Why Presentation Skills Matter Now More Than Ever

AI is helping to revolutionise the way businesses operate and with that comes a whole new set of challenges for L&D leaders and talent professionals. One of the most important industry-wide mandates for 2024 is to ensure both the organisation and people embrace the benefits of AI in a timely and impactful way. Increased efficiency, cost savings, greater customer personalisation, improved accuracy and scalability, are among a number of benefits seen as a result of integrating AI-based platforms into the workplace. So how does this impact on the training needs of employees when so many tasks can now be automated?

Not surprisingly, well not to us here at SecondNature anyway, L&D professionals are prioritising human skills or ‘soft skills’ as the way to meet the demands and opportunities presented by AI. In a recent LinkedIn Learning study among L&D and talent professionals, interpersonal skills and presentation skills saw the highest growth rates last year in terms of the skillsets required to boost organisation growth in the new AI era.

A workforce that possesses strong communication and business presentation skills can have a direct impact on the company’s growth, success and reputation. Not only that, it can create better leaders, increase morale, and significantly improve employee retention. In an environment where AI can create a more level playing field, it will be the quality of the people within the organisation and their ability to communicate effectively and persuasively that sets one company apart from the next. In this blog we’ll look at why equipping your employees with strong communication skills will benefit your organisation, make your workforce more productive and significantly boost talent retention.

What are the Business Benefits of a Workforce with Strong Communication and Business Presentation Skills?

It is critical to remember that good communication and presentation skills aren’t merely about public speaking – they encompass the art of structuring, delivering, and refining messages to engage, influence and persuade various audiences across a range of different business settings. 

Organisational benefits include:

• Improved collaboration and teamwork. Better communication between team members leads to improved and streamlined project outcomes and boosts innovative thinking.
  
• Enhanced customer relationships and loyalty. Good communication skills lead to increased trust and loyalty among customers and stakeholders and promotes better service delivery.
  
• Increased productivity and efficiency. Communication and presentation skills training enables team members to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to prepare for meetings and produces more effective and persuasive presentations.
  
• More successful new business outcomes. Being able to tailor a pitch, communicate what differentiates your offering, and understanding the techniques for building strategic partnerships drives new business growth.
  
• Clear roles and objectives. Teams are aligned with organisational goals by the effective communication of a company’s Vision and Purpose and then their roles, objectives and areas of responsibility within that.
  
• Positive Image. A company known for it’s excellent internal and external communication builds a strong reputation amongst its industry peers.
  
• Better leadership. Team leaders with effective communication skills can inspire and motivate employees and promote a positive organisational culture.

In the same LinkedIn Learning Study workplace employees were asked what they wanted from training. In the number one spot was progression towards career goals, and effective communication skills, as we know, are critical for career advancement.

Benefits for employees include:

• Career advancement. Employees with excellent communication skills are naturally seen as leaders and are more likely to be promoted.
  
• More positive working environment and greater employee morale. Good communication fosters better working relationships and collaboration and promotes a positive working environment.
  
• Improved skillset. Communication and presentation training gives employees access to skills they may not possess, boosting confidence and a sense of accomplishment. Employees feel more valued as a result.

Talent Retention. A happy and engaged employee is a more productive and loyal employee. Retaining talent and reducing turnover is far more cost effective for the organisation than hiring new staff. If we look back at the top 4 ‘soft skills’ that have shown the most growth: Inter-personal Skills, Presentation Skills, Problem Solving and People Management, all of them can be significantly improved by tailored and personalised business communications and presentation training.

Creating a Clear, Concise and Persuasive Narrative Leads to Enhanced Communication.

One of the most frequent feedback comments we get from our programme participants at the start of the coaching journey is ‘how am I supposed to present if I’ve never been taught to?’ It’s not a skill that comes naturally or inherently to many of us. And public speaking, for a large number of employees, is one of the most stress-inducing aspects of their business career. Our focus when coaching participants is to equip them with the skillset they need to create clear, concise and persuasive messages and presentations that can be implemented across a range of team, organisational and client settings.

