How to Take Ownership of Your Presentation

You’ve been assigned to deliver a 20-minute presentation at work. It needs to be a summary of your department progress over the past quarter and also needs to make a compelling case for new initiatives which will require additional budget. No one else is responsible for delivering this deck except for you. How does this assignment make you feel? Anxious, frustrated, confused? Unsure where to start?

We work with clients every day who are constrained by budgets, worried about their delivery, and are faced with the overall challenge of presenting. Their frustration is expressed in a number of different ways. They are afraid to take risks, experiencing a rushed timeline because they procrastinated, or they are uncertain/unhappy with the finished product.

How can presenters feel better about their assignment and improve the quality of their presentations? Taking ownership is the difference. It means that you embrace the assignment without complaint, accept responsibility for the final outcome, and put your best work on the table because you care about the project. Here’s a few ways that you can start to take ownership:

Understand and believe in the “why”

You can’t take out your frustration on PowerPoint software, the person who assigned the presentation, or the limitations of your content. All of these things don’t add up to why you’re delivering the deck. Take some time to evaluate the purpose of your presentation. Is it to change lives? Raise the funding needed to change lives? Improve your day-to-day work? Once you understand and embrace the core goal, you’ll feel the motivation and clarity you need to take on the assignment.

How to Take Ownership of Your Presentation

Become invested in the content and design

Taking ownership is about accepting responsibility for each stage of your project. Don’t hand the presentation off to an intern to write the content or slap together some design. Become a part of the process at every stage, whether or not you do it yourself or provide guidance and feedback for someone you’ve hired. If it looks good, it’s going to make you look good. If it looks bad, it reflects a lot more than your skill with PowerPoint.

Go beyond your own expectations

Visit the TED website right now and click on any presentation that catches your interest. At some point, all of these incredible speeches were a spark of inspiration and a blank PowerPoint document. What’s stopping you from making the most creative, unique, and memorable presentation that you can possibly make? On a piece of paper, write a column of words that you think your audience expects from the presentation. “Traditional,” “informative,” “helpful” are some examples. Now, write another column of words that describe the most interesting presentation you’ve ever seen, TED or otherwise. How can you bridge the gap? How can you make your presentation more like the “fun” column? Taking ownership also means that you own the risk and the potential reward from thinking outside of the box.

Want to learn more ways you can take ownership and deliver a compelling presentation? Check out these related articles:

5 Essential Tips for Presentations

7 Creative Presentation Ideas: Take Your Presentations Up A Notch

The Best Way To Communicate Your Ideas


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