TJ Walker explains how to deliver someone else's PowerPoint on short notice. Don't apologize for filling in. Internalize the core messages, do a quick video rehearsal, start without slides to establish authority, and cut anything nonessential.
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What do you do if you have to deliver someone else's PowerPoint presentation? A colleague is sick, has asked you to fill in. A boss has been called out of town unexpectedly and you have to fill in. Here are some tips to help you do this more effectively. For starters, don't tell the audience. Don't apologize. Don't say, I don't really know about this. I was just asked to fill. Just do the best job you can, number one. Number two, realize you might not be able to change the slides, but it's still now your presentation. When people are in the audience looking at you, they're staring at you, they're sizing you up, they're judging your own intelligence capabilities, long term and short term prospects. So it's still your speech, even though it was just thrown in your lap sometimes moments ago. The next thing to think about, rehearse on video. If it's a 10 minute speech, practice it once, just with your own cell phone for 10 minutes. Watch it. That's only 20 minutes. You can carve out 20 minutes if you have to, even if it's on the airplane or the cab on the way to the venue. The next thing is you have to internalize what the messages are. You have to know what it is the person who created this slide deck wants the audience to do. You have to have that in the back of your head at all times. You've got to be able to know what the real goal is of this speech and what the core messages are. The next thing is do not start with a slide up and just reading what's on the slide and saying, okay, I'm here to give this blah, blah, blah, blah. You need to start by standing in front of the audience and just talking for one minute. Deliver something of value. Deliver an idea. Give an example, bring it to light before the first slide ever comes up. Even if your boss has given you 122 slides and you think you had to go through all of them and they only have 10 minutes, still I recommend start by talking without a slide up. Show your authority, show your expertise. Now, if you have some leeway, sometimes you're told, okay, here's the slide deck. It's been approved. Here are 112 slides. Don't add anything. Oh, and by the way, you only have 10 minutes. That's impossible unless you're just click, click, click, click, click, click. What I would recommend is if the person said, don't add anything. That doesn't mean you can't delete things. If I only had 10 minutes, I would quickly try to narrow it down to just a handful of slides, the most important ones, and then tell people. If you like the entire slide deck, I'll email it to you. Or here's a handout. Follow these tips and you can still enhance your own reputation as a great communicator, a great speaker, even if someone gives you a PowerPoint, even a bad PowerPoint at the last minute.
