I’ve watched or attended a fair share of presentations at this point, going back to my wayward days of academia and on up through the business world. Some presentations I have seen have been spectacular, but others seem to have been a bit lacking in that “oomph” factor.
Let me put it another way.
There are 7 mistakes people make in presentations that drive me batty. A short trip, granted, but still, it needs to be said! I thought I’d share these 7 oopsies with you so that you do not drive people batty in the future. Are you ready? I thought so.
1. Title your presentation to raise interest, then talk about something else. I really hate this one. If I am in the chocolate business, sign up for your webinar about how to market chocolate, and then you end up talking about oranges the whole time, I’m not going to feel pleased with you. I am happy for you that you have a book to talk about, an area of expertise, or whatever else you want to present on. Say that you are presenting on those things rather than what would *seem* interesting to a potential audience.
2. Use really beautiful daffodil yellow or tangerine orange font. Yeah, we can’t see that too well, can we? It looks like there might be a hint of something there, but it’s hard to tell. Is that a smudge on my computer, maybe? Use dark colors. Be bold!
3. Include about 17 bullet points per slide. When I was first learning Power Point, I was totally guilty of this one. “Oh, drat, it doesn’t fit. Let me move my font on down to 8 point. In Helvetica it’s still legible!” It’s a horrible, no good, very bad idea. Not only will you have people in the front row squinting, but people in the nose bleed section will phase out. Eye tests are for the eye doctor!
4. Talk too fast as you try to cover your 17 bullet points. As you move through your presentation, you begin to realize that having a mini-dissertation per slide is not working, but it’s too late to revise and edit, so instead, you start talking really fast. This makes my brain confused. Do I try to read your slide, which is hard to see, or do I try to take notes based on what you’re saying? If I can’t do either easily, I might end up with a sudden urge to get up or click out. This is not optimal for your success.
5. Don’t try to cover everything about your topic in one presentation. I know. You have the stage, real or virtual. All eyes and ears are focused on you. It’s hard not to take this scenario and run with it, right? “Now I can finally show everyone how brilliant I am! How exhaustive my knowledge is!” It’s exhausting! Leave things up to the imagination. Depend on your audience to add to the story just like you would on your blog (you do that, right?). Leave your audience with a reason to follow up with you. Please, please, do not try to cover every minute detail in an hour-long presentation.
6. Don’t say that what you’re about to tell me is boring. Do I need to explain this one? If you think it’s boring and it’s your presentation, I’ll just say, “OK, cool, thanks for the heads up.” If you think it’s boring, by the way, why are you doing a presentation about it? Is this a self-flagellation thing? I don’t get it.
7. Don’t try to be a stand-up comedian. Yes, entertainment is good, but if you’re hosting a webinar or if you’re presenting at a seminar, people are sitting before you because they want to learn, and they heard that you could teach them. You are not on Last Comic Standing. A little humor here and there is fine. Don’t push your luck or waste your audience’s time.
Those are my 7 pet peeves. What are yours?
Image by Felix atsoram. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/atsoram
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Rufus Dogg says
April 15, 2011 at 4:05 pm8. Rushing to fit in stuff at the end of your time slot. No comfortable finish.
Margie Clayman says
April 15, 2011 at 7:37 pmYeah, that has to do with rehearsing and also not trying to fit everything in the world into your presentation 🙂
Ali Handscomb says
April 15, 2011 at 4:11 pmHi Margie,
I teach/faciliate on presentation skills and speak regularly. I agree with everything you have said.
A useful book is Beyond Bullet Points 3rd Edition: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire by Cliff Atkinson.
As a speaker I try really hard not to use bullet points at all just pictures and maybe one key word or phrase because I think that it suits my style. One of the key things it is important to learn is what suits you and your personal style of presenting.
One of my pet peeves is vile clip art and animation.
As a chair of conferences if you want people to speed up or slow down and they have too much animation it becomes impossible to alter timings.
Margie Clayman says
April 15, 2011 at 7:39 pmThat book sounds like a great resource. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve become a believer in just using pictures with slides in between that have a couple of words or phrases on them. People can look at a slide presentation whenever. If you’re doing a webinar live or a seminar live, they probably are there so they can see you present and/or interact/talk with you. Why read slides to people?
Thanks for a great comment!
Karen says
April 15, 2011 at 6:32 pmI once had someone share the 6×6 rule with me. No more than 6 bullets per slide and no more than 6 words per bullet. I don use it as a hard and fast rule but it’s a great guide. Personally, I think people will pay more attention to. Presentation if the slides truly have concise bullet points. The great thing about PowerPoint is the notes. You can save the heavy verbiage for the notes and provide those to participants.
I’m in total agreement with Ali. PowerPoint should complement not distract. If you’re so busy making your slides animated and full of graphics, your audience may miss the point.
Margie Clayman says
April 15, 2011 at 7:39 pmI like that rule. I agree you wouldn’t need to literally count how many words you’re using, but having a gauge might help people out. Thanks for sharing!
Steven Pofcher says
April 17, 2011 at 12:00 amNumbers 3 & 6 really get to me.
#3 Too much on one slide and cannot read – bad presenting.
#6 Unbelievable that people say that their presentation or even parts are going to be boring. But they do.
#8 Also should add – when people just read the slides. They don’t add their own verbage or insights. Please just give me the deck and I will read on my own.
Davina K. Brewer says
April 30, 2011 at 11:33 amShare these peeves.. and a good 6 by 6 rule from Karen.
What drives me nuts is when it’s not be proofread, for typos and for the readability and legibility like in #2 and #3, and for flow and organization, like #1 and #5. I’ll also add when it’s not been practiced or rehearsed, and it shows; or it’s been so rehearsed that it’s canned and not responsive or adaptive to the audience, – makes it even more boring.
The best presentations use slides to guide the presentation, to enhance what’s being said but not duplicate it. If you go in with some flexibility in mind, talk to the audience about what they want on said topic first, then you can stick to the subject yet still give them more about what’s more relevant to them. Maybe speed up the ‘basic’ slides in this section, to spend more time on what they want, or more time with the Q&A. FWIW.
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