How To Ask For Feedback On Your Presentation

Have you ever truly received heartfelt feedback on your presentation style? Not just the typical handshake and a quick ‘great,” but sincere input from someone who watched it all and shared what really resonated with them, and what didn’t. It’s surprising how many people go through their entire careers without ever hearing this kind of honest insight, especially when so much of their success is shaped in rooms where they are the one standing and speaking.

The Day I Found Out

Thirty-five years ago, I was a young manager full of confidence, convinced I knew it all. I was rapidly climbing the corporate ladder, feeling on top of the world, and I believed that everyone saw me the way I saw myself. Then, the CEO introduced something called 360-degree feedback and asked all of us on the management team to participate.

I was really eager to get started. I approached it hoping for some reassurance, but what I ended up with was a valuable learning experience. The people I worked with, for, and was responsible for didn’t see me as highly as I saw myself, and the difference between their perspective and mine was quite significant.

It took me some time to settle down, but once I did, I realised that I needed to make some changes. I understood that my management style, my thoughts, and my leadership approach all needed improvement. I also saw that these changes wouldn’t happen unless I valued other people’s perspectives, not just my own.

That was thirty-five years ago, and I still count it among the most useful days of my working life. I go looking for the same thing now, deliberately and reasonably often, to check that I am still standing where I believe I am standing.

Why Nobody Tells You The Truth

Here’s the challenge: almost nobody will give a presenter honest feedback unless they’ve been asked specifically and kindly. The person who watched your presentation isn’t holding back out of meanness or indifference; they’re simply being polite and considerate. Saying ‘that was great’ costs them nothing, but offering honest feedback might create a bit of awkwardness with someone they’ll see again soon. So, understanding this can help us appreciate the sincere efforts behind feedback, and encourage us to ask for it in a gentle way.

This means that the way you invite someone can really influence the quality of their response. When you ask someone how you did, you’re making it simple for them to just say “really good,” which might cause both of you to leave the conversation without gaining any real insight or understanding.

How To Ask

Choose a few trusted friends instead of everyone, especially those whose opinions you still value even if they disagree with you. Be honest with them about looking for the truth, not just encouragement. You might also suggest they can share their thoughts anonymously if that makes it easier for them.

Truly mean what you ask. If you’re not prepared to accept honest, sometimes unflattering answers without needing an explanation for misunderstandings, it might be better not to ask the question at all. Asking questions when you’re not ready to hear the truth can discourage honest communication and waste the trust you’ve built with someone.

Ten Questions Worth Asking

You will not use all of these at once, and you shouldn’t try.

1. What was your first impression of me during the first five minutes?
2. Was my message clear? If so, what was it?
3. How did you feel about my delivery—my posture, gestures, eye contact, voice, and movement?
4. How effectively did I share the message using explanations, examples, illustrations, evidence, or stories?
5. Did the visual aids add to the experience, or did they feel like a distraction?
6. How did I make you feel during the presentation and afterwards?
7. Was everything I gave you relevant and useful to you?
8. What do you actually remember?
9. What is better, easier or clearer for you now than it was before I started?
10. Which part of it needs the most work, and what would you do about that?

That’s quite a list, and it really takes some bravery to share it with others. If it ever feels overwhelming, don’t think you have to tackle it all at once. Instead, pick just one question to ask after your next presentation. Then, on a different occasion, try asking a different one. Remember, even one genuine, thoughtful answer can make a bigger difference than multiple polite replies.

The One That Matters Most

If you only ever ask one of them, ask the sixth.

How did I make you feel?

You could eventually work out almost everything else on that list for yourself, with a phone propped against a water jug and enough honesty to watch it back. Whether the message was clear, whether the slides earned their place, whether you paced about too much: all of that is visible from the outside, and the recording will tell you.

What the recording cannot tell you is the only thing that ultimately decides whether any of it mattered: what it was actually like to sit in front of you. People forget your structure within the hour, and they lose your third point somewhere on the way to the car park. What stays with them is how the room felt, and they begin deciding what to do about your ideas on that basis long before they have finished weighing up the argument.

Where This Leaves You

When you ask for feedback, what you learn can point to one of two areas. It might be your delivery, which many people assume is the main issue and is often the simplest to improve. Or it could be your message, which few think to question and often reveals where the real effort is needed. Remember, feedback can feel uncomfortable, but that discomfort is a natural part of growth and signals you’re on the right track rather than going about it the wrong way.

Discovering new things often comes with a cost, but it’s a small price to pay for the joy of learning something you couldn’t have figured out on your own. The other option is to keep going with your own opinion of yourself for another decade, which is exactly what I was doing thirty-five years ago when I thought I was doing pretty well.

If any of this was useful, please pass it on. Somebody you work with has been presenting the same way for years and has never once been told the truth about it, because nobody has ever found a comfortable moment to offer it and they have never thought to ask.

If you would like some help with your presentation skills:

• Book yourself onto a powerful public speaking course.
• Invest in some really good one to one public speaking coaching.
• Get yourself some excellent presentation skills training.

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