Presentation Time

Managers, as well as engineers, are occasionally called on to give presentations. Preparation and practice are the biggest ingredients in a successful presentation. You don’t want the big day to be the first time you’ve given the presentation. Practice out loud, first by yourself and then in front of some friends or colleagues who can give you constructive criticism. Practice with the actual equipment that you will be using, preferably in the actual room where you will give the final presentation. The more you rehearse, the lower the chances of something going wrong. Sometimes, things still go wrong. John West tells the story of one such occasion, and how he did a respectable job recovering, in this post to Leading from the Trenches.

Comments

[Hillary Johnson]

Some of us are actually of the persuasion that PowerPoint is, if not exactly evil, at least very, very bad. Too many managers use it badly; It's never a good idea to rely on props of any kind for a presentation--you should have the material down cold enough that you can do it without any props other than your hands. I've sometimes found that I give better presentations when I don't have time to prepare--it makes me rely on what I know well enough to simply speak.