Reader's Question: Why does my boss keep asking me to redo my presentation?

I would like to thank all of you for sending in you questions. Of course I won't be able to answer every single one but since many of the questions are similar, I hope the questions that I do address will answer many of your questions.

Andrew from Kota Damansara sent in the above question, " Why does my boss keep asking me to redo my presentation?" and sent me a copy of one of his PowerPoint files. After reviewing the file he sent, I hope the following tips will help him and others faced with the same issue :

People have trouble paying attention for more than
20 minutes so keep your presentation short

1. Keep it short and to the point- Always try to put yourself in the shoes of your boss. He or she will always be very busy with many things at the same time, so if you can put your point across quickly and clearly without them having to think too much they will greatly appreciate it. The PowerPoint file you sent was very big and had 23 slides in it for a simple proposal to purchase a new version of software that your department uses. Try to keep your slides to a minimum but still getting the message across. Bear in mind most people do not have an attention span of more than 20 minutes. Your boss probably realises this and wants you to keep it short for the benefit of the audience who you will need to present to and convince.

Images in a slide must help to convey a clear message,
too many images creates clutter!

2. Keep it simple - Your slides have too many things going on at the same time. Not only is this distracting but it makes it difficult for people to follow what you are trying to say. A single image to convey a specific point should be sufficient, too many pictures make the whole slide look very cluttered and leaves a bad impression. Also too much text on the slide and reading the text is a sure way of putting your audience to sleep as they can read much faster than you can while you are presenting. Too often people create what some people call, 'sliduments' which are a hybrid of slide and document. The slides are just a tool for you to help present you case, the details should be in separate document, i.e. the formal proposal memo.

3. Tell the good with the bad-  It is not enough to just highlight the strength and benefits of your proposal. Your presentation needs to be balanced. What this means is that you also need to be able to pre-empt possible concerns that the audience may have. You need to put in a section that also highlights the possible risks that your proposal will create and also how you will mitigate those risk with specific actions and interventions. This was missing from the file you sent and I would consider this a major omission.

4. Keep your boss in the loop- As you develop the slides pack it would be a good idea to consult with your boss at appropriate intervals to make sure you are meeting his or her expectations. To start off, develop a skeleton framework of just the heading of each slide so that your boss agrees with the flow and direction of your presentation. Next check point could be fill in the key points of each slide present again for comments and feedback. Finally show your final draft for comments and approval. Involving your boss in the development and creation process will generate a feeling of joint ownership and also show your initiative to get things done right. A common mistake of many young executives is to only show the boss the final product without any communication or validation in between. Most important of all listen to the comments that you boss makes and do not repeat the same mistakes. After a few rounds you should be able to have a good model in your mind of what your boss considers a good presentation and try to stick to it.

For those of you who have sent in questions but I have not had the opportunity to answer, thank you for sending them in but please bear with me. I will try to answer as many as possible in the coming weeks. If you have an interesting question about presentations or general business communications do send it in.

Talent Management White Paper

If talent selection and retention are topics that interest you, a colleague and I just completed a white paper on the topic titled, " Selecting and retaining talent: How you do it now could be damaging your organisation PART I". If you would like a copy please send me an email at nasser@nasserismail.com with the subject 'White paper'.

Sloppy writing: Don't let it hold you back PART IV

Keep your message short and simple

In most successful organisations, people will be struggling to balance the many tasks that they need to attend to daily. We live in a very competitive world where almost everyone is trying to standout and outshine other people to get ahead. Therefore time is a very valuable commodity.

Crystal clarity in your writing should be your goal, always!

This makes it even more important to be able to convey your message as clearly as possible in the shortest period possible. Although short and brief is preferred, it should never be at the expense of high quality content and good writing.

If you can say what you need to say in two short paragraphs, use two short paragraphs. Do not feel that you have to fill up an entire page of a letter purely for aesthetic reasons. Would you not rather read two paragraphs instead of two long chapters if the two paragraphs can tell you what you need to know?

