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As a business leader or a manager of people, presenting information to groups of staff, to customers, suppliers or prospects may very well take up a large portion of your time. Communicating in this way takes practise and a willingness to share information in a way that people will easily understand.

It must come from a place of trust and integrity, which means you must be honest, authentic and congruent. By congruent I mean matching what you say in your presentation to the way you say it, and to the non-verbal messages you give out in your body language (facial expressions, stance and gesticulations.)

If your message is emotive, your audience will pay more attention to body language and voice tone than to what you actually say!

In order to present professionally you need a high level of self-confidence, self-awareness and self-belief and a willingness to improve. You need to be willing to review your own performance and to ask for specific feedback from those you trust and you must really listen (or probe further) until you have some ideas for improvement going forward.

There are 3 steps to Presenting with Confidence:

1. Harness your attitude.
2. Improve your approach.
3. Work authentically through your own personality.

Step 1 – Harness Your Attitude.

By harnessing your attitude I mean recognising your internal dialogue when it occurs before, during and/or after your presentation.

Be aware of what you say to yourself. What negative thoughts do you have? Thoughts like

This will be terrible

Something’s bound to go wrong!

This isn’t going well or

That was awful.

These thoughts affect how we feel, which in turn affects how we perform now and in the future.

So, notice your internal dialogue, become aware of it, and figure out when it’s doing its worst to you – is it

• As you first start to plan and prepare your presentation?
• As you get nearer the date or time?
• Just before you start speaking?
• In the first few moments of your presentation?
• A little way in – as you start to become consciously aware of your voice or the attention of the audience?
• As you approach the end?
• Immediately after you finish?

It may be one or more of these but knowing where and when this affects you most means you can have something positive to put in its place.

Step 2 – Improve Your Approach.

Improving your approach is about ensuring you do everything possible to fully plan, prepare and practise what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it, so that you say it with confidence.

When planning you need to ask yourself the following questions:

What? Who? When? Where? Why? How?

Planning means being very clear on the purpose of your presentation and what you want the audience to take from it. This is crucial and should be the starting point for all your presentations. It often means that you work back from how you want to leave the audience (your closing.)

In fact, the open and close can be the same and they’re very important points at which to generate interest.

Think about appealing to the senses, using pictures, sound, music, smell (if appropriate) as well as speaking. Explore using emotions to grab attention – state a startling fact or statistic, paint a picture in words, use a relevant quotation – anything that will help people remember your key message.

Planning also means knowing who will be attending or who needs to be included, and thinking about how best to structure the presentation.

It means putting yourself in the audience’s shoes and asking WIFM? (What’s In it For Me?); thinking about the questions people might ask and being prepared for them as far as possible. It doesn’t mean you have to know absolutely everything, but it does mean that you have to think things through as much as possible.

When planning you need to think about how you can help people remember your key message; you can tell stories to illustrate your point, you can reiterate key points, as well as make sure you involve everyone by making eye contact, or by asking questions, if appropriate.

Emphasising points in an unusual way will also help people remember your presentation.

It’s worth pointing out here that none of us are particularly good at listening, and people retain more information if they see as well as hear, and even more if they can also “do” – so do tell stories and get the audience involved as much as possible.

Once you’ve planned your presentation you need to prepare. This involves deciding on visual aids, handouts (if appropriate) and ensuring you have sufficient facts, figures and notes to support you.

Practising is a very good idea, particularly if you are new to presenting or it is a very important presentation. This allows you to check venue, equipment and room layout, as well as help you with the flow of the presentation (and if you’re fairly new to this, it will also allow you to determine the length of time your presentation will actually take!)

Practising can also help you speak with passion and enthusiasm, as you need to be naturally interested in what you’re presenting, so that it comes across in your voice. If you’re not sure, try recording your voice and listening objectively – does your voice (tone and pitch, and use of emphasis and pause) match the words and convey the message you want?

If you plan, prepare and practise well so that you improve your approach, and you also harness your attitude for success by recognising your internal negative dialogue and putting something more positive and empowering in its place then you’ll be setting yourself up to Present With Confidence.

Step 3 – Work Authentically Through Your Own Personality.

This final step also includes using your appearance to your advantage.

By appearance I mean more than the way you’re turned out, (although it is important to dress appropriately) rather I mean that you should think about what you’re doing with your face. For example:

• Are you smiling or frowning?
• Do you exude sincerity and trustworthiness? or
• Do you appear nervous and apprehensive?

If this is something you’re not really aware of at the moment, then you could practise in front of a mirror, take a video recording (nowadays it’s easy to use your mobile phone to do this.)

Alternatively, you could ask for specific feedback from people you trust – either during a practice or rehearsal, or during your actual presentation.

When thinking about your natural personality you need to be aware of how you are and how you behave most of the time.

