Mediocre Training? Improve Your Presentation Skills with Author Dave Powell

If your nonprofit or association is delivering in-person or virtual instructor-led training, you probably have trainers who lead that experience. This one role can make a big difference in the outcome of the training. And while we focus a lot on creating the training for impact, it's also important to support the trainers. That’s why I invited Dave Powell, nonprofit veteran and author of The Presenter’s Dilemma, to talk about presentation skills for nonprofit trainers in today’s episode of Learning for Good.

Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓

Key Points:

03:35 How Dave’s career journey at YMCA actually started in his childhood

06:29 Why presentation skills are important and why nonprofits should develop presentation skills in their trainers

08:44 The most common internal and external challenges you will face when delivering a presentation or speaking in public

14:41 The importance of rehearsing before your big presentation

16:56 How a nonprofit can develop presentation skills in its trainers to boost training effectiveness

20:20 One of the best things you can do to develop your presentation skills

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Mediocre Training? How Better Presentation Skills Can Help

If your nonprofit is delivering in-person or virtual instructor-led training, you probably have trainers who lead that experience. This one role can make a big difference in the outcome of the training. And while we focus a lot on creating the training for impact, it's also important to support the trainers. That’s why I invited Dave Powell, nonprofit veteran and author of The Presenter’s Dilemma, to talk about presentation skills for nonprofit trainers in episode 29 of Learning for Good.

Dave Powell is the author of The Presenter's Dilemma, and an enthusiastic lifelong learner with advanced degrees in organizational leadership and management. 

He has recently retired and is a 43-year veteran of one of the nation's largest nonprofits. He was recognized as the leading faculty for the YMCA National Training and Leadership Development Program. He also worked at the local level from program director to senior vice president and COO.

Dave Powell has been presenting for the majority of his life – even as a young man directing youth camp in the summer – to large groups of colleagues at conferences and assemblies across the country. 

He hopes to teach others what he has learned from successes and mistakes throughout his career in the nonprofit sector. 

Speakers learn from their mistakes and become better each time they stand before a group. 

One of the many roles Dave had within YMCA was the role of a trainer, and he was  able to learn more about presentation skills over the years. 

Before we jump into what those skills look like and how you can improve and develop them, let’s cover why presentation skills are important for nonprofit trainers and why nonprofits should care to develop their employees' presentation skills.

Why Presentation Skills Are Important for Nonprofit Trainers

According to Dave, we’re all selling something, so “it's very important for people in any kind of profession, whether it be profit or nonprofit, to learn the skills of communication and selling.”

“At profit, we're learning to sell a product or services, but in nonprofit, we're selling the mission or what that organization does for others.” - Dave Powell

He’s very clear when he says that both in nonprofit and in for-profit, we are communicating with others – and we have to do a good job doing that and motivating people to come and join us or use our product.

He mentions during episode 29 of Learning for Good that he always challenges people when presenting to think about a teacher or a coach in their life that they admired and think about how they can develop those skills within themselves – and formulate a style and a repertoire inspired by them. 

After many years of helping and supporting trainers, he’s seen his fair share of challenges when it comes to speaking in front of a group or a crowd. 

So, before diving into presentation skills and how to improve them, let’s talk more about the challenges you might face when giving a presentation in your organization – and how to overcome them.

The Biggest Challenges of Speaking in Public

Dave separates these challenges into two different categories: internal and external.

1. Internal Challenges of Speaking in Public 

The most common challenge, which can even be a phobia in some cases, is the fear of public speaking. When doing research for his book, he found that studies show that about 75% of people out there “are absolutely scared to death to speak in front of other people.”

This sometimes manifests itself in physical symptoms like excessive transpiration, shaking, fear of choking, dry mouth, dizziness, and elevated heart rates. 

Another word for it is stage fright. And don’t feel bad if this is you, you’re not alone. Dave found out through his studies that people like Thomas Jefferson, Sigmund Freud, and Abraham Lincoln suffered from stage fright at some point in their careers.

Another social anxiety disorder mentioned by Dave is Scopophobia, the fear of people staring at you. 

“You're up there, and you're worried about what people are thinking of you, or how you’re coming across to others [...] it manifests itself physically as well as mentally or emotionally.”

This can look like nervousness, blushing, excessive worrying, elevated heart rate, and even panic attacks in more serious cases.

Whatever the issue is when speaking in public, according to Dave “you have this energy that seems to be challenging you to speak in front of others, or present in front of others.” 

So his solution for it is to face that negative energy and turn it into positive energy.