One technique which I find extremely useful is the use of headers before a paragraph which will act as a guide posts to the reader. Instead of paragraph after paragraph of text, try to break it up into logical chunks. This creates the illusion that your piece is actually shorter. Which would you rather read, the mass of text on the left or the more structured piece on the right?

Even short notes or emails can benefit from good formatting and the use of headers and bullet points

Another technique is the use of short idea/concept summary at the start of your paragraphs/key points that will help to lead the thoughts of the reader. Take a look at the examples below:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Company ABC offer the following advantages in their proposal:

1. Their proposal is the lowest among the 5 bidders and they provide many value added services not offered by the others.
2. They are committed to completing the project within 7 weeks.This 1 week earlier than their closest competitor and within the estimates of given by our internal technical team.
3. All their staff who will be attached to this project have a minimum of 7 years experience in managing similar projects of equal complexity. The other bidders offer much higher variation in experience among their team, with some having only 2 years of experience.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the alternative:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Company ABC offer the following advantages in their proposal:

1. Lowest Cost -Their proposal is the lowest among the 5 bidders and they provide many value added services not offered by the others.

2. Fastest completion - They are committed to completing the project within 7 weeks.This 1 week earlier than their closest competitor and within the estimates of given by our internal technical team.

3. Most experienced project team -All their staff who will be attached to this project have a minimum of 7 years experience in managing similar projects of equal complexity. The other bidders offer much higher variation in experience among their team, with some having only 2 years of experience.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notice how we introduce the key idea at the start and then provide details rather than make the reader have to think. Guide your reader's thinking and you will get your message across better and clearer. This also increases the probability they will agree with you and approve what you propose!

Less is MORE!

Unfortunately it is much harder to write less than it is to write more. Far more effort is required to edit and rewrite material until it becomes short, concise and clear. Always review what you have written and see if you can summarise what you have written so that it can be more shorter and easier to understand.

Sloppy writing: Don't let it hold you back PART III

Put yourself in the place of the reader

 

Take a random sampling of everyday business communications that you receive such as e-mail, reports, memos or faxes. Divide them into 4 categories bad, good, better and best.
Try to find at least 3-4 samples for each category.

Now examine the pile of poorly written material and take note of what the badly written material  have in common with each other. Here may be some common traits that you would probably find as well:

• Too wordy
• Long winded
• Takes forever to get to the point,
• Poor grammar
• Key message is not clear,
• Boring

Now do the same for the written materials that you consider the best. List down what you find they share in common. Listed below are some of the things you should be able to identify:

• Concise
• Simple to understand
• Grammatically correct
• No spelling errors
• Neat structure
• Easy to understand
• Interesting

We all have a preference for well written material, therefore we should write in the same way. Unfortunately, in reality most of us do not give much thought to whatever it is that we are writing in the course of our daily work.

To set yourself apart from the rest of your co-workers you will have to show the ability to write well. Even if you are still far away from becoming an talented writer, there are many simple tips that will help you to significantly improve the appearance of your writing skills.

The word processor you are using now ( most likely Microsoft Word ) has many useful functions that can enhance the quality of your writing. Firstly is the spell check function. Never send out any written material that has not been checked for spelling errors. Although it might be OK for most people to make a few spelling mistakes in their work, if you aspire to become a 'Star', this is unacceptable behaviour.

The appearance of even a few spelling errors will send the signal that you are
careless, lazy and do not pay attention to details.

Often we find we are using the same word over and over again. This creates the impression to your reader that your vocabulary is poor. An easy way to address this is to use the thesaurus function in Microsoft Word. Highlight the word you would like to change and go to the Tools menu and look under language and you should find ‘Thesaurus’. The thesaurus will provide you with a list of alternative words you could use to replace the word you highlighted earlier. If you do not have Microsoft Word , you will need to use alternative methods such as manually checking the spelling of uncommon words. Indirectly too, this will improve your vocabulary.

