PM ADVISORY:

Top 10 Trainer’s Tips For PMs Giving Presentations

By Jeff Furman, PMP

USA

The ability to give persuasive presentations is critical for PMs, and can mean the difference between getting your stakeholders with you or against you.  Yet a lot of PMs make very common presenter’s mistakes which can easily be avoided by using secrets of success known to many professional trainers. 

Following are ten key tips from trainers that can carry over to PMs giving presentations for customers, team-members, management and other stakeholders.  They come from the many presentations I have given as a PM to stakeholders, and also from my many years as a technical and corporate trainer.  And they contain the collective wisdom of the hundreds of trainers I have coached toward certifications in technical training from Microsoft, CompTIA and Adobe.

TIP #1 –   Don’t just lecture – make it participatory    

Problem: How many times have you been to a presentation where the PMs raced through all their slides, with little or no interaction from the participants? 

Many presenters create flashy, dancing slides, and then lecture away bouncing their slides off the screen and assuming that everyone is absorbing each slide like a scanner!  The problem is that even if their participants are with them 100% on each slide (and often it’s less than 100%!) most people don’t retain the info long-term from an all-lecture delivery.  (Think back to the last time you sat through 50 PowerPoint slides...how much of the content can you recall -- and apply -- right now?)                                    

Solution:  There are a lot of effective ways to get audience participation and increase retention, including hands-on exercises, interactive games, and simply asking good questions (see the several tips on questioning techniques below). 

Also key is to avoid the common mistake of using PowerPoint only. 
(and no other medium).  Instead of just slides, participants will much prefer it when you use a variety of media (white-board, smart board, video, audio, movie clips, live demos, simulations, live feeds, and interactive social media).

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About the Author Jeff Furman Author Jeff Furman is the author of: The Project Management Answer Book published by Management Concepts in the United States.  This easy-to-use Q&A reference breaks the key concepts of PMBOK Version 4 down into bite-size pieces, and includes hundreds of hands-on tips and best practices for PMs.  It also includes many proven study aids, unique diagrams and Top 10 lists to help PMs prepare for the PMP and related certification exams.  With a foreword by best-selling PMP author Andy Crowe.   Book order link: www.PMAnswerBook.com.  Jeff has 15 years experience as an IT project manager for Fortune 500 financial firms in the NYC area.  He has published articles on a wide range of topics, from PMP to IT software to risk management to Y2K to interviews with singer/songwriters for New Jersey’s Bergen Record.  He currently teaches PMP Prep, and also Presentation Skills For Trainers toward technical trainer certifications from CompTIA (CTT+), Microsoft (MCT), and Adobe (ACI).  Email Jeff at:   Jeff@Jeff-Furman.com.  Call Jeff at +1-201-310-7997; Website: www.Jeff-Furman.com Twitter: @PMAnswerBook.