The Joong Ang Sunday newspaper in Korea published an interview with the man credited with helping the Pyeongchang Olympic Bid Team to produce a truly fantastic presentation in Durban, South Africa, Terrence Burns
In that interview, when asked what was his number 1 tip for Korean people to improve their presentation skills Burns replied “speak slowly”. In a previous blog post I wrote about the reasons you need to speak slowly. When you are presenting you are not in a race to finish as quickly as you can, you are there to communicate your ideas, passions and or dreams. When you are speaking too fast your audience cannot keep up with you and they quite often cannot understand the English you are speaking. So consciously focussing on your speaking speed should be an essential part of your practice and rehearsal time.
Burns also said that the key components of any presentation is the “who” and the “why”. “Who” is your audience and “why” should they do what you are asking them to do. Many times on this blog we have written about the important of presenting for your audience and not your boss. What motivates your boss is not necessarily what motivates your audience. You must always put yourself in your audience’s shoes and ask yourself what will make my presentation resonate with my audience? GEtting these parts of your presentation just right will help your presentations become much more effective.
Sadly, the article is written in Korean, so for those of you who do speak Korean, you can access the full interview here.
An English version of this interview can be read at the Sports Features website here
