Communication Corner
Top Five Presentation Errors
Studies show that the average person fears public speaking more than death, presumably because death is unavoidable, while making presentations in front of others is—at least until you obtain gainful employment in practically any organization. However, presentations need not be painful or even particularly frightening experiences, provided you avoid falling into the most common traps facing anyone making a presentation.
#1 Poor Understanding of the Audience
To somewhat paraphrase Socrates: know your audience. Know their attitudes, perceptions, knowledge, even their level of education and understanding of the topic, if possible. Know what motivates them—and, perhaps more important, what they expect from your presentation. Take the time to analyze your audience and construct a presentation that directly addresses both their interests and expectations to ensure that your message is both heard and recalled after your presentation is over.
#2 Lack of Organization
Poorly organized presentations can be agony for audiences, as well as an infuriating waste of their time. Think of your structure as your presentation blueprint or playbook. Ensure that your presentation has a clear-cut central premise, as well as individual sections that add up to a coherent whole. This logical structure will help anyone with two things crucial to any presentation. First, your sense of structure will prevent your rambling or, worse, getting off topic. Second, this structure will also assist you in focusing and presenting your central message clearly and concisely.
#3 Poor use of PowerPoint
PowerPoint is probably at least as responsible for terrible as it is for highly effective presentations. PowerPoint should be, at best, a tool that both enables your audience to visualize the main points of your presentation and also displays valuable graphic information, including figures, graphs, charts, and tables. Unfortunately, most presenters rely on PowerPoint the way a drowning man hangs onto a life preserver in tossing seas. Weak presenters crowd too much text onto slides and then add insult to injury by reading off them—sometimes even with their backs to the audience.
Remember: PowerPoint is merely a tool, not a crutch. Your audience and the focus of your presentation should be on you, not on your slides.
#4 Poor Delivery
You can nullify the most riveting, edge-of-your-seat mesmerizing ideas with poor delivery, especially lack of eye contact with your audience, stiff posture, or, worst of all, lack of vocal variation. Simply put: no presentation can be better than its delivery. Good presentation entails using varying vocal intonation, including pitch, volume, and pace, as well as using appropriate hand gestures. You should ensure you face your audience, look at them, and maintain active eye contact—all essential to engaging, strong delivery.
#5 Time
Where presentations are concerned, one well-known adage holds that "less is more." Less, in this case, means keeping presentations to under twenty minutes, maximum, if possible. More slides and a longer presentation can both turn what should have been an effective, ten-minute presentation into a mind-numbingly dull, needlessly protracted forty-minute bout with misery for your audience. So you should consider following one quick-and-dirty rule for presentations. If you can complete the presentation in ten minutes, with only three or four slides, do it.
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