Page 105 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

96 DELIVERY

3. Don’t allow your presentation to dominate.
4. Don’t use slides no one can understand.
5. Don’t get off track.
6. Don’t bury your face in a script and read.
7. Don’t take up people’s time unless you have a message they
can use.
8. Don’t hide from your audience.
9. Don’t speak for two hours—unless you know the rules of
the game.
10. Don’t make a mushy mess of what might have been an inter-
esting story.

Back in the days when people relied on slide projectors and over-
head transparencies the list of no-nos was long. Today, happily, it is
shorter, and the rules have become simpler and much more
straightforward.
You might be surprised just how simple they actually are:

1. Begin and end with just you doing the talking. In other words,
don’t begin or end your presentation with slides. Slides occur-
ring simultaneously with a strong POWER start or ending are
counterproductive. So stick all your graphs and pictures in the
middle. This leaves you free to command the room with a
strong start and strong fi nish.
2. Dump all your word slides. This does not mean they go away. It
just means that instead of being on the screen or in the deck,
they will now wind up only in the document, or hard copy.
3. Introduce the next slide while the old slide is still up. Don’t

advance to the next slide until you first prime the audience to
what they are about to see.

Simple as pie. And as you will see, these rules make sense.
But I should note that for all their simplicity and proven effec-
tiveness, even today these three easy rules often meet headwinds
inside long-established, complacent organizations that have become
culturally resistant to change.