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Are you Breaking the 10 Commandments of Presentation Delivery?

Ask anyone who’s delivered a few presentations and they’ll be able to tell you about the disasters. We’ve all had them. I remember my mentor taking me aside after my first time delivering a presentation without his input. I knew how badly I’d done. Nobody had responded well to what I had to say. All of their questions had taken me by surprise. I had watched myself make mistake after mistake as the clock slowed down just to taunt me. I wanted to run away and lie down in a darkened room, not debrief, but that wasn’t going to happen.

"Now, what went wrong?"

"I made myself look like an idiot," I said, dejected.

"That’s your opinion," he said, "and it’s unhelpful. I like to stick to facts." It wasn’t a disagreement, but it still came as something of a comfort. "Let me tell you what went wrong."

He proceeded to run through my presentation from the beginning, using his notes to point out each of the mistakes I’d made. As he found each one, he counted them off on his fingers. Ten in all. I wrote them down and stuck them on my wall, reading them through over and over again.

When I delivered my next presentation, it was much improved. Of course, I still had a lot more to learn, but at least I had avoided those fundamental mistakes.

Here I’ve reproduced those ten key mistakes as ten things that you should try to avoid at all costs. Do so and with any luck the presentation gods will smile upon you.

Thou shalt not…

1 …deliver without rehearsal

Rehearsals give your brain the chance to remember the most important points and the words that are going to have the most impact. You’ll only be able to emphasise those bits if you’ve practiced.

2 …start with demands for the audience

Your audience needs to trust you before they’ll do what you say. So start by showing them that you know what you’re talking about.

3 …put everything you’re going to say on the slides

You know how a backing group repeats the important things that the vocalist sings? Your slideshow should be your backing group. Just use it to emphasise key points.

4 …only say what’s on the slides

Closely following on from point 3, you should make sure that your presence adds value to the presentation. If you can print out the slides as a handout then you’re doing it wrong.

5 …fold your arms

You need to show your audience that you have confidence in what you’re saying. Folding your arms tells them that you’re not sure. Don’t start with your arms folded and be careful that they don’t fold as you go along.

6 …avoid eye contact

I know you want to be anywhere except in that room. Unfortunately, if your eyes are constantly darting to the door, the window or the ceiling then so does your audience.

7 …leave questions to chance

Anticipate the questions your audience is likely to have so that you can answer the most important ones. So long as you do, you’ll be able to fend off awkward ones with delaying tactics.

8 …let your mouth go dry

You’re talking, so you’ll use up saliva. You’re also nervous, so the water in your body is being diverted elsewhere. Take a glass or bottle of water with you and sip it regularly.

9…read from your notes

Your notes are an important resource, but you shouldn’t just read directly from them. That would be a script. Would you enjoy a play where the actors took their lines up on stage with them?

10 …keep talking without a pause

You might find yourself wanting to get to the end of your presentation as soon as possible, but if you just keep talking then your voice becomes “white noise” and your audience stops listening. As a minimum, you should pause between slides.

As a last point, if something does go wrong don’t let it get to you. Like my mentor said, stick to the facts and don’t take it personally. There’s always another opportunity to shine.