Delivering a presentation or talk during a meeting can be intimidating. However, if it’s done well, it can provide your team a great deal of value.

There are numerous ways to make your presentation the best it can be, which can be overwhelming if trying to decide where to start.

Here are 3 of the many ways you can make your presentation more effective:

1. Be concise

2. Engage your audience

3. Keep your visual aids simple

Let’s break these down in further detail.

1. Be Concise

The world seems to be getting busier and more fast-paced, with people taking in more information simultaneously.

If you’re presenting in front of a team at work, your audience is likely made up of busy professionals who each have long to-do lists. Because of this, you need to keep your presentation only as long as necessary. Any longer and you’ll reach a point of diminishing returns.

The same can be said for your content. If you go too in-depth for your audience, you run the risk of losing their interest. On the contrary, if your content doesn’t provide any actual value, the audience can also become disengaged.

The level of detail you go into needs to be catered to your audience. You accomplish this by having a clear understanding of what’s most important to them.

2. Engage Your Audience

Communication is not a one-way process, even when delivering a presentation.

As a speaker, you should be paying attention to your audience as much as they are paying attention to you.

This two-way focus often gets lost in presentations. Presenters go into their delivery with a mindset of “if I said it, they understood it”. The result? Your audience ends up being spoken “at” instead of being spoken “with”. They might as well not be in the room, and your information doesn’t resonate.

So, how do you create engaging two-way communication during a presentation?

Ask your audience questions. 

How you do this matters. You don’t want to simply pose a question to your audience and then immediately answer it yourself. Instead, ask them a question, and if they don’t get involved at first, take the first step for them. If it’s appropriate, you can say something such as “it’s okay to guess” or even give them a hint.

If you’re asking a question with a specific answer, it’s okay if they don’t get it right. You simply want them to engage with you because then they feel as if they’re having a conversation. If they feel they’re involved, they are paying attention. 

Bonus Point – Focus on asking open-ended questions. These often lead to greater sharing and collaboration. Example: What questions do you have about _______?”

3. Keep Your Visual Aids Simple

If you plan on using visual aids during your presentation, remember that your audience can only focus their attention on so much at once.

When it comes to design, the expression “less is more” remains true.

You want your visual aids to appear organized and clear instead of cluttered and confusing. This means consistent fonts, sizing, color schemes, and placement of text or graphics. Keep your visuals quiet. Quiet visuals allow your audience to consume more effectively.

If you have a slide that shares multiple pieces of information, try to focus your audience’s attention on the section you are actively discussing. A simple way to do this is to use a distinct color highlight on one piece of information, then switch the highlight as you shift their focus to the next piece of information.

However, avoid trying to fit too much information on one slide, as this is the equivalent of trying to fit too much food onto a small plate – eventually, there simply won’t be enough room and things will fall off. Information is the same way.

In Sum

Presentations that are concise, engaging, and use effective visual aids are a great way to deliver value to your audience. Use your next presentation as an opportunity to help the people in your audience or organization. Creating an experience for your audience that allows them to feel it’s been “time well spent”, will keep them coming back for more!