Page 110 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

THE POWERPOINT PARADOX 101

In the end, word slides can drastically diminish whatever assets,
such as talent, experience, wisdom, and intelligence, that you may
carry with you into the meeting.
That’s why many an expert comes off looking and sounding like
an amateur, or why many a deal goes bad. Overuse of word slides
can be a major contributor to negative outcomes for presentations of

all kinds: sales, financial, new business, boardroom, and senior man-
agement, to name just a few.

Rule #3: Tell and Show

Rule #3 exists to make sure you control your presentation and your
presentation does not control you.
Rule #3 says that it is smart to introduce the next slide before you
show it, but not so smart to show it and then start talking about it.
Why? Because if you start talking only after you can see your mate-
rial, you are not in charge. Your word slides are in charge. You are
obviously allowing your word slides to tell you what to say and when
to say it, and this perception is to be avoided. You don’t want your
audience thinking that if the electricity went down, you would sud-
denly be at a loss for words.
What we are doing here, of course, is tell and show, not show and
tell. The trick is to throw out an introductory line, perhaps just a
single sentence that sets the stage for what is coming next. Let’s call
this the roll-in. Now let’s assume that all those many word slides
have been banished to the hard copy (document) where they belong
and are no longer cluttering the screen, slowing you down, and gen-
erally mucking up your presentation. Your roll-in will tell us in
advance what the business message is on the next slide (graphic)—
even before we see that slide. This gives the perception that, like a
good lawyer, you are introducing the jury to an idea and then reveal-
ing the evidence to back it up. This way, you are in control. You are
making it clear that you don’t need word slides to tell you what to