It doesn’t matter who you are, presenting in front of an audience is daunting.
Whether it’s a packed conference room, a virtual meeting, or even a small team discussion, the fear of stumbling over words or losing your audience’s attention holds many professionals back.
It’s not just nerves that can impact the effectiveness of a presentation though. Unclear messaging, distracting body language, or weak engagement can all contribute.
The good news is that presenting is a skill. Or, more accurately, a set of skills. And they can be refined with the right approach, structured practice, and strategic exercises.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step framework to improve your presentation skills, from self-reflection to goal-setting, practice strategies, and feedback loops.
We’ll also introduce six powerful exercises to fine-tune different aspects of your delivery, helping you present with clarity, confidence, and impact. Let’s get started!
How Can I Improve My Presentation Skills?
Becoming a skilled presenter doesn’t happen overnight. Like any professional skill, it requires self-awareness, deliberate practice, and a structured approach to improvement.
Furthermore, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to presenting. So it isn’t a simple case of saying “You must do X, Y and Z to improve”. In reality, your path to improvement will be tailored to you.
So with that in mind, we’ve outlined a general, step-by-step framework that you can follow below. Then, in the next section, we’ll take a look at five exercises that work on different aspects of presenting. Once you’ve been through the framework, you’ll hopefully find one or two useful exercises to develop your skill set.
Step 1: Self-Reflection
Begin by reflecting on your most recent presentations. It doesn’t matter whether they were formal or informal, whether it was to a large audience or your work team. Consider the following questions:
- Do I feel nervous before or during presentations?
- Is my voice clear, steady, and expressive?
- Do I struggle with body language or eye contact?
- Is my content structured clearly and logically?
- Is the audience engaged and keeping up?
- Do my slides or visual aids boost or detract from my message?
Jot down your thoughts and answers to these questions. Then, create two lists: what you do well and what needs improvement.
Be specific. Instead of just saying “My voice isn’t clear”, dig into the why. For example, “My voice isn’t clear because I’m speaking too quickly”. You could go deeper, too:
- “My voice isn’t clear because I’m speaking too quickly. I’m speaking too quickly because I’m nervous”.
- “My slides don’t enhance my message. They don’t enhance my message because they are too text-heavy.”
Step 2: Set Clear, Specific Goals
Now you have a better understanding of what to improve, it’s time to set a few goals.
Again, be specific. Use clear, focused targets, such as:
- “Reduce my use of fillers (e.g. “um”, “ah”, “like”, “you know”) by pausing instead.”
- “Include a relevant statistic in my opening to improve engagement.”
- “Reduce the amount of text on my slides to a bare minimum, keeping only the key takeaway points.”
- “Simplify the visualisation of data so it’s quicker and easier for my audience to process”
Step 3: Create An Improvement Plan
Your plan will look different based on your skills.
Most people struggle with the delivery of a presentation, whether it’s nerves, pacing, or eye contact. Fortunately, these are things you can easily improve with practice (we’ll provide a few exercises to try in the next section) so a plan will largely consist of an effective practice routine.
However, if your issue is with content, structure or engagement, your plan might focus on learning about the elements of presenting. You’ll then make sure to apply your findings to your next presentation.
Step 4: Constructive Feedback
Ask for feedback from trusted colleagues or mentors who can provide constructive criticism. Use this feedback to refine your goals and improvement plan.
Focus on actionable takeaways, such as:
- “You have great content, but you speak too fast.”
- “Your slides are engaging, but you need more eye contact.”
Step 5: Repeat
Presentation skills improve with repetition and real-world experience. So, apply your improved skills in real presentations, then periodically return to Step 1 to reassess (perhaps after each presentation).
This framework provides a roadmap for systematic improvement, regardless of which presentation skills you need to develop. In the next section, we’ll share six exercises that target different aspects of effective presenting.
6 Exercises To Improve Your Presentation Skills
Exercise 1: Mirror Practice
This exercise works on your body language, facial expressions, and visual presence.
It’s super simple too:
- Stand in front of a full-length mirror and deliver a 2-3 minute segment of your presentation.
- Pay close attention to your posture, hand gestures, and facial expressions.
- Practice making deliberate eye contact with yourself.
- Note any nervous habits like swaying, excessive hand movements, or tense facial expressions.
- Adjust your stance and expressions until you project confidence and authority.
Exercise 2: Record Yourself
Mirror practice is highly useful, quick and easy. But what feels exaggerated in the mirror often appears just right on camera.
