A FRIEND RECENTLY joined a multinational company where she was required to undertake several business training courses. In one particular course, she emailed her assignment as a Word attachment. The assignment was promptly
returned ungraded because she didn't "effectively answer the question".She was, however, invited to resubmit the assignment, which she did and shot straight to the top of the class.
It was a remarkable turnaround by any standard - all the more so because, aside from the addition of two or three extra sentences, the content of the resubmitted assignment was identical to the original. The only significant change she had made was cutting and pasting her assignment into a PowerPoint template. Unless PowerPoint makes you more intelligent - and it's a safe bet that it doesn't - the lesson of the course was that form trumps content any day.
Loved by some, loathed by many more, PowerPoint has become a byword for much that's wrong with contemporary culture.
"If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can't accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through."
Rosalyn Smith Carter
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you."
Jim Rohn
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Resource for the Week:
212 the extra degree
212° The Extra Degree captures the essence of excellence in an unforgettable way...At 211° water is hot. At 212°, it boils. And with boiling water, comes steam. And steam can power a locomotive. The one extra degree makes the difference.
For anyone who has done some training with me, you’ll know that I don’t focus on body language when presenting. People can get obsessed by trying to look convincing or slick, and neglect the content of their presentation. They perform
all the textbook hand gestures, and what comes out of their mouths doesn’t match up. A bit like watching 100 chavs pour out of a limo. It just doesn’t seem right.Sometimes however I do give advice on body language for presenting - especially when it detracts from the message.
Here are the 3 biggest body language presentation pitfalls, and what you can do to avoid them:
"We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us...how we can take it, what we can do with it...and that is what really counts in the end."
Joseph Fort Newton
"A sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the unbearable."
Moshe Waldoks
There seems to be hundreds of theories and opinions about nerves in relation to making a presentation. Possibly one of the more famous sayings is that it is okay to have butterflies, as long as they are flying in the same formation.
Other people say presentation nerves are built-in anticomplacency buttons, ensuring that we are always on edge and performing to our best.
From the Shameless Self Promoter
I suspect some folks do put up the charts and bullet points and text-dense slide for the simple reason that they believe the information will speak for itself, so they won't have to do all that pesky work of presenting it in an interesting and useful way.
Here's a hint: IT WON'T.
"You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!"
-- Jalal-Uddin Rumi
"Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will."
John D. MacDonald