For example:

• Do you naturally use humour? Is it generally focused inwards or out? Are you good at thinking on your feet and delivering one liners or puns?
• How much or how little do you gesticulate during normal conversation? Some of us are very expressive with our hands and bodies, even with our faces; others less so.
• Are you naturally calm and tend to stand still? Or, are you full of nervous energy and like to move around when you’re talking?

I’m a great believer in working to your natural tendencies so that you’re authentic and appear much more natural and confident.

It’s no good trying to stand still with your weight evenly balanced and your hands clasped in front of you if you like to use your hands to emphasise points, and you like to move around!

By the same token, it’s no good trying to move and gesticulate if it doesn’t come naturally – you’ll feel more comfortable and look more confident if you stand still.

Remember, presenting with confidence is about your ability to be as authentic as possible and appear as natural and comfortable as possible; as you would if you were just having a conversation with someone!

So, harness your attitude, think positive thoughts, improve your approach, smile at every opportunity, and be yourself. Above all, get more experience because Presenting with Confidence really does get easier with practice!

The lists of bank and savings accounts that are available to most people are bewildering. A quick look at a comparison site like Moneynet or Moneyfacts will reveal thousands of different products. Unfortunately many of these accounts are not accessible for anyone with either a poor or even no credit history.

Research carried out for the National Consumer Council (NCC) reveals “that the poor pay more, or get less, for essential goods and services… having a bank account can be a gateway to other products and services, such as affordable credit and insurance”. To help counteract this problem of financial exclusion, the government has tried to initiate the introduction of basic bank accounts for the least well off. The NCC has however warned that, “the current model of basic bank accounts, introduced by government in 2000 in an attempt to enable all low-income consumers to access banking services, is not delivering.”

The new basic bank accounts were introduced as part of a wider push towards ‘universal banking’ and corresponded with the introduction of direct payment of social security benefits to bank accounts as well as the Post Office Card Account (POCA). The plan was that these accounts would also help their users by letting them set up direct debits to pay their utility bills, and so keep better track of their finances from week to week.

The accounts were originally designed to let people save and withdraw money, but in an effort to prevent extending any existing debts and stopping the accounts from becoming overdrawn, they don’t offer cheque books, overdrafts or other credit facilities. The accounts were intended for those with no credit history who might not meet the banks’ criteria for opening a standard current account. The accounts features typically include the ability for payments, for example pensions and benefits, to be credited direct to the account, withdrawals by plastic card through cash machines and the facility to pay bills by direct debit.

The problems experienced seem to be partly because the accounts do not always help those with a small weekly income to deal with the unpredictable gaps which can occur in wages, benefits or spending. Automated monthly direct debit payments for goods and services can prove of little use to many on low weekly based incomes. Those paid on a week by week basis, expressed a preference for weekly cash based, rather than monthly direct debit, budgeting options and felt that bank accounts with direct debit facilities would not provide them any advantages. By using cash instead of a bank account, they found they could juggle payments easier, and avoid punitive additional bank charges if they did not have the funds to hand, to cover an outgoing debit payment.

Another problem experienced was that the holders of these basic accounts are also liable to be those on low incomes, with low (if any) savings and are more likely to be in arrears paying their household bills than those without them. This vulnerable group are less likely than most to be able to deal with unexpected additional expenditure, such as an unforeseen bill for home repairs, but without recourse to any credit facilities, they may be forced into resorting to high interest loans to cover temporary setbacks.

The NCC found that “people on low incomes who use accounts to manage their money are more likely to be in arrears with household bills. They are also more likely to have outstanding credit commitments, partly because they have wider access to credit”, than those without accounts.

The government has set a target of halving the number of households which do not have access to a bank account by 2006. The banks state that they currently face a lack of demand, however more than two million applications, in excess of the government’s expected take-up, for the POCAs have been made. The banks are claiming that reaching the targets will be difficult, as they are being impeded by various barriers to opening basic bank accounts, such as the identification requirements in money laundering rules. Some of those on low incomes may not possess either a full driving license or full passport, and so find difficulties setting up new financial accounts. The banking industry has also been widely criticised for failing to actively promote basic bank accounts and, sometimes, for actually discouraging people from opening them.

The NCC proposed that basic bank accounts need to be more flexible. Suggestions to make the bank accounts meet the needs of consumers included offering weekly, rather than monthly, direct debit facilities where payments are only triggered if the money is available in the account, occasional payment holidays, and small free ‘buffer zone’ overdrafts.

Whether the lack of interest is due to the banks, the government, or the product itself, something needs to be done if there is to be an increase in the take-up rates. Half of those surveyed by the NCC felt they do not really need an account. An even more damning indictment of the current basic bank accounts was that a similar proportion of account holders preferred to withdraw all their income, rather than leave it in the account, and then manage it as cash. An inclusion policy may be a laudable idea, but it is no use if people do not want to be included, and it should not disadvantage those it is meant to help.