I’ve made fear my friend. I’ve had to. Just like a presidential candidate at a state primary, he/she/it always shows up.

It showed up uninvited the first time I was asked to speak. It still shows up today when my name is called and I’m thrust into the spotlight. I’ve asked it to leave, but it pays no attention. I’ve begged it to stay away by preparing more thoroughly, and guess what? It came earlier and stayed longer! In fact, I’ve noticed it doesn’t make any difference how big the audience is, who’s in the room, how prepared I feel, or if it’s for a fee or free.

That jolt of fear is as predictable as my monthly cable bill.

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In company after company the problem is the same: PowerPoint or one of its clones – is being misused and abused. And it’s not just my opinion. The vast majority of participants in my training classes feel the same way. They’ve seen too many business presentations where the speaker talks to the screen or the slides are difficult to read or the special effects are a distraction or…. They themselves admit to similar abuses. They’ve become addicted to the ease, convenience, and high tech look that PowerPoint provides. They also admit that most of the visuals are not needed. It’s just “nice” to have everything captured on PowerPoint. It makes it easier to stay on track during the presentation. Plus they have the option to print out a hardcopy to be used as a handout or to make available for anyone unable to attend. Of course, that begs the question: Why should anyone attend?

Let’s be honest. Most of you – when given the task of putting together a presentation – head straight for your laptops and start generating slides. When you’ve captured everything you want to say into a PowerPoint file, you declare you’re done. Now some of you may get ambitious and add some clip art here and there, a variety of builds and transitions, maybe even a few sounds just for fun. And if you lack confidence in knowing just what to say for each slide and bullet point, the speaker notes option is there to save the day.

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Our presentation ends. We take a deep breath and utter – somewhat reluctantly – those dreaded words: “Any questions?” We wait, praying for five seconds of silence so we can quickly declare: “Thank you for coming!” and we’re off the stage, home free. No apparent concerns. No apparent confusion. No challenging questions….And no chance to make fools of ourselves by not knowing the answers! Perfect!

I think not. Consider this: if we don’t get any questions, is it possible our listeners were bored? Confused? Intimidated? Dissatisfied? Disenchanted? Or was it a simple case of needing just a little more time to formulate an intelligent question and get up the nerve to raise a hand? Without a little patience and a simple technique I call “priming the pump,” we’ll never know. We can chalk it up as another opportunity lost.

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