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27 presentation feedback examples for more engaging speakers.

Learning how to give a good presentation isn’t a talent, it’s a skill. And that means it takes time and repetition to get better at it. The same is true for giving feedback. 

If you’re a manager or leader, your feedback can help dramatically improve a presenter’s future performance and bolster their confidence.

Continuous improvement starts with consistent feedback. We compiled a list of presentation feedback examples to serve as a starting point for delivering feedback, whether it’s glowing or constructive.

While feedback may be part of your daily job, encourage your team to collect feedback proactively with this list of feedback survey templates that take the legwork out of gathering feedback.

Types of feedback

Feedback comes in two main forms: positive (also called reinforcing ) and constructive (or redirecting ). Because you’ll probably give some of each type in a presentation review, let’s look at the main differences and some examples of when to apply each.

Positive feedback  

What it is: Positive feedback focuses on what the presenter did right. It should:  

• Call attention to the speaker’s strengths
• Give specific examples of what worked well

When to give it: Give positive feedback about as many parts of the presentation as you can. While you don’t need to go line by line or slide by slide, call out specific moments that went well beyond what was expected or what is “good enough.”

Constructive feedback

What it is: Constructive feedback focuses on the areas that need improvement. As the name suggests, this type of feedback is about building up, not tearing down, so always include advice on how to avoid those issues in the next project.

This kind of feedback is about calling attention to the weaknesses of a particular presentation and not to the presenters themselves. 

When to give it: Give constructive feedback wherever it’s needed. If you see a problem across an entire presentation, give a few examples instead of calling out every instance. It can also help to ask the presenter questions about their thought process before sizing up their slides or speech so you can see where their knowledge gaps are. 

Positive presentation feedback 

Giving positive feedback on a presentation seems like it should be pretty easy — the presenter did a good job, right? But good feedback is about being specific. Instead of saying, “Great work!” tell the presenter about how well the content fit the audience, how their slides reinforced what they said, and how their body language and delivery helped drive home their points. 

Here are some examples of specific, positive feedback you can give to a presenter when they’ve really nailed it:

• The flow of your presentation made sense and helped the audience understand the depth of the topic.
• You went above and beyond with the research on this presentation. Your stats and figures really showed how prepared you were.
• Including slides about [subject] proved to the audience that you understood their viewpoints and concerns.
• Your icebreaker was great because it was attention-grabbing and helped you show off your authority. 
• Breaking down the complexity of the subject matter into smaller pieces went a long way in helping the audience understand a tricky topic.
• The real-life examples you used showed how relevant the topic is to your audience.
• The visuals you included on your slides were great — they helped illustrate your points and kept people paying attention.
• Good job including spots throughout the presentation where people could ask questions — that cleared up the confusion and helped the audience stay engaged .
• The way you spoke to the audience was professional but passionate and interesting.
• The way you concluded the presentation was excellent — it helped wrap things up while inviting the audience to learn more.
• Your overall attention to detail, from how you laid out your slides to how you spoke to the audience, made your presentation more powerful and memorable. 
• Great work not hiding behind the podium — your body language and posture showed everyone that you’re well informed and confident. 
• Including links to further reading on some of the more complex topics was a great idea, especially for people who aren’t as familiar with the topic.

Constructive presentation feedback

When giving feedback on a presentation that didn’t quite hit the mark, think about it as a way of helping the presenter get better for next time. Remember, the more specific and clear you are with your evaluation, the more the speaker can learn how to give a better presentation .

Here are some examples of constructive feedback you can use:

• Think about what will grab the audience’s attention right away, like a thought-provoking question or an interesting statistic, and lead with that. 
• I think it’s important to try to make eye contact with some of them. It’ll show them you’re talking directly to them and help you seem more confident.
• Work on speaking as clearly as you can and at a slower pace to help your audience keep up with you. Check out some resources online that can help you level up your public speaking skills .
• Try speaking at about half the speed you normally would, record it, and listen back. You’ll probably hear that you sound more confident and natural.
• Try including some time after certain parts of the presentation for the audience to ask questions. Or have a response for surprise questions — it’s okay to say you’ll be happy to take questions at the end.
• You might not have needed parts of the presentation for this audience. If you aren’t sure if you should leave something in, try learning more about who the audience is and where their base level of knowledge is. 
• I feel like the layout of your presentation was a little confusing because it moved back and forth between the general and the specific. Try starting very general and getting more and more specific. 
• While there may not be a perfect transition between all slides, you can include a sentence or two in your notes to help the audience understand that you’re shifting to a new topic.
• I think that using more real-world examples in your presentation will help your audience better understand the subject matter and show them the stakes of what you’re presenting.
• Including all the written information you did on your slides will be great for people looking at it later, but I feel like it might not have been as effective as including some more visuals.
• Using humor and GIFs in your slides can be a great way to connect with an audience, but make sure they aren’t overpowering the information. Maybe try using GIFs to help with transitions instead of placing them on informational slides.
• Explaining these concepts to a more general audience is always tough. It might help to give a little more context to help people with less firsthand knowledge grasp the big ideas.
• Your confidence and knowledge are great, but having a script or outline to keep you on track can shorten your presentation and help with pacing.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help before you present. I can give you feedback on a run-through before you do it in front of others. The extra practice can make the real deal easier.

What to look for when providing feedback

Even a simple, short presentation can give an evaluator a lot to digest, and it can be tough to give feedback if you don’t know where to start. These four categories will help guide you when you’re evaluating a presentation:

• Did the presenter understand who their audience was?
• Could the speaker give more or less context based on the audience?
• Did the speaker give the audience a chance to ask questions?
• Was the tone of the presentation appropriate for the audience?

Body language

• Was the presenter approachable?
• Was the presenter speaking clearly and at a good pace?
• Did the presenter make eye contact with the audience?
• Did the presenter hide from the audience, or did they show confidence?
• Did the presenter use appropriate nonverbal cues?
• Was the material clear and specific?
• Was the information relevant?
• Was the material easy to understand? 
• Did the presenter include real-world examples?
• Did the presenter include relevant visuals?
• Were the visuals easy to see and understand?
• Did the deck have too much text and not enough visuals (or vice versa)?
• Did the slides look professional?

Create a checklist or use these presentation evaluation examples to make tracking strengths and areas for improvement easier. 

Tips for giving effective presentation feedback

Just like presenting, giving feedback is a skill that takes practice to master. Because every presentation is different, the specific feedback you give will vary, but the following tips can give you a framework for organizing your thoughts and communicating constructive and positive responses to a presenter. 

• Give “feedback sandwiches” to presenters: A feedback sandwich begins with something positive, then something constructive, then another positive. This structure shows the presenter that you noticed what went well instead of focusing only on what wasn’t perfect.
• Give concrete and specific examples in your feedback: Use specific examples from the presentation when you’re giving constructive or positive feedback. 
• Use "I" statements when giving feedback: Even if you’re an expert in presenting, any feedback you give is still an opinion. Using phrases like “I think that…” or “I felt like…” shows the speaker that you aren’t making accusations.
• Use the information to make feedback more specific: Collecting comments from others can be a huge help when you’re coaching someone after a presentation. You can use Mentimeter to collect feedback from internal and external audiences to guide your response.
• Balance positive and constructive feedback: For most people, it helps to start with some positive feedback before jumping into constructive criticism. Telling the speaker about what they did well can give them the boost they need to work on improving.
• Focus on behavior, not personality: Don’t talk about how the presenter’s personality impacted their speech. Make your feedback about the actions they took as they presented. 
• Offer solutions or suggestions: Calling out everything someone did poorly without offering advice to get better results next time isn’t helpful. Remember that constructive feedback is about improvement, not punishment.
• Give feedback immediately: Details have a way of getting forgotten  over time. Prompt feedback means that the pros and cons of a presentation are fresh for you and the presenter.
• Think about where you deliver feedback: Most feedback, even positive feedback, is best done in a safe, private place. If the presenter feels comfortable, they’ll be more receptive to what you have to say.
• Ask the presenter for an opinion on their performance: Asking the presenter for their thoughts on the presentation, the audience, and the overall experience can show you what their strengths are and what they identify as areas for improvement. Tailor your feedback to those areas. 
• Call out the impact of the presentation: If something good happened because of a presentation, share it with the presenter. When they understand how their actions impact your team, it can help create lasting, positive change.
• Always follow up: When you give constructive feedback, include specific things the presenter should do to level up. Then, check in with them to see what kind of progress they’re making and if they need extra help. If you collected feedback about a speaker after a conference, share some wins!  

Keep improving with Mentimeter

Now that you have dozens of presentation feedback examples to reference, use Mentimeter to take your feedback a step further. You can find sample meeting agendas and presentation templates to help build better presentations and use the survey features to collect comments and critiques from presentations. 

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Blog > Effective Feedback for Presentations - digital with PowerPoint or with printable sheets

Effective Feedback for Presentations - digital with PowerPoint or with printable sheets

10.26.20   •  #powerpoint #feedback #presentation.

Do you know whether you are a good presenter or not? If you do, chances are it's because people have told you so - they've given you feedback. Getting other's opinions about your performance is something that's important for most aspects in life, especially professionally. However, today we're focusing on a specific aspect, which is (as you may have guessed from the title): presentations.

The importance of feedback

Take a minute to think about the first presentation you've given: what was it like? Was it perfect? Probably not. Practise makes perfect, and nobody does everything right in the beginning. Even if you're a natural at speaking and presenting, there is usually something to improve and to work on. And this is where feedback comes in - because how are you going to know what it is that you should improve? You can and should of course assess yourself after each and every presentation you give, as that is an important part of learning and improvement. The problem is that you yourself are not aware of all the things that you do well (or wrong) during your presentation. But your audience is! And that's why you should get audience feedback.

Qualities of good Feedback

Before we get into the different ways of how you can get feedback from your audience, let's briefly discuss what makes good feedback. P.S.: These do not just apply for presentations, but for any kind of feedback.

• Good feedback is constructive, not destructive. The person receiving feedback should feel empowered and inspired to work on their skills, not discouraged. You can of course criticize on an objective level, but mean and insulting comments have to be kept to yourself.
• Good feedback involves saying bot what has to be improved (if there is anything) and what is already good (there is almost always something!)
• After receiving good feedback, the recipient is aware of the steps he can and should take in order to improve.

Ways of receiving / giving Feedback after a Presentation

1. print a feedback form.

Let's start with a classic: the feedback / evaluation sheet. It contains several questions, these can be either open (aka "What did you like about the presentation?") or answered on a scale (e.g. from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree"). The second question format makes a lot of sense if you have a large audience, and it also makes it easy to get an overview of the results. That's why in our feedback forms (which you can download at the end of this post), you'll find mainly statements with scales. This has been a proven way for getting and giving valuable feedback efficiently for years. We do like the feedback form a lot, though you have to be aware that you'll need to invest some time to prepare, count up and analyse.

• ask specifically what you want to ask
• good overview of the results
• anonymous (people are likely to be more honest)
• easy to access: you can just download a feedback sheet online (ours, for example, which you'll find at the end of this blog post!)
• analysing the results can be time-consuming
• you have to print out the sheets, it takes preparation

2. Online: Get digital Feedback

In the year 2020, there's got to be a better way of giving feedback, right? There is, and you should definitely try it out! SlideLizard is a free PowerPoint extension that allows you to get your audience's feedback in the quickest and easiest way possible. You can of course customize the feedback question form to your specific needs and make sure you get exactly the kind of feedback you need. Click here to download SlideLizard right now, or scroll down to read some more about the tool.

