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Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint: How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas

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I recently attended a conference where the speaker promised a "speed version" of her presentation, "since I'm the only thing between you and lunch!" Suffice to say, nearly 90 minutes and 47 slides later, we were brain-dead and hungry. The good lady, bless her heart, reverted to an all-too-familiar form, "Death by PowerPoint," despite her stated intention not to.

Christopher Witt (with Dale Fetherling) has written a bromide for those of us (and who among us would cast the first stone?) inflicting this punishment on our audiences. Witt, a veteran speech coach and consultant, seeks to rein-in the tendency to polish our PowerPoint skills at the expense of communicating our vision and message.

Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint is intended to get leaders to return to making their thoughts, convictions, vision, and character manifest themselves in what they say, and stop trusting PowerPoint to make their points. Witt says leaders need to be different for the following reasons: 1) leaders speak when a lot is at stake, 2) leaders speak as representatives of their organizations, 3) leaders speak all the time, 4) leaders speak because it's their job, and 5) leaders speak to influence and inspire.

Witt gives a modern-day endorsement of Demosthenes, the father of Greek oratory, for his timeless four elements of a great speech: 1) a great person, 2) a noteworthy event, 3) a compelling message, and 4) a masterful delivery. Therefore, he divides his book into four main parts. Part One charges the leader with realizing that he or she is the message and to tailor his or her remarks to identify to the audience who they can become, to influence the way they think and feel, or to inspire them to action. Part Two helps the leader define what her objectives for the speech are - the 5 W's - but also to focus on what he or she wants the audience to take away from the presentation - the WIIFM (what's in it for me?). Part Three shows the leader how to compose a compelling message: a big idea, a clear structure, and telling words. Citing JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country," Witt coaches us to try a similar setup for our key message: "If you take only one idea from my speech, it's this [pause]." He also endorses the K.I.S.S. principle, citing Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death" speech as 6 minutes, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as 2 minutes, and MLK's "I have a dream" speech as 16 minutes. Leave the audience wanting more of you, not less. Part Four focuses on congruency of delivery - getting your body and your voice to communicate your message. Witt then provides lots of mechanical and presentation tips like using humor and getting effective Q&A from your audience.

I found Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint to be an easy-to-understand and quick-reading "how-to" for becoming a more effective and compelling communicator. I intend to use this book when preparing my speeches and presentations to better engage and influence my audiences. Witt has graciously provided us with the "best of" his longtime coaching career that should be an indispensable resource on your business bookshelf.

This book contains groundbreaking material for most of us. Mr. Witt clearly establishes Leadership as the commanding role of a speaker and purpose of a presenter at any level -- and properly places PowerPoint into its support role, as a tool, to be used only if and when absolutely necessary.

I am consistently appalled watching the majority of so-called industry experts and management speakers deliberately choose their role to be the "voice-over" narrator, being prompted and led along like a kitten with flickering images on a wall or screen.

Kudos to Chris Witt for challenging us to be leaders - to inspire, to motivate, and to influence the audience in some tangible way - when we speak and present our ideas. I humbly admit that I forgot how to be an effective speaker and leader by relying on PowerPoint to speak for me.

Thanks also for admonishing us to stop bowing subserviently to a projection wall - losing eye contact and personal rapport with our audiences - while seemingly awaiting magical enlightenment from the pretty charts, bullet points and spreadsheets spewed forth by the PowerPoint entity.

This is a masterful book and a timely topic, exceptionally well written by a leader, for neglectful and aspiring leaders.

Even though I wrote a book on how to use PowerPoint more effectively in business, the truth is there are different kinds of presentations. PowerPoint is great for informing and driving decisions, especially when the content is complex.

But there are other presentations that are better when you put the slides away and just talk. Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech" would not be improved with PowerPoint slides.

Chris Witt's Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint, covers these kinds of presentations. More than just a how-to book for speakers, it's an earnest manifesto for leaders to come out from behind their slides and do what only they can uniquely do - build an organization's confidence, rally their emotions and galvanize them for action.

And that's best done without PowerPoint slides.

Witt's principles are a modern-day telling of the four principles of Demosthenes, the father of Greek oratory, and so Witt's book is divided into four sections.

