Finding royalty-free images for business presentations

9. October 201924. March 2022 Uncategorized

Finding royalty-free images for business presentations

Reading time 3 minutes

Designing a promotional brochure, programming a website, and creating a business presentation are all very different tasks that frequently revolve around the same question. How can we find good, informative images? As cost effectively as possible? Our list of free and paid image databases will show you where to find the best images for your project. 

An initial look through a company’s in-house Digital Asset Management (DAM) is often sobering, as you realize there are no suitable images available for your specific project. But nor do you usually want to pay for expensive image licenses – especially not for a normal presentation. So you go looking for royalty-free images. But where can you find them? Most people head to Google Images for some initial inspiration, except that the images there are generally copyrighted, and therefore not royalty-free. 

Our article “Image license rights – What to look out for” provides an overview of the aspects you need to bear in mind when it comes to licenses and costs for online images.  

Utilizing online image databases for image searches

Online image databases offer a wide range of images, licenses and formats. For example, there are image databases that are totally free, royalty-free (i.e. purchasable with a one-off payment), or licensed (i.e. involving usage-based licensing fees) images, both for standard photos and higher quality images. 

As practical as this sounds, finding the right image database is often an arduous process, as a simple Google search yields a plethora of results that have little to do with professional image databases. So, we’ve put together a list of image databases we consider as suitable, without rating them. Each database has its own features and benefits, and may be helpful to some people, while not suiting others.  

Why not bookmark this page, to ensure you always have quick, direct access to the list of professional image databases without having to start a new search?

Predominantly free image databases

Flaticon https://www.flaticon.com/ (predominantly free – voluntary paid section) 
flickr Creative Commons https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons 
FreeImages https://www.freeimages.com/ 
Freerange https://freerangestock.com/ 
Kaboom Pics https://kaboompics.com/“One Woman Show” freely sharable CC0 photos 
Image Base http://imagebase.net/ 
Open Photo https://openphoto.net/ 
Pixabay https://pixabay.com/ 
Pexels https://www.pexels.com/
Stock Snap https://stocksnap.io/ 
Stockvault http://www.stockvault.net/  
Burst: https://burst.shopify.com/ 
Findicons: https://findicons.com/ 
Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/
Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page 

Predominantly paid databases

Adobe Stock https://stock.adobe.com/
BigstockPhoto https://www.bigstockphoto.com/
Dreamstime https://de.dreamstime.com/ 
Getty Images https://www.gettyimages.com
iStockPhoto https://www.istockphoto.com/ (partly free) 
Photocase https://www.photocase.com/
Shutterstock https://www.shutterstock.com/ (partly free) 
Stocksy https://www.stocksy.com/  
Plainpicture https://www.plainpicture.com 
Iconshock https://www.iconshock.com/

Tip: If your company uses a DAM (Digital Asset Management) system to manage images, you could control purchases from image databases centrally, so that the photos can then be made available specifically at the company. It’s often tedious to use images from DAM systems in Office documents. It involves laboriously navigating to a website, register/log in, download the images, and then potentially insert them into your presentation. The QuickSlide for PowerPoint add-in / QuickDoc for Word add-in simplifies this process. Users can search for, and insert, the images directly in PowerPoint/Word, without any additional registration/login. Meanwhile, your DAM system takes care of the relevant management tasks in the background.

Did you have any luck with our list? Or have we left out your preferred image database? Want your image database to be included in the list? Email us at info@strategy-compass.com, and we’ll be glad to add you in. 

Presentation success with the right mix of training

28. September 201925. August 2023 Uncategorized

Presentation success with the right mix of training

Reading time 3 minutes

Of course, it’s important to give people all they need to properly position themselves, their company, their topic, and their message in presentations, and achieve the success they desire. In addition, they shouldn’t test their audience’s patience. This raises the question of strategy in relation to an overall corporate presentation objective, plus questions about the range and availability of seminars, personalized support and methods used, and yet more questions about classroom training, online training, personal coaching, about in-house training, or external course providers.

Discrepancy between training programs offered and the need for action

The results of a Strategy Compass international study on presentations show that most companies offer presentation training. And yet there are also surprising discrepancies when these offers are matched with the identified needs for action.

Components of success

A successful presentation is the sum of multiple components: Good technical skills, high-quality content and design, and a convincing delivery. But not everyone contributing to a presentation has or needs all of these. The focus differs depending on the target group within the company.

