay calm and makes your body relax

It helps you to have longer life span