Are you ready for this myth buster?
The promise of a perfect presentation is a lie. There is no such thing. Don’t believe the hucksters who offer you that they will show you how to deliver a perfect presentation because it’s phony. It’s click-bait and a false promise. The promise of a perfect presentation is a lie.
Guess what?
Why do I say that? Because perfection isn’t the goal. You want your presentation to be successful and effective but not perfect. There’s a significance difference between successful and perfect.
What does a perfect presentation mean to you?
Does that mean that every person in the audience rated you a 10 out of 10? The larger the audience, the less likely that is. Even if every person who responded to the survey rated you a 10, that doesn’t make the presentation was perfect. It simply means that many people enjoyed your presentation. That means you were effective. Or maybe it means you exceeded their expectations or they had low expectations.
The surveys don’t ask people to rate the presentation on a scale of perfection. Instead, they ask them to rate the presentation on a scale of their satisfaction. Satisfaction and perfection are two distinct concepts. When your spouse tells you that you did something perfectly, that simply means you exceeded their expectations because…(fill in the blanks).
My advice to you is to stop chasing perfection and focus on success and effectiveness.
Define the success of your presentation by what you want the audience to do as a result of your presentation. If you have moved a significant number of your audience to act as desired, it was a successful presentation.
How can you be more effective with your presentation?
These are valid and productive questions to ask yourself because the outcome is measurable based on the audience results.
Why is effective and successful more relevant than perfect? Because effective and successful is based on the results you get from your audience. Perfection is based on your egotistical self-image about your appearance. Success is about your audience. Perfect is about you and you know you’re not perfect when you’re honest with yourself.
The pursuit of perfect suggests that you are artificial and guarded. You won’t be real and open. Instead, you are guarded and plastic. How is that even close to perfect?
Successful and effective means that you connect with the audience. They perceive you as authentic which means that you are comfortable with your flaws – not perfect, simply authentic and worthy of trust.
Be bold, be real and ditch the misguided pursuit of perfect presentation.
By the way, I’ve been speaking, training and coaching for 30 years and I’ve never delivered a perfect presentation. I’ve never seen a perfect presentation, and I’ve attended many conferences and watched multitudes of professional speakers and I’ve never witnessed a perfect presentation. I’ve experienced many amazing presentations. And none were perfect because there is no perfect.
When you decide to deliver an effective presentation, you give yourself permission to be imperfect with flaws that exhibit your humanity and authenticity.
Don’t pursue perfect presetnation, instead strive to be effective and successful with your presentations. Perfection is about you. That means your audience loses. An effective and successful presentation is about the audience. That means they win.
Perfect is for math exams.