• quick and easy to access
• easy and fast export, analysis and overview of feedback
• save feedback directly on your computer
• Participants need a working Internet connection (but that usually isn't a problem nowadays)

3. Verbal Feedback

"So, how did you like the presentation?", asks the lecturer. A few people in the audience nod friendly, one or two might even say something about how the slides were nice and the content interesting. Getting verbal feedback is hard, especially in big groups. If you really want to analyse and improve your presentation habits and skills, we recommend using one of the other methods. However, if you have no internet connection and forgot to bring your feedback sheets, asking for verbal feedback is still better than nothing.

• no prerequisites
• open format
• okay for small audiences
• not anonymous (people might not be honest)
• time consuming
• no detailed evaluation
• no way to save the feedback (except for your memory)
• not suitable for big audiences

Feedback to yourself - Self Assessment

I've mentioned before that it is incredibly important to not only let others tell you what went well and what didn't in your presentation. Your own impressions are of huge value, too. After each presentation you give, ask yourself the following questions (or better yet, write your answers down!):

• What went wrong (in my opinion)? What can I do in order to avoid this from happening next time?
• What went well? What was well received by the audience? What should I do more of?
• How was I feeling during this presentation? (Nervous? Confident? ...)

Tip: If you really want to actively work on your presentation skills, filming yourself while presenting and analysing the video after is a great way to go. You'll get a different view on the way you talk, move, and come across.

Digital Feedback with SlideLizard

Were you intrigued by the idea of easy Online-feedback? With SlideLizard your attendees can easily give you feedback directly with their Smartphone. After the presentation you can analyze the result in detail.

• type in your own feedback questions
• choose your rating scale: 1-5 points, 1-6 points, 1-5 stars or 1-6 stars;
• show your attendees an open text field and let them enter any text they want

Note: SlideLizard is amazing for giving and receiving feedback, but it's definitely not the only thing it's great for. Once you download the extension, you get access to the most amazing tools - most importantly, live polls and quizzes, live Q&A sessions, attendee note taking, content and slide sharing, and presentation analytics. And the best thing about all this? You can get it for free, and it is really easy to use, as it is directly integrated in PowerPoint! Click here to discover more about SlideLizard.

Free Download: Printable Feedback Sheets for Business or School Presentations

If you'd rather stick with the good old paper-and-pen method, that's okay, too. You can choose between one of our two feedback sheet templates: there is one tailored to business presentations and seminars, and one that is created specifically for teachers assessing their students. Both forms can be downloaded as a Word, Excel, or pdf file. A lot of thought has gone into both of the forms, so you can benefit as much as possible; however, if you feel like you need to change some questions in order to better suit your needs, feel free to do so!

Feedback form for business

Template as PDF, Word & Excel - perfect for seminars, trainings,...

Feedback form for teachers (school or university)

Template as PDF, Word & Excel - perfect for school or university,...

Where can I find a free feedback form for presentations?

There are many templates available online. We designed two exclusive, free-to-download feedback sheets, which you can get in our blog article

What's the best way to get feedback for presentations?

You can get feedback on your presentations by using feedback sheets, asking for feedback verbally, or, the easiest and fastest option: get digital feedback with an online tool

Related articles

About the author.

Pia Lehner-Mittermaier

Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.

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The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

Co-located audience.

Co-located Audience means that the speaker talks to the audience in person. It is used verbal and non-verbal methods to communicate a message. The speaker makes gestures with their hands, changes their face expression and shows images.

Keynote is a programme which, like PowerPoint, is used to create digital screen presentations. It is mainly used by Apple users.

External Communication

External communication is the exchange of information between two organisations. For example, it can be an exchange with customers, clients or traders. Feedback from a customer also counts as external communication.

PowerPoint Online

PowerPoint Online is the web version of PowerPoint. You can present and edit your PowerPoint presentation with it, without having PowerPoint installed on your computer. It's only necessary to have a Microsoft - or a Microsoft 365 account.

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• J Grad Med Educ
• v.13(2); 2021 Apr

Effective Presentation of Your Evaluation Results: What, So What, Now What

Janet m. riddle.

Janet M. Riddle, MD, is Research Assistant and Professor of Medical Education, University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine, and Associate Editor, Journal of Graduate Medical Education ( JGME )

Dorene F. Balmer

Dorene F. Balmer, PhD, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Deborah Simpson

Deborah Simpson, PhD, is Director of Education, Academic Affairs Advocate Aurora Health, Adjunct Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and Medical College of Wisconsin, and Deputy Editor, JGME

The Challenge

Your program evaluation team has completed its evaluation of a comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) workshop series for program residents and faculty. The workshops were designed to foster dialogue about DEI and build skillsets, including ways to address microaggressions. You are now scheduled to preview the evaluation results individually with your program director and your vice chair for DEI, and then present the full report at the next combined resident/fellow and faculty meeting. As each of these stakeholders have different perspectives and their availability to meet varies from 15 to 45 minutes, the challenge is how to approach presenting the evaluation results to each of these groups.

Rip Out Action Items

Reporting the results of a program evaluation must explicitly consider how to:

• Align the results with the original evaluation questions and stakeholders' inputs.
• Make it actionable: evaluations are conducted to inform decisions.
• Adapt report to stakeholder audience and present using multiple formats and media.
• Follow up to ascertain changes associated with evaluation.

What Is Known

Systematically designed evaluations yield information about the value of a program, project, or initiative to inform key stakeholders' decisions regarding the program (eg, continuation, revision, expansion). Typically, evaluation reports include the results of the evaluation (“What”), interpretation of results (“So What”), and recommendations for continuing and improving the educational activity (“Now What”). How evaluation findings are communicated directly influences how stakeholders understand and react to the data and ultimately their decisions. Evaluators use both comprehensive reports and targeted presentations to address stakeholders' information needs—evidence that matters to them. Targeted presentations can be as short as an “elevator pitch” or as involved as a visual abstract. 1 Using data visualizations (graphic or pictorial formats) for quantitative results (graphs, pie charts, diagrams) enables decision-makers to quickly grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns. 2 Qualitative data can be effectively presented through word clouds, photos, and quotations.

How You Can Start TODAY

• What: Return to your evaluation questions and evaluation standards. Use the questions generated by key stakeholders to organize your presentation. Consider framing the results by levels of data (reaction, learning, behavior, results). Highlight the key findings for all groups then focus on areas by stakeholder interest. Make sure your findings are accurate and your recommendations are useful; demonstrate integrity by differentiating results from opinion.

A Visual Abstract

• Now What: Reinforce use of evaluation results. Seek to present the findings in multiple forums to reinforce messages. Identify who needs or wants to see or hear the evaluation findings. Consider existing forums, such as regularly occurring meetings (eg, residency curriculum committee, clinical competency committee, graduate medical education council) and new forums.
• So What: Make your report actionable. Make sure recommendations are relevant, useful, aligned with stakeholder values, and actionable.

What You Can Do LONG TERM

• What: Maintain an evaluation master file. Include all the various presentations and reports your team has created. Consider using your evaluation findings to populate the annual program evaluation or self-study, and sponsoring institution's documents.
• So What: Revisit your evaluation report in a year. Check the utility of your evaluation by stakeholder groups. Was there action taken based on the report? Were your recommendations followed?
• Now What: Consider disseminating your evaluation as scholarship. Your evaluation results might contribute to a larger conversation about learning in graduate medical education. Learn about how program evaluations are best presented 4 or consult with an evaluation expert.

6 Ways You Can Evaluate Your Own Presentation

Hrideep barot.

• Body Language & Delivery , Presentation , Public Speaking

Naturally, giving a presentation is a skill that falls on the professional side of the spectrum. It involves a lot of formality along with practice to get good at it. 

But how do you decide what exactly it is that you need to work on? Read on to find out about six ways to evaluate your presentation skills.

Evaluating your presentation requires the ability to analyze your performance based on some very specific criteria related to delivery and content. More importantly, you must do it in an objective sense, without letting your self-bias come in the way.

Importance and benefits of evaluating your presentations yourself

Public speaking requires skills that are developed over time. Whether you’re a pro at it or a beginner, there is always room to grow because people have a varying set of abilities. 

Presentations are all about influence. You aim to create a dynamic with your audience so they buy into whatever it is that you’re trying to convey. 

And if you keep innovating your techniques and find your strength (which all comes with self-evaluating), you’ll essentially be enhancing your power to influence. 

In addition to that, it makes you a better presenter. The lack of being told what to do by someone else gives you a sense of self-confidence and patience. 

Additionally, you being a good presenter would mean more successful meetings, which in turn means you’d profit your business.

Basically, the better your presentation, the more likely are your chances to successfully fulfill your agenda. So grab a paper and a pen and embark upon your journey of getting better!

What criteria do I need to follow for evaluation?

Let’s address the skills we need for pulling off a good presentation.

Quality of content

• Engagement with audience
• Visual aids
• Focusing on strengths. 

Based on these categories, you need to form criteria to test yourself. Think of it like setting a frame of reference for yourself, placing yourself on a scale ranging between good and bad would help you track your progress. 

Following are the pointers you need to keep in mind while evaluating your presentation skills-

The two most things to keep in mind about structure is that you need to have a very intriguing start to your presentation, something that hooks the audience. (an anecdote, perhaps)

Secondly, make sure your ending is clear and in alignment with the purpose of the presentation. And include a call to action. For example, if your presentation is about mental health awareness, make sure one of your end slides has a comprehensive contact list of psychologists/therapists. 

Apart from that, the transitions between your pointers have to be smooth. Try adding segues (which is basically building context for your next point) In the previous example, a personal anecdote involving someone with depression can be a good segue to talk about the importance of mental health. 

If you’re new to structuring content or making presentations, here’s an article of ours that might help- The Ultimate Guide to Structuring a Speech

Delivery is everything. From gestures to hand movements, your body language must emphasize CONVEYING something. 

When you say something especially important, there must be some emphasis on part of your delivery. Like slowing your speech, or knocking the table, or repetition of the point, etc. 

There should be some sort of continuity to your narrative, the ‘flow’ must come naturally. This can be done using the smooth transition technique mentioned above. 

Adding a story-like quality to your speech might help. (having proper segregation between the beginning, middle, and end)

You cannot be providing generic content. Always remember, in presentations, quality surpasses quantity. 

Rambling about your topic on and on would not only bore your audience but also hinder the aforementioned flow and transitions that are so important. 

You need to make sure you’re adding something of value that is unique to you, and not general. You may refer to our article that might help further with this- Should a Presentation Have an Agenda?

Engagement with the audience

Your content must always be altered according to your audience. Knowing your audience is a very crucial step. You cannot say the same things in front of an MNC board meeting members as you would in front of a bunch of college students.

Knowing your audience helps you decide your content, flow, transition, practically everything. 

Also, engagement with the audience means the interaction that takes place between you and them. You need to appear approachable for them to talk to you. 

But at the same time, you need to prepare yourself in advance to be able to answer the questions that might come your way. A little prediction here and there can save you a lot of anxiety. 