Technical skills

These include simple basic training courses on how to implement predefined slides in PowerPoint. There are a number of web-based training solutions which teach the software basics. In addition to a basic understanding of PowerPoint and its key functions, however, there are other important factors which can be taught better by a coach. A coach familiar not just with the software, but also the fundamental design principles and, particularly, the specifications of your corporate design and company-specific aids. The critical issue in practice is less about how to apply animations, but rather how to use your corporate template wisely, and which formatting options are allowed or prohibited by the corporate design.

High-quality content and design

PowerPoint trainers can’t normally teach these things. For example, how to convince decision-makers in specific situations, what makes a story, what options there are for visuals, and how to design good slides. The choice of providers here is quite limited; you can generally choose between external providers and training courses or in-house training usually by external experts. We believe the following points are important for your success:

The coach must be familiar with your specific requirements, for instance, template and design guidelines. Slide design must always be in keeping with your corporate identity, so the techniques and tips they give you can be adapted to your context.
As a training participant you should practice using your own examples. Many of the methods are easy to grasp, but very difficult to apply in the complexity of your own project. You therefore need a competent sparring partner to support you with this.
The context of your organization must be actively incorporated. Only then is it possible to generate new ideas and approaches that can be implemented in everyday reality, with its time constraints, complex interpersonal relationships, and input from other departments which is hard to influence.

Personal delivery

This is what ultimately brings your presentation to life. It’s the performance that convinces listeners, captures their interest, makes them fans or facilitates their decisions, regardless of whether it’s an internal or external presentation. As a presenter, you’re not only a brand ambassador; you’re the ambassador for your area, your subject field and, not least, for yourself. This is where role-based coaching and personal presentation, speech and voice training come in. They require good briefings. They’re what top off your success.

If you’ve developed a general concept for these areas using basic formats, you’ll also have the freedom to support and tailor these competencies with highly personalized coaching sessions based on your individual needs or specific events.

Learn more about our presentation trainings.

Next Level PowerPoint

24. September 201925. August 2023 Philipp Tekampe Insights

Next-Level PowerPoint

Using a governance framework to ensure lasting success

Reading time 3 minutes

“We want to structure our presentations better and be more efficient.”

Words to this effect are among the most common preliminary enquiries we receive. Closely followed by the marketing challenge of seeking “consistent branding.” These lead-ins imply a growing awareness of problems, which is something that develops when organizations work frequently with presentations, both internally and externally. QuickSlide provides quick relief and noticeable improvements. But you can further maximize quality and costsavings by embedding this aspect into the right structures, responsibilities and processes. Through our consulting, what may sound a little abstract to some customers at first ends up being a clear checklist that yields amazing results with very little fine-tuning.

Read a specific case study involving a large consultancy firm, and see how a standard was established within the space of a year.

1.

An initial step saw us work together to identify the core targets. One of these was to implement the corporate identity consistently (in all its facets, well beyond just the corporate design).

To measure target achievement, the Marketing department took charge of introducing the “CI Check” governance element, which includes having internal and, in some cases, external experts check the presentations provided in QuickSlide, as well as important pitch documents.

2.

The next step revolved around establishing a steering committee with decisionmakers from multiple company divisions. The decision to introduce a governance framework at the or-ganization involved defining the various steps and milestones for the following 12 months.

The steering committee approved the criteria and parameters for half-yearly reviews. To give you a better idea, here are a few examples of how such criteria can be defined:

3.

The results regarding target achievement, training requirements, potential for further standardization, or further content development are presented at the subsequent review meetings. The decisionmakers gain valuable insights into the status of their organization, and are able to approve measures with great accuracy.

4.

Once established, targets, measures and parameters continue to be monitored, with the steering committee’s activities coordinated by the department in charge reduced to one annual review.

The above steps taken for CI consistency are the same as for the targets concerning the quality of presentation content and the usability of QuickSlide. This results in a standard that truly helps all departments, and which maximizes the precise potential that had originally be set as a project target, creating a high level of acceptance and satisfaction among users and decisionmakers alike. It’s not rocket science. But it will get you a high ROI. What is needed is an awareness of the issue’s relevance, and a certain degree of consistency. To ensure you’re not left to your own devices when it comes to developing and implementing your governance framework, Strategy Compass is on hand to contribute its expertise and years of experience, and works with you to devise an approach tailored specifically to the needs and features of your organization.

How PowerPoint can sabotage a new corporate design

16. September 201913. March 2023 Uncategorized

How PowerPoint can sabotage a new corporate design

Reading time 2 minutes

In another blog post we mentioned the important role presentations play in anchoring a brand in employees’ hearts and minds. A little while ago, I had an interesting conversation with the head of communications at a not-so-small business. She told me that PowerPoint was the reason the brand was having trouble really taking off inside the company. Which only demonstrates once again that, like it or not, you should never underestimate the power of PowerPoint.

