The first moments of presentations are critical.
Let's look at the five best ways to open.
My name is Alex Lyon and I'm here to
provide professional development tips for your very next meeting. Today we're
going to talk about presentation skills. And it's a critical area for leaders
because people will often see someone present and if you do well they'll think
oh that person is a good leader.
That's the way people translate it. And the first moments of presentations are
really key it's that attention getter,
is what they call it, that moment your grab your audience's attention and you draw
their interest in to the heart of the message you're about to share. And there
are some good ways to start and some bad ways. We're going to look at the top 5 ways to start
presentations. For the first, is a story. And I mean a brief story, like 30 seconds
to 60 seconds.
It can be humorous. It can be fun, light-hearted, could be serious.
Whatever matches the tone of the central message you're about to share, is appropriate
And it also should, in its content, drive towards the heart of the message. For
example, my pastor the other day told the story about how when he was
young he was driving this truck on the freeways. It was a cherry picker, huge truck with
the company logo on the side. And he missed his turn and so we had to swerve
over the grass median. And it was a humorous story but it drove right to the
point was trying to make which is about difficult choices.
So it worked really well. So a good story, a brief story, is a strong way to start
your presentations. Second way is a statistic or fact.
Ideally a statistic that's startling, something a little unexpected. Like I
heard one the other day when learning about personal finance and that is
during college students have about eight hundred dollars worth of credit card
debt but by the time they are in the working world they have about eight
thousand dollars worth of credit card debt. Now, to me, that's pretty startling.
And if you were going to open a presentation about personal finance or
perhaps college students, whatever the topic is, that is an example of a good
statistic because it really draws your attention to the issue.
So as you're doing your research you'll probably come across some
interesting facts and you should consider some of those as introductory
or attention-getting material for your opening. The third way is rhetorical questions.
A rhetorical question, as they say, is not necessarily a question that needs to be
answered.
However, you could ask your listeners to raise their hands if that they have ever
thought that. For example, say by show of hands how many of you have ever
and then you insert your question. I think it's a great way to start because
it instantly gets your audience participating and bought in on board
with the message you're sharing.
I think it's also best to structure this so you asked two, possibly three,
questions in a row so it adds a little momentum to the message. And that way
it's not just a one-off kind of question
it's something that draws them, that draws them in. The fourth way to open is
an illustration.
You should consider something visual that shows your audience
the point that you're trying to make. I once saw a speaker, for example, lineup
stacks of cookies to illustrate differences in numbers.
Now cookies are much more interesting to look at than just a number. So it's a
great visual representation.
Sometimes people will use an object as a representation, a visual
illustration of what they're trying to get across. Any way you can do that, maybe
a visual aid, even something on the screen could be a powerful way to start,
something that helps the visual learners in your audience to get on board with
what you're about to say can be a really great way to start. And the last way is
quotations.
Now you can start with it a well-known quotation, but I don't think the
well-known quotations are always best.
It's true the Abraham Lincoln
and Einstein they all said some amazing things, but the problem with using a
common quotation is that people have probably already heard it. And it might
not have the impact that you're trying to have. I think it's best if you look
for a unique or off-beat quotation. for example, I saw a speaker recently give a
quote from Bruce Lee to begin his presentation. His presentation wasn't
about martial arts. It was about making mistakes. And Bruce Lee has a great
quotation about making mistakes and it was a powerful way to start because I had
never heard it before. But it was a powerful way to open.
so these are the top five ways I recommend starting your presentations. I
want to give you two additional suggestions for using attention getters
effectively. And the first suggestion is to make sure it's the very first thing
out of your mouth.
a lot of times we get introduced and then we might fill in with a whole bunch
of other things and then in a moment or two we finally get to our message. But I
think the first thing out of your mouth should be your attention getter.
You might say thank you to the applause or thank you, briefly, a couple of seconds
and then you pause and you go into your attention getter. The second
recommendation to using these attention getters, I think it's great to combine
these together. You might use, for example, a rhetorical question with a statistic or
a quote with a rhetorical question.
you can, there's some art to this, but you can weave them together and play around
till you get the right combination. But if you combine more than one then you're almost
guaranteed to have a powerful opening that really doesn't do the job and gain
people's attention.
So like I said, presentations are often considered a leadership skill and I
highly recommend
developing these every chance you get. And it's why I created Communication
Coach. I created it to help rising leaders like yourself
take your leadership and communication skills to the next level.
So if you're interested in ongoing tips in this area please subscribe to the channel,
post your comments and questions below. If you have other ideas about videos
you'd like to see me work on in the future, then go ahead and we'll start a
conversation about that.
So thanks. God bless. And I hope you get to use these tips at your very next
meeting.