#3 Delivering Solid Presentations

Leverage The Skill of Story Telling

We've all sat through long presentations where slides are overloaded with information, lack structure, and are accompanied by monotonous narration. Sometimes that's understandable, especially if the presenter is still developing their skills and is open to constructive feedback. However, the problem arises when this "presentation style" persists in future presentations. The presenter might unknowingly stick to the same approach, not recognising what needs improvement. Is it the presentation theme? The font size? The chosen graphics? Maybe. But the issue I want to address in this post is the presentation delivery.

Humans are natural storytellers. We love sharing stories with each other, whether it's fun, interesting, or surprising moments with family and friends, or conversations with colleagues daily at work. We even engage with random people in our local area regularly.

Our storytelling skill is a survival trait that we practice every single day.

So, what makes a presentation different? Some might say that if it's for an important business meeting, there's a lot of pressure behind it. You might be delivering a presentation that could influence your promotion. There's a lot at stake!

One effective approach to overcome this pressure is to practice telling stories in your everyday interactions. Treat presentations the same way you would have a conversation with your peers—you're simply telling a story. By framing your presentation as a narrative, you'll find it easier to engage your audience, convey your message more naturally, and reduce the anxiety that often comes with formal presentations. Remember, the goal is to share information in a way that's relatable and memorable, just like the stories you tell in your daily life.

Well, how can we manage this? One approach is to treat presentations like a storytelling session. You are narrating a problem or solution to an interested audience with a clear timeline: what happened, why it happened, and how can we fix this. You have a beginning, a journey, and an end in mind. You know what you’re going to talk about, and you've tried to tell that story before by rehearsing and sharing your thought process out loud.

A common mistake presenters make is compiling all their thoughts and notes into the slide deck and then presenting it unfiltered. While this might be acceptable in rare situations (e.g. discussions with the engineering team), it’s generally not an effective storytelling method. This approach can overwhelm the audience with unnecessary information, using more time than needed while delivering minimal value.

I don’t claim to be a master of presentations or storytelling, but I do try to avoid creating slides that are just meant to be read aloud. If that’s the case, perhaps the communication style needs to change. Should this be a presentation, or would a PDF sent to stakeholders be more appropriate?

Think of it like driving a car: you should be in control, with the slide deck as your passenger—not the other way around.

Some of the most powerful presentations I’ve seen had minimal text. Sometimes, they consisted of just visuals or a few keywords that the presenter wanted to highlight, and they were absolutely brilliant! It wasn’t the visuals or the cosmetics that made the presentation great; it was the narrative. The presenters engaged their audience with a consistent flow, using the slides as a supporting tool. They truly drove the presentation from start to finish, staying within the allocated time.

So, how can you present a story effectively? The plan is simple but requires practice and patience.

Checklist I use when preparing for an upcoming presentation:

• Are there too many paragraphs or notes on each slide? Move them to speaker notes and summarise, or better yet, turn them into bullet points.

• Does the information flow logically? Do the slides follow a sequence that makes sense? Are you presenting the solution before introducing the problem?

• Have you rehearsed at least once? How did it go? Did you talk for too long? Is all this information relative to the audience?

• How was your delivery? Did you read from the slides too much, or were you able to explain and refer to them only when needed?

• And finally, will the audience understand the purpose of this presentation? Do you need to provide a summary or conclusion? What are the next actions? What type of value should they take from this presentation?

  

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Key takeaways to keep in mind when preparing a presentation:

• You are the driver, not your slides.

• When creating slides, less is more.

• Add as many notes as you need, then practice the flow.

• Practice, practice, practice!

Over to you—if you've learned any useful tips for delivering better presentations, do share them below for others!