Visual Aids

Visual aids during a presentation include everything from the design and arrangement of content in your presentation to your appearance. (But mostly the former)

Now when it comes to visual aids in a PPT, there is no better advice than the 5 by 5 rule.

The Powerpoint 5×5 slide rule states that-

a. Each of your slides should have no more than 5 lines.

b. Each of those lines should have no more than 5 words.

It ensures keeping your content crisp and to the point. A tip to apply this rule would be to not focus on including the main content in the ppt. Instead, write only pointers and elaborate on them yourself.

This way, you prevent your audience from getting too caught up in reading the slides hence getting distracted from you. 

How exactly do I evaluate my presentation?

Here are the six-pointers that will guide you through it step-by-step.

Identify patterns

Keeping in mind the above-mentioned pointers, start looking for what you’re doing wrong.

Is there something that you repetitively keep doing wrong? Maybe the topics you choose aren’t relevant, maybe you use too much text in slides, maybe you don’t captivate your audience by raising vocals, maybe you don’t move enough. 

There are always patterns. You need to develop attention to detail. 

Focus on the audience

Your audience engagement can make or break the deal. While you’re presenting, make sure you make eye contact with as many people as you can. And keep an eye out for people’s reactions. It helps you get real-time feedback. 

Now there’s a chance this might not work and you get distracted or disheartened. In which case, drop this tactic. Nothing is worth blowing your confidence down during the presentation. 

Take feedback

Part of the reward for good audience engagement is honest feedback. If people like your content but find your delivery a little off, if you engage well with them, they will be a little more open to bringing it to your attention.

Maybe to make it a little more certain, announce at the end that you’re open to constructive criticism. It also adds to the impression you make. People find people who are willing to admit their flaws, admirable. 

Make sure you maintain a record of your progress, right from making those criteria scales to your speeches through successive presentations. You could do it on paper or a device, whatever is more comfortable. 

Make notes about what you need to work on right after presentations, and tick them off when you do in the next ones. It brings along a sense of accomplishment. 

In reference to keeping track of practicing, you may check out our 13 Tips For Rehearsing A Presentation

Objective set of eyes

Ask a friend or a colleague to give you honest advice. Truth is, no matter what, your clients would always be skeptical of telling you what’s wrong. And there’s only so much you would criticize about yourself.

Asking someone you trust can help you get a fresh perspective on your progress since we get a little over in our heads sometimes. 

Use your strengths and weaknesses

After having acquainted yourself with this whole system of evaluation, it is no doubt you’d be very aware of your strong and weak points. It is a good thing. 

Honestly, there could always be some little things here and there that we cannot wrap our heads around, and that’s okay. Because we also have our strengths to cover up for them.

For example, you could be a little off with a smooth transition between subpoints, but if you drop a super-strong call to action, in the end, it gets compensated. 

And the best part is, only you can use them to your benefit since you’re the only one who knows about them!

Additionally, watching content related to your topic can be of massive help too. For example, if your speech is on mental health , then maybe watching a TEDTalk by a mental health professional can add on to the authenticity of your content.

To go that extra mile, you could also record yourself while giving the speech in front of a camera and review the recording to see where exactly you went wrong. Sometimes, watching your presentation from the audience’s perspective gives you a peak into what they see, and consequently, allows you to have a bigger impact on them.

Here’s a checklist to keep in mind while self-evaluating:

Print the checklist out for easy accessibility, mark yes or no after every presentation to keep track of your progress.

Practical Tools to use for self-evaluation

Feedback forms.

Feedback from your audience is important, as stated before. However, you can’t store all of the verbal feedback in your brain, let alone use it for self-evaluation later. Moreover, sometimes the audience might be vague with how they respond and that is unhelpful.

What you can do, instead, is devise a feedback form enlisting specific questions, the answers to which would be relevant for your purpose. This not only lifts the burden of remembering all you heard after presenting, but also eliminates unnecessary jargon from the audience.

Self-reflection

Self-reflection is the most important part of this process. Now, this does not only involve you going to the feedback forms but also reviewing specific areas that you need extra work on. You can make a categorized list or a scale of easily ‘fixable issues’ to issues that need relatively more practice and work.

If there is an issue that you don’t seem to be able to work around, another form of self-reflection you can do is record yourself. As mentioned before, use the camera and present as you would in the conference room. Looking at a tape of yourself after presenting(as opposed to while presenting in front of the mirror), can help you detect what’s wrong in a better way. Plus, it helps you check body language.

Presentation rubrics are one of the handiest tools you can use for evaluation. It is a specific set of criteria that sets qualitative standards for the things/skills you need to have in your presentation to qualify as a good one.

For example, For a college research paper, the categories of criteria would be creativity, research element, use of sources and references, innovative aspects, etc. These categories would then be assessed on a scale of good to excellent or 1 to 5 and be marked accordingly.

It provides a quantified version of assessment which helps tremendously to analyze where specifically, and how much do you need to work on.

Apart from this, if you’re a techno-savvy person who is not inclined to write with a journal to keep track or implicate any of the other tools, worry not! We happen to have just the thing to help you! In today’s technology and smart phone driven world where most things are online, we can do self-evaluation up there too!

Here is a detailed and comprehensive article about 34 Best Smartphone Apps for Presenters and Professional Speakers that will guide you through that process.

Well, with all these tools and techniques, you’re all set to begin your self-evaluation! Remember, different techniques work for different people. It’s all a matter of trial and error. Some patience and practice can take you a long way to become the presenter you aspire to be.

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Giving Effective Presentations: 50 Things to Consider (with evaluation rubric)

Effective presentations require that you put a good deal of thought into how your audience will react to every component of your presentation. While an engaging personality or an intriguing subject matter will help, you can make any topic work well if you follow several key guidelines, divided into nine areas: Audience Adaptation ; Opening ; Organization ; Content & Ethos ; Storytelling ; Visual Display ; Delivery ; Team Interplay ; and Conclusion .

Review this evaluation checklist to make sure you’ve covered all the important areas for giving an effective presentation. Descriptions of each of the 50 components are listed below.

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Audience Adaptation

Adapting to your audience is, above all else, the most important thing you must consider. Make sure you think about what they care about (not what you find interesting), what they’ll expect to hear, what they don’t already understand (and what they do), and so forth. If you don’t know your audience before going into a presentation, research them. Ask questions. The more you know about them, the better you can prepare for them.

Use appropriate tone:  Just like you speak differently with your friends than you likely do with your mother, you’ll want to change the way you speak to one audience over another. Ask yourself: What level of formality is appropriate? Should I attempt humor? (In most cases, unless you  know  you’re funny, you may want to avoid attempting to be in order to steer clear of awkwardness if a joke doesn’t go well.) Will my audience be relaxed, tense, or bored? How can I adapt to that?

Use appropriate jargon & acronyms:  Every audience will have a certain level of understanding of your subject matter prior to seeing you present. It’s critically important that you understand what specific terms they know and don’t know so that you don’t use words or acronyms that are confusing to them. If you use industry-specific jargon or acronyms, make sure your audience knows them in advance. If they don’t, define the terms for them.

Make topic relevant to audience:  Make sure that your audience will care about your topic. Sometimes you’ll present information to your boss because he asked you to. In this case, the topic will probably automatically be relevant. But in other cases, your audience may be there because they have to be for work, or they may be there to learn more information but may not fully understand what they’re about to learn. Make sure, regardless of what the situation is, that you tailor the message to the audience’s situation and make them care about the topic.

Knowledge of subject matter appropriate for audience:  Present depth of knowledge at the level your audience can understand. If you’re a chemistry professor speaking about nutrition to pharmaceutical researchers, your depth of explanation will be quite different than if you’re speaking to college freshmen about nutrition. Two things are important here: if your audience knows a lot about your topic going in, don’t patronize or bore them by telling them things they already know. If they don’t know much about the topic, be clear and detailed to make sure they’re on the same page as you and start from a common ground they can relate to.

Your opening is key to engaging your audience right from the beginning. If you bore them up front, you may have lost them for good.

Start with Strong attention-grabber:  Attention grabbers can come in may forms. Some of the most common include telling stories; sharing fascinating quotes; giving alarming or surprising statistics; asking your audience a question; telling a joke (but only if it’s both relevant  and  funny); creating an imaginary scenario (“imagine you’re stuck on an island…”); surprising your audience; or giving a demonstration or object lesson. Regardless of what you choose, make it relevant, make it pithy, and make it work for your audience. Do the attention-grabber well, and you’ll be on pace to keep you audience engaged the entire time.

Make Your Topic Clear:  There should be no question in your audience’s mind, even just a couple minutes into it, where you are headed with the presentation. State your topic, address the issues, and make it relevant.

Make Your Topic Interesting:  Interest comes with relevancy and what we call “exigency.” Make your audience care by letting them know how your topic affects them. Give the facts, stories, anecdotes, issues, etc. that will intrigue and interest them.

Forecast a clear direction for presentation:  At the end of your opening, tell the audience what to expect. What are you going to cover? Create a clear road map so that they know what to expect and so that they know where you’re at in the middle of the presentation.

Organization is key to keeping your audience fully engaged for the entire presentation. As soon as you veer off track somewhere, you begin to lose the attention of your audience.

Follow the Road Map:  In your introduction, you gave your audience the road map. Now be sure that you follow it in the order that you said you would. Stick to the plan from start to finish.

Include Frequent Transitions & Signposts:  Transitions are statements that connect a previous section or idea of your presentation to the next section or idea. Use words and phrases that link the two so that there is a clear connection between ideas and so that audiences can sense a progression. A “signpost” is a kind of transition. It’s a word or phrase that reminds the audience where you are in the presentation. You might connect a dot, remind the audience where you are, or let them know what’s coming next.

Progress towards Finish:  Just like in any good movie, there needs to be a sort of plot building at all times. You’ll want to always be building towards a finish, with each piece of your presentation moving you towards some kind of conclusion. Remember that all good communications should have a beginning, middle, and end. Be sure that each component of the middle progresses towards a clear and meaningful end.

Provide Summary(ies) of Main Points:  If your presentation goes beyond 10 or 15 minutes, it may be helpful to occasionally remind your audience what’s been said. Help your audience understand, at every step along the way, what is happening and what the information or data means.

Connect Loose Dots:  If you begin a story or anecdote, be sure to tell the ending at some point. If you provide interesting data, make sure you let the audience know what it means. If you’re leading towards a recommendation, be sure that the recommendation is based on research or evidence you just suggested. Don’t leave your audience hanging in any capacity.

Content & Ethos

Ethos refers to your credibility. In order for an audience to fully appreciate and follow your arguments and positions, you must show that you are knowledgeable of the subject matter and that the information you are presenting is founded on something that your audience can agree is good supporting evidence.

Use Only Persuasive Argumentation:  Avoid presenting an argument with gaps or holes. You may wish to study the  logical fallacies for more insight on where arguments can go wrong. When you make a statement, make sure you qualify it and provide appropriate support.

Conduct Sound Research:  As you know and understand your audience, you should know what they will consider valuable and worthwhile research for your type of presentation. Generally speaking, you want to build your argument based on a variety of sources. You might provide case studies, survey data, secondary research (information from books, journals, etc.), observations, testimonials, expert endorsement, or something else. Regardless, you must convince your audience that you’ve done your due diligence.