Over the past two years, the company has really developed their brand, and fine-tuning their corporate design was a big part of this. They made a lot of updates to the company’s intranet, brochures, and advertising campaign materials. Now it was time for them to tackle the website and PowerPoint presentations. Their lead agency engaged a PowerPoint service provider to develop a new master, and they apparently did a good job.

When the new master was made available to all employees, however, there was an unexpected outcry. It was completely incompatible with all the old slides they’d been using for years. The issue quickly made its way up to their Management Board who stopped the PowerPoint project in its tracks. They told everyone to keep using the old, totally outdated presentation master for the time being. Now the company is considering whether any changes to PowerPoint should be attempted at all over the next two years. Employees are all far too busy manually converting all their presentations to the new master.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when I demonstrated our method for easing the transition. The QuickSlide migration tool can automatically convert old presentations to the new master. This even includes the various subsequent tweaks, such as adapting existing content to the new corporate design guidelines and color scheme. Users also get access to a variety of tools that simplify the process of creating presentations. So, they actually save time instead of facing extra work.

With the migration tool in hand and a more easily convertible master, the issue was put before the Board again – this time fortunately with a positive reaction, and a better outcome for everyone.

However, this example just goes to show how quickly brand development can be stalled if the transition to a new corporate design is made too difficult for employees.

Achim Sztuka

Presentation preparation – Plan well for the right impression

8. September 201913. March 2023 Uncategorized

Presentation preparation - plan well for the right impression

Reading time 3 minutes

When you present, your audience members need some orientation and security before they can give you their full attention. It’s the same for you, too. As the speaker up front, you need to feel confident, and appear professional. Make sure you have everything you need to present well and guide your listeners. Use our guide for presentation location preparation.

Testing, testing …

If you want to make a positive impression, you need optimal conditions. At the top of the list: your equipment. Whether you’re speaking at a conference, presenting to a client, or to your own colleagues at an internal meeting, make sure all your devices and hardware function properly. Once your audience have settled to listen to you, if they hear “we’re very sorry, but there’s a problem with the speaker’s laptop…” or “our beamer’s not working right now,” or similar, the less patient among them might roll their eyes or even leave the room. Others will switch their attention to their smartphones or the person next to them until you’re ready to start. Even for them, anticipation could turn to irritation if they must wait for technical issues to be fixed before you even begin.

Is it plugged in?

Get familiar with your presentation environment. Ask yourself:

Where’s the beamer? How does it work?
Is there a remote control or pointer? Does it work?
Do I need spare bulbs or batteries?
Where am I going to stand? Can I see my slides without having to turn my back on the audience?
Do I need a microphone? Will I have to hold it, or does it have a clip?
Can I move around freely as I talk?
What about a sound check?
Nothing makes your audience wince more than the sudden screech of overloaded speakers.
What’s the room lighting like? Where are the switches or dimmers?
Consider the time of day you’ll present and make sure you can adjust the lighting as you need to so everyone can see your slides. Are there windows in the room, and are there blinds or curtains to block out bright daylight that can mar visibility of the screen?
Do I have a glass of water close to hand?
This isn’t just good for your voice, or handy in case of a tickly cough. It’s also a great prop in case you go blank or need thinking time before answering a question. A smile and a self-assured sip of water gives you some breathing space.

Got a pen?

Once you have the room all worked out, consider the finer details:

Is there a flipchart or a whiteboard I can use, and marker pens (that work)? This can be useful if you need to explain something or write up points from a discussion.
Do I have my presentation on a USB stick, in case there’s a problem with my laptop and I need to borrow someone else’s?
Are my handouts all printed and easy to find? And those giveaways I want to hand around as a closing gesture? It would be a pity to spoil the moment and final impressions by having to rummage around for them.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

You could probably write a book on all the situations, predictable and not so, that speakers have to cope with. No doubt you too can recall a few episodes, as a speaker or audience member, that you’d rather forget. Prepare everything in a professional manner in advance of presenting to others. Then impress and convince your audience with your calm authority.

How to embed fonts in PowerPoint

15. July 201924. March 2022 Uncategorized

How to embed fonts in PowerPoint

Reading time 3 minutes

Do you remember or have you heard of WYSIWYG ‒ what you see is what you get? When creating a presentation on your computer you can immediately see what it looks like. Yet the whole thing can look completely different when you open your presentation on a different device. WYSIWYG can then quickly become WYSINAWYG: What you see is – not always – what you get.

