Presentation training is so important because the ability to communicate effectively and with impact is one of the most valuable skills in the world today.

Each week at Mindful Presenter we have the pleasure of working with some of the largest, most successful and influential brands in the world. As we do so, it quickly becomes clear to us that regardless of how experienced a speaker someone is, what their status in the company is or even how confident they are, we can help them connect more effectively with their audience.

There is always more to learn

From a personal perspective that just happens to be a principle I hold about every aspect of life; not just the ability to present well.

I’ve been speaking and presenting to large audiences for many years both in senior executive positions and as a presentation skills coach and even though I regard myself as a highly experienced and effective speaker, I still have regular coaching myself.

When we aren’t coaching or being coached, I and my team invest a great deal of our time researching the latest scientific, commercial, practical and mindful ways of communicating with impact.

Whatever business or stage of life you are in, regardless of your role, you are constantly presenting. It could be to your boss, your colleague or a customer, a supplier or even your bank manager.

Whatever the situation, the way you communicate will have a personal impact on someone and I believe we owe it to ourselves and the person we are speaking with to be mindful of that impact.

The 20 reasons everyone needs presentation skills training

1- To persuade and convince others to do business with you or see things differently.

2- To create a personal impact and be remembered for the right reasons.

3- To develop your own personal confidence and belief in yourself.

4- To climb the career ladder and get the results you want.

5- To grow and develop emotionally, intellectually and even ‘spiritually’.

6- To learn exactly what works for you today in the way you communicate.

7- To identify and practice the opportunities available to you to communicate more effectively and with greater impact

8- To deal with difficult people and challenges with more control and less stress.

9- To be able to resolve conflicts calmly and effectively.

10- To be more influential in your company, industry and marketplace.

11- To be more assertive when you need to be.

12- To lead your team, department or business more inspirationally.

13- To express yourself more effectively emotionally as well as intellectually.

14- To engage, excite and inspire others.

15- To lead change.

16- To create and develop the personal brand you want to have.

17- To get your message across clearly, concisely and compellingly.

18- To connect with others authentically.

19- To ‘win friends and influence people’.

20- To make a difference

Life is a 24 hour 365 day a year conversation

We never stop speaking to someone about something. If it’s not another human being then you can be certain you are having endless conversations with yourself every day.

We continue that conversation even when we are sleeping; it’s called dreaming.

Given the fact that apart from breathing, it’s virtually the only thing we are constantly doing, I believe that we owe it to ourselves to get good at it.

Presenting isn’t about standing in front of an audience reading out bullet points on slides or just giving senior management your quarterly update. Every time we speak we are presenting and whilst it’s something most of us do ‘automatically’, we often don’t appreciate how complex human communication really is.

It’s the only tool we have to influence others, change attitudes, establish and develop relationships and express our emotions; among of course a whole host of other things I could mention which would form a book of its own.

It’s easy to think that we can simply say something which we already completely understand and feel strongly about and believe that our listeners will understand and connect with our message.

There are no rules

Scientists believe that there are at least 100 billion stars in the ‘observable’ universe and we believe that there are at least as many different ways of communicating.

We are all different, that’s what makes life fun as well as interesting and I believe that one of the greatest challenges we all face for our personal growth, success and happiness is learning to communicate with each other in a way that matters, works for us and more importantly those listening to us.

At Mindful Presenter we believe that presentation skills’ training is by far the best vehicle to help us to begin to understand the infinite dynamics of highly effective communication.

What is Mindful Presenting?

If you asked us that question in one of our workshops we wouldn’t respond by saying ‘that’s a great question’.

Why?

Because such an answer often lacks sincerity, it disrespects the questions others may have asked before and it’s an automatic response making it ‘mindless’ rather than ‘mindful’.

This is how we would respond.

Mindful Presentation skills training is designed to focus on every one of the 20 opportunities listed above yet the difference revolves around the way in which we help you to achieve those goals.

We have plenty of ‘tools’, ‘techniques’ and ‘processes’ but in our experience they generally serve to perpetuate the huge problem we see in businesses today in that everyone is using them so most presenters sound the same.

Mindful presenting:

– Removes a great deal of the anxiety, stress and difficulty of understanding and owning your own voice.

– Gives you the personal presence, confidence and gravitas to connect authentically with yourself as a speaker and also your audience.

– Breaks down barriers, personal limiting beliefs and the unconscious need to ‘conform’.

– Allows you to speak with the paradox of authority and vulnerability inherent in each of us and not being afraid to do so to get the results you want.

– Substantially increase your faith and confidence in yourself and your audience.

– Helps you to feel good about yourself knowing that you’ve not only made a difference but that you have been true to yourself.

If you believe you are already a great communicator and presenter and you have some great ideas, thoughts and suggestions to help others, please share them with our readers in your comments, we’d love to read them.

If however, this article has left you wondering, ‘What else is there?’, then feel free to get in touch.

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If this article has inspired you to learn a little more about how effective your presentation skills are you may want to take a look at our presentation training and presentation coaching pages to see how we may be able to help you. You will also find a great deal of really helpful ‘free’ information in our Learning Centre.

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