WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY
Developing Your Presentation Skills
Presentation Skills
Presentation skills allow individuals to deliver information clearly and with confidence. People with these skills are often viewed as knowledgeable and as experts in their fields.
Presentation skills are applicable across different industries as professionals use them to sign new deals, deliver proposals for various initiatives, report their own findings and research, and in professional development. Developing your presentation skills can help you grow professionally by exuding confidence and being able to persuade others.
In this guide, we’ll focus on presentation skills, their benefits, and how you can enhance yours. We’ll also share tips on how to plan a presentation.
What Are Presentation Skills?
Presentation skills are the ability to communicate information to an audience in a clear and engaging manner.
Presentation skills involve using body language, voice modulation, and eye contact to deliver a speech, a multimedia presentation, or any other type of public speaking compellingly.
With strong presentation skills, you understand how to engage the audience and adapt your style and language to suit the listener’s needs.
What Are the Benefits of Having Presentation Skills?
Strong presentation skills will set you apart and open opportunities for career success in various professional scenarios.
The following are the long-term benefits of developing and enhancing your presentation skills:
- Increased visibility and recognition: When you possess excellent presentation skills, you stand out as a confident and effective communicator. This makes you more likely to be considered for promotions, leadership roles, and meaningful projects.
- Ability to share knowledge and expertise: Strong presentation skills allow you to share your knowledge with others effectively. This helps you establish yourself as a subject matter expert and positions you as a valuable resource within your organization. Sharing your expertise can lead to increased networking opportunities and the chance to mentor others.
- Opportunity to create training materials: You’ll have the ability to create impactful training materials and deliver engaging training sessions. These skills can make you an asset in your organization's learning and development programs, giving you opportunities to train your colleagues.
- Improved sales: Delivering persuasive presentations will help you win over potential clients, secure new business opportunities, and ultimately contribute to increased sales and revenue generation for your company.
- Advanced job interview skills: When attending job interviews, strong presentation skills will help you communicate your qualifications, highlight your achievements, and negotiate higher pay with potential employers. This advantage can make you stand out and increase your chances of securing desired job opportunities.
Why Are Presentation Skills Important?
Presentation skills contribute to the professional development of the workforce in an organization, leading to the production of high-quality products and services. Let’s look at the importance of these skills in the workplace:
- Effective communication: Presentation skills enable you to communicate your ideas, proposals, and information clearly, facilitating understanding and reducing the chances of miscommunication.
- Professional credibility: If you can deliver engaging presentations, you command greater credibility in the workplace. You’ll often be perceived as knowledgeable and confident, improving your professional reputation and opening career advancement opportunities.
- Increased engagement and retention: Your employees or the people you address are more likely to remember and apply the information shared if it’s engaging. This results in improved productivity and performance.
- Influencing decision-making: When you’re a skilled presenter, you can effectively persuade others in decision-making by articulating your viewpoints, presenting supporting evidence, and addressing potential concerns. You can also influence customers to buy products or colleagues to embrace change.
- Effective knowledge transfer: Presentations provide a platform for sharing knowledge, expertise, and organizational best practices. For example, you can transfer your knowledge to peers, contributing to the growth of the workforce.
Examples of Presentation Skills in the Workplace
Presentation skills are utilized in the workplace to deliver information in order to achieve specific objectives.
Here are practical examples of how these skills are applied in the workplace:
Sales Presentations
As a sales professional, you use presentation skills to deliver persuasive pitches and presentations to potential clients. You describe product features, highlight benefits, and address customer needs, aiming to generate sales.
Training Sessions
When conducting training sessions, you create engaging content, utilize visual aids, and employ interactive techniques to ensure that participants understand and retain the material being taught.
Project Updates and Reporting
Project managers use presentation skills to provide project updates and reports to stakeholders. You communicate progress, achievements, challenges, and plans, ensuring that stakeholders understand the project status.
Effective Team Meetings
During team meetings, leaders or team members use presentation skills to communicate goals and strategies. You’ll share ideas, present data, and align team members toward a shared vision.
Client Meetings or Pitches
Pitching to potential clients requires effectively communicating value propositions, addressing client needs, and building trust. You’ll use presentation skills to successfully deliver messages that resonate with clients' requirements to close deals.
Leadership and Management Presentations
Leaders and managers often need to deliver presentations to various stakeholders such as executive teams, board members, or employees. Their presentations can include organizational updates, performance reviews, or change management initiatives.
How Can I Use Presentation Skills?
Your ability to apply effective presentation skills helps you to convey ideas, engage audiences, and leave a lasting impact. The skills can be used in professional settings, educational presentations, and even in public speaking engagements.