Broken formatting

Your presentation looks beautiful. All texts are arranged nicely, everything’s looking great in the corporate design. Then you forward it to someone, or you open the presentation on another device, and a nightmare unfolds: The slides look terrible! Why? Because a particular device didn’t have the necessary fonts installed and therefore used a default one instead. This can cause all your carefully constructed formatting, content positioning, sizing and charts to be completely shot to pieces. You may not even notice this as the major cause of this minor disaster as the font box at the top insists your chosen font is being displayed – even though it’s not. This is really mean, especially if you try to solve the issue with another person to identify what went wrong.

Embedded fonts prevent formatting errors

As always, there’s a cure available for this ailment. If you didn’t select a standard Windows font, perhaps because of corporate design requirements, then cover yourself and embed your intended font. It’s relatively simple:

Under File, click on Save As, select Tools, click on Save Options, and tick the box next to Embed Fonts in File, then click OK. This works relatively reliably with True Type and Open Type fonts.

As you can probably tell by the word “relatively”, there are nevertheless a few more things you should be aware of:

Your file will increase in size, usually by at least 1 MB.
Check that your chosen font can be embedded.
PowerPoint Mac recognizes embedded fonts only from version 2016 (16.11) onwards.
Remember to actually carry out the Embed Fonts procedure!

Optimal font control

Play it safe by sending your presentation in PDF format. This is very effective if it goes to a recipient to whom only the content is important – e.g. if your presentation is intended to serve as a handout or a working paper. If, however, the recipients would actually like to use your presentation as such, then a PDF file will severely limit that purpose. None of the dramatic effects through animations will be possible, unless you create an individual slide for each step of the animation. Which is certainly the least efficient way of going about things.

If you’d like to use a font which is non-standard in Windows as a corporate font, the best solution would be to differentiate between print application and Office application in corporate design, and then agree to use a font similar to the corporate font for all Office applications (since this problem is not confined to PowerPoint). Rest assured this is usually possible. It should, however, always be coordinated by your company’s marketing department.

If you observe these small suggestions, you can be sure that the “NA” will only stand for “not applicable” regarding any font problems in your presentations.

Woman presenting in front of the audience

Giving presentations

11. June 201913. March 2023 Philipp Tekampe Insights

Giving presentations

Performance

Reading time 13 minutes

The first few seconds of a presentation are crucial. If you can grasp your audience’s attention with your personality from the start, your presentation is much more likely to impress them. Maintaining their attention and inspiring them is the next challenge. Your audience will expect you to present knowledge clearly and concisely to them. They’ll want to examine complex facts and gain insights. They expect the presentation to resonate with them or even involve them.

You can prepare for presentations, not only in terms of structure and content, but in planning and rehearsing the way you perform to, and interact with, your audience. Learn how to address your listeners with charisma and confidence, while also coming across as authentic, open, and empathetic.

Inspiration from theater

Actors are experts in performing to an audience. Some of the key skills you need to present well are taught in drama classes.

Acting is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts, he does not hide; he exposes himself.

Jeanne Moreau

Actors are taught a whole range of performance skills:

Presence in front of an audience
Body language
Breathing, use of voice, speaking
Empathy and dialogue with the audience
Engagement
Choosing the right role
Authenticity – to recognize and express our own personality
Concentration and discipline
Creativity and improvisation
Self-confidence
Handling stage fright

You can also draw on the techniques and methods used by professional actors to help you perform well in a business environment. Use them to help you act confidently in public, and impress or convince others in key meetings and presentations.

Captivate your audience with storytelling

The foundation of any presentation is its content. Your messages and core statements provide a structure for this content. They need to be plain and clear.

You can supplement any facts you present with images, analogies, comparisons, and stories. Storytelling can help substantiate and illustrate facts through a vivid narrative. Experiences from your own personal life or work processes, or even anecdotes from short breaks, turn facts into pictures people can understand, identify with, or relate to. Using storytelling helps you engage with your audience. Stories bring the presentation to life. Your listeners feel as if you’re speaking to them personally and become motivated and curious about the presentation, and you, the speaker.

Stay present while presenting

Presence is the art of being in the moment during your presentation and connecting with your audience. This is how you inspire and energize them. Tired, nervous, or hyperactive speakers bore their audiences. Being present as a speaker means your mind and body are wide awake and stay in the here and now. Your senses are heightened, while you simultaneously radiate calm, balance and relaxation.

Actors with stage presence are good role models for impressive presentations. They perform with their full attention and don’t let their minds wander – neither towards the past nor the future. This also helps them to improvise if necessary.

There are three main forms of presence you can observe for your own presentation:

Physical presence: Physically present people are consciously aware of themselves and their body. They notice their impulses and feelings and express them without getting lost in thought.

