Unfortunately what happens is the slides contain the entire speech. If there was no one presenting the slides the audience could still understand the presentation simply by reading each slide as they are projected on to the screen. We have all experienced presentations where the speaker simply read every word on the slide and added nothing more…

Your slides need to enhance what you are saying, if they don’t – dump them!

The easiest way to avoid slides that contain too much text is to prepare properly. I find the best way is to brainstorm using post it notes (that’s right – a simple pen and paper method). You can move ideas around, get creative, and allow you to resist the urge to write your entire presentation on the slides.

Try and let me know how yo go… I know you will find it a liberating experience.

Aside from what skills a job description claims you should have, why should you have great public speaking and presentation skills?

1) Gain respect from colleagues
When you can stand up in meetings and present confidently to your colleagues you doing something they are fearful of invariably you will gain their respect. Your ability to deliver a presentation will set you apart from your colleagues and project the aura of a leader. People respect those who take on the leadership mantle – and you can gain their respect by being prepared to deliver effective presentations in the workplace.

2) Build your repuation within the industry
Apart from gaining a reputation within your own organization, if you have great speaking and presentation skills you can put yourself forward to speak at industry conferences. By delivering presentations at conferences you will develop a name and reputation, gaining credibility and recognition. When other companies look to hire someone with your skill set you will find them calling you first (with a great pay offer to complement your skills).

3) Impress senior management
There are few things more daunting than presenting to the senior executives of your company. In a few minutes you can kill your reputation or you can transform yourself into a company superstar with your presentation. I know what I’d rather do. People naturally reemember someone who was bad or someone who was great. You’ll find it much easier to get a promotion if they remember you for the right reasons.

4) Selling to your customers
Now you don’t have to be in a official sales role to make sales presentations. Almost every company department today has customer, either other internal departments or actual cash paying customers. Similar to the reasons above, you need to build their confidence in you and enhance your repuation with your customers through your presentations. If you give effective presentations you are more likely to gain the agreement on projects or purchase from you because they have confidence and understanding that you can deliver.

5) Gain confidence to stretch yourself
Maybe the biggest reason why you need to have great presentation and speaking skills for your career is confidence. Those people who have mastered the art of public speaking are more confident. They are prepared to try new things and back their ability to master new skills and do n, more challenging roles.

Self confidence is priceless!

During my set I experienced something I have not felt for quite a few years… I started to think about my next words.

Now, that might sound a little strange. But for me a presentation is internalized, and I dont consciously think what my next sentence will be. Instead I let if flow naturally like a conversation. What happened last Wednesday night, about three quarters of the way through my routine, was I swapped from following the internal script inside my heart to thinking about what I wanted to say in my head. The result – I lost my way for several seconds.

The challenge with “thinking” your presentations is you have to be word perfect. The minute you stray away from the script inside your mind your brain doesn’t know where it should head to next. Whereas if you can internalize the key points or themes of what you want to cover you can simply talk to the theme without being tied to knowing exactly which word you need to say next to maintain course.

I challenge you to internalize your next presentation rather than memorize. It will free your mind and your delivery to enjoy the process of sharing a presentation.

These soft skills are:

1. Empathy and understanding

To change an audiences thinking you need to understand where to start. In other words what are the members of your audience thinking and feeling right now. This is crucial to knowing the level to “pitch” your presentation. If you only know your destination and you have no idea where your journey originates the chances of successfully navigating are almost zero. A presenter who can tap into the current thought processes and emotions of an audience stands a far better chance of navigating their audience to his or her intended destination.

2. Organization

Organization is important on two separate levels. Firstly your presentation must have clarity of thought in relation to the ideas your are presenting. If your ideas are jumbled then by the time your presentation reaches its conclusion the minds of your audience will also be jumbled. Secondly, a presenter who is organized in their preparation will also perform better than a presenter who isn’t. Plan your time so you get to the meeting room early, don’t be tweaking your presentation as your audience arrives, meet and greet your audience. In other words get yourself organized so that when show time arrives your only focus is on delivering a great presentation.

3. Time management

This is somewhat related to organization, especially with your pre presentation preparations. But it also applies to the delivery of your presentation. If you have twenty minutes to deliver your presentation then stick to twenty minutes. Nothing will alienate an audience more than a presenter who believes that their presentation and what they have to talk about is the number one priority for everybody. Respect your audience and they will respect what you have to say. There’s never a good reason to go over time.

These “soft skills” aren’t what you’ll find written about in most presentation skills text books, but they are as important as your ability to use gestures effectively or your ability to use your voice to express passion. Don’t forget to develop your soft skills when you speak.

What went went wrong?
Rarely does everything go wrong. Take the time to isolate exactly what didn’t work. Think about everything that happened during the presentation, your preparation, and how the audience reacted. Was your preparation the cause of the problem? Did the room setup cause issues because some of your audience couldn’t see the PowerPoint presentation? Was a joke you said misunderstood?

There are a myriad of question you can ask yourself. Ultimately you need to isolate the reasons the your presentation didn’t have the intended impact.

What will you do differently next time?
Now you have identified the causes you can identify the solutions for next time you deliver a presentation. It could be as simple as arriving at the meeting room earlier to ensure that all the seats can see the screen through to taking more time in your preparation to ensure you fully understand the audiences need.

Identify a strategy or technique that you will apply to your next Presentation.

What did go well?
Finally, after you have dissected what went wrong and what you will do differently next time around take some time to reflect on what did work. Invariably for every one thing that doesn’t work you will find three things that did. Don’t allow the bad experiences taint your view of your skills. Remind yourself that you can do this, you are able to deliver presentations successfully, and you do have the skills to speak in front of groups of people.

Use any dark cloud that hangs over your presentations to your advantage – find the silver lining and grow.

The conventional method is responsible for the text heavy slides seen in too many PowerPoint presentations. How can we change this?

I’ve been inspired by a book by Garr Reynolds called Presentation Zen. In the book he advocates putting the technology down and to start drafting your presentation in pencil. I’ve experimented with the process for the last couple of PowerPoint presentations I’ve given and I’ve had a more enjoyable time preparing the presentation, a better reaction from the audience, and better outcomes after I’ve finished.

Check out the book and let me know what you think of the process Garr recommends.

It’s bad manners to over stay your welcome on stage!

By going overtime you force someone else to cut something out their speech to make up for the lost time or, even worse, you make the whole audience late because you wanted to indulge yourself on stage.

When you are invited to speak to a meeting always ask how long you have been allocated. And, NEVER go longer than you were invited to speak for. It’s just good manners.