Designing your slides

Don’t give too much away! If your slides provide the full content of your presentation, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t just e-mail everyone the slides and stay home; you have made yourself redundant. A good set of slides will engage your audience’s interest but also require your spoken explanations to make sense.

Lose the agenda slide. Your audience will really pay attention if they can’t predict what you’ll say next. What’s more, you’ll appear more in command of your subject if you seem to be moving organically from point to point, even if you’re privately following a linear structure.

Remember that PowerPoint is a visual medium, so use it to display images. Charts and graphs work better than tables. Your own drawings or sketches are a better and more personal choice than Clip Art, even if you’re not a professional illustrator. Colour and good, simple design help too. However, too much animation can be distracting.

If you do use text, keep to a maximum of 5 words per slide. More than 5, and you will force your audience to focus on reading. If they’re reading, they won’t be listening to you. Think slogans, not paragraphs.

If your audience needs information to take away, provide them with this in hard copy afterwards instead of cluttering your slides with lots of detail. (If I were making a presentation on this subject, for instance, only the highlighted phrases here would appear on my slides, while you’d receive the article in full as a handout.)

Presenting your slides

Don’t spend your presentation reading your slides out loud with your back to the audience. Unfortunately, many people use PowerPoint slides as reminders of what to say. This is a ghastly mistake which may fatally undermine the impact of your presentation. The slides are for your audience’s benefit, not yours. If you need reminders, print out your own handheld notes, or use note cards.

Take time over the introduction to build rapport.

Make sure you make eye contact, pause after significant points to let the message sink in and, most importantly of all, remember to breathe!

Don’t forget that adrenaline will alter your perception of time, so while you may feel that you’re speaking at a reasonable pace, your audience hears you rushing through your words. You may need to slow down more than you think so your audience can keep up.

You’ll find your audience will enjoy your presentation, and that you’ll enjoy delivering it too!

Ralph Naylor – Project Management & Consultancy Training

How long have you been a trainer?

Oh dear – I’ve been in some form of people development in lots of different ways for many years.

What did you do before?

I spent a few years in the army – with responsibility for education in a unit. When I left I was recruited as a management trainer into a food retail company & then went into management development & organisational development

What do you specialise in?

About developing our skills to change things for the better – anything from introducing a new product or system to personal development on overseas expeditions

Can you give me 5 top tips?

• Respect people’s different experiences
• Listen particularly to people who oppose you
• Be first to do uncomfortable things
• Don’t underestimate what it takes to do things differently
• Do fewer things well than a lot badly

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Marine archaeologist!

What is the best piece of advice anyone has given you?

Don’t just take people’s advise!

If you were stuck on a desert island what 3 things would you want with you?

Apart from food, water & shelter – Homer’s Odyssey, a piano & a football!

What is the best thing you have ever won/got for free?

My wife!

What are you most proud of?

2 lovely daughters

Describe your most embarrassing moment

From many – watching from afar as a big helicopter looks for me with a searchlight, after a very slight ‘mis-communication’ – ahem!

If you could be anywhere in the world right now where would it be?

Watching the sun go down through a cool glass of lager in Delphi, Mainland Greece

What really annoys you?

Self-promotion combined with incompetence

In you opinion, what makes a good trainer?

Stimulates thought & accepts there is more than one way to ’skin a cat’!

What is exciting you in the realm of learning & development currently?

Fads irritate me, but what excites me is the boundless potential in people unfortunately so often restricted by others