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What do you do if your boss gives you a thoroughly lousy PowerPoint presentation to deliver and it has 50 bullet points on each slide, complicated graphs, and long sentences everywhere? Don't panic! In this case, your PowerPoint slides are not going to help your presentation. But they don't have to hurt you or destroy the presentation either. Here is what I recommend you do in this tough situation: 1. Ask your boss what the desired result is from the speech. 2. Ask your boss what the 5 most important message points he/she wants the audience to remember. 3. Incorporating the info from your boss from the above two questions, go through the long, detail-intensive slides you have been given and select the one (and only one) most important idea from each slide. 4. Prepare to give examples, facts, details and preferably stories that flesh out the one key idea from each story. 5. Resolve that you are not going to read or even cover all of the other points or concepts covered on each slide. 6. Be familiar enough with the facts of the slides to answer questions that relate to them, but double your resolve not to cover every fact of number on the slides. 7. When you flash a slide up, close your mouth and give people a chance to read or absorb what is on it, even if it takes a minute. 8. Have a great opening for a minute or two that gives the audience an interesting and useful piece of information and a reason to listen to you before you show the first slide in your PowerPoint. 9. When you are finishing your presentation, remove your final slide and give a strong and powerful conclusion that is in no way dependent on your slide. 10. Remember, you aren't really giving a PowerPoint presentation. You are giving a presentation where people are judging your skills, intelligence and long-term potential. So don't let someone else's bad PowerPoint handcuff you into giving a bad speech. You can give a great speech regardless of the slides. About the Author: TJ Walker is the worlds leading speaking coach, author of "Presentation Training A-Z." and "Media Training A-Z." He is the current host of http://www.Speakcast.com and http://www.SpeakingChannel.tv and can be reached at info@speakcast.com. You can read more of his presentation and media tips at http://www.tjsinsights.com.
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