Include Only Relevant Material:  While this may seem obvious, don’t present material that isn’t directly relevant to your key points. Don’t get distracted and stick to your organizational plan. Make sure all content has a purpose and that it leads towards that strong conclusion.

Provide Convincing Analyses and Conclusions:  Show your audience how much you know about the subject matter by giving them clear, logical analyses of your data and draw conclusions that come directly from your data. Avoid drawing conclusions that come from personal opinion, but rather focus on what your research and data suggest.

Pertinent Data and Evidence:  Be sure that all of you data and evidence is directly related to your overall message. Don’t pull in facts simply because you find them interesting. Again, all content needs to build or progress towards something. Don’t get sidetracked with tangentially related data.

Storytelling

All good presentations–no matter for business, school, clubs, or church–are better when stories are told. Human beings have a natural inclination for stories. People want to know how stories end. Make stories work for your presentation by describing people (characters), situations (settings), problems, climaxes, and resolutions. All presentations should have at least one story, but you may incorporate many more.

Read: How to Organize a Paper: The Narrative Format

Tell Stories with Purpose:  Don’t tell stories just to tell stories, but make connections between what you are telling your audience with a real example.

Tell Realistic Stories:  You don’t want your audience to think you made the story up or that it’s exaggerated. Provide enough appropriate detail so that your audience can believe what you’re telling them is not only true, but its possible, likely, or directly relevant to them.

Tell Stories with   Cl early Described Characters:  Make sure your audience knows who the people are and why they matter to the story.

Be Sure to Have a Conflict:  Stories don’t need to be complicated or extraordinary to be good. But they should have a conflict (which leads to the purpose for telling the story.) There must always be some issue that needs to be resolved.

Don’t Forget the Resolution:  When you start a story of any kind, make sure that you let your audience know how it turned out.

Tell Only Relevant Stories:  Avoid getting sidetracked or on a tangent. All stories should have a clear purpose and should lead the audience towards your conclusions and arguments.

Perhaps the single greatest complaint in the history of presentations is that PowerPoint slides have too much text. Use your slide deck platform to create visually stunning, supportive visuals. Visuals should always complement (not distract or supersede) a presentation’s message. But images are almost always better than text when on the screen.

Be Simple:  Make slide designs simple. As Leonardo da Vinci famously said: simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. White background with black text is a great choice. Avoid fancy or distracting backgrounds or other visual noise. Keep the design simple, giving focus to the key elements.

Be Clear:  Be sure that your images or graphics have a clear purpose. If you’re showing data in chart or graph, explain the graph. Don’t talk about something else while hoping your audience will read all the numbers and draw conclusions. Point them to what they should learn from the graph.

Use Minimal (if any) Text:  People don’t remember text very well and they don’t remember what they hear very well…unless there’s a picture attached to what they hear. Use pictures to supplement and enhance what you are saying. Avoid as much text as is possible. Oftentimes, it’s better on a slide to not use any text at all–just give the audience a picture that supports what you are saying.

Only Use Relevant of Images:  While this may seem obvious, may novice presenters like to include clipart or other non-essential images simply to “pretty up” the presentation. Inserting images just to insert images is not only distracting, it’s tacky. Make all images worthwhile to your audience. If there is absolutely nothing interesting to show your audience when talking about something (that would be rare), use a blank slide. But don’t put in louse images.

Create Effective Charts, Graphs, and Animations:  Make sure the graphs are readable for everyone in the audience. Use large text and clearly understandable colors, sizes, and so forth. Always be sure to talk about visualized data on the screen. Don’t expect your audience to have the patience (especially while you are speaking about something else) to read or interpret the data on their own.

Make Visuals Readable:  Whatever your visual is, be sure it’s big enough for your audience to interpret it without trouble. No small data points, no pixelated graphics or photos, no tiny lines on graphs.

Color Scheme:  Keep colors simple and minimal. Use black text in most cases on a white background. Make sure contrast is always high. Be careful of yellows and oranges as they are often hard to read and they don’t project well on a screen.

Choose Good Typefaces:  The font you choose matters. It gives the entire document a personality. Make sure all fonts are readable (no script or crazy decorative fonts) and big. Avoid default fonts like Calibri or Times New Roman and definitely avoid cliche fonts like Comic Sans and Papyrus.

Delivery is about the way you look as an individual to an audience. It’s about you being articulate, clear, confident, approachable, and everything else. If you content is awesome but your delivery is bad, the presentation won’t have the effect you want.

Make Eye Contact:  Look at people in the eyes. Look all around the room–don’t get stuck looking at the same person or group of people more than everyone else in the room.

Smile and Show Enthusiasm:  Practice so that you’re less nervous and present with a smile and/or enthusiasm about what you’re talking about. No monotone voices, no bored expressions.

Move Naturally:  Avoid unnatural nervous ticks, like swaying, shifting hips, playing with hair, pacing, playing with clothing, etc. Most people have some weird habit when presenting in front of people. Learn what yours is and stop doing it.

Project a Loud, Articulate Voice:  Make sure everyone in the audience can hear you. No quiet talking or trailing off. Avoid filler words like “um” or “like” or “uh.”

Change Vocal Intonation:  Move your voice higher and lower. Act as if you would talking to a friend. Be excited, engaged, and change the sound of your voice so that it does become monotonous.

Have Good Posture:  Show confidence and professionalism by stranding straight, facing the audience. Don’t look at the computer screen, don’t lean on a table, don’t slouch, don’t put your hands in your pocket.

Exhibit Confidence:  Easier said than done, right? Just be sure to talk slowly (so you don’t seem nervous), smile, take deep breaths, and be passionate. When you look nervous, your credibility drops.

Speak Slowly:  Many nervous or excited speakers get going to fast. Speak at a slow pace so that your audience can process what you are saying, especially when you’re talking about complex subjects or you’re explaining research or data.

Dress Appropriately:  Know what your audience will be wearing and dress at a level just up from them. Know if the situation requires formality or not. Avoid distracting or revealing clothing. Women, you must be especially careful with this as revealing or low-cut clothing can be more distracting on an audience than typical business clothing for men.

Show Poise:  Things don’t always go well. You might forget something or your PowerPoint may not work or you may trip on a cord. Just relax and show poise. If you’re calm, your audience will be calm with you. If you freak out, your audience will get really uncomfortable and your credibility will be shot.

Team Interplay

If you’re presenting with a team of people, there are a few extra delivery considerations.

Introduce All Presenters:  Make sure the audience knows everyone participating in the presentation. Describe their role to the audience so that there’s no confusion.   Interact and Engage with Each Other:  While presenting, talk about each other and let the audience know throughout that you worked together. Don’t hesitate to use each other’s names and say things like “Thanks, Mike, for the details on….” and “As Tiffany just mentioned…” Avoid just dividing up the time of the presentation by presenters (don’t just say, “you take the first five minutes, I’ll do the next five, and you conclude.”) Rather, go back and forth between the content of the presentation.

Have Clear Roles & Responsibilities:  Make sure you each have a valuable part to play in the presentation. If it’s awkward or your have too many people, consider removing people without clear roles from the presentation. When you’re not speaking, be sure to be out of the way of other speakers.

Utilize Each Other’s Strengths:  Know what each person is good at or most knowledgeable in and let them present that. Sometimes, if a person on a team isn’t great at presenting, but they’re good at designing or organizing, they may play a different role in the team presentation.

Always have a conclusion. There’s an old mantra in public speaking: Tell them what you’re going to tell them (introduction forecast). Then tell them (middle). Then tell them what you just told them (conclusion summary). Summarize Presentation:  Remind your audience of the key points and conclusions drawn. Wrap up any loose ends and make your point clear.

Have a Clear and Obvious End:  There’s nothing more awkward for you or your audience than them not knowing when to clap. Be sure you lead towards an end with a clear finishing statement. Avoid just stopping and saying things like, “K, that’s it. Any questions?”

Finish Strong:  Leave the audience with something to think about. Maybe tell a final story or give a powerful statistic or quote. Regardless, don’t just end without thinking through a really strong, pithy statement to leave your audience with.

• ← The Periodic Table of Punctuation
• How to Write a Creative Brief →

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How to Evaluate an Oral Presentation

How to Write a Speech Review

Evaluating an oral presentation is not difficult, because every oral presentation has key components that are crucial for the success of the presentation. Just consider the important factors such as confidence, quality, clarity and organization. Not sure exactly how to go about doing this? Read on and learn exactly how to analyze these important factors and come up with the most accurate evaluation possible.

Determine the confidence of the speaker. The speaker should be comfortable and easily connect with the audience. If a speaker acts uncomfortable or nervous, the presentation is not going well. However, if the speaker easily makes eye contact, invites audience participation and puts the audience at ease, this aspect of the presentation is a success.

Determine the quality of the information presented. The speaker should provide enough details to support the point of the presentation but not too many unnecessary details that may confuse or bore the audience.

Determine the level of clarity. The speaker should be easily able to convey the point he is trying to make. Vocabulary should be easy to understand, and all words should be spoken in a clear and fluent manner.

Determine the level of organization. Every presentation should have some sort of structure and organization, whether formal or informal. Simple things such as making sure there is a proper introduction and conclusion can go a long way in making the presentation a success.

• Creating a rubric based on the information in this article might be a useful tool when evaluating oral presentation.
• Don't forget about volume! A speaker could have all of the other aspects of a proper presentation, but it would all be in vain if no one was able to hear it. Make sure the entire audience is able to hear the speaker at all times.

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• Oral Presentation Rubic

Elizabeth Wolfenden has been a professional freelance writer since 2005 with articles published on a variety of blogs and websites. She specializes in the areas of nutrition, health, psychology, mental health and education. Wolfenden holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a master's degree in counseling from Oakland University.

Home Blog Business How to Write and Present a Performance Review

How to Write and Present a Performance Review

The performance review, as a crucial part of performance management, is one of the dreaded exercises of both managers and team members. However, it doesn’t have to be an intimidating, negative situation. In fact, a manager performance review tip by Harvard Business Review is to pointedly keep the conversation positive. By focusing on successes and opportunities for growth, managers can turn the employee performance review into a constructive experience that benefits everyone in the end.

What is Performance Management

Before we approach performance review examples, it’s necessary to establish some definitions to make sure we’re on the same page.

According to UC Berkeley’s Guide to Managing Human Resources, “Performance management is an ongoing process of communication between a supervisor and an employee that occurs throughout the year, in support of accomplishing the strategic objectives of the organization.”

Notice that performance management is more than a performance annual review. The performance evaluation is one component found in many performance management frameworks. In fact, UC Berkeley goes on to specify that the process “includes clarifying expectations, setting objectives, identifying goals, providing feedback, and reviewing results.”

By the time managers sit down for the performance review process, they will ideally have already been participating in this ongoing communication method. It will lead to much more valuable results than only engaging in the feedback part of the process.

Types of Performance Management Frameworks

Following are three examples of common performance management frameworks.

The Arm­strong Per­for­mance Man­age­ment Cycle

Michael Armstrong , former Chief Examiner of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, established a performance management framework that many human resources professionals abide by. The Armstrong Performance Management Cycle is a continuous process of improving performance. This is achieved by establishing individual and team goals, working towards the goals, evaluating progress, and developing skills. As seen in the name of this management framework, this process repeats constantly throughout a team or individual’s career at the organization.

