Like it or not, many business professionals are judged on the quality of their presentation skills. I wrote an article earlier this year about a giant tech company that scores its senior managers and leaders on customer-facing presentations. Higher scores translate into opportunities to advance within the company’s leadership ranks. Presentations matter and they matter a lot.
Here are five resolutions that—if you make and keep—will significantly improve the quality and impact of your presentations in 2015.
Resolution #1. “I will tell more stories.” In order to reach a person’s head you must touch their heart first. The easiest way to engage the heart is through the stories you tell. Stories inform, illuminate, and inspire. In my research on the best TED talks of all time, I found that stories make up anywhere from 65 to 72 percent of the presentation content. Most business presentations are heavy on facts, figures, and statistics, and light on stories. The stories that work best are personal ones, but stories about other people or brands (case studies) work well, too.
One of my favorite storytellers is civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson. In his now famous TED talk, he tells three stories of events and experiences from his life and ties each one back to his central theme. You can view his entire presentation and read a transcript here on the TED website.
Resolution #2. “I will not include more words on a slide than are absolutely necessary.” I once read that the average PowerPoint slide has 40 words. That’s easy for me believe because I’ve seen many slides with 50 to 100 words, or more. Wordy slides aren’t slides. They are word documents masquerading as PowerPoint slides. Here’s a guideline I call the ’10-40’ rule for slide design. It’s quite simple. In your next presentation the first ten slides should have no more than 40 words total. This exercise forces you to think through the story behind your product, service, cause, or idea. Remember, slides do not tell the story. You are the storyteller; the slides exist to complement your message.
Resolution #3. “I will add more pictures to my slide deck.” It’s well established in the neuroscience literature than when it comes to memory and cognitive processing, a combination of pictures and text work better than text alone. If you’re forced to write only 40 words in your first ten slides you will, by default, use more visuals to tell your story. Keep in mind that when I suggest adding more pictures to a presentation, I don’t mean add pictures to a slide already cluttered with words. In the past few weeks I’ve received samples from readers who may be misinterpreting “picture superiority.” They send me before and after slides. The “before” slides contain dozens of words in small font, impossible for the audience to read in the first place. The “after” slide is the same slide—only with a picture. No, picture superiority means just what it says: pictures are superior. Replace words with pictures whenever possible.
Resolution #4. “I will practice my presentation at least 10 times.” Make no mistake. The greatest presenters make public speaking look effortless because they’ve rehearsed their presentation many, many times over. I once spoke to a TED speaker who told me that she had practiced her presentation 200 times. I realize most people don’t have months to prepare for a one-shot presentation, but if your presentation is mission critical, you owe it to yourself and your audience to practice what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it for every slide. Practice also has the added benefit of reducing your nervous energy and boosting your confidence for show time.
Resolution #5. “I will keep my business pitch to under 18 minutes.” I’ve written about the 18-minute rule in a previous article, but I feel as though it’s important to reinforce since so few business professionals seem to follow it. Scientists are studying “cognitive backlog,” which measures how much information people retain and how long they can process information before getting bored or frustrated. The ideal range appears to be anywhere from 10 to 18 minutes. If you must speak for a longer period, use “soft breaks” such as video clips, stories, a demo, or alternate with another speaker. Soft breaks re-engage the audiences’ attention and you can build in soft breaks every 10 minutes.
These five simple rules will differentiate your presentation from the millions of presentations given on any single day around the world. The business world is changing rapidly, and it’s difficult to stand out in a sea of noise and distractions. If you want to be perceived as different, you must present your story differently.