presenting takes practice
If you will be speaking to others about something that matters: take time to plan and practice. In a setting where you’ll be presenting something formally, prepare by mock-delivering ahead of time. Even in a less formal setting—perhaps you’re simply introducing someone or participating in a panel—take time to gather your thoughts and maybe even make some notes ahead of time. Thoughtful preparation can improve your ultimate delivery by helping you to stay focused, reduce filler words, form smooth transitions, and make your message stronger.
How much should one practice? The answer depends, however it will always be an amount greater than zero. Generally, the more important the setting, the more time you should devote to preparing. However, even in a less critical scenario—if you care enough to take the time to communicate, you should care enough to take steps to do so effectively. In particular, I advocate practicing aloud; it’s best to say your words at least once out loud before doing so in front of a crowd of people!
In case it’s useful, I thought I’d share my routine from a recent presentation. I was asked to give a 10-minute keynote presentation at the Data Analytics Career Summit, a half-day virtual event that took place last week. It was a casual event for a friendly audience, where I was encouraged to use the time to address any topic of my choosing. I saw it as an opportunity to quickly develop an idea I’d been thinking about and share it with people interested in starting or advancing their career in analytics. It also seemed like a good venue to promote my new book.
All of my preparation happened in the business week leading up to the event:
MON: plotted what I would present
TUE: created my slides and graphs
WED: wrote a script (I don’t typically do this, but I hadn’t been feeling well and wanted to have it to both capture my thoughts in a coherent manner and refer to when presenting if needed); read through the script aloud without slides; and finally talked through my slides once aloud (with the script in view)
THU: read through my script; practiced aloud once with it and once without it
FRI: ran through segments in my head and aloud while getting ready in the morning; scanned my slides, and then gave my presentation
Even after this practice and complimentary comments from organizers and attendees, I still was not completely satisfied with my delivery (I felt I stumbled over my words a couple times, though as one of my trusted colleagues pointed out, I do tend to be my own worst critic). I did an additional run through of the presentation to record, which you can view below.
When you will present something to someone else, respect your audience by taking the time to practice. You can learn concrete ways to do so in my new book (the sample content you can sign up for is directly relevant).