The ability to deliver a powerful presentation is a critical skill that all employees need today, not just leaders and managers. It seems to me that PowerPoint has become the ubiquitous communication tool of the corporate world. Hours and hours are spent trying to create the ‘perfect deck’ (which I believe is impossible). Changes and tweaks are made until well past the ‘last minute’. Reams of paper are wasted printing copies for everyone in the room.

As a professional speaker.  I am continually learning my craft. How to weave humour into my talks. How to engage an audience with eye-catching and interactive visuals done by tools like google templates slides in building interest, whether it’s 10 people or 700 IT, leaders. It’s an ongoing journey, one that I love, and critical to my business success. I invest time and effort into every presentation and audience, and as a result, I am sought out to speak at corporate and industry events.whether it’s 10 people or 700 IT, leaders. It’s an ongoing journey, one that I love, and critical to my business success. I invest time and effort into every presentation and audience, and as a result, I am sought out to speak at corporate and industry events.

Working with speakers

As a result of the hundreds of speeches, I have delivered I am often asked to work with leaders who are looking to improve their own platform skills. I’ve been in the audience for a number of presentations and conference events, which is a double-edged sword. I ALWAYS learn something, from the content the presenter is delivering, and often from the strengths and mistakes in their delivery.

In the presentations I attended some of the presenters excelled, others made easily avoidable mistakes that negatively impacted the quality of their presentation. What I have learned (and am still learning as I hone my skills) is that public speaking is a skill like any other. Pay attention, listen to feedback and PRACTICE and you can avoid ruining your next powerful presentation.

If you are uncertain what to do (or what NOT to do) here are 5 ways to ensure you deliver a powerful presentation:

1. Steady Eddy

One of the presenters I listened to last week delivered their presentation at a consistent and steady speed.   Unfortunately, without pausing to allow their points to land, it became a uniform torrent of information that became increasingly hard to follow and as it went on the speed of delivery increased like a train leaving the station until it blurred into one long monotone.

As a powerful presenter, you must remember that when it comes to public speaking, inhaling is OK. You. are. allowed. to. breathe. Please pause, count to three as you move between slides, key points, or when you ask a question. That way your audience has time to hear what you have said, process it and decide to respond.

2. Too Quiet

One event was in a lovely large room. Plenty of light, plenty of space, unfortunately not plenty of sounds. Most of the speakers used their ‘inside voice’ and made no attempt to project their words. In one case a speaker stood up and uttered the immortal words

“It’s OK I speak loud enough. I don’t need a microphone.”

As a powerful presenter, you must remember that while you might not think you need a microphone, your audience does. Make it easier for us to hear you so we don’t have to strain if a microphone is available, use it.

If you are in the unfortunate situation of not having a microphone then remember that as the size of the group and room increases you have to increase your volume, use your ‘presenting and projecting voice’. Consider standing in the middle of your audience (unorthodox to some) rather than the traditional ‘front of the room’. It will help.

3. Reading the script

I don’t care how good your hairstyle is, I don’t want to see the back of your head, and if you are a quiet speaker (who isn’t using a microphone) when you turn to face your slides to read them we definitely can’t hear you.

If we can read the words then we don’t need you. Your slides should be a support mechanism. The same goes with your script, by the time you stand up to present, you shouldn’t need to read it.

As a powerful presenter, you must practice and learn your presentation! While I never speak without having my script nearby, it’s there just in case my mind goes blank (and it does on occasion). I practice and make sure I KNOW my presentation before I stand up in front of my audience. If you are reading it you may as well email it to me since I learned to read in primary school too.

4. Boring Slides

It would appear that ‘Death by PowerPoint’ is a real issue. Just because you can fit 15 bullet points onto a slide and it automatically adjusts to micro-font doesn’t mean you SHOULD! Stop it! Your clue that your slides need work is when you say something like

“You probably can’t read this, let me talk you through it.”

Nor should you go with the 5-bullets/5-word approach throughout – that too is boring.

As a powerful presenter, you must find a happy medium between words and images that also help communicate your message. Remember – Use visuals judiciously, not viciously. PowerPoint is not your friend.

5. Winging It

The idea that presenters can wing it and everything will be OK seems to be particularly endemic when leaders present to their colleagues. I would suggest that we should practice even more when presenting to people we know, and in any case, we should all be practising every time we present to a new audience.

As a powerful presenter, you must practice out loud. Practice doesn’t mean thinking about what you are going to say, it means standing up and saying it. Trust me, what you think and what you hear can be two very different things! Better still, involve a friend to be your trial audience and give you feedback, you won’t regret it.

Don’t inflict death by PowerPoint on your colleagues. Avoid bad habits and appoly these 5 steps and I promise the quality of your communications will go up. You will produce powerful presentation.

Image courtesy of depositphotos

  • About the Author
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Morag Barrett helps leaders achieve outstanding results through the power of their professional relationships. She is an in-demand keynote speaker, executive coach, leadership expert, and bestselling author of three books: Cultivate: The Power of  Winning Relationships, The Future-Proof Workplace, and You, Me, We: Why we all need a friend at work (and how to show up as one!)

Morag excels at helping leaders and organizations see the gaps in their development and discover new ways to move past them. A pragmatic ideator, she finds unique solutions to problems (usually through the power of connection). Her greatest joy lies in giving leaders the tools, encouragement, and resources they need to become the best authentic versions of themselves they can be. 

She also…

  • Has helped more than 15,000 leaders from 20 countries on 4 continents improve the effectiveness of their leaders and teams.
  • Is the proud mother of three 6ft tall sons who can thoroughly beat her in basketball, but don’t stand a chance in Scrabble.
  • Has been featured by Entrepreneur.com, Forbes, and The American Management Association among others.
  • Spent three weeks at sea with a group of Estonian sailors.
  • Prefers gin to scotch, despite having a Scottish name (it means “great” …and she is!).
  • Is a member of the 100 Coaches organization formed by Marshall Goldsmith.
  • Has more than 50 unicorn themed items at home (none of which she has bought for herself!)