6 presentation pitfalls that can kill your credibility

6 presentation pitfalls that can kill your credibility6 presentation pitfalls that can kill your credibilityI recently attended a conference in London hosted by a very reputable organization featuring speakers from reputable companies. I went there to learn about recruitment industry trends, but instead found myself focused much more on the poor presentation skills of the speakers.As someone who gives keynote talks and hosts workshops for a living, I spend a lot of time regularly developing, rehearsing, and delivering presentations to audiences. As much as I think of public speaking as one of my strengths, I rarely finish one of my own presentations without thinking it could have been better. Theres always room for improvement. A slide that could have looked better. Something I could have said differently. An intro I could have delivered more confidently.So anyway, as much as I critique my own presentation skills, I found myself absolutely cringing at some things I saw on stage at th is conference. Unfortunately, I binnensee these same pitfalls with other conference speakers.Part of landing your next role or building your personal brand is about being able to present yourself powerfully. So here are a few public speaking pitfalls to avoid that I was reminded of that day.Using notecardsBelieve it or not, at many professional conferences I attend, where theres a lineup of speakers from reputable companies, there seems to always be at least one speaker who uses notecards. No joke. At the past three conferences Ive attended in London, including this one, at least one speaker used notecards. This is an absolute no-go. It makes you look unprofessional, inexperienced, and unprepared.If youre going to be giving a talk in front of a crowd of industry professionals, you reallyhave to know your talk inside out.Although rehearsing, again and again, is not the most fun activity, it really helps you come across as polished and professional.Explaining your presentations struc tureNo single speaker at this conference provided a detailed overview of what they were going to cover before diving into the content. Instead, they just started talking, and ten minutes into their presentation, I was left wondering what theyre actually planning to cover, where they were in their presentation, and how much they had left to go.If youre talking for more than two minutes to an audience,you need to give listeners an agenda of what you plan to cover. You dont even have to have a full slide with a bulleted agenda, but you need to at least give a high level, verbal konzept of the topics you plan to cover so people know what to expect and where youre going every step of the way.Self-handicappingSo many people seem to self-deprecate when delivering talks. I realize this might be a bit of a cultural thing here in the UK, and I may be used to more of the American style of presenting. However, it seemed like every speaker I saw on this day seemed to be trying to lower expectati ons before and during their talks. I cant tell you how many people said,I wont bore you with this slide, but . . . orThis wont be nearly as interesting as the last speaker, but . . . Theres actually been a lot of research done into this behavior, also known as self-handicapping. Self-handicapping, in a nutshell, is when youmake excuses and downplay expectations to protect your self esteem. Psychologists like Sean McCrea and others have found is thatself-handicapping actually leads to lower performance.You have to believe in the quality of your talk so others can too. The best presenters Ive seen confidently dive in and act like they know exactly what theyre talking about. Audiences are there to be informed, inspired, and entertained, so if you start your presentation saying how bad its going to be, that doesnt exactly instill people with confidence.Stopping to find waterSeveral speakers stopped mid-presentation to hund down a bottle of water. This really disrupts the flow of a prese ntation and feels amateur. It also signals to your audience that youve reached a point where youre struggling to keep going.Getting everything in place beforehand is what every professional speaker does. You absolutely have to have everything you need within arms reachbeforeyou start talking. That means having a bottle of water, handouts, props, clicker, business cards, and anything else you plan to use for the presentation ready from the start.Using anything other than PowerPoint or KeynotePlease, please, please,dont use Prezi. Its very amateur-looking and simply too distracting. While Prezi was all the craze around 2010 (briefly), few reputable speakers use it because your audience will spend more time trying to figure out the confusing logic of all the dizzying transitions rather than listening to your actual content. Trust me.Stick with the mainstream slide presentation programs. The industry standards for presentation software are eitherPowerPointorKeynote. End of story. These two programs are by far the most versatile, clear, and effective platforms to deliver your presentation.CussingThis seems so obvious, butI was shocked how many speakers thought it was okay to use cuss korrekts during their presentations. I heard one speaker use the word sht three times within the span of 10 minutes. Another panelist seemed to casually inject a cuss word into nearly every paragraph he spoke, which I found offensive.Maybe in their organizations, cussing is acceptable. Perhaps they think cussing is more conversational, relatable, or comical. Maybe theyre simply used to it because all their friends cuss a lot. However, there are enough people out there who see cussing as unprofessional and offensive. You really need to find other words to express your ideas.For all of you out there who think cussing is acceptable in a public, professional presentation, its generally not. I personally find cussing incredibly unnecessary and inappropriate in a professional conference. Pla y it safe, drop the habit, and find other words to express your points.In conclusion Delivering a powerful, memorable presentation requires a lot of hard work, practice, and preparation. A lot of bad presentation behavior exists out there. By simply rehearsing your presentation in advance, providing an overview at the start, believe in your content, organizing your materials from the start, using a professional application, and speaking to your audience with respect, youll be miles ahead of most speakers out there.This article first appeared in Be Leaderly.