Death by PowerPoint

Ave atque salve.

Cicero’s remarks last week on the meaning of marketing seem to have gone down well, judging by the feedback received. Cicero is glad to be of service and to show believers such as your good self the path to true, enriching and sustainable marketing and business enlightenment. And you can’t ask for more from a free resource. All I ask is your time.

And now for this week’s lesson.

I now want talk about a capability that all in business must possess but few are able to do well and most of us fear with dread. The ability to present, the ability to avoid death by PowerPoint.

And I bring you enlightenment, education and entertainment on this critical topic because I was discussing this with one of my star pupils a week or so back who credited me with some skill and understanding on this issue. And so I thought I would share my learning with you. As always I hope you like and find as interesting and relevant as all my previous musings.

The say that information is power. I have no idea who ‘they’ is in this instance but for now just go along with me. OK? But with information now at everyone’s finger tips and only a mouse click away, real power now comes from the ability to engage and influence. Information without influence is just data.

And so the ability to engage and influence is critical to us all. But get it wrong and you are very exposed. Nothing else can have such a direct impact on how you are perceived by others and in consequence your career ambitions. PowerPoint presentations should be seen as an advert for you and your personal brand.

The first thing to remember is that the success of any presentation has nothing to do with how great your slides might look. Your audience is not easily fooled by bullet points that might give the neat impression that there is order behind the chaos. Nor by colourful themed backdrops or by flying words or by sound effects.

No, successful presentations are down to you and your ability to engage with and hold an audience. Trust me you don’t need the crutch of PowerPoint as provided by Mr Gates.

So here are three things I want to encourage all Cicero devotees to think about and adopt to avoid death by PowerPoint. I hope this helps.

My first rule of great presenting is making sure you have a clear purpose. It is no different from the secret of great communications-Remember the Reader and the Result, my 3 R’s of great communications.

Be clear from the outset what you want your audience to do or think or feel. Don’t expect them to work it for themselves. If the purpose is simply to impart information there are cheaper ways of doing this, sending your slides to the audience by e-mail for example. And once you have worked out what you want them to do after listening to you for 30 minutes or so, make sure you include and repeat this instruction half a dozen times in the course of your time in the spotlight.

My second rule of great presentations is be single minded. Remember we can only catch a few tennis balls at a time so we can only retain and our audience can only retain a limited number of points. So be clear about the points we want to communicate and repeat these points. As Goebbels said, and he knew a thing or two about engaging presentations without the need for PowerPoint, ‘truth is merely repeated propaganda’.

And my third rule. Practice, practice, practice.

Practice to avoid reading direct from the slides. Again if you are going to do this, just mail the slides. Practice body language, tone, pacing and eye contact with the audience to strengthen rapport, engagement and presence. Practice the use of use of stories and analogies to make the information come to life and stick. Practice presentation structure to make it easy for your audience to follow. Practice your use of the space you have to magnify your presence and stature in the eyes of your audience.

And one final tip. Before standing up know exactly what you are going to say first. Believe me the rest will follow naturally once you get off to the perfect start.

And that is all there is to it. All there is to avoiding death by PowerPoint. All there is to you becoming as powerful as me. Good luck. And let me know how you get on.

Is it only me?

Given the sudden rise in temperature and the widespread appearance of the sun last week Cicero might be forced to apologise to the environmentalists and admit they were right. Global warming may be happening after all. But it is June after all and now officially summer so this weather is surely expected. So I would ask the eco-mentalists to keep the organic and low carbon footprint champagne on ice for a bit until we have more conclusive proof.

But is it only me who thinks that the warm weather is manifestly unfair on men? Women look cool in summer frocks and in their summer finery while we men continue to look hot and bothered in our all weather suits which are great in winter but not the best for the dry warm summer months. It is time we had summer wardrobes like women and were able to not only have a professional summer wardrobe but also a summer dress code to help keep us cool yet business like. Women get away with murder when it comes to a summer dress code.

What do you think?

And finally. Nope.Still not fixed.

Have a great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.