Part 1: A Great Person. A real leader is authentic and doesn't try to act like leaders are "supposed" to act. Leaders take a stand on issues. Leaders have a clear identity. The best way to be mediocre is to imitate others, avoid saying anything controversial and hide the things about you that make you unique.

Part 2: A Noteworthy Event. Be picky about which events you will speak at. Choose the events where you can do the most good and avoid events that cheapen your image.

Part 3: A Compelling Message. The leader's most important job is to motivate and inspire an audience toward a grand mission or vision, not to transfer facts and data. This important responsibility involves best practices like focusing on one big idea, opening and closing strong, using storytelling, using plain language and repeating key points.

Part 4: A Masterful Delivery. The most important idea in this section is to let your passion shine through. Timid speakers need not apply. The rest of this section covers familiar territory like how to prepare a speech, how to address questions and how to connect with an audience.

The book succeeds as a manifesto in part because of Witt's brisk but friendly writing style. You feel like you're being coached through the materials, not lectured.

Although the book's title seems like an anti-PowerPoint rant, you will find no cheap shots at PowerPoint in this fine book. Chris Witt's goal is simply to prepare you to be better leader. And in the most critical speeches, that requires a passionate speaker who can connect with an audience emotionally, not PowerPoint slides.

It's my job to market & sell PowerPoint, every day in Australia for Microsoft - so the title got my attention.

The principal concept of the book is VERY simple

Great speakers change the mind of their audience and get them to act.

Almost 2,500 years ago Demosthenes, the father of Greek oratory, cited four elements of great speech 1) a great person 2) a noteworthy event 3) a compelling message 4) a masterful delivery

Leaders speak to make a difference, and unsettled times are when their words have the biggest impact

A great speech is not to inspire - a great speech is to inspire and make the audience want to act

Military leaders before battle, political leaders in time of crisis, coaches at half time, preachers all the time - they know that what people often need is not more instruction, but more inspiration, not more "how to" but more "you can".
Those speeches allow you to remind your audiences who they are or can be, to show them a new way of seeing the world, or even a world they haven't yet imagines and to stir them up by speaking not just to their heads but to their hearts and their imaginations.

A commanding presence
1) Be yourself
2) Be in the moment
3) Be interested
4) Be unafraid
5) Be connected
6) Be grounded

People tend to discount whatever is plentiful and readily available. So parcel out your thoughts carefully. Speak less often and have a bigger impact.
"If you can't put the bottom line message on the inside of a matchbox, you're not doing your job" Eisenhower or Write the idea for their speech on the backside of their business card.

To communicate "Big ideas" use "Small words"

The truth is any fool can complicate something. But it takes skill and effort to clarify a complex subject. Being unclear is a sure to make them resist what you want. Confusing people shuts them down. So the first rule of speaking is to be clear.
If you want your listeners' co-operation - if you want them to say yes to your idea, initiative, project or pitch - then you've got to be clear about what you want them to do and why they should care

The signature story - It's unique to the story teller and no one else can tell it
A thoroughly developed signature story will take two to seven minutes to tell and will include a beginning, a middle and end; at least one character who undergoes some change; and a satisfying and multilayered application.

In a good signature story you are the main character, which isn't to say you are its hero. Because of what happens or because of what some other character in the story does or says, you change in some significant way: You change your attitude, outlook, or basic beliefs. You learn an important life lesson. And it's this new insight that you want to share.

Stories are like movies in your listeners' imagination. "Vivid images are like a beautiful melody that speaks to you on an emotional level. They bypass your logic centers and even your intellect to go to a different part of your brain" said TV producer Steven Bochco. And that part of the brain is where your audience can most easily be influenced and inspired.

Many speakers need to introduction. What they need are conclusions.

Write down your closing and memorise it. It's a good idea to write out the last few sentences word for word.

Chris has written a great companion book for people who speak often or people who are just starting.

Chris's book made me think about my speaking style and has changed the way I speak in public.

His book has done for me what the book says is the purpose of a great speech - not just to inspire but to create change.

This 244 page, small (in size) book is a superb summary of public speaking principles. The author does not so much knock Powerpoint as point out that the greatest leaders in all arenas usually don't use it. When Powerpoint is needed for information transfer, they let their underlings use it. Rather, the author reviews the basics of great public speaking in a way that is logical and easy to read. I'm sure the same ideas can be found many other places, but I have never seen a better single source. By the way, the author is very honest: great public speaking takes a lot of work. Leaders know the value of doing that work necessary to become expert in public speaking.

