The John Adair Handbook of Management and Leadership

Chapter 8: Communication and presentation 191

6 Delivery on the day

Overall you should ensure that your presentation’s:

• beginning– introduces yourself properly, captures the audience
  and gives the background, objectives and outline of your talk.


• middle– is kept moving along (indicating whether questions
  are to be asked as-you-go or at the end) with eye contact over
  the whole audience, at a reasonable pace, with a varying voice
  and obvious enjoyment on your part.


• end– is signalled clearly and then goes off with a memorised
  flourish.


• questions– are audible to all (or repeated if not), answered
  with conciseness, stimulated by yourself asking some questions,
  dealt with courteously and with the lights on.


• conclusion– is a strong summary of talk and questions/
  discussions and closes with words of thanks.
  If you find you are nervous (and this is normal) experiencing fear
  and its physical manifestations, remember to:
  1 Breathe deeply
  2 Manage your hands
  3 Look at your audience
  4 Move well
  5 Talk slowly
  6 Compose and relax yourself
  7 Remember that the audience is invariably on your side
  8 Project forward to the end of the presentation and picture the
  audience applauding at the end.