Overarching the craft of developing an especially powerful presentation is the guidance provided by the “Three Ps.” The first of the “Three Ps” is presentation Principles, and there are seven of them. These Seven Principles of Especially Powerful Presenting constitute the building blocks of your presentation persona. And you’ll not find a PowerPoint slide in sight. … Continue reading The Three Ps – “Principles”
If you’re like most of the 1.3 million English-speaking business school population worldwide, you doubtless have issues with your business school and its treatment of presentations, which is why you’re reading this now – you might actually hate presentations. On the other hand, if you feel reasonably confident, competent, and thoroughly satisfied with your presenting skills, then … Continue reading Do We Hate Presentations?
I truly don’t mean to be a pain to my long-suffering students, but one exercise that probably elicits more scorn than it deserves is called “Especially Powerful.” It consists of everyone rising to a standing position and striking a confident stance with feet shoulder-width apart and arms outstretched to either side, palms turned upward. Picture … Continue reading “I feel especially powerful today!”
In our battle to fight through the white noise of life to communicate with others, we often ignore the most powerful of weapons at our disposal – Presentation Passion. Passion, emotion, earnestness, brio, energy. Sure, we pay occasional homage to emotion and to “passion.” But more often than not, it’s only lip service. You don’t really believe … Continue reading Presentation Passion – Your Secret Weapon
Do you have presentation passion in your life? What is it that you long to do? What is it that fills you with the thrill of discovery, the adrenaline of newness? What can compare with the natural high of applying yourself to a task that excites you? What generates those endorphins? What brings a smile … Continue reading Secret # 7 – Presentation Passion
For your presentation, do you ever throw together a half-dozen makeshift Powerpoint slides cut-and-pasted from a written report, with dozens of bullet points peppered throughout? Guilty as charged? Most of us are at one point or another. And the results can be heinous. Bad PowerPoint Slides Destroy Your Show The results are slides that confuse the … Continue reading Magic Presentation Pills for Great PowerPoint Slides?
Let’s move from the realm of what you do and say in front of your business presentation audience to the realm of how you appear to your audience. Likewise, let’s immediately dismiss the notion that “it doesn’t matter what I look like – it’s the message that counts.” In a word . . . no. Forfeit Personal … Continue reading “Slob Cool” . . . isn’t
Never be unprepared to present. Just don’t do it. Offer your audience something that speaks to them in the language they understand and to the needs they have. Always offer them your respect and your heart. Always offer them your best message. Does this seem obvious? Perhaps, but that’s the paradox. Unprepared to Present? Then don’t … Continue reading Unprepared to Present
We’re all familiar with the droning voice of a speaker who rarely varies pitch, tone, or pace and who inflicts on us the boring presentation. In like fashion, you can be visually monotonous. Visual monotony – either of repetitive constant movement or of no movement whatsoever. We know well the “rocker” and the “swayer.” We … Continue reading Secret # 5 – Avoid the Boring Presentation
Class had ended, and I was giving final feedback for a group that had just presented their business case . . . and which incorporated not nearly enough business drama. Not a bad business presentation by any means. But individual students needed work. I like to give advice that young people can carry with them beyond the … Continue reading Put Business Drama in your Business Presentations
What’s a powerful gesture, and why do we worry about it at all? It’s nothing more than an add-on, right? Something perhaps nice to have, but unessential to the point of our presentation. The fact is that you cannot separate sincerity from your appearance. You can’t disaggregate movement from your inflection, from your volume, from … Continue reading Secret # 3 – Your Powerful Gestures
Let’s toss out a life preserver on how to conclude a presentation, because everyone needs a life-preserver at some point in his speaking career. I’ve tossed this rescue device out many times to students in trouble during a business presentation. At times, even the finest presenters get themselves in trouble, and having this rescue device near … Continue reading How to Conclude a Presentation
Your voice is obviously a key to a fabulous business presentation . . . or a disastrous one. Voice is one of the seven dimensions along which we measure the Power Presenter, and a strong, clear, confident voice is one of the seven secrets of powerful presenting. Paradoxically, we take our voices for granted. And … Continue reading Secret # 2 – Your Voice
You want to project strength, competence, and confidence throughout your presentation, and the basic way to achieve this is through an especially powerful presentation stance. This means that you engage a number of techniques, all working simultaneously and in harmony. Those techniques comprise our backpack full of Seven Secrets. Your first technique – or secret – … Continue reading Secret # 1 — Presentation Stance
7 Secrets. Could there be anything more tantalizing? Everyone loves secrets. Dark secrets. Sweet secrets. Secrets to tickle the fancy. Secrets to gain the upper hand. And not just one . . . but seven of them! I offer you – beginning here and now – 7 Secrets of Power Presenting. Seven consecutive days of Secrets to gain the … Continue reading 7 Secrets of Power Presenting
Over the years, I’ve learned that the zombies of bad presentation tips never die. We can’t eradicate bad presentation tips completely, because these zombies are impervious to every remedy known to 21st century civilization. When Armageddon finally comes, cockroaches and bad tips zombies will be the only survivors. But let’s give it a shot anyway. Bad Presentation Tips The process of … Continue reading Zombies of Bad Presentation Tips
Is there some law, somewhere, that dictates that business presentations must be bad? Is there a Law of Bad? Given the number of long, dull, pedantic, repetitious, boring, confusing – bad – presentations I see both inside and outside of the business school, I suspect there must be. This dullness seeps into the consciousness. It numbs us, and … Continue reading Bad Business Presentations
You’ve almost mastered your voice and material, and now it’s time to build on that and incorporate essential presentation movement. What should you do during your talk? Where to do it? How to do it? Why should you do it . . . and when? Today we begin to incorporate meaningful movement into your presentation – movement that adds … Continue reading Especially Powerful Business Presentation Movement
After I delivered an incredibly inspiring lecture in one of my classes last semester,* a student approached me and shared this snippet about presentation body movement. “I stand in one spot during my presentations,” he said. “But another professor told me to move around when I talk.” Hmmm. “Move around when you talk.” “Did he tell you how?” … Continue reading Focus on Your Presentation Body Movement
How can you enrich your presenting in unexpected and wonderful ways so to give an interesting presentation regardless of your audience? To deepen and broaden your perspective so that it encompasses that proverbial “big picture” we forever hear about? You must become a 3-D presenter. Now, this means several things, including how you utilize the … Continue reading How to Give an Interesting Presentation . . . Put it in Context!
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