Does PowerPoint: Kill or Revive?

Taking the fact that for many years there are more than 120 million people are using PowerPoint to create business and educational presentations worldwide (Source; BBC.co.uk) : How many of your coaches have truly influenced your business or personal growth?  Do you remember why?  How did this happen?  How many coaches, you really, felt have wasted your time?  How did that happen; why? 

Let's start this read with the very big question: Why did you choose to be a trainer? And do you have the mental and psychological Stamina to be one?

Having good presentation skills is crucial for anyone of us.  There are over 30 million presentations created everyday  (Source; BBC.co.uk).   But have you ever thought of how this could be a double edged weapon if this skill wasn't partnered with a genuine ability and readiness to practically alleviate the performance of clients in every practical and measurable manner?  A good presenter is not a necessarily a good trainer.  A good presenter is a good performer; training or coaching people is hardly that alone. 

Impressing the crowd can give anyone a fake sense of self-fulfillment.  But do we actually put ourselves in their shoes; if they will later on go home or back to their work spaces empty-handed, deciding to never to come back? Should the cycle of learning, development and improvement stop when the trainer stops talking?

Moving to the second biggest question: How do you get to be the trainer you aspire?  Wait, before you start thinking – let me ask this question again: How do you get to be the trainer your audiences aspire to have?  Because unless you wish to work for free; you need to serve your market – they "sacrifice" the money they give only when they see a clearly marked "Value ADDED" worthy of the money/time they are investing in your coaching. So if coaches think they are doing a good job by adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, they need to think again.   A survey on 453 trainees on LinkedIn proved that in 71.7% of the cases; speakers merely read the slides to the audience.  Although this may sound like common sense to millennial, an executive, professional life or business coach would know better.   Simply because in real life you need to customize your presentations, ask clients, get feedback, suggest solutions, try them, get more feedback, and try again and so on, no?  In fact some world renowned  trainers (Such as Anthony Robbins) spend a life –long journey with their clients, because they care about results, work on variables and give a good reason for their clients to hold on to them for good.  They become an indispensable survival element to the client's business.   But back to our essential question again: what could help you become that kind of trainer?

Let's digress: Some people think trainers are like Greek gods who are omnipotent.  When in fact, you know it for yourself;  as a trainer, as a human, you consistently need to be psychologically and mentally recharged before you could get ready for facing – and not only that – but truly influencing your audience.  Meaning what?  They need to see someone who is more confident than they are, more comfortable, more alert, more thoughtful, more flexible, more knowledgeable, more helpful, more skilled, and the list goes on.  Now provided all of the limitations you have (physical, time, personal, etc.) which is a normal part of life, which could cause you to wake up in the morning and feel you don't want to speak, or that you needed more hours to sleep; can you rely on your internal mood or internal power alone?  If your answer is yes, then good for you; but if your answer is a 'no', in this case, what are the tools which will give you wings on that particular day?  Who are the people who will recharge you when you are about to start a training to inspire others?  Do you have a reservoir of tricks of the trade to pull out of your sleeves to keep different audiences engaged? Do you have a person or a closed group of people to run to when your energy is flat?  And how do you jumpstart and ignite your will power, when you are simple not ready?

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