Ask a co-worker you trust to  read through of your written material before it goes out to the intended recipient. Often we fail to realise that a fresh pair of eyes will be able to spot weaknesses and shortcomings in our own work that we would not notice. Asking someone to review your written communication even if it is a subordinate should not be regarded as a sign of weakness.

Of course good writing is a rare commodity, hence it would be unrealistic to expect to become an excellent writer overnight. Study and make a mental note of the written materials that you found to be of outstanding quality.

Write in the manner you would enjoy reading yourself and always use language that is suitable for your audience.Most of all keep on practising your writing skills.

 

Sloppy writing: Don't let it hold you back -PART II

Know your audience and tailor your message to the audience

The best written report packed with the right data will not be worth very much if it fails to meet the expectations of the intended audience. Good writers will craft their message to their targeted audience or better yet, a specific person. They way you would write for the company chairman would be very different to the way you would write on the same subject matter to a group of junior executives.

Unfortunately this does not apply to style of writing!

Unfortunately most young executives fail to realise this very important rule and know of only one way of writing to everyone! Of course its easier to do but this is not what people who want to be come Stars should be practicing. There are no shortcuts to creating excellence, effort needs to be put into it.

Make sure you are aware of the prefered formats for the different people that you will be writing to. The format for a Board of Directors paper will be radically different from the format for a memo to your Boss. Utilise your network within the company to find out the individual preference of the various people who you will need to prepare written materials. Some people need to know the details whereas some people are more interested in the ‘Big Picture’ issues.

Azhar  was a young executive who was asked to prepare a discussion paper for a Board of Directors meeting by the Chairman. After seeking the advice of his office mates who had worked with the Chairman before he found out that the Chairman was formerly an academic and was used to a very academic writing style.

Good targeted communications gets good results!

Taking this que, Azhar produced the paper with extensive references listed in the bibliography and included footnotes as further reference in his paper. The Chairman who had not seen such high quality work since he left the academic field was very impressed. Whereas most people would not have taken the trouble that Azhar did, his extra effort differentiated him from the other young executives in the company.

Even a single badly written piece can be potentially very damaging, be careful.

On the other hand , it is an unfortunate fact of life that it is the single, badly written proposal that the important people in your career will tend to remember more, rather than the dozens of good assignments you have delivered in the past. You are only as good as your last piece of work.

Finally the language that you use must be suitable for the audience that you are trying to reach to. A memo to the CEO outlining the key strategies of your latest advertising and promotions campaign will not be written in the same style that you would be writing a memo on the same subject to the corporate communications manager. Whereas it would be acceptable to use advertising jargon with the communications manager, it would not be the case for the CEO unless you have information which suggests otherwise.

Remember, be clear in your mind who you need to communicate to and tailor your message to them and what matters to them. If you like this and the previous article, do come back for parts III and IV or subscribe via e-mail so that you do not miss it. I would also be grateful if you could like and share these articles with you friend who you think may benefit. If you have a point of view, do leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Sloppy writing: Don't let it hold you back

 

“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.”

 Jim Rohn  American Businessman, Author, Speaker, Philosopher 

Often the very first impression you make on other people you come into contact with at work is through what you write. Think about the way you secured your first job, the covering letter that you sent with your resume and your job application was the first thing the organisation you now work for saw of you. If the HR department was not impressed by what they read, you probably would be where you are today.

Time and again the first thing that senior managers will see of a new young executive is a memo or a report that they prepared. That memo could send the message that this person is a potential 'Star', who would be an asset to the company or it could send the opposite message that this person is merely 'Deadwood' who will not have much of a future with the company.

Many senior managers agree that one of the things that they look for in employees, especially at  mangerial levels is excellent written communications skills. Good business writing is high on the list of key competencies for top quality job candidates. As more and more business communications is conducted via e-mail ( which demonstrates how well you can write concisely) your writing skills will become a differentiator.

None of us are born as gifted writers; good writing is a learnable skill which requrires frequent practice and knowledge of the right techniques to use.

