Deliver Work Presentations That Aren't Boring

I’ve lost track of the number of mind-numblingly boring work presentations I’ve had to attend. Usually it goes something like this: the presentation starts and the presenter is immediately droning on in a monotone voice while advancing through slides full of tiny text. Within a few minutes, my brain is screaming for something interesting. On a good day, I resist the urge to multitask but I’ve essentially become a zombie, not really absorbing the material. I kind of feel bad for the presenters who seem frustrated that their audience’s brains are rotting but don’t know what to do about it. Many presenters, however, don’t even seem to realize they are creating a zombie apocalypse over Zoom.

I’ve been lucky to work with and learn from some amazing technical presenters. They have taught me that the difference between a great presentation and a mediocre presentation boils down to just a few things.

Note: This is about presentations where you are trying to get people to understand something, care about something, or do something. This is not about presentations where you are just sharing information that people need to know. such as a status update. I would argue that 90% of the time, if you’re just sharing information, then you should just send an email or a Google Doc instead of forcing people to suffer through a presentation.

Read on if you want to get people to understand, care, or do something.

Don’t just inform, but also inspire

Think about the best presentations you’ve ever seen (like this or this or this). What made them so memorable? Chances are, it’s because they invoked some kind of emotion in you.

People remember how you made them feel more than they remember the content of your presentation. If you want your audience to remember your presentation, you have to make them feel something. This could be excitement, curiosity, empathy, or even humor.

Before you create any slides, think about these 3 things:

1. How do you want your audience to feel during your presentation?
2. What do you want your audience to know after your presentation?
3. What do you want your audience to do after your presentation?

Most people focus just on #2, but #1 and #3 are actually more important.

Feels: If you can make your audience feel something, they are more likely to remember what you said. Do want your audience to be scared about a security breach? Should they feel proud of the impact their work has on drug safety? Or should they empathize with the challenges of the pre-sales team?

Pick a feeling and then design your presentation to evoke that feeling. As you create slides, always be asking yourself, “Does this slide help evoke the feeling I want my audience to have?” If the answer is no, then you should probably remove that slide or change it.

Do: If you give them a clear call to action, you are more likely to get them to do something and you will have actually made a difference with your presentation. Give them specific things to do, like “Please review the new security guidelines and let me know if you have any questions” or “Please share this presentation with your team and encourage them to adopt this new practice.”

End your presentation with the call to action and if sending a follow-up email, include the call to action there as well. This will help reinforce what you want them to do and increase the chances that they will actually do it.

Start with the hook

If you want people to pay attention to you, you have to hook them at the start of your presentation. This is called “the hook” and it’s the attention-grabbing opening that gets people interested in what you have to say.

A good hook can be a surprising statistic, a compelling story, a provocative question, or even a joke (if appropriate). The goal of the hook is to make people want to listen to the rest of your presentation.

Here are some examples of hooks I’ve seen used in the past:

• “Did you know that 90% of security breaches are caused by one simple mistake? Today, I’m going to show you how we can reduce that number by 50% with a simple change to our security training.”
• “I want to tell you a story about a time when I made a huge mistake at work and what it taught me. I want to help help you avoid making the same mistake.”
• “What if I told you that we could save $1 million a year by implementing a new process? Let me explain…”

Think of what a way to capture your audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds of your presentation and they’ll be engaged and interested in what you have to say for the rest of your talk.

Connect with your audience

People want to feel like you’re talking directly to them, not at them. If you want to be personally engaging, you have to make your presentation feel like a conversation rather than a lecture.

• Use “you” and “we” instead of “I” and “they”. This makes your audience feel like they are part of the presentation and that you are talking to them directly.
• Don’t use the same monotone voice throughout your presentation. Vary your tone, volume and pace to keep people engaged. Use pauses for emphasis and to give people time to absorb what you’re saying.
• Even in a virtual presentation, make eye contact with your audience by looking at the camera. I like to put my notes or slides right at the top of my screen below the camera so that when I look at my notes, it looks like I’m making eye contact with my audience.
• For an in-person presentation, use the “Think-Turn-Talk” method to slow yourself down and make sure you are connecting with your audience. Think about what you want to say, turn to look at a different person in the audience, and then talk. Repeat every sentence or so. This will help you avoid the common mistake of just staring at your slides while you talk.
• Speak with your hands, avoid negative body language, and smile when appropriate. This is how we act when we’re engaged and enthusiastic and this will help you come across as an actual human being.

Don’t just show up and throw up

You can’t just throw up a bunch of slides and expect people to pay attention. Your slides should support your presentation, not be the presentation. If your slides are full of tiny text or bullet points, people will just read the slides instead of listening to you.

Keep your slides simple and have just 1 main point per slide. A good rule of thumb is a 30pt minimum font size — if it’s smaller than that, it means you’re likely overcrowding your slides with too much information and it will overwhelm your audience.

Ideally, each slide should have a single image or a few words that support the point you’re making. Remember, the goal of your slides should be to help you achieve the “feel” you want your audience to have, not to be a script for you to read from.

Practice, practice, practice

I used to absolutely hate public speaking. I would get extremely nervous, speak too fast, and stumble over my words. I still don’t love it, but it’s not the nightmare-inducing experience it used to be. The biggest thing that helped me was being forced to do it over and over, thus practice.

The more opportunity you have to do public speaking, the more comfortable you will become and the better your presentations will be. But even if you haven’t had a lot of opportunities, you can still practice on your own.

Here’s what I recommend:

• Walk through your slides and write down in a separate document what you want to say for each slide. This will help you organize your thoughts and make sure you have a clear message for each slide.
• Practice speaking out loud, even if it’s just to yourself. This will help you get comfortable with the material and identify any areas where you might stumble or need to clarify your message.
• Trim your notes down to just key words or phrases that will help you remember what you want to say without being a script. This will help you sound more natural and conversational during your presentation.
• If possible, practice in front of a friend or colleague and ask for feedback. They can give you tips on how to improve your delivery and make your presentation more engaging.

Next steps

Try these tips and see if they help you create more engaging and memorable presentations. Remember, the goal of your presentation should be to get people to understand, care, or do something. And above all else, don’t be boring!

Reminder: use the Presentation Planning Worksheet to strategize your next presentation!