{"id":17731,"date":"2023-10-17T10:57:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T10:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/5-predictable-mistakes-that-result-in-dreadful-presentations\/"},"modified":"2023-10-17T10:57:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T10:57:23","slug":"5-predictable-mistakes-that-result-in-dreadful-presentations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=17731","title":{"rendered":"5 Predictable Mistakes That Result In Dreadful Presentations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By most measures, Liam is an outstanding professional. As Head of Operations for a global manufacturer, he\u2019s used his expertise in process engineering to help grow the business exponentially. However, Liam has an Achilles heel: his presentations are awful. His internal and external audiences tune him out even before he gets to his second slide.<\/p>\n

In the most recent Chapman University Survey of American Fears, 34% of Americans report being afraid or very afraid of public speaking. That number likely pales in comparison to the number of people who regularly experience \u2018Death by PowerPoint\u2019. Millions of presentations are given every day. Most of those presentations are mediocre, at best.<\/p>\n

Over the past 25 years, I\u2019ve coached hundreds of leaders on their presentation skills. Given that data set, I\u2019ve seen a consistent pattern of mistakes that well-intentioned executives make that lead to dreadful presentations. Becoming aware of these mistakes is the first step in eliminating them.<\/p>\n

Mistake #1: Building The Wrong Agenda<\/h2>\n

Most people start planning for their presentation by thinking about what they hope to get across to the audience. Some of these hopes can include: \u201cI want to impress them. I want them to buy from me. I want them to buy-in to my plan. I want them to appreciate all the work my team did.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a major problem here. These thoughts are all speaker-centered. Speaker-centered thoughts lead to creating a speaker-centered agenda. Pardon the bluntness, but no one cares about your agenda. They care about their agenda.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the secret to proper presentation planning: Build your presentation from your audience\u2019s perspective, not yours. Ask yourself: What\u2019s in it for them to listen to you? For example, are you going to:<\/p>\n