Agile Con­tin­u­ous Per­for­mance Management

Another performance management framework example is the agile continuous performance management. What makes the agile performance management system valuable is it’s focus on being continual and holistic. Feedback, which is called “check-ins” under this framework, is given frequently, making it feel more natural for all involved. With ongoing, positive performance management, managers and employees can develop authentic workplace relationships based on the performance improvement and transparency.

International Labor Organization’s Revised Performance Management Framework

The International Labor Organization’s system for managing performance aims to be a flexible process that can be applied to individuals or teams in many different fields and industries. It is also a continuous, comprehensive performance management framework. This cycle is divided into four parts, each focusing on dialogue and constructive feedback. One of the unique features of this management system is the inclusion of feedback from employee to leader.

What is a Performance Review?

The component featured in essentially all performance management frameworks is the giving of feedback. This usually presents itself in the form of a performance review. Other names for the performance review are performance evaluation or performance assessment. As opposed to informal or casual feedback, the performance review is a formal appraisal of an employee and their work during an established time period.

While there are dozens of employee review templates out there, most evaluate overall performance, an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. Many managers and HR professionals use this regularly scheduled evaluation to set goals, as well.

Performance review templates will vary based on who is assessing whom. Common types of performance reviews include the traditional assessment where a manager evaluates an employee’s performance, the self assessment, team assessment, and leader assessment. Different performance management frameworks will involve a combination of these four.

Employee Assessment

This top-down performance review is usually performed by a direct manager or HR manager. This evaluation is useful for establishing the value of an employee with examples of their performance to back it up. Often the employee assessment is conducted together with a self assessment.

Self Assessment

The self assessment component of a performance review is a helpful opportunity for individuals to reflect upon themselves with regards to their strengths and weaknesses. In order to turn the self assessment into a productive introspection, employees should also consider what they think they can do to improve and grow.

When conducted alongside an employee assessment, answers can be compared to see if managers and employees are on the same page. Any discrepancies can be analyzed and addressed, in order to strengthen the working relationship and understanding of the situation.

Team Assessment

A team assessment differs from an individual employee assessment in that it’s an opportunity to make sure team members are aligned and working well together, as well as progressing towards the team goals.

Leader Assessment

As mentioned in the International Labor Organization’s performance management framework, leader assessments can provide valuable feedback as well. During this assessment team members and employees evaluate their own managers, as well as potentially their manager’s superiors. This is often conducted anonymously, to ensure employees can be honest with their feedback without fear of retaliation.

Key Elements of a Performance Review

Depending on the performance management framework, reviews will have different key elements, but there are elements that all methods share, according to Harvard Business Review and Hubspot .

• Evaluate if job requirements are being met
• Compare strengths and weaknesses
• Highlight areas of improvement
• Evaluate if previously defined goals were met
• Recommend actionable goals
• Welcome employee input

How to Write a Performance Review

We recommend managers use a performance review template to help guide them through each step. Evaluation templates help managers know what to say in a performance review. They provide structure to the review, which makes the process consistent. Employee performance templates also make the review process scalable throughout the team or organization.

Prior to Writing the Performance Review

Harvard Business Review recommends reviewers set expectations early, prior to the official feedback. This involves informing the employee that they will be reviewing them soon, asking the employee for their self assessment, and evaluating employee career aspirations.

When Writing the Performance Review

When sitting down to write the performance review, managers should have supporting documentation to help them direct their evaluation. For example, comparing employee performance and characteristics to the organization’s specified values can help guide the evaluation. Additionally, managers can compare employee performance to the actual description of requirements for their role. This helps keep evaluations realistic and on-track. Finally, it’s a good idea to compare current performance to that of previous employee performance reviews. This gives the manager a bigger picture into employee growth, as well as what achievable goals are.

When writing a performance review, managers can also consult with others, including coworkers, other managers, and subordinates of the employee under review. This is called 360-degree feedback and can help give a manager ideas of what to write.

As far as the career aspirations we recommend requesting from the employee prior to the evaluation, this is useful for framing the review. Not every employee has very high aspirations. The evaluation should align both the organization’s expectations of the employee and their own aspirations.

Delivering the Performance Review

HBR also recommends presenting the performance review to the individual about an hour before their meeting to discuss it. This lets the employee move past any potential emotional responses and prepare rational responses. This will lead to a much more constructive discussion and allow for a more positive plan forward.

Whenever possible, hold the performance review presentation face-to-face to avoid misunderstandings. While a performance review PPT or pdf is beneficial for organizing and visualizing the evaluation, presenting them in person will lead to a richer discussion and more realistic action plans.

For high-performing employees, HR experts recommend focusing on the things they are doing well. After discussing examples of achievements and strengths, the manager can ask the employee their feelings about how things are going. This naturally leads into a conversation about opportunities for growth and improvement.

When delivering feedback to marginal employees, they shouldn’t sugar-coat criticisms or provide meaningless compliments. Instead, reviewers should be straightforward and clear with their message. Discuss what isn’t working, what is working, and what actions need to be adopted to improve. When giving advice for improving, managers should be as specific as possible and provide examples.

How to Present a Performance Review

Here are the most important slides to include in a performance review presentation. Following this performance review example structure will help managers lessen the discomfort of presenting a performance review, by following a clear presentation guide.

Slide 1: Cover Slide

Establish who is reviewing, who is being reviewed, and the date of the performance review. Note that this information is also important since the performance review presentation will probably become part of an ongoing performance documentation.

Slide 2: Table of Contents

Part of the discomfort of performance reviews is the concept of the unknown. For an employee, it’s speculating on what their manager is going to say in the performance review. A clear table of contents will hopefully help ground the employee by showing them clearly what they can expect from the presentation, and in what order.

Slide 3: Evaluate if job requirements are being met

In this PPT slide, the reviewer should compare, side-by-side the job requirements and the actual job performance of their subordinate. This requirement versus performance comparison helps the evaluation stay objective. Provide examples of when the requirements are or are not being successfully met, whenever possible.

Slide 4: Strengths

When presenting employee strengths, be as specific as possible. Explain why this strength matters, an example of when this strength was evident, and what impacts this strength has had. In the presentation, add a list of strengths with or without a short description and/or example, in case the performance review is presented without the accompanying meeting.

If the manager previously asked for a self assessment, add a comparison here between the reviewer’s opinion of the employee strengths and their employee’s opinion.

Slide 5: Achievements

List any specific achievements the employee has made during the performance period.

Slide 6: Highlight areas of improvement

This is another way to frame weaknesses. When presenting areas of improvement, consider what the employee needs to improve, why these areas are necessary to address, how the manager can help the employee improve, and what specific steps are needed to improve. Be specific and provide examples whenever possible.

This is another good slide where managers can compare their evaluation of areas of improvement with the answers employees provided in their self assessment. You can combine these slides with other performance improvement plan templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Slide 7: Evaluate if previously defined goals were met

If this isn’t the first performance review a manager has conducted for an individual, then there will be previously defined goals from former evaluations. On this slide, list the previous goals and add a brief evaluation for each. This will help decide what goals should be checked off, maintained, or adjusted for the next evaluation period, which will be presented in the next slide.

Slide 8: Recommend actionable goals

When presenting goals, we recommend using the SMART formula. SMART goals stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. This method of creating goals helps ensure the goal will be achieved as expected.

The goals established in this performance review will most likely be evaluated during the next performance review. As such, the “time-based” aspect of the goal should take this into account.

Slide 9: Welcome employee input

Close the performance review presentation by giving the employee space to talk.

By following this performance review template, reviewers can make sure their evaluation is more than just a meaningless task checked off the list. When done well, the performance review sets the mood for the whole next period, giving both managers and employees a clear guide towards moving forward and achieving their goals more successfully. As far as the tendency for employee evaluations to be uncomfortable situations, follow the advice in this article, practice, and you’ll soon find the valuable potential of a well-presented performance review.

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Performance review presentation: A comprehensive guide

Learn to define goals, engage audiences, and deliver lasting impressions.

Raja Bothra

Building presentations

Hey there, presentation enthusiasts!

Welcome to a comprehensive guide on mastering the art of performance review presentations.

I'm your guide today, and we're diving deep into the world of performance evaluations, slides, templates, and the magic of Prezent.

What is a performance review?

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty, let's ensure we're on the same page. A performance review is a formal assessment of an employee's work performance over a set time period, typically conducted by their manager. It identifies strengths and weaknesses, provides feedback, sets future goals, and influences decisions like compensation and promotions. It's a crucial part of employee development, and while it's often annual, the frequency can vary. Now, let's explore how to make the most of this process.

Benefits of performance review presentation

Now that you know what a performance review is, let's talk about why it's crucial. A well-crafted performance review presentation brings several benefits. It's not just about human resources jargon; it's about fostering growth and boosting morale.

Imagine a slide that tells an employee, "You're doing great, and here's how we can make it even better!"

Let's uncover the valuable benefits it brings:

• Enhanced communication: A performance review process serves as a platform for open and honest dialogue between the manager and employee. It transcends mere workplace conversations; it fosters a culture of effective communication and builds trust.
• Increased transparency: Transparency is the cornerstone of a healthy workplace relationship. Through a performance review presentation, the manager shares concrete examples of the employee's work, demystifying the evaluation process and promoting understanding.
• Boosted employee engagement: Engaged employees are the lifeblood of any organization. With feedback and goal-setting at its core, a performance review presentation ppt empowers employees, making them feel more connected and invested in their roles.
• Elevated employee morale: Recognition matters. A performance review presentation acknowledges an employee's achievements and offers pathways for growth. This recognition fosters a sense of value and appreciation, subsequently elevating morale.
• Increased productivity: Clear goals and constructive feedback are catalysts for productivity. A performance review presentation equips employees with the focus and motivation needed to excel in their roles.

Moreover, a performance review presentation also acts as a compass to:

• Identify training and development needs: By pinpointing strengths and weaknesses, managers can create targeted training and development plans, aiding employees in enhancing their skills and knowledge.
• Informed decision-making: Armed with a deep understanding of an employee's performance, managers can make well-informed decisions regarding compensation and promotions.
• Resolution of performance issues: If an employee is grappling with meeting expectations, the performance review presentation serves as an opportunity to diagnose the root cause of the issue and collaboratively develop strategies for improvement.

KPIs and metrics to add in performance review presentation

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics are the true stars of your performance review presentation. They're the numbers that tell a compelling story of an employee's journey within your organization. But how do you choose the right ones? Let's dive into the art of KPI selection:

• Alignment with organizational goals: The KPIs and metrics you select should be in perfect harmony with your organization's overarching goals and objectives. Think of them as the compass guiding your presentation towards the most critical aspects of performance. It's about showcasing achievements that matter most to the company's mission.
• Relevance to the employee's role: Tailoring your KPIs and metrics to the employee's specific role is paramount. This customization ensures that your presentation speaks directly to their contributions and responsibilities. It's about highlighting the areas where their efforts make the most significant impact.
• Measurability: Your chosen KPIs and metrics must be measurable and quantifiable. They should provide a clear and concise picture of performance. This measurability empowers you to track progress over time and assess an employee's performance against specific, tangible goals.

