When it comes to public speaking and presenting, what you say and the way you say it matters a great deal but both can be ruined with bad presentation slides.
It takes time to craft a high impact presentation that is memorable and delivers results.
Some of the key elements involved include:
– Knowing our audience
– Having a message which is clear and relevant to our audience
– Being clear on our objective – what we want our audience to do
– Clarity of intention – how we want our audience to feel
– Creating rich, relevant and compelling content
– Opening with impact
– Audience interaction
– Mindful verbal and non-verbal delivery
– Compelling conclusion
– Call to action
Whether we need presentation slides
In a previous article, ‘The presentation slide deck challenge and the mindful solution’, I wrote:
‘The effective use of visuals can have an extremely positive impact on business presentations. Mindfully crafted, compelling visuals can help presenters to:
– Capture and keep their audience’s attention
– Give greater clarity and meaning to content
– Enhance the emotive side of their presentation
– Increase their credibility and memorability’
How would you react to this slide
Here at Mindful Presenter we see slides like this presented to us every day.
What’s the problem?
The moment text appears on presentation slides, there is an unspoken instruction from the presenter to their audience to read it.
Contrary to popular belief most people can’t read a lot of text and listen effectively at the same time. More importantly, most people don’t want to.
Do you like reading slides?
Presentation slides like this often result in:
– The presenter reading much of the text to their audience which is really annoying
– The audience trying their best to read the text while the presenter is speaking
– Frustration in having to listen and read so the audience attention drifts away
– The audience having to frantically scan the presentation slides to keep up with the presenter or find something they are interested in
Would you prefer this?
It’s simpler and easier on the eyes.
The audience don’t have to read much and can easily work out what it’s about.
The problem
The reason many presenters avoid simplifying their presentation slides like this is because it doesn’t show and tell their audience everything they want to talk about and it means they may have to have more slides. Who has time to craft more slides when we can cram everything we want our audience to know on one slide?
The question
Unfortunately, many presenters don’t give enough thought as to whether or not they need presentation slides in the first place. When asked to give a presentation, often the first thing many people will do is open up their laptop and automatically begin populating slide templates with little if any thought as to how they will serve their audience.
A more mindful approach to high impact presenting is asking ourselves a series of questions once we have crafted our presentation and long before building slides.
That includes:
Do I need slides and if I do, why exactly do I need them?
If they are just to help you to remember what to say or to read them out loud, that’s not a good reason.
If it’s just because everyone else uses slides, that’s not a good reason.
If it’s because you’ll get lost if you don’t use slides, that’s not a good reason.
How will presentation slides serve my audience?
Will it make my presentation easier for my audience to understand and follow?
Will it help bring my message and content to life?
Will it make my presentation more memorable?
Will it help my audience to feel something?
If the answer to most of these questions is ‘yes’, then presentation slides are probably worth using.
Continuing my example of the ‘12 Month Strategic Growth Plan’
The visual journey could progress using a less cluttered approach:
The challenge – It takes a little
Courage
Creativity
Mindfulness
Time
Patience
Preparation
Practice
Remember
Your presentation is not your slides.
The slides are not your script.
If your slides become your presentation you will spend more time looking at them than you do your audience.
Your audience came to listen to you, not to read.
If you are reliant on your slides and you lose them you won’t able to speak.
If you rely too much on slides you are likely to become constrained by them.
‘A picture is worth a thousand words’
If you’d like help with your presentation slides:
– Book yourself onto a powerful public speaking course.
– Invest in some really good one to one public speaking coaching.
– Get yourself some excellent presentation training
Image courtesy of Canva.com
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