Learning to write well and effectively at work need not be a painstaking and mysterious goal. Even if you have tried and failed before or have never given it much thought in the past, if you conciously make an effort you too can become an good business writer. There are many good books that have been written on this subject by countless authors however you may wish to use these 4 key rules that I have used successfully to this day. For todays blog post I will touch on the importance of a clear objective.

Be clear on what it is you want to say

A common mistake I see very often is that people do not stop to think about what it is that they really want to say, but instead go straight to the Microsoft Word icon and start typing the first thing that that comes to their mind.

Often poor writing is a reflection of poor, underdeveloped thinking. It is important to be clear on the key messages that you want to convey. For example you are writing an e-mail to a potential customer, pause and think about why you are sending the e-mail. Are you trying to start on cement a relationship? Are you sending off a covering letter to accompany a set of catalogues that the potential customer requested? Are you trying to clarify a point raised by the customer during an earlier meeting?

The 1^st Rule of Good business writing is that you must have a clear objective. One tool that I have found very effective when I am starting to write anything from a one page memo to a 20 page discussion paper is a Mind Map.

Take a clean sheet of paper and write the central theme of what you will be writing. From that central theme, write down your key points as the main branches on your map. You then proceed to further develop your key points into the details of what you will be writing, these will be the smaller branches coming from the main branches of your mind map.

The mind map you produce will be the outline of what you will eventualy write. Each branch of the Mind map could be a paragraph or it could represent an entire chapter. Find out more about mind maps here.

It is also good to make sure that you have done the required research to ensure that what you write contains solid substance  (references, quotations, facts and figures,etc) and not merely generalisations. You must be confident of what you are writing and having credible material will help you to show that confidence.

Planning what you want to write before actually doing the writing will significantly improve the quality of your written communications.

Comeback for my 3 other rules of good business writing or subscribe via email to ensure you do not miss them. If you like this or other articles please share via Facebook or Twitter.

Annoying, Pretentious and Useless Business Jargon

If you enjoyed my previous posting on using simple language you may want to give this Forbes article a read as well. Some of the terms may be very North American centric but overall quite an entertaining read. Enjoy!
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10 Presentation 'Sins' : Are You Guilty?

Many of us have heard that 99% of presentations are bad and not effective. Today I though I would briefly look at why so many presentations are so bad, and perhaps suggest how to avoid these common mistakes.

1.     No clear message- When preparing your presentation, you must make sure you are clear on what your objective is. It may be to just inform, to advocate a point of view or you are seeking an approval. Whatever it is, make sure you are clear why you are giving the presentation. If you start with the end in mind the rest should be easy.

2.     Your slides are boring- Unfortunately 99% of presentation slides are really bad and will not be able to grab the attention of the audience. Nobody likes to look at page after page of hardly visible text on the screen, which the presenter is reading like a story book. Generally, less text works better. Simple text with powerful images work best. Remember the slides are there just to help you as visual aids, do not rely on them. You are the ‘star’ who needs to ‘wow’ your audience.

3.     Not enough material/content- Sometime your presentation fails due to insufficient content to make a convincing case for the audience. For example, you did not provide enough evidence to back up your argument or point of view. Another example would be a new business proposal which did not include risks and the mitigating contingencies you will put in place.

4.     Too much material- Just as bad as not having enough material is having too much material covered in your presentation. Firstly, people have a very limited attention span that rarely exceed 20 minutes. Secondly, having too much material to cover will make it harder for you to highlight the key message or objective of your presentation.

5.     Monotonous voice- Nobody enjoys listening to a robot. You need to modulate your voice so that there are times when you raise your voice to emphasise a point and there are times you pause and say nothing, to give your audience time to absorb what you just said. There are times you will speak quickly and times when you will speak slowly to highlight a point in your presentation.

6.     Not rehearsing- The vast majority of people do not bother to practice giving their presentation thinking that they are already quite good at it. Unfortunately, they are not! And that probably includes you too. Even the late Steve Jobs spent a lot of time rehearsing his legendary presentations. Take the time to practice and make it a habit. It will make you comfortable with the material and make you far less nervous. This will create confidence that the audience will be able to spot and makes you case stronger. Alternatively, if you do not practice, you will appear less confident and you will not be as convincing.