Now, let's delve into some concrete examples of KPIs and metrics that could take center stage in your performance review presentation:

• Sales: Consider metrics like the number of new customers acquired, total revenue generated, and the growth of market share. These figures demonstrate the employee's impact on the company's bottom line.
• Customer satisfaction: Metrics such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer churn rate reveal how well the employee has served and retained customers. Additionally, tracking the time taken to resolve customer support tickets can showcase their responsiveness and service quality.
• Productivity: To gauge productivity, analyze metrics like the number of tasks completed, time taken to complete tasks, and the quality of work delivered. These insights shed light on the employee's efficiency and effectiveness.
• Teamwork: Collaboration and teamwork are often vital. Consider metrics related to how well the employee works with team members, their active participation in meetings, and their willingness to assist others. These factors highlight their contributions to a harmonious work environment.
• Leadership: Leadership skills are critical in many roles. Metrics here could assess their ability to motivate and inspire others, their skill in delegating tasks, and their decision-making prowess.

Additionally, it's valuable to incorporate metrics specific to the employee's role. For example, if they are a software engineer, metrics related to the number of bugs fixed or the development of new features could be particularly relevant.

How to structure an effective performance review presentation

The structure of your performance review presentation is the backbone of a compelling narrative, and it plays a more significant role than you might imagine. Think of it as crafting a well-written story, complete with a captivating beginning, an engaging middle, and a satisfying conclusion. Here's a suggested structure to help you create a presentation that keeps everyone on the edge of their seats:

Introduction

Begin with a warm introduction, both of yourself and the employee. Briefly outline the purpose of the presentation and what you intend to cover during this session. Take a moment to express gratitude for the employee's hard work and their valuable contributions to the team.

Overview of employee's role and responsibilities

Provide a concise overview of the employee's role and responsibilities within the organization. This serves as a critical context-setting step that ensures everyone is on the same page.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics

Now, let's dive into the heart of the matter – the employee's performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics. Ensure that each KPI or metric is not just presented but explained comprehensively, providing context that illuminates their significance. Leverage visuals, such as charts and graphs, to present data in a visually engaging and easy-to-understand manner.

Strengths and areas for improvement

Delve into the employee's strengths and areas where there's room for growth. Specificity is key here. Offer real-life examples whenever possible to make your points resonate. Begin with the strengths – this approach fosters a positive and constructive atmosphere for the discussion.

Goals for the next review period

Collaborate with the employee to set clear and SMART goals for the upcoming review period (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Discuss how you, as their manager, can provide support and resources to help them achieve these goals. This section is all about charting the path forward, turning insights into actionable steps.

Summarize the key takeaways from your presentation, reinforcing the most salient points. Express your gratitude once again for the employee's time and attention throughout the presentation. Encourage questions and feedback, fostering an environment of open communication.

With this structured approach, your performance review presentation transforms into a captivating narrative. It guides both you and the employee through a comprehensive discussion of their performance, strengths, growth areas, and goals. It's not just a presentation; it's a journey towards personal and professional development.

Do’s and don'ts on a performance review presentation

Now, let's talk about the do's and don'ts. Every great presentation has a set of rules, and we'll help you navigate them like a pro. From keeping it concise to avoiding wordiness, we've got your back. And remember, humor is a spice; use it wisely!

• Be prepared: Your presentation should flow seamlessly. Practice beforehand to ensure you can deliver it confidently and smoothly.
• Be positive and constructive: Maintain a positive tone throughout. Focus on the employee's strengths and areas for improvement while offering unwavering support.
• Be respectful and open to feedback: Actively listen to the employee's perspective and encourage open dialogue. Respect their viewpoints and be willing to engage in constructive conversation.
• Be concise and to the point: Avoid overwhelming the employee with excessive information. Keep your presentation concise, emphasizing the most critical takeaways.
• Use visuals: Visual aids like charts and graphs can transform complex data into an engaging and easily comprehensible format.
• Invite participation: Create an inclusive environment by inviting the employee to ask questions and provide feedback. It fosters an atmosphere of collaboration and mutual understanding.

Don'ts:

• Don't wing it: Proper preparation is non-negotiable. Take the time to thoroughly prepare your presentation, ensuring that all facts and figures are readily accessible.
• Don't be negative: Maintain a constructive and encouraging tone. While addressing areas for improvement, remember to emphasize support and motivation.
• Don't be closed-minded: Keep an open mind and actively listen to the employee's perspective. Be receptive to their feedback and willing to consider alternative viewpoints.
• Don't overload with information: Less is often more. Avoid overwhelming the employee with excessive details. Focus on the key insights and actionable points.
• Don't forget to use visuals: Visual aids enhance understanding and engagement. Don't miss the opportunity to make your presentation more captivating.
• Don't forget to invite participation: Actively involve the employee in the discussion. Encourage them to ask questions and share their thoughts. Their input is valuable.

Summarizing key takeaways

• Performance reviews assess employee performance and are crucial for growth and development.
• Benefits of performance review presentations include improved communication, transparency, engagement, morale, and productivity.
• KPIs and metrics should align with goals and be measurable.
• Examples of KPIs include sales, customer satisfaction, productivity, teamwork, and leadership.
• Structure your presentation with an introduction, role overview, KPIs, strengths/areas for improvement, goals, and a conclusion.
• Do's: Be prepared, positive, and use visuals; invite participation.
• Don'ts: Don't wing it, be negative, overload with information, or forget to involve the employee.

1. What is a performance review presentation, and how can it benefit my team?

A performance review presentation is a powerful tool that helps organizations assess employee performance and communicate the results effectively. It leverages Prezent, PowerPoint or Google Slides to create visually engaging presentations. Using a performance assessment or appraisal format, you can highlight key areas of improvement and increase your performance graph in the market using this performance review process.

2. Can I find editable performance review templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides?

Yes, you can! Online platform offers customizable templates that are adaptable with Google Slides and PowerPoint slides. These editable templates contain twenty-two slides, making it easy to create a comprehensive presentation deck for your performance evaluations.

3. How does performance review presentation help managers and employees?

Performance review powerpoint presentation slides provide a 360-degree view of an employee's job performance. Managers use this tool to set goals, evaluate quarterly progress, and provide valuable feedback. Employees can use these presentations to understand their current responsibilities and work on much-needed improvements.

4. Are these presentations customizable to suit our specific needs?

Absolutely! Performance review presentation powerpoint templates are fully editable. You can tailor them to match your organization's unique performance goals, assessment forms, and confidential records. Additionally, you can use data-driven charts and visual feedback to enhance data analysis and create impactful presentations.

5. How can I access performance review presentation templates, and in what formats are they available?

You can access these templates on trusted platforms, and they are available in PowerPoint, PDF and Google Slides presentation formats. Each customizable template comes with a variety of slides that highlight key aspects of performance management, such as income statement, profit after tax, and dividend per share. You can also use the table of contents to navigate through the presentation easily.

Create your performance review presentation with Prezent

Prezent streamlines performance review presentations with:

• Templates : Professionally designed templates save time.
• Content guidance : 50+ storylines help structure your presentation.
• Visuals : Access 35,000+ slides and brand-approved designs.
• Collaboration : Real-time sharing for team input.
• Time efficiency : Save time with pre-designed content.
• Compliance : Ensures 100% compliance and document management.
• Overnight service : Submit by 5:30 PM PST, receive a polished presentation by 9:30 AM the next business day.

Prezent simplifies and enhances your performance review process.

So, go ahead, use the power of Prezent, and take your presentations to the next level. Your employees, managers, and stakeholders will thank you!

Now, go forth and present like a pro! Try our free trial or book a demo today!

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Top 10 Project Evaluation Templates with Examples and Samples

Lakshya Khurana

The Sunk Cost Fallacy leads to humungous losses (for how much, please read on) for businesses worldwide. The fallacy is at play when a company continues to pour resources into a project just because of prior investments made in it. In this entire episode, the thing to be worried about is that the money is poured in, even when letting go of the project is the right thing to do.

To save the day and ensure that you never fall victim to sunk cost fallacy, project evaluation at regular times is the need of the only solution.

Project evaluation is an assessment that encompasses everything from the creation of the project plan to its implementation and tracking its outcomes. It is needed to deliver metrics that forecast the likelihood of the success of a project in terms of its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. This enables stakeholders to make informed decisions on whether to continue with the project, change its components, or terminate it.

It is important to take stock of the ones executing a project. Download the best self-evaluation templates from this blog here !

What does data have to say about it?

Nearly $1 million is wasted every 10 seconds by companies worldwide. This is due to a lack of effective business strategy implementation. Over 40% of business projects fail as the project objectives do not feed into the overall enterprise mission and vision.

Project evaluation saves your business money and time by ensuring that only worthwhile projects are continued. This is where SlideTeam enters to help your company conduct a proper project evaluation with its Project Evaluation Templates.

Project Assessment Templates that Optimize Resource Allocation

A PowerPoint Presentation is an excellent tool to deliver the information you have collected on the project and conduct a comprehensive assessment with the audience members. Creating a presentation from scratch for each project or iteration will be time-consuming. But not with SlideTeam’s content-ready and 100% editable PPT Templates. These slides give you a starting point for the evaluation, a solid framework that includes all aspects, and the capability to alter the elements to suit your needs.

This saves you a tremendous amount of time and energy that can be better spent analyzing each project for its suitability to the business.

Let’s take a tour of our collection of the best Project Evaluation Templates and see what they offer you.

Template 1: Project Evaluation Process PowerPoint Template Bundles

This PowerPoint Deck presents a comprehensive project evaluation process with tools and resources. The presentation begins with key elements of the process, followed by the methods used in it (ROI, CBA, etc.). The following slides showcase the tools you need and the phases that mark the process. Download this PPT Set to conduct a proper project evaluation and make data-driven decisions.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Template 2: Assessment Steps for Project Evaluation Process

Use this PPT Template as a visual reference for steps in the project evaluation process. Showcase the steps as a ladder and connect steps across the timeline to create an interconnected web of checks and measures. From assessing project objectives to informing stakeholders of results, this list helps you track assessment. Download now.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Template 3: Key Metrics for Project Evaluation Process

How do you evaluate the project evaluation process? You use this PPT Slide that depicts the key metrics that help you gauge the assessment. These include productivity, quality and satisfaction, cost, and gross margin. Each criterion has components that define it and help you assess the evaluation process with care.

GET IT HERE

Template 4: Project Evaluation Checklist Business Process Modeling Techniques

Ensure that you complete all requirements for the project using this checklist template. The PPT Slide presents a table with a readymade list of evaluation criteria, from the quality of the contractor’s work to the adherence to the project schedule. The checks are done on a Likert scale that ranges from unacceptable to excellent. Download this template from the link below to tick off every project evaluation criteria and ensure successful evaluation.

Looking for more options? Check out our blog to access the best evaluation checklist templates!

Template 5: Addressing Lessons Learnt for Post-Project Evaluation Managing Project Playbook

There is lot to learn from a project that has been completed on paper. Use this PPT Layout to note and share lessons learnt from project execution. The information is presented in a table that classifies it based on risk, scope, and resources. For each category, you can present the class concerned, the problem, its impact, its status, and the recommended action for a solution.

Template 6: Project Support Showing Project Evaluation and Project Initiation

All pieces of the project will fall into place with project support. This support includes evaluation, project initiation and closing, and help for challenging projects. The PPT Slide presents this information with visuals that keep the audience's attention. There is space to add your project’s requirements for each category. Grab this template now to assist your team in all projects.

