Workplace Presentation Best Practices

Get Them at ‘Hello’

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The first few minutes of any presentation are most important minutes. Start strong, powerfully, engaging and immediately so you don’t blow your intro. And never start with a joke unless you were hired as an entertainer and the only goal is to be humorous. Jokes rarely work in typical workplace presentations.

What does work is thorough planning and careful crafting of your opening comments. Introductions should generally be 10 % of the running length – or less – and accomplish a lot of important tasks:

  • Engage the audience immediately with a question, fact, stat, quote, etc. Stories work, but they have to be very short and connect directly to the message … and most aren’t.

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Sit … and Deliver?

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Last month, our piece on presentation stance drew positive comments from readers. Good to know that its focus on standing clear, standing straight and standing still resonated with workplace presenters.

But other readers asked for some tips when delivering a more casual presentation while seated or in a virtual setting. So, here you are. Don’t thank me … it’s my pleasure.

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Why I Hate 3 x 5 Note Cards

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Very high on my list of Workplace Presenter ‘Worst Practices’ is using the simple, seemingly innocent little 3 x 5 note cards for speaker notes. They’re way too small to be of much value. Good idea for high school debaters or for storing recipes maybe, but not for workplace presenter notes. And, if you do use a large-enough type that’s easy to read quickly, you’ll need a lot of the cards and will spend way too much time changing them … or picking them up when you drop them.

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Surviving Q&A

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 For the last two months, we’ve done a deep dive into the rough seas of audience questions and discussed several strategies for when to handle them. Now, dive even deeper to discuss how to handle them. What you do with audience questions has a critical impact on your results, often more than the overall content itself. Here are some Best Practices to help you Survive and Thrive during the Audience Q&A.

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Dog & Pony Show Best Practices

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My rant last month generated some lively and interesting comments. Always a good thing. Some readers asked for immediate help, which I provided privately. Others were content to wait until this month for part II – ‘Dog & Pony Show Best Practices’ … or ‘How to Avoid a Team-Delivered Presentation (TDP) from Hell!’

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