As I’ve been coaching both new and seasoned business presenters, two particular athletic analogies have proven really useful. (Full disclosure: I know stuff about sports, but it’s hardly my pastime of choice.) See if these resonate with you, and use them to help with the emotional/mental preparation you do to get ready to present. To deal...
read more
This article was originally published on PresentationXpert.com, an online magazine devoted to helping people take their presentation skills to the next level. Think back to the most recent meeting or presentation that you led or participated in. Was it effective? Was it efficient? If you’re like most business people I’ve asked, your response is...
read more
Here’s a question I found intriguing on LinkedIn. It’s from a woman named Alexis. We do mid-year meetings with our customers to review the services we’ve delivered and make sure expectations are being met/exceeded. In the interest of consistency, we’ve developed a PowerPoint template with key topics to include – the expectation is that it...
read more
It’s pretty close to impossible to get all the way to your first real job without hearing the phrase, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” What people usually mean by it is look professional—like management—even if you are interviewing to be a line cook / intern / stockroom staffer. The...
read more
“I want my presentation to be perfect.” This is something we hear from our course participants now and then, and I reckon more people think it than actually say it. Most of the time, when people talk about a “perfect” presentation, they seem to mean that their presentation goes exactly the way they envision it...
read more
Business presentations and meetings exist for one reason: to move business forward. And they ought to do that effectively and efficiently. But do they? As it turns out, in far too many cases, no. Backstory Some time ago, I delivered a keynote address at a conference. The presentation focused on some of the ideas in...
read more
If you’re a business presenter, you know that the presentations you deliver serve one purpose—they help you get business done. Your presentations aren’t big speeches. They aren’t TED talks. They’re practical, necessary, and far too often time-consuming and frustrating. If you’re like most presenters, you probably spend too much time worrying that you’re over or under-prepared,...
read more
While listening to All Things Considered on NPR yesterday afternoon, I heard a story about video game jargon. Although I don’t know anything about video games, by the end of the story, I knew exactly what they were talking about. It was part of a special series ATC is doing on trade lingo. The show’s producers have...
read more
Why a Performance Approach to Business Presentations Doesn’t Work Presentations should not be confused with speeches. Speeches are a type of performance. Presentations are a type of conversation. That’s why we’ve redefined them as “Orderly Conversations.” Unfortunately, many people, even industry experts, hang on to the idea that a presentation should be “performed,” that it...
read more
A recent workshop participant said, “I don’t want to simplify this slide. The abundance of the data is where the story is.” As his coach, I cannot argue with that. This is exactly why those one-size-fits-all rules about the number of bullets or words on a slide don’t work. Admittedly, sometimes less is more. (And...
read more