Template 7: Project Evaluation Methods and Procedures

How are you evaluating a project? Is one method better than the other? This PPT Slide presents a comparison table to test the effectiveness and efficiency of a given project evaluation method and details its method. The table presents KPIs, such as project performance, product need, threat from competitors, and feasibility measured against relevant criteria. Download this template now.

Template 8: Project Evaluation Using Decision Criteria

A numerical value for each criterion will help you make objective decisions when conducting project evaluation. This PPT Slide presents a table that allows you to put a weighted measure for a given objective, such as revenue, leverage, time, cost, etc., for each project. You can add up the score for each project and make your decisions to continue, improve, or terminate.

Template 9: Project Evaluation Criteria with Weightage Score

Presenting a more detailed weighted score project evaluation tool. Use this PPT Layout to calculate the score on categories such as legal, financial, consultation, impact, etc. Each category has specific criteria that need the evaluator’s attention. This readymade presentation helps you make objective data-driven decisions for your projects. Make it yours today.

Template 10: Key Findings of Project Evaluation Presentation Report Infographic

This presentation slide is the perfect medium to showcase your project evaluation results. The findings can be presented in blocks based on the nature of the results. For example, the socio-cultural, economic, and political issues, national development agenda, etc. Grab this template from the link below to reference project evaluation work.

Conducting a project assessment is an easy way to get ahead of avoidable losses and issues. This becomes even easier when you use SlideTeam’s Project Evaluation Templates. Download them now! Access these slides with a single click and streamline your onboarding process more. You can choose one of our subscription services: monthly, semi-annual, annual, annual+ with a click here .

P.S. The templates in this blog are not ranked in any order. Pick the one(s) you like and download it!

Make your case and gain a beneficial project with our project bid templates from this blog here !

Related posts:

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Evaluation Form Templates

12 Free Presentation Evaluation Forms (What to Include)

A presentation evaluation form is a document used by an evaluator to analyze and review a particular presentation.

The form allows you to give structured feedback to the presenter about their presentation. Additionally, it can be used whenever you want to rate an individual’s presentation skills. Assessments are an important means for individuals to improve themselves, and you must therefore provide the presenter with accurate feedback regarding their presentation. This will enable them to make the necessary adjustments and enhance their presentation skills.

Furthermore, the feedback form allows you to judge whether the presenter comprehensively covered all the important topics and answered questions appropriately. An elaborate presentation should be able to give clear insights into the chosen topics. For example, if the presentation is about the advantages and values of using the company’s products and services, everyone present during the presentation should be able to clearly understand the products and their market valuation.

The form used to evaluate presentations, its purpose, the evaluation criteria, and some helpful assessment advice will all be covered in this article.

Download Free Form Templates

A presentation evaluation form should be comprehensive as it is meant to provide the presenter with honest reviews of their performance. To ensure you have a form that is thorough, you should use a template to prepare it. That will make it easier for you to create a proper form.

Also, it will ensure that you have all the required sections and details. You can access and download these templates for free from below:

Purpose of Presentation Evaluation Form

An evaluation form allows you to give a critical review and evaluation of a presentation. Different aspects of the presentation are judged as part of the evaluation; this includes the presenter’s effectiveness and efficiency in imparting information, body language, enthusiasm, volume, modulation, ease of flow, clarity of speaking, and the presenter’s overall preparedness.

Therefore, after you have reviewed the presentation, you should share your comments with the presenter. They can use it to understand what they need to do to improve their overall performance. Furthermore, your feedback form should be easy to understand and should convince the presenter to take action towards improving their confidence and appearance.

Also, you may give suggestions to help the presenter improve their emotional control during presentations; this is an effective way of convincing and persuading the audience.

A well-drafted review will allow you to give your opinion without sabotaging the presenter’s confidence. Therefore, feedback has to be constructed positively but must also provide clear instructions about those areas that need improvement.

3 Different Kinds of Presentation Evaluations

An effective way of helping individuals give powerful and informative presentations is by informing them on how their presentations will be evaluated.

Here are three techniques you can use to evaluate a presentation:

Self-evaluation

One of the most effective ways of improving someone’s presentation skills is by allowing them to judge their own performance. This can be achieved by making them rate their presentations. Occasionally, there are those who will be able to give accurate and insightful reviews on what they did well and where they need to improve. Also, there are some who will find it difficult to evaluate themselves.

Asking a presenter questions about their performance will enable you as an evaluator to assist them in self-evaluation. You can ask them how they think they performed, what they think they have accomplished, what they gained before, during, and after the performance, and what they think they could have done differently during the process of presenting.

Peer evaluation

Assessment by peers encourages the presenters to provide feedback on each other’s performances. For instance, if you are a teacher, you can ask your students to give their opinions about their classmates’ performances. Peer evaluation is an effective way of helping the students to differentiate between a perfect and an average presentation.

Also, this will allow them to be more attentive as they observe and learn how to present their projects effectively. You can distribute forms to each student to give their feedback. Then, you can request that they give the forms to the presenter at the end of the presentation.

Professional evaluation

Professional evaluations of presentations are usually conducted by someone like a teacher. Therefore, as an evaluator, you are required to verbally give your comments  instead of recording them on some evaluation forms. In most cases, you are required to discuss the presentation immediately when it ends; this allows the presenter to get immediate feedback.

To professionally evaluate a presentation, you can ask for its copy prior to the presentation. This will allow you enough time to review the contents and be prepared to give provide a comprehensive assessment. As a result, you will be able to help the presenter get better at their future presentations.

Evaluation Criteria for Presentation

A presentation is judged on six criteria. The individual or group presenting their work must have the required skills to present their content effectively.

Below are the six abilities that you must assess as part of the evaluation:

Ability to analyze the audience

You need to assess if the presenter understands their audience based on the following:

• Whether their content was tailored and relevant or just generic
• If the pitching was done correctly
• If they used proper language
• If they used terminology that the audience understood
• If they engaged their audience
• If their audience seemed focused or distracted.

If the presenter understands the audience, they will most likely have a great presentation. As an evaluator, you must determine if the presenter researched their audience and was able to handle any challenges they encountered during their presentation.

Ability to develop a structured presentation

You need to determine if the presenter has a structured presentation that makes the content persuasive. The message alone cannot be impactful if it lacks a logical flow and structure of ideas. You should judge if the presentation was clear, easy to follow, and had a narrative or story-like flow with a clear beginning and conclusion. 

Also, you need to check if the transitions used between sections were smooth, if the presenter used relevant visual aids such as PowerPoint slides or handouts, and finally, if it had a clear call to action section at the end. 

A proper and clear structure is important if the presenter wants their message to impact the audience. It should have a clear start, flow smoothly, build momentum, and have a powerful ending without losing the audience’s attention at any point.

Ability to engage the audience

The presenter must also have the ability to engage the audience. If the presenter properly analyzes the audience, they will most likely be able to connect with them. This is a significant factor that distinguishes a great presentation from a poor one. Ascertain if the presenter had content that the audience would find interesting. 

Also, you need to check if the presenter’s method of delivery was effective. The presenter should be able to build a rapport with the members of the audience, use proper gestures and body language, and speak clearly and confidently with proper intonation in a conversational tone.

Ability to prepare effective slides

The ability to prepare slides that effectively convey the intended message is an important aspect of a successful presentation. Slides are visual aids meant for the speaker to elaborate on their information and enable their audience to understand the message thoroughly. You need to determine if these slides are easy to read, have detailed information, and have a proper layout and format for easier understanding.

The slides should have a good balance between text, graphics, and images. The slides can be considered effective if they contain text in bullet points as well as impactful graphics that reinforce the presenter’s message.

Ability to be confident and other strengths

It is also important to evaluate if the speaker does not lack confidence when presenting. The presenter should exude confidence, be natural, and be in control while presenting. You need to assess if they were at ease while speaking to their audience, whether they appeared confrontational, whether they seemed anxious or distracted, and whether they were awkward or shy. 

Ability to summarize and achieve intended outcomes

The conclusion should also have a clear and achievable call to action and be inspirational. Therefore, you need to ascertain the presenter’s ability to summarize and conclude their presentation in a manner that ensures they have achieved their intended outcomes. You must assess whether their closing statement was well-rounded and  included all the main points.  A proper closing should leave the audience with a sense of having achieved something.

Best Tips for You

There are tips that you should keep in mind when evaluating a presentation if you wish to have impactful feedback that will benefit the presenter.

Below are the three main tips that you should consider:

Emphasize the process

You need to focus on the process of preparation rather than the product itself. That means that you should evaluate and comment on the process taken, such as gathering information, analyzing the audience, etc. This is more impactful, and it will help the person identify the areas that need improvement so they can make it better next time.

Be specific

Your feedback should include specific directions to help the presenter  improve themselves, rather than just giving opinions.

For example:

Instead of writing, “You were not audible or confident enough during your presentation,” you should write,  “At some point during the presentation, you were not audible and did not seem confident. This made it hard to hear or understand you. Pay close attention to your pace and audibility the next time. If you are feeling underconfident, use gestures and take your time to pause instead of using filler words such as “um,” “ah,” and “like.” 

End on a positive note

Always conclude your assessment on a positive note. The assessment is meant to motivate a person to develop their presentation abilities. Therefore, it is important that besides  highlighting the flaws, also include positive feedback to encourage the presenter 

Your job as an evaluator is to assist the presenter in improving their skills. An effective way of doing this is by giving them constructive feedback. Your assessment should not only highlight the shortcomings but also be thoughtful and positive. When you use an evaluation form, you can make precise notes about the areas where a presenter needs to improve and the ones where they did well. The oral presentation can be challenging and time-consuming. However, with a form, you can comprehensively explain what is expected of a presenter during and after their presentation. Notably, it is important to focus on its different aspects, which include the style of presenting and the contents. As an evaluator, you are responsible for objectively assessing the skills and content of the presenter. Therefore, your feedback should be detailed and effective. Ensure that you have an evaluation criteria that will make it easy for you to provide your comments regarding all relevant aspects. You can use templates to create forms that meet all your evaluation requirements effortlessly.

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How to Give Effective Presentation Feedback

A conversation with sam j. lubner, md, facp.

Giving an effective scientific presentation, like all public speaking, is an acquired skill that takes practice to perfect. When delivered successfully, an oral presentation can be an invaluable opportunity to showcase your latest research results among your colleagues and peers. It can also promote attendee engagement and help audience members retain the information being presented, enhancing the educational benefit of your talk, according to Sam J. ­Lubner, MD, FACP , Associate Professor of Medicine and Program Director, Hematology-Oncology Fellowship, at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, and a member of ASCO’s Education Council.

Sam J. ­Lubner, MD, FACP

In 2019, the Education Council launched a pilot program to provide a group of selected speakers at the ASCO Annual Meeting with feedback on their presentations. Although some of the reviewers, which included members of the Education Council and Education Scholars Program, as well as ASCO’s program directors, conveyed information to the presenters that was goal-referenced, tangible, transparent, actionable, specific, and personalized—the hallmarks of effective feedback—others provided comments that were too vague to improve the speaker’s performance, said Dr. Lubner. For example, they offered comments such as “Great session” or “Your slides were too complicated,” without being specific about what made the session “great” or the slides “too complicated.”

