Stop hiding behind your slides: Lead the room, don’t read to it

I once attended a slide presentation given by an executive in a telcom company.

The presentation was highly technical, but that was not the main problem. It was boring because the speaker was using back-to-back visuals and had zero connection to his audience. When the one-hour session came to an end, the entire audience filed out of the room but the executive kept talking. He was so focused on his visuals that he didn’t even realize the audience had left the room.

This story illustrates the dangers of using slides. The speaker can easily lose touch with the audience, and the result is that the power you bring as a speaker gets lost. To retain your power when using visuals, follow these five fundamentals.

1. AVOID SLIDES WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

First, consider not using slides at all. Strong leaders have no interest in competing with busy PowerPoints. The purpose of a talk should be to persuade and inspire, not simply to convey information. Often you can do that best without any visual props. So avoid slides unless there is a strong argument for using them.

Still, there are times when you will need to use slides. It might be part of the corporate culture. Some visuals illustrate a new product or a new building. At times a chart drives home a point. If you are planning to use a deck, the next four guidelines suggest how to do so most effectively.

2. REALIZE THAT YOU’RE THE BEST VISUAL.

Think of yourself as the best visual. You have energy, enthusiasm, vocal reach, and body language that tell your audience you believe what you’re saying and they should too. You can bring forward your points with more impact than inanimate slides can. This should encourage you to keep the presentation focused on you and your convictions. Instead of fading into the visuals and reacting to them, lead with powerful statements using your strong presence to bring the presentation to life.

Keep your visuals simple and uncluttered. The less time your audience spends reading the visuals the more time they’ll spend looking at you and following you. Beware especially of cluttered word slides. They’re distracting and often hard to understand. They’ll compete with you. Audience members will be reading all that text and tune you out.

3. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ONE CLEAR, COMPELLING MESSAGE.

Your leadership presence depends on a clear, credible, and well-supported message. The danger of using slides or visuals is that the whole presentation can easily become an information dump. And that’s how it’s usually delivered. Fact after fact after fact.

To save your presentation from the information junk heap, introduce a central message early on. For example, you might say: “The message of this presentation is . . .” and keep that message front and center throughout. Show that everything in your presentation supports this message. The argument on each slide should relate back to the message. At the end, come back to your message and show how it can be implemented.

“Apple reinvents the phone” was the message Steve Jobs wanted his audience to take away when he introduced the iPhone. That’s the reason “Apple reinvents the phone” was the only message on the slide. And he repeated it several times during the presentation to reinforce it.

4. PRESENT WITH GREAT CONVICTION.

Having slides doesn’t lessen the need to show your commitment; rather, it doubles that need. Own each visual. Provide a narrative that shows you’re in charge and that the deck is just a supporting character. As you walk through the presentation, state the message of each visual before showing it. Say, “As you’ll see, this next slide argues that convincingly.”

To inspire your audience, strengthen your voice and body language. Your voice should be forceful and varied, in keeping with the substance you’re conveying. Emphasize your points by looking at the audience and using pauses, as if to say, “Did you get that?” Your body language is important. Excellent posture conveys conviction, as do appropriate gestures that reinforce your points.

5. END WITH A CALL TO ACTION.

Finally, end with a call to action. The call to action should echo the overall message that you began the presentation with. Explain to the audience what you want from them. Approval of the proposal? Buy-in? Or a full understanding of your argument and its implications for moving ahead. Your call to action might begin “I trust you can now see how redoubling our focus on using AI will be the basis for strong growth next year.” Whatever your message, show how it can be implemented. If you do this successfully, you will have led.

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