Here is a trivia question to get your attention! Do you know where the expression “winging it” comes from?
➡️ It is phrase used to describe giving a presentation (or doing something similar) without any preparation. Instead the speaker chooses to rely on their past experience and knowledge, trusting that they will be able to come up with the right messages, the right words and deliver a good presentation even without doing any work ahead of time. …
➡️ The expression comes from the world of theatre. Actors who did not learn their lines, would get the lines whispered to them from the “wings” of the stage. Hence, the expression “winging it”.
That is just one of the sins that people commit when delivering presentations, which Paul McGee talks about in his latest book “How to speak so people really listen”. Paul is also the author of the best-sellers Self-Confidence and S.U.M.O.
➡️ It is phrase used to describe giving a presentation (or doing something similar) without any preparation. Instead the speaker chooses to rely on their past experience and knowledge, trusting that they will be able to come up with the right messages, the right words and deliver a good presentation even without doing any work ahead of time. …
➡️ The expression comes from the world of theatre. Actors who did not learn their lines, would get the lines whispered to them from the “wings” of the stage. Hence, the expression “winging it”.
That is just one of the sins that people commit when delivering presentations, which Paul McGee talks about in his latest book “How to speak so people really listen”. Paul is also the author of the best-sellers Self-Confidence and S.U.M.O.
Myself personally, I attended a lot of conferences in 2024, and heard a lot of presentations that were not memorable at all. Perhaps the speakers had something interesting to say that would have also been useful to me in my work, but their message failed to reach me.
🥺 Worse yet (from my perspective anyway), I was guilty of making the same mistakes that these speakers made during my own presentations. And, as a result, I have failed to reach some (or perhaps many) people in my own workshops and masterclasses.
🥳 But it doesn’t have to be this way for me in 2025. Already I am preparing my New Year’s resolutions, and I will definitely aim to avoid committing some of these sins! My main ones are “winging it” or failing to prepare sufficiently well and overwhelming my audience with detail. 🎉🎉🎉
🥺 Worse yet (from my perspective anyway), I was guilty of making the same mistakes that these speakers made during my own presentations. And, as a result, I have failed to reach some (or perhaps many) people in my own workshops and masterclasses.
🥳 But it doesn’t have to be this way for me in 2025. Already I am preparing my New Year’s resolutions, and I will definitely aim to avoid committing some of these sins! My main ones are “winging it” or failing to prepare sufficiently well and overwhelming my audience with detail. 🎉🎉🎉
What presentation sins do you commit, and which ones would you like to get rid of in your own presentations?
😳 A failure to make your message sticky or memorable.
😳 Drowning people in detail.
😳 A failure to consider or understand your audience’s needs.
😳 Focusing on features rather than selling benefits.
😳 Winging it.
😳 Showing slides that suck… the life out of your audience.
😳 Taking people on a pointless ramble.
😳 A failure to make your message sticky or memorable.
😳 Drowning people in detail.
😳 A failure to consider or understand your audience’s needs.
😳 Focusing on features rather than selling benefits.
😳 Winging it.
😳 Showing slides that suck… the life out of your audience.
😳 Taking people on a pointless ramble.