Resources

Loose Briefs Cause Grief - and I'm not talking undies...

We’ve all been there, right? You check your inbox at the end of a busy day, and there it is: a last-minute email from your boss asking if you can “quickly cover” something for tomorrow’s leadership meeting. No details on what they really want, no context, just a “thanks heaps” at the end. You’re left wondering, “What am I supposed to focus on? How much time will I have? And, wait—do they even need slides?”

Read more

The Best Books on Presenting...That Aren't About Presenting

I often get asked to recommend books on presenting and public speaking, but I've found some of the best books to improve your presenting skills aren’t about presenting at all.

Read more

Cut the Cord: Overcoming the Rise of the ChatGPT-Generated Presentation

AI is everywhere, and it’s cropping up in more places, making some pretty convincing pictures, deep fake videos, and articles. The New Zealand Herald even briefly used an AI image as part of an article for International Womens’ Day earlier this year

Read more

How do you prepare a presentation when you don’t know your audience?

Recently I was asked this question at a workshop. So I did what I always do when this question comes up: I pushed back. “Give me an example of when you don’t know your audience,” I asked.

Read more

You don’t have to be the best presenter to be the right presenter

A lot of books out there focus on the leader’s duty to deliver inspiring messages, unite teams, and drive people towards a common purpose. But what about the presentations that happen at every level of your organisation? What do you do when you’re trying to persuade your people, and you’re not at the top of the heap?

Read more

Does Your "Update" Presentation really do Anything?

Sometimes I hear that an inform-style presentation is “just sharing information.” “But why are you informing?” I’ll ask. “It’s just an update. We’ve always done it this way.” And then I channel my inner toddler: “But why? What do you want them to know?”

Read more

No such thing as an ‘update’ presentation

No presentation really is ever just an ‘update’. There’s always a deeper purpose. And once you know that, you don’t just have a compelling presentation – you also have the chance to go further. Read more.

Read more

Defeating Story Fatigue

Recently, I was working with a client who is the tech officer in charge of his organisation’s IT, and he was struggling to come up with a way to open his next presentation.

Read more

The Problem with ‘Presenting Skills’ as a Brand

With the end of the year just around the corner, I wanted to look forward at what presenting could mean for 2024 and beyond.

Read more

Not what they say, but what we hear

Welcome to the hotly anticipated – and much reviled – triannual season of point-scoring, populism and brouhaha that is the lead-up to the election.

Read more