Professionalism.guideA practical framework for working well with others

Making your case

How to give a high-stakes presentation

A decision, a budget, or your reputation depends on one presentation. This guide helps you decide what the audience needs, build a clear argument, rehearse it, and handle the room on the day.

15 topics · 87 min · Press play to listen in order, or read any topic.

Audience

0:00 —

Your listening position is saved on this device.

Read the topic?

Audio is playing. Open the topic in a new tab to keep listening, or pause and read here.

Read in a new tab ↗

Phase 1 · 7 topics · 42 min

Decide what the audience needs and build the argument

Start with the people in the room and what you need them to do afterwards. Then give those few points a clear line of reasoning and visuals that help.

  1. Work out who will be there and what each of them needs. An executive and an engineer want different things from the same material.

    6:04 Read

  2. Choose the two or three points the audience must leave with. Everything else in the presentation exists to support them.

    5:56 Read

  3. Plan for the attention you will actually get. A shorter presentation that is fully heard beats a complete one that loses the room.

    6:01 Read

  4. Remove what does not serve the main points, without removing what makes them true.

    6:09 Read

  5. Give a concrete example for each idea that might be unfamiliar. Examples are what turn a claim into something people understand.

    5:50 Read

  6. Keep each slide to what the audience needs to see. Clutter competes with your voice.

    5:33 Read

  7. Show numbers in the form that makes the pattern obvious. If the decision rests on a trend, the trend should be visible at a glance.

    5:59 Read

Your taskBefore continuing, reduce your argument to a one-page outline that someone else could follow.

Phase 2 · 5 topics · 28 min

Rehearse it, then present it

A presentation that has only existed in your head is a first draft. Say it aloud, let someone challenge it, and on the day watch the room.

  1. Practice pace, emphasis, and pauses. How you say it decides whether people stay with you through the important part.

    5:39 Read

  2. Plan where you will repeat your main points so they stick, without repeating them so often that the audience tires of them.

    5:55 Read

  3. Ask a colleague to critique a run-through, and take the criticism as help. It is far better to find the weak point now.

    5:15 Read

  4. Prepare enough that your confidence is earned. Confidence signals you can be trusted; overstatement invites doubt.

    5:33 Read

  5. Watch the audience as you speak. Their posture and attention tell you when to slow down, skip ahead, or stop and ask.

    5:35 Read

Your taskBefore continuing, deliver the whole presentation aloud once, timed, to at least one other person.

Phase 3 · 3 topics · 17 min

Answer honestly and follow up

The questions and what you do afterwards are part of the presentation. Handle both with the same care.

  1. Treat questions as information about what the audience needs. Ask one back when you are not sure what is being asked.

    5:24 Read

  2. If you do not know an answer, say so and promise to find out. One invented answer can undo the credibility of everything else.

    5:53 Read

  3. Send the material and the agreed outcome to the right people afterwards. The follow-up is part of the presentation.

    5:51 Read

Your taskFinish by sending the decision, the open questions, and the next steps to everyone who attended.