Presentation Excellence

An audience member recently asked me "How do I deliver a perfect, flawless presentation?. The answer of course, is "You don't".

Don't strive to deliver perfect presentations, with every word scripted and each sentence grammatically correct. Instead, you should aim to deliver a presentation that is "excellent" and of high quality. Use your own words and communicate the purpose of your presentation to your audience. Don't worry if you think that the language you use is not sufficiently proper for your audience. Focus on conveying your message to your audience. Try your very best to have them leave with your message in their minds. Use activities, metaphors, and stories to communicate your message.

Trying to deliver the perfect, flawless presentation is dysfunctional. The final 10% of the effort you put into delivering a perfect presentation is wasted, because your audience will understand your message with 90% of your energy. If 90% isn't good enough for your audience, then 10% more won't change the situation. Aim for presentation excellence, and let the chips fall where they may.

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Have you noticed that most seminar leaders and conference presenters are very bad presenters. Reading their speeches, zero eye-contact, enough PowerPoint slides to sink the QE2 and running over allotted time. Is is small wonder that most presenters in corporate meetings are also bad presenters? We unconsciously follow the example set by the presenters we see at conferences. We have so few good presenters these days that unless you invest time and energy in developing the correct presentation skills, you will also be influenced by watching bad presenters. You will not even realize the low quality of your presentation skills if you compare yourself to presenters at conferences.

Therefore, don't just follow the example of others. Join Toastmasters, take note of good presenters, and set the example for other presenters to follow.