by Gilda Bonanno LLC
Gilda Bonanno's blog www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com
At a recent training program, I asked participants to
give a few minutes of an actual presentation they had delivered in the
past.
One participant presented a summary of his team’s results
for the quarter. He seemed uncomfortable
with the material and when I asked him a few questions, he couldn’t explain certain
items included on his slides. Then he
admitted that the bulk of the slides were not his, but had been created by his
team members.
No two people will deliver the same information in
exactly the same way. The unique
perspective that you bring to the material is the “secret sauce,” the magic
that makes the presentation effective and genuine.
It is very difficult to deliver someone else’s slides verbatim. It’s like wearing someone else’s clothes –
they won’t quite fit you.
No two people will deliver the same information in
exactly the same way. The unique
perspective that you bring to the material is the “secret sauce,” the magic
that makes the presentation effective and genuine.
If you are delivering a presentation that is comprised of
slides compiled by others, such as your team members or other department heads,
you are still responsible for making that presentation “yours.”
- Listen to them deliver
and explain the information so you understand it all and can answer
questions about it.
- Make sure you
have the authority to edit the information – for example, if your boss
created the slides that you have to present to a customer, get permission up
front to make edits as necessary.
- Decide whether
you will give public credit to whoever gave you the information or created
the slides (also known as “spreading the blame” or, more optimistically, “sharing
the glory.”)
- Never have
something on a slide you’re delivering that you don’t know about or can’t
explain – this includes abbreviations, acronyms and data.
Sign up to receive
more public speaking and networking strategies from Gilda's e-newsletter: http://www.gildabonanno.com/Pages/newsletter.aspx