“Giving a presentation at a scientific meeting is different from what we were trained to do. We’re trained to take care of patients, and while we do have some training in presentation, it usually centers around how to deliver clinical information,” said Dr. Lubner. “What we are trying to do with the Education Council’s presentation feedback project is to apply evidence-based methods for giving effective feedback to make presentations at ASCO’s Annual Meeting, international meetings, symposia, and conferences more clinically relevant and educationally beneficial.”

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The ASCO Post talked with Dr. Lubner about how to give effective feedback and how to become a more effective presenter.

Defining Effective Feedback

Feedback is often confused with giving advice, praise, and evaluation, but none of these descriptions are exactly accurate. What constitutes effective feedback?

When I was looking over the literature on feedback to prepare myself on how to give effective feedback to the medical students and residents I oversee, I was amazed to find the information is largely outdated. For example, recommendations in the 1980s and 1990s called for employing the “sandwich” feedback method, which involves saying something positive, then saying what needs to be improved, and then making another positive remark. But that method is time-intensive, and it feels disingenuous to me.

What constitutes helpful feedback to me is information that is goal-referenced, actionable, specific, and has immediate impact. It should be constructive, descriptive, and nonjudgmental. After I give feedback to a student or resident, my next comments often start with a self-reflective question, “How did that go?” and that opens the door to further discussion. The mnemonic I use to provide better feedback and achieve learning goals is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely, as described here:

• Specific: Avoid using ambiguous language, for example, “Your presentation was great.” Be specific about what made the presentation “great,” such as, “Starting your presentation off with a provocative question grabbed my attention.”
• Measurable: Suggest quantifiable objectives to meet so there is no uncertainty about what the goals are. For example, “Next time, try a summary slide with one or two take-home points for the audience.”
• Achievable: The goal of the presentation should be attainable. For example, “Trim your slides to no more than six lines per slide and no more than six words per line; otherwise, you are just reading your slides.”
• Realistic: The feedback you give should relate to the goal the presenter is trying to achieve. For example, “Relating the research results back to an initial case presentation will solidify the take-home point that for cancer x, treatment y is the best choice.”
• Timely: Feedback given directly after completion of the presentation is more effective than feedback provided at a later date.

The ultimate goal of effective feedback is to help the presenter become more adept at relaying his or her research in an engaging and concise way, to maintain the audience’s attention and ensure that they retain the information presented.

“Giving a presentation at a scientific meeting is different from what we were trained to do.” — Sam J. Lubner, MD, FACP Tweet this quote

Honing Your Communication Skills

What are some specific tips on how to give effective feedback?

There are five tips that immediately come to mind: (1) focus on description rather than judgment; (2) focus on observation rather than inference; (3) focus on observable behaviors; (4) share both positive and constructive specific points of feedback with the presenter; and (5) focus on the most important points to improve future ­presentations.

Becoming a Proficient Presenter

How can ASCO faculty become more proficient at delivering their research at the Annual Meeting and at ASCO’s thematic meetings?

ASCO has published faculty guidelines and best practices to help speakers immediately involve an audience in their presentation and hold their attention throughout the talk. They include the following recommendations:

• Be engaging. Include content that will grab the audience’s attention early. For example, interesting facts, images, or a short video to hold the audience’s focus.
• Be cohesive and concise. When preparing slides, make sure the presentation has a clear and logical flow to it, from the introduction to its conclusion. Establish key points and clearly define their importance and impact in a concise, digestible manner.
• Include take-home points. Speakers should briefly summarize key findings from their research and ensure that their conclusion is fully supported by the data in their presentation. If possible, they should provide recommendations or actions to help solidify their message. Thinking about and answering this question—if the audience remembers one thing from my presentation, what do I want it to be?—will help speakers focus their presentation.
• When it comes to slide design, remember, less is more. It’s imperative to keep slides simple to make an impact on the audience.

Another method to keep the audience engaged and enhance the educational benefit of the talk is to use the Think-Pair ( ± Share) strategy, by which the speaker asks attendees to think through questions using two to three steps. They include:

• Think independently about the question that has been posed, forming ideas.
• Pair to discuss thoughts, allowing learners to articulate their ideas and to consider those of others.
• Share (as a pair) the ideas with the larger group.

The value of this exercise is that it helps participants retain the information presented, encourages individual participation, and refines ideas and knowledge through collaboration.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SLIDE DESIGN

• Have a single point per line.
• Use < 6 words per line.
• Use < 6 lines per slide.
• Use < 30 characters per slide.
• Use simple words.
• When using tables, maintain a maximum of 6 rows and 6 columns.
• Avoid busy graphics or tables. If you find yourself apologizing to the audience because your slide is too busy, it’s a bad slide and should not be included in the presentation.
• Use cues, not full thoughts, to make your point.
• Keep to one slide per minute as a guide to the length of the presentation.
• Include summary/take-home points per concept. We are all physicians who care about our patients and believe in adhering to good science. Highlight the information you want the audience to take away from your presentation and how that information applies to excellent patient care.

Speakers should also avoid using shorthand communication or dehumanizing language when describing research results. For example, do not refer to patients as a disease: “The study included 250 EGFR mutants.” Say instead, “The study included 250 patients with EGFR -mutant tumors.” And do not use language that appears to blame patients when their cancer progresses after treatment, such as, “Six patients failed to respond to [study drug].” Instead say, “Six patients had tumors that did not respond to [study drug].”

We all have respect for our patients, families, and colleagues, but sometimes our language doesn’t reflect that level of respect, and we need to be more careful and precise in the language we use when talking with our patients and our colleagues.

ASCO has developed a document titled “The Language of Respect” to provide guidance on appropriate respectful language to use when talking with patients, family members, or other health-care providers and when giving presentations at the Annual Meeting and other ASCO symposia. Presenters should keep these critical points in mind and put them into practice when delivering research data at these meetings. ■

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Lubner has been employed by Farcast Biosciences and has held a leadership role at Farcast Biosciences.

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Use Clear Criteria and Methodologies When Evaluating PowerPoint Presentations

Dr. Fred Mayo explains the three major methods for presentation evaluation: self, peer and professional. An added bonus: ready-made student evaluation form.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

In the last issue, we discussed making interactive presentations and this month we will focus on evaluating presentations. For many of us, encouraging and supporting students in making presentations is already a challenge; assessing their merit is often just another unwelcome teaching chore.

There are three major methods for evaluating presentation – self evaluations, peer evaluations, and professional evaluations. Of course, the most important issue is establishing evaluation criteria.

Criteria for Evaluating Presentations One of the best ways to help students create and deliver good presentations involves providing them with information about how their presentations will be evaluated. Some of the criteria that you can use to assess presentations include:

• Focus of the presentation
• Clarity and coherence of the content
• Thoroughness of the ideas presented and the analysis
• Clarity of the presentation
• Effective use of facts, statistics and details
• Lack of grammatical and spelling errors
• Design of the slides
• Effective use of images
• Clarity of voice projection and appropriate volume
• Completion of the presentation within the allotted time frame

Feel free to use these criteria or to develop your own that more specifically match your teaching situation.

Self Evaluations When teaching public speaking and making presentations, I often encouraged students to rate their own presentations after they delivered them. Many times, they were very insightful about what could have been improved. Others just could not complete this part of the assignment. Sometimes, I use their evaluations to make comments on what they recognized in their presentations. However, their evaluations did not overly influence the grade except that a more thorough evaluation improved their grade and a weak evaluation could hurt their presentation grade.

Questions I asked them to consider included:

• How do you think it went?
• What could you have done differently to make it better?
• What did you do that you are particularly proud of accomplishing?
• What did you learn from preparing for and delivering this presentation?
• What would you change next time?

Peer Evaluations One way to provide the most feedback for students involves encouraging – or requiring – each student evaluate each other’s presentation. It forces them to watch the presentation both for content and delivery and helps them learn to discriminate between an excellent and an ordinary presentation. The more presentations they observe or watch, the more they learn.

In classes where students are required to deliver presentations, I have students evaluate the presentations they observe using a form I designed. The students in the audience give the evaluation or feedback forms to the presenter as soon as it is over. I do not collect them or review them to encourage honest comments and more direct feedback. Also, students do not use their names when completing the form. That way the presenter gets a picture from all the students in the audience – including me – and cannot discount the comments by recognizing the author.

A version of the form that I use is reproduced below – feel free to adopt or adapt it to your own use and classroom situation.

Professional Evaluations When conducting your professional evaluation of a presentation, remember to consider when and how to deliver oral comments as opposed to a completed form. I complete a written evaluation (shown above) along with all the students so they get some immediate feedback. I also take notes on the presentation and decide a grade as well. After the conclusion of the presentation, whether it was an individual or team presentation, I lead a class discussion on the presentation material. That way, students get to hear some immediate comments as well as reading the written peer evaluations.

I usually ask for a copy of the presentation prior to the delivery date. (Getting the PowerPoint slides ahead also helps me ensure I have all the presentations loaded on the projector or computer so we do not waste class time.) Students either email it to me or place it on our classroom management system. I will provide their letter grade and make comments on the design of the presentation on the copy they gave me. However, I don’t explain the final grade right after the presentation since it is often hard for students who have just made a presentation to hear comments.

Summary Each of these suggestions may prompt you to try your own ideas. Remember that students improve when they receive thoughtful and useful feedback from their peers and you as their teacher. I encourage you to use this form or develop a form so that the criteria used to evaluate the presentations are clear and explained ahead of time. Now, you can enjoy evaluating their presentations.

Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT, is retired as a clinical professor of hotel and tourism management at New York University. As principal of Mayo Consulting Services, he continues to teach around the globe and is a regular presenter at CAFÉ events nationwide.

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Structuring presentations with a series of powerpoint slides is now the most common way of presenting information to groups.

Unfortunately, many presentations are not prepared well, which leads to bored audiences. Powerpoint presentations are a useful way to organize information coming from evaluations as well. To make your presentation effective, you need to take time to prepare your results into a clear and interesting story that will engage your audience’s attention.

Advice for choosing this method

• PowerPoint can only be used when there is a projector, a computer and power. Without a projector and a light space to project onto, the presentation will be ineffective for groups larger than a few people.
• A PowerPoint presentation is only good if it supports what a presenter tells, rather than if it becomes the main source of information

Advice for using this method

• Know who your audience is so that you can communicate to them most effectively.
• Start with a compelling story, and then supplement your story with Powerpoint slides.
• Keep the slides simple and avoid clutter: short text, colourful graphs or other relevant imagery.
• Try to plan your presentation to display one new point at any given moment – so that you stay in sync with your audience.
• Use a sans serif font for body text (e.g. Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri) as they are the easiest to read on screens.
• Follow the 10:20:30 rule:  Keep it short – 10 slides at the most - not longer than 20 minutes – and do not go under 30-point font size.
• Insert video  into the presentation to provide another way to bring across your message and to liven a presentation.

This website describes some of the 'sins' of slide show presentations and provides some useful tips on how to overcome these problems.

This article provides some important advice and tips for creating engaging and unique PowerPoint presentations

Wax, D. (2009). 10 tips for more effective powerpoint presentations. Lifehack. (Accessed 2012-05-15) http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/10-tips-for-more-effective-p...

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'Powerpoint' is referenced in:

• Week 13: Producing engaging and accessible evaluation reports

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What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

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