What is presentation skill, really? Most people are quick to drop the word "skill" and reach instead for the word "talent". But in my view, there is no such thing as presentation talent, and the word deserves no place here at all. We are all, more or less, born with the same starting point. The only difference is that some of us were encouraged more, and given more chances to practise.
And that is why the word "technique" is so interesting to me, because technique is exactly what this is about. Whether we picked it up through years of experience or through proper training, the common denominator behind every good presenter is the same thing: their technique. Their presentation skill.
Training alone is not enough
Becoming a better presenter takes more than being taught. It takes insight and it takes development. That is why, in my courses, I always keep the focus on each individual's ability to present, and, through active feedback, coaching and practice, work to lift everyone in the room.
However hard I try, I could never put the result better than one of my participants, Maria, did when she described it to her manager: "I have had two-day courses before, but I have NEVER developed as much in two days as I did on this one. I can hardly believe it was possible! Everyone's presentations from the first day compared to the second were astonishing. What a difference. We came away with individual tricks and tips that will improve our meetings and presentations from here on."
Knowledge on its own is pointless
Actually, let me push it further. Knowledge is worthless if you do not know how to apply it. What you need is a process that reshapes knowledge into competence, and that process can only happen when the person receiving the knowledge is given experience, practice and development. I have a name for what it produces: lived knowledge. Making sure every participant walks away with that lived knowledge is my single greatest focus in everything I teach.
After the course
Once you have gathered both the theoretical knowledge and the lived knowledge, it becomes vital that you keep working on your competence until it truly sits in your bones. Someone once said that a new habit needs twenty-one repetitions before the old habit is finally replaced. So all that remains for you is practice.
My tip for not driving off the road on the very first bend is this: choose one quality at a time to work on. Say you pick the skill of using the dramatic pause. You focus on that and nothing else, practising your pauses deliberately, both in your presentations and in your everyday conversations. Then one day, and that day will come, you will notice you no longer need to remind yourself to pause. It has settled into your bones, and you are free to move on to the next quality you want to change or train.
If all this practising sounds like hard work, I completely understand you. But I find it so easy to motivate myself, and you, with a single thought: presentation skill is about as close to magic as you will get in this life. With it, you can, quite plainly, get what you want, whenever you want, from whomever you want. So use it wisely.
Want to become a better presenter?
This is a short piece from David's knowledge bank. To go deeper, the best places are a keynote, a course, or one to one coaching.