Do you want to know how to improve presentation skills and communication skills?
If your answer is yes, then come along with us.
Communication skills are a necessity in living, working, and being around people.
This is because they enable you to effectively express your thoughts, feelings, ideas, opinions, and so on with other people.
If you lack communication skills, your business, career, and even your personal life will suffer.
So, effective communication skills are a necessity.
Meanwhile, presentation skills are needed for you to effectively conduct business and build your career.
Hence, they should also not be taken lightly.
We want you to be the best you can be.
So, we will share with you vital information that will teach you how to improve your presentation and communication skills.
To begin, we will be looking at what presentation skills are…
What are Presentation Skills? – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Presentation skills are those set of skills that enables a person to effectively deliver presentations to an audience.
You might need to make presentations to your investors, employees, shareholders, customers, or clients.
If you lack effective presentation skills you will have issues conducting business with people.
The following skills will ensure that this does not happen:
Analytical Skills
Analytical skills are what enable a person to collect, organize, assimilate, and visualize data.
In other words, they enable a person to see patterns, make conclusions, and generate suitable solutions to issues.
These skills are needed for delivering presentations because they help one to prepare their presentation.
A person can effectively conduct research, gather and organize their information, and then effectively present it to their audience.
Analytical skills help a person to consider questions and concerns that might arise from their audience and prepare to handle them.
The following are the skills that make up analytical skills:
- Research
- Problem-solving
- Brainstorming
- Forecasting
- Data mining
- Organization
- Diagnostics
- Creativity
- Metrics and data interpreting
- Reporting
- Theorizing
Interpersonal Skills – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Interpersonal skills are social skills that help one to communicate, collaborate, and interact with other people effectively.
They allow one to connect, build relationships with people, and maintain them.
These skills are necessary for delivering presentations because you need to connect with your audience to effectively pass your message.
The connection a person forms with their audience enables them to catch their attention and maintain it till the end of their presentation.
Interpersonal skills are made up of the following:
- Active listening
- Empathy
- Emotional intelligence
Conceptual Skills
Conceptual skills are a set of thinking skills that enable one to understand complex ideas or situations and generate answers for complicated problems.
These skills are useful for presentation, as they enable a person to gauge and understand situations during their presentation, and effectively handle them.
For example, there might be questions or concerns from the audience that you might have not expected or prepared for.
If you cannot effectively answer those questions, or deal with them, you might have your audience doubting your knowledge of the topic you shared with them.
However, when you possess strong conceptual skills, you will gauge those questions and understand them.
Then you will effectively deal with them even if you do not have answers to them.
Conceptual skills are made up of the following:
- Abstract thinking
- Cognitive skills
- Critical thinking
- Creative thinking
- Analytical skills
- Logical thinking
- Contextualization
Check here to discover more on conceptual skills.
Creative Thinking Skills – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Creative thinking skills enable a person to consider or see things from different angles and from a fresh perspective.
They enable one to generate new methods of having things done.
Creative thinking skills come in handy when preparing your presentation.
For example, when preparing for your presentation and experiencing issues with your method, creative thinking skills can help you come up with a better idea.
The following skills are what make up creative thinking skills:
- Open-mindedness
- Analysis
- Active listening
- Problem-solving
Communication Skills
Communication skills are considered to be the most important skill for presentation.
If you do not possess strong communication skills then it negates the effectiveness of other presentation skills you possess.
This is because communication skills are what enable a person to effectively pass across their message or information to an audience.
As we go on, we will discuss more communication skills.
Technical Skills – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Most presentation requires the use of visual aids and the like.
Hence, one has to possess the skills that will enable them to effectively make use of visual aids devices.
It is a person’s technical skills that ensure that such a person does not make mistakes while making visual aids during their presentation.
Yes, sometimes, someone else might help with the technical part of your presentation.
However, you have to be ready and capable of handling it when there is no one to assist you with it.
The following are some technical skills that are usually useful in doing presentations:
- Video creation
- Computer skills
- Troubleshooting
- Web usage
Time Management Skills
There is usually a time limit for every presentation.
