Arriving to an event primed and prepared for your presentation is necessary to effectively communicating with your audience. Indian secretaries failed to connect with their audience – Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a recent presentation. According to the Times of India article, the PM has a history of demonstrating his dissatisfaction with low-quality presentations, as he did when he left in the middle of the secretaries’ talk. His primary issue was the lack of effort the group demonstrated throughout the presentation delivery. What lessons can presenters learn from the PM’s response?
Prepare
First and foremost, the importance of preparing cannot be understated. Presenters must not only begin work on their project as far in advance of the event as possible, but they must also go over their deck several times. When rehearsing for a presentation, presenters should plan to run through it at least 7 times.
Adapt
As presenters, we’ve always got to be on our toes. We must constantly keep tabs on the feedback our audience is giving us, whether it is through body language, facial expressions, or speech. Once presenters get a whiff of any negative feedback, they should have an action plan in place to steer the conversation towards a more positive route.
Apologize
Finally, if adaptation does not solve your problems, you should never be too stubborn to apologize for your misunderstanding of the audience’s needs. Owning up to your mistakes as a presenter could greatly improve your reputation and maintain your credibility as an influencer in your field or industry.
To avoid any of your audience members walking out in the middle of your presentations, ensure that you are preparing well, that you are able to adapt to any presentation situation, and that if all else fails, you have enough humility to say you are sorry for the swing and the miss.
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