A colleague of mine just suffered for two solid weeks (including weekends) developing a PowerPoint presentation for a senior leader. The process was painful and slow: Members of the team working on the presentation kept going around and around, adding slides, taking them out, revising them, and then doing it all over again. I didn't see the end product, but I can imagine what it was like: too many slides, too much information, a muddled message.

Christopher Witt describes the problem in his book, Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint. People "often assemble as much information as possible and import it willy-nilly into PowerPoint. They don't organize it into a cohesive, meaningful whole. Why bother? . . . You can create any number of slides--hundreds, if you like--without ever tying anything together into a coherent or compelling idea."

Mr. Witt's advice is to approach a presentation completely differently: He counsels "sifting through the pertinent information, picking out what's valuable, and discarding the rest. Then tie it all together in a way that makes sense of it. Write out your one organizing principle or thought--your Big Idea. Then structure the information you've assembled to support your idea. Use only as much information as you need to prove or illustrate your main idea."

This is just one of the great pieces of speaking advice in Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint. Here are some others:

"As a leader, it's up to you to communicate a vision, a direction, a purpose, and the impetus for acting. The more you focus on imparting facts and figures, the less you'll be perceived as a leader."

"The easiest way to appeal to what your listeners want--in other words, to answer their WIIFM question--is to show how they can use your idea or proposal to: solve a problem of theirs . . .achieve a goal of theirs . . . (or) satisfy a need of theirs."

"A confused mind always says no . . . Being unclear is sure make people resist what you want. Confusing people shuts them down. It makes them, at least figuratively, cross their arms in front of their chests, lean away from you, and say no way. So one of the first rules of speaking is: Be clear."

In short, Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint is a valuable book. My only criticism is that Mr. Witt doesn't deliver on the great title. He doesn't provide a comprehensive approach to avoiding PowerPoint and only briefly gives advice on how to use Microsoft's ubiquitous presentation tool.

Whether you are looking for a book to help you polish your personal speaking skills or you are a seasoned professional (as I am) who helps others raise their communications game, there's gold in this book. I loved it. It's a book that will stay in my personal library and that I will refer to, regularly. It's a well-written, fast-paced, and refreshing, new look at ways anyone can become a more effective and memorable speaker. Even Tiger Woods has a coach!

The title of this book caught my attention. (I didn't read the small type below the title.) Was I surprised when I began reading! Not at all what I expected - a step-by-step method for creating a great presentation. Proven techniques that won't write your next speech, however, you'll know exactly how to create a winning presentation!

Susan Bock
www.SusanBockSolutions.com

Chris Witt is the real deal. He offers the reader a dare -- do you have the courage to get out from behind techie tools like PowerPoint and present your message -- your own ideas, crafted in the most powerful way possible? That can be a terrifying task -- but the alternative is mediocrity, blandness, and one-way ticket to Dilbert-land.

Luckily, Chris himself takes his own advice. The book is brisk, provocative and full of great stories and great challenges. It's the kind of book you can read on an airplane flight, and that you'll read again and again every time you fly.

It's a big dare. To be successful, you don't need to fancy, or high-tech, or clever. You just need to find your key point and present it clearly and forcefully (preferably in the form of a story). But don't worry -- Chris shows you how, step by step.

I was lucky to come across Christopher Witts book on presentation skills for leaders. For me it has proven to contain lots of ideas, tips and sound advice. Even though I rarely have to speak to large audiences,on a regular basis I work as a trainer. There's sound advice for us traines here too. "Be clear about your message, make it interesting, dare to do the unexpected" - none of this is new but what I found really helpful was the way the information and tips are presented. Once I had started to read, I just became engrossed. Maybe its the wealth of stories and anecdotes which Mr. Witts uses that kept my attention. I love the section on Powerpoint it confirms what was my tentative opinion. Powerpoint can be useful for presenting information, to explain, clarify or substantiate a point. However, it cannot replace the personal approach, the warmth and enthuasism of the speaker. Actually, this is the strength of this book...the writer comes across as someone who is totally enthuastic about his work.....and he knows what he is talking about. If you want to enliven your presentations, this is the book for you.
John Lawless (Ireland)