Hence, being able to make use of the time given to you to effectively deliver your presentation is vital.
Time management skills ensure that this is possible.
It allows you to get straight to your point, rather than waste time on irrelevant things.
Time management skills are made up of the following skills:
- Prioritizing
- Scheduling
- Record keeping
- Delegation
- Managing appointments
- Strategic thinking
What are Communication Skills? – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
As we earlier said, we will discuss more about communication skills.
So, what are communication skills?
Communication skills are a set of soft skills and qualities that enables one to effectively pass information and receive information.
They are:
Verbal Communication Skills
Verbal communication is a form of communication that is based on spoken words.
In other words, it is all about communicating through spoken words.
To effectively communicate verbally, you need to possess verbal communication skills which include:
- Effective tone modulation and inflection
- Enunciation
When you can pronounce your words well, and make use of the right tones and inflection, your verbal communication will improve.
Non-verbal Communication Skills – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Non-verbal communication is a form of communication that allows you to communicate without written or spoken words.
This form of communication makes use of sight and touch as communication mediums.
Non-verbal communication skills allow you to effectively communicate by making use of:
- Hand gestures
- Body language
- Facial expressions
- Eye contact
Written Communication
Written communication is a form of communication that occurs through written words.
It allows you to write out your information.
These days, it is not only limited to a book, you can now type out your information on your technological devices and send them to the people.
When you possess good written communication skills, your communication will have the following qualities:
- Clarity
- Concise
- Accuracy
- Composition
- Appropriateness
Active Listening – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Communication is not all about passing information; it is also about receiving them.
You cannot effectively receive information if you do not listen.
When we say “listen”, we do not mean to passively listen without focusing.
We mean to actively listen.
Active listening skills enable one to focus on the speaker, hear what they are saying, and understand it.
Skills classified under active listening include:
- Reflective listening
- Social intelligence
- Emotional intelligence
- Visualizing
- Body language
- Informational listening
- Patience
Clarity
Clarity cuts across all forms of communication.
It is all about structuring your ideas and thoughts logically and making use of appropriate words to effectively convey them to people.
If you do not possess clarity when communicating, people will hardly understand you and that will be problematic for you.
Confidence – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Confidence is a quality that demonstrates to people that you are sure about the words you speak, the decisions you make, and the actions you take.
It is a quality that is needed when communicating because it makes people think or feel that you are sure of the information you are sharing.
This helps to make them believe in that information too.
So, if you lack confidence, you need to develop it or learn to appear confident when communicating.
Open-mindedness
Communication is not a one-way street, as you share information with people, people also share theirs with you.
As you expect people to respect you when you speak, people expect to be respected too.
Open-mindedness allows you to show empathy, and respect for people when communicating.
It allows you to respect and understand other people’s perspectives or messages, even if you do not agree with them.
Connection Between Presentation Skills and Communication Skills – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Communication skills are classified under presentation skills because they allow you to effectively pass your information to people.
Presentation is all about what you have to say; the information you intend to share with people.
You prepare your information, and then proceed to tell people about it.
Meanwhile, communication is all about how you “say or share” your information.
The effectiveness of the information you prepared depends on how you share it.
So, if your communication skills are poor, your presentation will suffer.
Yes, you might possess other strong presentation skills, but if you cannot effectively share your information, those other presentation skills become irrelevant.
Furthermore, other presentation skills such as interpersonal skills and analytical skills help to make you a better communicator.
Hence, we can say that your presentation skills depend on your communication skills.
Also, your communication skills benefit from your presentation skills.
Tips on How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
We have discussed the different skills that makeup presentations skills, and also the skills under communication skills.
Also, we have looked at how presentation skills and communication skills are connected.
Now, we will be looking at some tips that can help you improve your presentations skills and communications skills.
We advise that you carefully follow us, as we will be mixing the tips for both presentation skills and communication skills.
1. Listen
Listening should be something you take very seriously as a communicator.
As much as you speak to others, you also need to listen to others for communication to be complete.
So, develop the habit of listening to others.
When you listen to people, you will get to understand their perceptive even if you do not agree with them.
