Quick Tips For Your Next Presentation

We've all heard that most people fear public speaking more than death itself. Do you feel the same when you are put in a situation where you have to talk in front of people? I am a bit shy and awkward as it is sometimes! I have given some decent presentations throughout my college career and do get some sort of adrenaline rush out of it. I have a certain amount of confidence when speaking in front of my college peers only because I know that each and everyone of them will be in my situation. However, speaking to my professional community frightens me terribly. I decided that the only way to get over this fear is to actually DO IT and PRACTICE. This is where my personal and career development goals kick in...

I was nominated and accepted to be a Diversity Ambassador for my work and my main responsibility is to provide internal and external presentations about the diversity efforts, programs, and potential within the company. I am one of two individual representing the IT department and there are a total of thirty Ambassadors. Once I become fully certified, I will need to make presentations regularly. I was hesitant to accept the nomination because I didn't want to speak in front of people at work. It wasn't until the last couple of hours of my acceptance window that I finally decided that I needed to challenge myself and face one of my biggest fears. Someone believed in me and I needed to learn to believe in myself too. I had to attend a series of quick courses on presenting and jotted down a few key points. Here is a link to my notes that you may find helpful: Presentation Tips.

I was at a work conference last weekend and I was really in awe of how well my CEO and the attending SVPs and guest speakers presented. It's easy to think that all these individuals were born with the skills to speak in front of a large audience, but they admitted that very few were good at presenting from the beginning. Here is where I go off on a small tangent... Seeing where they are in their careers now and understanding their dedication and hard work to get where they are was an eye-opening experience. We may not all have exactly what it takes to be a CEO no matter how hard we try, because there can only be so many... However, as long as we are realistic about what our potential is given our circumstances and environment, there is only one thing or person that can absolutely stop us on our path to personal success. US. If we decide that we cannot do something, we may not exert enough effort to be able to do it. If we decide that we don't want to do something, we may not do it at all. Our most immediate limitations are ourselves. Persistence and dedication will take us to the furthest point of success, while apathy and complacency leaves us at a standstill.

Challenge yourself to be better at something!