HR professionals need excellent presentation skills to perform their job. These skills help them not only to promote their ideas, and themselves, thus increasing their chances of career advancement. Alan Collins, the former HR Director of PepsiCo and author of specialized books in the field of HR, focused on this topic on his website Success in HR. He introduced his own simple rules for a thirty-minute presentation:
- Speak 22 minutes off the cuff.
- No slides, notes, or flip charts.
- Thorough preparation in advance.
- If I start by telling a joke, it should be a joke on me.
Alan Collin's experience clearly showed that the best presentations are simple, authentic and end with the listeners wanting to hear more. "I'm convinced that any HR professional can give terrific presentations if they're willing to speak, prepare in advance and have a passion for their topic," says Collins. In the article entitled "How To Give Insanely Great HR Presentations … And 37 Things You Should Avoid At All Costs" he focused on the biggest mistakes in presentations.
- Do not start off with the first slide without an engaging introduction.
- Do not show too many slides (e.g., 1 per minute or 60 per hour).
- Do not share only facts and data, but stories and examples.
- Beware of too much text on the slides, rather use more images. On the other hand, limit disruptive animations.
- Do not read the text on the slides word for word or repeatedly.
- Any text must be legible. Even if you apologize for small letters, it will not help.
- Do not turn your back on the audience.
- Do not play with a laser pointer, its better not use it at all.
- Do not stand stiffly without moving your hands. However, do not use too broad hand gestures either. Waving your arms around is not advisable.
- Do not walk around the stage like a caged lion.
- Do not stand in front of the screen because the slides will be projected on your face.
- Do not put your hands in your pockets and do not cross your arms.
- Be careful not to look like you do not care about the topic of your presentation.
- Do not recite your speech by heart, it sounds unnatural.
- Do not point to the slides or to your listeners using your middle finger.
- Never exceed the allotted time.
-kk-