Physical spatial presence: People with a high degree of physical spatial presence are perceived by the audience as “filling a space.” They enter the room, and all eyes are immediately on them. Their own attention is focused on being aware of their body and noticing the space around them.

Contact presence: This is the mindfulness and attention the speaker shows the audience. They communicate openly with them.

Show your appreciation

As a manager it’s vital that you express appreciation. It demonstrates your strengths in verbal communication and emotional intelligence. Having a sense of and skills in appreciation is a cornerstone of good leadership – and excellent presentations.

Consider appreciation as an inner attitude. It’s a basic ethical mindset reflected in your demeanor every time you present to or communicate with others. The leadership quality “self-presentation” is about influencing how we come across to others. We want to give a positive impression of ourselves and an optimistic, appreciative attitude to life is part of this. A presentation is credible and effective if, in addition to willpower, the speaker exudes skills in self-direction: awareness, respect and dignity. Appreciation is a key prerequisite for engaging in dialogue with your audience.

The three facets of appreciation

Appreciation for yourself: Successful managers exude balance and self-confidence. They have a high degree of appreciation for themselves, which isn’t dependent on external factors, such as challenges, stress, and pressure.
Appreciation for your audience or conversation partner: Those being spoken to must feel treated with respect, dignity, and interest from the first moment of interaction with us. We manifest our attitudes through our posture, openness, and ease.
Appreciation for the topic: The presentation revolves around your values and principles as a speaker. If you’re passionate about a topic, it even expands your on-stage presence with focused attention and energetic body language.

Engaging with the crowd

An excellent presentation is always a dialogue with your audience, never a monologue. As a speaker, you must make immediate contact with those watching and listening. The talk itself is a complex communication process that’s consciously and subconsciously observed and co-created by the audience. Your presentation’s structure and your skills as a speaker must incorporate various levels of communication.

Sound familiar? You enjoy listening to a talk which really appeals to you. Then you leave the building and realize you can’t remember much about the topic, the speaker, or details of their core message. The speaker quite possibly only focused on reading their prepared text out loud. They only used one level of communication – and so failed to leave a lasting impression.

Experienced presenters play with the rules of communication like musicians with their instruments. They master the subtleties of verbal and non-verbal expression:

Their content and text layout convey a sense of intellectual indulgence, as they clearly illustrate complex topics. They aspire to achieving “light-bulb moments” among their audience.
Personal examples and analogies resonate with the audience’s experiences and tap into their subconscious and forgotten knowledge.
During the presentation, they never lose contact with their audience. Even when concentrating on the text or presentation equipment, there’s never any tunnel vision. They make gestures towards, or make eye contact with, individual listeners or the whole audience.
The speaker’s voice is melodious, not monotone, and their body language is inviting and encouraging to listeners. The presentation triggers thoughts and feelings which place the intellectual content in wider contexts, which impresses them and helps win them over.
The speaker clearly registers the audience’s body language, what they’re moved by or react to, and responds to this accordingly.

With a passion for communication, and by being present while engaging with your audience, you too can create an atmosphere that grasps your audience’s attention. This encourages them to listen to what you have to say and learn from it. It secures the success of your presentation, even after everyone leaves the room.

Express yourself for the right impact

During your presentation, your audience will hear and interpret every word you say. They’ll notice every gesture, look, change in posture, every modulation in the tone of your voice, and emphasis on phrases as messages. Sometimes, our bodies can subconsciously convey something other than the presentation text. An outstanding presentation is one where all forms of expression are coherent – when language, voice and body language all say the same thing as the text.

Verbal communication

When you speak in front of an expert audience, you impart complex information. You can use the spoken word to structure topics and spark your audience’s interest. You can make even the driest of topics exciting with a lively voice, the right pitch, intonation, presentation speed, and well-placed pauses.

These aspects all impact on the clarity and quality of your verbal communication:

Articulation
Vocal quality
Volume
Pace of delivery
Pauses
Voice and emotion

Articulation
The term “articulation” comes from the Latin word “articulatim” meaning “limb by limb, syllable by syllable, point by point.” We articulate sounds by moving our mobile speech organs (lips, tongue, soft palate) and forming certain positions with them. For instance, try saying “ee” first with your lips pursed and then again with your lips stretched into a wide smile. The two sounds you produce are quite different.

Vowels are what give language its sound; consonants are developed in combination with vowels. They can explode (as with P, T, K), hiss and puff (as with S, SH, F, H), and be voiced (as with V, M, L). After a while, you should be able to recognize your own distinctive use of language and work on this for greater clarity of expression.

