When you’re making a presentation, do you find yourself:
Copy-pasting a Word document onto a Powerpoint, then read the content word for word?
Reciting the numbers on the screen, then freezing when an audience member asks you a question?
Having your boss answer that question, then he takes over the rest of the presentation? (You quietly slink back to your seat.)
If that’s you, you’re sabotaging your career. Think of a business presentation as an audition for higher responsibilities. Everything else being equal, employers value those who communicate well.
Here’s my pitch: What you may need is not another workshop on presentation skills. Rather, you need a change in thinking. Do you see yourself as a reporter or an expert?
The reporter is the first guy I described who reads the Powerpoint word for word… and irritate the audience member who can read faster than you can speak. He’s also the guy limited to the content on the screen. Throw him a question and he draws a blank, then pulls in an expert, usually the boss, to rescue him.
So why not be that expert? In doing so, the audience will see you as boss material. Here are some suggestions.
1. See the numbers as stories.
It’s one thing to rattle off the numbers. It’s another to tell the audience what they mean. Is there a problem? How bad is the problem? What do the data say is causing the problem? Where do you and the audience go from there?
Once you get the hang of this, you will be more conversational than robotic. What’s more, because you know what the numbers mean (and not mean), you won’t be caught flat-footed in the Q&A.
2. Use bullet points.
When you copy-paste a Word document to a deck, you didn’t actually create a deck. You might as well project the original Word and read from there. There’s no real difference! So why do people do it? Because it’s easy. In reading the text, you’d just be coasting along.
I’ll give an example in Part 2, as well as offering a third suggestion.
Meantime, if you know someone who struggles as a reporter, do that person a favor and share this post with him. He or she will thank you for it.
June 12, 2024
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