Have you ever heard of a presenter who actually wants to fail? Hardly. Everyone wants to succeed. And yet, for one reason or another, the result often falls short of what we had in mind. When I look at where things go wrong, it almost always comes down to three culprits:
- Not being prepared enough.
- Drowning your audience in too much information.
- Lulling people to sleep with a lifeless delivery.
Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Just avoid the pitfalls. Let us take each one in turn, because knowing they exist is not quite the same as knowing how to step around them.
Pitfall one: turning up unprepared
We are busy all the time, and there is never quite enough of it. So our presentations rarely get the hours they truly need. Instead we show up with little or no idea of who we are actually presenting to. And that lack of knowledge about the audience has a cost: we generalise the topic, and we end up delivering a message that is flat and hollow.
The wiser path is to prepare. Take a look at the company's website. Talk to your colleagues about who will be in the room. Better still, call the contact person who asked for the meeting and ask whether there are examples or key questions you could focus on. And last but certainly not least, prepare for the questions that might come your way. Go through them in advance, write down your answers, and you will be able to deliver them easily and calmly the moment they are asked.
Pitfall two: drowning the audience in information
As experts on our own subject, we tend to sit on a mountain of information. And as experts, we also tend to love a particular kind of detail that is, frankly, completely irrelevant to the people listening. So picture yourself as a sender and your audience as receivers. Between the two of you sits a filter. Use that filter. Let through only what is most important and most useful for this particular situation. And keep one line in mind as you do: do not underestimate their intelligence, but do not overestimate their knowledge either.
Pitfall three: lulling your audience to sleep
There is a line I keep coming back to: "Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it." It is as true as it is well said. If you do not feel the nerves and the joy before you step onto the presentation floor, you may as well hand the baton to someone else.
Your enthusiasm should glow. With your body language, your vocal variety and your eyes, you should convince the people in front of you that you truly care about this subject. If your goal is to pass on that knowledge and that fire to someone else, then radiating it yourself is not optional, it is the whole precondition. Because enthusiasm is contagious. It creates a current, a hunger, a will. It makes a whole group want what you have, and very often think what you think.
Want to become a better presenter?
This is a short piece from David's knowledge bank. To go deeper, the best places are a keynote, a course, or one to one coaching.