How to Present, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 2Working out what you want to achieve from your presentation

You will probably agree that many business presentations are held simply to inform the audience about status — that is, to update them about what's happening with the team, the project or the business. If you have ever been to one of these information sessions, you will know how deadly boring sitting in an audience being informed can be! The reason it's boring is because updates are often general in their nature. They can feel unnecessary because they aren't specifically related to you and what you do at work. While it's nice to know what's going on, depending on the way the presenter explains their point, the information doesn't always seem that relevant to you.

When you are the presenter, while some of the people in your audience like to be informed, probably a whole lot of other people are really hoping that you will help, interest, motivate, empower and even inspire them with your presentation. As inspirational author William Arthur Ward said, ‘The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.'

When you make a presentation, how much time do you spend thinking about the different types of people in your audience? What is your current approach to presenting?

Think about your answers to the following questions:

• Before designing your presentations, do you spend some time thinking about your audience and their expectations of you? Or are you ...