Biggest mistake is not improving. Most presenters do not actively seek feedback at the appropriate time from the appropriate person. Hence they continually make the same mistakes, they reinforce their bad habits and are oblivious as to the negative effects that they are having on their audiences. If you are a presenter then you must get feedback from a peer or a senior member of personnel. The best feedback is to see yourself on a recording… so that you can see and hear what your audience sees and hears.
Tip: Get some feedback on an ongoing basis, if you don’t know what’s broken then you can’t fix it.
Next biggest concern would be the emphasis on the Impact – or the lack of it. It is well established that the content (message) of a presentation can have as little as 7% impact upon the audience which leaves 93% of the impact coming from vocal variety (including pauses) and body language (including facial expressions). Yet most presenters spend their time practicing their content (7%) and never practice their delivery (93%) and then they wonder why they sway, shuffle, um & err and look at their shows or scratch body parts.
Tip: Stand up and practice your presentation three times, aloud, in front of your peers.
The final recommendation is Flow. Write a presentation that flows seamlessly so that your audience can follow it and stay engaged. I’m not a psychic but I’m pretty sure that I know how most people ‘write’ their presentations: They sit in front of their computer, open up PowerPoint and create their title page. Thereafter it is death by PowerPoint. This is why most presentations are boring, have too many facts and usually loses the audience within minutes.
Knowing how to write a presentation in the correct order is essential to having an engaging presentation. Instead of the average 2 hours to 2 days to write a presentation you should be able to write it in 20 minutes or less if you know the correct sequence. Not only will you save a huge amount of time in creating your presentation, it will flow extremely well and be engaging.
Tip: Learn the correct method of writing a presentation, when you’ve done it once you’ll write another presentation any other way again. Promise.