So, for this exercise, you’ll video yourself and run through the recording:
- Set up your phone in a position to video yourself.
- Deliver your presentation in full.
- Watch the recording several times.
- Each time, focus on a different aspect of your presentation – from your delivery and pacing to your content and structure.
- Identify areas to improve.
- Repeat until you’re satisfied.
Pro tip: Play your recording on mute to focus solely on body language, then with audio only to assess your vocal tone and clarity.
Exercise 3: Cut The Filler
To a degree, everyone uses filler words. There’s no getting away from it – some studies even suggest they’re conditioned into us. However, we can control their usage better.
If you notice you use too many fillers, it’s likely a result of nerves, lack of preparation, speaking too fast, and being uncomfortable in silence.
We’ll discuss preparation in the next exercise. In this exercise, we want to focus on embracing pauses instead of using fillers.
Here’s an exercise that can help:
- Deliver a short talk on any topic (in private)
- As you talk, insert deliberate pauses of 2-3 seconds after key points and take a breath.
- At any point, if you catch yourself about to use a filler, pause instead.
Pro tip: Use the voice recorder on your phone to listen back. Count and note down the number of times you use a filler instead of a pause. Repeat the exercise and try to bring down the number of fillers on each attempt.
Exercise 4: Learn In Full
This one is simple. Learn your presentation in full. Know it inside out.
Know every line, every pause, every point, every rise and fall in your intonation.
Lack of preparation is the number one reason for a host of other presentation issues. If you don’t know the material, you’re more likely to be nervous, speak too quickly, use fillers, avoid eye contact, and so on.
I know what you’re thinking. How much should you practice in order to learn your presentation properly?
It depends on the presentation. If it’s a casual 5-10 minute presentation in a work meeting, running over it 3-5 times beforehand will probably be enough.
If it’s a public speaking engagement, the general rule of thumb is to practice your presentation for 30 hours.
Exercise 5: Create Stories
We’re hardwired to tell and remember stories, but we seem to forget this when it comes to a presentation – often focusing on data, stats and facts, which are dry and much harder to follow.
So, this exercise practices your ability to create a story:
- Select a key concept or piece of data from your presentation.
- Craft a 2-3 minute story that illustrates this concept without using any slides or visuals. Remember, good stories have an opening, middle, and end, and they follow a predictable pattern: a relatable scenario, a challenge, and a resolution.
You can practice this outside of work too. When people ask us about our lives, we often answer with something simple, like “Yes, work is good thanks”.
Instead, pick out something that’s happened to you recently, at work or elsewhere, and create a short story you can share.
Some people are natural storytellers who can do this without much thought, but others need to practice. And the more you practice, the better you’ll become. You’ll quickly learn what works and what doesn’t.
Exercise 6: The 60-To-30-Second Summary
This exercise will help you develop more concise messages and cut the fluff:
- Choose a topic. A recent news story to a project update will do.
- Record yourself explaining your chosen topic in no more than 60 seconds. You must include the main idea, the key details, and a strong finishing statement.
- Don’t speak too quickly to fit more in. Maintain an easy pace that anyone can follow. Use pauses.
- If it takes more than 60 seconds, keep practising.
- Once you can do it, try reducing your explanation to just 30 seconds (forcing you to get straight to the point).
Courses To Improve Your Presentation Skills
While self-practice is essential, professional training can significantly accelerate your development as a presenter. That’s where we come in.
At Powercall Global Training, we offer specialist courses designed to transform presenters at every skill level. So whether you’re a nervous beginner or an experienced speaker looking to refine your craft, we can help.
Presentation Skills Course
This course directly focuses on all elements of presenting. It can be delivered at our public training centre in London, or we can come to your office for a bespoke workshop.
- Length: 1-Day
- Best For: Professionals of all levels who regularly deliver (or wish to deliver) presentations in-person
Virtual Presentation Skills Course
This course focuses on presenting online, such as in a webinar. Due to the nature of a remote presentation, it requires a slightly different approach to presenting in-person.
Again, this course can be delivered at our public training centre in London, at your offices, or remotely via video call.
- Length: 1-Day
- Best For: Professionals of all levels who regularly deliver (or wish to deliver) virtual presentations
Summary
We hope you now feel more confident about presenting. Or, at the very least, you have an actionable plan for improving your presentation skills.
Of course, if you would like further help then we highly recommend attending one of our presentation skills training courses.
We provide interactive, practical sessions focused on real-life applications, with personalised coaching and feedback. Get in touch to learn more.
