If you want to improve your presentation skills invest your training in a Drama Course and a Voice Empowerment Course. Most presentations need to be supercharged with creativity, punch, and passion to achieve the best presentation experience for the participants and the presenter.
Take a look at what skills you will evolve with these two training enhancements:
Drama Course:
Actors are trained to present their feelings, ideas, and maintain audience rapport. Acting techniques will not only tap into your beliefs, but will show you how to express your ideas convincingly so the audience connects with your presentation on an emotional level. These techniques help the business-type cut loose with creativity to find interesting ways to present their material. Gaining experience with thinking spontaneously, you will be able to react instantly to any unforeseen event, question, or follow-through. This often saves the day or even creates humour during your presentation. You will also be a more energetic presenter as you view this as a performance.
Have you ever forgotten an example to back up your point, or has your mind gone blank on you in a presentation? Well, have no fear, because improvisational training will draw upon your inner imagination to produce, out of nowhere, a new example, which might even be better than the one you were using to begin with. Improvisation teaches you how to trust your potent imaginary skills that are lying dormant within you. It also makes your presentations more lively.
Drama skills allow you to see things through the eyes of others to understand the character's eyes and wishes, which can be a bonus if you are looking to create connection to what an audience needs. Drama courses show you how to emphasize your content to make the flow of your presentation build to a climax and persuade your listeners into the scene. It is this persuasive factor that leads to further training in vocal skills.
Voice Empowerment:
A personal speech coach is able to tap into your specific concerns about the sound of your voice in a presentation that you may not even realize is producing a negative effect on the listeners. In addition, the speech coach works with your material and guides you during rehearsal to tweak the nuances of the presentation, so you not only sound better, but create presence and charisma. Empowerment of your voice with improved tone and purpose is critical to enhancing your presentation skills. It is this element that puts you a cut above the other presenters.
Delivery techniques on the how fast or slow you speak, when to pause, and how to use your speech muscles (lips, teeth, tongue, jaw, palate) for clarity of your message will augment your presentation. You will no longer get away with mumbling or speaking too quickly so that only half your audience hears your presentation.
When you sound weak you are treated as less of an expert. To fix this, you can easily use your voice as a tool to project your sound and qualities of an expert. Voice skills are considered a high 38% factor of your overall communication impact on the listener, second to visual. So many presenters miss the opportunity to boost their presentation skills by getting specific training in vocal skills from a coach; because they assume they know how to speak. Yet, those who do seek out this training actually heighten their confidence level and presentation level exponentially.
If you want to impact your audience with a powerful presentation then devote your next training budget exclusively to taking a drama course, or getting a personal voice coach for a dynamic presentation that even you would be amazed at!
Written by Brenda C. Smith