7.    Complicated language- Depending on your audience use language that is as simple as possible. The less the audience has to think about what you are trying to say the better. Avoid jargon and complex terminology unless you are speaking to a room full of experts. Use simple words and short sentences, your audience will appreciate it.

8.     Not getting to the point quickly- People hate waiting. Try to get to the point of your presentation quickly. Often it is best to tell them up front what the objective of the presentation is at the start of the presentation. Also another tip is to tell them how long your presentation will take before you begin, this will put the audiences feeling of anxiety at ease. Unless you are told how long a presentation will take, your audience will be speculating and wondering when you will get to the point.

9.       Poor structure- To be effective your presentation needs to be properly structured for the objective you are trying to achieve. Like any good story, it will need a start, middle and an ending. A good basic structure is to start with an introduction of the problem or issue you wish to address, and then go into the implications for the audience of the issue. Only then do you go into introducing the solution and also address any possible concerns relating to the proposed solution. Finally you have a call to action, what you want the audience to do. This is just a basic example; the main point is that you need a logical flow in the structure of your presentation.

10.   Giving out hand outs too early- A common mistake many people do is to give copies of their slides before the present. This is a guaranteed way of ensuring the audience will not listen to you because they will be busy reading your slides and they can read much faster than you can present. They will be on your fourth slide when you are still on the contents slide. Give your hand outs at the end of the presentation so that you will have their full attention.

      Each of these issues is worthy of their own blog post and I have touched on some of them before. If you have any other common causes of bad presentations, please share them in the comments section. I would love to hear what you think.

Say it with pictures: Get your point across visually and tell a story

Two weeks ago I was invited to give a refresher course on marketing to a group of entreprenuers, most of whom had little or no formal marketing training. While preparing my materials I came to a point where I had to touch on the concept of "Marketing Strategy". Below is the slide that spells out a formal definition of "Marketing Strategy".

Wow! That's quite a mouthful. I then thought, how could I explain this visually? It took a while but I then decided that I would use the idea of a battle to illustrate what the above definition of marketing strategy was trying to say. This is the first slide I used.

It show the battle formation of two opposing forces. The army on the left is outnumbered and outgunned but it has a single tank. The tank represents a competitive advantange. Based on the current formation, the army on the left has very little chance against the army on the right which has more resources at its' disposal.

However if the army on the left rearranges its' battle formation and focuses its strength i.e. the single tank that it has on a narrow front with the rest of the army providing close cover, the situation can take a totally different course.

The army on the left could effectively punch a hole into the defensive lines of the army on the right as shown below:

Once the defensive line is broken, the army on the left is then free to charge through and capture the flag and consequenly win the battle.

Instead of just elaborating on each keyword in the definition slide, tell a story around your explanation and make it as graphic as possible. In this example we have taken a very conceptual idea (that was potentially sleep inducing) and illustrated it in a dynamic and engaging way that was easy to understand.

Psychologists have done extensive research that suggests that people are better at remembering what they see rather what they hear. Use this to your advantage the next time you are presenting. This is just a simple example of how the use of simple graphics and images can help you to illustrate complex subject matter in a very short time. You could of course just verbalise an explanation of whatever you need to say.

However, you risk losing your audience which has a very short attention span. The human brain is wired to be as economical as possible and will try as far as possible to minimise its work load. We all have filters in the most basic parts of our brains that constantly scan all information we are receiving, if it looks or sounds like it will take a great deal of thinking to understand and does not threaten your well being in any way, the most common reaction is to shut off and disregard the information.

As far as possible try to weave a story around what you are trying to say. This helps to create a connection with the audience. People love to hear stories and most people love to tell them too. Unfortunately we often forget this when we are presenting.

Remember, always use pictures and images to support what you want to say. Also build a story around what you wish to say to keep the audience who have a short attention span engaged and on your side!

Language- Don’t complicate, Keep it simple!

