This month, my colleague did a workshop on presentation skills while working from home and I must commend her because surely the irony wasn’t lost on her, but she did a great job doing this virtually. I don’t think many understand the difficulties and if I daresay, the perils of conducting an interactive session via Zoom. Still, she shared some great insights including tips on keeping eye contact, engaging the entire audience, eliminating fillers and eliciting audience responses, and ways to calm nervousness and anxiety. The entire session garnered some personal revelations and I thought I’d share a few of those lessons that I learned.
During our first exercise, we were paired with another team member and asked to describe two places we’d like to visit and why while using little to zero filler words. We each had one minute to speak. My partner spoke about Bali and Greece but if I told you I knew why she picked those places I’d be lying. I was too busy thinking about what I would say during my minute that I had no room to process what she was saying during hers. And the two destinations I suggested remain a mystery, as I have no way of recalling what I mentioned.
The first lesson learned? Actively listen, respond in kind and don’t overthink it.
In another exercise, we were once again paired up and asked to describe our hometown. After each sentence, we would snap twice to pace ourselves, ensuring that we weren’t rushing through our dialogue. I floated in the Zoom abyss for a little bit until finally, I was paired with a colleague. I told him to begin and he promptly reminded me that the first letter of my last name was before his in the alphabet and therefore, I was to go first. I began my spiel and then a combination of nervousness and technological challenges pushed me to accidentally exit the breakout room, abandon my partner and return to the main Zoom line.
Lesson number two – learn and perfect the meeting logistics beforehand; and hold your hands steady, lest they go rogue and embarrass you.
In our last exercise, we were put into two large groups and recounted one of our first money-earning jobs. With each sentence, we had to address and make eye contact, as best as we could in a digital meeting, with each person in the group. I didn’t get a chance to participate, as there were many of us, but I could already tell what I would have done wrong. I almost missed when my colleague called my name because I was concerned with how terrible I looked on camera compared to others in my group. But then it dawned on me that I couldn’t possibly be the only one concerned with my looks on camera.
And that’s when I learned my third lesson – Vanity during a digital meeting is useless because everyone is looking at themselves.
I learned quite a bit about myself during this presentation and hope others can relate. In addition to the tips on projecting confidence, calming my anxiety and taming my adrenaline, I’ve picked up on my own presentation habits and I look forward to getting the chance to improve them.
- Tanya Merisier, Account Associate