Confused? We thought there were hidden notes which held the secrets for entire civilizations up there. Almost immediately his eyes would scan the ceiling, and for the next hour he would recite everything we needed to know for that particular day while never looking back at us. He would greet the class from the podium and begin his lecture. When I was younger, I had a very intelligent history professor whom was famous for his peculiar teaching method. Then, we forget to look back at our audience. It happens subconsciously when someone asks us a question or we are trying to remember some information. This mistake is rare, and usually only affects people having to recall large amounts of data from memory.
One of my favorite faux pas is the person who never makes eye contact. Trust me, it works and goes a long way for your presentation credibility going forward! Then politely ask them to throw it at the wall behind you (but not to hit you) if they get bored or have a question during your presentation. Should you find yourself with a small group of people, give everyone a ball. They have your logo on them, and diffuse almost any situation. If you find that you need volunteers, have something to give away to reward their participation. The focus is no longer upon you, and this can lead to unintended consequences. You ask the question, call on an audience member, and everyone looks to them. Not only do you risk getting a wrong answer and losing your flow, but you also place immediate pressure upon one person. Asking someone to answer a question when they don't want to participate can be dangerous. The close relative to too much eye contact is singling someone out or cold calling upon someone in the audience. It will help keep their attention span going. Also, remember to compliment the person asking the question. Be careful with this, especially during Q&A sessions, as it can backfire on you and cause a lack of audience participation. They eventually may begin to feel embarrassed or worse, intimidated. After a few moments of prolonged exposure the audience member will begin to wonder if something is up, or if they have something wrong on their person. Many of us have experienced this at one time or another. This is especially true for locking eyes on only one or two people. Too little means no engagement, and too much eye contact causes discomfort. Our next issue concerns eye contact with the audience. Walk around and get moving! The human eye is trained to notice movement use this to your advantage! If you are passionate when you speak, it will show. Countering this takes willpower, but also passion. Also, none of the points you make will stick because your audience will have fallen asleep by the time you are finished. If you never change the pitch of your voice, make inflections or adjust your flow, then you become a machine completely void of emotion and all meaning. What makes this even worse is that they don't even know they're doing it! Of all the mistakes to make, this is probably the second most forbidden. Almost everyone knows this type of presenter because they manage to put us to sleep and make for a very long day. Many of the more disastrous presentation stories I hear also revolve around the drone voiced speaker. Bottom line, avoid doing this at all costs. Reviewing an agenda is one thing, but going overboard and methodically reading through the entire deck verbatim as a robot would, is something completely different. It underlines your assumption that they cannot read, and demonstrates a lack of professionalism because you appear unprepared or unwilling to put forth a tangible effort. Why is this so bad? It is an insult to the audience, plain and simple. Nothing loses an audience's attention quicker than going word for word, line by line, and page by page in monotone, through an already visible presentation.
I think most people know about this one, or have sat through a speaker making this mistake, yet this problem still persists. Let us start with the most basic rule which is also often the most broken: reading from the slides. Eventually, I will make a video on this subject, and we can all laugh about it but for now, here you go. The big compilation of what not to do during your presentation. The second question I am often asked is "What should I avoid doing when speaking in public?" Well, this is it. It was played back to me after being video taped when I was just starting out in finance. One of the most popular questions I get asked is: "What is the worst presentation I have ever seen?" Answer: One of my own sales pitches.
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