Don't confuse "comfort" with "competence"

Don't confuse "comfort" with "competence". Just because you are comfortable doing something does not mean you are good at it.

I was asked recently to review and edit a PowerPoint presentation that was going to be presented to our customers by an executive in charge of P&L. My advice was basic - get rid of the bullet points, condense the content to Key Points, and move much of the text in the slides to the speaker notes. I voluntarily spent a few hours making sample revisions.

The presenter, while admitting to like the edits, said they would not work, since " I like to move around, and as I do not use notes, I depend on the slides to keep me on track and remind me where I am..." I paraphrase, but you get the point. The slides were for him, not the audience. I was tempted to say "just give them the slides and go get a cup of coffee.... they can read, can't they?"

Seth Gordin does a great job talking about the dependence on bullets in executive presentations. I would add their dependence upon dense graphs too.

Seth,in his blog above, gives good advice on how to avoid this. But the real problem is something he admits - most executive presenters do not create their own presentations. Those that do, probably shouldn't be. So the slides take precedence,and the question asked by the presenter is "Do we have everything in the presentation?" not "Are we making our Key Points in a Clear, Concise and Compelling way?"

To change this behavior will take more than a few pointers in a blog. It is a sale to be made to the potential presenters. They need to be shown, and then experience, the benefits of a different way of presenting. They then must have (or be given) the courage to try it themselves. Once they experience success, it can be repeated.

I advocate a "manager-executive only" training on presentation skills. Because they don't know what they don't know, they see no need for new skills.

Most of us will avoid a situation where our incompetency will be exposed. A safe environment is needed where learners can admit to the need for new skills and have the security to experiment. Any managers reading this ready to try?