by Kailee Goold | Featured Contributor
We’ve all been there.
Emailing or checking Twitter while a speaker wraps up another unbearable presentation. We do it because the presentation isn’t capable of keeping our attention. The speaker reads wordy slides to the audience and is often so unprepared they speed through 15 slides in the last two minutes.
And yet, when it’s our turn to present a topic to colleagues, clients or potential clients–we do the same thing! Let’s stop the insanity.
Presentations are an opportunity to demonstrate your skills and expertise while building a meaningful relationship with the audience. Your speech, PowerPoint slides and handouts are all reflections of you and your work product. So when it comes to preparing, don’t be lazy.
Here are five ways I send the right message with my PowerPoint presentations:
- Know your audience. When you book a presentation ask about the audience. Tailor your style and content to the specific group. What you put on your slides and the level of depth you cover completely depends on your audience and their understanding of the topic. Not to mention, jokes about your latest TV obsession may not get a big laugh in a group of men over 50 and twenty-somethings won’t always understand a 1980’s reference.
- Less words on your slides. You are the most essential component of every presentation you give. You should add value to your slides. Slides are not a prompter to read to your audience nor a place to dump as much data as possible. You can always supplement your presentation with a handout, so there is no reason to turn the audience off with text-heavy slides. No one—and I repeat no one—has ever enjoyed a presentation where paragraphs of information are read to them off of slides.
- One thought per slide. Put each idea on a new slide. There is nothing wrong with having a lot of slides (especially when you are not reading off of them). PowerPoint has great tools to help you avoid a bulleted list on every slide. Take some free online training in PowerPoint and using its SmartArt feature. Get comfortable with more slides with less on them. A slide with an engaging picture or image is more powerful and memorable than a bulleted list.
- Provide a meaningful handout. Give your audience something to take away that reflects you and the purpose of the presentation. The content of your handout obviously depends on your audience. You can’t go wrong providing the key points and main takeaways with your contact information, especially for clients or potential clients. If it is an information-heavy presentation, make sure you provide room for notes. Avoid printing your slides as your handout. Remember, your slides alone should not be helpful to a reader because you as the speaker add the real value.
- Look at some of the best PowerPoints online. Learn from the best. Take a look at how other people are presenting with PowerPoint. Notice the difference between text-heavy slides and a powerful image. Get ideas for which colors and fonts fit your message. Some good places to start:
An engaging presentation takes a bit more work to prepare. However, I believe it is worth the extra effort to send the right message about yourself and your abilities.
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Kailee Goold – problem solver – practical employee relations counselor + litigator – frequent presenter – social media advocate
Kailee Goold is an employment law attorney by trade but her passion for practical-minded problem solving extends beyond the law. Starting at Kegler Brown Hill + Ritter in 2012, Kailee quickly developed a niche for providing legal and industry insights in a more modern way. Establishing the first blog at Kegler Brown, Kailee translates legal developments and experiences into content her clients find valuable. She is also known for her engaging presentations ranging from substantive legal topics to teaching attorneys how to utilize Twitter to build their practice. She continues to shape relationships and redefine the role of “attorney” through her use of social media platforms.
A graduate of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Kailee contributes to the Central Ohio community as the social media chair of the Women Lawyers of Franklin County, and is a member of both the Young Lawyers Section Council for the Ohio State Bar Association and the Ohio Women’s Bar Association.
You can connect with Kailee on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter (@kaileegoold).
