You may have already experienced this in your life – your boss gives you a last minute task to present for instance a quarterly report to your colleagues. Even though you have several days to get prepared, due to your being swamped with work you just quickly go through the presentation over the morning coffee and because you think you know all the information, you assume a little improvisation will do just fine to fulfill your task. However, by doing so, you deprive yourself of a chance to impress your colleagues and your presentation might be quite frankly boring.
In her article for Recruiter.com, Lisa Parker brings four false assumptions which can ruin your presentation.
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I only present known facts. Even though you do know well the facts in the presentation, you should think about what they mean to your audience and what consequences they have for them. By understanding and explaining the larger context of the issue, you will turn your speech from simple stating of facts to something more valuable.
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The audience consists of my acquaintances. This is in fact a reason to present a better-than-average performance. Your colleagues or senior co-workers may know you in a certain light and with your presentation, you get a unique opportunity to impress them and highlight your qualities.
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There is no time. People are often willing to spend time thinking only about the content and not about the form. Make sure you have couple of minutes to think about the ways in which you can make your speech different and more interesting.
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Nobody really cares. Maybe you just do not engage your audience enough. Try to motivate them to discuss your presentation and include your findings and suggestions.
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