Chances are you have done or have been in a presentation. From your own experience, either as the speaker or audience, you have come to the realization that presentations can make or break a transaction or a meeting. It can either invigorate a rather dull meeting or lull everyone to sleep even more.
As an audience, you probably have seen the whole spectrum of speakers – those who are no non-sense, those whose talk is peppered with humor, those who speak to the screen, those who are too engaging, etc. But nothing beats an unprepared speaker. It can be gleaned by how incoherent and illogical his presentation to how he sorts his files from his presentation folders.
The following are the three most common mistakes when making presentations. Read on so that you can avoid committing these mistakes in the future.
1. Never Memorize.
I still could remember the advice of my grade school teacher: 'Never memorize. Know your topic by heart.' This is actually a very sound advice that I have practiced until now. There is nothing more traumatic than to suddenly realize that you have forgotten what to say next. As you stand in front frozen and perspiring, wishing that everything would just go away, your audience stares at you in disbelief and wishing the same thing.
To avoid this situation, you have to know your material by heart. You can actually use cue cards to guide you along the way. But be sure that you do not read your cue cards. Your cards are there to guide. So to avoid the temptation of reading through your cue card, do not write long sentences. Use bullet points instead. To make a better impression, you can use sheets of paper neatly tucked in your presentation folders as your guide.
2. Never Read Your Slide
This is the most common mistake by most speakers. Most speakers use their slide as their guide and worst, they tend to read every single sentence in their slide. They have their backs turned to the audience as they read every slide. If this is the case then there is actually no need for the speaker. The audience can just sit there and read through everything. Always remember that the presentation is about you, it is about your experience and your knowledge of the subject matter. The slides are just tools to visually support whatever it is that you are going to discuss. You are more important than the slides and the slides are there to make your talk more interesting and engaging. As a tip, you can print copies of your presentation and slip them into several pieces of presentation folders so your audience can follow you and make notes on your printed copies.
3. Never Overload.
There are speakers who cannot stay within the time limit. They tend to say so many things and they just do not know when to stop. As a result, you have 40-50 slides in one hour. Always remember that adults too have limited attention span. Most people will listen and retain information for a little less than 10 minutes. More than that and you lose half of your audience. So as a rule of thumb, stick to the main points. If you want to say more and the allotted time is not enough, prepare notes in advance and put them in your presentation folder printing.
So the next time you’re in for a presentation, remember these guidelines. And always bring a presentation folder printing with you to help you organize your documents and your thoughts.
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