Presenting…. You!

The ability to create and deliver an effective presentation is definitely a core business competency. It is too bad that many people develop this competency organically or by sheer happenstance.

Why not make it a priority in your development plan? Trial and error learning on something so important is not only unnecessary – it can end up being pretty painful.

Here are a few suggestions for working on your presentation capability.

You don’t have to be that original really…

Have you ever sat through a presentation and thought ‘Wow that was really well done’? Or perhaps someone gave you a hard copy presentation or emailed you a link to one and you said to yourself ‘I like this’….

We all know when we see something that works, so take advantage of it! Start building your own collection of ideas for future use.

There is nothing wrong with this. We are not talking about blatant plagiarism here. If you adapt a graphic, or style, or whatever for your own purposes, that just plain good sense!

If you wait you may regret it…

The worst thing would be to wait until you are faced with the most important presentation of your life (and you will likely have many of these really) to learn how to use the tools, prepare properly, etc. Use a good presentation you have seen to gain familiarity with the tools and process. Think of it as ‘Powerpoint calisthenics’…

Well that was awful…

Just as it makes sense to ‘learn from the best’, you can also learn a lot from the worst.

We have all been there, right? Sitting through one of those real ‘snoozefests’ thinking ‘this is an hour of my life I will never get back’. Or maybe it was one of those animation-filled cartoons that just makes you dizzy.

I say save these presentations too! Only put them in the ‘Never let this happen to me‘ file. And hopefully it won’t…

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