Contents Introduction The Five Point Check List (i) Context. What is the context of your presentation? What is the event? Why is it being held? Who is in charge of it? What do your audience know about you? What do you stand for? Why you are doing the presentation? How are they feeling? What are they expecting? How much of your presentation will be new to them? What is going on in your company? What is going on in the world? What needs acknowledging and what can be ignored? If you had to define your wish list of how you moved or changed your audience which three dimensions would you choose? How can you make your presentation sound as though it's fresh and spontaneous? How long have you got? (and never go over length never) Who's before you and who's after you? This basic series of questions mean you will set out to answer your audience's questions and be seen to understand their feelings, hopes and fears. Example stand up comedy is a bad idea if you are announcing redundancies. (ii) The Story. Every good presentation has a story, a simple narrative, a beginning a middle an end. A good place to start being a brilliant presenter is with anyone who will listen your friends, your mother, your wife, your husband, your children. Can you tell them a story that enthralls them? The story really does need to be a simple one although you do not need to behave like a simpleton to be brilliant. Say you need to mount a sales drive because you are behind budget . Tell them as you know sales are down for the following reasons, we need to increase our sales by this amount over this period, here's how we are going to do this (a simple three point plan) and this is what the effect of our succeeding will be. Stories are things people remember. (iii) Illustrating the Story. Brilliant presentations very often have brilliant illustrations great slides or spectacular effects. Think how great stagecraft impacts on our appreciation of a play, opera or ballet. If you are telling a complex story to a large or a sophisticated audience it is wise to use great illustration to help you make your points more clearly and more excitingly. Do not simply rely on bullet points which nowadays are over done and can be very tiresome. Think more graphically animated charts or visual images or simply huge words FOCUS Suddenly appearing on a screen can have a mesmeric effect on an audience. If you are going to use slides try and have at least one "killer slide" one that no-one expects, one that captures the essence of your story. Great slides take time to create and produce but they can have a dramatic effect. Poor slides have the same effect as driving with the handbrake on. If you aren't going to use slides then you become the sole focus of attention. You may have to discard your notes, dress super-cool, have a great haircut, get special lighting, a low lectern if you are small, no lectern if you are brave. Just remember every presentation or speech is illustrated - it's just that you may be the picture. Includes: Technical time The quick and easy non-techie guide to using Powerpoint to best advantage. Simple advice on how to pull together and put together the very best slides. (iv) Delivering with Power and Conviction. This is what most presenters worry about. They worry so much about performance they forget the content which halfway through their presentation they realise together with their audience is thin and vapid. This is called a spiral of disaster. Go through all aspects of this checklist with equal care. If you have a weak voice get voice coaching. A weak voice is unattractive and distracting. If you are fat or short or deformed in some way work with an acting coach on how to deal with it (my own uncle a hunchback was like Richard III a brilliant presenter). Write your presentation in short sentences. In monosyllables where possible. Silence is telling use it. Power though comes from practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Senior executives who say they haven't time for practice are saying they haven't the time to succeed. Amazingly after working with a professional coach for just two hours your performance will be transformed. Always. As an executive you MUST learn how to be brilliant on your feet. It's much more important than being able to read a balance sheet. (v) Following Up. The presentation itself is only half the story. Assume you've just given a brilliant presentation. Make sure everyone gets a summary of what you said. Ask them for feed back and questions. Turn your monologue into a dialogue quickly, easily and very professionally. And the point is that brilliance deserves a reward so make sure you get it by ensuring you and those around you shamelessly exploit your performance. Following up is as important as planning. It's called "closing the sale".
