If You Want to Ruin Your Presentation, Do These Three Things

And bore everyone in the room silly

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

Quick Leadership Tips #13

At university, I was terrified of giving presentations, so I would go sick rather than do one.

Four decades later, as an L&D professional, I’ve got so much practice under my belt that presenting doesn’t worry me.

But I know presenting does worry newly promoted leaders who are magically expected to know how to present overnight.

If you want to join the ranks of poor presenters, do the following (Hint: If you don’t, do the opposite!):

Don’t prepare

Even experienced presenters like me prepare, so if you want to ruin your presentation, don’t:

• Practice what you are going to say so your words come out coherently
• Think about what questions people will ask
• Make sure the tech works
• Check any links in your presentation
• Check that you’ve got all the equipment & handouts you need
• Check that the relevant people are coming
• Explain the point of the presentation

Avoid Engaging your audience