Vocal quality
A powerful, natural-sounding voice ideally comes from the diaphragm. Inexperienced speakers often generate their vocal volume using compressed air through tense vocal chords. Their voice then sounds shrill and unpleasant for the audience. Plus, anyone speaking like that for a long time will gradually go hoarse. With a stable, supported voice, you can speak in a relaxed, audible manner even for longer periods of time, and fill a large room with your voice without needing any equipment.

Volume
The volume of a speaker’s voice can enhance the impact of their speech. For instance, you can emphasize core statements and principles with a stronger use of your voice when relevant. With targeted variation of your speaking volume, you can make your listeners more active and guide them through your most important points. Appropriate presentation volume of course depends on room size and acoustics. Do an on-site test. In general, speak at a volume just above what you’d normally use in conversation. If you’re unsure, ask your audience at the start if everyone can hear you properly – especially those at the back of the room.

Pace of delivery
The right pace is just as important as the right tone. A suitable pace of delivery for a presentation is generally a bit slower than for regular dialogue. This helps your audience to grasp complex points.

If you talk too quickly, they might miss what you’ve said or not understand it properly. Worse, they might get the impression that you just want to get the presentation over with. Stage fright almost always causes presenters to speak too fast. When practicing, concentrate on your delivery speed. If you use cue cards for your presentation, add the words “slow down” at several intervals to remind yourself to take a breath between sentences.

You can deliberately slow your pace down before and during core statements. This helps increase audience attention and helps them retain information from your presentation. Changing up the pace keeps your listeners engaged and interested in what you have to say.

Tip: If you’re nervous about presenting, before you start, take several deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. This can help calm you and will make it easier for you to control your talking speed.

Pauses
The incredible impact and power generated by a pause in speech is often underestimated. Structural pauses really help listeners grasp and absorb the meaning of your statements. As a speaker a pause offers you the chance to calmly catch your breath. Pausing before a word is also a good way to emphasize an important term or concept.

Voice and emotion
Your personality adds spice to the presentation and brings it to life. Unlike written text, a talk or presentation is much richer with its varying intonation, rhythm, dynamics, and emotion. You can sound optimistic, shocked, dismissive, determined, or confident of victory depending on the situation. Expressing emotions adds your personal take on facts and highlights your standpoint. If you truly believe in what you’re talking about, the emotion in your speech can pack a rhetorical punch.

Non-verbal communication

What makes a speaker convincing and charismatic? Every human has an innate ability to notice physical signals given off by another person. As Albert Mehrabian’s “Silent Messages” case study revealed, a speaker’s impact is based 55% on body language (physical presence, gestures, eye contact), 38% on voice and tone, and just 7% on the content being communicated. The audience uses their overall perception of content and body language to get an idea of the speaker’s self-confidence, engagement, social skills and trustworthiness. To achieve a natural aura of authority while presenting, it’s essential to appear authentic and act in a genuine, unaffected manner.

You can improve your air and demeanor by paying attention to a few key points and adjusting them when necessary. The following practical exercises, inspired by physical and acting training, will help you prepare and instill confidence in yourself as you give your presentation.

A confident stance
Standing firm with upright posture shows a person can rely on their stable balance. The stance looks solid, self-assured, and powerful. When you present to an audience, it’s important to adopt a confident stance. Center yourself into a relaxed, but upright posture. This puts you in touch with your physical center, deepens your abdominal and diaphragmatic breathing, and improves stability. Your movements from this core position are then much more fluid and relaxed, and even follow their own natural rhythm.

Breathing
Conscious breathing supports a speaker throughout a presentation. The spoken word is a resonant exhale, which is very important for your voice’s projection and expression. At the same time, your respiratory energy creates suspense, alertness and presence. Breathing training – inhaling and exhaling slowly and steadily – can help you warm up and calm any anxiety before going on stage to present.

Gestures
People express their personality through their gestures. Just like signatures, they’re highly individual from person to person. They can range from minor movements and subtle impulses to extravagant gesticulation. This body language can intensify the impact of your communication and presentation in many ways – both on stage and in everyday life.

Our gestures can’t be seen as independent from our general body language or the meaning of the words we say. This link is the reason individual gestures in everyday life are spontaneous. Sometimes during presentations, we can unwittingly make gestures or facial expressions which give away our lack of confidence. Once we’re in flow with our presentation, though, our body language can subconsciously support our speech and content, and how we communicate with the audience.

Eye contact
While talking during a meeting or presenting, one key part of your attention is focused on the people in the room. The listeners are the ones you want to get through to with your presentation. Eye contact demonstrates you’re there with the people in the room. Be as attentive as you can to your guests and look right across the room during the presentation.

It takes courage to make eye contact with the audience, because it means engaging in dialogue with them. Rest your focus on certain groups of people. Address different individuals through your eye contact, but avoid long, intense periods of eye contact with just one person.