In education settings you will be able to utilize presentation skills in the following ways:
- Teaching: As an educator, you can utilize your presentation skills to deliver engaging and effective lessons to students. Kindergarten, elementary, and high school teachers, for example, require strong presentation skills to keep their lessons engaging. Their skills may include structuring content, using visual aids, and employing effective communication techniques to convey information clearly.
- Professional development: If you are working with fellow educators, you can share your knowledge and expertise by delivering professional development workshops or presentations. Your presentation skills will enable you to effectively communicate strategies, best practices, and new educational approaches.
- Parent-teacher conferences: Presenting information to parents or guardians is an essential part of a teacher's role. With your presentation skills, you can effectively communicate a student's progress, highlight areas of improvement, and discuss strategies for support.
- Online instruction: With the rise of online learning, presentation skills must adapt for virtual environments. You can use your skills to create engaging online presentations, record instructional videos, or conduct live virtual classes effectively.
In IT settings you will have many opportunities including:
- Professional presentations: In the business world, conveying effective presentations is crucial. You can use your presentation skills to deliver compelling pitches, proposals, and reports to clients, colleagues, or senior management. You can structure your content, create visually appealing slides, and communicate your message with confidence and clarity.
- Team meetings: As an IT professional, you will often participate in team meetings to discuss projects, share progress updates, or brainstorm ideas. Your presentation skills will help you effectively communicate your thoughts and ideas, ensuring that your contributions are clear, concise, and engaging.
- Job interviews: Strong presentation skills can set you apart during job interviews for roles such as an IT consultant. You can leave a lasting impression by effectively communicating your qualifications, experiences, and achievements to potential employers. Your ability to break down complex IT concepts into easy-to-understand information will showcase your professionalism and enhance your chances of securing job offers.
In the medical field, presentation skills are used to deliver updates on healthcare policies, present budget proposals, and discuss performance metrics.
- Teaching and training: If you are involved in medical education, you can use your presentation skills to teach and train medical students, residents, or other healthcare professionals. You can design and deliver presentations that effectively convey the necessary knowledge, engage your audience through interactive activities, and encourage discussion and questions.
- Patient education: Presentation skills can also be valuable when educating patients about their health conditions, treatment options, or preventive measures.
- Research proposals and grant applications: When applying for research grants or proposing research projects, presentation skills can help you effectively communicate your research objectives, methodologies, expected outcomes, and the significance of your work.
Presentation skills learned for business can be highly valuable in various professional settings. Here are some ways you can apply these skills:
Work-related activities: You’ll use presentation skills when interacting with clients to deliver sales offers, product information, or even more details about your organization. You'll also use presentation skills in other business-related roles such as sales representative, marketing manager, sales manager, marketing specialist, and account manager.
How Can I Learn Presentation Skills?
WGU offers 75+ degree programs with coursework that often involves enhancing your presentation skills. For example:
In WGU’s School of Education, you can study for a Master of Science in Learning Experience Design and Education Technology. After completing this or another education program, you’ll be able to:
- Define the content of a presentation.
- Implement effective presentation delivery techniques.
Our College of Business offers a Master of Science in Management and Leadership, which will teach you to:
- Build confidence in public speaking and presentation.
- Demonstrate effective presentation skills in a physical or online setting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Some effective strategies for creating engaging and impactful presentations are:
- Structure your presentation with a clear introduction, main points, and a memorable conclusion.
- Practice and rehearse your presentation to ensure a smooth delivery.
- Start with a strong opening to grab the audience's attention.
- Use videos and props to enhance your message.
- Tell stories or use relevant analogies to make your presentation relatable.
- Encourage the audience to interact through questions, polls, or small activities.
- Use appropriate humor to keep the audience engaged.
To handle questions or interruptions during a presentation, allocate time for questions and notify your audience in advance.
If you don't know the answer, be honest and offer to follow up with the information later.
Here are some tips to engage your audience during a presentation:
- Make eye contact and smile.
- Speak with confidence about the topic.
- Incorporate examples that resonate with the audience.
- Interact with the audience through questions, discussions, or interactive activities.
- Pay attention to nonverbal cues from the audience and adjust your delivery accordingly.
To tailor your presentation to a specific audience, research your audience beforehand to understand their background, knowledge, and expectations.
When preparing your notes for the presentation, consider cultural sensitivities and ensure that you adapt your language to match the audience's level of understanding.
During the presentation, prioritize your key points and allocate appropriate time to each. Summarize or wrap up sections if you realize you're running out of time. When preparing for your presentation, practice being concise and delivering the essential information without unnecessary elaboration.
During the Q&A sessions, be aware of your audience's engagement and adjust the pace if needed because some people may take longer than needed to ask a question.
