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.

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!