Page 34 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

AVOIDING DANGEROUS TRAPS 25

that things were threatening to slip out of control. After ten minutes,
when the vice president had apparently still not gotten to the point,
the chairman rang down the curtain. He put an end to the meeting,
an end to the presentation, and as it turned out, an end to the vice
president’s career in the company.

SEVEN KILLER NO-NOS

The lesson here was a need for flexibility and perhaps even an
entirely new approach in a world where change is a daily fact of life
and every second counts. Several elements conspired to make things
go badly for the vice president:

1. His presentation was designed improperly. He never would have
had the problems he did had he simply reversed the order—
in other words, he should have begun with the conclusion.
That, after all, is what his audience was waiting to hear—but
never did.
2. He had planned to speak too long—forty minutes. A maximum of
eighteen minutes, plus twenty-two minutes of question and
answer (Q&A), would have served him better.
3. He used too many visual aids. Not only that, but he used them
incorrectly and picked the wrong ones.
4. He tried to talk about too much.
5. He allowed the presentation itself to dominate everything—even
himself. He forgot about the big picture, the message, and the
main points, instead focusing only on the mechanics of trying
to tell too much detail—an exercise I liken to trying to force an
elephant into a golf bag. The presentation overwhelmed him
and subsequently overwhelmed his audience.
6. On top of all that, he had no theme, no “takeaway” that could be
remembered a week later.