Presentation Skills Training: Understanding and Connecting with your Audience

26 Feb Presentation Skills Training: Understanding and Connecting with your Audience

Training – of any sort – has always been important in your life.  It’s how you learned to walk, to talk, to write, and do just about every other thing you now take for granted as an adult.  In today’s business world, training has taken on an even more critical role in getting you ready to accept and use the new technologies, relationships, and opportunities that you’re presented with every day.

The key is ensuring that you’re training on the right things… and in the right way.

Presentation Skills Training has become a bit of a buzzword for teaching you everything from PowerPoint and visual vocabulary to strategic thinking.  But the truth is, the most important presentation skill you can master is letting go of the idea of “presenting” to begin focusing on “connecting.”

While you’re required to communicate ideas, results, data, and plans almost every day in your business world, the idea of just presenting those things – simply putting YOUR content out there for others – will always fall short.

If you want results… if your success depends on the acceptance, energy, and contributions of others (and it almost always does!) you must begin thinking, caring about, and connecting with THEM as much as you do yourself.  You have to tailor your content to impact THEM and their concerns.  That doesn’t mean you have to give up your point of view, but it does mean you have to talk about it from theirs.  We know this intuitively.  You don’t ask your 6-year-old child to help clean the kitchen in the same way you do your spouse or partner.  But we seem to have lost that concept in the business world.

Moving from presenting or communicating to actually “connecting” means working on skills that can feel a little more daunting than what you may see on a typical presentation skill training menu.  It requires you to work hard enough on yourself and your ideas or positions so that you can discuss them with authentic passion and focused energy.  Then… it means letting go of yourself and opening up to the real ideas, concerns, and needs of the people you’re talking to.

It isn’t always seeing like others, but it’s striving to see what they see.  It isn’t always thinking like others, but it’s striving to know what they think.  It isn’t always feeling like others, but it’s striving to know what they feel.  Always.

Taking the risk to become aware of your listeners and building that into what you say to them is how you build the power to persuade.  And that’s how you inspire others to advance toward shared goals.  And that’s more than presentation skills training… it’s self-development.  It takes work, and it takes help – real coaching on a level beyond simple skills.  And it’s the most important step you can take to become a more successful presenter.

If you’re committed to taking your presentation and communication skills to the next level, consider seeking professional guidance with presentation skill training with Speakeasy. Our coaching programs can provide personalized and targeted strategies to refine your presentation skills. With a proven track record of transforming teams’ presentation quality across diverse industries, Speakeasy’s coaches can empower you to become a more engaging, effective, and impactful presenter. Don’t hesitate to reach out and embark on a coaching journey that will propel your career to new heights!