As promised, I said that I would share some cultural insights.
So, when it comes to presentations, we don’t all present in the same way. The Americans, as you will have noticed, love to pull you in with great storytelling, whereas the Germans or professions like engineers, for example, like to work with facts, figures and fancy illustrations.
Now, if you are a storyteller, you can still use the Rule of Threes in your planning, the presentation and the performance evaluations, so do that, but use a prop perhaps. What about a triangle, a pencil or a cone?
Use something with a 3D dimension to it to add that punch that you need to pull people in. And if you like the structure of presentation slides, a pitch deck or KPIs, then use that, but enhance them to make it less tedious to listen to.
If you have stakeholders in your audience that don’t get as excited as you do about numbers, try a few anecdotes, some interaction, or a quirky image that visualizes the impact of the numbers.
If you need to be dramatic to get their attention, do that!
But nobody ever got career success through being the most boring presenter ever. So, step out of your comfort zone. This isn’t about you, it’s about your audience. What do they need to be able to understand?
How can you make it easier for them to get it?