Surely not in 2019. Surely not.

I was at a conference last week and the standard of presentations was appalling. Not what they had to say, it was how they presented using PowerPoint. Eighty percent of them, including ones from the “Big 4” firms were just crap. How about this for a starting “Top Ten” list of what not to do when presenting:

1. Using crap fonts, crap images, crap layouts.
2. Using a font too small to read.
3. Profusely gripping the lectern while turning their head to read out loud what was on the slides that we all could have read (if the font was not so bloody small)!
4. Putting up slides with potentially some good information and staying on the page for too limited a time for the info to be taken in.
5. So many words on a page that you were trying to read while they were talking and to listen at the same time, and you did neither well.
6. Making too many points for people to keep up.
7. Using what was obviously a presentation from another time that had not been tailored and using comments like “Ah, that’s not so relevant for you guys so we’ll skip over that.”
8. Wandering off on a tangent at a whim that may have been interesting but caused them to run out of time.
9. Running out of time and clicking through and speaking at hyper speed.
10. Finishing in a most inelegant, easily forgettable way.

Yep. Every one of those gaffes happened and more than once! Most ticked multiple boxes.

When you are presenting you have an obligation to be impactful and that means you must be both thoughtful and compelling. That is, provide true insights AND be engaging. And you don’t need to be a rock star to pull it off.

If you have been following me for a while you will know I am big on persuasive conversations. In fact, I wrote a book on the topic, Winning Conversations, How to turn red tape into blue ribbon. A big part of what I teach individuals and teams is how to have that conversation. However, I am often asked to help people who are presenting to larger audiences and that is why I have a Persuasive Presentations Program (my version of a PPP lol – you will get that if you are in infrastructure).

The PPP is just half-a-day for up to 25 of your staff. They walk away more confident because they see the mistakes they have been making and are provided with a mechanism to be immediately better. To ensure they provide more insights and are more engaging than ever before.

Last week I felt like I got hit with a brick that was hurled from last century (those terrible presentations). Please, please, please. This has to stop.

Please get in touch so I can help your team stop doing damage to their and to your team’s reputation. Not to mention the damage to all the poor people sitting listening to them. I am running out of days this side of Christmas, but I reckon I could help at least a hundred and fifty people by then. Your staff could be amongst them.