He believes you can use that energy to help you deliver your presentation. And maybe even have fun with it. 

“Enthusiasm, as you probably are well aware, is very contagious.” - Dave Powell

He points out that enthusiasm is probably the best way to overcome those challenges and turn that negative energy into positive energy.

2. External Challenges of Speaking in Public 

The external challenges Dave has found along the way are more mechanical in nature. Some of the challenges Dave points out during episode 29 were:

• Having the venue set up correctly

• Having the right equipment

• Ensuring the equipment is working properly

• Ensuring you look presentable and professional

But the biggest thing, in Dave’s opinion, is knowing your audience.

“Knowing the kind of people that you're talking to, their age ranges, their experience levels, their status within their own organization, those kinds of things. If you know your audience, that makes the presentation go a lot smoother because you're giving them something they need. And it's always about them. Not about you and what you're trying to portray to them, but what they need and how you can help them get to that point.” - Dave Powell (click to tweet)

The Importance of Rehearsing Before a Big Presentation

Needless to say, to deliver a good presentation or speech, it’s very important that you rehearse. 

“When you give a presentation, you're not going to show up five minutes before the presentation and just give it from the top of your head. You're going to rehearse it, you're going to practice it.”

And if you’re not quite sure how to do this, Dave shared a few tips, like getting in front of a mirror, recording yourself, or asking a friend or colleague to give you some evaluation as you go through your presentation. 

In his book, Dave recommends that you rehearse five to seven times, at a minimum – even if you've given the presentation in that same format time and time again.

Dave Powell: “You're respecting your audience at that point. And I can't reiterate how important it is to meet the audience's needs or your client's needs [...] It's all about them. And if you can meet their needs, it's going to take you a lot further. So that would be the one thing I would say is always practice before you go into those events or those situations.”

Now that we covered all that, you might be thinking, what does this all have to do with nonprofits?

How Can a Nonprofit Develop Better Presentation Skills

Let’s say a nonprofit is providing training, but the training isn't up to par, maybe it's a bit mediocre at the moment, better presentation skills would most likely help their trainers.

So, how can a nonprofit develop these presentation skills in their trainers?

Dave stated that the first thing that the leaders in that organization need to do is to take this seriously. 

“It isn't something else you do, it is what you do. It's very important that you put your best foot forward.”

He shared that when he used to be in operations, he’d have all his key directors be an expert in one subject so they could train others. And he found that if they were not strong at doing that, he’d discover local presenters that he could send them to, that they could watch and learn from.

“They can learn from the good ones, and they can learn from the bad ones, they can learn what not to do.”

He thinks organizations need to create opportunities for their staff to give presentations. So they can get the experience and nurture those skills. And this can be done internally.

Staff from different teams or departments could give presentations on their expertise to other groups within the community, small or large. 

Dave emphasizes that it’s very important that they get experience presenting and speaking.

“That's where a lot of the fears and challenges that we talked about earlier will dissipate. Because their folks have at least gone out there and watched and learned, and the more you learn, the more comfortable you get.”

But Don’t Get Too Comfortable 

“You should never be totally comfortable when you go and do your presentation. You need to have a little bit of nervousness; you need to have a little bit of edge (click to tweet). It's like riding a motorcycle. You want to keep that shiny side at all times. Once you get too confident, then it goes the other way, and you may have an accident. Same way with presentations.”

I love this motorcycle analogy Dave shared on the podcast episode. According to him, you want to make sure you have a little bit of that nervousness during a presentation or speech. 

You want to be ready for whatever happens.

“You never know what you're going to face in front of a presentation. You may come up with some folks that disagree with you. How do you handle those disagreements? Do you lose your temper? Do you lose your cool? Or do you know how to handle folks that are maybe not as agreeable or causing some kind of distraction?

Dave recommended joining a group like Toastmasters to better your presentation skills.

“Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, the organization's membership is approximately 280,000 in more than 14,700 clubs in 144 countries. Since 1924, Toastmasters International has helped people from diverse backgrounds become more confident speakers, communicators, and leaders.” - from Toastmasters’ website

Dave said Toastmasters can be great when it comes to getting you out there, evaluating you making your presentation, and getting your skill set better.

Giving presentations. Honing your skills. That’s what it comes down to.

I do happen to agree with Dave on getting people the training that they need and giving them the opportunity to practice because that's really where you start to get more comfortable. 

You develop that experience in more of a safe environment, so it starts to feel safer with time and practice.

Then you slowly can start to take on bigger presentations or be in environments that feel a little “scarier.” 

To hear the full conversation I had with Dave on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 29.