Our clients tell us that as a result of our training they see immediate and career-lasting improvements in their people’s ability to create more concise, engaging, and convincing presentations, and deliver them with increased confidence, clarity of thinking, and impact. They also tell us that the time it takes them to put presentations together is significantly reduced as a result of the training.

Our training includes the use of storytelling techniques to engage with the audience, how slideware and multi-media can be creatively employed to bring the story to life, the role of movement , body language and gestures in non-verbal communication, the tone, pitch and pace of delivery, the role of pausing – did you know there are 9 different types of pauses that help to create impact? – and how to simplify complex ideas, to name just a few.

Importantly, we don’t assume that what works for one person will work for another. So, not only are our programmes fully tailored for your business, but they are also personalised for each individual. Our personality-centric approach ensures people develop the communication and presentation skills that suit their natural style. This retains their authenticity and ensures the skills make a career-long difference to their communication and presentation success.

How Can L&D Professionals Help to Improve Communication Skills Throughout the Organisation?

For decision-makers in Learning & Development, and other leadership roles, investing in your team’s presentation skills can transform how your organisation operates and competes. It gives employees the skills they need for their role now, the skills for the roles they want in the future, and just as importantly, it gives them an invaluable life skill.

The most effective way to rapidly improve the communication and presentation skills of the workforce is to enrol them in a tailored programme, either in-person or online, that best suits the needs of your organisation and business goals. At SecondNature, we have a range In-Person and Online solutions to suit all levels and roles. They can be run in-house as group programmes or as an individual 1-to-1 coaching programmes. 

You’ll see immediate and tangible results after our training. But of course, to help cement their new abilities and confidence, managers should give them lots of opportunities to practise their newly acquired skills.

If external training is not an option right now, then why not set up an informal programme internally using our vast library of blogs covering a wide range of confidence building tips and tricks from How to Overcome Nerves right through to How to Prepare a Presentation at Short Notice . Get your team to work through a blog topic together and then practise in front of each other. Honest and constructive feedback will help and it’s also a great way to evaluate existing skills and identify skills gaps. Top tip, use our 6- point presenter skills checklist to help you to evaluate performance. Our monthly newsletter also includes our latest blogs plus L&D Events information and latest industry trends.

Presentation skills training is not just about enhancing individual performance -it’s about creating a workforce that can contribute to your business’ success.  Whether it’s informal team meetings, project updates, a sales pitch, a high-stakes board presentation, or a company-wide all-hands, strong presentation skills directly impact your organisation’s bottom line.

Gain a Strategic Advantage in Today’s Market: How We Can Help

At SecondNature, we specialise in empowering leaders and teams with the presentation skills they need to excel. Our tailored training programmes focus on both content creation and delivery, ensuring your team can deliver presentations that resonate, persuade, and drive action. Connect with us today to learn how we can help your organisation sharpen its communication skills and achieve lasting success.

For nearly 20 years we have been known as the Business Presentation Skills Experts, training and coaching thousands of people in an A-Z of global and local organisations. View our presentation skills training and coaching reviews to check out what they say about our programmes.

We have a wide range of customised corporate training solutions, both in-person and online to choose from, each of which can be tailored to your specific business needs.

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Written By Belinda Huckle

Co-Founder & Managing Director

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Belinda is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of SecondNature International. With a determination to drive a paradigm shift in the delivery of presentation skills training both In-Person and Online, she is a strong advocate of a more personal and sustainable presentation skills training methodology.

Belinda believes that people don’t have to change who they are to be the presenter they want to be. So she developed a coaching approach that harnesses people’s unique personality to build their own authentic presentation style and personal brand.

She has helped to transform the presentation skills of people around the world in an A-Z of organisations including Amazon, BBC, Brother, BT, CocaCola, DHL, EE, ESRI, IpsosMORI, Heineken, MARS Inc., Moody’s, Moonpig, Nationwide, Pfizer, Publicis Groupe, Roche, Savills, Triumph and Walmart – to name just a few.