This will help you to build strong relationships with them.
Also, listening to people can help you to find answers while making research for a presentation.
The best way to listen to people is to listen actively.
So, ensure that you practice active listening every day.
2. Know Your Audience/ Listeners – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
To improve both your presentation skills and communication skills, you need to know your audience or listeners.
As important as your information or message is, it cannot be effectively passed across to people who do not understand them.
Hence, knowing your audience or listeners is a necessity.
When you know them, you will be able to prepare your presentation in a way that will suit them.
Also, it will help you to communicate in a style that they would understand and appreciate.
When you know your audience, you will find it easy to connect with them, get them engaged, and effectively pass your message to them.
3. Watch Your Body Language
When you are communicating or delivering a presentation, people tend to watch your body language.
If you are giving off the wrong body language you can either offend your audience or listeners, or cause them to be non receptive.
When this happens, they will not be interested in whatever you are sharing with them.
So, to avoid this, ensure that you watch your body language.
Ensure that your body language is confident, welcoming, and friendly.
Also, try to make and maintain eye contact with the people you are communicating with.
Furthermore, learn to understand body language cues.
This will help you to guess what your audience or listeners are feeling as you communicate with them.
Knowing what they are feeling can help you adjust your approach towards them, build connections with them, and get them engaged.
4. Use Appropriate Humor – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
The best way to get people to open up to you when communicating or delivering a presentation is by making use of humor.
This is because humor has a way of easing tension and making people feel comfortable.
Also, it can help you to connect better with your audience or listener, and gain their attention.
So, learn to incorporate humor when communicating with people.
However, you have to ensure that they are appropriate.
Try your best not to crack sensitive jokes.
5. Improve Your Confidence
Confidence helps you to demonstrate to people that know what you are saying.
This helps to make people more interested in what you have to say.
Your confidence will make your presentation more effective.
Also, it will make you less scared to speak in public.
So, if your confidence level is low, work to improve it.
When you improve your confidence level both your presentation skills and communication skills will improve.
6. Pause – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Pausing before speaking helps you to consider your words.
It prevents you from voicing the first thought that pops into your mind.
This often helps you to prevent mistakes or embarrassments.
Furthermore, pausing before speaking has a way of capturing your audience or listeners’ attention.
It makes them assume that you are considering your next statement, and wonder what it may be.
This helps to keep your presentation suspenseful and interesting.
7. Get Psyched
Public speaking and presentation have a way of making people nervous and jittery.
This can often negate their presentation skills.
To avoid this and boost your presentation skills try getting yourself psyched.
You can try working out, or dancing, or you can try listening to heavy hip hop or rock music.
If that does not work for you, find out what will get you excited and pumped to stand in front of people to speak.
8. Be Positive – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Positive energy tends to attract other people to a person.
It also makes a person more confident.
So, being positive is a great way to boost your presentation and communication skills.
When you are positive, you will look for the bright side of things regardless of how gloomy a situation might seem.
It will help you to preserve and work towards improving yourself every day.
Some things that can help you be and stay positive include:
- Focusing on the good things of life
- Practicing gratitude
- Being open to humor
- Practicing self pep-talk or positive affirmations
9. Focus on Your Core Points
When delivering presentations or communicating, ensure that you do not beat around the bush.
Rather, focus on your core points.
When you do this, it helps you to effectively make use of your time and also avoid boring your audience or listeners with irrelevant information.
You will have more time to share details of your main points.
Remember, being concise helps you to efficiently use and manage your time, and keep your audience and listeners engaged.
10. Avoid Making Use of Fillers – How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Making use of filler words and sounds often makes you seem incompetent when delivering presentations.
So, ensure that you avoid making use of them during a presentation.
Conclusion on How to Improve Presentation Skills and Communication Skills
Your presentation skills and communication skills are important sets of skills to possess.
They help you to effectively share your ideas and thoughts with people.
So, if they are poor, you should work to improve them.
In this article, we have shared vital information and tips on how to improve presentation skills and communication skills.
Therefore, we encourage you to take advantage of them.
