Why ignoring your slides is as bad as reading them verbatim

The number of presenters tediously reading every slide and bullet point to the audience seems to be declining.

That’s news worth celebrating, but hold off on popping the champagne just yet. The pendulum unfortunately is swinging toward the other extreme: Presenters are ignoring their slides altogether.

Here’s an example from a recent presentation:

On the screen, a slide with a statement in 60 point Arial Bold all but screamed at the audience. I expected the salesperson to mention it; he did not. The next slide featured five bullet points. The salesperson brushed them all aside with a quick “you’ve expressed a number of goals in this area” before jumping to the next slide, a short quote.

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As I read the quote, he started talking about something else. I’m not sure what (I was busy reading). My attention ping-ponged between presenter and slides like this for 30 more minutes. In the end, I’m not sure what point(s) I was supposed to walk away with.

An alarming number of presenters are ignoring their slides completely or competing with their slides for the audience’s attention. Talk tracks are often entirely different from what the audience is seeing on the screen. From an audience perspective, it’s like seeing two presentations concurrently.

Here’s what happens when you ignore or compete with your slides:

• You are not heard. Put something in writing in front of a people, and they will try to read it. When people are reading from your slides, they are not listening to you, so they miss your point.
• You create confusion. If you fail to call out something on screen that literally screams for attention, your audience will wonder why, and suddenly you’ve lost them.
• They tune out. When your talk track doesn’t match your slides, your audience struggles to connect the dots. Make it too difficult to connect, and they will stop trying altogether.

Your slides are part of your team, and they can improve your chances of reaching your goal. As with any good team member, you must work with your slides, not against them. That may mean allowing space for your audience to take in a slide’s meaning before you speak, reading part of a slide out loud to reinforce a key point, or explaining to your audience what they are seeing on a slide.

Remember these five guidelines:

1. If something warrants 30-point type or larger, it’s important enough for you to mention.
2. Don’t show a slide until you’re ready to refer to it or the slide mirrors or supports what you are saying.
3. When you want your audience’s full attention focused on you—and not the slide—go to black, or have a simple resting slide on the screen.
4. When showing bullet points, don’t paraphrase everything. Help your audience follow along by reading out a few key bullet points verbatim.
5. When showing a slide with a compelling picture, quote or statement, pause to let your audience take in what they’re seeing. If it’s a short quote or statement (up to three sentences), invite them to read it to themselves or read it out loud to them. Your audience will be reading it anyway.

For those who have stopped reading from every slide and bullet point. Audiences around the globe thank you. Again, work with your slides—not against them—to improve your audience’s experience and boost your results.

Julie Hansen is a speaker, author and actor. A version of this post first appeared on the Performance Sales and Training blog.

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