Note: Your contact with the audience is broken every time you look down at your script or cue cards. Try to talk as freely as possible, without relying on your notes.

Roles of the speaker during a presentation

The main objective of public speaking is usually to impart knowledge, to convince or sway opinion, to inspire or to entertain an audience. One feature of an excellent presentation is the deliberate way the expression and effect of the speaker’s various roles are used to achieve these objectives.

In presentation situations, an audience often expects the speaker to play the role of expert on a topic, which they express through the presentation. Body language and a clear, matter-of-fact voice indicate that it’s an expert speaking. The effect is factually convincing – but it can become monotonous and bore listeners.

If as a speaker you want to inspire and impress your audience, this role won’t suffice. You need to adopt other roles, such as a storyteller who engages with their audience, or a host who welcomes their guests and invites them to listen and reflect.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

William Shakespeare

Theater roles in presentations

The sociological approach to roles has its origins in ancient theater. Actors prepare their role by expressing it in their own personal way using their body language and voice. By analyzing the role, they explore all the motives behind the character’s actions, their values, and expectations (always in the socio-political context of the play and its era). The actor plays their role successfully when all forms of expression – both visible and invisible – are coherent.

Theater and literature are full of archetypal roles with their own specific motives. Some examples:

Ruler/Authority (The King or Queen)

I’m the one responsible and where the buck stops.
I’m the ruler and oversee everything.
I’m the role model.
I have a duty of care for everything entrusted to me.

Host (The Physician)

I invite you in.
I’m genuinely happy that I can assist you.
You’re important to me.
I’ll take care of you.

Expert or academic (The Scholar)

I want to inform objectively and impart knowledge.

Courageous warrior (The Hero)

I concentrate hard.
I react with great purpose when problems or challenges arise.
I have a keen, unshakable sense of awareness.

Trickster or Shakespearian “fool” (The Jester)

I’m very agile.
I’m curious, even about unusual, cryptic, or taboo topics, and like discovering new things.
I enjoy holding a mirror up to people, so they can see how others perceive them.
I like to entertain – or annoy – my audience with provocation and jokes.

The role repertoire is applied based on the public-speaking structure, where content-based objectives are translated into presentation phases. This can be supported with a “stage direction schedule” as part of the preparation for presentations.

Role coaching

The conciseness and clarity of the speaker’s role is reviewed through role coaching. In any communication, expectations, and value systems (including assessments) shift consciously and subconsciously between the speaker and their audience. Subconscious patterns and habits can cloud clarity, and therefore success, in communication. This makes it difficult for the audience to listen, absorb key messages, and take in new or complex information.

Role coaching examines the way the speaker presents or expresses themselves. Sociologist Erving Goffman talked about “impression management” in this context. Self-presentation of a speaker must fit with the values of their audience, those they’re speaking to or with. A role coach will check that the speaker’s aware of the expectation patterns of their role, and of their own personal patterns of expression (facial expressions, gestures, voice and use of language). They must consciously choose the role and then pay attention to any subconscious patterns that could diminish the performance and success of their talk.

Prepare for your presentation

If you prepare your next presentation thoroughly in advance

it will run smoothly on the day
you’ll be more confident, knowing what you have to say and how at each point
you can improvise if you need to, in case of technical or other issues

Plan your timing for delivering each part of your presentation at the right pace. Rehearse your whole performance – how you want to come across, what role you’ll play and when, and at what points you’ll involve your audience. Think about which words you’ll use to kick-off your performance as a first impression for your listeners. Make conscious decisions on where you’ll place your cue cards, glass of water, remote control to change slides, and so on, so it all feels comfortable and familiar on the day.

Consider how you’ll get yourself ready for the presentation on the day. For instance, plan in some calm time to psych yourself up and center yourself. Precisely plan your appearance (clothes, shoes, bag/case, hair, make-up, as appropriate). Map out your whole journey to the venue without needing to rush.

For a detailed look at how you can prepare yourself well for your next presentation, see our paper, “Giving presentations: Preparation.”

We also offer presentation training – get in touch.