One of the things I noticed during my career was how people seem to think that if they use jargon and complex sentences, they will appear smarter. Think about it , listen carefully when you are at a high level meeting and the senior leadership is present.  How much of it did you really understand? How much actually contained useful content, and how much sounded like random jargon strung together ?

I find it amusing that we all know how to say something in a simple way, but choose not to. Usually because we do not want to appear dumb in front of peers, so we resort to complex sentences and jargon.( At other times, we do it when we really do not know what to say, and use it to purposely confuse the audience and hope they don’t notice!)

In the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Captain Jack Sparrow said,

"I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request",

what he really meant to say was simply, “No”. This is of course a rather extreme example but illustrates the point.

Here are some gems that I have heard which you may have heard too.

“We must leverage our core competencies” — which actually means, “We must do more of what we are good at”

“We must critically engage with our customer base” — what he wants to say is, “We must do what our customers want”

“We facilitate an environment of empowerment” —which in simple terms means, “We let you get on with your job”

''Our focus must be on execution excellence in all our prioritized projects going forward'' — which is a complicated way of saying, “We must focus on making a success of our most important projects”

''The implementation of Project X was a learning experience for the company'' — which is a polite way of saying, “We screwed up”

“Moving forward, the outlook is positive” — a more lengthy way of just saying, “Things will be better in the future”

''To remain profitable, we must re-align salaries to the market average'' — is management speak for , “We must ensure that we don't pay our employees more than other firms”

''We have challenging goals in a resource-constrained operational space'' — what the poor fellow is trying to say is, “It will be difficult to meet our targets when we are so short of money, time, and staff”

Do the words you use help the audience to understand what you want to convey? Be clear in your mind what you want to communicate and say it as simply as you can. Remember the saying, “Less is more”. Your audience will appreciate it.

Syndication- Gathering support prior to making the presentation

Many people often shoot themselves in the foot unnecessarily before even showing the first PowerPoint slide by not syndicating the proposals prior to the presentation to a senior management committee or the board. What I mean by syndication is to test or bounce some of the key points in your proposal/presentation to some or all the members of the committee or board before the formal presentation. If the syndication is done properly, more than half the battle is won as you would have addressed most of their concerns during the syndication, so you will be able to better prepare yourself during the actual presentation.

Use the syndication session to gather what issues the committee regards as critical and possible deal breakers. This will allow you to pre-emptively address these issues during the formal presentation. The worst thing that can happen during critical presentations to senior level committees is having the committee caught off guard and surprised by your material. This would put them in a very defensive mode and the will lead to very critical and detailed analytical questions you may not have the time to address effectively or even worse, you may not be prepared to answer those questions.

One of the keys to getting an approval is providing the commitee with some level of comfort that what you are proposing has been throughly prepared and all risks have been mitigated. The 'yes' response is an emotional reaction, not a rational or analytical reaction. Studies have shown that people make decisions in the back of their minds before they consciously aware that they have made that decision. Eventhough conventional thinking assumes that our decision making processes are very linear and logical, the scientific evidence is showing the opposite.

The brain is an amazing organ and it makes thousands of subconcious decisions in a very short time. That is why many people can come to a conclusion whether or not they trust someone in a matter of minutes, hence the importance of the old saying, " You only get one chance to make a good impression".This is more so during a key presentation to senior management.

There are a few strategies you can utilise to maximise your chances of success by doing prior syndications. Firstly, have a clear strategy of the sequencing of people you will syndicate with. Try to start with people who are most likely to be on your side. Also start with the most senior person or influential person on the committee that will be sympathetic to your cause. The more people who are on your side, the easier it will be to convince the more 'difficult' members of the committee.

Secondly, always make sure you customise your syndication content for the person who you will be presenting to. Unlike the formal presentation where you need to cover as much material as you have time, the syndication session allows you to focus on areas that are most likely to be of concern to that individual. Each member will have their own personal areas of interest and expertise so prepare accordingly. If you cover these bases beforehand, they will not raise it during the formal presentation that could take you into directions that may not be favourable to your cause.

