Simple Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Presentation
Do you remember the last time you came across a presenter who breathed excellence into a presentation with his remarkable skills. Well, chances are quite rare! Or in that case, you can probably recollect the bad ones comparatively easily. This is largely because most of us are afraid of public speaking. So, whenever opportunity strikes, either out of nervousness or due to lack of preparation, we end up committing same mistakes.
Without an iota of doubt, presentations are a part and parcel of our day-to-day business activities. So, in order to save your grace and prevent your presentation from falling into the worthless category, it is suggested to pay due attention to simple mistakes that can ruin your presentation.
1. Failing to Engage Audience: A presentation stands as a failure, if the presenter fails to strike the right cord with audience. No matter how formal a topic is or how cerebral your audience is, it is requisite to connect with your audience in a way that you can engage them to the core. Use analogies that can convey your idea to their heart as well as their mind.
2. Slide Overloading is a Killer: Stuffing slides with access content is the biggest mistake that most of the presenters commit. Remember that your slides are a visual companion of your thoughts, so it is not required to mention every single detail that you are communicating verbally. Trust this, when we say that it can be extremely annoying for the onlookers.
3. An Endless Presentation is Mind-bursting: Even if the audience is enjoying your presentation, it does not mean that you just don’t want to quit. Don’t forget that if you don’t stop then, the audience will. So, try to wind up your presentation within the preset limit with a thought provoking conclusion that justifies its essence.
4. Baseless Presentation Leads You Nowhere: No matter how much effort has been invested in framing a presentation but, a senseless presentation that does not cater to the expectations of listeners is worthless. Thus, one must ensure that the content is reader friendly. For this, you can even incorporate a few jokes but, say a strict no to technical jargons until and unless it is necessary.
5. Relying Excessively on Visuals: No doubt, aim of PowerPoint presentations is to support ideas with visual aid. However, you must realize that too much of flash, videos, pictures, etc will only dissuade audience and shift their focus. So, weigh down every aspect and create a balance.
If delivering an engaging presentation is not a cake walk then, it is also not a rocket science. One just needs to gather ideas and present them in a unique manner.