Presentation Skills for Expat Professionals: How to Stay Focused, Confident and On Track When Presenting
Strong presentation skills are essential for expat professionals, yet many struggle to stay focused and on track when presenting in an international work environment. In my presentation skills trainings for expat professionals, participants often share that they lose their structure, deviate from their plan, or get distracted by nerves and audience reactions. This not only affects their confidence, but also prevents them from achieving their presentation goals. In this article, I share practical preparation tips and a powerful mindset shift to help you present with clarity, confidence and focus.
There are 2 things you CAN do to make sure you keep track when the time has come to present. Both, practical (during preparation) and from a mindset perspective.
Let’s start with the practical tips during your preparation.
- Do not dive into your slide software immediately. First craft your story!
Nancy Duarte, says:“When you’re creating a presentation it’s going to be really tempting to dive right into the slide software but that software forces you to think about your content linearly and in small chunks. Instead hammer out what you want to say and then think about the visuals that you need to support it. That way you’re going to craft your whole message instead of little bitty slide parts.”
Needless to say, it will be so much easier to remember your story when your starting point has been to craft your story FIRST. Instead of getting lost into the little bitty slide parts, that will disintegrate your story and thereby make it hard to keep track when you present.
“Reverse the order, first story, then slides to support your story.”
- Practice your presentation out loud! While doing this, you will lay a track in your memory. You already did it several times. You know you have the right terminology and words at your fingertips, you know you can flexibly talk about it. Tell the essence in own words.You will not only create your own elephant path, easy to follow when presenting, because it has already been“eroded”. Beside, this it will also help you to calm your nerves, make it easier to connect with your audience while presenting and make you a more convincing presenter. So, we have a WIN< WIN< WIN<WIN situation going on here ;-).
“It is almost impossible to lose track, when you have created your own elephants’ path by practicing out loud”.
Then, choose a helpful mindset
- Think of a mindset that will keep you in the “here and now” when you present.
Because nerves can distract you as well as reactions from the audience, it might help to embrace a mindset that will keep you in the “here and now”, or balanced, when you present. So, you will remain on track.
Kamala Harris, does this by embracing the words, “it is not about you.” By saying this to herself before presenting, she can focus on the story, instead of being preoccupied with what the audience might think of her.
It keeps her from being over conscious about herself. She knows that this, will distract her from her story.
Or maybe you say to yourself, “I am well prepared, now I let go” to keep you in the here and now.
Or “it does not have to be perfect. Doing my best is enough.”
In my experience, the combination of both the practical and mindset often make the difference.
Good luck!
Would you like to further develop your presentation skills as an expat professional? Learn more about my presentation skills training for expat professionals here.