The Biggest Mistakes In Presentations

I've had the luxury of sitting through many great presentations, but it's the horrible presentations that really stick with me. Presentations so bad they not only turn me off to the speaker but to the topic as well. Take a look at this list of potential pitfalls and if you find yourself doing any of these then you may want to consider revising your style. Otherwise, you might just turn off folks who came to hear your genius.

Reading text from a slide directly: Come on, barring kids in second grade or younger, we are all literate. In fact, we can probably read your slides in our heads faster than you can aloud. Stop it. This is boring, disengaging, and encourages folks to look ahead in the slides rather than listen to you. This tells me you don't know your topic or you don't respect your audience.

Having slides that are too busy: Look at your slides. Does a single slide contain more than 6 lines? Is it written like a book? In the whole presentation are there 100 slides and 10,000 words? That's not a presentation, that's a publication. You could probably do just as well by taking the first sentence of every slide and calling it a day. Only put broad ideas in print, speak to the details.

Overusing clip art and cheesy transition effects: I see clip art and poorly crafted transitions and I think to myself, "I remember when I first got PowerPoint... in 1996." Everyone who uses presentation software will abuse these at some point, but the sooner you realize anything that distracts from your message should be eliminated, the better.

Overusing text: Kind of the opposite of the prior point, some folks have no color or variance in their slides. They are just unspirited, lifeless blocks of text. Make it easy for your audience to stay engaged as you present, don't bore them to death with a wall of text.

Poor speech and delivery: Sometimes this is beyond a person's control, but knowing your weakness creates the opportunity to improve. We all think we present well, maybe because people tell us nice things, but to truly find whether you are monotone, super fast, painfully slow, or just have bad timing, all you have to do is record yourself. Then listen to the recording and compare it to the great presenters you find on things like Ted Talks. Adjust to meet the styles of those you most admire. Almost certainly you'll hear things you wish you said differently. The sooner you own your shortcomings in public speaking, the sooner you can work to improve them.

Inconsistent formatting: If this is the worst thing you have in your presentation, then you probably aren't the worst of the worst. But even something as mundane as formatting can make a big difference. Make sure your text is easily viewed from 30 ft away, your pictures are in focus while clearly visible, and you apply some level of consistency in your font face and size. People like things that are easy on the eyes and changing font sizes, colors, and placement on every line just detracts from your message.

At the end of the day, the acid test is simple: Review your presentation ask yourself, "How would I feel if I had to sit through this presentation?" If it is anything less than totally inspired, rework it because if your presentation can't inspire you, you can't inspire others.