Tips and Tricks for Effective Manufacturing Presentations
It's Gameday! Whether you feel ready or not, gameday eventually comes and its time for you to present. Maybe you didn’t sleep well the night before and that is common for new presenters. I liked to wake up extra early on presentation days and practice some more in the morning.
As a general rule, you want to dress one step up from your audience. Also, I learned is that its better to be warm than cold when presenting. If the conference room is cold and you are cold, it looks like you are nervous when you are presenting. Check out the room the day before and see if you can control the room temperature. If it is cold, then adjust the temperature up a little. If you can’t adjust the room temperature, then wear warmer clothes.
Get to the conference room early that day and stand-up front of the room and look out to the empty chairs. Stand up in the front of the room for a few minutes and walk around a little. This will immediately help you reduce anxiety. If you are using a computer and projector to present, then spend some time using the equipment. Load your presentation and flip through some slides. Make sure you know what buttons advance or retard your slides.
Use the rest room about 20-30 minutes before you present and then don’t drink water again until after you present. Make sure you do a zipper check too. You don’t want to be the person who presents with their fly down. When people start showing up, I like to sit towards the back of the room. Looking at the people in front of you gets you ready to stand in front of them. Then if you have the opportunity, present first. If not first, then try to present second. The longer you sit there waiting, the longer you need to absorb your high anxiety.
When You Present: When you go up to present, bring a pen and note pad with you so you can write down anything that requires follow-up. Then when you stand in front of the group take a second and just look at everyone and smile and say good morning or good afternoon.
I like to have an opening statement that helps me relax and get some audience smiles. A good opening statement might be, “You are all in for a real treat today because I have some great results to share with you!” This usually gets me some smiles and sets me at ease before I present. But you find an icebreaker that works for you. I thoroughly memorize my very first presentation sentence and I don’t worry about the rest of my presentation. Because I practiced my presentation so many times, I know that when I see a bullet point, I will know what I want to say. You never want to read notes or index cards. Just let your bullet points be your guide.
So again, start by looking around the room for a few seconds, say hello, provide a short ice breaker, then have your first sentence memorized. Then when you get into the meat of your presentation, project your voice well and just let it fly. Make good eye contact, show pictures and pass around examples. If you forget to say something, no one will know that you forgot to say something so don’t stress over it.
Close your presentation by asking if anyone has any questions for you and then make your way back to your seat. The more you do presentations, the better you get at them. If you are new to presenting, don’t be over critical of yourself. Be prepared and practice a lot and hone your skills over time.
You as a manufacturing supervisor, lead your production team and you are also part of a factory team. Both of those roles require you to lead and facilitate a variety of meetings. Understanding all of the aspects of different types of meetings will help you to be more effective as a leader.
Check out Tools for the Trenches to learn about the most effective supervisor training available for the manufacturing industry!
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