Reading PowerPoint = Painful to watch

Last week I was a in a painful 1 hour meeting where the presenter kept reading his slides. Ouch. Each page was like a kick to my shins. Imagine, this is what clients see and feel when you read your PowerPoints.  

PowerPoint is the supporting cast

Remember, you (the human) are the main event. The PowerPoint slides are only supporting cast. Make the PowerPoint slides do the work.  You should never feel handcuffed to a long, overly-verbose, boring deck.

The PowerPoint slides should a) give structure to the narrative b) remind you of what to say c) provide a visual element to your story. d) Of course, it should be logically structured. e) Of course, it should be neatly assembled and relevant. f) Of course, the graphs and data should be legible, cogent, and authoritative. g) Of course, your deck should be good.

No, you should not read your slides

• People read faster than you can talk
• It is insulting – as if don’t trust them to read it for themselves
• It implies that you are unprepared or nervous or both
• Your back will be to the audience, like an awkward human carousel
• It implies that the words on the screen is all there is. . nothing else
• Once you start reading 1 slide, I bet you will read them all
• You should tell stories, not read a script

Tip #1: Reverse-engineer the purpose, audience, venue

• Who’s the audience, how informed are they on this topic?
• What’s the purpose of the meeting (information, decision, workshop)?
• How long do you have? 20 minutes vs. 2 hours?
• What’s the venue? sitting across a table vs. stand and present to a large group?
• Is this on ZOOM or MS Teams? If so, what breakout, survey, chat, video do you need?

Tip #2: Know your story and “Sell it”

• What’s the story you want to tell?  
• What are the gaps? Where might you need evidence to “convince” them?
• How do you want the audience to “feel” after you finish the presentation?
• What’s the call to action?

Tip #3: Cut out the fluff

• Executives are notorious busy, distracted, and impatient
• This is not high school math class, you DON’T need to show us everything
• Make your presentation shorter. Cut the # of pages in 1/2
• Put extra slides in the appendix, which shows you did the work 

Tip #4: Structure the content logically

• Answer first. Put the executive summary up front
• Provide an overarching structure (diagram, framework) to the presentation
• Make it easy for your audience to follow your thinking (and for you to NOT get lost)
• Answer their questions before they have a chance to ask
• Get them “nodding” their heads in agreement early

Tip #5: Design clean and direct slides

• Use titles effectively. Say something, it’s the most valuable real estate on the page.
• Ensure each page has 1-2 points only
• Use graphs to tell the point visually, make it obvious with the analysis
• Learn PowerPoint English (phrases, not full sentences)
• Use numbers to drive home the point

Tip #6: Scenario plan questions

• “What are the top 5 tricky questions I could get during the presentation?”
• “How can I get-ahead of that question by framing the presentation up front?”
• “Is there a smart and lazy way to create an appendix, data slide that defends from that criticism?” 

Tip #7 Get (Brutal) feedback

• Ask your friend, colleague to pick apart your presentation “like a grumpy senior manager”
• Take the good suggestions and throw away the rest

Tip #8 Practice

• Executive presence matters. If you are not prepared, you will not be confident. 
  
• Record yourself on ZOOM or on iPhone voice memo; hear what you sound like
• Aggressively kill of the filler words: um, kinda, you know, right, like, right, so, uh
• Practice and pretend you are explaining it to your cousin (who knows nothing on the topic)
• Make eye-contact when you present; make sure you are getting your points across

If you are consultant who charges $250-$500 an hour, you are a pro. You know your stuff. The client expects this. What would you think of an actor reading his script on TV?  What would you think of a chef who repeatedly looks at the recipe? What would you think of a pharmacist who kept looking up the answers to your pharmaceutical questions online? Put in your 10,000 hours. Don’t read your slides.