If there’s one skill that can positively impact your career trajectory in 2024, hands down it’s presentation skills.

Whether you’re a CEO, frontline employee, or shopfloor sales assistant, everyone needs to be able to communicate in an engaging and clear way.

But if you think back to your school or uni days, you may have been taught how to present information in a logical way, but not an influential way.

And when it comes to presenting to a board, your team, stakeholders or customers, being able to deliver your content in an engaging, persuasive way is pretty damn important.

It’s not just knowing what to say but feeling confident speaking in public. And there’s the rub, because the fear of public speaking is real.

But if you’ve been avoiding learning or practising this essential skillset, what is that costing you in your career?

Are you missing out on promotions?

Is someone else in the limelight because they are a better speaker? (Even though you’re more knowledgeable.)

Do you still experience a ton of anxiety every time you have to speak?

Being a great presenter rarely comes naturally, so unless you’ve learnt presentation skills the odds are not in your favour. Think you can wing it? Think again.

Here’s what can often happen when you step up to a podium or stand in front of a group of people and you’ve not prepared, not practised your skills or even have a vague outline of what you want to talk about.

• Fear can overwhelm you and your nerves can get the better of you (hello, sweaty armpits or cottonmouth)
• You can get flustered and forget what you wanted to say or repeat yourself.
• Your presentation can lack direction, so you lose the attention and interest of your audience (yawns, phone checking and downcast eyes are NOT good signs)
• You can lose authenticity because you’re too in your head and not truly present.
• Your nerves can lead you to use filler phrases like um, ah, or you know, which distract from the message you’re trying to share

Which of those do you relate to the most?

Here’s the good news: however competent (or not) you feel at public presenting right now, you can 100% get better at it – and much faster than you think.

We’ve worked with hundreds of leaders in our Gutsy Presenting program to overcome the fear of public speaking, learn how to present in a persuasive way, and finally become the clear, confident and composed speaker they want to be.

Here are 3 of the key skills we talk about that you can start to develop right now in order to deliver non-sucky presentations, no matter what size audience you are addressing.

1. Manage your anxiety

This might sound easier said than done, but you don’t want to show up to your presentation full of adrenaline and in a less than desirable state. That’s when you can get flustered, forget your content or speak way too fast.

Some of the key ways we teach speakers to overcome this is through:

• Preparation, so they know their content is solid. (See point no. 2.)
• Practise, so they get comfortable with what they’re saying and don’t have to read from their notes.
• Poise, so they learn and lean into their natural speaking style and can just be themselves on stage.

2. Use a structure so your message is clear, relevant and focused

We are big fans of a simple framework that includes a beginning, middle, and end, because it’s easy to follow and highly effective in getting your point across.

The beginning is your overview, where you set the context, share what you’ll be talking about and why it’s relevant to your audience, and perhaps tell a short story.

The middle is your core content that delivers on your presentation title. We encourage people to have 3 key points they want to get across and speak to them.

The end is the wrap up, where you recap what you’ve told them and share the call to action or next step you’d like them to take.

3. Be aware of your body language

This is all about knowing what you’re doing with your hands, eyes and voice.

Used well, hand gestures can add emphasis, but if people notice your hands more than your words, it’s a distraction. Find a happy medium.

Eye contact shows confidence and is a way of engaging and connecting with your audience. So don’t just read your notes, look people in the eye all around the room.

Your voice is a powerful instrument, it can go faster, slower, louder or softer. When you know how to really utilise this versatility, you can keep your audience paying close attention and listening to your every word.

Lastly, here’s a secret most people don’t tell you when it comes to being a speaker people want to listen to…

It’s not about adopting a ‘speaker persona’ or trying to deliver the next great Ted Talk, it’s actually about keeping it real and just being yourself.

In fact, you’ll create far more influence and impact if you do exactly that.