Most people fear public speaking over death, but I was one who happily embraced it as part of my professional development. At some point mid-way along my career I realized that, if done well, public speaking can create a certain air of authority. Something about the boldness of standing confidently before a crowd, offering up packaged bits of useful information and well-researched insights, and then bringing it all home with a compelling recommendation; well, it simply causes people to think you are much smarter than you really are. I liked that part of public speaking very much.
Over the years, I have led many a presentation, mostly with the help of a wonderful invention by Microsoft called Powerpoint. In fact, the more I think about it, it might be better stated that Powerpoint was the surrogate for all of those presentations, and I just helped it along by presenting the slides. Perhaps I have become a bit too dependent on Powerpoint.
It all came out last week when I was forced to conduct a powerpointless presentation. Five minutes prior to my appointed time, I waltzed into the conference room where the meeting was supposed to take place only to discover that the organizers had switched the room. The new room had no access to our company’s network; thus, no access to my precious slide show. There was no time to run back to my office and save the file to a flash drive, and the terrifying truth dawned on me: I had to make a presentation without using Powerpoint.
Rather than panicking, I did what most spiritually mature business leaders should do in that type of situation, and said “So what?” I said a quick silent prayer, something along the lines of being able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and took a deep breath. The information was not new to me, afer all, and I pretty much had a visual memory of the order of the slides. And guess what? It went fine. In fact, it may have gone even better than my original plan. Here’s what I learned about why we should ditch the powerpoint slides once in a while:
1. You will be more conversational.
Instead of looking back and pointing to a screen, I was much more focused on the faces in the room. The formal corporate presentation to a glazed-over management team was transformed into a casual scene of just me and the gang talking about stuff. It came off as relaxed and comfortable. I think the crowd appreciated it much more, too.
2. It forces you to know the material.
When you use the slides as a crutch, it’s tempting to get by with just a surface-level knowledge of the information, because you can always lean on those bullet points to remind you of what you are trying to say. Not so when you pitch the powerpoint. Luckily, in my case I knew the content very well since I had made the same presentation several times over the last couple of months. So it was not hard to speak off the top of my head. Going naked on powerpoint certainly forces you to be better prepared, and that generally will help you gain more confidence in your ability to present. Rehearsing several times before you go live is not a bad idea either.
3. It gives you more of a natural credibility.
Yes, you will become much more impressive to the muckety-mucks in the crowd when they see you rattle off all that material without a prompt. “This is all coming off the top of her head?” they will ask themselves in disbelief. “She must be brilliant! Johnson, go see if you can poach her off of the Regional Group. I must have her on my International Team!” Your stock may very well rise in the organization after a few of these casual-but-brilliant management soirées.
4. You are more in control of the situation.
Network issues? Technical problems? Who cares? You are in perpetual Go-Time all the time, now that you are no longer dependent on Powerpoint! We’ve all felt that nauseous wave of panic wash over us as the attendees wait silently while you and the meeting organizer stupidly attempt to decipher the technical problem that didn’t exist ten minutes earlier. It’s embarrassing and sets the meeting off on a horrible tone, which you now must recover from. However, if you had had the presentation memorized on the tip of your tongue, and all the charts and graphs were handily copied in your briefcase, ready for distribution, then you become the Master in control of your presentation destiny. No technical glitch can destroy your fate, or your meeting.
So next time you’re up for a presentation, ditch the Powerpoint in favor of your true knowledge and charisma. Go ahead, I dare you.
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