One of the most painful things in corporate life is to sit through presentations that are dull and long winded, and worse, have no inkling what the presenter is rambling on and on about. Not too long ago, I was right in the realm of one of the worst presenters. Perhaps not dull nor long winded, but definitely rambling far too quickly since I was very nervous to present. The faster I got over it, the better. So, once I get to the podium, the goal was to rush through the slides as quickly as I can (as if I was in an Olympic sprinting competition!). Not surprisingly, I left the podium feeling breathless and almost weak at the knees. And my audience, I wonder, through my hurried ramblings, clouded thoughts, if they understood anything, let alone understood it all.
Thankfully, I came to my senses, dug deep into my pockets, cough up more money that I could afford and enrolled for a one-to-one presentation course. My coach was really strict with me - almost like a drill sergeant. Often I would describe our coaching relationship as "love-hate". He made me go up to the podium as many times as I could muster, videotaped parts of my presentation and Lord forbid, show it back to me, pointing out the flaws! That part I hate. But then again, I could slowly see improvements, a little bit here, a little bit there. This part, I love and revel in.
I once described to my coach that having no slide (or a blackened slide) is like standing without clothes in front of my audience. Without the PPT, I felt stripped of my thoughts and my words. My mind would be as blanks as the slide. Slowly slowly, I started to rely less on the presentation slides which were either cramped full with words or with pictures, to no slides even.
Now, I love presenting.
Each slide is clean, with either one thought, one photo or a few words. Not only did this improve my rapport with the audience, the most wonderful thing of it all is that I no longer spend hours after hours on preparing my PPT slides. With the saved time, I could spend more time making the presentation impact more powerful, the idea transmission clearer and I could sleep easier the night before the presentation.
One clear benefit of improved presentation skills is that I could reach a wider audience with my ideas, with my thoughts and my sharing. Sometimes 20 to 40, even occasions of a few hundred. And because I am at ease with presentations, my ideas come shining through - point by point, my story rings loud and clear, enabling others to be inspired or to take action; and even not, as least, I dont think they were bored silly.
Take heart, if I can learn to present, so can any one. What's more, one can surely learn to enjoy presenting like I do. All the best!
