You, all of you, from CEO to Sales to Personnel to Purchasing, you are killing us with your PowerPoint.
That’s because bullets kill.
The Five Main Offenders:
- Too many graphics on one slide.
- Too many topics.
- Too many bullets & too many sentences (which are worse than bullets).
- Too many cheesy images.
- Too many dissolves, spins or other transitions.
Every Main Offender on this list starts with “too many” because you are over-stuffing each slide. We do not know where to look first. In the midst of our confusion, we stop listening to you in hopes of being entertained by something on your slide. Boredom + lethargy sets in and we shift over to what we really want to do – a sneaky wild round of Candy Crush.
Audiences are rebelling against PowerPoint. No one goes to sleep at night wishing they had seen another PowerPoint presentation. But, your listeners might end the day wishing they had been more inspired. Inspiration comes from solid stories that reinforce your message that can be supported by great visuals.
So, what’s a great slide look like? It’s VISUAL.
Effective slides incorporate these three commandments:
- Thou Must use good, clear (not copyrighted by someone else) pictures that support your message.
- Thou Must think ‘Less is More’ when putting your slides together. At the very least, can you please take one busy slide with many points and divide it into several slides so that each slide has only one point/slide?
- Thou Must remember YOU are the presenter, NOT your slide deck.
On the other hand, keep doing what you always do and our Speak For Yourself® Company will remain busy cleaning it up for you!
Photo ©: 123RF Stock Photo
© Karen Cortell Reisman, M.S., author of 3 books and President of Speak For Yourself®, works with decision makers on how to speak with gravitas. It’s all in how you speak for yourself. Karen also speaks about her cousin, Albert Einstein, in a message about hope, resilience and brassieres.
Read more at www.SpeakForYourself.com/blog
#PresentationSkills #BusinessCommunication #OrganizationalCommunication
Karen Cortell Reisman, MS, Executive Communication Author & Speaker
Good one, but, sorry, I was distracted by your sexy picture.
Once distracted, did you end up playing a round of Candy Crush? Thanks for your feedback, Michael!