Public speaking and presentation skills for HR professionals

It is also worth reviewing some of the principles of how to create effective presentation decks. Let’s face it, as HR and learning and development practitioners we’re often called upon to put together PowerPoint presentation decks (or presentations using other software tools such as Prezi).

There is a school of thought that says tools like PowerPoint should be used sparingly if at all. Some experts argue slide decks are unnecessary and distracting. If they are used at all, they say, presentations should only contain a handful of slides and be focused largely on visual images rather than text.

I personally believe PowerPoint has its place, but it should be used sparingly in some situations. According to this article by Witt Communications, PowerPoint isn’t really effective in situations where the speaker is trying to establish a sense of leadership, engage and connect with the audience or solicit audience participation, where there is limited preparation time or where the audience has been subjected to too many presentation decks.

The following are some tips and strategies for effective public speaking, followed by some best practices for developing presentation decks.

Public speaking tips and strategies