Don’t Let Bad Presentation Skills Destroy Your Career
Editor’s Note: This was the feature article in this month’s TechCom Manager newsletter, reprinted here with permission. Click the previous link to subscribe to the newsletter.
by Kerri Barber
For years we have complained about having to sit through boring meetings full of inept presenters with their nicely prepared slide presentations, where meaningful information is buried in copious amounts of text. We’ve rolled our eyes, entertained ourselves with Meeting Bingo, and even took bets on who would fall asleep during staff meetings. We were not really listening anyway. How could we when the presenter made it nearly impossible to do so? For all our angst, we have often been just as guilty as those horrible presenters we are so loathe to endure.
Any repentant presenters can find thousands of good resources to help improve their skills and help them craft award-winning slides. Still, the problem persists and is even becoming ubiquitous in every company and across every industry. Why do we continue to torture ourselves and others? The problem may be simpler than you think. The two deadliest communication killers for presenters are Fear and Apathy.
