Know yourself

Strengths

The training department of a Fortune 500 company has several full-time trainers on staff. They spend about 20 hours a week presenting in front of classes. They all have very different personality types. One is very serious and maintains a strict schedule during presentations. Another likes to follow tangents, and every one of his classes is different. A third is very outgoing and personable, and prefers to encourage class participation by tossing candy to class members who answer questions first. Each of these presenters has developed his or her unique style over the course of several years by refining, understanding their limitations, and maximizing their strengths.

Spend some time thinking about your strengths as a presenter. First, let's break down the possibilities a little more. Think about presentations you have given recently, and the areas where you think you really excelled. A few representative samples follow.

Subject Matter Expertise

This is what we could call credentials. If you invented the internet, and you are giving a presentation on the history of the internet, no one is going to question your expertise. People would line up out the door to hear you speak, just because you are one of the best sources of information on this topic. Most likely, your attendees would want to be able to take a USB cable to your brain and just download all the information that lies within.

Organizational skills

You may not have invented the internet, but you have studied it extensively and you have catalogued vast amounts of information about it. Your presentation is very well-organized and flows easily from one topic to the next. You have an agenda ready two weeks before the meeting and your attendees always leave feeling like they have accomplished everything they expected to.

Personality

Call it charisma. People like to attend your meetings simply because they enjoy hearing you talk. You are the rock star of the corporate world--you can turn a discussion of amortization tables into a party.

Voice

You could be a distant cousin of Barry White. Your voice is mellow, but it can be heard in every corner of the room and you know how to project properly so you don't blast people out of a small room or leave people in the back row leaning forward with a hand over their ears. You speak clearly, you enunciate well, and you never talk too fast.

Sense of humor

This is almost a corollary of personality. It's easy for you to make jokes when appropriate. People always laugh (in the good way) when you're giving a presentation, and the whole room starts to relax after you've been speaking for a few minutes.

Audience involvement

You are the presenter who throws candy to attendees for answering questions. You also find ways to make sure the other people in the room are sharing their ideas. You may feel uncomfortable speaking for extended periods of time, so you like to find ways to draw others into the conversation. This strength keeps your audience engaged and usually results in the exchange of a wider range of ideas. Most attendees leave your meetings feeling energized and confident that they have accomplished something, and that the meeting was a good use of time.

Think about the descriptions above. Where do you fit in? Are you extremely comfortable in front of a group of people? Do you always find creative ways to get attendees involved? You may have a good idea of what your own strengths are, but just for research purposes, consider asking your friends and coworkers what their perception is. You may be surprised what you hear. You might have strengths you never even acknowledged before.

Once you understand your strengths, make sure you plan important presentations to take advantage of what you do well. If you are great with audience involvement, try to find ways to shape your presentations so that you always have those kinds of opportunities.

On the flip side of this coin, however, you can't let your strengths become a crutch. To become a better presenter, you have to step outside your comfort zone and start building up your weaknesses, as well.