And finally, get a few easy 'agreements' before you get to more sensitive sections. Studies by psycologists have shown that people are more prone to say  'Yes' if they have said yes on previous points raised. This also saves you time getting the agreement on the non-critical issues and allows more time to go into more depth with the critical issues.

Remember: Syndicate prior to your formal presentation to get as much support as possible to improve you probability of success. Of course this will take a lot of effort and time but it will be worth it!

Plan Ahead, Be Prepared

Anticipate Objections and address them before your audience raises them. You may think your proposal or sales pitch is very strong and the evidence supports your recommedations, however your audience or your bosses may still have reservations. Always include a slide that touches on risks and also possible stumbling blocks to success. This will allow you to show that you respect the opinions of others who may not be as optimistic as yourself. These concerns may be budget and cost related, quality related, execution issues or even capacity issues. Use this opportunity to show what mitigating steps you will be taking to ensure a high probability of success for your proposal. Remember, most of the time people want to approve your proposal so help them to make a favourable recommedation by doing your preparation throughly and cover all bases!

Do the unexpected

Surprise your audience with an unexpected fact about yourself! Instead of just giving a long mini-biography of yourself, try a short introduction but include something little known and unexpected about yourself. This will get the attention of the audience early and show that you are different, most audiences will be expecting you to be boring and uninteresting. But make sure your 'interesting fact' is really something interesting like you 'once did stand up comedy' or 'you sky dive' or 'run marathons'. Even if you don't think there is anything interesting or unusual about yourself, if you think hard enough you will find something. If you really don't have anything, then perhaps you can use one of my other tips instead.... :-)

Creative use of pauses

Even the most thrilling of action movies have quiet moments for you to catch your breath, so should your presentations! There is no need to keep on talking non-stop while presenting. Used in the right way, a brief pause just after you have made a very critical point will allow your audience to digest what you said and amplify the significance of that point. Remember the phrase " The silence was deafening" ? In your next presentation, remind your self to slow down, at the critical points pause for a moment and allow what you just said to sink in.

Have a story to tell

Our brains are wired to tell and listen to stories. Take advantage of this fact when you are presenting. Nobody wants to listen to you reciting slide after slide of facts and figures, craft a story around wha...t you want say. Make it entertaining like a movie. Introduce the characters ( the background), bring in some conflict ( the issue or problem to be highlighted), introduce the villain ( the root causes of the issue or problem), now show the hero ( your proposed solution) that will resolve the conflict and create a happy ending ( the expected result of your solution). Remember, make it entertaining for your audience and have fun doing it.

Practice makes Perfect

Rehearse, Rehearse and Rehearse. You should always make an effort to practice your presentation prior to giving the presentation. The more important the presentation the more you should practice. The reason why Steve Jobs' legendary presentations looks so effortless and un-rehearsed is because he spends a LOT of time preparing and practicing before major keynotes like the launch of the iPhone or iPad. Very often people in Malaysia, think they can just talk through their slides without doing at least a single dry run. If Steve Jobs needs to practice and he is considered among the best in the business, what makes you think you can get away with no preparation? The more you practice the more confident you become and the audience will recognise this. You will come across as more confident and convincing. You often get only one chance with the boss, the customer or even the Board, so do not waste that chance. It could change your life!

Audience, Audience, Audience!

Always have the audience in your mind. Always be clear in your mind who you are presenting to. Ask yourself these 4 questions: 1. Are they people who lead or people who do? For leaders focus on the vision or where you want them to go, if they are doers then focus on how you will get them there. 2. Are they experts or laymen? If they are experts then you will need a fair bit of detail so that they will have confidence in your credibility, if laymen keep it simple. 3. Is the audience primarily analytical/technical? If yes, you will need data to make your case. If no, focus on a more emotional approach. 4. Is the audience friendly or hostile. If they are friendly, half the battle is won, if they are hostile, make sure you show them very early in the presentation you understand their point of view. In summary, Know WHO you are talking TO!