Are You Presenting, or Just Reading Out Loud?
What answers would you expect if you asked a room of federal financial professionals what distracts them most during a presentation?
This was during a virtual Mini Course on Delivering Effective Presentations I recently led for the DHS Office of the Chief Financial Officer through Management Concepts. The course breaks distractions into three areas: Environment, Presenter, and Audience.
When asked what bothered them most, the responses were telling:
❌ Presenters who aren’t actually experts in the material and who freeze the moment someone asks a question outside the script.
❌ Monotone delivery.
❌ Content-dense slides that are read aloud, word for word.
An audience can read for itself.
Reading out loud does not constitute presenting.
Other things came up too. Feedback from a microphone is annoying. Room temperature could certainly be a factor. Time of day also held weight.
Still, the main thing that bothered my learners was speakers who focused on disseminating information without regard for their presence or how they’d be perceived.
After all, communication isn’t what you say. It’s how you’re heard.
To be an effective presenter, you must know your topic and deliver it in a way that engages your audience.
My recommendation: demonstrate empathy. Empathy means stepping out of your own head and into theirs.
Ask yourself what they need to hear rather than what you planned to say.
Tune into that radio station playing in each of your audience members’ heads. WIIFM. What’s In It For Me.
Miss that frequency and your message won’t really be heard. You’ll be tuned to the wrong channel.
If you want your next presentation to move the needle with your audience, think about what they want to hear more than what you want to say.
At RCG Workgroup, we help leaders and teams make presentations that actually resonate. If you’re ready to shift from presenting to inspiring, let’s start a conversation.