How word templates bring order to the chaos

28. May 201915. May 2023 Uncategorized

How word templates bring order to the chaos of corporate admin

Reading time 2 minutes

Whether it’s letters, press releases, quotes, contracts, tenders, process documentation, manuals or reports, many companies are intensive Word users, for both internal and external admin purposes. Maybe your company has clear specifications for layouts of relevant documents, and which mandatory information needs to be displayed, such as the date or a logo. Word templates help you firmly establish these specifications, for consistency of in-house style and external presentation. In practice, however, especially at larger companies, Word can reach its limit quite quickly. Example scenarios – see if any of the following resonate with you at your organization:

In addition to centrally provided templates, the company also uses various department-specific templates for special purposes. In most cases, there’s a lack of centralized control over branding and quality standards here.
As every legal unit (and every brand and international branch) requires its own details in the header and footer, the number of templates expands rapidly.
Things get really complicated when content components, like centrally checked quote items or contract components, come into play.
Providing all these different templates and updating them every time they change, for instance, when there’s a change to the executive board, is a tedious and time-consuming exercise that’s often neglected. It generally requires the involvement from both the Marketing/Communications and IT departments, which complicates the process further.
Normal users can barely keep up with all the template changes. They often don’t even know where the latest templates are, so usually revert to old documents and overwrite their content.
Things frequently come unstuck in terms of how documents look: While professionally created Word templates do contain precise typographic specifications, for example, in the form of styles, most users don’t know how to use these correctly, so either avoid them completely or don’t use them consistently.

These situations are regular issues at many companies, with all the associated consequences for external image and internal efficiency. Or companies try to fix some of the problems with solutions like general template management systems. Our Word add-in QuickDoc proves it’s possible to improve on this situation. QuickDoc makes it easy to provide and manage templates and components centrally, and ensures users actually use them correctly too. Curious? Then click here to learn more about QuickDoc.

Your audience’s inner attitude during a presentation

6. May 201913. March 2023 Uncategorized

How to deal with your audience's inner attitude during your presentation

Reading time 3 minutes

There are loads of useful textbooks on PowerPoint and giving presentations that tell us how to tune in to our audience. That’s a good thing. If we don’t take into account who’s sitting in front of us, why they’re there, what they actually want and what interests them (or doesn’t), then we won’t achieve anything by presenting to them. We’re not going to grab their attention.

There’s another important aspect: inner attitude. How can we attune ourselves to people who are opposed to what we want to achieve? Or how do we treat those who, luckily for us, share our point of view? What about the “neutral” members of our audience?

Try out our useful tips for coping with the different attitudes and divided opinions among your own presentation audience.

Yes, agreed!

Marvelous – you have people in the audience who are with you. The perfect starting point for reaching your objective. These audience members are already on your side, so avoid overloading them with facts and details. You’re free to be direct and put forward concrete goals. Increase the pressure to act by getting them to agree to these goals. Allocate roles, define further steps, and highlight what needs doing.

No way!

Granted: everyone is entitled to a different standpoint from yours. Remember not to take it personally. You’re not under attack. Take the other person’s position seriously. Show that you understand their point of view. Keep your expectations realistic – converting these audience members from a “no” to a “maybe” is a step in the right direction.

At the beginning of your presentation, find some common ground. Things that elicit a nod or a little smile of agreement. Organize your presentation into small independent sections that are easy to follow, and limit controversial points to just a few of these, or just one section. This lets your audience agree to most sections of your presentation, which creates a positive atmosphere. Show that you understand the contentious points: repeat the “opposing” arguments and focus the discussion on them, but be clear on what you don’t agree with.

People who are “against” you aren’t usually interested in your personal opinion. Present facts, refer to experts they respect and state your sources. Give your audience the chance to see that there are overriding or neutral standpoints that support your objective.

Maybe …

Then there’s the neutral section of the audience. Perhaps they are not very well informed, and don’t really know what to expect. Or maybe they were sent to attend the meeting but aren’t really interested in the subject. Others may simply be undecided. There are ways to get all three “maybe” types on your side.

If your audience isn’t well informed, ask them questions. This motivates them to take part and think for themselves. Encourage them to ask you questions. This helps you to identify information gaps and adapt or improvise. Appear credible and understanding. Give your audience time to understand your answers and help them to keep pace with you.

If some people just don’t seem interested, try including them. Encourage them to take part by providing imaginative examples and asking questions. Give them something to smile about or agree with. Use images and metaphors they can relate to, to stir their interest. And remember: uninterested people usually get bored by factual and analytical arguments.

Approach undecided audience members with all your powers of conviction! They’re not really against you, they just want to be convinced. Help them by concentrating on as few points as possible and using real, relevant examples.

Yes No Maybe

All three at once? If you often have to give presentations to groups of people with divided opinions, use the right mixture of all three approaches, and you’re on the right track. It’s even better if you can find out beforehand which audience members play a key role – either because they’ll be the ones making the decisions, or because they influence others. If you really want to be efficient, focus on these individuals and adapt your presentation with them in mind.

The main thing is that you put some thought into your audience’s inner attitudes and opinions in advance of presenting to them. This already makes you better prepared than most.