I have been out of the blogosphere for quite some time due to a lot of work but I guess my Twitter updates have complemented the lack of blog posts. I’m thankful I did Twitter two months ago
Since I have been following Dr. John Maxwell on Twitter, I saw this post about the new book he’s working on entitled Everyone Communicates, Few Connect. The chapters are being offered on his blog for a few days and then taken down being replaced with a summary of the chapter. I’m just not checking on my Twitter and blog regularly that I missed the first two chapters. At least I managed to catch the third chapter. I’ve posted a comment on the blog and it’s what the content of this blog post is all about.
“This is my first encounter with the chapters for the book and all I can say is that this has hit a home run. Having been invited to do technical presentations for Microsoft technologies both locally and globally, I know what it means to sit in a presentation with boring PowerPoint slides, bullet points that can kill and listen to a speaker that probably memorized the transcript of the presentation. I have been guilty of doing this myself as I initially thought that this was the way to do technical presentations. Ever since I have learned about the art of delivering presentations, I have committed myself to continuous development on the subject – from creating great PowerPoint slides to delivering the presentation (special mention to great books like Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds, slide:ology by Nancy Duarte and Working the Room by Nick Morgan).
From experience, I have learned that enthusiasm, emotional and visual connection when delivering a presentation is what makes people want to stay and listen more – even for a highly technical and boring presentation. The reason I get invited to do presentations was not because of the level of content I provide other (other speakers are smarter and have more technical knowledge than I do) but because I was able to connect to the audience, understand what they feel and provide a solution using the technologies I am presenting. It’s hard to be an expert in just one aspect of technology especially when it keeps evolving and this is what I have learned when delivering presentations. It’s hard to be an expert at what you will present on. But what makes you as one when you deliver your presentation is the passion and enthusiasm that come with it during the preparation and delivery. Anybody can deliver presentations on just about any topic they may or may not be expert on. The only difference in making it an effective one is to put yourself in the listener’s shoes, feel what they feel and develop and deliver a presentation based on that.
Bottom line:It’s all about the listener when we communicate.“
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.