Making Presentations at Meetings
The presentation is one of the most important of all tools for the executive. Many individuals change their minds and many companies change their strategies as the result of an effective presentation by a well-prepared person. A good presentation gives you an opportunity to demonstrate competence, preparation, knowledge, expertise, and command of your subject. Because of their potential importance to your future, effective presentations cannot be left to chance.
Present to Persuade
It has been said that the course of human destiny is affected more by the spoken word than by any other influence. It is changed by the individual standing (or sitting) and presenting in such a way that people are persuaded to think, feel, and act differently than they would have in the absence of the presentation.
Think of a presentation as a speech or oration, only with smaller groups and greater audience participation. In a speech, you open with words that set the stage, gain the attention of the audience, and point in the direction in which you are going. When you open your presentation, everyone in the room should know what you are going to be talking about.
You then develop your presentation in stages, one point at a time, each point leading logically into the next point. Whenever possible, use examples and illustrations to prove your points or drive them deeper.
The Job to Be Done
Each talk or presentation has a job to do. The purpose of your making a presentation is to make a sale of some kind. It is to get people to take action on your suggestions that they would not have taken if they had not heard you speak.
Plan your opening word for word, and rehearse it over and over again in your mind, aloud, and in front of a mirror. Your opening comments set the stage, build expectations, and communicate a clear message to your audience.
In the course of giving your talk, you should think about the visual elements that you can use to illustrate your points and make them come alive for the meeting participants.
PowerPoint in Speaking
Whether you use PowerPoint depends on many factors. Many presenters at meetings have started to rely on PowerPoint presentations so heavily that their personalities and the essence of their talks get lost as they go from point to point on the screen.
If you are going to use PowerPoint, which can be ideal in certain situations, it is best to follow a few rules.
The 5 Times 5 Rule
First and foremost, you should never have more than five lines of text on a slide, and each line should not have more than five words. Any more than this can distract and even confuse your audience. The exception is that with a smaller room or group, you can use more lines or words than the rule permits.
Regardless of how many points you use, bring them up one at a time as you are commenting on them. Don’t make the mistake of bringing up the entire slide full of information so that the participants are busy reading and not paying any attention to you.
Too Much Information
Not long ago, I had a speaking engagement with a multinational company. The president spoke to the 250-person group for an hour before it was my turn to speak. His PowerPoint presentation consisted of a single slide with hundreds of numbers in rows and columns, none of which were clear or legible to anyone in the audience. He spoke to the screen, commenting on the numbers, for a full hour. Because he was the president, everyone in the room sat politely, but it was excruciatingly painful for all the participants.
Face the Audience
Face the audience when you use PowerPoint. You should have your laptop or tablet in front of you illustrating what is on the screen behind you. As you click through your PowerPoint presentation, keep your eyes on the meeting participants and speak to them the whole time.
When you are not referring to a point on the screen, push the B on your laptop’s keyboard to blank out the screen. Remember, your face is the most important element in any presentation, and while there are words on the screen, people’s eyes will be darting from your face to the screen and back again, like spectators at a tennis match.
Lights Please
When you use PowerPoint, it is essential that your face be well lit throughout. I am continually dismayed when I see senior executives delivering their presentation in the dark in order to assure maximum clarity for the projector and the screen. Remember, you are the “star” of the presentation, not the words on the screen.
PowerPoint Is Only a Prop
Only use PowerPoint as a prop or as a support tool. It should not be the main focus of the talk. You are the main focus of the presentation—the essential human element—and PowerPoint is there merely to assist you and to illustrate your points more clearly to the audience.
When you use PowerPoint, practice and rehearse. Go through a dry run three to five times before you make your presentation. Do a complete dress rehearsal to ensure that the PowerPoint program and the projector are properly connected and working smoothly before you stand up to speak.
Expect the Unexpected
You have probably seen or been in situations where the entire talk is built around PowerPoint and then PowerPoint somehow fails to function. The speaker begins clicking and nothing happens. The presentation grinds to a halt while everyone stands around looking sheepish and foolish—especially you.
Keep the Attention on You and Your Message
In every case, when you use PowerPoint, start off with a strong, clear statement that sets the stage for your presentation. You can then use PowerPoint to illustrate critical numbers, points, and relationships. When you have finished your PowerPoint presentation, blank out the screen and be sure to face your audience and end with a strong verbal message, your call to action.
Flipcharts and Whiteboards
Instead of PowerPoint, you can also use flipcharts or whiteboards. But never forget that the focus must be on your face, gestures, and words. If you use a flipchart, prepare it in advance by writing your key points in pencil on the sheets. This penciled-in information will be invisible to the audience but will allow you to write clearly and authoritatively, as if from memory.
When you use a flipchart, after you have made your point and people have had a chance to absorb the words, numbers, or illustrations that you have written or drawn, turn the page over so that you once more have a blank page. This helps the audience to refocus on you.
Another way to use a flipchart is to write out your key points in advance on alternate pages. Be sure you have a clean sheet facing the audience before you begin. When you go to the flipchart for the first time, turn over the clean sheet and there will be your first set of points. When you turn over this sheet, there will be a second clean sheet covering up the next set of points.
If you use a whiteboard, after you have finished with each key point, erase it so that the whiteboard is once again blank. Otherwise, your audience’s eyes will be flicking back and forth like a windshield wiper, between you and the words on the board. In every case, you want the audience to come back to your face without being distracted by what is written or projected on the page, board, or screen.
Be sure to provide your own markers and pens, too. You would be amazed how often this detail is overlooked and the pens are either dried out and unusable, or someone has forgotten to provide them at all.
Practice Makes Perfect
A final key point with regard to presentation tools of all kinds, PowerPoint, flipchart, or whiteboard, is to practice, practice, practice. If it is important to you and to the audience, go through it again and again. Run through it in advance, preferably with a small audience. Remember that one great presentation can advance your career, make you a star, and put you onto the fast track. Don’t miss an opportunity to make an excellent presentation.