Page 131 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

122 DELIVERY

◆ Unleash the POWER formula. Strong start. One theme. Exam-
ples to back up the theme. Ordinary language. Strong ending.
A typical deck presentation may go something like this:
Businesspeople gather in a conference room and take their seats,
usually on opposite sides of the table. The presenting team makes
some formal introductions all around the table. The lead player
announces how much the team appreciates this opportunity to make
this presentation. Next he opens the presentation deck, very likely
to the agenda page, and tells everybody to do the same. Then he
reads or paraphrases the agenda line for line.
Finally, the presentation begins—but it is just one word slide
after another. The lead player is reading from his own deck, so
everyone in the room is following his lead—and now everybody is
reading and nobody is paying attention to what the lead player is
saying. Worse, soon everybody is out of sync because they can read

faster than he can talk. People are flipping through pages. This is
troubling—but it’s just the beginning. Very soon it is clear that there
is no theme, just information that may not be relevant to the business
needs of the client. Another presenter is formally introduced. She
reads more word slides. It only gets worse. The scenario can take
many unfortunate turns from here (e.g., drag on for forty-fi ve ago-
nizing minutes) but will always wind up in the same black hole: time
wasted and another opportunity lost.
On any given day, you can see variations of this sorry scene
replayed in thousands of conference rooms across the United States
and around the world. It is a tale of mediocrity made manifest—a
needless squandering of potential—and yet still the current stan-
dard of practice for millions of unwitting businesspeople who are no
doubt left scratching their heads and wondering why they did not
get the contract.
So how do we right this wrong? Here’s a different scenario:
Businesspeople gather in a conference room. The presenting
team makes a point of getting the introductions out of the way
before everyone is seated; this keeps formalities at a minimum and